Intrepid Izzy

[galaxygod]

i hate to entertain a dumb idea but would new level dlc be possible on dreamcast? I know dlc is possible on dreamcast but to what extent?

[Roel]

i hate to entertain a dumb idea but would new level dlc be possible on dreamcast? I know dlc is possible on dreamcast but to what extent?

VMUs have only a very small amount of storage space. It should be possible to store some very small DLC on it, but the possibilities would be very limited. No new boss fights or anything like that.

With the serial SD card reader, the possibilities would be endless (and so would the loading times). Alas, not every Dreamcast user has one.

In any case, the game would have to support DLC beforehand. Intrepid Izzy doesn't.

[mazonemayu]

Hey Roel, is it normal that you can actually get stuck and have to end the game in certain places? I’ve had this on 2 occasions in 2 different places. First I ended up in a part of the Aztec level where I needed the squirrel suit and wore something different and I literally couldn’t get out of a pit anymore, and then it happened again in the Chocolate Mine (completely at the bottom, where you find the mussel), I ended up there without the ninje suit, so I was stuck too.

Is there a certain order to the madness, or is it trial & error? (Which is also fine for me, I’m just a guy who likes to explore everything )

[runkthepunk]

Hey Roel, is it normal that you can actually get stuck and have to end the game in certain places? I’ve had this on 2 occasions in 2 different places. First I ended up in a part of the Aztec level where I needed the squirrel suit and wore something different and I literally couldn’t get out of a pit anymore, and then it happened again in the Chocolate Mine (completely at the bottom, where you find the mussel), I ended up there without the ninje suit, so I was stuck too.

Is there a certain order to the madness, or is it trial & error? (Which is also fine for me, I’m just a guy who likes to explore everything )

I'm the same still searching looking for those damn mussels!

I too got stuck down in the chocolate mine, I was the bat and flew past the boxes blocking the shaft and went all the way down and got stuck

No drama though i have loved the game it is really great!

[mazonemayu]

Hey Roel, is it normal that you can actually get stuck and have to end the game in certain places? I’ve had this on 2 occasions in 2 different places. First I ended up in a part of the Aztec level where I needed the squirrel suit and wore something different and I literally couldn’t get out of a pit anymore, and then it happened again in the Chocolate Mine (completely at the bottom, where you find the mussel), I ended up there without the ninje suit, so I was stuck too.

Is there a certain order to the madness, or is it trial & error? (Which is also fine for me, I’m just a guy who likes to explore everything )

I'm the same still searching looking for those damn mussels!

I too got stuck down in the chocolate mine, I was the bat and flew past the boxes blocking the shaft and went all the way down and got stuck

No drama though i have loved the game it is really great!

Indeed, It’s no biggie, specially since the save points are well placed through the levels, it takes only a few minutes to get back where you were, I was just curious

And yes, awesome game, it is very hard to put down once I start playing

[Roel]

There are a few places where you can get stuck. This is not supposed to happen. Most of those problems were fixed, but unfortunately some (about 3 as far as I'm aware) were only discovered after the CDs were pressed.

[mazonemayu]

There are a few places where you can get stuck. This is not supposed to happen. Most of those problems were fixed, but unfortunately some (about 3 as far as I'm aware) were only discovered after the CDs were pressed.

It’s not a problem mate, game still is a masterpiece

[mankrip]

Received my Kickstarter-backed Dreamcast copy last week, and beaten the whole game with 100% items and achievements.

Intrepid Izzy is a really good game; very fun, rewarding and well done. There are some things that could be improved though, and I hope they are addressed in an eventual sequel (Intrepid Izzy II, aka "IIII" ):

• Support for localization. The game could even read the current language setting from the BIOS and set is as the default, while also having an option to manually switch to other languages, including languages not supported by the BIOS such as Portuguese.
• With the mining gear, it would be nice to be able to hold down while pressing the special attack button to plant the explosive exactly where Izzy is instead of throwing it, to make it easier to bomb the exact spots.
• After beating all three arcade games the arcade owner gives us a compliment, but his dialogue reverts back to "this game hasn't been beaten in 23 years" when we talk to him again. Would be nice if his dialogue changed to repeat the congratulations text instead.
• The wizard's dialogue also is not updated after we upgrade to the maximum amount of health. He keeps asking for more heart pieces even after we gave him all the heart pieces in the game.
• With composite cables, Intrepid Izzy runs at 480i, not 480p. This makes the graphics somewhat noisy while in movement, and it also makes it impossible to read the last list of backers' names in the credits because the font is too small and ends up garbled by the interlacing of the video mode.
• The game doesn't detect it when we open the disc lid, and when we do that it simply crashes after a while because the data can't be read anymore. It should detect that the lid was opened and reboot the console to the BIOS menu instead.
• The ABXY+Start button combo always do a full reboot of the console, but that's not how official games works. In official games, if there's a game session currently being played the ABXY+Start button combo will just end the current game session and send us back to the title screen. The console should only be rebooted by the ABXY+Start combo if the game is not being played.
• The d-pad, the analog stick and the triggers can be used to skip dialogues and cutscenes. This is not good, and no official game does this. I'm used to pressing the d-pad randomly while watching cutscenes, and this made me unintentionally skip the initial cutscene. Ideally, the Start button should be the only one that skips cutscenes, and the face buttons should just display a message saying "Press START to skip."
• The X and Y buttons consumes edible items from the inventory, this made me accidentally lose items because I was trying to find if one of those other buttons would go back to the pause menu, since the B button didn't work. The A button should be the only one that consumes items.
• Menu navigation is clunky because the game doesn't keep track of which menu was previously active. The B button doesn't resume the game or go back to the previously active menu if you're in the Map menu or in the Inventory menu, and you can't switch between the Map menu, the Inventory menu and the Pause menu with a single button press. This makes the menu navigation slower than it needs to be.
• The LCD icon is displayed on all VMUs, but it would make more sense to only display it in the VMU of the first controller, since this is a single player game.
• The combo counter also works for enemy attacks. After the final boss spawned the spiked enemies, he hit me and one of the spiked enemies with his hands and this made the combo counter to pop up.
• While almost all of Izzy's actions are beautifully animated, the "quick look" command only uses static frames with no frame animations from one direction to another. The mining helmet is also poorly animated when climbind up ladders, contrasting with the smooth high quality animation of Izzy's body.
• The elevator in Chocolate Mine doesn't seem to have a sound effect. Only the doors at its side have sound effects.
• None of the enemies in a map respawns when we go far away. This makes the backtracking too easy, which is why most metroidvanias respawns the weakest enemies when the camera moves far away.
• Most of the dialogues are in the first half of the game, so when we get closer to finishing the game, the game seems a bit less lively due to the lack of new dialogues. On the other hand, the beginning of the game is much less action packed, and feels a bit empty until we get the squirrel costume.
• A bunch of things in the game (secret mussels, the trumpet, the brilliant disguise, beating arcade hiscores, etc) serves no purpose other than obtaining achievements. This is not a bad thing, they're just missed opportunities, and it's understandable that they may have been victim of the fact that some features needs to be cut to avoid further delays in development.
• There's no way to view the Goals (achievements) menu while in game, so we are forced to end the game to see what else is left to do.
• The music is great, but it's indeed too short. I wonder if that's a technical limitation, I haven't inspected the game yet to see if it uses CD audio or audio files for the music.

The Kickstarter campaign also let us know that the Cloud Passage was supposed to be a full level, because of the angel enemy. The traffic light enemy shown in the Kickstarter page could fit either in the snow level, the space level, or in a city level.
At the end of the Kickstarter video Izzy is riding a rocket, so there could be another riding mission similar to the mine cart mission.

I wish Senile Team will do a full sequel instead of simply updating this game. This way the Dreamcast owners could also get to play the new stages. A sequel with a 2 player split screen mode would be interesting.

This game's engine is amazing and could be used for many games. I don't have the money to invest in such a thing, but if Senile Team licensed it to other indie Dreamcast developers, I'm sure there would be a bunch of people going to make games using it.

[Roel]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

[Roel]

Intrepid Izzy is a really good game; very fun, rewarding and well done. There are some things that could be improved though, and I hope they are addressed in an eventual sequel (Intrepid Izzy II, aka "IIII" ):
...

That is quite a list of feedback, thanks! It's not 100% correct though - you CAN plant the dynamite with the mining gear in the exact same way you described.

I will save your list so I can reference it in the future, as it contains quite a few things I was not yet aware of. However, I don't think I will address every item on it. For example, even if it takes only two minutes to remove the LCD icon from player 2-4's VMUs, I think I can always find something to spend those two minutes on that improves the game in a more meaningful way.