Rating Curve

I like a lot of the spammier gameplay in this one, but there's also a lot of bad transitions. The most egregious one is at around 80%, but there's a lot of places in the drop where it just throws you into a new section and expects you to either have lightning-fast reflexes or to have the level memorized. The deco's pretty cool, but I honestly think the prequel is better, being more clearly connected to Xender's lore.

The deco looks great. It feels like a journey through a small little world, which — given the title — is beautiful.

The gameplay, on the other hand, is less great. The first part in particular I remember being very annoying to play. It's been a while since I beat this level, but I remember I had a bad time with it, and the practice run I did before writing this review confirmed that. Shame, because the deco is really good.

The deco in this level looks pretty good. A little bit unorganized — there doesn't seem to be any specific direction the level is progressing in, although part of that may be because the song feels the same way — but each individual part looks pretty cool. The gameplay, on the other hand, is about as balanced as the arm of a trebuchet that is in the process of launching its payload at the second half of the level. A lot of the first half is so easy as to be boring, whereas the second half has a lot of gameplay that is either really hard to read (an explicit memory part followed immediately by a part that may as well be memory because the things you're supposed to avoid are marked by gray background deco against a field of colored background deco, which is particularly hard to read when the gameplay itself is an asymmetrical dual) or just plain feels inconsistent. If the gameplay were better, maybe this'd be rate-worthy; as it stands, though, it's just not a fun experience.

Pretty good for a first level. That being said, there are some issues. The gameplay is mostly pretty inoffensive; not particularly good (and the song choice doesn't particularly help it, either), but not explicitly unfun or annoying. The deco ranges from somewhat strange-looking to actually pretty good, except some parts kind of obscure the gameplay by making it invisible until you're about to get to it. I can see why it wasn't quite good enough to get rated, but it still goes that this was a great deal better than my first level.

This might be the most hyperactive level I've ever played. The song is already a pretty fast-paced trance song, but the super fast flowy gameplay and the psychedelic visuals (particularly at the first half of the drop) very much add to that. It's an extremely learny level, but the gameplay is mostly pretty fun once you get it down. The only thing I'd really say is a problem is a bug in the drop caused by an S block being a little too close to another dash orb; aside from figuring out what in the world was stopping me from using the second dash orb in some of my later practice sessions, I had a lot of fun with it. The visuals look very cool, and they're a very good match for the song, but the first half of the drop can be a little hard on the eyes if you look at it for too long.

Pretty simple level overall, but the gameplay is cool. The last room doesn't really look possible until you realize you can tap one arrow key while holding another. Once you figure that out, though, it's pretty fun. Definitely takes a lot of learning, but that's the fun of it. Not really much to say about the deco; basically just looks like a typical 2.2 pixel level.

The level Storming Summit has received a lot of criticism for trying to imitate Celeste's graphics as closely as possible. I think this level takes a much better approach, imitating Celeste's visuals while retaining Geometry Dash's style. It's not trying too hard to be Celeste; it's perfectly aware that it's a GD level. Felt like maybe there could've been a bit more decorations, though; maybe a little sign here or there saying "2.3 soon" or something similar.

The gameplay's mostly fine, but I wasn't personally a huge fan of some of the parts toward the end. The last part in particular felt just really spammy, and it seems kinda inelegant that spamming is the best approach to hitting the orbs. It was also somewhat unsatisfying having to die every time I messed up because the traffic light blocks don't move back into position like in Celeste; maybe that would've been too hard to program, but it was a little annoying not being able to just try again.

Not super polished, obviously, but it's got a clear artistic vision (that does somewhat fall apart towards the end, granted). I love the way the violins just kinda dance around in the background during the fast part; it makes the level feel more alive. The gameplay isn't really the best, especially in the last part, where you don't really know what's happening at first and it's kinda just slow. I love the ideas presented in this level; they just maybe could've been executed a little better.

Impressive storytelling. The deco is pretty simple, but surprisingly effective; I guess the minimalism of it all allows the story to be told better and emphasized more. I like the way that fishing is used as a metaphor for a sort of endless chain of violence begetting violence begetting violence, and the level conveys that idea really well, with the fish eating the worm and the angler eating the fish and so on up the chain. And the pacing of it all matches the song so well you'd think the song was made specifically for the level. The gameplay can get a little boring at times with all the long cutscenes, but I think it's ultimately worth it for the immersive storytelling.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy"