In a shocking twist of fate, Enchanted Portals is ALIVE!! And unsurprisingly, it's everything everyone knew it was going to be, so let's find out why! Join the discord server here! - / discord Follow me on twitter here! - / astral_kat_
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I actually was planning on adding an extra segment at the end of this video mentioning The Last Cup, but honestly it looks even more low effort than Enchanted Portals so I dont even think its worth my time
If I recall correctly, in the original footage you can see that the rooster originally fought you in front of a fountain of YOUTH (which makes much more sense than a "fountain of time"). That would have been a much more fun fight if you ask me: first you fight a cranky old rooster that throws dentures and tries to hit you with his cane, then he turns into the greaser young rooster we saw before and THEN he turns into a little kid that rides on a tricycle while trying to pelt you with a slingshot.
That would have made much more sense for the fight, but the fact that the boss has no correlation to the level immediately beforehand honestly bothers me more, The "run and gun" level before this fight is a mafia town shoot out style level, so having him be a mafia boss rooster guarding the fountain of time would have made much more sense, although i do also like your idea!
@@AstralKatwell actually in his first attack he try to fall asleep in the dream of his war days tank and plane might attack you if I remember correctly but your right
I'm so glad someone finally called out how incoherent the basic plot is. Yeah sure the plot isn't the main problem but like the thing is with Cuphead they at least EXPLAIN why we’re fighting all these wacky bosses but we never get any explanation for Enchanted Portals.
Well... to be fair, the bosses showed themselves do be evil and willing to attack us. Except for the buffalo, the princess and the dog, which they seemed to be cool enough lmao
Out of the many people who’ve ranted about this game, you’re literally the only one who talks about how the plot makes no sense. The plot should’ve been the one thing the devs could nail, with or without a budget. Like why are we even killing these bosses and why do they want to kill us.
I imagined a rewrite where these wizards are supposed to hunt Fairy tail villains, like it's their job. And the book isn't an antagonist anymore but rather something you can use to travel through the Fairy tail-multiverse.
Not to mention how it shamefully tries mimicking the same pose and gesture with projectile firing and jump, but the biggest elephant in the room is how the developers failed at being different. By the looks of it, a platforming gun rail just doesn’t work with its counterparts. It feels like watching Aklaim inserting Mortal Kombat elements in their platform game “Batman Forever” on SNES, except Enchanted Portals is worse with its controller flaws, trying to switch projectiles, insanely random enemy quantity, and many more.
@@sonicexereaper6814Yet people will defend Enchanted Portals and say “Cuphead didn’t invent the art style and gameplay!” and yeah, that’s true. BUT when every single thing about the game is a clone from the art, controls, game structure, and even a lot of the animations being clearly based on Cuphead ones? Yeah… clone. Ripoff. It’s not even up for debate.
@@YourFeelingsSucks Indeed. I understand the developers wanted this game to be inspirational, but I dunno if I buy it since the spell casters’ gestures, poses, and expressions mimic the same format Cuphead does its own main duo. But overall, guess we don’t have to worry about that considering the gameplay and controls are the major issues going on with this game, and the fact the developers isn’t doing a lot to give this game a proper presentation. At least small RU-vidrs can do free work in applying proper sound formats for the boss fights and actions.
Mentioned this in a previous comment so I'm just gonna copy/paste it. I knew about the fountain of time behind him, but the fact that the boss has no correlation to the level immediately beforehand honestly bothers me more, The "run and gun" level before this fight is a mafia town shoot out style level, so having him be a mafia boss rooster guarding the fountain of time would have made much more sense. Perhaps I should have been more clear when it came to why I had an issue with this one
I'd argue that the first problem Enchanted Portals has is trying to be a run & gun game styled after golden age animation when we already have Cuphead. If the devs had gone with a different game genre, they could've at least avoided the comparisons.
Wow, I honestly had no idea this game was even out and... well I can't say this wasn't expected but... damn, this seems genuinely shockingly bad. The animations are all so weirdly stilted and honestly give a bit of an uncanny valley vibe because their art and animation style don't seem to match at all. And that's not even mentioning the gameplay. So many of the decisions they made are so baffling to me, like the whole respawn thing or the combination of the auras on enemies with the weird slow clunky switching. Overall another great vid! I'm sorry you had to suffer through this game for it though.
I suspect that the reason the transition cutscenes are just still images is likely due to them not hitting their Kickstarter goal, which is super unfortunate. I genuinely think this game could've benefited a lot from proper cutscenes. But also... what the hell is with that cow's udder? And the frog princess? A lot of this feels a little off.
Honestly, Enchanted Portals amplified a thought I've had. When it comes to a game cloning another, it's always too blatant. Enchanted Portals *could* have used a different art style to differentiate it a bit, but it just did exactly what Cuphead did. The only actually different thing that's done is going for a more traditional level style. I don't think Enchanted Portals looks bad visual wise, but for how similar the gameplay is, but to help differentiate it from Cuphead, the art style could've been anything else. Make Gravity Falls the video game for all I care. Similar to what you said, what if it changed per world to hone in the idea these two (and the cat I guess) are hopping between realities? Personal example of this done right: Spark the Electric Jester 1. Spark 1 is very intentionally the classic Sonic games, but it differentiates itself by also taking from Kirby and Megaman. The Steam discription itself says that it's “heavily based on best classics from the 16-bit era from both sides of the aisle.” Even if Spark was just a Sci-Fi mystery thriller, I think that would've been just good enough to differentiate it from classic Sonic.
*To everyone here in the comments that are not enjoying how critic this review is:* The game cost THE SAME as Cuphead. So yep, for that price, the game isn't worth it, especially because makes more sense to just buy Cuphead instead...
I think the devs should have just scrapped the run n gun levels and just do a boss collection, if your game cant be on the level of metal slug, megaman or gunstar heroes in terms of levels because of time and money, then having them is a waste of resources
D'aww, I love how every content creator I've watched who reviewed this game has ended it with a positive note with hope for the future. I also hope for the best for these developers who dared to put out their own ideas (well, ideas for Cuphead, maybe) for the world to play and, of course, may they learn from their mistakes and the criticism. Thanks for the review!
You KNOW a game is bad when AstralKat herself is using that game as a springboard to compliment No Straight Roads. 😂😂😂😂😂 Question, is this your new least fav game of all time?
I mean the first phase of the final boss is a cool concept, except for the fact that is a small target that changes resistances constantly and throws random shit through the screen without anticipation frames or sound effects
It's weird how Oceanhorn was called a "Zelda rip-off", but it isn't a Zelda game, it had its own story (i loved the quest with the crystal skulls) enemies and characters. But the game you shown felt actually like a rip-off and some the animations look stiff. It took 7 years to make Cuphead, this one took less.. Guacamelee is far better, it is its own game with a really good plot, mechanism (fighting, opening areas, turning into a chicken, etc). The 1 & 2 games made references to others games and memes, but the world, characters, enemies are its own.
I dont really see how Guacamelee has any connection to cuphead or Enchanted portals but I agree that its a good series lol. And yes this is a blatant rip-off. I've seen people call it a "cuphead-like" sort of like how Sekiro is a soulslike and I die a little inside everytime someone unironically uses that phrase when referring to this game lmao
I don't think a sequel needs to get rid of the run and gun levels. That can set it apart from Cuphead. But it definitely needs to scrap the random generation and focus on good level design. The Megaman games would be a decent, additional source of inspiration for that. But I would be surprised if they make enough to be able to fund a sequel. An another attempt at Kickstarter would pretty clearly end in failure unless they have some really promising gameplay to display.
I dunno. If you want Cuphead with more run and gun you can always go back to Mega Man. You can get the majority of beloved platformers in collections anywhere! My personal favorite: Mega Man 10 cus 3 playable characters is epic.
Am I the only one who actually supported Enchanted Portals despite its controversy with being compared to Cuphead? Nowadays, I was disappointed. Enchanted Portals HAD the potential to be a good game but because of the failed Kickstarter and how rushed it is, I really hoped that Xixo Games proved the haters wrong but for once, the haters were right.. By the time Enchanted Portals was released, the Cuphead DLC was booming and there's no point on getting the game if you want to get more Cuphead. I actually love the potential and passion of Enchanted Portals but I wish that one day, just at least one day, Xixo Games would prove that Enchanted Portals can make an improvement, seeing that their last update on the game, although small, made a change of the game. What I really recommend is try to make test-runs for the game just like the Beta edition of Cuphead before its final release, we need a taste of their game play instead of just trailers and visuals to convince us to support their Kickstarter. Although I may not like Enchanted Portals, I do see a light somehow flickering for a shed of hope as a lesson to the creators for a brand new beginning after their first loss with Enchanted Portals.
I would love to point out how beautiful the game looks… but that’s about it as far as quality goes. This is why audio is important as Cuphead relied on EVERYTHING to work. Visuals, SFX, actual gameplay, etc. maybe not music but still. This game just has untapped potential kind of like NSR, but at least that game had a fantastic story. This game though is as simple as Cuphead’s plot.
@@AstralKat Here’s something I don’t really care for when it comes to the story itself. The only two bosses that have stories front and center (outside of obviously DK West) are Eve and Tatiana. Everyone else you have to dig for since it’s all optional.
Forgot about it? HOW? It's been AN ENTIRE MONTH that the RU-vid home page stresses me over and over on how much it exists, it sucks, i'm not allowed to like it and stuff.-
The only difference between this game and Sonic Boom teasing a sequel; Sonic Boom had a really fun sequel (fire and ice) despite the first game being mid This game's sequel I doubt will do that.
Ehhh, I dont even consider that a cuphead clone honestly, that was just a lazy cashgrab to cash in on mickey mouse becoming PD. No effort was put into that, at least the devs of Enchanted Portals somewhat tried
@@AstralKat That's what I'm saying, at least the animation from Enchanted Portals actually looked like animation, when for Rubber Hose Rampage, it doesn't, it just looked like everything was traced over
Enchanted portals straight up stole animations from cuphead, the dash and run cycles are exactly the same. Rubber Hose Rampage barely animates anything
I literally watched the first level in 8 bitryan's video and immediately thought it was rubbish purely from the enemy colour gimmick. Having to slowly switch for every single enemy is just awful design straight up. Not to mention how clunky and slow movement is and the randomly generated levels being so boring.
I found Rise of Lyric to be ironically enjoyable, especially thanks to all the glitches you could pull off as knuckles, but even then that game much like this one had no right to tease a sequel lmao
I don't know if it's just me, but the Heremit Crab boss reminds me a lot of P.O.O.P.T.O.O.T, i wonder if Enchanted Portals also copied more games other than Cuphead..
Its not that I dislike the video, don't get me wrong, but I geniunely get pissed when people try to pass the idea that there was any kind of love or care on this game Lets all be real, there is no *500k Canadian dollars* that could fix a game that dosent tries to be a game, ever Levels? What are levels? Just put everything into a random generator a call it a day, with the most boring and uncreative enemies Animations? I don't think I need to tell you what happend here, do I? Its clunkly as hell even though the trailers were smoothy, it tries to be Cuphead without being cuphead since calling it a Rip-off is a crime somehow, even thought thats literally what it is And if that wasnt enough, they were putting so little faith that in terms of marketing, this game didnt had a marketing Seriously, y'all should give this game what it deserves, the hate of a badly made rip-off, not the love of an game that failed but at least tried
Well, I don't believe that there was no effort to begin with. I do believe, however, that they clearly didn't have enough experience to work under the constraints they put themselves in when they got their Epic MegaGrant.
@@Rivalseeker Did you even read my comment.. or, you know, saw the game? its one thing to not have experience with game making, but if you want that, just look at literally any first game of any franchise, some of them may be rough, but you can tell the people behind them *know* what they are doing And sure, new ideias can be always welcomed, but tell me *anything* that actually works on this game, go ahead
I was trying to be respectful to the developers, the game is awful and I spent the entire video bashing it, but there WAS a lot of potential and some good ideas here. thats the only real positive I can give it
I kindly ask you don't condescend. I'm happy to explain my views if you're curious, but please don't assume the worst about me. Even though I haven't played the game myself, I've seen playthroughs of the game. I believe one player mechanic I genuinely like from the game is the "block" move, wherein the magician kids put up a bubble shield for a brief moment to negate attacks. I've seen some players use it effectively. Do I think the game fully considers said mechanic? No, but I can see it works based on what other players have done with it.
Christ I didn't even know this game existed until now, how the hell did they not end up in a lawsuit? 🤣 If I can give credit for one thing, the coloured enemies/weapons gimmick was genuinely interesting too me. I quite like it when a game gets me too think about my surroundings while on the move, to a point anyway.
its an interesting feature with a terrible execution, thanks to you not being able to swap weapons while moving, completely breaks the flow of the game
@@AstralKat from what i know they actually put out a recent patch that let you switch weapons while moving which at least fixes one of the biggest problems
I'm genuinely sad cause Cuphead inspiration or not I adore the classic cartoon style but the game fumbles everything so bad with a lack of budget and time. Also, what was with all the NSR shade? I like the game and its bosses a ton so I'm very confused? lol
How is it stealing when they're all original characters based on their inspirations? You might as well say Pikachu stole from Jerry because they're both popular mice.
The only part with which I fully disagree is the descriptor in the intro, "lazy ripoff of Cuphead." It's certainly a cheap imitation, but there's also clear effort in it, which is part of what makes it so tragic.
Honestly, Enchanted Portals amplified a thought I've had. When it comes to a game cloning another, it's always too blatant. Enchanted Portals could have used a different art style to differentiate it a bit, but it just did exactly what Cuphead did. The only actually different thing that's done is going for a more traditional level style. I don't think Enchanted Portals looks bad visual wise, but for how similar the gameplay is, but to help differentiate it from Cuphead, the art style could've been anything else. Make Gravity Falls the video game for all I care. Similar to what you said, what if it changed per world to hone in the idea these two (and the cat I guess) are hopping between realities? Personal example of this done right: Spark the Electric Jester 1. Spark 1 is very intentionally the classic Sonic games, but it differentiates itself by also taking from Kirby and Megaman. The Steam discription itself says that it's “heavily based on best classics from the 16-bit era from both sides of the aisle.” Even if Spark was just a Sci-Fi mystery thriller, I think that would've been just good enough to differentiate it from classic Sonic.
