Dark Sea 2 [Challenge][Large][Lunatic-ish]

Gorgeous level! Your ability to turn challenges into puzzles is just as impressive here as it was in Industrial Trap. The difficulty is certainly too high for me, but I kept at it because the challenges required skill rather than luck, and mostly because it was so beautiful. *gives a star*

Thank you! Certainly Industrial Trap was a source of inspiration here and there.

Wow.  Finally beat this sucker!
I don't think I've ever felt more accomplished finishing a knytt stories level.
Very original traps in this thing, too.  Things I never would have thought of!

Excellent level, but definitely not for the amateur.

Yeah! It's well worth the wait. I've started from the beginning and went 1:46 into it so far. Considering I already finished the demo before, 1 hour is definitely an underestimation I also feel like it's Lunatic-ish, with -ish, so far.

It takes me somewhere around 80-90 minutes most of the time to beat this. Good job on beating it, Fubaka!

It took me about 3:20 overall to beat it. Lunatic, without -ish.

Ish or no ish I think the fact that I made it scares away most people. Also it's nice to know how long it takes other people so thanks for keeping track, GrayFace.

iirc, i gave up 20 minutes in

@ Ortoslon: I was looking forward to your video of this, but I guess even SecretGlitch's 80 minutes is too long. If I made a video of this it would mostly be Juni dying thousands of time. No one will watch 6 hours of that.

I've miscalculated play time a bit. It's more like 3:40 on the rightmost route of the last part of the level.
I've tried the easy (leftmost) route. You can subtract almost an hour (more than 30 mins for sure) if you go that way.

The art is absolutely fantastic in its simplicity. I love it. However, I'm platformer-handicapped and barely made it past the first place the submarine docks. I did look through the whole level through the editor (I don't know if this is considered poor form, but I do this all the time) loading spots that looked interesting and going forward until the lunatic got me. But still, beautiful and elegant in design.

I also really like the selection part at the end with the gallery like the Mario 64 castle.

@ Ortoslon: I was looking forward to your video of this, but I guess even SecretGlitch's 80 minutes is too long. If I made a video of this it would mostly be Juni dying thousands of time. No one will watch 6 hours of that.

I've got somebody who's potentially making a heavily edited play-through of this level. I might do it myself if he doesn't.

I've miscalculated play time a bit. It's more like 3:40 on the rightmost route of the last part of the level.
I've tried the easy (leftmost) route. You can subtract almost an hour (more than 30 mins for sure) if you go that way.

Edit: Always choosing the middle path took a little more time than the left path. This one is my favorite.

Spoiler: (click to show/hide)

Now it's time to find the secret path. I know it's there, because I saw it in the editor when I tried to figure up what to do with code at x950y1087. I think x947y1090 needs the 2 platforms which are at x14 of x945y1090 in order to make the player jump to the left.
There should be a save point at least at x950y1088, just before the player jumps to enter the code. A save point at x946y1090 would be ideal, however I see no way to place a save point there. When I played the thing I even felt like there should be a save point at x9y2 of x945y1091 for example, because the sequence is very long.
Another problem of the hardest path is x947y1077. A save-point is needed on that screen, right before the lunatic challenge.

The art is absolutely fantastic in its simplicity. I love it. However, I'm platformer-handicapped and barely made it past the first place the submarine docks. I did look through the whole level through the editor (I don't know if this is considered poor form, but I do this all the time) loading spots that looked interesting and going forward until the lunatic got me. But still, beautiful and elegant in design.

I also really like the selection part at the end with the gallery like the Mario 64 castle.

Thanks! That level select was the result of me being at the end of the project and realizing that I didn't use that particular tileset, so I threw it in since the level was long enough to deserve one.

Thanks! That level select was the result of me being at the end of the project and realizing that I didn't use that particular tileset, so I threw it in since the level was long enough to deserve one.

Yes, that gallery is a very good decision.

I had been hoping to post a review after completing this, but first I had to play Dark Sea 1 (which itself is above my skill level, and took me hundreds of deaths to complete), and now I realize that Dark Sea 2 is even harder, so I can't promise I ever will finish. Granted, this DS1 was the first Knytt Stories level I've played for months, so I'm probably a bit rusty, but I'm in over my head, for sure.

All of the custom content is fantastic. The tilesets are completely professional, and the music does a great job in setting the mood. The save point placement is perfect for me - I never complete some insane challenge only to die right before I get to the save point. Challenges are always creative, and I've only had to refer to a Let's Play twice in order to get a solution. A good combination of physical skill and mental solving. Parts are frustrating, but I should expect that from a lunatic(-ish) level.

Here's hoping I make it through to the end (if I do, I'll add an update to my review)

Good luck and thanks! Don't feel too bad if you have to resort to cheating or going in the level editor. This level was made with my personal skill level in mind, which happens to be much too hard for most people. Dark Sea 1 was similar, but since I was much worse at KS years ago, it happened to be a much more accessible level.