PsiloSybil

I have a question for god... WHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!?? Just add one more checkpoint on the tower level please.

You have not experienced true agonizing frustration until you've tried to beat this game, let alone try to 100% complete it. 10/10.

I'll be up front and say that I did not complete this game. I made it all the way to the final boss after doing nearly everything else before finally deciding I wasn't having enough fun to justify the frustration. Let me be completely clear. This is not a bad game. I'd say it's a good game. But Steam asked me if I would recommend this game to other players, and I wouldn't recommend a kick to the groin or a slap to the face, so I'm not recommending this game. I don't really know what this game's mission statement was, but if it was to be a linear platformer that makes the original Crash Bandicoot look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, then it succeeded. Nothing wrong with a good challenge, but I think this game takes it a few steps too far, especially with the bosses. I mean, first boss ain't so bad because you can be very proactive if you're skilled and understand how the fight moves, but every other boss has you jumping and dodging some really tough patterns as you wait for the boss to finally reveal its weak spot. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for some questionable hit boxes. There were a lot of times where I died and I would go "Okay, that's my bad. I screwed that jump up." However, it felt like roughly 10% of my deaths were a mystery. I'd make a jump in seemingly the exact same way as the previous time and somehow would die. Other times I'd die and not know which of the three things on screen touched me. The confusion was what really made me frustrated. 10% might not sound so bad, but you die fast and respawn fast. I sometimes died 200 times, and by death 120, it really started to eat away at my motivation when a mystery death hit me. So, would I recommend this game to a general audience? Probably not. At some point, it no longer feels rewarding to beat a hard level, but rather like a relief. I recommend this game only in two scenarios. 1.) You're a tough-as-nails gamer looking for a real challenge where there is a real possibility you will die upwards of 150+ times attempting a single level (thank the devs for infinite lives in standard mode) 2.) You have a friend who thinks they're hot stuff cuz they play From Software Soulsborne games, like Elden Ring and you want to show them what an actually hard game looks like by gifting them this game. Like I said, still a good game. I could do with more information about what is actually killing me in this game and better hit boxes, maybe make the bosses more fun to fight like the first one was, but other than that, it's good. Just too hard and frustrating for me to honestly recommend to most players.

Psilosybil features a boastful design that declares its victory over the player. What could be a delightful throwback (with top knotch visuals and a surprisingly good soundtrack) is instead likely to be one of the hardest games you'll ever play. Not content with its difficulty, it sneers at you from atop its mountain and laughs at your attempts to circumvent its design. As intensely stylish and creative as it is, Psilosybil's design choices are so unbelievably abrasive that I'm going to do something I have never done before: give a game a thumbs down just because I can.

My feelings on this title is complicated. This game wants to be a throwback to the 90s platformers of the era. However, unlike most other titles, it is specifically focusing on the most frustrating elements of these titles. It's not the "fun" parts that it wants to emulate. To that end, this title is very niche. And a game confused at it iself. The titles in the 90s that were this difficult were often done so by accident. While sometimes "cranking up the difficulty" was practice as a means of maximizing blockbuster rentals, most 90s platformers reserved their challenging levels for the very end. Most of the games would keep the early levels fun and light. This is no news to anyone. The concept of a "difficulty curve" that rises with the player's skill is a fundamental element of game design. Games that sent straight to a high skill ceiling without giving the players time to develop those skills were panned at the time. Challenge was sought, of course, but there is a difference between "challenge" and "being unfair." And this game is unfair. This is a title you would shout "this game cheats" and throw your controller. Because it is cheating. The developer clearly set out to mess with you. Platform movement patterns are designed to be ever so slightly unintuitive, enemy placement is intentionally brutal, there is no way of increasing your hit points (unlike almost all of those games) which makes every mistake fatal, and there is a malicious hand behind it all. You will jump over an obstacle in an autorunning segment and have an enemy you never could have seen coming pop out of the ceiling. It's simply unfair. But, the kicker? It's not trying to be fair. It's advertising makes it clear that it wants to be unfair. That its audience are people seeking out these games. It makes no lies. Just watch the trailer. To that end, I have to give it a thumb's up. It succeeds at what it is and there are people who will absolutely enjoy it. If you know what you're getting into and enjoy that, then you will enjoy this game. But, I will warn you: this game is not fun. Not all games need to be fun. Games try for different emotions. This game is going for frustration. That's the emotion. It wants you frustrated, mad, screaming "that wasn't fair!" And, because of it, it sadly isn't rewarding. Which is damning. The thing that made those earlier games rewarding was the difficulty didn't feel so intentional. You didn't feel like the developer was intentionally trying to mess with you. In my experience, once you do realize that, you do get the worst of both worlds: frustration but no feeling of relief or pride when you succeed. You know the game was trying to tick you off, it ticked you off, thus it won. You beating it does not change that. It was trying to make you mad and it succeeded. Thus, winning makes no difference. In that way, this title is really more a high budget version of those "Kaizo" romhacks of the 00s and early 10s. Fun only to those who can experience this cognitive dissonance and still feel like they won. All in all, play the demo and buy it on sale.

it's technically a gaem

played an older version a few years ago, came back for the full release. a lot of tough as nails levels that even crash 1 fans would rage at lol. would not recommend for everybody, particularly those with anger issues, but it will test you reaction time and pattern recognition. that being said I'm more of a Crash 2 guy...

I really don't wanna hate this game because it's really good but the difficulty here is just unbearable, I've had a more fun time beating dev times in Crash 3, I've had more fun perfecting all my platinums in N sane trilogy and in both of those case that was hours and hours of resettings a single level until it went just right, Psoilosybil asks you that kind of rigor, just for a regular level completion, nevermind all collectible and relics I'm still gonna recommend it because it's well made, and I had fun but objectively the difficulty level here is way too much for 99% of people.