Melatonin Review (Roxie (She/Her))
I wanted to like this game, I really did.
Rhythm Heaven Fever is one of my top 10 games of all time, and the other 3 games in the series are also some of my favorites. I have perfected the whole series. Keep that in mind, this is not coming from a lack of experience or a dislike of this type of game. Quite the opposite.
Melatonin started off wonderfully. Night 1 was everything I could ever want. Once I beat the first "remix" I was in love with the game. It seemed almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, I was correct.
Night 2 was where the game went from nearly flawless to god awful, and it's all because of one small problem: Audio Cues.
Audio cues in a game like this are not just *one of* the most important things for playability. They are *the* most important thing for playability. Melatonin fucked them up royally. Let me be more specific though.
In Night 1, I only really had 2 complaints. The sound effect for dreaming about shopping when you swipe the credit card is a bit too soft and not quite percussive enough to feel super satisfying. It didn't make the game any harder, though. In dreaming about social media, the audio cues for jumping twice and continuing after a big jump are the same sound, but the former plays twice. It is a bit hard at first but it's doable.
Night 2 is where everything fell apart. The first game in Night 2 is dreaming about working out. It's a call and response game. The call can include three things: Left arm curl, right arm curl, and both arms curl. You use the L button R button and both, respectively to copy it. In a GOOD video game, the audio cues would be distinct- maybe a "HOO" for left, a "HA" for right, and a "HOY" for both- just as an example, there are a million ways you could do it. What does melatonin do?
There's one sound effect, pitched up or down slightly depending on the direction. No, I am not exaggerating even slightly.
It gets worse.
This review is getting pretty long so I'll ignore some of the other atrocious examples of audio cues and only mention the worst example: dreaming about money.
Up until reaching this level, I got 3 stars on everything within 1 or 2 tries. It took me an HOUR to get 3 stars on the hard version of dreaming about money. Why? Because the audio cues are so bafflingly terrible that I question whether or not this game had any playtesters whatsoever. "Oh, just use the visual cues" except, you can't, because the visuals are designed specifically to mess you up.
Dreaming About Money has 5 different things that can happen. A coin falling left, a coin falling right, two coins falling, a coin falling left and then wooshing to the right, and a coin falling right and then wooshing to the left.
Do you want to know how you tell the difference? The audio cue is *exactly the same* regardless of which side the coin falls... but it is ever so slightly louder in one ear if you are wearing headphones. Not to mention if it's going to fake you out, lightning strikes and the thunder sound effect drowns it out entirely so you cant hear what side it's falling on in the first place.
After finally getting 3 stars on everything in Night 2, I went to Night 3, hopeful that things would get better. They got worse. I stopped playing.
If the devs ever update the game to fix the god awful audio cues then I will take away this review and instantly this game will be a thumbs up from me. It is literally so close to being a flawless Rhythm-Heaven-like rhythm game. They just fucked up the most important part.
All you have to do is make the audio cues distinct! That's it! If I can distinctly and easily hear the difference between two audio cues, then I can play your game. Unfortunately, your game makes me want to stab someone! Since my therapist has advised against stabbing people, I cannot play your game.