I know weāve already looked at the enemies in šHaunted Hollowš, but seeing as today is Halloween, I figured we should definitely take another look at this domain. There are some spoilers in here, so if you're trying to go into the game blind you'll want to pass on this one.
Iāve covered a bit about this domainās Guardian and quest in the past, but I wanted to dig in a bit more about how this all works. But first, meet Alex, the domainās Guardian:
Alex is seemingly the only Guardian that hasnāt lost control of his domain. He still has his scepter and has not been transformed. But that doesnāt mean your job is done because Alex asks you to do something for him before heāll help you recall your core memory of Haunted Hollow. Specifically, youāll need to bring Alex game cartridges for his Super Dreamstation 32 video game console. These are some retro games that his dad really likes, so he's curious to try them out.
By the time you reach Alex, you may have already encountered one or more of these cartridges out in your travels because they are located throughout Slumberland. Once youāve met Alex, youāll be able to carry these back to him, but itās a bit trickier than you might think. When youāre holding something in your hands, youāre unable to do things like dangle from monkey bars, use your pogo stick, or attack enemies with your yo-yo. Making it back to Alex from wherever you find these is a bit of an adventure unto itself for each oneĀ and will require some deliberate pathfinding on your part.
So rather than battling a boss here, youāll instead have a long-running quest. You could go ahead and try to get started on it right away (Alex will point you towards the one cartridge location he knows of from the start) or just keep track of cartridges as you find them. Theyāll be marked on your map once you spot them, so you can always come back to grab them later. I hope this is a nice change of paceĀ from a boss fight, and that youāll explore Haunted Hollow for ideal routes back to Alex while carrying a cartridge.
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Once youāve brought Alex enough cartridges such that he helps you push back the Oblivion, heāll also offer to sell you some new pajamas, the Ghoulish PJs š. With these spooky PJs, youāll fit right in at Haunted Hollow. Hereās a quick look at how they work currently:
And the in-game description:
These PJs were once worn by a lucid dreamer and allow you to ride the line between being awake and asleep.
Buff - Unawake
You do not suffer any damage from enemies, but hazards always wake you up in a single hit.
I made these pretty strong for the first pass, and the reaction was about as expected (playtesters that got these PJs usually responded with something along the lines of āwow, these seem busted!ā). So from here I think I do need to tone these down to bring them more in line with other PJs. While I think the one-hit wake-up from hazards is very punishing (maybe more so than players realize at first), I donāt want these to even feel broken. While itās fun to abuse mechanics and for players to try to ābreakā the game, if you have one set of PJs that players think is way better than the others, it just removes the decision about which PJs to wear, and the goal is for the players āload outā (PJs and Little Buddy) to always be something they should be considering. So we need a fair balance of pros and cons with this ability.
And here's some changes Iām thinking of making to this:
You'll still actually get hit by enemies (and thus knockback and hit-stun), you just won't receive any damage from those hits.
Projectiles get treated as hazards and can also one-shot you.
Iāll test these approaches out and maybe it just needs one or the other, or maybe it needs both. Weāll see how it goes in the next round of playtesting!
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The last thing Iāll dig into here thatās kind of cool about Haunted Hollow is how the lighting in the game works, because there are a lot of dark areas in Haunted Hollow. If it gets completely dark, you wonāt see anything except outlines of your character and enemies.
This of course makes it very difficult to navigate, so youāre gonna want some light. There are sometimes lanterns strewn about to help you see, and thereās even some enemies that emit light, though youāll have to avoid destroying them if you want them to keep lighting everything up for you.
But probably what youāll need to do most of the time is carry a jack-o-lantern around with you. These are a great source of light and allow you to see to navigate through the dark areas, but as we mentioned above with the cartridges, not having your hands free can be a problem. And besides, what if youāre trying to carry a video game cartridge through Haunted Hollow to Alex? In that case youād definitely benefit from having a Little Buddy that can help you see in the dark, so make sure to explore Slumberland and keep an eye out for clues!
So what do you think of Haunted Hollow? Did you enjoy this domain-specific overview? Please let me know in the comments below! As a big fan of all things Halloween, I always knew from the get-go that Little Nemo was gonna have to include a Halloween-themed dream domain so it's fun to get to show it off a bit ahead of release. š
The fantastical instrument players wield, āDiqin,ā interacts with ancient human ruins to produce unexpected effects. Whether resonating with rocks, rotating structures, or rewinding time, it enables players to forge paths untrodden by those who came before.
