Ryspo By Sto4

Ryspo is a game created by sto4

Ryspo, by Sto4!

Game: Ryspo

Maker: sto4

Type: Platformer

Pre-thoughts

It's been a while since we saw an EGD game from Sto4. His last EGD game, Nesting Box won first place in EGD 9, and this was his EGD 12 entry, and judging from my previous experience playing his games, Ryspo would be just as good, if not better.

*NOTE* I beat the game with checkpoints, and afterwards watched the walkthrough, so this WILL be a full review.

Ryspo certainly had a nice feel to it, you had to adventure along the map, avoiding enemies falling from trees and surviving areas surrounded by perm rings. Another thing was the side quests in order to get powerups; they were out of the way, and nicely done, in order to help with later levels. Health was well distributed, and so were the switch placements, but what was most well done surprised me.

Gameplay

The gameplay and enemy placement was quite unique. It takes and interesting concept and uses it in never before seen ways: stealth. This is a skill quite hard to master in the platform creator, but sto did it well. Instead of enemies placed along paths and fighting them, sto placed the enemies inside trees, forcing you to utilize instinct, and the blocks, placed. Beneath trees, there were certain dips in the blocks, allowing for an easier enemy fight, instead of an enemy falling on your head, and you dying; the main focus of this was the player cannot just burst into the section, he or she had to think it through first. Another revolutionary concept was how sto4 used switches to activate perm rings, which made you stay in one area and survive, or actually fight the enemies, leaving no way to pass them. This was touched up in Gaminator’s “The inner worlds” but not used quite like this. Sto4 polished it up, and added different sequences with activating layers of perm rings/ The boss battles were very significant toward the game, and the water levels changed how we think of platformer water sections. The boss battles took a simple fire troll, put you in a hovercraft, and tested you skills with perm rings, and overlapping ramp blocks, and many other boss battles. Each one had you use a different firearm, and placed you into different environments, with different foes and tests. As I used the hovercrafts, I really begin to realize what a great game Ryspo really was. Never before have I played a game where I actually enjoyed using hovercrafts, or fight bosses in them.Some levels entirely relied on hovercrafts, forcing you to dodge the incoming fireballs bombarding the entire backdrop. Sto nailed this aspect.

Scenery

The scenery wasn’t just scenery; it was a well-crafted environment. Sto4 built levels with nature, clouds, mountains, and the enemies matched this too.The foes of each level brought out the complimentary backdrops used in each phase, in each and every level. Sto used backwalls to create amazing designs, that attract the eye, and a create a tone. The tone of each level varied upon the goal, atmosphere, and where the level itself falls upon the spectrum of levels in Ryspo. As the game progressed, the environment did with it; for example, the later levels had a more dire, dangerous feel over the light-hearted , tree-filled level one. The mood depended entirely on the tone, space in the game ( or as I referred to it earlier, spectrum in Ryspo), and enemies. The stronger the enemy, usually moved the player to feel as if the level was more dire: the fights with thors were more lethal than the swarm of vampire bats. But moving along, the trees not only led to a surprise with enemies, but also mixed in with the scenery to create hidden platforms, and made the nature themes a whole lot better. This creates the stealth in Ryspo which I explained earlier on. In the water levels, hidden caverns had some eye-attracting back tiles, which the cookies complimented well. Even the sharks added on to this. Another thing is the use of graphics. Sto4 utilized these in clouds, diamonds, and arrows, to signify a clear path, and used them well. Many of these graphics were even made by Sto4 himself. Sto master scenery in Ryspo.

Block Placement

The block placement was fantastic; they added to the boss battle sequences, and made fighting enemies falling from trees much more fair by the enemies having less access to getting to you, for instance in level one; half of the enemies (like the thors) would have an easy win against you on an even turf, so sto4 tinkered with this, allowing a more fair level. The blocks were linear and placed vertically to give a more natural look to each of the nature stages, but not so much that the hazards had the unfair strength-of-numbers advantage. When platforming was used, the platforms were just the right distance away from each other, and were long enough to fight enemies on without falling off. Even with the slippery controls of the ironically named “platform” creator, the parkour wasn’t too tedious; you didn’t have to restart the whole level, just a portion. The water caves were placed well so that you had a hideout from sharks and the minion’s shots. There was a decent spacing in between each one, so you had just enough health for the cookies to give a much-needed boost. Another thing I want to touch up on are the ramp tiles used to transfer ranged shots. They were well-placed, and looked nice too. On the second to last level, you could actually use the bosses to break the cinder blocks, if exploited correctly, like someone did (yours truly). It wasn’t hard for me to tell just how much effort Sto had put into this category: an outstanding amount.

Enemy Placement

The enemies were placed decently well. Throughout the vast, flooded areas, there were a good amount of enemies so that you could scout, and avoid some of the foes. But then again, this also led to excessive bypassing, if you could predict the fish’s movements. The swimming enemies were used, but also enemies such as minions were utilized; they shot at you while you were swimming from afar. But an element better? The boss battles. Just enough enemies in each area of battles were placed, and in the right spot, too. The bosses had high health, and were utilized so that the player couldn’t just burst into the room, he or she really had to use strategy and think before entering. The leonard boss battle was incredibly well done. Turrets and spikes lined the ceilings and walls, so that the player had to stay in a restricted area set by sto, which enhanced the best phases of the level even more that they already shone. It’s all pros, right? Maybe not. In level one, and on some parts in the others, the tree enemies were overwhelming. To be honest, I thought that they were a good idea; dodging enemies before the fell and stunned you to take extra damage, but there were too many at the same time. Some places could cause you to lose a tenth of your health, while others could force you to lose all of it. There was too much luck factored into the draining of your health. Sto should have cut down on unforgiving enemies just a bit, or altered the areas so that the player at least got a miniscule warning before enemies rained on the player’s head.

Difficulty

Considering some poorly placed enemies, but also the brilliant sidequests for powerups to help out, I’d say that Ryspo has a nearly perfect difficult. With a few tries, you could probably beat it, but if not, Sto4 has also added a checkpoint system with embedded save points in which you could revive from where you last died. The enemies in level one, or two if you include the intro, were very difficult if you didn’t already know and expect a falling enemy, and even if you did, they were pretty hard to bypass. Which isn’t a flaw, rather an enhancement, but not when the fiends were hard to pass; not even bypass. Sto4 should have worked on the challenging areas, such as many parts in level one. The water levels, though, were a perfect difficulty in my opinions. Turrets and spikes restricted hiding from the enemy, so you had to confront your underwater enemies most of the time, which restricted it from being too easy, but the underwater caverns filled with excessive amounts of cookies (golden orbs which provide health) balance out the challenge. Certain boss battles could be overwhelming, but sto added things like lava, to chip away the firetroll’s health, and perm rings to block it’s shots. Sto4 made Ryspo with a good difficulty.

Lighting

I know that lighting is basically a subcategory of scenery, but since sto4 used lighting effects in Ryspo, I think that lighting is important enough to specify as its own category. Now, moving on, underground lighting was just brilliant--absolutely brilliant. Take level 11, for example. There was just enough lighting to create an ominous tone, but still see clearly enough. It really reminded me of Gaminator game, The Inner Worlds, and sto4’s EGD 9 winner, Nesting Box. Level 12, in my opinion, with the firetroll fight could have had a few more torches, but the mood of the level helped make a case for the lack of light. Sto4 did pretty well in this subcategory.

Puzzles and Traps

Although puzzles and traps are not mandatory, and I cannot take off points for having a low amount of these, I will grade the few puzzles/traps that sto had incorporated. They were very subtle for one, and were rather player-influenced automatic sequences than anything. For example, in the cloud level, the player interacted with a sort-of puzzle, that was merely influenced by the player’s decision-making, not their experience in puzzle-solving. Although I did hope to see similar puzzles to that of Nesting Box, since this is centered around action, I feel that it is fine. But this surprised me because 75% of sto’s featured games were puzzle games, and good ones, too. Because of this, the puzzles and traps game category will be exempted from any final ratings.

Story

The story was optional to read, and didn’t have an enormous impact on the game, however, it was phenomenal. Not just the old “go get your king from this bad guy’s castle” but instead, elements mixing fantasy, real-life, crime, and pity. Its pits the character against society and hope, and gives him a chance out, but will he take it? The answer to this is explained in the finale of Ryspo. It went above and beyond the normal scope of sploder stories, and may define the literary sploder legacy to come.

Checkpoint system

Can’t beat the game? If you copy down the code given on each level and add it to the end of the games URL, you can start off from where you left off before. Or visit Mrtwig4444’s account (sto’s alt) to play later on levels and continue the epic saga. I felt this was a good touch onto a great game, and helped all players, good or bad, experience the heart-pounding action of Ryspo.

Ratings & Conclusion

Gameplay: ****.5/***** (4.5/5)

Scenery: *****/***** (5/5)

Block placement: ****.5/***** (4.5/5)

Enemy Placement: ****/***** (4/5)

Difficulty: ****/***** (4/5)

Lighting: ****.5/***** (4.5/5)

Overall: *********/********** (9/10)

Puzzles and traps: -

Story: *****/***** (5/5)

I think that sto4 not only delivered a feature-worthy game, but an EGL worthy game, too. Sure, there were some flaws, such as unforgiving enemies, or it being overly challenging, but that doesn’t stop Ryspo from being amazing, and in my opinion what could’ve been an EGD winner, too. I hope to see sto4 making some super awesome games in the future, and I think he will, too. Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.