Yggdrasil

72nd: Yggdrasil Make a Good Mega Man Level 2 An Eldritch Location. Overview Creator(s): Zatsupachi Programmer(s): Zatsupachi Artist(s): Zatsupachi Composer(s): Motoi Sakuraba(Stage theme), Michiru Yamane, Yasuhiro Ichihashi(Boss themes) Statistics Scores: 25 24 5 18 4 Total: 15.2 / 50 Rank: 72nd Elements: 3 Enemies: Bombomb Rabbit Sear Super Joe Wild Gunner Bosses: Crator Cream Kichona Other Information: Skippable ACE_Spark's Least Favourite Enjl's Least Favourite Theme Music Mission to Deep Space(Valkyrie Profile version), Sorrow's Distortion(Crator), Dissonant Courage(Cream), Prediction of Insanity(Kichona) Stage Order Location: Tier 2 Previous: Airflow Hubble Next: Rush City

"Yggdrasil, the world tree! As a robot with woodland heritage, I really appreciate this level, even if the judges didn't!"

―Wood Man, commenting on Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil is the 72nd place entry of Make a Good Mega Man Level 2. The level was poorly received (a score of 15.2/50) and got a least favorite from 2 judges, mainly because of its poorly-introduced and inconsistent "non-Euclid" screen-warping gimmick. It was also infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, overpowered enemies and, the super bosses in the end. It is one of the larger levels in the contest running at 92(?) screens.

A location-based Norse Cosmology that connects the nine worlds, it is also called the Tree of Life in some interpretations. Being an Eldritch locale, there is only a vague interpretation what is up there. The three characters encountered in this level are from Zatsupachi's 'Cutezome Mythos' works, Crator, Cream, and Kichona, visit this area (and it is made apparent that it's not their first time) to study it. Kichona's intentions were to make stable transdimensional travel in space-time to ease their travels. Once confirmed stable, she will open this project up with her superiors to make traveling to different parts the universe easier for their race. According to her research, this stability is achieved if a constant frequency matrix can be transmitted in this border world of sorts. The nature of Yggdrasil, as with the myth, is that it provides a sort-of shortcut to different parts of the universe (and time), similar to a wormhole. The property noted with this location was that it was safer to travel across (despite its potentially hostile inhabitants).

Strategy

BLUE

Section 0: Lasers are harmless as they are blocked by a wall. Unless you go over it, they are not the Insta-kill variety though. There is an E-tank in this screen.

Section 1: Climb up quickly, shoot the Super Joe (3 hp) with a charge shot or three normal shots. Keep pressing on to the left.

Section 2: Jump down the hole. It will wrap you to the top. Proceed left.

Section 3: If you're quick enough you can dodge the laser. But if you're not, can loop from the left and pop-out to the right.

Section 4: Climb up quickly, slide to the left, climb up, jump to the right, climb up.

Section 5: Checkpoint.

Section 6: Climb up the middle ladder, walk left, jump down, slide to the left, fall, slide to the right, jump over the pit.

Section 7: Take one engagement at a time, kill the Sear if you can. You will come across 2 Wild Gunners. Wait for their patterns to synchronize and take out the lower one by taking the ladder up quickly. Take out the second Sear.

Section 8: You can take the pink path from here, but if you haven't defeated Crator and Cream then don't. Shoot the Super Joe, and proceed upwards.

Section 9: Quickly leap from the platforms then climb up to the ladder once you can reach it.

Section 10: Checkpoint.

Section 11: Run left, Fall, Run right, Fall, Run Left, Jump over the pit.

Section 12: Either slide under the block the Super Joe is in for a secret, or drop down and jump towards(but not into) the spike pit. Get Past the Super Joe, and climb the ladder.

Section 12(secret 1): There is a Yashichi guarded by respawning Bombombs. Otherwise, proceed top left.

Section 12(secret 2): Go up.

Section 12(secret 3): Go right.

Section 13: Jump down to the left, take out the Wild Gunner, jump onto where the Wild Gunner was, jump high towards the wall to the right, then press up. You will wrap unto the ladder below. Continue heading upwards.

Section 14: Slide into the hole to the left. Jump down(but not into the laser), Jump to the left side of the screen carefully.(There is an unfortunate glitch here that kills you as you get clipped into the floor.). As you are wrapped to the other side, go right.

Section 15: Don't stop moving. Keep moving right, and jumping from island to island. You will soon encounter 2 Rabbits, either skip or kill them(13 hp) at your own leisure. Here is a split path, go up to instantly go to the bottom of the level(green) or go down to go to pink. Otherwise, keep moving right.

Section 16: Boss corridor.

GREEN

Section 0: Drop, avoid the spikes.

Section 1: Jump on the first block, Jump in the second, then just leap to the ladder. Move left.

Section 2: Jump on the first block, Jump in the second, then jump to align yourself with the platform above. Jump on the third, jump left.

Section 3: Jump on the first block, wait, Jump on the third block, wait, Quickly leap across the next 2 blocks. Jump towards the spike wall(it seems the collision isn't working.) Or jump to align yourself with a ladder below then press up. Proceed downwards, but not on the ladder.

Section 4: Jump across the platforms, and jump through the gap in-between the spikes.

Section 5: Checkpoint.

Section 6: Jump over the Yoku column, wrap to the top, stay on the right side until the blocks will lead out to the left.

Section 7: Climb the ladder, jump over the spikes, you can take the pink path here too. Otherwise, go down.

Section 8: Just wait for the blocks to appear and slide to the left, get wrapped to the right, wait till the next set, then slide to the left, then fall.

Section 9: Use the Yokus to jump onto the middle platform.

Section 10: Follow the maze, be sure to stick to the upper path, the middle has a large column of Yokus you can try and clip yourself to the top of the maze. Proceed left.

Section 11: Just quickly jump to the left, do not stop, drop down to the pit.

Section 12: Checkpoint. Drop from left for safety and easier access to the secret. Drop from the middle to be caught by a Yoku. Drop the rightmost(with super arrow) if you want to take the top route of the Yoku section.

Section 13: Go to the left for a secret, Go right to proceed on with the last stretch.

Section 13(secret 1): Time yourself with the enemies and climb the ladder.

Section 13(secret 2): There is a Yashichi guarded by spikes and enemies. Go right to exit, loop back to Screen 11.

Section 14: The top route is mostly straight-forward, the only concern is the low ceiling from time to time, there is an E-tank here. The bottom route though follows this rule: do not take a Yoku spawning to the left. You can use the rhythm of Yoku blocks spawning to know the timing to when the next block appears. You eventually finish this section but will have to deal with 2 Rabbits. Again deal with them at your leisure. Here is a split path, go down to get to the top of the level(Blue), up if you want to go pink. Sadly though, the author forgot to put ladder collisions on the first segment of this alt-path to pink, so it's only possible with very strictly timed super arrows. Otherwise, go right.

Section 15: Boss corridor. Be Careful of spikes.

PINK

TOP PATH

Section 0: Wrap to the left, jump down.

Section 1: Jump across the platforms, try Slash Claw-ing/Triple Blade some of the enemies. There is a ladder on the third spike for a secret.

TOP PATH (LATE, BLUE)

Section 0: Drop, stir left, slide right.

Section 1: Drop, navigate the layers of platforms quickly before the beams fill the screen.\

BOTTOM PATH

Section 0: Wrap to the right, climb up.

Section 1: Jump across the platforms, try Jewel Satellite to deflect projectiles. There is a transparent ladder in the sky if you want to take the secret.

BOTTOM PATH (LATE, GREEN, IF IT WAS FIXED)

Section 0: Time yourself into clipping inside the Yoku blocks. You will end up at the top of the Yoku column. Repeat this for 3? times. Then grab on the ladder once you're high enough(sadly this ladder doesn't have a collision so this section is impossible without some skillful super arrow-ing.)

Section 1: Navigate the vertical shaft with the Yoku snake. Where to jump is in the rule of whether if the Yoku is progressing up.

PINK SECRET

Section 0: In either entrance, it takes a couple of super arrows to get past the spikes. Once you get to the middle, do not head right unless you want to move forward with the level. Go left for an M-Tank.

Section 1: Do not go into the portal if you don't want to re-do a section. The reason why this exists is because the paths to get here are meant to be one-way. If you ended up here without defeating both Cream and Crator, then take this portal. If else, you can try and brave the vertical shaft leading to the Green path by doing the Yoku snake in reverse. There are 4 mystery cans here.

Judge Comments
snoruntpyro  : 25 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 2 / 15 3 / 10 15 / 15 4 / 5 1 / 5 Yes WHY
JupiHornet  : 24 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 1 / 15 2 / 10 15 / 15 4 / 5 2 / 5 I'm gonna be honest, what did I just play? No one is gonna be able to beat this without dying several times unless they've already memorized the stage. The Force Beam sections were cheap and there was nothing showing were the lasers would come from. Some of the Yoku block sections were cool, but there was a jump in one of them that REQUIRED Rush Jet or Super Arrow to get across. The enemies flood the screen with projectiles and you're almost guaranteed to get hit by them unless you know where they all are. In some sections, there are instant warps and pits next to each other with no distinction between the two. This is all very unfortunate, because the stage is creative and looks really cool! You have to design your levels with other players in mind!
Enjl  : 5 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 0 / 15 1 / 10 2 / 15 1 / 5 1 / 5 Yes Usually in my reviews, if a level fails at something I try to isolate this point of failure and give feedback and ideas on how to iron it out to make the level better. In this review, I will omit the latter part, because if all of the level's issues were ironed out, the level would be a completely different level. This level's issues basically boil down to fundamental principles of game design and it manages to fail in terms of clarity, fairness, difficulty curve, guidance, boss design and consistency alike. This level basically asks the player to fully understand how the level is laid out, where every trap lies, how to deal with the incredibly powerful and spammy enemies, and how to fight each of the 3 bosses and in which order to fight them before they even start playing. I'm trying hard to find a redeemable aspect of this level, and I'm sorry, but I can't find one.
Garirry  : 18 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality 3 / 15 3 / 10 7 / 15 4 / 5 1 / 5 Uhhhhhhhhh... what? The level design is honestly pretty shit. Most enemies are unavoidable, lasers are unexpected, and there's more. It's bad. It was irritating. A little fun, but it gets old really, really fast. I kinda liked the ideas here... but it just doesn't really seem to work right. Music is good, graphics are ok. Okay no, I can't forgive this. You don't know where the collisions are, the dialogue is fucked, and everything else is just so glitchy. Okay, there's just so much wrong with this level. Let's start with the basics, the boss sprites are bad, and their designs remind me of very bad OCs. Also, their dialogue is hard to read and scrolls way too fast. Then, the level itself isn't even that good, in fact, far from it. The Yoku Blocks and Quick Lasers are often unpredictable and hard to get through. The placement of overpowered enemies is absolutely awful. Not to mention the boss fights are cheap and random. Then comes the main problem: this level is extremely buggy. I'm often not even sure where the collisions are, the whole warp to the other side of the screen thing is hardly working, and there are plenty of graphical bugs. I honestly can't say anything else. I liked the music choices but it's just so bad!
ACESpark  : 4 / 50
Design Fun Creativity Aesthetics Functionality Skip Teleporter? 0 / 15 0 / 10 4 / 15 0 / 5 0 / 5 Yes That was the least enjoyable Mega Man experience I have ever had. Worse than the constant cancellations, worse than half the nonsense zero effort rom hacks of Rock Man 2, more unplayable than those garbage mobile phone ports, more annoying than the Upon a Star OVA, and yes, worse than X7 and its stupid face. I will gladly fight Flame Hyenard again and again, with full sound, rather than play this stage again. Hell I'd happily go through X7 with all the sound replaced with Flame Hyenard vocal cues. My friends, any Let's Players - if you are going to skip any level in this contest - make it this one. I cannot understate how un-fun this stage was. I was stuck in this level for over an hour on my first passes, and I hated every minute of it. This level does not start off well. We get walls of text (I know, sorry, I'm doing it here), from 3 random characters, that speed by so quickly the player does not have a chance to even read them. Thankfully I do not have to sit through it every time I die, although it is still really annoying, because for some reason there is not a checkpoint past this screen, and I have to wait through an overly long pause as the game figures out what it's doing with the cutscene it is supposed to skip. And the average player will be seeing this. A lot. Anyway, let's get to the meat of the matter. Are ya'll ready kids? Settle in, this is the long one. I started off going up. The blue segment. We have Quick Man Lasers. Ok... so this will be a quick paced segment, not too bad. The fact they're introduced safely seems like a positive. I then wait a few seconds on the room above - and suddenly lasers. With no indication at all that this room is going to be dangerous, especially since there is a newly introduced enemy in this room which takes time to get used to. And somehow it gets worse from there. Home to this stage is a very original, warping gimmick - and at first the rules seem obvious - go off the edge of the screen and you'll warp to the other side. This is a lovely idea and so much good could come out of this gimmick. Except... it turns out there are no rules to this gimmick. At all. The rules to this thing change between rooms. Sometimes you can walk into somewhere complete innocuous and you'll warp elsewhere. Sometimes logical spots for warps don't have them. Outside of trial and error, there is no way to tell where you'll end up with this gimmick, and whether or not you'll be led to a pit. It is also impossible to tell what is and isn't a pit without falling headlong into them. Which is required in several segments of the level, so get used to it. This route is.. mostly doable without weapons. Except when it suddenly, without warning, requires you to pause the lasers using Flash Stopper. What!? You can even get STUCK in this area, being forced to throw yourself at the lasers to reset. I eventually reached the first of the three bosses. All three of which have very ugly sprites, but that is minor compared to their actual problem - their attack patterns. Wow. Bullet spam much? There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason behind this boss, it was rather dreadful, and this point one of the worst submitted boss fights in the contest. I haven't even mentioned the enemy set yet. They're bad. They're so bad. We are not playing Touhou, Mega Man actually has a HUGE hitbox, and more to the point bullet hell shoot em up games actually have PATTERNS and THOUGHT to the masses of projectiles... not just total RNG like this. That was one route. Of three. Oh no. The green route, uses Yoku blocks. They're also trash. The main issue with this route is the sheer number of traps and ""gotcha"" moments placed along the screens, usually on long horizontal corridors. Outside of trial and error, it is impossible to gauge where you are supposed to jump to next, since the platform you are on vanishes just as the one you are supposed to jump to appears. Once, would've been annoying. But the amount of times you pulled it off, was just abysmal. Also, this route introduces you to the screen wrapping gimmick in a manner that is completely at odds with sensible gimmick introduction. As in, you are in the middle of crossing a Yoku blocks, and have to just hope something saves you from falling into a pit or spikes. This might be a good to state this: It is so nearly impossible to tell what is and isn't a spike in this level. And as nifty as the level looks at first - most of the tiling is lazy, and it is incredibly hard to tell what isn't solid. So, green route. Also complete garbage. And then we reach the boss with the sword. Somehow this boss manages to be worse than the previous one. Its damage output is nuts, it can and will pull off attacks when it feels like it with little to no warning, and is completely invincible whilst making these attacks. It's bad. Finally there is the pink route. Which might as well not exist - it has no gimmick other than awful enemy placement and bullets flying everywhere. The boss to this section is the only tolerable one - but only just. She has two health bars, and is invincible for far too much of the battle. And heals herself. But she's doable and at least the player is giving some warning before her attacks, even if it isn't much. So your stage is going to be memorable. For the wrong reasons, but hey, at least people can say ""Oh yes, MaGMML2, that had that Yggdrasil stage? Man, I never want to see that level again.""

Trivia

• As of a video later in 2017, ACESpark remarked that this was no longer his least favorite level, but didn't mention which one took its place.