Bat to the Heavens

とても難しいけど、型にハマった時の気持ちよさがあります。

i think its important to preface that this game isn't for everybody, both from a mental standpoint and a physical input standpoint. but despite that, this game has scratched the itch leftover from games like Celeste that i've longed to re-experience. this game is hard, *really hard.* and i'm saying that as someone who's made it to grandmaster at the Celeste: strawberry jam. its a game that has a very specific level design philosophy that requires alot of trial and error. with secrets to boot too. half of your time is gonna be spent figuring out how to even solve the puzzle, and the other half will be spent trying to execute it. sometimes you'll solve a puzzle in a way that doesn't feel right, but if it works, it works. that game doesn't care how you do it, as long as you do it. some people say there's no tutorial, but just by how its designed i think that's an unfair way of putting it. The entire first half of the game is essentially one big tutorial, introducing and training you bit by bit on mechanics and tech that will be integral to progressing further down the game. its a game that "tells you" (or rather shows you) mechanics when the time is right. i do think some of them could be more obvious, i was lucky i knew what they meant almost immediately, but some mechanics just aren't elaborated on past their raw inputs or some vague description. The closest game in design i can think of to Bat to the Heavens is Celeste, but there's a couple differences in how they designed their games. Celeste's whole design philosophy was making an extremely difficult game while simultaneously giving lenience and control to the player. They did this by having virtually all inputs be immediate with no delay, giving checkpoints extremely frequently, and making death and retrying extremely quick (among other various leniency given.) Bat to the Heavens has its own share of leniency, you're given grace on saving momentum when hitting walls with your bat, and certain controls/tech have a large timing window to execute them. but how BttH differs is its inputs and its checkpoints. swinging your bat has a delay to it, even after charging it. and while checkpoints are given a pretty fair amount, there are a alot of puzzles that are clearly designed for when you fail, you have to redo the puzzle(s) beforehand to retry the one you're actually stuck on, which can make the trial and error part of the whole game a fair bit annoying. i think if you're the kind of person that not only likes the "aha" feeling of solving puzzles but is also determined enough to try anything over and over to complete something, this game is perfect for you. i know i enjoy it. but i also recognize this game asks *alot* of the player, both physically and mentally.