Eternal Daughter...I kind of can't play it...

[Glamador]

I die at an inordinate rate.  I'm no stranger to "difficult" games.  I did play Aquaria after all.  But for some reason I can't stay alive for even 5 minutes.  Perhaps I don't know all the controls or something but I feel like I'm missing something.  Is there a block button of sorts?  Do I have more attacks than my ridiculously short range swipe and the "takes too long to charge while enemies are charging me" firebolt?  I can't seem to dodge even the most basic of enemies.  Is there something I'm missing here because right now I'm not seeing what makes this game so great.

[tyroney]

That's just the kind of game it is.  As you go on, you get a secondary weapon with more range, and the primary weapon gets a little longer, but it's still brutal.  Though it actually has a learning curve, which is what's great.  Once you get the swing of things, you can rip through what used to be death with hardly a second thought.  So it's not impossible by any stretch.  (though it feels that way more than once as you play through it:  getting out of the mines if you go in there early on, the boss in the icy cave, the ever classic hume, and the guy with no vowels but two dogs to make up for it, not to mention the last boss which I never could make myself sit down and work on long enough to beat) 

Oh man.  I might have to go download and play that again. 

edit:  two tips: you can charge up early, and there is a backwards dash that sort of helps with dodging sometimes.  (up+jump if I recall, though it has other benefits you might be able to figure out)  And I'd suggest staying away from gamepads unless they're really quality, since the game is so unforgiving.

[Glamador]

Damn...I expected as much.  Well, it's my opinion that one should NEVER have to force oneself to play a game.  So if the game doesn't get more fun soon, well, I'm just not going to play it anymore.  Plus I have an intensely difficult time judging what will hit me and what will not.  As far as Derek's games go...it looks like I'm sticking with Aquaria.

[Xiagan]

Well, it IS hard. And in the beginning you really haven't much.. but you find a lot of stuff, get more life energy, find scrolls to better your primary weapon until it reaches (charged) over the whole screen, learn doublejump and get a lot of secondary weapons and an armor. For now (dunno how far you are, though):
Mushrooms and other ground enemies like the frogs: hit, run back or jump over them and hit again.  Important: Don't stay where you are.
Parrots: Driving you nuts the first times but are really easy when you know their timing. Jump towards them and don't wait until they come to you.

On the other side... if you have problems with the normal enemies, you will get very frustrated by the bosses, especially Hume. He is a sucker, but the fascinating thing is, that after I beat the game and played it again, I killed him without loosing energy at all, so this game really is about how good you are with the controls and with seeing the tactics of the bosses.

Edit: btw, I made savegames before and after most of the bosses (~30 savegames in total), if somebody want to play it again and want to start in the middle or so...

[tyroney]

Oh man, I just found my old ED folder, and I'd totally forgotten I'd started work on a full walkthru (with all dialog) and ascii map and creature gallery for the game.  Maybe I'll have to finish it one day.

edit:  another tip: try to hit with the outer edge of your attackamawave.  It's more reliable, and safer due to distance naturally.

[Xiagan]

There is already one, which is pretty good.

Oops... it was was at podiumgames, but the site is down... :-/

[Glamador]

Also I'm having an odd problem with it....if I play it for more than about 4 and a half minutes it will start moving EXTREMELY slowly.  I have to exit and restart to make it work.

[tyroney]

I've seen that both happen and not happen on one machine I play on.  But I haven't figured out why, yet.  It might be sound related, as I was getting echoed/repeating sounds when I got the slowdown.

Meanwhile I'll dream of a ED remix

[Toom]

I suspect it's due to MMF and its horrible optimisation.

ED is extremely unforgiving, but I can guarantee you that every death you suffer is your own fault; you weren't paying close enough attention to the enemy's movement or attack patterns, you charged in there without really watching what you were doing, you took unnecessary hits without realising the damage they do early on. Just slow down a bit; watch what enemies are doing, keep paying attention in case you have to jump or dodge back, don't go in there expecting to knock over everything in one or two hits until you've found some upgrade scrolls. And make sure you explore; find as many pickups as you can.

And know when you're beaten! Once you're out in the world, learn to recognise when an area is just too tough for you in your current state. It's a non-linear game and it's possible to wander into situations that are way over your head. Use all three save slots; one "current" save, two further back. That way, if you get stuck in an exceptionally tricky area, revert to an older save and go pickup-hunting.

[Xiagan]

...but I can guarantee you that every death you suffer is your own fault.

Haha, I like this sentence and it is so true... 

[doninss]

The PG walkthrough can be found at the wayback machine. Spoiler: The programmer dude with a blue monkey and a triforce over his monitor has it linked at his site.

[Zixinus]

I have a weird (technical) problem with Eternal Daughter. After the cutscene with the old man (after the first boss, robin broog the frog) the games starts to...well....lag. Horribly. Once I pick up the first upgrade health scroll then once before I go to the next screen, and then it starts to lag very badly at the waterside.

[Glamador]

Yea I was talking about that same problem if you read above.  Something to do with the program the game was coded with.  I can't say why though since a friend of mine was very accomplished with that program and made several amazing little games and not one of them had a similar problem.

[Toom]

Yeah, but ED isn't an amazing little game; dang thing's massive for a Click title. There's a lot of complex stuff going on at any one time, and, as I mentioned earlier, MMF's code optimisation is bloody awful.

[Zixinus]

Is there a way to repair it?