EXPURGATION (SBtorms)
A level idea I had based on MoNsTeR's "creature of madness", Loony! He still has a shotgun! I guess you could say this is a pretty 'tricky' level! (No, I'm not sorry) Thanks again for the amazing thumbnail, chettodust!
(cheetodust? they're fine with both)EXPURGATION is a level by SBtorms featuring the creature of madness, Loony. It is a fanmade level serving as a love letter to the Lost Evil collection by MoNsTeR.
Layout
Opening
- SBtorms making a stupid joke based on an old FNF meme thing, so says SBtorms editing this himself, EXPURGATION
The level opens with the regained square element rotating and the text "Follow me (FantomenK Remix)" that begins glitching out. After a brief moment the text turns into "EXPURGATION (instrumental ver.)" and it gains a broken, red halo. Loony's face can be seen in the background.
Checkpoint 1
The checkpoint opens up with Loony moving downwards at the center of the screen. He has a white, pulsing outline that scales, whenever a laugh can be heard in the song. This is a reoccurring theme in the level. The Circle Element can be seen slowly descending and spewing out rings of bullets. In the last moments of the checkpoint, it latches itself onto Loony, whose name appears in the background.
Checkpoint 2
The Creature of Madness descends to the very bottom of the screen. He mainly sends out quarter circle-shaped pulses synced to the drums. The second madman also uses spinning lasers, creates shockwaves on impact and lets out pulses that the player needs to dash through. Loony then quickly dashes from down to up, while going right before slamming back into the left screen border with a shockwave. He lets out two more quarter circle-shaped pulses before moving to the middle of the screen and spinning rapidly and letting out bullets. The color palette briefly changes from red and black to black and white before going back to normal. Loony then moves upwards, letting out yet more pulses. A bullet spiral emerges from the center of the screen.
Checkpoint 3
A spiked circle closes in while Loony is in the center. Lasers shoot out from the middle, as the song changes to a clown leitmotif for a moment. The circle closes in even deeper, forcing the player to move to the very center of the screen. Loony can be seen on the right side of the screen, sending out a laser from the Circle Element lodged in his forehead. The laser leaves behind a trail of bullets. He then moves to the left side of the screen, releasing a shockwave when he emerges just to let out 4 more bullets in a circular motion. Two giant circles move to the right leaving square bullets moving along the Y axis behind. Loony summons four moving arrows, two moving downwards and two moving upwards, still letting out two pulses. He moves to the center of the screen via moving downwards and appearing at the top of the screen - now with hands - summoning four jumping circles that cause even more shockwaves in quick succession. The third and fourth projectile explode into a ring of eight bullets each.
Checkpoint 4
Two giant pillars clash with each other in the middle, releasing more bullets. Loony moves onto the screen from the left side, slamming his body down and up, creating tall shockwaves, before speeding over to the right. He then appears in the center, his hands appearing in the corners of the screen as well. Said hands move about halfway through, releasing bullets, before they spin around the boss. Loony vanishes, leaving an outlined square behind. A blue helper with the text "GO TO THE CENTER" appears before eight pillars close off the sides of the screen. Everything zooms in and when it zooms out, everything is surrounded with a red ring decorated with spinning circle parts. Loony is looming above the player, staring down and shooting rows of arrow-lasers. A pulse closes off the circle while the Madman grabs his shotgun and storms off to the right. Another blue helper with the text "GO TO THE CENTER... again." appears as the screen rotates and everything zooms in.
Checkpoint 5
When the screen zooms out, Loony emerges from the right holding his shotgun. The screen moves along the X axis, the sides of the screen emitting lines as a method to keep the player in the center. The boss uses his shotgun, shooting out growing vertical lines and gunpowder residue two times. This pattern repeats throughout the section. After spewing out more lasers with the shotgun, the second Madman charges up an insanely huge laser. Afterwards, he moves over to the left side of the screen repeating the attacks while the screen keeps moving in the same direction. Then, a black and red arrow from Friday Night Funkin' appears and speeds off to the left, which also makes the screen move in that direction. The attacks keep repeating until Loony charges up another attack, that being a red sphere emitting bullets with curved movements. He moves back, releasing two bullet rings as the checkpoint is about to end and moves over to the center yet again.
Checkpoint 6
Loony is frenetically moving around the center, letting out rings upon rings of white square bullets. When the drum patterns change, he lets out a semicircular pulse instead. This pattern repeats four times until the Circle Element moves itself away from Loony's body.
Checkpoint 7
The Circle Element is rapidly pulsing and changing colors between cyan and red, letting out sprays of bullets with each beat. It also emits lasers, that are synced to the melody. The artifact creates a big pulse before going back to the previous pattern. Once the buildup progresses, more slices of pulses appear. The checkpoint ends with the Element flashing and reattaching itself to Loony. A text message appears in the background saying "HAAAAAAANK!", as a reference to the standard version of the song.
Checkpoint 8
Loony dashes upwards, leaving a pulse behind. Bouncy pillars appear on the screen while Loony's monster appears from the sides, chomping and leaving bullets behind.
Checkpoint 9
Loony jumps up towards the center, shooting out two pulses along the X axis. Elements from the previous checkpoint keep looping around, while Loony is dashing around the screen leaving laser trails behind. The first deviation from this pattern is when the Madman appears in the bottom right corner and emits two pulses from his body. Shortly after, he appears in the top left corner, turning on his flamethrower and rotating it counterclockwise. He then appears at the left side of the screen, summoning an item similar to a drumstick, hitting it on the bottom and ceiling of the screen. Loony then teleports up to the top, still at the middle, summoning spike ball arms that explode into rings of bullets shortly afterwards. After that, he shoots out pulses again, before appearing at the center of the screen and growing in size for a moment as the music hits lower notes, forcing the player to move to the borders. He repeats the dashes and moves down to release the last two pulses. His plans get interrupted however, as he gets tired out and the Circle Element goes back to its normal state, turning cyan and detaching itself from Loony for good.
Checkpoint 10
The Circle Element is rotating around the player's element inventory while arrow shaped projectiles shoot out from the sides, four-sided star shaped bombs reminiscent of the ones in Loony's official level explode into eight projectiles and square pulses appear. The level ends with the Circle Element falling back into it's place timed to the last low growl in the song. The level credits appear at the same moment, listing people the level is dedicated to.
Video
Gallery
Loony's face in the background.
The first checkpoint featuring attacks similar to Loony's attack pattern in Three Madmen (MoNsTeR).
The third checkpoint of the level, where Loony is seen using a laser from the Circle Element on his forehead.
The fourth checkpoint of the level featuring Loony about to move to the right side of the screen.
Another part of the fourth checkpoint.
An attack identical to the one in JSaB's Creatures Ov Deception level.
Loony's monster can be seen cyclically appearing from the sides.
The second and last JSaB reference in the level.
The last stretch of the level.
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Trivia
- The level contains a lot of references, ranging from direct references to Lost Evil to more obscure references such as other bosses appearing for brief moments.
- The very first allusion to another creation in the level occurs at the very start, referencing the intro to Three Madmen.
- An outlined, pulsing square with a broken halo appears in the center of the screen. Rapidly flashing text over it makes it rather clear that it is a "holy shit luminary reference". Additionally, the broken, red halo is a reference to the same halo that the skeletal form of Tricky seen in Madness Combat 11: Expurgation possesses. That makes sense, considering the fact that EXPURGATION is a song directly created for the Friday Night Funkin' mod titled "Versus Tricky."
- Shortly after the Luminary reference, another character cameo appears. A cube with the Okiba Crackdown Boss's face can be seen emitting a laser, sliding from right to left. The laser itself has the text "suddenly, obscure reference. Okiba Crackdown is still a ballin' level".
- Additionally, one of the lasers in the same section has the question "has sean woken up yet?" displayed on top of it. This is a reference to a late 2021 joke level trend based on -Seanski2-'s dream about a spam of red levels with generic square decorated borders using bass boosted "Frontlines" as a background. [1]
- During the fifth checkpoint a FNF arrow used in the Versus Tricky mod can be seen appearing as an indicator, that the screen will move in a different direction.
- The fifth and ninth checkpoints also contain allusions to Just Shapes & Beats levels Creatures Ov Deception by Rainbowdragoneyes and Annihilate by Destroid, respectively.
- Almost all of the attacks in the level are inspired by the attacks appearing in Follow Me (Remix) by MoNsTeR, which is the level where Loony is the main boss.