I don't think I have ever been this conflicted about a game.

I am no stranger to hard games. I am in love with the Souls Series, always pick the hardest difficulty in any game and just love a challenge.

But Rain World is different.

There are games that are hard but fair and then there are games that are hard, and unfair.
And then there is Rain World, a game that is hard, unfair and features the occasional bullshit moment.

Being a (mostly) defenseless little creature in a world full of predators is bound to put you at a disadvantage. I knew going in that I would die a lot. What I did not expect was that the game at times is downright unfair. There are times when you will die and there was nothing you could have done.

The game features both procedural generation and a physics system. Pair that with a sort of limb system and the result is a game where your character almost always does what you want it to. But the few times it doesn't, it's gonna get you killed.

Sometimes enemies spawn at the entrance of the next room and you die before you could react. Sometimes the AI spazzes out and enemies just sit there and you can't get past them.

I honestly think there is a version of this game - same fascinating atmosphere and lore, same difficulty, same AI systems - that would be a genuine masterpiece if it featured tighter, more responsive controls and less elements that seem like they are meant to piss you off.

7/10

Yeah I'm excited for other games to develop on the systems used in this game, but I don't want to play this game anymore. Incredible ideas though that I want to see elsewhere

I have put in around 20 hours and am in no way close to finishing it, but I really like it a lot.
Idk how far I will get, because it is frustrating.

But I reject the notion that games should be "fair" and I love that you can just get quickly picked off by a wandering vulture just because you weren't paying attention. Everything is way more tense than other styles of 2D exploration games. Like, as much as I see the appeal in the metroidvania style, I enjoy RW's platformer-survival style way more because it's more about the challenge of exploring a world that hates you than trying to deliver immersion or atmosphere.

As far as I've played, there are no permanent upgrades you can get that completely obviate the challenge. I was as helpless in the early game as I am now in the middle. It's very exciting, IMO, and the closest I've come to really enjoying an explorative 2D game like this in a while

Did you finish it? I bounced off Rain World after a few hours the first time I played, came back to it a year later and it became my favorite 1p game ever. Which is the top of a long list for me. I've been playing video games for 30 years.

Yes, I finished the main campaign. I ragequit several times and uninstalled it twice, but in the end I pushed through it.

I decided not to play the DLC. I do kind of love the game, but I think I'll end up with a more positive impression if I just watch a video about it lol.

In what area are you currently in? I enjoyed most of them but there were some parts (especially Five Pebbles) that made me genuinely curse the game.

I think the good way to describe its difficulty is - random, because it is random. The game is not build around giving you the toughest challenge possible.

It's just sometimes there is an annoying lizard in this room, and sometimes it gets snatched by an evil plant. So it can be both extremely easy and impossibly difficult all on a whim of it's creature and physics simulation.

Knowing the different systems and interactions, and couple of dexterity tricks definitely helps. I beat the game 4 times I think, playing as different cats, and by the midpoint I was lowkey enjoying myself juggling spears and rocks when fighting the fauna.

The exploration is really engaging, especially those lore heavy areas. Gave me the same feeling I had in Hollow Knight. Like, when you know that this location is important, but you are not really sure why yet.

Btw, white cat ending somehow hit me so hard, I almost cried. Idk may be the moment was right for me emotionally, but somehow I really felt something.

Five pebbles is the blue goo spiders area? Because O was stuck thete forever too, the surface area "revelation" was worth it for me though.

It's the area without gravity, so yes I think we are talking about the same area.

Sounds a bit like Noita. Splendid game until you fail to see the 1 pixel of Lava spilled from an enemy you killed 200 feet above you an hour ago and you stand on it an die. Or, a million other ways to die from bullshit like an unseen enemy picking up an unseen wand from the environment and it has nule and he shoots at an unseen enemy and the whole ceiling falls on your head.

You're right, random is a very good term. Some areas - like the endgame area before the boss - I found rather easy. Meanwhile 5 Pebbles and Memory Crypts made me hate my life.

For me that sounds like a good candidate to watch a "Let's Play" of. I have heard good things about it but stayed away because I don't have the time or energy for games that are demanding like that.

▶Watch on YouTube

This video is perfect for that. It explains and shows you every area and what makes it unique.