Knack 2

Ah, good. You weren't permanently ignored as proved the case for poor SWFU1.

Was thinking of going back to work on my high score guide, which requires listing every enemy and what they're worth, as well as every non-enemy creature like bugs. Very tedious in some cases especially when a lot of different types appear and I need to keep pausing and writing them down to keep track.

You Bman, this game is $5 bucks digital and I'm gonna snag it. Are there any tips or tech I should know the game doesn't explain? Don't want to miss anything.


Edit: we dem knack bois

Some general thoughts and questions after having played a bit (VH difficulty):

1. Does size = damage?

2. What makes your size permanently go down?

3. Can replay a mission and quit as soon as you collect the chest?

4. Does the kick do more damage than the punch?

Holy shit this game is great. I think this is some of my favorite AI to fight in a long time.. on VH that is.
The way they bait you, rush you down if you are guard broken. So good. They really keep you on your toes.

>tips or tech
Yep. Check out my guide in the tactical forum.

>size = damage
Yes.

>permanent size down
Nothing. You'll shrink when hit but regen after a few seconds. To balance this, the enemies will go berserk and rush you down with faster movement and attacks, if the damage you took makes you smaller than them.

You can test this by purposely shrinking in front of an enemy. They'll do some kind of animation in recognition of your weakened state, then rush in.

>replay chests quit
Yes, you dont need to complete the stage.

>punch/kick damage
Hard to say. If there's a difference it's not major. The punches come out faster.

>AI
Yeah they tend to launch attacks when you move towards them, as if they're trying to intercept you and you can use this to bait them back.

They also have a lot of running attacks that come out as soon as you're in range, or 'ready stances' where they'll slowly approach or sidestep around then strike lightning fast. Wait till you come across the larger goblin types.

The chapter 2-3 circle platform gauntlet was very fun but rough, though I didn't realise you could block the big goblin's ground pound, it just looked unblockable to me. That being said, can you block everything if your size is appropriate, or are there moves that are always unblockable?

I believe the kick is more damage. I think I have killed guys with two of those versus three punches. I have been experimenting with kicks as combo enders for maximum damage.

I hate what they did to the super moves of the first game. Do you ever get proper meter to spend or is it just the invincibility crystal? It sucks because you can't even save it for the end of a gauntlet, it disappears. On top of that the tracking for your hits is wonky, you can clearly push the stick towards a certain mob, or crystal, and knack just attacks a mob in a random direction.
This is the only thing I hate about the game.

Should I be picking crystal relics every time I see them? That's what I have been doing as they're are rare.

Baby knack is very cute.

>things that look unblockable
Exactly. I thought the same when I first played and would try to jump or dodge. Blocking is quite powerful in this, and most enemies will be at a disadvantage after blocking.

>block if size
Usually, yes. There are exceptions though. I think either in this topic or the guide I detailed some weird rules regarding trying to block after taking damage, and not being able to even if still bigger than your enemies.

>what is unblockable?
Robots with blue electricity fields on them can't be blocked, though you can cancel their fields. They won't guardbreak; they'll just straight up damage you.

Some attacks will just guardbreak, meaning you won't take damage but will be open.

>kick damage
I really can't recall but that sounds accurate. Mainly I just use the kick because the first kick has great range.

>supers
Yeah the forced segments with the large crystals are dumb.

>is there meter management
Yes but only for the extra forms. You'll need to collect all the gems from treasure chests to unlock them all. Unlike Knack 1, you can't get repeats, though what you get will still be random.

When in a form, you have abilities that use sunstone meter, but you don't lose access to regular Knack. Each form has a passive or cost free ability, and attacks that use meter.

For example, Shooter Knack has a basic shot, and power shot that use meter, but if you parry a projectile, he'll send out a homing shot for each enemy in range free of charge, in addition to returning the enemy's projectile.

Speedy Knack has an AoE explosion, and his passive is faster attack speed.

So you still have meter management, you just have to get all the forms.

>picking up crystal relics
The yellow ones or are you talking about boxes of relics?

>picking up crystal relics
The ones in treasure chests. There's aqua ones that have 20 pieces, or some dumb looking gadget.
I have been picking the crystals but if it's just a cosmetic knack form, i'll go for the gadgets.

Holy fuck is that Jim Sterling review bad. That might be one of the most embarrassing things of all time.
How can anyone give such a bad take. Fucking mongoloids like that are the reason there is no God Hand 2, CL2, etc.
What's funny is he loves Musou. Now I'm not gonna yuck anyone's yum, but come on. How can he not see the irony?

Ah ok.

>gadgets
Gadgets are great. When you get all the parts they combine and you can equip them. Some are super good like Crystal Breaker, which allows you to break sunstone from a distance (though not too far) with Bodyslam, and Sunstone Bomb which causes a shockwave when hitting sunstones. This shockwave dizzies enemies.

There's also the combo counter. You get an attack boost from this but it resets if you get hit.

>gems
The forms are not cosmetic and open up ridiculous gameplay options. Check my guide for full details.

>morbidly obese man
He's extremely dishonest and mechanically blind. I bet he doesn't know anything about Musou either.

I just realised you can block cancel the second punch to avoid the recovery of the third hit, great for the button mashing super crystal segments.
Also punching once seems to negate most of the start up of the rapid punch.

Can you get all of the skills in one playthrough? leveling seems slow.

This is a solid action adventure game. It's not that hard, but it has spots that can kick your ass.
The two shielded hammer robots at the end of chapter 3 were rough.
But holy shit i watched a video and on easier difficulties you get a super crystal, haha what a joke.
The real game is VH.

Also love the super punch, very strong. A run without that would have me in tears.

@Royta/Raeng
Play this damn game if you haven't yet. It's on sale pretty cheap digitally. You need that knack, in your lap, whoopin some ass, asap!!!

>seems to negate most of the start up of the rapid punch
Yeah you can transition into some moves quicker if linked from others. The Boomerang is like this too.

>Can you get all of the skills in one playthrough?
Do you mean without replaying stages? I don't know. Never tried.

There are a few hidden exp boxes that give a decent amount but you can only get those once.
There's also a gadget that, when you have a max sunstone meter, will convert extra sunstones you break into exp (those blue orbs).

There are small bugs crawling around each stage that give a small amount, and some have a gold bug that gives a huge amount.

>easy difficulty
It also cuts the stages down, skipping huge segments. Less enemies appear too.

>super punch
That's another that comes out slightly faster if linked from basic p/k.

>Raeng
It's another on his list of gaming sins.

I think I'm not going to do the score guide. All you have to do is be fast, kill every enemy and bug for points, and not take damage.

The only thing that could be difficult is the bugs because some aren't very noticeable.

I do need to add gadget notes but not all of them have any impact on combat. There's also the co-op unique moves.

When in the game do you collect the pieces for the alt forms, or is it for new game +?
I have all the chests and only have about 3 pieces.

You opened all 100 chests?

As I remember if you got all 100 that covers all forms and gadgets.

I meant every chest I have been able to, it just seems like at the rate I'm getting them i'll be about done with the game before I get the forms.

Oh ok.

Yeah because every (I think) stage has them so you'll probably not get much use until replay especially if the ones you need happen to pop up in later stages.

Maybe if you get every chest on every stage as you go you might wind up with a form or two but it's random what you get.

Stage 6 is epic. Is there anything cooler than laying waste to a goblin city as 25 foot knack? Dude is a beast. His design is really growing on me too. When he gets big he looks pretty rad.
Parts of this rival the epicness of GOW at times.
If the quality keeps up, this will be one of the best games I've played this gen, hands down.

My grin is massive right now.

Did some grinding to get the grapple armored and shielded enemies move, which cost 6. Makes the game much more enjoyable. You can stun lock anyone with grapple/heavy punch combos when you have that.
A lot of games make you huge at times, but this game makes you feel f'n huge. You really feel like you are moving something the size of a house, great weight to it.
The physics on all of your pieces is super impressive too. The way they fly everywhere and snap back to you is great. It is the first time I have said, you could not do this on last gen. Frame rate stays rock solid as well.

I think the story is interesting, but the human designs look... bad. That definitely turned me off of the game, probably keeps most people back too. The art style is generally good, but there are some weird aspects that don't fit, mostly the humans.
They all look midgets or monkey people or something. Small bodies and legs, big arms and hands.
Still creeps me out lol

Best checkpoints in a game I have seen in a loooong time. Every fight is checkpointed, unless it is wave based, which is understandable. The difficulty is in the endurance. Makes the pacing top notch as you almost never replay shit. Not to mention collectibles are saved instantly and you keep xp on death
*Chef's Kiss*

Yeah I've seen people compare it to Pixar movies where the characters have odd proportion as well.

It also makes a lot of people think it's a kids game, though it's clear it was designed to appeal to all crowds. Easy mode borders on disability access, while Very Hard would leave any kid screaming for mercy and is pretty tough in quite a few parts for people like us to enjoy.

The physics are ridiculous and really remind me that I need to get a PS4 Pro because this game makes my launch console overheat and chug like no tomorrow.

One cool think to do when you have a decent size, is shrink, then walk through your pile of relics. You can make trails through them and pretty much move them around as you please. It's actually really impressive.

Also note the parts that break off of robots when you smash them or enemy armor. It's super detailed and feels great to do a final hit with the power punch and see parts go flying everywhere.

Also bought it just now, it was on sale here too for only 10 bucks. I don't have time to play it yet, but I have a vacation in a few days so I'll give it a shot!

You're gonna love it Roy, no doubt! Play it on Very Hard. I played through the GOW trilogy for the first time this year, and there are moments in every chapter that make me think this is the real GOW4.
F that. Knack 2 is GOW4!

Grab a beer and watch a cut scene YouTube video of the first game, before you play 2. It takes about 40 minutes if you skip past the gameplay and really makes the story of knack 2 have much more weight. I really enjoy the lore of the goblin/human war in knack, and if I didn't watch the first game, I would have no idea wtf is happening. They throw you in the deep end, assuming if you have this damn game you played Knack 1 lol.

There is some shit that has frustrated me, in that good GOW1 way, unlike any other game but GOW.
It's a frustration of knowing you need to do better, be better, and stop blaming the game.
I love that feeling.
I am going straight to CL after this Birdman. I think our tastes align perfectly.
I should note messaging Birdman's youtube channel wondering where the depth was in CL got me to this forum. It's only fair Birdman has someone else here to deep dive CL with haha.

Also Birdman, have you played the GOW trilogy? Knack 2 takes inspirations from it in almost every aspect. L1 parries, right stick dodges, Efficiency based combat over the CUHRAYZEE combos of dmc.

Knack 2 is continuing the action genre that appeals to me. I hope to god someone follows suit.
Japan Studio games have never been big sellers, I love tokyo jungle.
Whoever pays them to buck trends must appreciate true art.
If we see a knack 3, millions will laugh, thousands will be excited for the second coming of Christ.

>Also note the parts that break off of robots
I noticed this, the hit reactions are top notch! Hitting a heavy punch and the way it connects and breaks everything off of the robot but their inner skeleton, then grabbing them and hitting them again, for that last slomo finish.
Fuuuuuuu

>GOW
It's on my list. Played it once and it didn't click but after a chat with Roy and them, and giving it another go, it was much better. I have the trilogy here, just need time to get to it.

>Tokyo Jungle
Holy shit I never thought I'd hear someone mention that game. I haven't played it in years but I absolutely loved it. I remember not being that good at it though. It's still on my PS3 and I'll get back to it someday.

>Japan Studio
Seems a lot of unique stuff comes out of them. Folklore, Rain, LocoRoco and one of their other divisions is responsible for the Gravity Rush games.

>back to Knack 2
How far are you now? Got the boomerang yet?

Coming up on the end of chapter 7. Excited for the boomerang, heard great things. Will be busy all weekend but next week Knacks getting crushed.

Just unlocked speedy knack and found out the forms can't be used on a first playthrough. That's a damn shame because speedy is so much more enjoyable than default shield knack. I won't replay this game outside of treasures and getting skills.

It's super fun to replay with different forms. I did a full run with Shooter Knack and it was awesome.

Any tips for Xander creation? I realize you can grab lock his small form but the hand is annoying the shit out of me.

I actually can't remember that fight very well.

You can damage and destroy the hand but I forget when it's safe to do so. Can it be blocked?

I watched some youtube videos, all which were either speedy knack or terrible gameplay.
The one thing I learned from them was the multi punch is the way to go for damage.
Jumped back in, died a few times and wrecked him, killed his saber form first try.
The Hand can be blocked but it guard breaks you and can get you stun locked.
It really all comes down to spacing and anticipating where the little Xander bot will be so you are doing as little platforming as possible, the hand can get you very easy in your jumps between platforms.
That's the first real difficulty spike by far, people call this a kid's game wtf.
This game should have an easy difficulty(the game's normal), and a Normal(Very Hard).
Most PS2 games were this hard on normal.

I wish Knack had a taunt button.

Knack is GOAT.

Argh, I don't know why I haven't finished this game yet.

Oh yeah, because everything else that I haven't finished is still sitting around.

I should probably give that boss a run, because I can barely remember how I dealt with it with default Knack.

Did a few runs of this fight today and made some notes. I have some notes on the majority of the fight but will focus on the hand which is the most troublesome aspect.

When the hand is in fist mode, it's fully blockable, though difficult to return a hit due to how it bounces off your guard and just out of range. It is possible though.

It's slamming down move guard-breaks, but you can recover fast enough to block again. In both cases, you're safe unless you get pushed to the edge and lose balance, a mechanic unique to this fight.

Dashing to the side of the fist, then dashing back in with the dash attack can score a hit, but it's somewhat unreliable.

Using the boomerang, you can catch him in his small form when the hand is summoned. He breaks out in in like, a second and a half I guess, but in that time he can't send the hand after you. What you do is throw, move forward, then throw again to keep him in a break out loop.

Then when close, attack, then boomerang for another loop. The hand can't act while he's being hit. I tested this doing power punch>boomerang, and it completely locked him down. I assume Multi-Fist should be fine too. Only problem is that you'll quickly push him to the edge, which makes him teleport away.

Doesn't really matter though because you control the fight. I tested this from max screen and as long as you keep catching him, the hand can't do shit.

Other times I was able to simply double jump>hover over to him and beat him down. Just watch out for his shockwave slam. Just stop a little before reaching him to make him whiff then you're set.

> killed his saber form first try.
Were you able to damage him in this form? I always run from it then brutally punish when it wears out.

>Were you able to damage him in this form? I always run from it then brutally punish when it wears out.

I did exactly that.

>everything else that I haven't finished is still sitting around.

IMO backlogs are games that have interesting aspects, but aren't good enough to hold your attention.
Let that shit wash over you. Play the best game you can find that speaks to you. You'll get to those other games when you do, but if you don't get to them, don't sweat it. When a game is God teir, you can't put it down until the credits roll, then you immediately want to play it again. I think the last game I felt that way was The Evil Within. My time is slim, I only spend it playing the cream of the crop. Knack 2 is some creamy ass crop.

You still playing this?

Yep.

Sorry @Royta/Raeng, Chaos Theory is sadly not holding my attention. Looks like it's not my thing. I think it's gonna be refunded.

During Steam Sales, I tend to up my standards even more. I refunded so many games back in June, lmao

Ha, no problem! The game has a pretty steap learning curve and takes a while to get into. You can always give it another shot in the future! :)

Get this.

My bro bought a PS4 and I lent him Knack 2 as it was the only game I have that wasn't too violent or scary for his kids. He had a go on it and just texted me about how the enemies are constantly timing their attacks to beat his out lol.

His kids got destroyed on easy and don't want to play. So much for this 'kids' game.

Still playing, it's the only game I have going right now. Been busy as fuck by work. Getting near the end. Everything I said stands, it is a fantastic action title, on of the greats of this gen easily. I only wish you could use speedy knack as soon as you get him, makes the game much more fun. The shield is so lame.

Any news?

Are you crazy motherfuckers seriously making me want to try Knack 2? :D

Yes.

Do it now.

Managed to pass the museum fight on my no upgrade, limited size run.

It seems the game will force relics on you at certain points. This must be to prevent you getting softlocked.

Like throughout the museum stage you can avoid most of the boxes and most of the fights are tougher as a result but towards the end you get to a door that you need size to open. If you skip the boxes the game puts in front of you fir this purpose, the last box you pick up will give you the exact amount needed to open the door. The big fight is right after this.

Will continue this run on and off.

Knack would own Hayabusa.

Unless he was at the start of the level and hasn't found any pieces haha Baby knack respawns a lot. Building size knack is a beast though.

He would just absorb Ryu's weapons and shuriken to become Ninja Knack and win instantly.

My first run is done. Hard difficulty was perfect to learn the game with some decent challenge, but I find it gets simpler after you obtain the hook shot and the boomerang. It was still interesting to fight normal enemies and bosses but the advantage was noticeable. Now I'm doing a NG+ run on Very Hard to unlock everything and enemies seem very rush-friendly. First three chapters were "easy" only thanks to upgrades, but I imagine a fresh run is no joke.

>a fresh run is no joke.
I've done a no upgrade on VH. Nasty.

Enemies rush you and try to attack in advance trying to intercept your attack. You can bait them by moving toward them a little or attacking then cancelling.

Chapter 9 is finished. I had to learn how spider tanks move or which missile they use depending on the range. You ignore a lot of details when you're in lower difficulties, for example I didn't analyze Xander's Creation too much.
By the way Speedy Knack is extremely good to skip some puzzles, nice find!

>VH NUR
It's a great accomplishment, damage upgrades are a bit too much for some moves. Maybe a NUR is the way to go, like in GoW.

> I had to learn how spider tanks move or which missile they use depending on the range

Also note the boomerang stops their movement but not their cannons. Don't remember if it works on the boss version. Very nice detail though. I remember being surprised they could still shoot then was like 'that actually makes sense'. The enemies in this are fantastic.

>It's a great accomplishment,

It really highlighted for me how much I didn't block with max upgrades. Blocking is really strong in this.

But overall, while interesting, it was a bit of a chore at certain points and I probably wouldn't do it again. The extra form abilities are too much fun. I started a playthrough last year just with Shooter Knack, the goal being to get through levels only shooting. Sunstone energy became the ultimate resource management. Can't remember why I stopped. Might have hit a roadblock.

>damage upgrades are a bit too much
True but at least in VH the enemies hit really hard too.

VH is done, at least on NG+. It was easier than I expected but it was still a fun run. Enemies are the highlights of the game, your moveset is small but solid, the pacing is pretty good and I'd like to play the sequel right now haha.

After this run I started another NG+ to get the last upgrade so I tried Shooter Knack. This form is incredibly good, too much good I must say. You can hit enemies from miles away when they aren't even aggressive and damage is very high. I don't know if it remains so powerful in end game but at the beginning it feels like a cheat.

Forms are a good idea to create a deeper combat system but in Knack 2 each one of them surpasses the base Knack because they have better moves, passives or functionality. I could say that they are more like a super state than a weapon or Styles in DMC3. KH2FM Forms are effective options, but Base Sora excels at other things and the Drive meter could also be used for Summons which are even better. In Knack 2 Form Change is free, but you have to use some Sunstone meter for certain actions. I like this system but I think it could be expanded on in different directions (weapons, Styles or KH2FM Forms).