Mewgenics - Edmund McMillen's biggest game yet

[anliteralidiot]

I

The horns aren't a mutation. All of the cat's mutations are shown in the rightmost picture. It doesn't have any mutation that would correlate to these horns.

I think it's just the ear shape

 

[Blindeye]

Some of the interactions in this game get a bit esoteric. Knockback immunity, for example, makes it so you can't be targeted by Swap.

Most of my cats have that via mutation so I've tested this extensively, and this applies to nearly everything that makes an ally move with only a few exceptions. Even skills like Meow, which make the ally walk toward you themselves, won't work on those cats

 

[crowabunga]

This kind of game has such an odd difficulty curve that I always end up dropping it; the same thing happened to me with Darkest Dungeon.

I love the first 1/3rd to half, then the difficulty spikes for the latter portion while the former is trivialized, so I lose interest in both farming old content and trying my luck against the new.

Much like DD, it's one of the best halves of a game I've played.

 

[Anonitolia]

This kind of game has such an odd difficulty curve that I always end up dropping it; the same thing happened to me with Darkest Dungeon.

I love the first 1/3rd to half, then the difficulty spikes for the latter portion while the former is trivialized, so I lose interest in both farming old content and trying my luck against the new.

Much like DD, it's one of the best halves of a game I've played.

I'm just really sad over how easy it is to break the pacing over one knee, especially on accident. Losing to a single house boss once has now spiraled into my playtime being spent more on grinding side shit, waiting for plot progression, than playing 80% of the game. You'd think 12+ years of development and testing would have caught something like this, but I guess not? I don't know, I'm bitter. I really love this game, but a single minor fuck-up around the 60 hour mark has now led to me being in nearly the exact same place 70 hours later. In the same place with no real indicator of future progression, might I add, and a gigantic possibility that the mid-game content I was supposed to reach will now end up being fucking post-game for my save file. My options are either to suck it up and play Acts 1-2 endlessly (grinding side quests just to get anything done), play 1-3 for no real reason other than fun, or cheat in the required boss fight I have accidentally leapfrogged and fuck up the progression even more. I'm sticking with options one and two for now, but I really wish I didn't have to.

Even replaying old acts has started wearing on me, might I add, because my cats are now so ridiculously overpowered that I have gotten through the entirety of Act 3's Hard side routes without taking damage. I have swept Mecha-Hitler in two rounds, I have taken down The Mother in about four while simultaneously ending the fight better off than I started it, having gone in with three cats below half-health and ending the fight with all of them at full, and my standard kittens are now averaging 4-6 objectively good mutations that keep most of their stats hovering around the 8-10 mark before leveling up and choosing classes. So I'm now at a point where, even if I do get that midgame progression and put my save file's plot back on track, it will be a complete and utter snoozefest that I can solo with my eyes closed just due to the sheer amount of accidental training I've gone through while waiting for the game to fix itself.

Assuming HowLongToBeat is still worth anything, I have surpassed the average time it takes to beat the main story + unlock most side content without even trying, while waiting for basic fucking plot events to happen, just by making one mistake and deciding to explore a bit while waiting to rectify it.

Spoiler: I'm not exaggerating my playtime lol

I was keeping track of my playtime after major story events just for fun. it has accidentally become a great record of how badly I screwed up

Note that Pyrophina is the house boss I originally lost to, so I only beat her seventy-six hours after unlocking Act 3...

(If you want specifics for when I beat/unlocked what, look at the file names. I seem to have underestimated just how long I've spent in side quest purgatory: I unlocked Act 3 ninety-four hours ago.)

I've spent a while bitching about it in this thread, and I'm sorry for that, but I felt it might be relevant since you brought up pacing issues. I doubt this was intended by McMillen, and I'm baffled that it went completely unnoticed. I have a very very hard time believing that not a single tester of his ended up doing plot missions after missing a story boss and found themselves in a situation similar to mine.

 

[Bnuny]

Assuming HowLongToBeat is still worth anything, I have surpassed the average time it takes to beat the main story + unlock most side content without even trying, while waiting for basic fucking plot events to happen, just by making one mistake and deciding to explore a bit while waiting to rectify it.

The in-game play timer is off by a lot. I have about 85 hours on Steam and it says 100 hours in game.

 

[Jose Beaner Luna]

This kind of game has such an odd difficulty curve that I always end up dropping it; the same thing happened to me with Darkest Dungeon.

I love the first 1/3rd to half, then the difficulty spikes for the latter portion while the former is trivialized, so I lose interest in both farming old content and trying my luck against the new.

Much like DD, it's one of the best halves of a game I've played.

I'd say this game is more cruel than DD and for no reason.

In DD the danger comes from the enemies themselves and the rng, if you havent laser focus on upgrading the training facility and the smith early you will have a bad time, however if you do is all about mitigating the RNG, a lot of heroes are build for certain zones wich help making them easier and with the adition of trinkets is even better (except champion warrens, that place sucks), too many illneses in a map? get a hero that heals them, too many armored enemies? bring blight or bleed, too many humans/beast? bring a houndmaster/bounty hunter.

If you inevitably end in a bad position the game is merciful enough to allow you retreat and even abandon the mission, sure they are stressed as fuck and probably sick but at least the hero you have spent hours to make into a powerhouse is still there as well as the trinkets, very rarely the game will force you to either end a fight or retreat but lose everything and the only times that happen is in that game's house bosses, the Darkest Dungeon itself only has a 50% chance that you'll lose a hero and iirc you can still run them again once they heal up.

That doesnt happen in this game, you are forced to run the entire chapter and is only after you defeat the boss that you are allowed to leave, and you HAVE to if you want to preserve your hard earned trinkets wich make 90% of a cat's power, otherwise you lose EVERYTHING, from the cat to the trinket, and that would be fine if it wasnt for the game also punishing you for no reason, a lot of the events are just pulling a gun to your head and chose how you want to die, a lot of the time you dont even have a choice and it just shoots you anyways, and memorizing the events doesnt work either because much like a bethesda dialog option all 3 options have the same bad outcome.

And the rewards for these events ain't even worth it, this conditions the player to not engage with any of the events even if they have the stats for it as you will get fucked anyways, i cant stress enough how much of the danger is not the boss or enemies but the fucking ? tile on the map, also unlike DD there's no way to deal with the parasites or illneses beyond just killing the cat, that just downright not fun, the events/skills to remove them happen once in a bloodmoon and when you least need them.

And since the trinkets are so necessary it takes 1 loss to send you back to eating rats with shitty cats to even have a chance at the later chapters again, good luck trying to grind chapter 2 with trinketless cats and make it past the bunker or god forbid the crater (i believe edmun was cucked or something when he designed that path because is so fucking bullshit and the moon is no better either) or worse, trying to do the lab.

I dont think i ever experienced dead spirals like this in DD, in DD if you lose too many times at least your cart can be upgraded to get decent heroes from the getgo and do short ruins runs to get back on your feet, in this game losing a few times means losing your good genes, your good mutations and your good trinkets sending you to a 10 hour grind eating rats and flushing down the bowl to try again.

 

[Sahba-ötün]

Honestly, not a fan of this game. Which is a huge shame because I love so many components of it. It feels really half-baked. Incredibly ugly, unappealing game. The loss-spiral is agonizing. I think this game is just bested by other games that specialize in its components, like Fire Emblem or Niche.
One of the biggest disappointments was the weak breeding simulation component. The other was the bad tactical RPG gameplay. The pathing is egregious and the lack of any undo/preview features are unacceptable for a modern tactical RPG. I think this game must have been made to "completion" about 10 years ago and left to fester with how spoiled the humor and visuals are. Terribly mean RNG with little forgiveness, it feels like you can't just take the exit ramp without putting yourself out 2 hours or more.
Plus, I think whoever wrote for this game needs to have an at-home caretaker. Some of the mechanics are inconsistent and some descriptions are wrong!
I had a lot of excitement for this game finally being released, but I don't like it and don't really recommend it. One of the few games that I felt disrespected playing. Would rather just go back to work than play this game.
Tldr; I think Edmund McMillen should be locked up for the rest of his life and never allowed to make video games again.

 

[crowabunga]

-snip-

Thanks, it's been so long since I played DD I forgot all those forgiving features, I think I'll give it a reinstall.

 

[Anonitolia]

unlike DD there's no way to deal with the parasites or illneses beyond just killing the cat, that just downright not fun, the events/skills to remove them happen once in a bloodmoon and when you least need them.

it's also worth noting that the illnesses are extremely hereditary, which means that simply trying to press on despite the misfortune can actually end up screwing over your entire bloodline if you're unlucky

I seriously struggle to comprehend the reason that disorders in particular cling to a cat like moths to a flame. Aside from disorders that come with an in-built chance to cure, they're the only things in the entire game that I have not found any way to reverse (outside of pure luck). You can fix injuries with bandaids and/or health, you can get rid of birth defects by overwriting them with a better mutation or getting another mutation that counters its bad properties, you can fix parasites with a certain disorder or that one parasite to do with making your basic attack inflict Infest (I think it was a spider egg? unsure. I've gotten it a couple of times), but disorders are just a complete no-go and entirely permanent unless you have a super duper stacked Health room and/or got lucky enough to catch one with a cure rate

If you have a cat with perfect everything but a single disorder, it is 99% of the time better to just bin the cat than try to hope for offspring without the disease, it's nuts
The only exception is Tainted Genes because it's basically an in-built risk/reward thing (and I'm biased) but that's one disorder out of 100+ that is arguably a benefit to the cat instead of a near-objective hindrance like most of them are

 

[Jose Beaner Luna]

it's also worth noting that the illnesses are extremely hereditary, which means that simply trying to press on despite the misfortune can actually end up screwing over your entire bloodline if you're unlucky

I seriously struggle to comprehend the reason that disorders in particular cling to a cat like moths to a flame, aside from disorders that come with an in-built chance to cure they're the only things in the entire game that I have not found any way to reverse (outside of pure luck). You can fix injuries with bandaids and/or health, you can get rid of birth defects by overwriting them with a better mutation or getting another mutation that counters its bad properties, you can fix parasites with a certain disorder or that one parasite to do with making your basic attack inflict Infest, but disorders are just a complete no-go and entirely permanent unless you have a super duper stacked Health room and/or got lucky enough to catch one with a cure rate

If you have a cat with perfect everything but a single disorder, it is 99% of the time better to just bin the cat than try to hope for offspring without the disease, it's nuts
The only exception is Tainted Genes because it's basically an in-built risk/reward thing (and I'm biased) but that's one disorder out of 100+ that is arguably a benefit to the cat instead of a near-objective hindrance like most of them are

Funnily enough the worst part of doing the throbbing domain quest is that you lose the vein patch, if you do a solo run with a cat you can remove its disorder with 10 strenght, i did that a few times with cats that had awful shit that i wanted to remove and were too good to pass, sadly i cant do it anymore, at least the music and bullying the fetus is fun i guess...

Thanks, it's been so long since I played DD I forgot all those forgiving features, I think I'll give it a reinstall.

This game sometimes got me like: "you know, when im getting assfucked by a swine skiver in champion warrens at least i can run away and preserve some of my guys"

 

[Cryogonal2]

Rolled a hunter with Bullseye. It got Heavy Shot and it is holding rubber cement. My ranged attacks never miss, I have a high damage skill that costs a pittance of mana to cast, and its projectiles bounce to a nearby enemy. Also it has a collarless skill that gives it a guaranteed hit chance at full health, which it is always at because it is a fucking hunter.

 

[POWER IN MISERY]

pyrophina can go fuck herself

edit: fenrir too, but everyone knows this. i started a run with the over 9000 pills, got the fucking faggot fenrir with regenerating holy shield and closed the game. the number one thing that annoys the hell out of me in a game is a faggot with the sole gimmick of running away, and here we are.

 

[Jose Beaner Luna]

pyrophina can go fuck herself

edit: fenrir too, but everyone knows this. i started a run with the over 9000 pills, got the fucking faggot fenrir with regenerating holy shield and closed the game. the number one thing that annoys the hell out of me in a game is a faggot with the sole gimmick of running away, and here we are.

get druid, the bird can remove the grass with the wind shockwave, is guaranteed so you dont have to pray on the other fuckers to get fire. Druid has become my main go to guy for the first act specifically for that fight.


Thank god psychic is here to protect us from the touch of women.

 

[Anonitolia]

What did he mean by this?

 

[Kane Lives]

get druid, the bird can remove the grass with the wind shockwave, is guaranteed so you dont have to pray on the other fuckers to get fire. Druid has become my main go to guy for the first act specifically for that fight.

View attachment 8752278
Thank god psychic is here to protect us from the touch of women.

Marshmallow deserves all the pain she can get.

 

[BlazikenLover]

I got the third ending and since I won't be having as much time to play anymore I ended up savescumming for the final quest since you don't get the quest item back if you fail. Had to quit a total of two times, wanna know when? At the freaking lab, not the future with the robots that spawn more robots and shot you when you hit an ally, not the end with the cats that have a chance to give you cancer, the fucking start of the chapter, seriously that place is cursed.
Not sure if I have in me to go for 100% completion (all areas with all classes, monoclass runs apparently? Beating bosses in higher difficulties for the unlocks) or hell, getting all achivements. Some guy on reddit claimed he had been playing 6 hours daily since release and just got it all a few days ago, thats dedication but not something I wanna do.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

presented without comment:

 

[Billy the Adult]

Didn't beat any levels with colarless, skill issue (thats one thing u can do, pretty nice unlocks too)

As someone who got stuck for a minute (although earlier in act 3) I can definitely understand the frustration with the house bosses. I guess the only thing is making sure to pass nights since they fill up your food. I do think it would be a pretty easy fix to at least make it so you get all the Act 1 bosses you can before Act 2 and so on. That's at least considering my problem was getting Pyrophina/Zaratanna before Guillotina 3.

I'd say this game is more cruel than DD and for no reason.

I think Eddie got a bit focused on "losing is fun" and "in a way, everything has an upside." Handing disorders out like candy sounds a lot less cruel if you think "well, there is some benefit to mitigate." I will be curious if things change at all with future DLC, plenty he could do.

I do think there is a decent chunk of events that can be ignored so that can mitigate some risk (you could also go water path in desert just to avoid events) but yeah, sometimes an event just craters a cat. Like using grass and getting the ash storm, or fire and rain.

Marshmallow deserves all the pain she can get.

Idk if its just a skill issue but she feels so much harder than the other 3. Can't really come up with a way to get her besides "have a terrible cat" which obviously has other problems.

 

[Kid Named Rocket]

presented without comment:
View attachment 8754617

This is why your life is already over, stalker. Enjoy the pipe.

 

[Blindeye]

Idk if its just a skill issue but she feels so much harder than the other 3. Can't really come up with a way to get her besides "have a terrible cat" which obviously has other problems.

1) Kill her in one round, before the charmed cat gets to go again
2) Bring a Druid, with support build they can't really do anything to hurt you when charmed/maddened