Incline Iji

[Lucky]

For some reason this gem didn't have a thread yet. An exceptional freeware 2D action-platformer with RPG elements by Daniel Remar, released in 2008. It stands out for its elegant design, reactivity and replayability, and a good example of how to mix story elements into the gameplay.
You play as Iji, a girl that got turned into a cyborg by her brother after aliens attacked the research facility she was visiting with her family. She wakes up to find the researchers dead and her family gone, leaving her as the only one able to deal with the attackers.

The game is divided into levels and the way you progress through them affects how the story plays out. There's various ways in which you can do this and combining the different gameplay tools the game gives you (shooting, kicking, hacking and jumping) is necessary to take the trickiest routes, or to find the various goodies and secrets.
You also have seven stats for your health, damage, ammo and shield capacity, kick strength, hacking ability, plus two separate stats for proficiency with the two weapon classes. However, instead of getting experience points you have to collect nanobits to upgrade your cyborg body, which can be gained through or combat or exploration. Your build then impacts what options you have in approaching the levels.

There’s also bosses to fight, lots of different difficulty settings for extra challenge, a good soundtrack and smooth spritework. All in all, a game definitely worth trying if you haven’t already.



Get it here, or here and the improved soundtrack here.

 

[Whisky]

It's pretty good. Non violent option is challenging and a lot less pretentious than THAT CURRENT POPULAR GAME WITH A NONVIOLENT OPTION.

 

[kangaroodev]

One of the best game maker games I played, and you can clearly see the dev had a lot of passion for this game when he made it. Everyone who wants to see how a good indie game is made should try this if you ask me.

Also kicking and explosions feel really satisfying.

 

[Phage]

It's aight. Battle with Tor was really good. Can't really see myself replaying it though. Definitely one of the best game maker games, yeah. Game could really use a boss rush mode (if it has one that I overlooked, then me stupid)

 

[Whisky]

It's pretty good. Non violent option is challenging and a lot less pretentious than THAT CURRENT POPULAR GAME WITH A NONVIOLENT OPTION.

Looking back on it, if Iji had been released five years later it would be the next Undertale.

"KOMATO ARE ALL GENDER FLUID"

"Iji is pansexual!"

"Dan is trans!"

"IjixFriendlyFemaleTassenSolider"

You just kind of get that feeling it would be like that.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Iji was fantastic.

I remember something about it not running that well on newer OS, tho?

 

[Jacob]

I like this game. Actually it's my first experience with Deus Ex-like gameplay. Replaying it again now. I liked that the in-game motivation for not killing is simply because the player character is a scared teenager who doesn't want to fight. I'll try not to kill anyone on this playthrough until I feel like it (Probably until the Komato and the fancier weapon shows up). Might try total pacifist later.

After playing it a bit, it's too bad this game lacks a proper stealth mechanic (sounds, lighting, and stuff) but still enjoyable for me.

Iji was fantastic.

I remember something about it not running that well on newer OS, tho?

It's running fine on my Windows 7. Don't know about 8 or 10, though.

 

[SCO]

It's not so great. It's basically a puzzle-platformer game where the best ending required you to think like pacifist, and is the 'hidden' (not really, internet) ending? It may have been new at the time (i don't know) but that didn't make up for all the other bad things about it (i think i remember lots of no return points where you got locked into a ending if you weren't paranoid? Not to mention the graphics). And as you can see in the video above, no killing in Iji cuts down most of the gameplay, it's not like thief where you have to do 'more'.

 

[Lucky]

Eh, what? It's not a puzzle game at all and getting the true pacifist ending is the more complex route, compared to gunning your way through.

 

[SCO]

Complex, but not as fun (also, iirc, it very much requires a FAQ).

 

[Roguey]

I don't recall pacifist being necessarily "better" than not, it all comes down to what kind of character you want to be.

Earth's going to be fucked regardless.

 

[Lucky]

Complex, but not as fun (also, iirc, it very much requires a FAQ).

It's a different use of the mechanics compared to fighting, with the challenge now being how to use your tools to maneuver around the obstacles without technically killing anyone. Whether you like that or not is subjective, but it's not shallowly executed compared to the shooter approach.
I don't see how you'd need a walkthrough, though. You likely won't be able to do go full pacifist on your first playthrough, but you'll know the level-layout on your second run and the game always gives you a hint on how to get around without killing.

I don't recall pacifist being necessarily "better" than not, it all comes down to what kind of character you want to be.

Earth's going to be fucked regardless.

Iji herself feels better about going pacifist, but yeah humanity is fucked either way.

 

[SCO]

I seem to recall you need a certain enemy individual that may die from friendly fire, but whatever i may be imagining it. The main thing is that getting thrown like a ragdoll around while you run around collecting +1 ups reminds me of a bad bullet hell.

Also, i watched a video of the gameplay and i was reminded of the other thing i hated about it: you can't jump and shoot (to break doors, glass) for 'gameplay' reasons (aka: map funneling). This is kinda pathetic for a platformer. If your game doesn't have the mechanics and level design to make it interesting without such lame approaches, you probably should have done something different. Flashback, which is another game that did the same, at least had throwing and other complex movements (let's not mention super metroid, castlevania or prince of persia or cave story).
Actually, the only worth pointing out +1 movement capability in the game is the jump upgrades.

 

[Lucky]

If you're getting ragdolled, you can use the resonance reflector to toss back projectiles. It only requires crack 4 and is your main weapon for a pacifist run.

I think your second point is nitpicking, though. A game presenting challenges based on the player being limited in certain ways is fine, within reason. That's the case with every game and especially platformers. Samus needs to learn how to go into ball form, even though it feels like she should be able to do that already. That's fine, though, since it's a tool used by the designer to get me to explore other areas and then come back later. Now Metroidvanias are very different in how they approach levels, but the point is that you're always going to be pushed towards doing certain things. Samus can't morph yet, so she needs to go find that ability or look for a different route. Iji can't jump and shoot, so she needs to use the environment to break that glass or find another way past.
Different games allowing you to do different things is then to be expected when what they're trying to achieve is not the same, even within similar genres. Cave story has water sections, Iji does not. Iji has platforming reliant on enemy placement, Cave Story does not. Metroid has bombs, Iji does not. Iji has cracking, Metroid does not. Comparing abilities like that feels pointless to me when the games aren't that similar.

 

[SCO]

Yeah, well, i'll just say i saw many other better platformers/puzzlers in all respects (even ones made by one person). Cave Story blows Iji out of the water, or even recent paid ones like Gunpoint, Valdis Story or one note trash like They Bleed Pixels (and others i'm forgetting). It's a very competitive genre, and even freeware must really standout to become a remembered classic (like cave story).

Also, lazy rpg-isms like 'choose upgrade for resource from anywhere' (not like metroid or castlevania) aren't really a good thing. RPG-infection makes games in other genres worse (but adventure elements make them better ), and the succession of '+1 armor' with a 'special +2 when you get to 10' that you bought from terminals in Iji didn't impress.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Codex tastes are too shit to appreciate a game with decent difficulty, replayability, well hidden secrets and subtle reactivity to player choices. They need their games to be accessible with plenty of awesome buttons.

 

[SCO]

Iji has decent difficulty? I hope that was not directed to me, because the pacifist run of Iji i did way back when was seriously easy - the game has a shield (which you can increase the effectiveness) that multiplies by the number of dots on health(which you can increase). I'm not some kind of ninja master of split second dexterity, but even getting thrown around a-lot i was never in any danger except at bosses, where i died once because of gimmicks ('puzzles'). And there were always checkpoints anyway, and if you died it outright told you what to do i found out (accessible!)

 

[Damned Registrations]

I've been plugging this game for years and nobody here gives a fuck. Most of the dex' are closeted graphics whores, and most of the rest have shit taste anyways, crying about things like being unable to savestate cheat their way to the end, or not being able to see all of a game's content in a single run.

And yeah, Iji has decent difficulty, which is pretty much unheard of among platformers with ranged weapons. Even on hard mode, cave story is pretty much a joke. The only other ones to offer a challenge are gimmicky as fuck games like IWBTG.

 

[SCO]

Do you even remember the last level of cave story (no, not Hell, the preceding one for the normal ending)? That death trap was more difficult than any part of Iji. In Iji there are exactly 0 things that can instant kill you, while in cave story there are plenty of things like that as environmental hazards.
Unless that's what you mean by 'decent difficulty', if so, carry on.

I mean how can this:


be more difficult than this:

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well for starters, that wasn't the advertised pacifist run; dude just turned someone into a literal smear on the wall. Second, it's being done on a low difficulty setting, and third, plenty of shit will instakill you on higher difficulties when you aren't running around with 10 health like a complete tool trying to pretend you're good at videogames, with 10 assimilate as well so you can recover inane amounts of health from every pickup.

Pretty much the only really hard part of Cave Story is hell on hard difficulty, which is about 5 minutes worth of gameplay, even if you take your time. I've played that, and it doesn't stack up to an Extreme pacifist run of Iji, which I haven't even managed to finish, let alone the hardest difficulty setting. Just getting through the vehicle section in the third stage of Iji without killing anything or being killed is a nightmare compared to that silly little spike cave, let alone the game as a whole.

 

[Lucky]

Yeah, well, i'll just say i saw many other better platformers/puzzlers in all respects (even ones made by one person). Cave Story blows Iji out of the water, or even recent paid ones like Gunpoint, Valdis Story or one note trash like They Bleed Pixels (and others i'm forgetting). It's a very competitive genre, and even freeware must really standout to become a remembered classic (like cave story).

Also, lazy rpg-isms like 'choose upgrade for resource from anywhere' (not like metroid or castlevania) aren't really a good thing. RPG-infection makes games in other genres worse (but adventure elements make them better ), and the succession of '+1 armor' with a 'special +2 when you get to 10' that you bought from terminals in Iji didn't impress.

Can't say I agree with that. I like Cave Story, but it's a step sideways within the genre, not upwards. Regarding the the RPG elements, I think they work well enough here because of the game being level based, rather than exploring what amounts to a large map depending on what abilities you've unlocked. Gives you the ability to design obstacles without having to rely on the player finding certain items early on. Also, why do you keep calling them puzzle games? They don't have any puzzles, unless you count simple obstacles.

As for the difficulty, that's not really the deciding factor between the games for me, but I'd rate Iji as easily being the more difficult game at its hardest, though it's weird to me that you say Iji's pacifist run on base difficulty is that easy, when you said it required a FAQ earlier. Cave Story's only shortly challenging while you're getting used to the flight-platforming for the hidden level and having environmental hazards doesn't matter when you're never going to get hit by them. By contrast, Iji on ultimortal turbo is far more difficult.

If Iji just isn't your style, though, I'd recommend looking into Odallus. It's a pretty fun metroidvania, leaning more towards the Castelvania style.

 

[V_K]

It's pretty good. Non violent option is challenging and a lot less pretentious than THAT CURRENT POPULAR GAME WITH A NONVIOLENT OPTION.

Looking back on it, if Iji had been released five years later it would be the next Undertale.

"KOMATO ARE ALL GENDER FLUID"

"Iji is pansexual!"

"Dan is trans!"

"IjixFriendlyFemaleTassenSolider"

You just kind of get that feeling it would be like that.

Before I read that post, I though you were referring to AoD. :D