LogFAQs > #933452831

Sometime probably in February of 2015, there was a topic of discussion that started happening on the game's forum about whether or not to remove the Shrine of Rhythm from the game. This was a controversial 'upgrade' that could be found randomly in dungeons that removed every eighth beat from the game, forcing the player to pause, and if they moved on that beat or missed any other beat in the song they would instantly die. But in return, they would get a gold multiplier, so the shrine was required for maximizing a score run. At first I hated this shrine, but assuming that I would simply have to get used to it, I started taking it, and I started learning how to play this game with as much discipline as I could muster. Eventually, I mastered it, and I was able to play runs with shrine of rhythm without dying very often at all. But, naturally, my original reasons for hating the Shrine of Rhythm really were correct, and it was discussed what should be done with it. Even knowing that doing away with it was probably the right thing, I made a fairly impassioned devil's advocate defense in favor of it, because learning how to master it had improved my experience with the game quite a bit. It was ultimately completely reworked; however, my involvement in this discussion and my enthusiasm for making suggestions about the game must have caught the dev team's attention, because I was invited on for the beta test of the final release.

I was under orders not to talk about it at the time, which killed me, since I so badly wanted to tell Dels that I had access to zone 4 and the final build of the game before everyone else, but I had to wait and play coy like I wasn't doing that. It was one hell of a privilege to be involved though; a couple of the bugfixes/changes I suggested made it into the final game, and it was just fun as hell to get to see the final parts of the game before everyone else, and see them develop. Around this time I got more involved with the community, along with a lot of its big players at the time who are mostly still around today.

Ever since then I've been at least semi-active in the community and I've done a lot of racing over the years, and eventually got... sorta good, not really great, but I've had a few decent wins to my name, and I eventually won an event as part of a team and even made some money as a runner-up one time (CONDOR for its first few years was quite flush with prize money, as the devs donated it to us to help grow the community - that was super nice of them). Between 25 dollars here, 33 dollars in Cadence of Hyrule, and 20 dollars in Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, my official gaming earnings comes to 78 dollars! I felt like bragging about that. I'm more proud of just having been here at the start of this community, though - I was running this game even before Spootybiscuit, who would eventually go on to become the most talented player of this game.

I watched along with the rest of the Necrodancer discord as Spooty accomplished beating the game with the hardest character, Coda, at AGDQ 2016 - most of us weren't sure he could even pull it off, and it stands to me as one of the most impressive feats anyone has ever accomplished in a GDQ run. This led to a race of Necrodancer happening between Spooty and Mudjoe2 (another top runner) at SGDQ 2016, and that was what led me to finally make the pilgrimage there. There were about 10-11 of us at that event from the Necrodancer community, and meeting them was like meeting old friends. We then proceeded to spend the entire week playing Ultimate Chicken Horse (see entry #38). This was one of the most memorable weeks of my life. It's staggering to think that I've made actual real life friends playing this game.

There was a lot of hype when this game had its DLC come out, and then again when Cadence of Hyrule was released, and that's kept the community pretty active. I've kind of taken a step back from it now as I feel like I've done about all I can do with this game - but CONDOR season 9 is starting up soon, so back I go getting dragged into this yet again, starting the 20's off right with more Necrodancer. This game's pretty much a core part of my identity at this point, really. I was lucky to pick it up when I did - best decision I ever made. This game didn't have to be as good as it was, but everything just fits so perfectly. Addictive gameplay, polished visuals, creative monsters and items, and the music - jeez, I didn't talk about the music much, but this game could have sucked if not for a brilliant soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky. I wasn't really the hugest fan of his prior work in Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy but the evolution of his style was really impressive in this game, and he stepped up and delivered a soundtrack that was thoughtfully composed to match the style of this game.

All that, though, and it's probably the fact that I just got so deep into the community and speedrunning the game and all that that it's really a slam dunk for my game of the decade. I got a little burnt out on this game but I think I'll pretty much always come back to it; I never really get tired of it. It's pretty much perfectly suited to my skills and my tastes and I have about as much history with it as I'll ever have with any other game (despite it only being the game I logged the 2nd most playtime with this decade - Slay the Spire is a few hundred hours ahead somehow).

That was a bit of a ramble. I knew that this would be the hardest write-up to do and it's probably the messiest but that seems appropriate enough. There's so much I could go on about in the design of this game or anecdotes about my history with it that I wouldn't be able to shut up for a while but I think that covers it. It's the most transformative gaming experience of the decade for me and one of my favorites all time.