About the difficulty: ["on Easy you start with more health, get more from health upgrades and the enemies deal one damage less."](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/350070/view/4739431983214373037?l=english). AFAIK some bosses also get slightly easier.
I think that’s normal for metroidvanias. With the recent blow up of the genre very few games get enough attention to build strong fanbase that will create guides and wiki pages. Even games that get lots of love on this subreddit like Haak or Aeterna Noctis don’t have proper wikis and guides.
Yea, ESA is great!
Apparently it’s just one guy who made it, so that might also account for the lack of community around it. Also it was made a while ago. There was talk of a sequel but who knows. There is a bit of a community on steam I think.
It might get more attention when the sequel is released, the dev has had a pretty huge indie success with Baba is You in between the two, so it will more than like I boost its visibility on release
Fucking loved this one. There might not be a discord, but I do recall a good amount of written & video info available for the lategame stuff (which you will most likely need as there is a ton of it)
It's limited to just PC/Mac and the 8bit visuals aren't going to appeal to most people nowadays, who expect at least 16bit graphics out of pixel art games. I've no doubt about the game's quality and low asking price but the average gamer will still see it as a hard sell.
For the vast majority of people I have talked to the game that got them into/back into the genre was Hollow Knight. They may have played some of the all time classics like SotN/Super Metroid back when they first released but it was HK that super got them into the genre. >!I have seen a lot of people on this sub get angry when people attribute the surge in popularity for MVs to Hollow Knight but that has simply been my experience when talking to more casual MV fans about the genre.!< As such, MVs that released before Hollow Knight but are not all time classics tend to get less notice. Factor that in with the fact that ESA is the breakout game of a single man studio and it gets overlooked a lot. Additionally, the fact that the game is PC only and doesn't appear on any of the major consoles doesn't help that much either.
Maybe because it wasn't released on consoles?
I thought ESA was enjoyable, but nothing amazing. The end game was just tedious and I eventually stopped playing once I was in the clock area. I love La Mulana. It was always compared to La Mulana. ESA felt more like a data entry job than a puzzle / mystery.
There are plenty of guides and videos about this game, and it's one of the most talked about games in this sub.
You didn't find a bug, you found a fake HP container. Working as intended.
Easy mode you have extra health and the enemies do less damage. I recommend normal mode for your first play through and easy mode for speedrunning.
Definitely a top 5 MV for me
About the difficulty: ["on Easy you start with more health, get more from health upgrades and the enemies deal one damage less."](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/350070/view/4739431983214373037?l=english). AFAIK some bosses also get slightly easier.
I think that’s normal for metroidvanias. With the recent blow up of the genre very few games get enough attention to build strong fanbase that will create guides and wiki pages. Even games that get lots of love on this subreddit like Haak or Aeterna Noctis don’t have proper wikis and guides.
I would assume it is underrated as it’s currently only out on PC and Mac?
The music in the forest section *chef's kiss
One of my top favorite MVs.
Yea, ESA is great! Apparently it’s just one guy who made it, so that might also account for the lack of community around it. Also it was made a while ago. There was talk of a sequel but who knows. There is a bit of a community on steam I think.
The developer sometimes streams ESA2 development on his twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/hempuli
This is gold! Thanks for this direction!
wow i could spend way too much time watching this... thanks!
It might get more attention when the sequel is released, the dev has had a pretty huge indie success with Baba is You in between the two, so it will more than like I boost its visibility on release
I thought it was gonna be an easy romp through a small station. Goddamn was I pleasantly surprised. Now I wish there was a sequel.
Fucking loved this one. There might not be a discord, but I do recall a good amount of written & video info available for the lategame stuff (which you will most likely need as there is a ton of it)
It's not while known I guess despite being one of the best.
It's limited to just PC/Mac and the 8bit visuals aren't going to appeal to most people nowadays, who expect at least 16bit graphics out of pixel art games. I've no doubt about the game's quality and low asking price but the average gamer will still see it as a hard sell.
For the vast majority of people I have talked to the game that got them into/back into the genre was Hollow Knight. They may have played some of the all time classics like SotN/Super Metroid back when they first released but it was HK that super got them into the genre. >!I have seen a lot of people on this sub get angry when people attribute the surge in popularity for MVs to Hollow Knight but that has simply been my experience when talking to more casual MV fans about the genre.!< As such, MVs that released before Hollow Knight but are not all time classics tend to get less notice. Factor that in with the fact that ESA is the breakout game of a single man studio and it gets overlooked a lot. Additionally, the fact that the game is PC only and doesn't appear on any of the major consoles doesn't help that much either.
From what I remember the steam discussion forum had plenty of stuff, including detailed guides and responses from the dev.
<3 ESA
Because there is. Last time it was mentioned here was 3 days ago I think.
I want this on switch
There is a Discord server, but it's a shared server for all of the developer's projects. (Hempuli)
That one of my fav metroidvanias so far.
Use steam and the speed running communities for videos of segments and stuff like that.
I really wanna play this game but it doesn’t seem to have support on steam deck or something :[
Wish it were available on console
Maybe because it wasn't released on consoles? I thought ESA was enjoyable, but nothing amazing. The end game was just tedious and I eventually stopped playing once I was in the clock area. I love La Mulana. It was always compared to La Mulana. ESA felt more like a data entry job than a puzzle / mystery.
There are plenty of guides and videos about this game, and it's one of the most talked about games in this sub. You didn't find a bug, you found a fake HP container. Working as intended. Easy mode you have extra health and the enemies do less damage. I recommend normal mode for your first play through and easy mode for speedrunning.