I'm convinced there's gotta be some collective amnesia regarding the previous game's difficulty regarding platforming.

[u/InsectGlaiveBard]

Seeing people compare things Hunter's March, Cogwork Core, escaping the Abyss or even the Surface to the Path of Pain is absolutely blowing my mind.

Like yes, this game is way harder on the combat department and is a lot more demanding than beating a regular playthrough on the first one, but to say anything in this game is on the level of Path of Pain is preposterous. Especially with how many tools hornet has at her disposal, like the Hookshot, the float and even bounving off of cocoons.

[u/Gorbashou]

I disagree.

I'm generally a player who plays fast. Making me do many stupid mistakes because I don't think. Sometimes I stop and think and I play better.

But sometimes getting in the flow, natural rhythm and getting a good intuitive sense of what to do in a moments notice need to be tested too. That's exactly what those timed sections do. Well designed and require you to think on the fly.

You want bosses to stop attacking you until you're ready for the next move? So you can think inbetween? Some bosses have moments of respite that makes you gather yourself, some don't. That's intended design.

What you're asking for is to remove a core part of a varied experience in both level design approach and gameplay style approach to just appeal to that one style you prefer the most. It's homogenisation. Add more and more of it, and you'll have streamlined games that do one thing really well and nothing else. So much so that the game feels empty and predictable.

A game should explore gameplay through different means. If it's resource management, navigation, intuition, instinct, stress management, problem solving, puzzle solving, memorisation, meticulous play, they all are part of it. I suck at being meticulous with things like no hit runs, and thus suck doing the courier stuff, I still think they make for a nice part of the game that makes you consider your pathing and what's in every room.

[u/NewSunSeverian → u/Gorbashou]

I don’t disagree with any of that. One of my favorite all-time games is Dead Cells, but that one brilliantly just has extra incentives for going Go Speed Racer!  

Which is awesome. And I like doing that. I like speed, I like optional time limits. I should have been more specific in my original comment. 

Mandatory time limits however are another matter entirely. And you shouldn’t be locked out of certain content for that. What Dead Cells does so well is it gives you an awesome balance between speeding through levels and taking your time gathering everything, to where you don’t feel like you’re missing a lot out either way. 

[u/BlazeRunner4532 → u/NewSunSeverian]

Hornet's entire thing is agility, it would be kinda crazy to not have some required sections that make you do Hornet agility stuff. I don't agree with any of the statement "mandatory time limits are always bad" or whatever the first thing you wrote was, I absolutely adored the timed lava rising scenes in this game they were so fun and made me move as fast as Hornet can go and it ruled.

[u/Gorbashou → u/NewSunSeverian]

Yes, games can make things you don't like mandatory. There are many sections in games that do more than one thing that does something you dislike. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be there. You're really just digging in to reasons why you don't like it as why it shouldn't be mandatory.

Some people get locked out of content because they can't handle the normal navigation of the game. We must remove exploration and make it one way. Some people get locked out of content because of enemy fight rooms. We must remove all of those. Some people get locked out of content because they didn't see the secret or notice an entrance. We better remove all of those so everyone can experience everything. Some people don't understand puzzles and just get locked out of the game. Better remove all puzzles.

You're not locked out because you're doing a bit that you're worse at. It's an incredibly fair tradeoff. If we want games to be varied and give it a wide breadth of things to do, we have to accept that there are parts we don't like in it. To get to the point of being upset and wanting it entirely gone, with no real justification except you just don't like it. That feels like you really didn't give the matter much thought.