the penalty for dying is ridiculous

[cottonrhetoric]

Let's say I make it to the fourth level and die. The game forces me to run through the first three levels before I can attempt the fourth one again.

Why? The game designers correctly guessed it would be tedious to replay the first three levels entirely, which is why they opened the gates and let you run past the enemies... but why not go one further and let us just start after those levels entirely?

Does anyone enjoy running past enemies? Sometimes this can take upwards of 5 minutes. And you might be saying "what's the big deal, it's only 5 minutes." But really, would you rather waste 5 minutes than 0 minutes? Is there any reason why we're not allowed to make that choice? And if you die four times in a row, that's 20 minutes you just wasted.

Inexcusable. A blatant and unnecessary mar on an otherwise good game.

[Jokubas]

It does seem like needless work, but I'm spoiled after Recettear.

Recettear (which was made after this one) has an even harsher death penalty. You can only exit a dungeon after every five floors. If you die before that, you can only take one item back with you and you have to redo everything on the way up that you did the first time.

Not to say that makes the pointless backtracking in this game okay.

[careface312]

To increase the games length is the simple answer. It's a stupidly short game otherwise.

[kalirion]

Just use the boots of speed, and reduce the penalty to 2-3 minutes.

It does use up one equip slot, but it's useful for combat anyway.

I actually just started the game yesterday, and was disappointed that I couldn't use the saved game from the demo. But the knowledge carried over, so it only took me 1.2 hours (according to Steam) to rush through the plains + terran ruins, collecting all the treasure. Did end up dying a couple times, but the boss was ridiculously easy to dodge once I used the boots.

[cottonrhetoric]

To increase the games length is the simple answer. It's a stupidly short game otherwise.

haha well i ended up getting into the game and i like it a lot more than when i made that post. also i got about 20 hours out of it before getting bored, so i have no complaints about the game's length.

(the overt attempts at prolonging its length, though, like the fishing side quest and the survival dungeon, are outright pathetic)

[careface312]

haha well i ended up getting into the game and i like it a lot more than when i made that post. also i got about 20 hours out of it before getting bored, so i have no complaints about the game's length.

(the overt attempts at prolonging its length, though, like the fishing side quest and the survival dungeon, are outright pathetic)

20 hours? :/

Did you play through the game more than once? I finished it in 7 and got all the secrets.

[SilentCaay]

It's not that bad and you can stock up on magic on the way.

[hanman007]

I actually just started the game yesterday, and was disappointed that I couldn't use the saved game from the demo.

I had to manually copy mine from the demo folder to the full game folder. Worked fine after that.

[Entegy]

I think we're spoiled as gamers now... I remember dying in old Zelda games and having to take upwards of 10 minutes to get back to wherever I was in a dungeon since rooms that have a "beat all enemies" requirement reset. In comparison, Chantelise's penalty is pretty tame. At least you don't have to fight everything again, but you can always prey on a weaker group to build up some magic. Speed boots+winged boots are pretty amazing for movement.