Happy New Year everyone! Here comes a small update to Sound Horizons that should make the last part of its levels more accessible.
This "final boss" section was the trickiest one to balance. I wanted a tougher challenge to conclude the level, with some kind of higher stakes. But it wasn't meant to be a barrier! During development, I changed it more than once to lower down its difficulty. However it still wasn't enough, as even after the release some players complained that they couldn't beat it. Even when they managed the previous parts with ease!
One frequent complain was that failing at this boss makes you go back to the previous stage, forcing you to complete it again. This design choice had several reasons (technical & musical), but this back-and-forth does make this section needlessly repetitive and frustrating.
In the accessibility settings, there was an option to prevent leveling down. On the final stage, this simply resets it to its beginning on failure. This is now the default behavior. When you fail twice against the boss, if you have at least completed 1/4 of its duration, then the stage resets and allows you to try it again immediately. Still difficult, but way less punitive, and should let you focus more and better keep its pace!
I couldn't resist to spice it up a bit though. So I randomized the patterns played so that it is never the same twice! It still has more or less the same difficulty, but with less predictability.
I hope this update will help you finish the game if you haven't yet! And if you still feel stuck, don't forget to check the accessibility options.