The game just came out for Vita and I've been pretty excited to play it ever since the Quick Look, especially given that the description specifically calls out Super Meat Boy and N+, both games I thought controlled extremely well. But after playing it myself... mannnn am I glad I went for the trial version first.

I seriously cannot get a handle on the controls, specifically the running on walls mechanic. Like, in the tutorial, it'd say "hold left stick up to run up the wall," so I'd do that and he'd just run into the first wall and stop moving. Eventually I got the hang of it a little bit, but I ended up trying to just avoid running on walls and ceilings whenever possible because it feels like the timing is too strict on when you have to start holding the direction, or maybe the wall run distance is shorter than I'd like, or... I don't know, man. Something feels off and I can't figure out what.

I tried out all the characters and I think I like the tall girl the most. It helped switching to her over the regular guy, but still, I just couldn't get any real sense of consistency even after playing through all the trial levels. I really wanted to like this game, but the controls are nowhere near as satisfying as something like N+, personally, and I just wish the game felt faster overall.

So what's up? Am I probably just messing up the timing, like it's a thing I'd need to practice at a bit more and I'll get used to it, or is there literally just some fundamental thing I'm missing?

I played using the keyboard and I thought the controls were great, but that's just me. Also, my preferred character is the purple girl who can do triple jumps.

It is definitely a game that requires a lot of practice and building muscle memory.

I only put in 60 minutes into the game (majority of it was spent mucking around in the tutorial), but I did enjoy the feel of using the D-Pad. I'm not sure which form of movement will work for me in the long-run, but it's definitely better than the analog stick atm.

Based on the SGDQ run I watched last year, it's clear to me that most players are gonna have to put in a lot of work to be successful in this game. Y'know, muscle memory and all that.

I'm in the same boat. The controls feel delayed and incredibly stiff. I don't know if it's an issue with the game being strict on timing or just unresponsive but I can't seem to do any sort of wall jumping, wall running or ceiling running consistently. Seems like I do the same thing and sometimes it just won't work. I also hate the way it will queue up jumps if you accidentally mash the jump button, forcing you to waste an air jump. I don't have the game on PC so I can't say if the Vita version is just worse, but I have to say I'm really disappointed with the controls.

The game seems super strict on the timing of slides on walls/ceilings/angled surfaces. I put 10 hours in, realized I still didn't really like playing it, so I uninstalled it. I'm sure the game is great for the speed running community, but the controls are like the complete opposite of Super Meat Boy. SMB is fairly intuitive right out of the gate, while Dustforce's momentum-based controls are incredibly unintuitive, and if you fuck up even a little bit on the harder levels you'll lose just enough momentum on the sliding sections that you're not going to make that next jump.

You know what, I take back the speedrunning comment. I've been watching the SGDQ 2013 speed run of Dustforce, and even the guy speedrunning seems like he gets frustrated by the way the levels don't allow even incredibly minor mistakes. I recommend people just watch this speedrun and buy the soundtrack instead of buying or playing Dustforce itself.

I played it for ten minutes and couldn't keep going. Coming off games like Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, and AVGN Adventures... Guess I've been spoiled by amazing controls lately.

I'm pretty much ready to give up at this point. I've done most of the forest and a few other levels here and there but the controls are just killing this game for me.

@beepmachine said:

Yeah, I didn't get much farther than that. I did nearly all of the forest levels, did most of the easy and medium levels in the castle/mansion, did most of the easy and medium levels in the city. Never really touched the lab or the harder levels in the castle/mansion or the city. I was already getting too irritated by how the slides and momentum worked on angled surfaces.

I know it sounds like I'm bashing this game constantly, but I think it could've been really great if the devs had playtested it with more people, and realized its shortcomings. The game either needs a much lengthier tutorial that really hammers home how all of the slides, dashes, and momentum operate, or some of the timing needed to be relaxed considerably or something. I recommend watching that speedrun I posted to just see the levels you never finished.

@bisonhero: Did you play the game on PC? I haven't, and I've read some stuff on reddit and other places that the feel of the game is much better on a computer than the vita version. Several people saying that if they played this version first they wouldn't have stuck with it. I like a lot of what the game is doing and I hate that the controls are stopping me from being able to enjoy it fully. It's not like they're broken or anything; I'm sure there are people who are getting along fine but it's kicking my ass.

That speedrun makes me even sadder. The game that guy's playing looks damn fun.

@beepmachine: I played the PC version back when it came out. Maybe I just need a better gamepad? I'm using a 360 controller, and tried both the analog stick and the d-pad with disappointing results for both.

The angled surfaces are just tough to deal with. In Super Meat Boy you knew you were holding right or left to slide down a wall, but when you're trying to ceiling run up an angled ceiling in Dustforce, I just NEVER got the hang of those sections because no direction I pressed ever seemed to be the right one to continue the run/slide. Or my timing was terrible or something. 10 hours in, I just didn't feel like I wasn't improving at all. I either hit my skill cap and am terrible at the game, or hit the cap of what I could do with that controller. I don't really care which, I guess.