Hey everyone, long time no see.

My PC's motherboard blew a capacitor around two weeks ago. Had played some of the PS2 Yakuza the day before but couldn't continue it since, so that's why I never got on that.

Long story short, my initial plans were talking about Yakuza before that happened, and AFTER that happened, I had been playing a handful of PSP games on my phone that I had also been planning to talk about.

...But as today I got a chance to try the new motherboard that arrived and be able to sit down in order to write something, I figured that I finally had the chance to actually get something done for HGC's comeback contest.

If you're wondering when I may have mentioned this game before, that was one of those times where I talked about Co-op Games - for this new contest I wanted to highlight Towerfall Ascension once again as not only it is certainly a HUGE challenge that I had suffered through in this case, but also one that I also feel like is even more special because it wasn't a lone effort.

If this game being mentioned in a co-op post didn't hint you at it already, Towerfall Ascension is a game that I played through in its entirety with my older brother, and both of us had got hooked by the challenge it posed, with the lows of rage from defeats near the end [plus the expected banter of blaming each other if something goes catastrophically wrong] and the highs of triumph and relief of overcoming those stages.

So I wanted to make this my entry as there's something that feels more special when you are faced with a challenge that demands the most out of you and another player, as the reward for doing so feels so satisfying as you can actually share that success with that another player in yells of victory when everything is said and done. Or in summary, a big Victory that ended the streak of many attempts in failure.

A refresher on the basics

Towerfall Ascension lets you jump, dash and wall jump - may even look like Celeste on the controls and visuals from the surface [same developer], but while Celeste emphasizes precise platforming as the main challenge, you will have to move around specifically to dodge the enemy arrows and hazards that show up in stages.

If you dash into an arrow, you can catch it, which comes handy to counter enemy archers that spawn [or save yourself from an accidental ally arrow...as there IS friendly fire - the base game was designed to be a VS game after all], and if you don't have the best aim to deal with an enemy, then you can also try jump on top of them like a plumber.

That's the basics of it at an abridged pace, as the surprising amount of challenge will come mainly through the level design and enemy spawns.

Oh, and any arrows you shoot will get lodged into the corpses of enemies or at walls - whatever they hit. You'll always have to make sure you fetch them for when you need to fend off enemies frmo a distance.

How did we even end up here?

The game's quest mode has two difficulties per level: Normal and Hardcore. As Normal seemed too easy for my brother [and even for me it does feel like it starts off quite slow], he insisted we went through the game in Hardcore instead...and hoo boy, Hardcore it gets fast.

The early stages aren't anything compared to what comes later, but you sure feel the game is more aggressive with the amount of enemies and enemy types that show up. Most levels will tend to have a specific set of enemies to learn about and deal with, and the last normal level, King's Court, pits you with a big boss between waves that requires it to be shot while it lowers its barrier.

The difficulty spikes quite hard as you approach the latter half, with the King Court level taking a good while to beat in Hardcore, but we eventually managed...and as we played everything in Hardcore, we also had access to a few levels that only unlock if you do so - the last of these [Towerforge] being the one I mentoined on my co-op quest post.

But this level I want to talk about, Ascension, is leaps and bounds in brutality above the rest, which in retrospective feels fitting when its a level you can only unlock through a particular riddle in the options menu past a certain point, with hints that appear in certain quest mode stages. I just looked up the solution though, because we were excited at the prospect of a final challenge that felt more like one.

And a final challenge we did get.

The nightmare of Ascension

So remember when I said that levels on the way would introduce specific enemy types and mainly focus on them? And that part about King's Court having a boss?

Well, I hope you missed all of those, because ALL OF THEM WILL SHOW UP. Crows, reapers, enemy archers, flying mages with rocket launchers that will bounce around the screen and explode when hit, the green eye things that fire homing arrows when hit [meaning you often NEED to catch them as dodging them is easier said than done]...

And yes, the King Court boss returns - the same one you saw at the thumbnail, also showing up between waves starting from Wave 6...out of 10. So you'll have to fend that thing off in THREE WAVES while more enemies and even hazards like fire on the floor appear.

If I'm making it sound like it is absurdly overbearing, that's because it is.

This challenge here took us FOUR HOURS OF PLAYTIME TOTAL - two hours in the first night where we gave up, and two hours in the next day.

So I can say that Towerfall Ascension really had me ANGRY with how much you need to be aware of your surroundings at ALL times, not only because there could be an enemy with a ranged attack appearing from above and kill you out of nowhere, but also be careful with friendly fire - and that's not even getting into the boss that throws a lot of arrows while you wait for an opening to shoot it three times per wave.

And remember that this was a co-op session after all...so sometimes I had got mad with my brother because of slip-ups being made, him scolding the lights out of me because of fatal mistakes I made [there was one time where I had killed the boss in the last wave and A STRAY ARROW LANDED ON TOP OF ME💀] - trust me when I say that the grind itself was not pleasant at all.

But...you know by this point that we eventually got through it - and here's how that happened.

CONQUERING THE ASCENSION

Here's a breakdown of our one and only succesful attempt at this cursed stage. My brother is the cyan jester, while I'm the yellow guy.

Wave 1: Crows and Arrows

Obviously the easiest wave, yet one that still had us tense as deaths as early as here would merit an immediate restart, knowing well that extra lives would be valuable later on. The crows are easy to deal with, but two or three archers spawning would require us to keep up guard.

Wave 2: Flying Reapers and Blue Eyes

Things already get dangerous here, as the flying reapers can throw whirlwinds if they see an arrow coming at them - although they will be left dizzy afterwards for an attack. The blue eyes though are more dangerous to attack without paying attention, as they ALWAYS shoot four arrows at diagonal directions, meaning it is possible that you or your partner may accidentally trip up with these, whether it was you or the other one who hit it.

Wave 3: Flames, Reapers and Green Eyes

This is where truly death starts to approach you less than subtly - the reapers can be stomped or hit with an arrow from behind, but they will block most arrows that are aimed at their face and will lunge at you if approached hastily. There also are flames that show up and slowly fly around, but can be as dangerous as the rest if they catch you off guard.

But what killed both of us for the first time in this run would be these cursed green eyes. Did I mention that they also fire homing arrows as their default attack? The eye in this screenshot didn't have a direct line to shoot at my brother, but the arrow instead went to the left, then down, then right into him.

...And I was also caught by one of these on the other corner of the screen. Three lives left for both of us.

Wave 4: Crows and Flying Mages

Or whatever those things are. Point is, they fly, they shoot missiles, and when you hit them, they start bouncing around where they were until exploding. Disposing of these is crucially a task to be done from a distance with your arrows - so it was important to go keep a stock of them wheenver possible.

And also hope to not be unlucky in that the mage somehow bounces straight into your direction after being hit before it explodes. It has happened to us a few times, but thankfully not this time.

Wave 5: Flames in the darkness, Crows and Archers

Similar to the first wave, except the stage lightning is darkened [which may make it harder to spot where any arrows of yours are at] and flames appear on the side platforms. Stand on them for too long and you'll die. Otherwise, crows are still easy, but archers also stay a menace.

Wave 6: Knife Reapers...AND THE BOSS

Here's where things really ramp up for good.

For starters, those red robed enemies are similar to the cyan ones - can deflect arrows from the front and kill you up close, which is how my brother lost a life here [he was dealing with one at close range...and ANOTHER one spawned in the same spot, lunging at hiim before he could use more arrows].

These become more than a nuisance though when you have to deal with the flying skull with a crown in the middle of the room, which shoots arrows at all directions, orbs that explode and cross-shaped lasers to cover either the horizontal and vertical areas or the diagonal corners.

And note that you can only harm it when it lowers its barrier, at which point you have to shoot it with an arrow. Do that three times and it will go away, ending the wave.

Wave 7: More Mages and Reapers

...Yeah. Not even going to add a screenshot about that since it looks very much like the first wave where the mages show up - only that the cyan reapers return instead of crows. Possible to deal with easily by keeping your composure.

Wave 8: NOT AGAIN

Yeah, and not only there are a few more red reapers spawned, but also the laser attacks take more space up and shoots more arrows and orbs. Unfortunate how my brother was caught by one of the lasers and lost another life here.

Have to add that he IS good at playing this game as I could be - with some of the previous stages ending with him being the survivor with spare lives while I had died before the final waves trying to protect him from enemies.

But to say that this run was building up to be strange when HE was the one catching stray deaths up to this point while I hadn't lost more than one life is an understatement. In any case, we disposed of this skull again and moved on to the next wave.

Wave 9: THAT'S SO MANY ARCHERS

Gloves come off, arrows come in.

This wave consists of nothing but enemy archers spawning, not only requiring the reaction speed to dodge or catch arrows and retaliate when necessary, but also to look around for whenever there's more than one out there.

And what's worse, doppelganger enemies show up that will take the appearance of either one of you - adding a layer of confusion that can only be dispellable if both of you have already died once, as you lose your hats permanently afterwards [but the fake players will ALWAYS appear with the hats on].

We even died to a fake version of me here, leaving me with just two spare lives and my brother with none.

And now you know what's left?

Wave 10: AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The final boss shows up one last time with all the tricks on the book: Faster and improved attacks, fire on the side platforms that will be a thorn on your side whenever you need to dodge lasers, and ARCHERS will also show up to make your life miserable.

While we damaged it twice, my brother tragically got defeated here on his last life, as he frantically fought an archer on the right side [while I tried to attack the boss], shooting plenty of arrows upwards until one landed on it...and due to the darkened stage, he didn't see that one of his arrows was going up then down straight at his skull.

Oh, and in this wave, forgot to mention that one of the boss upgrades is that the arrows it shoots are now HOMING ARROWS. It only shoots three, but even though I managed to catch one, the other one still got me. No more spare lives left.

...And here is the moment where I want to slide in my [under 30 second] clip of choice - the final moments of this arduous fight in motion.

https://youtu.be/l6q-F6B-Owo

After so many attempts, moments of rage and exhaustion from hours of playing, I had managed to overturn all the odds, and even my brother's expectations, by taking home the final victory in this herculean challenge of a level with my last life at the very end.

Conclusion

There actually are two more stages after this.

But while they did switch up the format by making it a constant barrage of enemies rather than splitting them up in waves, they actually were considerably less tough to deal with than Ascension.

Which becomes most evident with how much the total death amount feels like chump change compared to how many times we died in Ascension.

I may have overdone it a bit with the context and backstory, but I felt like it was necessary in order to contextualize properly just how insanely difficult it actually was to pull this off, which is why I considered it my choice for a big Win/Clutch post.

You can even watch the whole run here, but it was interesting to break down the challenge itself more concisely for those unfamiliar with the game thanks to how this stage was split in waves and a particular choice of enemies.

I think that's all I got to say for now - was sure a blast to play through this game with my brother back then [putting aside how much suffering this stage inflicted].

As a little heads up for next time I get to post here, it will be one that old Monster Hunter and Def Jam FFNY fans may enjoy :]

But until then...

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Spanish translation with DeepL. All screenshots were captured by myself.

Español

Hola a todos, cuánto tiempo sin vernos.

Hace unas dos semanas se fundió un condensador de la placa base de mi PC. El día anterior había jugado un poco al Yakuza de PS2, pero no pude seguir jugando, por eso no volví a conectarme.

En resumen, mis planes iniciales eran hablar de Yakuza antes de que pasara eso, y DESPUÉS de que pasara, había estado jugando a varios juegos de PSP en mi teléfono, de los que también tenía pensado hablar.

...Pero como hoy he tenido la oportunidad de probar la nueva placa base que me ha llegado y de sentarme a escribir algo, he pensado que por fin tenía la oportunidad de hacer algo para el concurso de regreso de HGC.

Si te preguntas cuándo mencioné este juego anteriormente, fue en una de esas ocasiones en las que hablé de los juegos cooperativos. Para este nuevo concurso, quería destacar Towerfall Ascension una vez más, ya que no solo es un GRAN desafío que tuve que superar en este caso, sino que también me parece aún más especial porque no fue un esfuerzo en solitario.

Por si el hecho de que este juego se mencione en una publicación sobre juegos cooperativos no te ha dado ya una pista, Towerfall Ascension es un juego al que jugué en su totalidad con mi hermano mayor, y a los dos nos enganchó el desafío que planteaba, con los bajones de rabia por las derrotas cerca del final [además de las esperadas bromas culpándonos mutuamente si algo salía catastróficamente mal] y los subidones de triunfo y alivio al superar esas fases.

Así que quería incluirlo en mi entrada, ya que hay algo que se siente más especial cuando te enfrentas a un desafío que exige lo máximo de ti y de otro jugador, ya que la recompensa por hacerlo es muy satisfactoria, ya que puedes compartir ese éxito con ese otro jugador en gritos de victoria cuando todo ha terminado. O, en resumen, una gran victoria que puso fin a una racha de muchos intentos fallidos.

Un repaso de los conceptos básicos

Towerfall Ascension te permite saltar, correr y saltar por las paredes; puede que incluso se parezca a Celeste en cuanto a controles y gráficos [mismo desarrollador], pero mientras que Celeste hace hincapié en la precisión en las plataformas como principal desafío, aquí tendrás que moverte específicamente para esquivar las flechas enemigas y los peligros que aparecen en las fases.

Si corres hacia una flecha, puedes atraparla, lo que resulta útil para contrarrestar a los arqueros enemigo