but there doesn’t need to be…
My Twitch:
My Twitter:
Rain World is a phenomenal experience, but I’m not sure how I would describe it to someone who has never heard of it before… a survival game? a simulation game? a platformer? a metroidvania? who knows? In this video I ramble about categorizing games and how Rain World doesn’t seem to fit in any box i try to stuff it into.
I hope I make some sort of sense at any point in this video, cause I really like the games I talk about in it 🙂
Games talked about in the video:
Rain World
Celeste
Hollow Knight
Sons of the Forest
Outer Wilds
ANIMAL WELL
Deaths Door
Hyper Light Drifter
(games shown but not mentioned)
Gris
The Pathless
Selaco
Arise: A Simple Story
Against Great Darkness
Doom (1993)
Hyper Light Drifter Footage used:
0:00 Suggestions & Comparisons
1:50 What do I think Rain World is?
3:52 Metroidvania’s & Hollow Knight
6:08 AI & Sons of the Forest
8:16 Storytelling & Outer Wilds
10:46 Player Feel & Animal Well
12:04 There Doesn’t Need To Be…
#rainworld #rainworlddownpour #youtubegaming
world , There Will Never Be Another Rain World , #Rain #World
, sons of the forest,outer wilds,animal welll,hollow knight,rain world video essay,games like rain world,rain world games,celeste,rain world,video essay,ewkaay
My only problem with rain world is that the campaigns are too easy
Rain World is amazing, and has and will continue to inspire harder more organic worlds in games! Catchy title mindset is shallow
game that gave me the most similar feelings to rain world and yet is a very different and also unpopular :c game is Miasmata
it has exploration without any forced direction
light survival elements
advanced enemy Al (but there's just one enemy in this game)
and character that moves kind of physically, like slug cats, despite the game being first person
it obviously has a lot of differences too which make it a very unique game on its own but I think that's basically the main characteristic connecting these two games for me, the fact that they're so unique and different from anything else you could find
1. I completely agree with the video and I would like to add that it also has a bit of sandbox because after the first few playthroughs you become good enough to basically trivialize the survival and get to experiment more with the AI.
2. About the metroidvania similarities, I think Saint's campaign is the most alike because of the karma locks, the final unlock and the power trip at the end.
3. Finally, from what I've seen in the community, some of the most disliked parts of the game (the only boss fight and Saint's final area) are the most "game-ish" ones, and I think that shows how more typical game elements don't really fit into Rain World, demonstrating its uniqueness.
Outer wilds might come close as its story and feel is a bit similar.
Hollow Knight, Rain World, Outer Wilds, and (new kid on the block) Animal Well are all similar because they have "Deep Design," multiple layers of obscurity that change how you as the player view the game world as you pass through them.
Other games that might be argued to fit this bill in varying ways are The Witness, Baba is You, Environmental Station Alpha, and Dark Souls.
I accidentally backflipped in a shelter once and that’s when I learned
8:45 safe to say that didn't work out in my favor and still ended up in farm arrays on my first playthrough
I often recommend it to hollow knight players, they have similar atmosphere and music, and are both 2d platformers, but it is VERY unique
I really quite like noita, They're similar- i think, There's not much connecting the two beyond the smartish enemy ai, the two pixel art and the use of procedural animation here and there. I would say the two could count as open worlds so i think that's enough similarities to say they're similar yet still very different.
if i had a nickel for every time a youtuber categorized rain world with outer wilds, i would have 3 nickels, which isnt a lot, but its odd that it happened thrice
I like to put it as, “throwing your self at a brick wall, and eventually getting through simulator”
If i compare rainworld to another game it would probably be ecco the dolphin series on sega megadrive. Its kinda weird how they are similiar in theme, both about an animal that got separated from its family, both about exploring abandoned superstructures, both very cryptic and hard and both give out vibe that seems a bit off. In ecco case knowingly that was product meant for children is a bit creepy.
WANNA BET?
Him talking about how rewarding it is finally meeting the iterator brings back flashbacks of how I accidentally killed her immediately after finding her by eating her glowing buddies (at least I think I did, she's still there but I can't get her to do anything 😅)
3640 subs.
That s emotional damage!!!!!
U need atleast 400k!
4:33 imo, this is one of the best things about rainworld for me that makes it transcend metroidvania genre. You dont unlock a double jump, the player character doesnt unlock anything. you, the player, unlockes the knowledge of new ways of traversing the terrian. too high of a platform? spear the edge and climb. too big of a gap? throw item and jump. terrain traversal isnt limited by the skillset of the player character, its limited by the skillset of you, the player.
Rain World at it's core is split between two aspects: survival and exloration. The game doesn't hold your hand and tell you what to do outright. The charm comes from players own experience. This is the same experience as Outer Wilds. Playing on your own without prior knowladge enchances the experience. Good example is Five Pebbles. Meeting him for the first time, makes player belive he's a god.
i hope theres not another rainworld. id love if there were games that take inspiration from some aspects of rainworld, like artstyle, soundtrack or even lore, but i also hope they play as their own thing, theres no reason for me to bother buying a new game if they just play like something else i already am familiar with.
i literally only found out about this game because i played a roblox game that was inspired by rainworld. it was called "lizard game" you could play as lizards, a vulture, or miros bird.
when i heard about this being inspired by rain world, i got it recently, and wow, it's an amazing game lmao.
I personally like the interpretation of Rain World being a "metroidbrania" game, as if it was metroidvania, but instead of mechanics keeping the player out of certain areas, it was a lack of knowledge on how to use them (similar to Animal Well or Tunica). That doesn't include the survival aspect though, but I guess it's just mixed in or smth
B-BUT I LOVE RAINWORLD
call em rain-likes
I fucking LOVE rain world. I've got 145-ish hours in it and it honest to god feels like I've barely played it. It's so utterly immersive, in a way that means I often think of Rain World as an "experience" more often than I think of it as a "video game." Like, I'd classify it as my favorite game of all time, but something about that title doesn't feel quite right; it's set so far apart from other games in my brain that I hesitate to call it one.
But Rain World is, ostensibly, a video game. So /why/ is it so difficult to compare it to literally any other game?
The "souls-like" tag — while utterly hilarious considering the games couldn't be further apart from each other in nearly every aspect if they tried — actually feels appropriate to me, in a sort of roundabout way, if you ignore the actual definition behind "souls-like" and take it to mean "game with an insanely difficult learning curve that one must dedicate more time and effort into learning than average, during which one can expect to get their ass handed to them over and over again in a way that can feel very distinctly frustrating and almost unfair by design." Which — again, as a video game, Rain World is nothing like the souls games. But as an experience? There are some similarities to be found, I think.
And I know that sounds sickeningly pretentious: "it's an ~experience~, not a game," but I'll be damned if I can think of any other way to try and describe it to people.
rain world is it's very own genre and i wouldn't have it any other way
i really do think that rainworld is best described as an ecosystem sim
Rah woh 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰👍👍👍👍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰👍👍🥰🥰👍👍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰👍👍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Rain World makes me happy.
The only game that's ever been like Rain World — is Rain World: Downpour
I love the overlap between the rainworld and outer wilds community
I like to think of rain world as a patience gated metroidvania.
We’re around 160 hours on the game, and I’m still finding so many mechanics- earlier we figured out jumping on poles a few times before we fall. Always like a new game sometimes.
Its for the best
i mean this is nice but you should really add a spoiler to this
most often its not necessary but its like having manners in the YouTube world
It genuinely is a life/ecosystem simulator. Unlike most games with a simulator tag, its goes more breadth then depth. You have to be a slugcat to survive, you have to use the advantages and disadvantages as a slugcat, and you have to navigate the terratin of the slugcat.
Thus i am coining this a new sub genre of Survival/Exploration/Combat/Adventure/Story/Unforgiving/… as a slug-like
On the contrary, imho, there will always be another rain world.
This was an extremely well done video
Rain world is dark souls
To answer the question, it has to be animal well. From the moment I saw the main menu in a playthrough on youtube I knew I had to play it by myself, blind. It's such a unique experience. Though the games have nothing in common in gameplay apart from being 2d "platformers", the vibes are really similar. Animal well emulates rain world's special sauce so beautifully and perfectly. I love both games to death
2 of my friends got the game a little while ago after asking me whether it was worth getting. I told them yes, it is incredible but it is unlike any game either of us have played (coming from terraria, minecraft, hollow knight etc enjoyers). I warned them that it is incredibly, brutally, horrendously difficult, and feels like you have no goal. I also usually have a bit of a thing with looking stuff up, but said that with Rain World it is extremely difficult to stick with the game without YouTube or the wiki, so I actively encouraged research on lore and gameplay goals. In this case it only enhances the gameplay instead of ruining it like with games like Hollow Knight.
They only played a couple of hours each before giving up, which I don’t blame them for at all. It’s hard to recommend a game unlike any other because you have no idea whether they will like it or not. I am someone who will literally never give up on something I care about, so I brute-force’d through the game. If I genuinely find something interesting, then there is nothing that will stop me from completing my goal. Any Hollow Knight player who knows of Any Radiance will understand that it takes grit to be one of the global few to defeat it. One of them is me, and it took me 2 years of on and off grinding, which really goes to show how much I hate giving up. One of my friends, at least, struggles easily with sticking to something without getting extremely frustrated and sometimes actually upset, and in hindsight I should have thought about this when recommending the game.
It is certainly not a game for everyone, and I suppose it’s a game for very few. I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a slight sense of superiority knowing that I was the only one of my friends able to bang my head against a wall enough to finish the game. But there is no other game that forces you to bang your head against a wall (quite literally, like The Wall was one of the most rage-inducing game areas I’ve ever been to on some of the harder difficulties) in the same way Rain World did. Fighting insurmountable odds and winning is something not everyone gets the feeling of but my god is it good. It made it all worth it in the end
Out of rain world like games funnily enough I am really excited for the forever winter which is completely different in pretty much everything but is similar in the sense that you are only part of a larger scheme
Rain World could be considered a ecosystem simulator
We have downpour! And a mobile port of the basic version of the game, i wish they made a downpour port for mobile tho… since its kinda proven possible
from what I can grasp, hollow knight and rain world share the feelings of weakness, striving and crawling up from the lowest point to achieve something that you're not even aware of until much, much later… in other words despite the gameplay and structural differences, they have very similar vibes.
It’s odd but salt and sanctuary. Ik it’s more like a souls game but the feeling of being lost in a harsh environment with strange foreign mechanics and systems. I get the argument doesn’t hold up but the feeling of playing each game for the first time is similar compared to playing either of them and any other game. It’s a feeling of fear and excitement simultaneously, though rainworld is the only game that can capture the desperation of having to act quickly while allowing you to be sidetracked with an in depth combat/distraction system
I think when it comes to classifying rain world, you have to talk about its components separately, because I think you can breaks games into 10 or so aspects, and RainWorld is unique in that there arent many games out there which are similar in more than a handful of them. When recommending it, I think It's useful to focus on particur aspects of games. Did you like the obscure and hands off storytelling of Dark Souls? Do you moody overgrown industrial atmospheres? Did you like the existentialist feelings Outer Wilds gives you? Did you like the tight difficult platformibg if celeste, with lots of tricky emergent mechanical interactions?
I'd summarise Rain world as the following:
The art is gorgeous, moody pixel art.
The animation is fluid and procedural.
The story genre is a spiritual post apocalyptic sci fi, with existentialist themes.
The way the story is told is through very subtle environmental cues and hard to obtain lore fragments.
The gameplay is tough, physics based platformer with a high skill ceiling.
The mechanics are AI and physics driven, with a focus on emergent interactions.
The communication of gameplay and mechanics is very hands off, figure it out for yourself, with very occasionally implicit environmental tutorials.
The setting is "overgrown industrial".
The musics is synthetic/electric industrial.
I genuinely didn’t know that other people struggled to define what Rain World is. I just ranted about how good it is to someone instead of comparing it to other games when I recommended it.
Since I can't think of any other examples, my favorite out of the games you mentioned (and only one I've played) would have to be Hollow Knight.
and it hurts