My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure

CoffeeHorse

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Staff member
Council of Elders
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This deserves its own thread. It may be short and basic but it is an actual console game and isn't a disaster.

Trailer:

Preview:

Cutscenes:

Walkthrough:


The most notable contribution of this game is likely to be the surprisingly good character models, coming soon to a SFM video near you.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
I guess I'll repost my play-by-play of when I watched a walk through of a game from the general thread.

The Rainbow Brighthouse! ...It's already glitching out. Cheap, foreign-made toys...

Shimmerwing! ...They act like we're supposed to know who that is. I know it's just a moving guide to tell you where you're supposed to go, but they could have given us a little more backstory.

Sprout LIVES! I guess his punishment is being a NPC in a video game.

Izzy creating graffitti! Is there a Izzy clone around, is the Brighthouse glitching making her evil, or is someone dressing up as her?

Primrose! She's kind of cute. And she has a little crush on Hitch. Also...what is with this generation and ponies in boxes?

"Smoothie Operator"...ugh.

Oh, those are the mirrors from Pipp's salon, Mane Melody. I guess they ARE "Magic Mirrors", not some sort of tech.

Who knew Hitch was a X-Man?

Huh, another instance of Zipp liking detective stuff. I guess it's not just the comics.

And now a evil Zipp. When she wasn't around. So...clone or imposter, then, not possession. Also note: Zipp WILL flee a crime scene.

"I look GOOD" "It wasn't easy" Sick burn, Sunny!

Zoom! ...Should we know her? Was she one of Zipp's flight school cadets and I forgot her? *Looks at Tell Your Tale: Zipp's Flight School again* Huh, it looks like she WAS in that class. I don't think she was named there, though.

Ah, man, we got rollerblades! If there's anything I've learned from Pokemon XY, it's that people LOVE rollerblades in video games. (I actually liked the rollerblades in XY, myself). Also, they give you these RIGHT BEFORE a mission requiring precise walking?! I guess if you want to train players NOT to use them...

Sprout riles up the town against Unicorns and Pegasi. Okay...in the Movie, Sprout DID rile up the town, but it came across like HE was just as afraid as anyone. Here, it seems like he's being purposely manipulative and...he just wasn't clever or mean-spirited enough for that in the Movie.

AHHH! BUNNY WITH ANIME HAIR! I never thought this fear would be relevant twice! The abomination's name is Marcel.

...Oh, great, it can fly now.

Continuity gaff: WINGS was NOT Zipp's mom's idea. It was her friend's idea. You could MAYBE say it was Pipp's idea, but her mom wasn't even in that episode.

Pipp's the suspect this time. But her wings fell off...did Sprout seriously paint himself different colors just to frame everyone?

WOW, they literally tell you that you can't really lose this final race with Zipp.

"Saddle up then!" WOAH Zipp, let's keep this PG!

Magic glitching=Zipp falling from the skies...I'm surprised they showed that in this game! And, OUCH! I think I hurt my neck from this tonal whiplash! ...I'm gonna sue...

*Zipp falls to potential death* "OH NO!!""Oh, yes!"...Sprout's really EVIL in this game, huh?

Zipp splashed down in the water, so she's fine.

Earth Ponies are REALLY easy to manipulate, huh? Also, it's...a little twisted that they care more about the neat magic than the other ponies but...one step at a time, I guess.

*Sunny jumps over the CanterLogic Gate with a self-made ramp* EXTREME SPORTS!!!

Wow, Hitch, you actually made this situation worse...thanks...

Zipp and Pipp literally do nothing...still better than Hitch, so thanks!

And Izzy with the block! MVP! That's for using arts and crafts for evil!

"We're not going to hurt you" You SHOULD!

Wait, so ANYTIME ANYONE has a problem the magic is gone for EVERYONE?! That's...so weird. I guess they better get along...OR ELSE!

Dance ending! Cliche, but, eh.

So, the moral of the story is: If anyone disagrees about ANYTHING the whole world FALLS APART!

As for new thoughts?

I'd like to see Primrose again, she was cute. Spoiled the comic below for cuteness overload.

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DLC would be nice. Not sure it's likely, but it'd be nice. It'd at least be nice to be able to go INSIDE the Lighthouse, for example.

Anyone got any Shimmerwing headcanons? Shimmerwing deserves more love...probably, I guess.

It's still weird that if EVERYTHING is canon, the crystals failed 3 times over the course of a week or so.

We will see if this game gets a legacy retroactively by the end of Make Your Mark's first season. I...still have a feeling this game's going to be surprisingly relevant in ONE case.
 
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CoffeeHorse

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I doubt this game is canon in any meaningful sense. It feels like the tie-in early reader picture books every movie aimed towards kids gets. They're not their own stories. All they do is retell a slice of the film's events in extremely abbreviated and watered down form. This is an early reader version of Sprout inciting a mob and an early reader version of the crystals failing, compiled into a videogame.

This is a very basic game for kids. Basic gameplay, basic writing probably based on a basic understanding of the characters and lore, with laughably bad lip syncing sometimes.

But I don't know how to knock it.

The gameplay is a 3D platforming collect-a-thon starring a quadruped and a flying bug companion. I cannot be objective about this.

The writing has its moments. "Sprout, is that you?" "No." Nailed it.

I mentioned the lip syncing but in some cutscenes it suddenly becomes entirely fine. The character models are outstanding. Their heads have enough moving pieces to emote and lip sync properly when scripted to do so. They just didn't have the time to make every bit of dialog look good.

This game was made in an extreme hurry and it shows. There is nothing so fundamentally wrong with it that a little more development time couldn't have helped. In the unlikely event that they want to do DLC they probably could do so without breaking anything. This game is obviously not a pile of spaghetti code barely holding together. The bones here are solid. They turned a good chunk of Maretime Bay into a playable environment and populated it with minigames that interrupt your travels every twenty feet or so. If they figured out a good workflow for that, imagine a Zipp game set in Zephyr Heights. That would be a fun environment to explore.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
There is a kernel of a good game in here. Its a fuctional, decent game that is a bit too easy, even for kids imo. Like, Kirby is largely considered Nintendo's kid franchise, games tend to be very easy, but with extra challenges thrown in for advanced players. But Kirby you still have some challenge; while AMBA feels like its impossible to loose. I don't want or think the game should be hard; but if I compare it to other platformers that have been aimed at kids over the years (Kirby, Mario, Spyro, Sly, Banjo, etc) it's lack any... substance.

As a foundation, this is fine. If this studio is alloed to make more games, or even DLC, and build on what's here, and not just recycle it; we could have some actually fun pony games by the end of this generation.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Kirby and Spyro lose by dying. Either Hasbro were squeamish about that or the studio assumed they would be.

It's odd because in the movie they clearly lost the boss battle with Sprout (and automatically got the good ending anyway... somehow.). Hasbro clearly can be talked into allowing us to see Sunny defeated and surrounded by rubble. Maybe the studio could figure out some nonlethal loss conditions if they had more time to think about it, but they had less than a year to make this game and probably spent most of their time battling Blender.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
I think the biggest problem is designing a entertaining game that isn't really allowed to have enemies. Enemies are such a BIG part of most games that it's hard to even design a game without any. Unless you basically turn it into Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon (which would have been a good idea).

Actually, I think fleshing out Shimmerwing's story could make for a good enough new story. Where did this butterfly come from? Are there more of them? You could basically go around the new world map collecting these butterflies to return them to their home. "Return to Flutter Valley" or something. It's light, but I think it'd work as a new story.



Some things they could add in a sequel or DLC, (I'm mostly trying to work within this minigame-heavy format they've chosen):

Being able to play as the other 5 ponies in the main game, not just the minigames. I guess you'd have to make new models for all of them so they could all use the rollerskates, though.

Maybe some concept art to unlock along with all the costumes.

More song options in the dancing rhythm minigame. You could also turn it into a slam-poetry contest in the unicorn village.

Just adding Alphabittle's club could give you access to a bunch of new minigames you could add. We could even actually solve that Rubick's Cube!

A home-decorating function in the Lighthouse, like in Animal Crossing.

A garden you can plant a bunch of flowers in for the looks, or fruits and vegetables you could sell for gems. Or maybe make the Uni-Cycling around town more customizable, with different options to choose from?

Zelda-like puzzles? Or maybe some "ruins" that have puzzles that you have to solve in order to get collectibles.

Zelda or Golden Sun-style world traversal, where you have to use magic to create ice bridges to get across a river. Or fly across a chasm. Or create a plant-bridge?

Maybe a minigame where you have to sell or deliver smoothies to different ponies.

A minigame in the salon fixing up ponies manes?

I feel like there's something you could do with the phones. Maybe different minigames based on old arcade games, which would be phone games? Like Pac-Man, or Galaga. Or Flappy Bird. It would be a way to bring Adventure Ponies 1 and 2 back for a modern audience.

Scouting locations for Pipp to take selfies at? I don't know, I'm struggling to find something for Pipp to do with her social media stuff. Maybe...picking a food for her to take pictures of?

Maybe a minigame where you have to decide when to take pictures of Pipp and which pictures to post on her social media? Like she's trying to hold her pose and she eventually ends up pratfalling, and you can choose to either post a "good" photo of her in the pose she was doing or a "joke" photo of her falling flat on her face, with both getting likes, in the end. Hasbro probably wouldn't approve, but...oh well.

Trying to find ponies to buy Izzy's works of art around town? Izzy really hasn't really make any big, sell-able art projects, but...she COULD.

Or a Izzy's Art Gallery sidequest, where she needs inspiration to fill up a art gallery for a showing? Maybe that's how you unlock concept art. "Fluttershy wasn't a unicorn, Izzy" "I know, but she has unicorn ENERGY, don't you think?"

You could do some friendship-matchmaking. Like one pony wants someone to go with them to a art gallery, and you have to find another NPC who also likes art to go with them? It could be a way to bring together the different tribes, so they get to know each other. Like a earth pony not thinking that a pegasus would like to help her in her garden, or something.

Let Sunny play Cyrano to Primrose on a date with Hitch. Give me my Pony Dating Sim, Hasbro!
 
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Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
I feel like once we get some actual true villains and not just more or less misguided Earth Ponies, they could get away with doing combat. Right now, when we got Sprout and Posey as antagonists, combat doesn't really work cuase then you're just beating up innocent people cuaght up in fear of change.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
One thing they got exactly right here was having Sprout be defeated by slapstick. He has a special variant of "Acceptable Target Syndrome". He is an acceptable target for any amount of pain and humiliation as long as he brings it on himself. Beating him up could never be satisfying.

Maybe we could call it the Wile E. Coyote variant. His suffering is funny but Roadrunner is not allowed to touch him.
 

Agent X

Kreon Bastard
Citizen
I'm just glad there wasn't an Achievement for collecting ALL 1900 star bits. I could NOT get the highest ranking on either 'Herding' minigame.
 

Caldwin

Meow!
Citizen
My problem with it is that I finished and got the platinum trophy in just a couple days. As much fun as I had while playing it, I haven't really had an overwhelming desire to go back to it since. For me that puts it in "fun game but I question the value for the price" territory.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Council of Elders
Citizen
It'll probably take kids longer than that, but yeah. This is a very short game.

The real value of this game is that they built Maretime Bay and all of these character models in a non proprietary engine. It's not much of a game right now but the GMod servers are going to be amazing.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Council of Elders
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!!!

I don't even care if it's kinda lame like the first one. Zephyr Heights is a fantastic location for a game, and we're about to get it in a Blender ready format. This will provide some entertainment, in-game and otherwise.

And who knows. Maybe the developers stepped it up. They were given an unreasonably short amount of development time the first time around, and they still shipped something that at least wasn't broken. They are obviously quite capable.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
And now, a trailer!

These ponies do be filled with helium.

And it looks like you'll be able to take selfies with Pipp. That alone justifies the game's existence.

But, yeah, otherwise, it looks pretty similar to the last game. Even all the mini-games look pretty similar, even though they might have added a few new ones. The floating ponies does make it feel like they had a little more time to develop a slightly more complex story, though. Making ponies float takes effort.
 

CoffeeHorse

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The background ponies quietly accepting their fate instead of panicking is so very G5. I doubt these developers are getting the most up to date notes from Hasbro, but they obviously get the source material.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
The background ponies quietly accepting their fate instead of panicking is so very G5. I doubt these developers are getting the most up to date notes from Hasbro, but they obviously get the source material.

tbf it also just means they don't have to program any new animations...
 

CoffeeHorse

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Maybe, but it still captures exactly the vibe I would go for if programming new animations were no issue. The only thing I would do differently is have ponies paddling like dogs held over water. I wouldn't change any of the expressions.
 

CoffeeHorse

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Council of Elders
Citizen
Game's out. Let's be real. We all knew what it was going to be, for the most part. But there are some things worth noting.

Pros:

It is longer than A Maretime Bay Adventure. Hours longer. They had more time to work on this one, and it shows.

Everyone is playable this time, and you will be switching characters often because they interact with the world differently. You can just switch on the spot, without annoying backtracking.

As expected, the star here is Zephyr Heights. This was a good choice for a game location. The good news is it is not just a tiny sliver. They included more than I expected.

Speaking of including more than I expected, Maretime Bay is still accessible! And it's not just the previous game's maps reused. They redid it, and it's not as disjointed this time. We are in for some fun times when this game's maps get ripped so we can explore them without the constant contrived roadblocks these developers love for some reason.

Cons:

Still boring. I actually find the endgame more boring than last time. I'm impressed that they managed to do that.

I assume this camera must be a Unity default and these devs just don't know how to implement a different one, because it is the wrong choice if they have any ability to pick one. This game and its predecessor badly need something more dynamic. It's even worse here because it undermines the game's strongest aspect, which is Zephyr Heights itself. It's not like they used the limited camera to cheat with the scenery like 3D games used to do when devs cared about keeping file sizes under control. The camera moves just enough in cutscenes to make it clear that they're not hiding something. It's a good Zephyr Heights. Let us see it!

I already forgot how much less appealing Sparky is in 3D. TYT is just a better design. It doesn't matter that much here, but still.

The ears are not lively enough.
 

ZakuConvoy

Well-known member
Citizen
Yeah, from what I've seen, this game is easily 4 times longer than the first game. And all the details in the backgrounds and stages are actually really nice and on model.

They even seem to have made it more of a platforming metroidvania almost, with the way different things only unlock after you get certain characters.

It's still the same game at it's core as the first one, but vastly improved in almost every way imaginable. Although, it is still highly repetitive and easy. And while all the detail of the areas is nice, there does seem to be a fair bit of backtracking, making it seem a little bloated in places.

It's a little weird that Zipp's voice actress seems to be the only one not from the actual show, but I'm guessing there were scheduling or contract reasons for that. It just stands out when everyone else has the voices we've gotten used to at this point.

But, there was actually improvement here. Massive improvement, really. I don't know if we're going to be getting a third game, but it would be interesting to see what they do with it, if we do.


This game has a narrator! And...only at the beginning of this game, and then never again, for some reason?

"Zephyr Heights! Isn't it beautiful!" "...Yeah, I guess" That's probably going to be most people's reactions. It does look nice, though.

The mystery is finding our missing friends, I guess! They kidnapped our Pipp and Izzy! Are you a bad enough dude to save the princesses?!

"I remember it like it was yesterday..." "Sunny...it was this morning..." Okay, I think they hired better writers for this game. I don't remember the banter being this snappy in the first game.

We're getting a flashback within the first couple minutes of the game. Not the most brilliant structure, but...oh well.

Shimmerwing is still here! Sorta!

A balloon with another letter. These ponies continue to have HISTORY with mysterious letters from the sky!

"I'm sure nothing weird is going on" "Friends! Something WEIRD is going on..." Heh.

Oh, classic Misty, always sending us those balloon letters like she always does...what?

There's always time for sidequests! I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't give these NPCs names. But, I suppose that would be a lot of work for everyone involved, including Hasbro to approve of all the names, so, whatever.

Pulsating tear in space! Making ponies float! What a inconvenience! Maybe they shouldn't be staring directly into it, though? Their minds will be fractured by the exposure to the warp!

Sunny you can't befriend a tear in space and time!

...I stand corrected.

Funny how she seems to go into that negative zone from the opening two parter of Make Your Mark. That "black hole" place that the bad vibes from the earth ponies created.

Where there's a warp, you can be sure the Pony Marines will be here to stand guard!

So, is the magic going to possess Sunny as she absorbs it into herself or something? I doubt this game will get that serious, but something's up.

"Some ponies want to buy a bow tie from your shop" "Oh, just give them one for free so they'll leave me alone"

I guess Izzy just went on a shopping spree. Yeah, that fits. She got distracted by the shiny.

"You're just going to leave your stuff here?" "What? Oh...that's not mine. La-la-la-la-lah" Heh. Or she went on a crime spree. One or the other.

"No pony's going to believe me when I tell them!" "I BELIEVE YOU! Um...tell them what?" Izzy will believe anything. I can believe it.

The voice acting is more varied this time around, too. They didn't skimp on voicing the lines for the random NPC ponies.

Stampede! Well, they tried. This video game still does crowds better than MYM.

This is the most polite stamped I've ever seen.

It's Misty! Finally!

Where is Izzy keeping these "cupcakes" she keeps offering people?

A giant gold and marble statue of Pipp! It's smaller than I thought it'd be. Just like her!

Big ice cream and floating. I don't know, seems like a fun afternoon, to me.

Izzy now has access to a teleporter. If this were TYT, I'd expect shenanigans.

The bunnies are still the bunny-blobs from the first game, I see. Gotta get the most out of those assets.

*Pipp poofs out of a cloud of smoke* Pipp's been taking ninjitsu-classes, I see.

These six ponies are impassible...IMPASSIBLE I SAY!

Taking pictures of the magic anomalies seems like a bad idea. Seems like that would cause the pictures to come to life and attack you or something. But, what do I know?

"My middle name is "safety procedure"". That explains so much.

That energy effect kind of makes that hypnotized guardpony look like he's been "partaking" in something on his break. "Stupid llamas".

These guards will let you do anything as long as you do them a favor first. Just like REAL bureaucrats!

"Give me back my scissors YOU HOOLIGANS" Literal rats with wings. Go figure. It really is the big city.

*Reaches into the flying rat hole* *Pulls out a painting, a movie camera, and a bird* Okay...they had fun with this.

"AAAAAND, it's posted on Cliptrot" Heh.

"If only we had wings to fly up there" *Everyone looks directly at Pipp* Heh.

Okay, Zipp's entrance is probably the best animation in the entire game.

I'm...pretty sure they're using someone else for Zipp's voice actress, though. She doesn't sound like herself. Not a bad actress, but it's weird when everyone else is using their show voices. (Yup, it's Anna-Maria Maleshev in this game instead of the regular voice actress from TYT and MYM).

You know, Queen Haven can sound a LOT like Opalilne when she wants to.

"Hey Sparky's twin brother" Raoul!

Sparky also doesn't sound the same, but...meh, I don't care that much.

Misty has Sparky-radar, I guess. I suppose that's supposed to show she's the "magician" of the group?

Why would there be hoofprints if Misty teleported?

"Magic cold"? I thought it was just magic hiccups from eating something he shouldn't have.

*Sparky runs after balloons and falls to his doom* Well, that's one way to solve the problem. Oh, he's fine.

"The fate of Zephyr Heights lies with you" No pressure...

I'm a little impressed by the paintings in the castle being real artwork. There's probably a lot of repeats, but still, it's a better attention to detail than I was expecting.

"I live to serve...and also to sing" Heh.

"I'm a daisy water me" Oh, you should not be saying that in front of Izzy. She'll do it!

"You just got zapped by some crazy dragon magic and thought you were a flower. Y'know, normal stuff." I remember everything. I had a family...bees who respected me. I had roots!

"How can I repay you!" "Chocolate? Cake? CHOCOLATE CAKE!" I like the way Izzy thinks.

Fruit salad. Yummy, yummy!

Sparky doesn't even have to be close to things to change them into food anymore! No one is safe! He has the power of a snackish GOD!

I can't believe they're gonna "Old Yeller" Sparky in a video game...oh wait, he just needs a smoothie...I guess.

Sparky just needed to burp. This entire game happened because Sparky was feeling a little gassy. Well, that's a little anticlimatic.

And it ends as any good story ends. With raisin smoothies.

Heh, Queen Haven is called "Queen Heaven" in the credits. Somebody messed up. Weird that the voice actors are as far down in the credits as they are.
 
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