Struggling
Level/gimmick: Spiderman parody
This stage takes full advantage of Troy’s upgrades. At one moment, he’s climbing buildings from a top-down perspective (versus the usual side-scrolling). At the next, he swings between grapple points with the previously mentioned “arm rope.”
On a related note: this sneaky background detail
The first time arm ropes came into play was confusing for me. I understood needing Troy’s arms to activate a grappling point, but this one was out of reach. I hadn’t considered holding hands to cross the distance.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who got stumped. Hiding in plain sight is a poster on the wall; it’s a tutorial on what to do! I was admittedly proud of noticing this, since my perception can be embarrassingly bad in video games.
Boss: Amadeus
Struggling’s first boss fight is amazing right out the gate. The arena is a satisfying (albeit clunky) game of pinball, with Amadeus filling the air with his song. Amadeus is designed so that he never skips a beat, even when screaming in pain from Troy crashing into him. It’s also surprisingly catchy (though I have zero clue if it’s a cover of a classical song).
Puns
So I think I pieced together why Troy is named how he is. After quickly brushing up on my Mythology, I remembered that Achilles and Hector are from opposing kingdoms in the story of the Trojan War. Since Struggling is about fighting the wonky physics, Troy is literally “at war” with the player. That’s a fantastic pun!
Level: drafting table
For whatever reason, this stage didn’t elicit a response from me. I get that it’s a 4th wall break; it looks like the devs penciling out their stage design. But the joke didn’t land for me, making me sum up the level as, “It exists.”
Gimmick: dating sim
I’m not a fan of these games (even when Hatoful Boyfriend swapped everyone with birds). This parody didn’t do much to subvert my expectations, so it felt drawn out for me.
Boss: the final one
Up until this point, Struggling plays off of its Troy symbolism. The opening cutscene is built like an ancient story passed through the ages. Troy even runs through a large temple later on.
Troy eventually lands in a bed of mushrooms and hallucinates. A “LOL random” gag involves ducks appearing all over the place, with Troy stating how much he hates them. This all culminates in the final boss: the Metaphorical Duck, standing in a war-torn land.
I’m fairly confident this is a Hideo Kojima joke. Which leads me to one question: why?
Is Metaphorical Duck commentary on Kojima’s games being “random” or nonsensical? At this moment, the only Kojima game I’ve played is Death Stranding, and I’ve watched someone play MGS2. Kojima makes it painfully obvious what all his symbolic imagery means. With this perspective, the boss is a sign that the devs didn’t pay attention.
Maybe the Duck isn’t meant to lambast Kojima directly, and it’s just the devs lampooning their game. In that case, is the punchline that it’s “LOL random”? That none of this matters and to not take it too seriously? Why is there so much care put into Troy's symbolism if I’m not supposed to think too deeply about it?
Metaphorical Duck has a muddled message, and ruins the otherwise good story beats of Struggling.