Game EXP: The Way Remastered (NS)

I picked up The Way Remastered by SONKA on the Nintendo Switch back in November of last year, and along with a handful of other games, I finally finished it; finished it quite a while back in fact.  The main hold up to finishing the game was one particular puzzle about halfway through the game; I will get to this puzzle a bit later, but I just wanted to bring it up at the start since it was something that nearly kept me from completing the game.  If you are not familiar with this game, I recommend you read the First Impressions article I wrote last December to get you up to speed because this ship is 'bout ready to leave the space port!

Maps Are Always a Good Thing. Especially in Unfamiliar Space Ports. That You're Breaking Into.

[I also wanted to note that I ended up taking very few pictures after I finished with the puzzle mentioned below.  I think I just ended up being too engrossed in the game itself and not really thinking about what I might need for this article (which is probably another reason why it has taken me so long to write).  I ended up stealing/borrowing the last two screen shots from CMD07's walkthrough (with their permission) when needed, since they also played the Switch version.]

So now that you are all caught up-to-date with my trials and tribulations with I. The Abyss, I will say that someone over on Reddit helped by sending screen caps of each solution to the four different mirror puzzles.  Then when I decided to pick up the game again, I realized I was on our couch away from my computer and my phone does not have access to Reddit (which is probably a good thing) so I ended up fuddling my way through the puzzle to the solution.  And you know, now that I know the solution and really paid attention to how to solve the puzzle, I was quickly (relatively speaking) able to figure out the remaining puzzles.  Kinda made me feel like a bit of an idiot.

I. The Abyss

And really, apart from I. The Abyss, the remaining puzzles while not easy, did not cause me as much anxiety or frustration with the precision needed that the Switch controller (or probably really any controller for that matter except maybe the Steam Controller) was not able to muster.  There was two other puzzles that I could not initially figure out, one due to the screen/area being very dark (even after turning the brightness all the way up), and only after watching (another) walkthrough on YouTube; the second was not recognizing what I was supposed to be doing was not too clear.  That was it really as far as difficulty goes.  There were a couple of times I did get turned around and lost, but most of the levels in the game are linear, so after some backtracking I managed to figure out what I was supposed to do in order to continue.  I do not recall there being any other issues I had with the game.

It was during this, I Need Help phase, that I learned about how the Remastered version differed from the original game.  From what I gathered, one of the biggest changes was to the omni-tool you pick up during the second third of the game.  In the original, there was an energy bar which was drained with each use, and then would slowly fill back up.  In the Remastered version on the Switch, you could use the omni-tool as frequently as possible.  This definitely made figuring out puzzles like I. The Abyss a lot easier since I did not have to sit and wait for the tool to fully recharge before attempting the puzzle again.  I can understand the reason for the tool to have an energy meter, but eliminating it definitely felt like an improvement.  It is also mentioned on the game's eShop page that there were some ". . .level design changes based on players' feedback."  It was also pointed out to me that there were some puzzles that were taken out in their entirety due to feedback, which is probably what the level design changes were all about.  Speculation though.

There was one section in the game that felt like it might have originally been a bit more action oriented (but I was glad that it was not).  During this section (as pictured below), your character was being hunted by multiple enemies, but since the game operates closer to a point-and-click adventure game than it is like Mega Man or Metroid, the slow paced events operated more like a 2D side scrolling Portal, were still a lot of fun.  I was actually thankful that it was not as action-y as it could have been exceedingly difficult and taken away from the fun that I had with the majority of the game.  Coincidentally, this was the same section that I used the music from in the MIDI Week Singles back in February.  It was then that I entered into a conversation (via Twitter DMs) with the composer Panu Talus about "Untitled Improvisation 2011" being included in the game instead of the song that was originally written for this section.

Who needs weapons when you have a shield!? (Screen Capture Taken from CMD07's Walkthrough).

And speaking of lack of action in the game, I have read some localized upset voices about how the game ends, in that seemingly out of nowhere the game kind of turned into a bullet-hell-type shooter/avoider.  I admit that this style of play did not seem to fit within how the rest of the game operated (almost that traditional game elements were shoehorned into the finished product) but after two or three retries I was able to finish the game.  While it was quite different from the rest of the game, I felt that with the right frame of mind, it could fit into the overall story the game was telling.

And that really is what the game boiled down to for me, the story.  There were times when it felt like all I was doing was going from Point A to Point C by way of Point B.  But there were so many moments that came about naturally that reminded the player why the character was on their mission.  That being said, there were a couple of areas in the late game that felt like they could have been trimmed a bit.  Being so close to what felt like the end of the game, and having to play through platforming elements that were a callback to all that you learned earlier in the game did feel a little bit like padding.

More Platforming Action Which May or May Not Be for Padding (Taken from CMD07's Walkthrough)

In the end, I believe I ended up with the "not-so-great" ending thinking that that was what I might have done in the situation presented at the end of the game.  I did save the game right before committing to the decision but when I chose the different of the two options I still ended up with the same ending.  I feel like this might either be a glitch or something programmed into the game to prevent what I tried to do because I have seen screenshots of the other ending and it was different.  I guess I would need to play through the game all over again?

Although composer Panu Talus has suggested that when/if I replay The Way, that I play the PC version that's available on Steam in order to play the game in its original form.  Which I may end up doing, but not today.  I might need some more time before tackling this emotional journey again*.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Everything's Alright


*P.S. I would also not look forward to completing all three of the trials, of which I. The Abyss is a part of all that.