Crypt of the Necrodancer's Surprising Best Mechanic

Crypt of the Necrodancer is the result of combining a dungeon-crawling roguelike and a rhythm game. The combat is incredibly satisfying and the main gimmick has no shortage of charm, but in this video you'll hear why the mechanic with the more interesting design is one that's a little less obvious.
Footage Sources:
Osu!mania footage was by yours truly, very self-indulgent of me but let me off just this once lol.
0:00 - Intro
0:11 - What is Crypt of the Necrodancer?
0:57 - Intro To: The Shovel
1:30 - Shovel Analysis Part 1
2:55 - Rhythm: The Main Gimmick
3:43 - Bard, and a parallel to Dark Souls
4:33 - The Crypt's Items
5:21 - Shovel Analysis Part 2
6:32 - Outro
#cryptofthenecrodancer #gamedesign #gameanalysis

[@SquitoGame]

Disclaimer to those who're already experienced with the game: Yes, the footage is split between All Zones and the single zone modes. Yes, I know All Zones is the 'real' game. I tried hard to get a bunch of footage from All Zones, but the game's hard, I'm not the best player, I didn't get any footage of me reaching Zone 2 (except with Bard but meh), and I didn't want every clip to be of the first zone. Since the video I've now reached Zone 2 in All Zones but promptly died after lol. I thought at least reaching Zone 3 in the single zone modes could make up for it and help make the footage a bit more varied. Hope you can ignore that and enjoy regardless!

[@milo-wx4rp]

This is so well madee!!!!!

The game shows you a chess board pattern on the floor. That is important! If you move on every turn, then every even turn you'll be on a dark square, and even odd turn you are on a bright square. (This assumes a fixed pattern. I know that the game varies it. Ignore that for this explanation.) The shovel lets you break this parity. That's important for some enemy attack patterns.

[@SquitoGame]

Oh this makes a lot of sense! I always assumed the chess board pattern was just for aesthetic reasons. Thanks for sharing. :)

[@MasterHigure]

I played the game a fair bit quite a while ago (reached floor 5 in all floors mode, but not much beyond that). And I'll tell you confidently, stalling with the shovel was something I did all the time.

[@SquitoGame]

Ah cool, that's reassuring to hear lol. It's a pretty interesting technique. Is there anything specific that helped you beat All Zones or is it just a case of 'git gud'?

[@MasterHigure]

@@SquitoGame I think it's just git gud, unfortunately. It took me a while, and I never got through 5, though. Many people gitted a lot gudder than I did.

[@SquitoGame]

Oh right, I misread you at first, my bad. Reaching 5 is still pretty nice though. Purposefully missed out on the DLC myself, since I read that it technically makes the game harder, I guess by adding the extra zone. Suppose it doesn't really make a difference when I'm consistently dying on Zone 1 though lol. Hopefully I can reach 3 soon. :') Thanks for watching!