When you’re in the middle of a battle and you see a comrade fall to the floor, it’s devastating. Not only is that your friend lying there, but your chances of defeating your foe dramatically drop off. In Windblown, the new action roguelike from the team behind Dead Cells, that moment crops up frequently but fans have not been enjoying one particular aspect. Thankfully, developer Motion Twin is working on a solution, so there’s hope at the end of the tunnel.
Currently in Windblown when you or a teammate loses all their health, they enter a sudden death state. When they’re like this they can’t help any further with the battle until they’re revived, but reviving them is what’s causing the issue. All you need to do is kill ten enemies to bring your friend back to the land of the living, which isn’t too burdensome most of the time in this roguelike game. Where it does become a problem is in boss fights, and that’s for a simple reason.
You see, that requirement persists even if there’s only one enemy to face. So if you’re in a massive fight for your life against the toughest boss you’ve ever seen and a teammate gets KO’d, there’s no real way to get them back on their feet. As you can imagine, this has soured the experience for many players, and while Windblown’s Steam reviews are on a very healthy 89% positive, the rumblings of discontent have been building.
Developer Motion Twin promises it has been listening, however, and is assuring the community that action will be taken. In a post on Steam it delves into the thinking behind the sudden death mechanic, detailing that losing a teammate should feel impactful and have severe consequences and that feeling shouldn’t be lessened – but it should be more fair, though full details of what’s changing won’t be announced just yet.
“We know the current version feels harsh and maybe even unfair for some of you -> we hear you, and we feel the same,” the developer writes. “Now, we’re not looking to scrap it; rather, we’re building it into an epic moment where reviving your teammates feels like a true high point”
It sounds like sudden death isn’t going anywhere anytime soon but there is a chance it might be reworked, either to make it easier to work with in a boss encounter, or to feel less like a punishment for losing a teammate. If you’d like to read the full update, head over to Steam to get the complete lowdown.
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