Vision Soft Reset
A downloadable game for Windows
Peer into the future in this time-travelling metroidvania. Run, jump, shoot and more through varied environments as a clairvoyant cyborg on a mission to prevent a looming planetary disaster. It's a classic 2D action-adventure revamped with modern sensibilities and a plethora of new mechanics.
Perceive the future!
- Revert time with ease to solve puzzles, undo damage taken and cheat death.
- View visions of enemy attacks a second before they occur, giving you a unique edge in combat.
- Manage varying "timelines" in the adventure with the innovative Time Tree system.
Polished action-exploration gameplay.
- Concise level design that trims the fat and respects the player's time.
- Fast-paced movement and combat.
- Diverse puzzles that make creative use of the player's abilities.
- Hidden techniques can be used to complete sections out of order, allowing skilled players forge their own path.
Using a controller is highly recommended! Most types are supported. The keyboard is also supported, with rebindable keys.
Featuring fantastic pixel art by Arron Johnson and a rousing soundtrack by Will Savino. Check out the soundtrack here!
There are many mysteries to solve and surprises to uncover in Vision Soft Reset. But hurry, time is running out...
EDIT:
1-8-23: Release 1.2.0
6-4-22: Release 1.1.4
5-10-22: Release 1.1.3
5-8-22: Release 1.1.2
5-6-22: Release 1.1.1
5-5-22: Release 1.1.0
5-3-22: Ownership transferred to Seafloor Games
1-4-19: Release 1.0.1 - Keyboard control customization menu patch
1-4-19: Release 1.0.0
10-27-17: Performance patch uploaded
9-23-17: New build and trailer
7-31-17: New gameplay video
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Personal ThoughtsMar 20, 2023
- Version 1.2.0 release notesJan 08, 2023
- Version 1.1.4 release notesJun 05, 2022
- Version 1.1.3 release notesMay 10, 2022
- Version 1.1.2 release notesMay 08, 2022
- Version 1.1.1 release notesMay 08, 2022
- Sale, Bug Fixes, and More Exciting News!May 05, 2022
- Vision Soft Reset has been released!Jan 04, 2019
Comments
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Much of the worldbuilding was left incomplete, so narratively I was left wanting. Seriously, it could benefit so much to add just a couple more loredumps.
Visually, even as a pixel lover myself, I find kind of bland, but it’s serviceable.
The gameplay, though, is phenomenal. The time limit and alternative timeline mechanics forces the player to always explore in order to find paths to optimize their playthrough.
I really dislike the method of accessing the Salesman area however. I fumbled around for way too long before looking up the answer and realising that the answer was to do exactly what one of the core mechanics implicitly suggest you never do. In general, this game needs hints that are better explained.
Maybe with more variety in character weapons/abilities, enemy types, and locations, it could be an even more fulfilling experience. Or it may overwhelm others. As it is though, it’s the perfect length.
I'm so glad that I gave this game a second chance, because it's a gem. However, it'd be nice if the player could mark on the map, like in most modern metroidvanias.
Just bought this, been waiting for a sale. Thank you for not neglecting itch.io non-drm fans!
Awesome game. Rebought it on Steam too, sadly no achievments.
I'm having the same problem as @kucharczyk where there is no version able to be downloaded ;-;
My bad, can you check again?
Yep is up now, thank you so much!
Hello, when I want to install the game there is no version (Windows or otherwise) to select so I cannot install the game. Is this a known issue?
Hey thanks for letting me know, there was a minor error with displaying downloads. It should be up now.
Thank you, it works now!
dude, the menuing controls on keyboard are abysmal, like, for the love of god let me use my mouse to click on things
Also, wouldve been nice to have some sort of indication that you should charge shot the switch blocks in the lab, because it seems like you're missing an ability
Help I can't find the double jump or the wall climb thing, I only found the dash.
The dash is the double jump, you can use it in mid-air and even aim it up or diagonally. That's why the room right after the upgrade had all those lasers to dash through, although I'll admit that I also wrote it off as something to come back to later and stumbled around for a while using only horizontal dashing.
This game has such a neat concept but it has an awful difficulty spike after the second boss. I had to look up a walkthrough to figure out the way forward, and it turned out to be a hidden path that requires you to claw attack two enemies mid air. There is nothing that tells you you can claw attack enemies midair, and I'm still not entirely sure what it does? It doesn't seem to give me enough height to actually make it to the hidden path, and the actual part where you have to do it is at the end of a long path from the last save chamber filled with one hit kill enemies. I have spent the greater part of an afternoon on this and still haven't gotten it. This is the level of difficulty and obscurity I expect from really brutal optional content like the Path of Pain from Hollow Knight, or from sequence breaks the developer didn't intent for, not from the main progression of the game.
First of all, are you aware that you can still use rewind at zero hp? The game doesn't have real 1-hit kills, since you can always spend a little vision to make it so you were never hit.
Second, it isn't clear what hidden path you mean. The first area I ever needed the claw height boost was after the underwater area, and I could see the route to avoid the locked encounter room being described as a "hidden path", but it has a save chamber right before the platforming sections. If a guide is leading you elsewhere, it is possible that it is pointing to an area that is technical possible at that point but would be better off left for when you have more upgrades.
When you shoot something that cannot be destroyed by regular shots, sparks appear indicating what you need to use. Purple sparks mean it can be destroyed by charge shots, red sparks mean it can be destroyed by the claw, and yellow sparks mean it can be destroyed by the speed booster. This gives a clear indication that you need to use the claw on the rock in the path right after the underwater area, and when you try it you discover that you gain height by clawing stuff mid-air. It is afterwords that it gives you monsters which you need to not shoot so you can claw them.
On the claw not being enough to make your jumps, you are probably supposed to combine your abilities. When platforming I find that unless you are near the ceiling it is almost always better to do diagonal dashes rather than horizontal ones. You can also gain a slight height boost by firing a charge shot down while in the air (which really isn't introduced anywhere that I can tell), but I'm not sure it is actually necessary anywhere (in the area after the underwater section, it just saves the need to spend HP standing on a spiked platform).
It's the part after the underwater part that I'm talking about my dude. I didn't say it didn't lead me to the hidden path I said it never explained the claw jump mechanics. Every time I have died I have been out of vision, the game does a good job of explaining that you can rewind after death and honestly I feel you must be entering this discussion in bad faith if you're bringing that up as something I didn't know. Same with the breakable walls thing, I wouldn't be able to get to the second boss if I didn't know that, so there was no need to patronize me about it. And yeah, obviously I need to "combine my abilities" to reach the secret path, I didn't spent hours just jumping, clawing the enemy, then dropping down and dying. I have played a video game before.
>It's the part after the underwater part that I'm talking about my dude.
Then why did you say that it was at the end of a long path from the last save chamber? I revisited it, and to suggest that you could have failed to see the save point would be patronizing you far more than any of my previous explanations.
>every time I have died I have been out of vision, the game does a good job of explaining that you can rewind after death and honestly I feel you must be entering this discussion in bad faith if you're bringing that up as something I didn't know
I brought it up because "I got hit so many times that I ran out of vision" is not unlike "I got hit so many times that I ran out of HP" which is the opposite of "one hit kill enemies". Also, its been long enough since I first started this game that I didn't trust my recollection that it was freaking obvious.
>I didn't say it didn't lead me to the hidden path I said it never explained the claw jump mechanics
And I wrote about how the game explained the claw jump mechanism, only for you to complain about me telling you things you already know.
>and yeah, obviously I need to "combine my abilities" to reach the secret path, I didn't spent hours just jumping, clawing the enemy, then dropping down and dying
And yet for some reason you only talked about the claw. The fact is, the claw jump is not a complicated mechanic and if you are using it and not reaching the other side the problem is probably in how use use your other abilities. Which is why I provided a tip on air dashing, plus two different ways of saving your air dash for when you actually need it. I suppose i could offer you a third option, but that seems like asking asking for complaints since the mechanic behind it was literally written on the wall earlier, so I shouldn't suggest that it might not have occurred to you to use it in this exact spot.
Very cool idea. I gave up when the time limit was introduced but the gameplay was good.
You are the master of the limited time you have. The time limit is a bit misleading. It is a brilliant game mechanic forcing you to indulge in the chaos of your time web. You are not even punished by losing upgrades if you did not notice (except very few physical ones you can get again easily).
This game was lovely. A well contained MetroidVania game. Can be pretty short, expect between 5~10 hours of playtime, more if you decide to search for all the collectables. As a reference I cleared the game a little over six hours with 75% completion.
Great little game with fun time loops. : )
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Absolute hidden gem. Loved it through and through. Gameplay and story had me hooked from the word go, and all of the characters are memorable and interesting.
I enjoyed this game very much. I played it on stream.
In addition to the time mechanics advertised on the box, I can also rewind time to any checkpoint I save at, which means I can go back to any of them and do something different than I did last time, and this creates a forking-pathed list of alt timelines that I can go back to at will. "oh in this timeline i got the heart, but i didn't turn on the machine..." etc.
When I rewind, I lose physical upgrades (HP, energy, buttons pressed), but keep information (passwords, new moves, better guns). Midway in the game, I was making routes that started me at the beginning of the timeline and used all the moves/guns I had so far to collect all the HP/energy upgrades I knew about so far, all in as little time as possible so I could use the rest of this timeline exploring and progressing.
I have one criticism: the puzzles with red doors shutting behind you are VERY unclear in what their win condition and mechanics are. That puzzle needs to be made WAY more clear.
1. I didn't realize until after banging my head against a puzzle for a long time that I can charge-shot any door and reset the puzzle.
2. I didn't realize until after banging my head against a puzzle for an even longer time that it is not necessary to end the puzzle *at the exit door.* That is incredibly unintuitive. I kept trying out routes that would have gotten me trapped after all the doors were shut, and I thought intuitively that was a wrong answer. But no apparently that's... the correct answer? That made no sense.
I really enjoyed the game and included it in my second Hidden Gems Video. A like/subscribe would help me a ton to continue with this series <3
This game is amazing. I can't believe it isn't more well known, this feels like something that I've always wanted but also never I knew I wanted for so many years. It's so creative and well made.
Very cool idea for a metroidvania and also fantastic execution!
I can't help but feel like the 20 minutes time limite is a little too lenient for all mandatory tasks. I haven't tried getting all checkpoints in a run though.
An annoying bug I ran across after dying to bosses was re-spawning with something amiss with Oracle's sprite: you can re-spawn flipped horizontally, vertically, invisible...
There's also the shadow/vision of Salesman's tail lingering in the air during the final battle.
There was this whole plot-line about a virus but I'm not sure why it was here since it's not necessary to beat the game. Maybe I should have tried to find the right suit or something? Sounds kind of annoying to be honest: there's suits everywhere with no indication of which one is the safe one, right?
I only have 77% completion so I might be missing something else here...
Omg I got that flipped and upside-down sprite bug too. I thought it was hilarious. I didn't bring it up since it was just a funny thing and it didn't make the game any worse for me. I didn't get the invisible one though.
You may see this message a few times. I'm reaching out every way I can possibly think of because I just have to know, in regards to Vision Soft Reset, is there a Card 11?
As far as I have found, no one knows where it is. Some people think it doesn't exist. I love this game from the visuals to the mechanics to the music and progression and am so close to being fully complete, with the exception of Card 11. I'm at 98%, I believe the card should be the last 2% but I've heard that it reaches 100% without getting Card 11? I understand if you don't want to reveal a location publicly, in which case a DM would be very appreciated. Or if you want to keep it a complete secret, could I at least get confirmation that the Card 11 actually exists?
Thank you so much for a response, if any. And regardless, thank you so much for making this game. It's some of the most fun I've had from a video game, and the only things that can compete are a few other very high budget Triple-A games. I have so many people I'd like to recommend this to.
Technically there is a card 11 defined, but it never appears in the game. And yes, you can get to 100% without Card #11. :)
I can't seem to get the game to work? I'm stuck in the main menu, nothing I press seems to do anything and I don't see any menu options. I'd post an image, but itch.io doesn't seem to want to let me.
Very fun game. I love how the timeline system works, and I had a lot of fun plotting and executing a route to get the true ending (though I did have to refer to a guide to find some of the pickups, rather than scouring every corner myself).
Only two complaints, which are that the game doesn't tell you that you can open the gate-puzzle-doors in Drider's lab with a charge shot (I spent way too long trying to find a way to phase through walls or something, since all of them are impossible without knowing this), and it also doesn't tell you that you can super-speed over water, which led to me being stuck until I looked up a guide.
You've saved me! I've spent a couple of hours trying to find a way to get past the puzzle doors. It never occurred to me to charge shot them.
free
game please
Very cool metroidvania that you should all check out. The beginning seems par for the course for the genre, but the game revels in its theme and found some really innovative ways to incorporate that into the game and level design. You can turn back time to avoid a bad jump, sure, been there done that. You also see the projectiles of opponents before they shoot them. And then you figure out that the game throws diverging timelines at you, which act as fast travels, but you will also lose any physical powerups that you might have received on that timeline, only to combine this with its fantastic level design and upgrades that allow you to find those powerups again later on without needing to travel back in time (and can keep them now). And after all of this, the game nonchalantly throws another curveball at massive speeds at you after the intro which I wont spoil here. This is a tour de force in level design and probably the most original metroidvania I ever played. You will need quite a few hours to chew through this. 5/5
More Racial Justice bundle impressions and ranking:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice
Will this work on mac with Wine?
This entire game was an amazing experience from start to finish.
The art is fantastic and the level themes pop out, giving each area a certain feel to it. The level design never makes you second-guess the game, only your skills and what you're applying in the situation. The enemies are fair, but still a bit tricky at times (though the clairvoyancy helps that quite a bit) which keeps you on your toes. Every time I died, I felt like it was my own fault for not managing my phase and keeping track of the enemies, it was never because of the game.
The only times I ever thought I couldn't progress were caused by me not realizing I could do something, like the melee giving a boost upwards if used in mid-air or something else like that.
Two things I think might be bugs, but I'm not sure. In the very bottom area with three flies and boiling water where you need to boost to the left to climb the tall room, if VSync is turned off it is significantly harder to get the speed booster to activate. (This might have just been me though.) The other is that if you spin dodge while running up a wall, it practically resets the timer and lets you double your distance, which I'm not sure is a bug or feature.
Other than those two things that might not even be the game's fault, this was perfect, and I'm very happy I got my hands on this game.
Are you positive most controllers work? I've tried a switch and a steam controller, and only certain buttons get recognized for some reason, so I'm going to have to assume it's only xbox and playstation controllers, and my playstation controller has the flimsiest connection known to man.
Really fun to play, but I'm REALLY wishing the rotating four digit code bit had something that wrote down what you found like it did that three symbol code, because I've had to go through it multiple times despite drawing down each number with its lines and rotating them repeatedly, I still can't get the correct answer despite drawing them in paint and rotating them around.
Screenshots are your friend! Also I did find the numbers in the ship, but maybe that was only after solving the puzzle once, not sure.
Turns out, I was misunderstanding what the lines around the numbers meant, because I thought they were the inner walls NOT the outer ones. I have no idea how I'd be able to tell the difference in retrospect, so I had the puzzle backwards the whole time.
Yeah, those inner walls in the monitor are really confusing. ^^; It's cool that the game lets players figure most stuff out without the need to spell everything out, but I feel that those inner walls in the monitors are one of the few elements that make things needlessly obtuse.
Oh! Thank you so much, I saw them as the inner walls too! Got very frustrated after checking each number multiple times, this has made me want to play again.
They appear inside the ship when found.
Fun little game. Planning on beating it. Don't forget to check for command prompts!
First game from the itch blm bundle that I played start to finish so far. Pretty damn good if shortish (took me 6-7 hours without with about 75% completion), and I really liked the timeline mechanic. Had to look up online solutions to a few of the "what now??" questions - especially related to speed boost obstacles. Some of those I would've never figured out how to do myself, and even knowing what to do it took way too many attempts, especially that one long climb.
Finally completed the now completed game and it's got to be one of my favorite metroidvanias of all time. My introduction to metroidvanias was Metroid Fusion, and this just brings me back to being a kid playing this genre for the first time. Thank you for the wonderful game and I hope to see more from you. (and maybe dlc and expansions? [fingers crossed])
Really enjoying the game so far. Quite a few moments where I had to patch together a proper timeline to follow.
The only thing that is diminishing the experience is screen loads. Two problems:
1. There's a few moments of lag when you transition to a new screen. The game is still running during this time, so you've got a short period of jitter. This wouldn't be a problem except for...
2. Screens that you jump UP into. Jitter + scrambling to get a visual on where to land often ends up with me heading down a screen again. Not great.
I'll post again if I managed to figure out how to finish this thing. Thanks again for the game!
Loved this concept and design, how is the dev going?
It's been about a year and I just wanted to say I hope you pick development up on this again one day. It's such an awesome game and I just finished my second playthrough of it and I can't stress enough how much I love the gameplay and world you built. I'll still be following and I wish you luck!
I am impressed. I look forward to playing (and paying for) the finished game. Also, post updates on Gamejolt if you can.
this is amazing and i cant wait for the next build
As a fan of platforming games, I am really impressed with your work. The game starting with the boss fight and the rewinding ability reminded me for a moment of Braid, but no I was so wrong. After I got the first ability, I saw that it was much more than that. I enjoyed much the game, as the level design is pretty impressive. The graphics are really cool and I think suit the style of the game, but I had some minor bugs, like the player sprite getting stuck in a fixed angle, or the jumping frog thingy animation playing even when on ground.
I enjoyed the mechanics, especially that you can jump back in time, while keeping your abilities (but the hearts tho :( :D ). Although, I must say that the keyboard controls are not the best, as I had trouble shooting and jumping while dashing through enemy attacks or lasers, and eventually using the rewind feature. And I have somehow, after a few unknown keypresses opened some debug list (i think) with all the abilities. Better be careful with that when publishing next time.
A high quality metroidvania with some astonishing twists. Thats what I would call it, even though it is not complete. Good luck with your project, and cant wait to see more in the near future. :D ^_^
Glad you enjoyed! Thank you for the feedback!
This game, in my opinion, is wonderful and has so much potential. I'm as excited about this game as I am with Super Mario Odyssey (And I'm a super huge Mario and Nintendo fan in general, so...) and am really looking forward to playing the finished game.
I must say, however, that the game is a bit hard, especially with that new boss fight against the guy with the claw. I might not be a casual gamer, but I'm not a pro gamer either, and this battle proved to be a bit too much for me. As great as the ability to see opponents movements before they happen is, it ended up being more confusing than anything against such a fast and always in motion boss such as him. With so many things going on this quickly on the screen, I couldn't help but feel quite overwhelmed. Nonetheless, the boss battle is still very epic and I appreciate the fact that the game is very forgiving when it comes to dying.
In the end, it still is a fantastic, unique and promising game that would definitely deserve as much recognition as great video game franchises like Metroid or The Legend of Zelda.
Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Can't wait for the full game!
The game is really cool but also quite hard at times.
Especially some of the ambush scenes are quite hard, especially after you just did some parcour which cost you like most of your health.
Also was stuck after a while when the "linear" path had ended.
Took me ages to realize that you can skip back in time without losing information.
And even then, it was not always possible to know where to go.
Also quite often I came to situations where I wasn't sure wether I needed a certain upgrade for that situation.
Or if I was just doing somthing wrong.
Also I came to do things in this order:
played a while-activated electricity-stuck cause everything is blocked by electricity
Only after I realized that time skipping is possible, did I jump back to a point without electricity and moved on.
Only ages later did I come into a room where i got the info about being able ti time skip (you know that certain dialogue).
Well it isn't like i could have used that information back then when I was stuck after activating electricity, heh?
Now when I have finally figured stuff out on my own, I finally get told that information?
Well don't need it now anymore anyways.
And also, what's up with the one hit kill monsters? O_o
Especially the bird with the 4 explosives, can't hit him most of the time.
Merely determination and persistency enable me to overcome it.
And a hit and hide strategy.
Still, looking forward to the full game!
Any ideas when it will come out?
Glad you enjoyed it, despite the difficulty. You played it in a creative way if you managed to turn on the lasers before learning about the chamber flashbacks. I'll try to make that more clear.
It might be another year or two before the game comes out.
I love the game, but have one, small complaint. I feel like the dodge move is ever so slightly too short. If it was only like 0.1 - 0.2 seconds longer the dodge would be a lot easier to use. The section just after you first get the dodge, where there is the laser and the spider shooting down at you, I found myself dying a ton to the spider's bullet thing.
Other than that, the game was fantastic, and I hope you continue to make games.
Thanks for playing, glad you liked it! I'll consider making the dodge longer.
This is amazing! Definitely looking forward to playing the complete game, I would love to contribute do you guys have a patreon account?
Thanks! I don't currently have a patreon, but I'm open to the idea. If you really want to donate you can "purchase" the demo but there aren't any donation incentives or things like that, so please don't feel obligated to do so.
I don't usually donate to stuff, but I'll move my budget around for this. This is legitimately one of the few games I'm actually excited for. Not too many good Metroidvania's that are more metroid like out there, and even fewer that bring something new to the table. You've got a for sure buyer here when the full game comes out and hell even with the demo (once pay day comes around that is). Please keep it up! And do consider that Patreon if it isn't undue pressure!
(Also loved your other game Cartesian by the way! Beat it the other night and really enjoyed every minute of it!)
Thank you! Though it'll be a long while before the full game comes out I'm sure you'll enjoy it!