[3000+ levels] - KS Level Ratings - Mastersheet

TL;DR, I played and rated every Knytt Stories level that publicly exists to my knowledge.

Overall, my hope is that this resource improves the accessibility of the archive. Downloading levels often felt like treasure hunting and I had wished that there was a resource to give me some sense of what I was getting into beforehand - so I decided to create one. Hopefully this sheet highlights those really fantastic levels that are often lost in a sea of outdated links and better helps players find the types of levels that they enjoy.
 
Disclaimer: Levels are a form of personal and artistic expression and there is value alone in that. Simply put -- a level doesn't need a reason to exist or need to conform with someone else's expectations.  I am not an authority on what makes a "good" level and it's a lot easier for me to fill in a single letter on a spreadsheet than spend hours making these levels. My ratings aren't (and shouldn't be interpreted as) some objective criteria. This is just one player's subjective experiences, looking at levels within a narrow framework, with my biases shared up front.

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How to use this sheet:

What each rating corresponds to: 
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This sheet will be continuously updated, and ratings are subject to change as I add new levels and replay old ones. I will also likely go back and assign more specific subcategories to the N/A rated levels.

Feel free to DM me on the Nifforum / Discord or comment below if:

• you want me to replay a level
• you want to request a more detailed review of a level
• you notice a mistake
• you have a lost/missing level to add

Much appreciation to Lit Knob for compiling the list of non-archive levels and his time spent reviewing and improving the sheet, Comhon for his editing help while working on their archive project, Pie_Sniper for their spreadsheet which was cross referenced for level metadata, and Lucinda for her encouragement!


KS Level Ratings [Mastersheet]

Enjoy!

I see that you left all 50 GC editions of levels unrated. Is that because you assumed they wouldn't be different enough to be worth playing? For the ones by Shreeps that's definitely not true. They're very different experiences compared to the originals with a much greater focus on challenge. The 50 GC edition of Dark Sky of Wish Mountain also has notable content additions.

I see that you left all 50 GC editions of levels unrated. Is that because you assumed they wouldn't be different enough to be worth playing? For the ones by Shreeps that's definitely not true. They're very different experiences compared to the originals with a much greater focus on challenge. The 50 GC edition of Dark Sky of Wish Mountain also has notable content additions.

Yeah, I kept them as alt. versions unless they are different to the point of treating them separately. Thanks for letting me know about those! By Shreeps' you mean Azure Serenity Lite+ 50GC and Little Gothic Doll 50GC?

You. Are. Amazing. This is one of the best resources made for level players, if not the best.

Quote from: kilicool64 on November 05, 2024, 22:24:11

I see that you left all 50 GC editions of levels unrated. Is that because you assumed they wouldn't be different enough to be worth playing? For the ones by Shreeps that's definitely not true. They're very different experiences compared to the originals with a much greater focus on challenge. The 50 GC edition of Dark Sky of Wish Mountain also has notable content additions.

Yeah, I kept them as alt. versions unless they are different to the point of treating them separately. Thanks for letting me know about those! By Shreeps' you mean Azure Serenity Lite+ 50GC and Little Gothic Doll 50GC?

Those two and also A Walk At Night 50GC.

Both A strange dream and Sky flower 50 GC are also worth playing. They don't add new content but the Sky flower 50 GC is a good challenge and A strange dream forces you to really visit all the parts of it (and also has some great challenges and a bit different ending) and they really feel different than the original levels. There are also some interesting levels made for other mods than KS+ that would also deserve to be played and rated among other levels.

Other than that it's super impressive and I wonder if there's anyone else who played all the levels.

The seven 50GC levels have since been rated! The way I see it, the goal of a 50GC version is to encourage players to explore every corner of the map and add new content/challenges to give a fresh experience. Every level except Sky Flower 50GC achieves this, in my opinion.

I would recommend the 50GC versions of Dark Sky of Wish Mountain, A Strange dream, and Shalev over the originals. In the former two, I really appreciated the choice to color-code map screens golden that contain a GC.

Sky Flower 50GC I would not recommend over the original, as there isn't an extra sense of exploration (you visit every screen in the original anyways) and the linear level layout isn't great if a player misses a GC at one end.

The 50GC remixes of A Walk at Night / Azure Serenity Lite+ / Little Gothic Doll are interesting to me as they are the most transformative but unfortunately I did not enjoy them as much as I wished. In all 3, every screen is a significant challenge (great), but those challenges often are a result of adding a bunch of random-projectile enemies (not great). This is compounded with how GCs are gated where the player often has to travel back and forth the span of the map every time a new key/powerup is obtained, "replaying" an already difficult level more times than preferred. The guide hub is a great mechanic, but is hard to decipher. The gameplay experience of these levels seems very much intentional and I would still recommend these to "fans of the genre".

Three takeaways that I'll be considering if I make a 50GC remix:

• what resources does the level offer a player who is "stuck" at e.g. 49GC?
• how "fair" is the discovery of every GC location?
• how many times does the player have to "replay" the level to collect all GCs?

Fair enough. I don't fully agree with your opinions, but I appreciate that you gave these levels a shot. I enjoyed the added challenge of Shreeps' 50 GC editions, but heavily playing his other levels trained me a lot on how to handle his trademark enemy spam. The 50 GC edition of Lite+ in particular is an acquired taste with how unforgiving it is. I like the added backtracking as well, but again, I understand it's not everyone's taste.

I'd have to disagree with the 50 GC edition of A Strange Dream being better than the original, though. It's nice if you want to play the level in a different way, but it completely loses the flexibility of the level's original design, where you could clear it in many different ways without having to traverse the whole map in one playthrough. And I'm not a fan of it removing the original ending.

I also personally feel that Strange Dream 50GC is not superior to the original - it's just a different way of experiencing it. I love that Pacifishi rated all the 50 GC levels separately though.

Pacifishi - what are some underrated levels that few people have played?

Good point that it removes the flexibility of which order to explore the world. I think the reason the 50GC versions are more appealing to me as they add another layer of challenge to keep me engaged in the extra-large levels that would otherwise feel a little barren. All personal taste at the end of the day.

Hard to say which levels are underrated without knowing the reputation beforehand, there's plenty of high rated levels on the sheet that are from names I'd never seen before though!