Nic Rowen’s review of Rain World seemed sympathetic but sad, which makes sense given that the game does a lot to invoke those two feelings. The bad news is, he was also feeling pretty disappointed when he said “I feel so badly for this game in a way. It seems so close to being something special and wonderful, but is just undermined at every turn by baffling design choices, poor controls, and frustration. Maybe some of these issues will be addressed in a future patch and Rain World will become the game it feels like it should have been. Someone else will have to let me know.”
Then a few months later, many of the issues Nic described were indeed addressed in a series of updates that added difficulty levels, decreased the need for potential grinding, and improved the map system. So the devs did their part, but did anyone let Nic know?
Steam’s user reviews definitely tried to get the word out, which now average at very positive. Still, it’s an uphill battle for any game that’s looking to reestablish its reputation after coming out of the gate to a mixed critical response. Slain managed to garner some goodwill after completely overhauling its combat system shortly after launch. TumbleSeed added an entire new game’s worth of content for free a few months after its debut, which helped it to get some additional headlines. Still, it’s unclear if the positive press for either game led to much of an uptick in sales.
I hope that Rain World fares better than that. With a new physical edition on PS4, and a surprise early launch on Switch, I think it has a chance, especially on Nintendo consoles. I know this game has an audience in the home of Mario, Samus, and Olimar. Though they aren’t directly related, you can see the DNA of all three running through different aspects of Rain World. I just wonder if Switch owners will pull Smash and Pokémon away for long enough to see it too.
Source: Destructoid Switch Port Report: Rain World