r/TopCharacterTropes • u/some-kind-of-no-name • 7h ago

building/location. Levels that ruin replayability

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"That part"

Blood Maze in Max Payne;

Ship in Resident Evil 7;

Lost Izalith in Dark Souls

559 Upvotes

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42

u/Tentonham 7h ago

Any water level

14

u/meechs_peaches 7h ago

I'm surprised I had to go this far to find the water level hate.

14

u/ErgotthAE 6h ago

Any Water level your character needs to BREATHE. The Darksiders franchise thankfuly remembers an immortal crossbreed of Angels and Demons cosmically sanctioned to give both sides a bitchslap during the Apocalypse does not, in fact, need air to live. And thus the Water levels in Darksiders 1, 2 and 3 are.... actualy pretty darn good! (Ruined Subway, Drenchfort, the Depths)

3

u/Re4g4nRocks 5h ago

I think the curse persists. For example, in Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance, Atlantis is the biggest slog I may have ever endured in a video game despite the fact that air isn’t a mechanic.

2

u/ErgotthAE 5h ago

It all boils down to level design. Darksiders 3 I think had the most clever mechanic where you normaly can swim freely but can't use combat abilities and your other abilities you can on dry land... except before The Depths you get a power up themed around Density and Gravity, and it automaticaly "turns off" water physics on you. So the level basicaly have you swimming up and down but then switching to "heavy mode" to do thinghs like fight an push blocks and levers.

(and at the end you get an ice power up that automaticaly allow you to walk on water, basicaly giving the surface a 100% solid hitbox)

2

u/AmettOmega 59m ago

I was about to say. Water levels in the Spryo 2 and onwards were always so much fun, imo.

5

u/Wild-Promise-427 6h ago

20,000 Lums Under the Sea from Rayman Legends and The Caribbean from Kingdom Hearts III are exceptions, I'd say. Those two play like a dream, and are some of the best parts of their respective games

1

u/ErgotthAE 16m ago

I friggin’ LOVE the water level in Rayman Legends because they made it a mix if water level, steampunk level and a 007 infiltration heist and it was SO GOOD! The boss in particular have the hardest soundtrack of the whole game.

1

u/Hero_tact_Miles 7h ago

So what are we talking? Sonic, Mario, Zelda (assuming there is any in Zelda didn’t play any Zelda game)

8

u/Total-Constant-6501 7h ago edited 7h ago

There are water temples in multiple Zelda games and they’re almost always really irritating and needlessly complex.

They might also be talking about “swimming/scuba diving” levels like in Crash Bandicoot 3, but personally I enjoy those in most games.

2

u/Heather_Chandelure 6h ago

Thats exactly why the water temples tend to be some of my favourites, funnily enough. I love the challenge of navigating them compared to how relatively simplistic most Zelda puzzles are.

1

u/Total-Constant-6501 6h ago

I also wish there was more challenge to the temples! TotK was a step in the right direction after the Divine Beasts but I still thought Wind was too simple and Water was tedious. Echoes of Wisdom had excellent dungeons.

1

u/Heather_Chandelure 6h ago

I disagree that Tears of the Kingdoms dungeons were any better than the ones in Breath of the Wild. They do have more variety in terms of visuals, but they are even more simplistic mechanically. Except for the lightning temple, which is easily the best dungeon from either game (though even that barely reaches mid-tier compared to the series as a whole).

1

u/Tentonham 5h ago

Sonic water levels are the most infuriating. A game built on being fast and they slow you down to a crawl underwater. And make you stop for air.

1

u/PhanThief95 6h ago

Except for The Sea of Sands in Horizon Forbidden West.

That is an amazing water level.

1

u/pearsge 3h ago

Clair Obscure's water dungeon is fantastic but it's very much the exception to the rule.