izigame.me

I bought this game as a massive fan if the Rhythm Heaven series, which I believe made have partly inspired this game.
I find the minigames here to be in-and-of themselves quite enjoyable, and would recommend them for their replayability.
However, on the first playthrough of many minigames, I found the Practice mode to be rather lacking in ways that the Rhythm Heaven series did somewhat better. I'm currently on Night 3 and have encountered issues numerous with the Practice stages for a large number of the minigames so far, which can be summed up as follows:
1. Practices fail to explain all cues: In this game, the tutorials only explain the mechanics in text form at the beginning of the Practice, giving only a vague sense of how the minigame works. While "learning by doing" is hypothetically a good thing, the problem comes from the fact that in the Practice, not all cues are explored. For example: in "Space", the practice session introduces only the regular speed and slow cues, not the fast cue, resulting in the player being incredibly likely to completely miss the input when they first see it in the actual game. This is a flaw in my eyes, as I feel that player should be able to understand what the inputs and cues actually are when they have completed the tutorial and not be surprised by this element in the actual game.
2. Practices are too long: The tutorials in this game are rather long and feature repetitive gameplay. The intention of the developers is clear, give the player time to get used to a minigame's simplest cue, then move on to the next cue and give them time to practice that and so on until the end of the practice session. My problem with this is that, as mentioned above, not every cue is given time at all, in which case why bother going on this long, but second, the practices don't take feedback from the player input whatsoever. They give you a certain number of attempts at one cue dictated by a timer before moving onto the next, whether you are ready or not. In Rhythm Heaven, each cue is given its own allotted time as in Melatonin, but the game does not advance to the next cue until you have demonstrated understanding of the previous one. Thus, when the player reaches the real game, they are well prepared to play it well, as the game ensures that player of any skill level will have had the time that they in particular need understand the controls. I am well aware that this tutorial design I am advocating for can be frustrating in-and-of itself for some players. I've seen RTGame's Monkey Watch tutorial gameplay and have myself gotten stuck on Lockstep's tutorial in Rhythm Heaven Megamix for a time. However, I feel that letting player get their frustrations about the controls out in a space designated for the purpose is better than making it occur in the actual minigame. I personally wish to be challenged on my actual ability to follow the rhythm and cues and not on my conscious ability to know what the controls actually are during the game. On the flipside is the case where the player is skilled enough to understand a cue and its inputs very quickly. The amount of time Melatonin spends on a single cue can be a bit excessive for me personally. I got the first cue for the very first minigame, "Food" down almost instantly, and grew bored of repeating it over-and-over, and so skipped the remainder of the tutorial, not realizing there was another cue in it I had yet to learn (which I concede was not a wise decision). By not taking the player's skill level into account, and moving to the next cue once a player has demostrated understanding of the previous one, you risk boring them, as happened with me here. In summary: I would like to see tutorials that adapt to the player's skill level rather than just putting them on a timer as was done here.
3. Forced accessibility features during the Practice: The forced usage of both the visual and auditory guides during the tutorials can at times interfere with observing the actual cues of the minigame. Take for example "Mind" in this level the visual guide is placed directly on top of the visual cue in the center of the screen and the metronome makes it hard to hear the actual audio cue for the real game. Which I absolutely appreciate the inclusion of these accessibility features, I find them quite distracting for learning the actual cues of a minigame and wish there were an option to disable their appearance during Practice in the settings.
These last two are absolutely my subjective option, and can largely be considered just my personal taste, but I would like to mention them anyway.
4. Repetitive music: Melatonin does not use a dedicated piece of background music for the Practice session nor does it use a re-instrumentation of the minigame's actual theme. Instead, it typically uses the music for the intro section of the actual minigame or a slightly sparser version of it. I personally find the this makes the beginning of most minigames to be somewhat boring, and they sound and play exactly like the Practice, which I already think are too long.
5. Occasional required use of visual cues: One element of Rhythm Heaven that I personally really enjoy is the ability to play the game without even looking at it, as all of the cues are (most of the time anyway) entirely based on sounds, either in the BGM or sound effects. This makes for a very smooth and fun experience that I can play without needing to keep my eyes glued to the monitor. Not every minigame in Melatonin can be played this way, (though most can). Take, for example, "Time". this level has three different cues, and two of them sound completely identical to me (though this may just be due to my lack of a headset).
All in all, Melatonin is project quite clearly made with passion and is a great new entry in the recent resurgence of rhythm minigame collections, however I personally was dissatisfied with the tutorials, and as a result did not have as much fun as I could have on my first playthroughs of most minigames.