"Nothing":An Adventure Beyond Reality

Are you just messing around, Anuken? Or do you really want to do some serious hacking?

If it's the latter, perhaps you should reconsider this?

 

..Since I can't really do some serious hacking, I'm just messing around.

 

I'm learning programming , and the code didn't make sense to me either, so really it should be extremely hard to do anything practical while hacking a program if you don't know programming.

 

..Since I can't really do some serious hacking, I'm just messing around.

Oh, ok.

Keep onwards then, Sir Anuken!

 

Well! Since I said I would, I finally got around to playing nothing!
...

Spoiler

Very punny!

Anyway, I had some issues with running the game at a normal speed. It seemed to run really fast, and I don't think it's supposed to be so quick...

In the end, I ran it in compatibility mode for XP SP2, and used CheatEngine to slow it to 0.85 speed, which made it about Cave Story+ speed.
Also, had to change resolution to non-widescreen to fix the barely noticable stretch.


Now on to the game :
My initial impression wasn't that great. There is no story or dialogue in the demo besides a few upgrade instructions. That is the biggest negative to the game demo. (besides the missing sound effects!) But, ignoring that...

By the time I got it running smoothly I began to explore the world without using any of the debug options available at top. The main character itself is quite awesome with how it is setup. He/she/it can face you, stopping mid-turn and rawr at you. If your on a platform your paw might start moving; searching for ground to hold on to, letting you know, you are about to fall off. If you leave for a minute, your character will fall asleep. If you get hit with some large thorns, they stick to your character, and he might make a pitiful sad pained face, until you shake them loose! These kinds of details really enhance the experience.

The attacking is pretty forgiving, despite starting with melee. You are given invinciblity if you are facing the enemy and attack before touching the enemy in most cases... which can be cheap at times, but made my life easier.

The "enemies" also had wonderful behaviors. Some ran up trees when I come along. Some go dashing through the fields. Some dive from the air into the ground, disturbing the soil, letting you know when he's about to come out from the other side. With so much detail and variety, the regular enemies were a big highlight in this game. Though... this leads to the next point.

The actual areas are HUGE. You can get lost if you don't utilize your map, and even then; there are times you will find yourself circling some areas, looking for where to go next.
On one hand, despite the size, there is usually enough variety in the level design to keep you from getting bored; thanks to the quick main character.

The flipside though; even the wonderful enemies can become a chore. With the size of the levels, you will see the same types of enemies again and again.
While exploring is mostly easy, if you start to slip up, you can find yourself running low on health pretty easily. Now suddenly you're hoping for a heart to drop, or praying for a save point lol. It's a little troubling because you're just randomly exploring with no story.

As for the bosses : they are pretty good. Not the same caliber you would expect from the detail found in random creatures, but they were a pleasure to fight nonetheless. The skull in particular being the most intense of the battles...

The graphics themselves are well done. You can really feel that Cave Story inspiration. Though I think the color range, seems less varied, and starts to blend in to me. Still, a job well done.

Playtime took me an estimated, 4 to 5 hours to complete the demo, attempting to find as many secrets as possible... It actually felt like a completed game in size... just missing story/direction and sound...

Final rating is... 7/10, with Cave Story being a 10/10. The game would probably be at least a 9/10 if it were finished. It's very good... And the aimless adventuring was fun for a change.

My playthrough notes :

Spoiler

The power ups dropped by random creatures, I believe they enhance your strength/damage. At least it seemed like I would do more damage each time I got one... Though, maybe it just changes your attribute or something? I wasn't paying super close attention.

I found the armidillo boss pretty easily. I was LUCKY to survive that encounter, since I wasn't taking it seriously and suddenly was about to die!
That got me the Lunge powerup... That's when I started enjoying exploring.

It felt a bit tedious to explore such large levels, with the unweildy controls. But, soon as I got lunge, exploring was much swifter, and allowed me to access areas pretty easily.

The grass place was pretty large, found lots of upgrades randomly.
I did NOT find a Night vision upgrade. Didn't even know one existed...

The forest area was huge. It was also a bit painful. But, I made it through and ran into that Skull boss. That was pretty epic. Rough battle, only had a heart or less left! The bunny wasn't the skull's true form btw!
It just hopped into the scene and the skull possessed it [that's when my health started dropping like mad].
But, that was just a mini-boss I believe. The true boss was the big bird at the top of the large tree. That was a rough battle. Mostly because my fumbling around, and falling off the tree, and exiting the battle thus reseting his health >< Also, his icy breath kinda messed me up.
At long last, I did beat him and ... What!? I got my first surprise transformation. Just when I was getting used to lunging everywhere, now I had to get used to this new form... And couldn't find a way to switch back.

In retrospect it was well timed. Soon as I mastered lunge, I'm stripped of my power, and have a whole new critter to get used to...

One of my favorite areas in the forest though, was the Cave. That spooky area was... dangerous lol Very short, but it was rough making it through the first time in one piece.

After leaving the forest, I ended up heading onto the beach... Nothing like a nice long walk on the beach after a spooky forest. Although, after a little ways into it, it starts to nag me. Those areas I couldn't reach in the beginning; like in the first cave! So, I decide to turn around and make my way all the way back to the beginning to check out what I missed.

The cave was interesting... Ultra dark, but thanks to my firey breath, I just spammed that and carefully made my way through. This was the upper cave btw.
I took quite a bit of damage from my dark explorations, but most disappointing was... there wasn't anything besides a single power-up or two (one I couldn't reach!).

I discovered I messed up at this point, and needed lunge in order to reach the lower cave areas. So this was the first time I used the debug, to turn myself back into form 1.

This area was a real pleasure to explore. I liked the looks... But, again there was nothing to find. I DID find a strange room where the music stops, and a boss was bound to appear... except he never showed. I used my magic fire, and apparently there was something inside the stone I was standing on, but for whatever reason, it wasn't triggering.
... Oh well...

Switching back to Form 2, I made my way to the beach and was worried about underwater exploration. But, due to the amazing amount of breath I could hold, I never ran out; even when fumbling around in the deep.

One unfortunate thing about form 2, a lot of the time I just fly as high as I can, and just keep going. Not really appreciating the ground level and enemies...

Finally, I made my way to some kind of rainy area... and the evil skull was back. Well, minus the skull. Just a shadowy evil thing. This battle unfortunately, was super easy. Spammed the fire breath, and it quickly went down. There wasn't even boss music playing I believe... After fighting him, I'm expecting a big boss to show up like with the bird in the forest...

Unfortunately, that never exactly happened.

After navigating my way into some kind of watery temple, I was welcomed into the most annoying but very slick looking area yet. Most of the annoyances were due to a few areas where jumps required high precision, or you had to redo the area again. Those kinds of places drive me nuts @_@ But, it wasn't really hard; just less forgiving than anything before this point.

This game at times gives me a Sonic the Hedgehog vibe... these underwater levels, really bring me back.

At the end of the temple, I finally found the boss... ...
...or did I?

In a tense underwater scene, I knew something was coming; and the build up and cutscene was awesome. BUT... no boss battle... >_> Still, I ended up in some silent but really weird and interesting new area.

This secret temple looked like an important place, and I was ready for anything...

B?UT then I got some kind of puzzle that I couldn't figure out.
You knock down two Glass Eyes from the large head statues. But, what the blazes do you do with them!? Unfortunately, attempting to catch them, and move them around proved nearly fruitless, and I finally gave up. Calling it quits.
I'm not sure if it's solveable. I mean the area doesn't even have music...


Now I went into debug at long last, and warped around; and tried out all the abilities and 3rd form. Ohh... those abilities were quite wicked. The dash was ridiculous.

It feels like the game could have been many times larger, to give the player time to really savor these new skills. But, at the same time; it feels like I was near the end of the game. That secret temple area seemed like it could be closing in on the end...

But, since there's no story... who knows!

Lastly, I stumbled upon the final mountain area which states.... This is the end of the demo!

Too bad, this game wasn't finished! It seems like you could add dialogue here or there, or some focus; and you'd have a complete game without adding much more. Though, I wonder what his original plan would have been...

 

Ohai X.

I'm glad you finally tried it! And of course, in true X-Calibar style found lots of interesting things I didn't >_<

Not quoting your post because oh god.

WARNING. FORTRESS OF TEXT AHEAD.

Spoiler

★I knew someone would make a pun on "Nothing" eventually >_>

★The game did feel too fast at first, but in my experience, after playing(and dying! )for a while, I got pretty used to the game's speed. And yeah, I made the mistake of playing in fullscreen on my first start up. At least you got barely noticeable stretch, I got big visual glitches

★Ah yes. The lack of sounds and story makes me sadface, but then the game is still quite demoish. I don't mind the story as much, though. It's fun guessing what happened ^_^

★I totally love the personality of the draconian puppy cat protagonist. I've seen all those details and I think they add quite a bit to the game's awesome atmosphere. The dude's a he, by the way-it says so on the trailer on the OP and Logan's site.

★Attacking was quite difficult for me at first, before I got used to the speed and such. The enemy variety is pretty awesome, yes.

★Yeah, the gigantic areas are my biggest annoyance. They're pretty fun to explore though! They give the impression of being an actual world instead of little videogame levels. Also, once you have Earthen Memory, it almost becomes a minigame to explore all over and complete the maps

★I really like the graphics and music of this game, though the Tree was pretty bland with color. More ranting on the Tree later.

★Considering this is a demo, it's really really good to have so much fun inside it.

★The power spirits don't add strength. There's already a fruit that does that. I -think- it adds more range/slash marks to the melee claw swipe.Their vague description doesn't help...

★Lunge? Lolwut? I do believe it's called Bound, my good sir

★Unwieldy controls...can't agree with ya there.

★I've found night vision before. Can't remember exactly where at the moment, but if I remembered I probably wrote it somewhere in my posts.

★I already knew of the Darkness miniboss' true form. It's not quite a skull, either, the dark cloud is the boss. It even tries to possess you!

★Oh god the Tree. It's huge, there are annoying enemies everywhere, the place is filled with ugly green fog...midway through I just started running and didn't stop to explore. My god. So, I didn't find the bird,and in fact I didn't know you could find a transformation. Too bad no one knows where Pohoja Blessing is to change back...

★Shore is such a breath of fresh air after the stifling Tree And when it comes to Tree, there's no harm in utilizing Debug Warp, X

★You know, you could go back after gaining Bound and obtain a Leskin Strength fruit. That's what I did in my legit run.

★I also found the Important Room. It's quite strange, but I believe it's an exit rather than a boss room. On the regular map(non-Earthen Memory), there is an "exit" symbol pointing downwards - conveniently where the block is. The block also seemed to be shaking and doesn't quite look like it belongs there. I think it could lead to the Waterway, since there is no way to get there without the Debug Warp. There are other suspicious exits in Shore, as well. Perhaps there is supposed to be a boss there, that would open the way(much like in Tree with the Darkness), but the boss was disabled for unknown reasons. Also, Fire mana targets lots of weird things, like the flame in Ocean Temple. One last thing: there are many things we don't know of this game. Perhaps there really is some sort of whatchamacallit that gives the Important Place significance that no one has found yet. Quien sabe?

★Ocean Temple and Waterway are really, really unfinished. This plus the Shore exits leads me to believe that Logan Ames wasn't quite done with the areas after Shore when he released the current demo.

★Puzzles? Underwater scene? Secret Temple?

Lolwut?

I guess there's more to Ocean Temple than I thought. I'll have to check it out. And hey, maybe I'll figure out the puzzle and be a boss who actually does important things! Though probably not -_-

★I don't think the Temple would be the end of the game...

Oh well. Thanks as always, X-Calibar! Now I have LOTS of yummy new info to play with

Until next time. I'll keep up with looking for new things-maybe.

 

Thanks for reading that large post, I get carried away rambling sometimes xD

As for "unwieldy controls", I suppose I was just still suffering the after effects of a certain area in the Temple

Tell me if when you make it through the Temple! I want to hear what you think of what happens next, and if you can solve the mystery of the next area...

PS Bound! ... I knew lunge seemed a little off xD

 

Thanks for reading that large post, I get carried away rambling sometimes xD

I read everything, X my dear

And rambling is a grand sport we must carry onwards for great justice!

Tell me if when you make it through the Temple! I want to hear what you think of what happens next, and if you can solve the mystery of the next area...

Ehehe...about that.

I have no idea where you got all that. Just got to Ocean Temple, but there's just a hallway with a flame, a save point, and an underwater area I can't pass thanks to a random pillar. I'm lost

Mind telling me what you did via spoiler or PM?

EDIT: Ne'er mind! I never bothered to go back and get the dragon transformation for realz, that was my problem. *shakes head*

I'll explore and get back to you!

 

I had this weird dream. I was playing nothing,and then I suddenly transformed into a paper cup form. I vibrated when I pressed the attack button...

0_o

 

._.

*pats shoulder*

Perhaps you should take a break from messing with "Nothing"s code, buddy.

Oh hey, 50th post in this thread and 90th post of mine overall! :3 ^_^ ^w^

EDIT: Updated the original post with extra info regarding Notepad Hacking.

No, really.

Also fixed the broken YouTube video. Go check it out!

------------------
Uberbump for lulz. (Also new info, of course.)

As it turns out, the developer of this game has it on hiatus. He loves the project and wants to get back to it(or so I was told), but he's been busy and whatnot. Also, he may have lost the source code

Logan Ames has been working on and off on this thing for years now, though, so there's always a chance he'll keep working eventually.

...but...

Don't hold your breath

 

Also, I give up.

..lol

 

Also, I give up.

..lol

Perhaps that's for the best, my good sir.

Although your Notepad Hacking has done some good in the long run

################
Moar bumping! As long as there's more things to learn about "Nothing", this thread shall not die. >:3

There actually is a way to the Waterway!

I was exploring all over, trying to complete the map, when I stumbled upon a section of Hills that requires form 2,form 3 and Wall Jump to pass. Go long enough, and you'll fall down into Waterway 1.

It's probably supposed to be entered sometime after Ocean Temple, given the requirements to enter it and its high difficulty level. It's also pretty much a one-way trip, with a save point at the end. However, because it doesn't lead anywhere, it redirects you to Hills.

...Can't believe I'm still finding things after a month of knowing about this game. And it's a demo~!

Oh! And if I complete the map, I'll share it here. Not that anyone still reads this

 

I'm still checking this thread when I notice it get bumped~!

Interesting about the waterway..! So there's more to find...
Is there a way to get form 3 without using the debug? I stopped playing after I used a morph to explore a little more in the hills, and it led me to a map that was totally black... I think. I figured I'd tackled most everything, and was waiting for the next version to be released!!

...............................................
I wish!

So! You talked to the Logan Ames? Nice... It's good he has an interest in the game still, though its future seems as uncertain as ever. Thanks for checking on that

 

I didn't talk to him directly. I talked to a guy on YouTube who asked him about the future of the project.

As far as I know, there is no way to find form 3. I think it's supposed to be found after Ocean Temple, since it seems a little unfinished-the "11" ability doesn't seem to do anything. I also haven't found Pohoja Blessing...

I'll keep looking. I haven't gotten anywhere NEAR exploring all the areas , but my quest to complete the maps might change that.

We'll see

Also...a completely black map? Strange. I'll keep checking Hills, since I'm not done with it yet, and see if I find anything.

 

Also, guys, If you wordpad - hack the maps you can change which maps they lead to. For example, hmcave-b has this little notch symbol at the end and it says the map to which it leads. I tried changing it, it worked.

 

Interesting, but between Debug Warp and Profile Edits, it won't help much.

Good job on actually understanding what one of the symbols in Notepad do, though

 

The thing is, there are some "test" maps.

 

I know

Try "fishtest" , it's pretty awesome.

Also, have you read the edits in the Original Post? I find that editing File is more efficient and easier than changing the exit data.

...But once again, your invention is awesomer than It first appears-I just realized I could check to see if the Important Room in Home Cave has an exit or not! Thanks

EDIT: Got the /Info/!

The Important Room DOES go somewhere! Specifically, it leads to hclaby32-it looks like it was blocked with that square because Logan hasn't finished Home Cave beyond that. Blocking it off is all he did, though-if you get to that area with File Edit, you can see that it is a large, slightly unfinished drop with various paths to the right and left that can't be exited. In fact, the area will be added to your map without any glitches, and you can even see that it's below the Important Room! I've added the room to my complete map, in case you were wonderIng. (You probably weren't )


I guess this means I'll have to check all the suspicious places for more unimplemented areas...oh well. ^_^





MEGA-EDIT:

I guess I should wrap this thread up a bit.

I think we've pretty much hit the limit of knowledge about this game. Pretty much every debug thingie and secret I could find has been uncovered. Maybe sometime when I get more experienced with Hacking I can take a closer look under the hood for more, but for now I'm done.

That complete map probably won't be released, since no one probably wants it anyway.

Anyway, the discussions lasted a pretty fair while. Good show, everyone. It was fun while it lasted. ^_^

As for "Nothing" itself...well, I hope people continue to see that download link and enjoy the heck out of this amazing game. Even as a demo, it's pretty awesome.

Thank you for your service, thread! Good night...

Sleep well...~

...

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