TENTATIVELY OBLIGATED to rate positively because devs hid something behind the waterfall.
Edit/update:
The Way of Cinnamon feels like a short debut project or demo that's conceptually endearing, but a little rough around the edges when it comes to execution. A cute red panda on a mission to save his sister from an evil snow leopard? Yeah, this is the stuff of Saturday morning cartoons. It's a plot cliche, it's promotion of native Chinese animals, it's madness that works. I still think the character artwork should be refined further. The low poly art style is fine, but take a look at Clive 'N' Wrench for comparison: 2014 artwork [url=https://bit.ly/35a42wX] [/url] VS 2020 artwork [url=https://bit.ly/2Kv1nUX] [/url]. The environments are also pretty bland, due to lack of detail (it's mostly trees, snow, grass, and rocks) and a dull colour scheme. It's missing flowers, bees, little insects, burrows, the kind of stuff that makes a difference between something flat and a game that feels like it's alive and breathing. Next on the list to improve is music. The trailer music on Steam is amazing!!! What happened to it? Why is it not featured in the actual game, or compositions of that calibre? I would have loved traditional folk tunes like that in the three levels The Way of Cinnamon offers. Cinnamon's jump move sound needs to sound more 'springy' or like a '[i] boing! [/i] instead of what it currently is. His movement animations could also be polished, especially the jump. Cinnamon tends to get stuck in that frame when leaping onto certain objects without breaking out of it until you move him away from the object. Fixing these issues would give the game a much smoother feel overall, and make gameplay more fluid. Better feedback from enemy/AI when dealing damage would also be beneficial. For instance, Cinnamon jumps onto beetles, and they change colour to indicate they've been hit, and remain that colour, then speed up and come rushing after you. The colour change should have much higher contrast, and there should be more visual clues (eg sparks, cloud) that indicate temporary damage (eg you've dealt some damage but not completely killed this enemy). As some other reviewers have posted, environmental lighting should also be enhanced, particularly in the caves level where it's difficult to see between ledges. The final boss battle against Wu-Long was unclear. I thought I had to directly attack him and kept trying to jump on the roof, frustrated there was no way to reach there (no double jump, shield wouldn't allow me to jump high enough). Then I accidentally figured out you had to throw your shield at the beams, but there was no sign or clue suggesting this. Many bosses have that 'slow down' phase where they change colour or completely stop moving to indicate vulnerability/a chance for the player to attack, and for a rooftop boss you can't attack with arrows or any airborne weapon, much clearer visual language is necessary.
In conclusion, not a bad effort for 9 months of work, but I would really like to see The Way of Cinnamon updated and improved.
#3DPlatformerRenaissance
[url=https://kkatlas.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/3d-platformer-watchlist/] [/url]
