Stumbling through Core of Innocence

[davidn]

Pudding Hat Games released Core of Innocence after a record-breakingly long time in production! And I gave it a spin, recording the experience and getting much more into it than I had first thought - even as this video was uploading I was back trying to defeat a huge annoying plant boss.

At its heart, it's a Metroidvania game, but it has a couple of extra dimensions that took me by surprise. Download and play it yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2tm7uDCkkY&hd=1

Note that this video contains pixel nudity. I don't say that as a warning - more of an advertisement.

Comments

[premchaia_pre4]

… so does that mean losing the core means losing innocence… ?

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Well, given how the core gets stolen during the prelude and the main character goes from shirt-and-overalls to a stripperific Xena ensemble moments later...maybe?

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that I find the dress-up stuff really off-putting? I've no objection to equipment upgrades and choosing the best gear to fit the situation; nor have I a problem with unusual items being put into games for comedic effect, because sometimes you're not in a serious mood and you just want to mess around seeing the world-saving magically-genetically-altered mercenary run around beating things up with a baseball bat with nails in it. But when it gets down to choosing the right kind of bra and panties for your anime girl character, and you're picking up obsessively specific items like Green Spaghetti-Strap Tank-Tops, and you look at the sheer number of item slots yet to be 'unlocked' by more curiously specific items, and then you consider the game was ten years in development... I can't help but feel like I'm wandering around in someone's fetish, and that I'm a cheat-code away from finding the hidden hentai tentacle level.

I'm sorry - I really don't mean to insult your friend by saying this, or say that this is what he intended; it's just an overall nagging impression I keep getting from that dress-up menu. Other than that, it seems like a perfectly decent game - I just can't shake that weird feeling.

D.F.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

"cheat-code away from finding the hidden hentai tentacle level."

Continuing on from the comment I left below...there's no cheat code involved. You just get 11 of the 12 Core Fragments (the 12th is hidden in said level), then use your cat form abilities to climb up the shaft to the right of the warp to the Frozen Wastes. There you find the entrance to the Twisted Nether, aka the hidden hentai tentacle level.

[davidn]

I found that portal! It wasn't turned on at the time I reached it, though. I actually find myself a bit stuck just now - like you, I found the final boss completely by accident after belting through the final level as the cat, but it seems completely out of my league just now and I feel I should go around gathering some more things up before attempting it (it's very much like Symphony of the Night in how early you can go and attempt it).

[premchaia_pre4]

Interestingly, this is similar to one of the reasons I disliked Flower Town (the premium StreetPass Mii Plaza game). The latter half of the core “tag other people with StreetPass and they help grow your plant, and when your plant is fully grown, pollen floats toward it from the other people's plants and you get seeds to plant” mechanic made me feel like I was running a botanical brothel. c.c

[davidn]

It's not necessarily bad that you feel that way - I would say your assessment is in fact very accurate, but I don't find it turns me off the game in the same way. I enjoy the level of customization of your points and finding good combinations, with anything turning out looking half-decent being a bonus - but then, I never really understood the point of all those 'dressup' Flash games on Newgrounds beyond just instantly taking all the clothes off. People have fetishes that I would feel less comfortable about being in a game!

(Such as the hidden hentai tentacle level that you accidentally predicted - I wasn't expecting that)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Okay, wow. When the loading screen mentioned mature content, it wasn't kidding.

I just got through the bonus dungeon area, the Twisted Nether, and...well, I could mention that there are naked (and presumably dead) female bodies tethered to the walls/ceilings all over the place, but that kinda pales in comparison: about 4 rooms in you find the last quest of the game, which is literally to save a girl currently being tentacle-raped to death. I'm not joking in the slightest there; short of actually showing her genitalia it's just full blown hentai, right up to when you finally get it to let her go and...well, whatever bodily fluid she was being filled up with splashes out.


Not something I have a problem with, mind you, just putting that out there for everyone....truth be told, the only problem I had was with the final dungeon. I literally wound up stumbling into the final boss' chamber without any kind of warning whatsoever...all the more annoying upon realizing that A) I hadn't saved since the START of said dungeon, making me lose everything I got there, and B) had I gone left instead of right, I'd have found a save point.

Oh well.

[davidn]

Er, wow - that's something I wasn't expecting! That beats the surprise of an inverted castle.

That sounds like the game going too far for me - until then I would have said the 'mature' rating was something of a misnomer because until then it's just wall-to-wall tits, which I find quite pleasant but not deeply exciting - it's teenage stuff :) But that's stepping a bit further than I expected into a real and very explicit fetish - I'll have to let you know once I've seen it for myself...

I find myself a bit stuck just now! I have an item that allows me to get past the... malevolent fog of the Welsh marshes or something, but don't know where to use it because the only actual obstacle in my way of obvious progress is huge pits of lava.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Etan's Ring, right? That lets you go into the Twisted Nether without being instantly killed before you get to the first mook (which will then do the job for you....oh, did I mention it's full of palette-swapped enemies that are about 500x stronger than their regular counterparts?)

Oh, and while we're on the subject of that quest and fetishes, your reward for it is an accessory called a "Shibari Rope," which is basically just a rope tied around the character in a 50 Shades fashion. O_o;


Anyway, I'd save the Infernal Pits for later, once you've gotten some better equipment (and, if you haven't yet, the Heat Shield item).


OH! Right! Food for thought....if you can get your Regeneration stat high enough, the "super-long casting time and colossal damage" spells will be your best friend. That's basically how I beat most of the bosses; by the time the spell had finished casting (and thus made me vulnerable to damage again), I had recovered all of my SP and was ready to do it again. Holy Rain's a personal favorite.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Well, that was a fun $5 donation, and thanks for introducing me to this bit of strangeness, but as of now, I've 100%'d the game.

I'll tell you one thing: As much of a pain as finding all the items is, it's worth it. I just got the final Ensemble a few minutes ago (a cosplay of Ashe from FFXII), and uhh...well, it's worth it.

I don't mean in the "damn she's hot" way (though, in fairness, both Lila and Ashe are), I mean in the fact that, while it takes all your equipment slots, it gives a THREE-HUNDRED POINT BOOST TO ALL OF YOUR STATS.

I took that and the Fusion Rifle (a secret weapon) against the final boss...and killed her before the screen even finished brightening up (or, for that matter, before she'd even launched a single attack.)

So yeah, I think I'm done! :D