So like, elephant in the room here, this game was only about 1/3rd of the way finished before they just kinda abandoned it, and now over a decade later, it still has not been finished. It's to the point where, despite being the "Episode 5b" of BFDIA, when BFDIA made a return, they seemingly no longer consider this a valid episode in promotional posts (promotional is a little too corporate for a "casual" web series, but there was no better word). This is probably because they straight up feature the Companion Cube and a sentient Lego in it, and so there might be a legal reason to retcon it. For a "casual" web series, of course.
So... Do we recommend you play one third of an abandoned flash game that may or may not be retconned from the series it's a part of?
Well, lucky for you, we have a few play-by-plays of... um...
• Let's get the second elephant out of the room--the story here is largely irrelevant. You don't have to play BFDIA 5b to know more about these characters. You don't even have to watch a longplay--you can skip from BFDIA 5a to 5c and only be mildly confused why the buttons look like that.
• This game lacks any form of coyote time. At all. It's also very particular about when you can jump. This leads to a lot of "The Jump Didn't Jump™" scenarios, such as in 040.
• Some dialogue just would not trigger at all. This might be because of Flashpoint, to be fair, but Lego Brick was entirely silent in our game. This definitely made 033, 042, 046, and 050 lot less... comprehensible.
• 005 is an unnecessary difficulty spike right out the gate.
• 009 features what is more-or-less a kaizo trap because the camera doesn't show that there's spikes right above a spring. It also just, doesn't tell you HOW to avoid those spikes. You're meant to hold onto the Companion Cube.
• 014 can be cheesed by simply never going to the entire top left of the map.
• 018 very abruptly teaches you, by force, you can lean up against the sides of spikes. This has been a thing in the entire game and it made 016 feel weird to play.
• 020 introduces character switching and oh my god these keybindings. For reference, space is jump, R is reset, and Z is swap--those are simultaneously way too close and way further away than you'd like. Maybe it's because we had recently played :reimagine the game: where swapping was just neatly from the number row, but also WOW. Also there's no way to tell who's swapped to who without moving. This comes to a head in 022, which starts you as Match--the character that cannot do anything at the start of the level. 036 also starts with Match unable to do anything and starts you as--you guessed it!--Book
• 029 has you juggle the two halves of the HPRC. It is godforsakenly finnicky and if one of them falls into a pit, that's a softlock and you have to restart the level.
• 034's spikes on the right side of the screen have wonky collission and they'll occasionally just merc you for standing on the gray platform to their right.
• 038 and 039 have rather difficult to see spikes compared to the background. Usually, they were placed rather conspicously to denote that theres' danger, but there's just one out in the open in both of these levels.
• 040's titular Bridge resembles the moving semi-solid from the previous level. There is zero indication you can pick it up. Also, its hitbox is just... completely fucked if Match EVER picks it up.
• 048 demands you light Match on fire. At no point is this given a tutorial as far as we can see.
• 052, the final level that was made, is way too easy to cheese--you can very easily end up on the other side of the giant moving wall of death--but the downside is that it becomes EXCRUCIATINGLY long. Despite this, it's in your best interest to play the level this way, because otherwise you have to juggle character swaps--and remember, there is ZERO indication of who you are unless you press Z or move them around. Also you have to juggle the HPRC again. NIGHTMARE.
...So, um, in short? ...We think on some level, we do understand why BFDIA 5b was never made relevant even in BFDIA 5c. The game mechanically "works" (even if it is hella jank), but like. We think Cary just straight up is not a good level designer for 2D platformers. And it sucks, because not only is this the closest thing to an Object Show Video Game even to this day, but this is a game that has SOME potential to it. Puzzle platformers are like, an entire genre of video game. We've seen speedruns of this game that actually managed to get good at this game, and like, those are actually pretty interesting! We wish this game was fully realized because this game has a skill ceiling it is brazenly, naively, unaware of!
And yet, tragically, this game will probably never see its potential realized; it was going to have a level editor, but it was never actually made, and the game is still closed-source, and on top of that, y'know, it's programmed in Adobe Flash. They revamped the website you could play this game on, and straight up didn't even put this thing in like, a Ruffle player. It's basically abandonware at this point.
But hey, what else do you expect from a video game made for a "casual" web series? The one they're trying to keep "casual" in its creation, and all that? Y'know, the one that's "casual"ly made from their "casual" office and is "casual"ly hiring animators and "casual"ly sells merchandise to a primarily child audience to "casual"ly pay the bills for their "casual" LLC they "casual"ly filed for in 2018, shortly after a mini-hiatus that caused them to "casual"ly split a season in twain, that has them filing "casual" trademarks for "casual" Coiny™ for the creation of those "casual" plush toys. It's not like they could just literally hire a guy to finish this game, or heck, maybe give it actually fun levels. Casually.
...
Also making your collectibles invisible until you're in-range is diabolical and we don't exactly appreciate that.
So... Do we recommend you play one third of an abandoned flash game that may or may not be retconned from the series it's a part of?
Well, lucky for you, we have a few play-by-plays of... um...
• Let's get the second elephant out of the room--the story here is largely irrelevant. You don't have to play BFDIA 5b to know more about these characters. You don't even have to watch a longplay--you can skip from BFDIA 5a to 5c and only be mildly confused why the buttons look like that.
• This game lacks any form of coyote time. At all. It's also very particular about when you can jump. This leads to a lot of "The Jump Didn't Jump™" scenarios, such as in 040.
• Some dialogue just would not trigger at all. This might be because of Flashpoint, to be fair, but Lego Brick was entirely silent in our game. This definitely made 033, 042, 046, and 050 lot less... comprehensible.
• 005 is an unnecessary difficulty spike right out the gate.
• 009 features what is more-or-less a kaizo trap because the camera doesn't show that there's spikes right above a spring. It also just, doesn't tell you HOW to avoid those spikes. You're meant to hold onto the Companion Cube.
• 014 can be cheesed by simply never going to the entire top left of the map.
• 018 very abruptly teaches you, by force, you can lean up against the sides of spikes. This has been a thing in the entire game and it made 016 feel weird to play.
• 020 introduces character switching and oh my god these keybindings. For reference, space is jump, R is reset, and Z is swap--those are simultaneously way too close and way further away than you'd like. Maybe it's because we had recently played :reimagine the game: where swapping was just neatly from the number row, but also WOW. Also there's no way to tell who's swapped to who without moving. This comes to a head in 022, which starts you as Match--the character that cannot do anything at the start of the level. 036 also starts with Match unable to do anything and starts you as--you guessed it!--Book
• 029 has you juggle the two halves of the HPRC. It is godforsakenly finnicky and if one of them falls into a pit, that's a softlock and you have to restart the level.
• 034's spikes on the right side of the screen have wonky collission and they'll occasionally just merc you for standing on the gray platform to their right.
• 038 and 039 have rather difficult to see spikes compared to the background. Usually, they were placed rather conspicously to denote that theres' danger, but there's just one out in the open in both of these levels.
• 040's titular Bridge resembles the moving semi-solid from the previous level. There is zero indication you can pick it up. Also, its hitbox is just... completely fucked if Match EVER picks it up.
• 048 demands you light Match on fire. At no point is this given a tutorial as far as we can see.
• 052, the final level that was made, is way too easy to cheese--you can very easily end up on the other side of the giant moving wall of death--but the downside is that it becomes EXCRUCIATINGLY long. Despite this, it's in your best interest to play the level this way, because otherwise you have to juggle character swaps--and remember, there is ZERO indication of who you are unless you press Z or move them around. Also you have to juggle the HPRC again. NIGHTMARE.
...So, um, in short? ...We think on some level, we do understand why BFDIA 5b was never made relevant even in BFDIA 5c. The game mechanically "works" (even if it is hella jank), but like. We think Cary just straight up is not a good level designer for 2D platformers. And it sucks, because not only is this the closest thing to an Object Show Video Game even to this day, but this is a game that has SOME potential to it. Puzzle platformers are like, an entire genre of video game. We've seen speedruns of this game that actually managed to get good at this game, and like, those are actually pretty interesting! We wish this game was fully realized because this game has a skill ceiling it is brazenly, naively, unaware of!
And yet, tragically, this game will probably never see its potential realized; it was going to have a level editor, but it was never actually made, and the game is still closed-source, and on top of that, y'know, it's programmed in Adobe Flash. They revamped the website you could play this game on, and straight up didn't even put this thing in like, a Ruffle player. It's basically abandonware at this point.
But hey, what else do you expect from a video game made for a "casual" web series? The one they're trying to keep "casual" in its creation, and all that? Y'know, the one that's "casual"ly made from their "casual" office and is "casual"ly hiring animators and "casual"ly sells merchandise to a primarily child audience to "casual"ly pay the bills for their "casual" LLC they "casual"ly filed for in 2018, shortly after a mini-hiatus that caused them to "casual"ly split a season in twain, that has them filing "casual" trademarks for "casual" Coiny™ for the creation of those "casual" plush toys. It's not like they could just literally hire a guy to finish this game, or heck, maybe give it actually fun levels. Casually.
...
Also making your collectibles invisible until you're in-range is diabolical and we don't exactly appreciate that.
Very nostalgic, though damn is it frustrating
This game might legitimately have the most psychotic early game difficulty spike in existence but it's hard for me not to appreciate just how clever some of the level design here is