{"id":1393104,"date":"2025-11-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jDqPLSBjAWunLYearcZY9e"},"modified":"2025-11-15T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T12:00:00","slug":"that-weird-pac-man-metroidvania-just-got-a-big-update-adding-a-new-mode-that-significantly-lowers-the-difficulty-of-combat-and-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/that-weird-pac-man-metroidvania-just-got-a-big-update-adding-a-new-mode-that-significantly-lowers-the-difficulty-of-combat-and-exploration\/","title":{"rendered":"That weird Pac-Man metroidvania just got a big update, adding a new mode that ‘significantly lowers the difficulty of combat and exploration’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Part of me still believes Shadow Labyrinth<\/a> is some sort of collective hallucination brought on by humanity’s overconsumption of digital cherries, as the idea of a grimdark Metroidvania starring Pac-Man is just too ludicrous to comprehend. Nonetheless, the trailer<\/a>, the Steam page<\/a>, and our own Shadow Labyrinth Review<\/a> all point to this being a real thing that happened.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it seems Shadow Labyrinth landed with a bit of a thud (or perhaps that descending wailing noise Pac-Man makes when he dies). It only has a handful of Steam reviews<\/a>, with many complaining about the experience being hindered by poor controls, sparse save points, and nasty difficulty spikes. But there is some good news. Bandai Namco has released an update<\/a> aiming to address all these problems, while also adding a new mode that provides greater flexibility in play.<\/p>\n

Said new mode is called “explorer mode”, which is a fancy way of saying “easy mode” as Bandai Namco explains in a recent Steam post: “This mode significantly lowers the difficulty of combat and exploration, allowing you to better enjoy the story and world.” This introduces some obvious adjustments, such as a more durable player character, increased damage output, faster energy recovery. But it also increases the number of save points within the world and tweaks the challenge of the more traditionally Pac-Man maze puzzles.<\/p>\n

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