Approximate amount of time to 100%: 10h with accessibility options on, otherwise you might need double the amount of time
Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10 with accessibility options on, otherwise 9/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: You have to play each level at least 2 (Normal while getting all the purple gems and then do the time trial) but you probably will play a lot of them more than 2 times
Is there a good guide available: I wrote
this achievement guide Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: Yes, you need to get the gold medal in time trial on all the levels
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No, you can play with the accessibility options on and still unlock all the achievements
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
Grapple Dog is an amazing platformer with a nice story, but don't let the graphics fool you. This game is challenging! Gladly it offers accessibility options to those who prefer a bit of an easier game but it is still very challenging even with those options on. There are 2 accessibility options: Don't have a penalty for getting damage and get an infinite amount of air jumps so you can hop around in the levels and don't have to worry about the timing of using your grapple. Especially that last one makes the game a whole lot easier.
This game is a lot of fun! In every world, there are added at least 1 new game mechanic. There is a nice story and the progress of the game goes quickly. The levels aren't too long and the game autosaves after each level. It is also very nice that on the world map you can see your progress in each level, have you found all the games, got the time trial, and found the bonus level? You don't have to go inside the level to see it, just go to the level on the world map and the info is visible already. There is also an option for fast travel to each world so you don't have to sail to each world when you want to go back.
The most important thing in a platformer is how responsive the character feels and it seems a lot of care went into this part of the game, as it feels so natural and fine. You wouldn't be able to tell this game is made by a small team on that part. However I have encountered a few bugs, like at some point the camera not following the character anymore, or at 1 point the music stopped working. This is a shame as this game has a nice and upbeat soundtrack. I know they are working on those bugs and I hope the will be fixed soon.
For the achievements you'll just have to do everything that is possible in this game. Get all the purple gems, finish all time trials and even play a mini-game on a game console in your room. Most of them are very straightforward but can be very challenging. None of the achievements are missable. You can use the accessibility options and still unlock the achievements. I always did go for all the gems in each level and directly after that go for the gold medal, because at that moment I could remember the layout of the level the best. I have struggled a long time on the gold medal for level 3-2 so for that one I did go back later on as it was the last gold medal I needed for 100% completion.
I hope you found my review useful. If you don't mind helping me out, consider following my curator page, thank you! https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33025671-Missi-the-Ac... 3.5