My Collected Notes on A Hat in Time:

[anindigomind]

I think I'm done with A Hat in Time for a bit. I've hit a point where it's just not rewarding to grind out the last few achievements and Death Wish challenges, so I think I'll step away from the game for a while. Leave some things for me to do when I come back to the game for the promise second round of DLC. Here are some of my notes on the game from my journal, from different days over the last couple of weeks.

(1/27)

I took far too long to get around to A Hat in Time. In fairness, it came out in the midst of a traumatizing mess of moving and for months after just looking at the name on my list of steam games made me feel guilty for being blindsided by how awful some people can be. A Hat in Time is a very good game, and it really doesn't deserve that association. I find the controls are blessedly both tight and forgiving, meaning I'm not frustrated like I am with Yooka-Laylee, and I about cried when I found that it had customizeable field of view options as I was getting terribly motion sick playing it. I love the visual design, and the characters turned out way more charming then I expected.

(1/30)

Spent the afternoon playing A Hat in Time. I played up to beating Snatcher, and now I feel a bit aimless - should I go deal with Mustache Girl, or go to Alpine Skyline? There's no real direction because both have equal weight in game play. Subcon Forest was a level I was really concerned about during the kickstarter, I was worried it would be awful but I think now it's my favorite level in the game? The Snatcher boss fight is awful though, it just goes so fast I can barely keep up with it and it took a heavy dose of luck to beat it. Definitely not the fight I'm going to see for the one hit hero achievement if I go achievement hunting.

I really like Subcon Forest's music, right up there with the soothing Rift themes. So mellow I could listen to them endlessly.

(2/1)

I did play a bit of A Hat in Time early today - made an attempt at the final boss, and actually made it through the level this time. I'd made decent progress on learning the boss's pattern when suddenly the boss just up and despawned from the arena. Just poof, gone - I don't think I'd done anywhere near enough damage for any sort of cutscene to have glitched out. I played around in the arena for a bit, just in cause something was trying to load in the background, and one it was clear nothing was going to change I quit out and I didn't have time to try again. It's a mild delight, because it's been ages since I've run into a glitch that's actually really affected my ability to play a game! As I recall... the last time was needing to wait for collision to load in FFXIII-2, and that wasn't really a hindrance just an annoyance.

(2/2)

Played a bit of A Hat in Time - gave up on the final boss to play in Alpine Skyline, and almost immediately ran into a puzzle that needs a post-game item and ugh I'm so tired of that in games.

(2/3)

My goal for the day was to beat the final boss in A Hat in Time so I could open up the rest of the game, and it was about 2pm by the time I got to sit down and play the game. I beat the boss, ran around collecting yarn and relics. The game is open to me now, and I just have to decide how much of it I want to play. I guess I'll play until I'm sick of it or the achievements get too hard for me. It's a good game, I hope there's a sequel someday.

(2/4)

My reward to buckling down and doing that was a can of tamales and a bit of time playing A Hat in Time. I finished up with Alpine Skyline, and then I messed around with mod levels for a while. It's really fun to play rifts, I'm glad the developers left the doors open for custom levels and mods. It's a delight. Next up is the DLC content. I might play a bit more tonight, I'm not sure. I've hit a bit of a wall with the game, because the Arctic Cruise stuff all takes so much time and feels less... optimized. The critical path just isn't clear at all.

(2/5)
I put some more time into A Hat in Time. I'm still... I love the game, but I'm aggravated with the difficulty of the dlc. Because it feels... fake. I finished the first rift and the first act, the rift from a lot of practice(and I got all the storybook pages) and the act because I'd watched a playthrough video of it the night before. What gets me is the lack of healing items in the rift, which makes even small failures very punishing in a way other rifts to this point haven't been, and the convoluted and unintuitive layout of the cruise ship making navigating it a real chore, made worse by a camera that's just... The camera is bad, it's often way way too close to Hat Girl to the point of I can't see anything no matter what the settings are. Especially if I'm close to an object, like say a wall I have to precision platform off. It makes a lot of the platforming blind. The DLC feels bloated for length, to make the dlc 'worth it'. I'll finish it, but it's my least favorite part of the game so far. I don't want to play it, I want to replay the main game and all it's well designed levels and platformer that felt good and rewarding. The death wish challenges look interesting, at least if I don't need to do the higher level of difficulty for them they'd be fun. A good excuse to play the game over again basically. I haven't even poked at them, I'm afraid they'll be the sort that only unlocks in order.

Another like and dislike - I'm not a fan of the rope mechanics. They work alright, but I could use a bit more 'magnetization' because I just barely miss them so often. I love how Hat Girl counts when you pick up items that count towards a total, something about her voice clip is especially adorable. A neutral - the sound effect for the doors in Hat Kid's ship opening are... strange. It sounds like a sound a critter should make, and it took me forever to realize it was the doors.

(2/6)

I played more A Hat in Time - finished off the Arctic Cruise levels, and the rifts. It was... Arctic Cruise was not great. First a busywork level, then a timed busywork level, and then the physics were just all messed up for the final level. I feel like almost none of my failures were fair. Did a few of the mod levels, and some of the Death Wish challenges. I enjoy the 'Peace and Tranquility' mode. That is like the perfect thing - gimme the challenge without the impossible bullshit, gimme a way to play the game I enjoy. No judgement zone. It's beautiful. I wish more games had something like that, and I love the games that do. Platformers need to be forgiving on some level. I just wish I didn't have to kill myself three times to activate it.

I technically 100%'d the game today! Which I think is all main story time pieces and rifts? They gave me the fancy hat and everything. That does feel like an accomplishment.
--

Hmm. I feel like my tone is overall negative, but I suppose that's only because I took a break or got broken out of the game when I was frustrated. I love the game - five stars,, anyone who likes platformers should play it. I only mentioned briefly the soundtrack, but I find I love it in general - it's bombastic and cheerful, and some songs are so peaceful. I've added it to my rotation of music to play in the background.

Current playtime is 32 hours.