@alistercat:It's weird that it exists especially since I've never had trouble being summoned in these games so it's not like there's not a ton of people using the feature.
I think even if you think you have to clear bosses on your own or whatever I recommend people drop a summon sign down as they play. It's a risk free way to explore a level and net you souls, and can be a really fun interaction as well. I remember especially in DS2 were they made healing spells aoe being able to support another player with heals in co-op felt real nice.
Really liked this game. Especially liked how they focused on refining and expanding the core platforming as opposed adding a bunch of different vehicles and modes of play the way Crash 3 did. Always be Slide Jumpin!
Although between the special character levels' second halfs just being harder retreads of levels you've already completed, and the N.verted Levels reusing the entire stage for more collectibles, those parts feel a bit like filler. There's already decent enough reason to replay levels between the time trials and collecting the flashback tapes so it feels redundant. Though I appreciate how it makes some of the earlier Skins easier to unlock once you've made it further in the game, and some of the effects they add for the worlds are genuinely cool.
Overall I felt they did a great job at bringing back Crash in a way that was both modern and faithful to the style of game the originals were. Very cool.
@humanity: I'd say a big part of the appeal of the game is how good it feels to master the patterns and come up with the best approaches to the levels and bosses using the tools you have. Therefore it's good that there's new stuff to see as a incentive to play it more than once.
And yeah, that process in itself can be very "fun".
Some stuff that's different in "Episode 2" are: Bosses are harder, some have more attacks. You don't have Dominique so have no access to healing or Reviving. You do start with 2 extra characters so can access some new paths in the first levels that are harder and contain parts of a key to the sword hidden in the ice level.
If you get the sword in the ice level it powers Zangetsu down to his normal state, making the rest of the levels harder. The final level has a different final boss and depending on if you defeat it with or without the unlockable sword either the EX Episode or the Final Episode unlocks. Both of those episodes features the playable characters from the first game. Clear all Episodes and a mode to play through the game with any single character supposedly unlocks.
As someone who wasn't aware of Final Fantasy until they were already in the 8s and 9s, they should definitely never drop the numbers. They already do spinoffs with different titles and the greek numbering of a "main entry"sets it apart visually from other titles that use numbers, I think.
Also, even if the series doesn't carry the weight that it used to, the image of prestige that they are projecting by doing this is definitely part of, and even important for, the brand at this point. Heck, it was probably the reason why 14, a numbered entry, got its reboot to begin with.
Also, unlike movie series and such, that usually drop the numbering eventually to not scare off newcomers, I feel like it is fairly well understood that each entry is standalone, so that motivator isn't there either.
@goukiband: The lanterns do all have different shapes and designs so I think the developers already accounted for color blindness in that way. Personally there are 2 special lantern types, one for Dominique and one for Alfred that I had trouble telling apart at first, but learned to do so because of their different design.
Now he might not have picked up on that the red lantern design drops health, it's color certainly helps make that more intuitive, but I also think just in general, probably because of how his attention is split and how much time there's been between this and the first episode, he isn't always paying much attention to what he gets from the different lanterns, even the blue ones.
I think if someone were to point it out, he'd learn to recognize the red lanterns shape without much issue.
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