The Messenger

Summary

Performance

Being 2D, this game runs relatively well, maintaining at least 30-40 FPS in most scenarios; Dipping in performance on level transitions and when many enemies or moving objects are on the screen at once.

Graphics

The initial (tutorial) area is monochrome (on a GTX 1070, white and black; on a Radeon R9 380, white and yellow), but areas afterward are colored (relatively) fine.

Ninja Village screenshots

black and white tutorial

Ninja Village on a GTX 1070

yellow and white tutorial

Ninja Village on an R9 380

original colors tutorial

Ninja Village in its intended colors

Contrast issues

At some points it’s more noticeable than others, but The Messenger appears to have contrast issues, with some shades of colors only appearing as black. Noticeable on the Messenger himself in his 8bit form.

Images of the 5th boss

suses

Suses has noticeable black spots all over his body; Colos has a black eye.

correct-suses

How Suses and Colos are supposed to look.

Physics Quirks

There is unintentional behavior causing the player to “slip” off of walls and remain stationary on horizontally moving platforms. Especially detrimental at a specific point in the game where the player is supposed to ride a platform with just enough room to duck under a long row of spikes: Halfway across, the player will be stuck in place while the platform continues to move from under their feet. Given that you’re meant to stay crouched to not touch the spikes, the player is unable to move to readjust themselves and therefore falls to their death. The only way to clear this gap is to purposely damage oneself on the spikes before the halfway point, using the resulting invincibility frames to continue riding the platform to the other side.

Potential softlock after the first part of the game

After beating the eighth boss... (spoilers)

After defeating Barma’thazel, and watching a cinematic, the player is returned to the shop. After a few interactions with the shopkeeper, the player is asked to change back into their normal clothes...

After which a bug occurs whereby the player will become invisible—still able to move, jump, and use abilities—but unable to interact with anything or progress. Making matters worse, the game doesn’t save at any point leading up to this, so returning to the main menu in hopes of fixing this bug will make you face the boss again.

Workaround

Minimize and maximize Yuzu, and the player becomes visible, allowing them to continue.

Compatibility

Build Date	Tested By	Hardware	Version	Rating
02/21/2019	on 02/21/2019	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 Windows	Canary Build 692c072	Bad
06/3/2019	GabeEddyT on 06/05/2019	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2 Windows	Canary Build 17decdc	Great
04/14/2019	on 04/14/2019	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 Windows	Canary Build 7ea7df1	Intro/Menu
08/7/2020	on 08/13/2020	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Windows	Mainline Build 5b28eb1	Perfect
06/10/2019	GabeEddyT on 06/11/2019	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz AMD Radeon (TM) R9 380 Series Windows	Canary Build 7e8bf4a	Great
06/7/2019	GabeEddyT on 06/07/2019	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz AMD Radeon (TM) R9 380 Series Windows	Canary Build 3c9e433	Bad

Screenshots

Compatibility

Perfect

Game functions flawless with no audio or graphical glitches, all tested functionality works as intended without any workarounds needed.

Release(s)

0100DC300AC78000