Backtracking - Enemies, obstacles, more enemies...

So, for any of you who have played The Thousand-Year Door, you should all know this level:



Big image, sorry.

Anyways, the Creepy Steeple. The area itself wasn't so bad - it was the getting to it. As beautiful as the area was, everyone definitely got tired of it after a while. When playing through this chapter, you have to backtrack. A lot. And the enemies are really annoying, especially if you don't actually know they're coming. This is the chapter with three major enemy groups on the path: Hyper Goomba family, Dayzee family and the Hyper Cleft family. If any of you are like me, you hated them. Especially after finding out the majority of them are practically unavoidable until you get Vivian.

Anyways, that's just part of the problem. Later on, you come back...with just Mario. And after that, you have to travel from Creepy Steeple to Twilight Town at least two times, then Twilight Town to Creepy Steeple...two times. It's an annoying trek through the forest that just shouldn't happen, but you're forced to go through it. To put it simply, you feel like it never ends. The woods aren't necessarily short either.

If this game is split into chapters, do you believe there will be a chapter like this? And the bigger question - since it's a handheld, would you mind? Or do you think it'll be a lot easier to trek through on your handheld device when you have the time? I personally feel like, even though I despised Creepy Steeple and don't want to backtrack again, I won't mind it so much if there's something similar on the 3DS version. If there is, I can just close the 3DS and go about my business for a while, then come back later. So it won't be that bad for me.

Do any of you feel the same way?

Creepy Steeple (the mansion) was awesome. The chance to face Atomic Boo and all of the little hidden rooms really made it interesting. The backtracking and Doopliss made it my least favorite level in the entire game. Unless you got lucky, there was no way to not get hit by a Crazee Dazee through the forest. Not only that, but even when you beat them, they still manage to stay in the same spot.

They need to avoid this pattern in the new game. I realize backtracking is common, but something about the formula for Creepy Steeple annoyed me.

I didn't mind it so much really. Backtracking can always have it's upside, especially as mentioned with grinding a bit. I don't mind having to make the same trip a few times if it means getting closer to leveling up. When that got annoying, however, I actually enjoyed dodging the Dayzees while trying to get to the next part of the map because I didn't feel like one-shotting them.

I'd like to see a little backtracking return, but Creepy Steeple's amount could get a little too annoying.