I did a teensy tiny sequence break in Another Crab's Treasure and was rewarded with some Very Good Dialogue 😌
There's a bit where there's a giant murder crab who will chase you down, spear you with a plastic fork, dismember you with a plastic knife, and eat you. You're very clearly instructed to Run Away and not fight it, so naturally I had to try, and it seemed doable so I died like sixty times and finally got him; it led to a moment where by killing it I was instructed to go kill it, much to the confusion of all.I was extremely happy I was able to beat the crab too--I am not a good soulslike player yet (I have only really done Elden Ring and let me tell you I limped and cheesed my way thru most of it), but the game's accessibility features rule. Like Celeste's, it's a whole menu of options, from extra health to extra shell health to larger timing windows to slowing down the game. There's options to take no fall damage and to keep your exp when you die, too! (these two are also acheivable thru equipable items you find later in the game, but with caveats). With all of these, I've been able to lessen what stressed me the most without removing all risk and it makes the game so much more fun; I love it.
There are also two really great "okay you're frustrated at this part, let me help you" options:
- give the crab a gun
- self explanatory: your shell is a gun, you can shoot the boss that's making you mad. I haven't needed this but I'm intuiting it's likely a one hit kill for anything
- give me my exp back
- This just instantly gives you everything you dropped on death
The "give me my exp" button is so so so nice. I don't want to never lose my exp (I think it's a fun mechanic of the genre!), but sometimes stuff goes wrong. You end up in a massive group fight and you wouldn't be able to get your exp back without dying to the hoard. You died somewhere difficult to platform to and don't wanna risk the climb again. You respawned to a moon jelly from a boss fight but then accidentally leapt/fell into the ring before grabbing your exp. You need a break from fighting a boss so you opt to respawn elsewhere. I can do all that without worrying about my exp, and it makes everything so much nicer.
ACT trusts the player enough to let them decide how hard it should be, in what ways it should be hard, and also provide bypass buttons in case that's needed as well and it's really really nice.
(the details goes more into it but more into why I am liking the game so far)