[RKS Freudenstachel] „Gelb schmerzt.“

[Kilgamayan]

No, I've just been insanely busy/occupied over the last 36 hours or so.

Best Girl Zorne's Game Over screen is a reference to Hanjuku Hero. Since we've seen Best Girl Pam's Game Over screen already and multiple people have identified her as a Ys reference, rather than do the guessing game, I'll just outright state that hers is a Ys III reference specifically. With that said, here's Dolis's/Doris's Game Over screen, which is an absolute softball for anyone with any knowledge of older games.

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[BobisOnlyBob]

Doris' game over screen fell down a Pit!

[FourteenthOrder]

RKS26_JP.png [Doris's]

I haven't played RKS in Japanese so I never saw the Japanese version of this game over screen. I really like how it's 「ヤラレチャッタワ」 rather than 「ヤラレチャッタ」 like in the original

Kid Icarus

because Freu uses わ and all.

It's a shame that little detail doesn't translate naturally. ^^;

[Chirei]

Schirach is probably one of the hardest Megaman-like bosses ever made.

She used to do double damage with her grab, and it doubles in damage once again once she goes under half. Combined with the fact that her grab does not respect your i-frames, she can basically oneshot you, since you can't pause to use a jesus tank while grabbed. Her weakness was also different and much harder to use. Even the best speedrunners in the world died to her frequently.

The let is not huge for a good amount of her attacks and missing a beat is very punishing in a lot of cases. This is definitely a boss everyone has to jesus tank spam through on the first go, especially if you played before v1.03.

[Joseph Staleknight]

So, if Schirach got confirmed as a Smash DLC fighter, how many nerfs would she need to be tourney-legal?

SK-003: Schirach Fühler (/SHE-rahh FUE-ler/)

A formidable Dark Magus, often regarded as the strongest woman in the Holy Empire due to her ability, the Lichtfaust, and her hammer of the same name. Used to work under the RKS before disappearing and later defecting to the Schwarzkreuz. Her way of proclaiming this change of allegiance was directly getting Spirita captured for the church. Despite this, she's not one for great ideals but simply the thrill of battle, making her a dark mirror to Sir Raimund Seyfarth.

"Doesn't this look fun. I'm so happy!"

GOOD POINT: A good craftswoman
BAD POINT: Very crass
LIKES: Fighting for its own sake
DISLIKES: People who care too much

No trivia this time, since the Wikia page on her doesn't really have anything really little-known about her.

[Voltgloss]

If you try to cheese the final section using the Penguin Sled, you will more likely than not be suddenly instakilled by the falling blocks crushing you. I speak from sad experience.

Opinion: Schirach is the hardest boss in the game. Even IF you are using boss weakness weapons. Her weakness is the Freuden Zwinger screen-clear attack, which is cancelled if Freu gets hit during its startup or the attack itself. A few of those hits, and you'll likely run out of weapon energy before Schirach runs out of life.

[Chirei]

Opinion: Schirach is the hardest boss in the game. Even IF you are using boss weakness weapons. Her weakness is the Freuden Zwinger screen-clear attack, which is cancelled if Freu gets hit during its startup or the attack itself. A few of those hits, and you'll likely run out of weapon energy before Schirach runs out of life.

This is definitely not an unpopular opinion. I believe it takes maybe 8 Freudenzwinger hits or so to bring her down, and because she's an extremely mobile Gutsman, it's harder than it seems to land them all.

Before, it used to be that you had to use Kopiekreisel while she was blocking, but because of how strangely it is programmed, it didn't even work all the time. This also meant you had to risk being right next to her when she's basically a walking damage box.

Up next is what is possibly the hardest stage in this game. This one's much more up for debate.

[ano0maly]

The earthquake effect can be pretty dangerous because it can lead to Freudia being crushed by blocks or sliding off to land on spikes. At least the bomb platforms do hurt you when they blow up, and thus provide you i-frames to protect you from spikes, although that won't save you from getting crushed. The earthquake stun will also interrupt your Freudenzwinger. Note that you're not affected when you're standing on a bomb platform, riding Flügel, or standing on (or climbing) a ladder. And if you're sliding when the earthquake hits, you cancel the earthquake slide effect for the duration of Freudia's slide.

To deal with Schirach's grab-and-bash attack, you need to move away and jump before she lands to avoid the earthquake, and then jump again to avoid Schirach lunging at you. If you miss either jump she will get you and smack you away. I didn't realize that you can attack her to make her block and interrupt the lunge, though. That's a good alternative to jumping over her.

I think it helped that I was familiar with the earthquake gimmick from the Kudgel fight in DKC2 (that was the only boss in that game I really figured out when I was really young). Some of the attacks are similar to that fight.

Oh, and about Pamela's giant slash attack in the previous video: you're supposed to get close to her, since the attack appears some distance away from her. She summons that instead of the fireball in the second phase.

If you try to cheese the final section using the Penguin Sled, you will more likely than not be suddenly instakilled by the falling blocks crushing you. I speak from sad experience.

Huh that is odd. Flügel isn't solid, so I expected Freudia to just fall off of it if a block lands on her. But sometimes you do get crushed.

[Shard1697]

I wonder if you can misdirect the big rock upwards by preemptively jumping.

[Bean]

Haven't been saying much about this sequel since I've never seen it, but it seems to be more of the same with the real game gimmicks inspiration just with ice-based weapons this time around. Don't know which game is better to play or anything. This stage looked pretty fun, but I'm noticing a lot of the ones in the sequel just end. Like the midpoints seem to be 2/3 of the way through most levels in this one.

[Kilgamayan]

Man, but this boss is a pain in the ass. It's learnable, but boy is the timing for most of it tight.

Dolis's/Doris's Game Over screen is a Kid Icarus reference. Here's yesterday's/today's screen, which is a fairly long-running series that even got an anime.

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[Joseph Staleknight]

Funny coincidence: Yesterday I finished a visual novel that also featured strange twins! Though both were real

unlike these two.

SK-004: Recht Refraktia (/REHHT [...]/)
and SK-005: Link Refraktia

Twin Dark Magi who inhabit the Library of Shadows, rarely apart from each other. They share the Falschgestalt, a power that diverts special attacks and is rumored to be capable of other marvels.

At least, Recht wants people to believe they're twins. In reality, Link is a(n undead?) somewhat imaginary friend whose image was created with said Falschgestalt. "Somewhat" being the key word here because for some reason Link still exists in some form and still has her own consciousness, as evidenced by her continued existence after the "twins" were defeated.

In any case, Link's "big sister" instinct means that she will do anything for Recht's sake, including taking shots for and healing her.

Recht

"Uh...forgive me, but we have no choice!"

GOOD POINT: Polite
BAD POINT: Shy
LIKES: Books
DISLIKES: Worn bandages

Link

"C'mon, Recht! Be firmer!"

GOOD POINT: Expressive
BAD POINT: Often taken for granted
LIKES: Being there for her sister
DISLIKES: Annoyances

Trivia:

• In the original Japanese version, their first initials were switched so that they went by "Lecht" and "Rink" respectively.
• Their personalities and designs are inverted from their inspirations, Kei and Chihiro Shindo, from ef ~a fairy tale of the two~.

[ano0maly]

Well, you didn't sound as salty as I expected when I read the video description.

I don't think this is the hardest stage (that goes to

Eifer's stage and Iris 2

for me), but it is strange. Those platforms with timers materialize in purple-blue-yellow order. Note that a platform stays at 0 (when it materializes) longer than other countdown numbers. Also, I don't know why but they sink over time:



I don't think raocow noticed that you can actually hit those skull traps while they're attacking to eliminate them. You can also jump over them, but it's kind of frightening to do so when you're on flying books over a pit. I wasn't sure if the skull itself hurts me when I was first playing, and it looks like it doesn't.

If you're in a dark room and the cloak with the lantern shows up, the room brightens up, but it follows you, and if you destroy it, the room darkens again (unless you make it respawn). This darkness makes the last screen quite painful when there's much risk of falling off your ride. I understand that this gimmick doesn't show up very often, but why did it have to be the last screen?

The twins have a greater role in the story if you play

Pamela mode, Weißsilber

.

[Chirei]

I expected angrycow with the description but thankfully that didn't happen.

The correct twin to attack has an eyepatch, but I didn't think to use the hair covering as a tell. That's probably the most useful tell to use.

Honestly this fight would have been better if Link just didn't take any damage if you hit them. I can't understand what sense it makes that hitting literally nothing causes her to heal, even with weird magic.

For the record, it seems that the Schwarzkreuz are literally doing a "holier than thou" thing because they have the endorsement of the actual Pope and therefore have grounds to flaunt their holy crusade schtick at Freudia. The RKS do serve the church but were branded traitors after the events of the first game since Mike kinda died and the whole revolt thing was blamed on Tia and the RKS. In a way, RKSF is a game about the consequences of Iris's deception one game ago, just like Z3 set up Z4.

EDIT: Strudel jokingly says that she makes the fight a proper 2v2, but I have no idea what actually happens if you use Strudel here. Would she be smart enough to hit Recht only? Or does she just do no damage?

[ano0maly]

EDIT: Strudel jokingly says that she makes the fight a proper 2v2, but I have no idea what actually happens if you use Strudel here. Would she be smart enough to hit Recht only? Or does she just do no damage?

Tested it. Strudel aims at either one, and she can drain their shields and hit Link (thus healing the boss bar) but does not work on Recht.

[Kilgamayan]

I'm kind of surprised at how long the gimmick took to sink in, honestly.

Schirach's Game Over screen is a Hammerin' Harry reference. Here are today's screens, from a game that, for some reason, appears to have a French Wikipedia page but not an English one.

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[Bean]

Now that was an interesting stage. The spike drop aside, the other gimmicks looked kind of neat and the Gemini thing was done pretty well. When this game goes for improvements over direct rips, I appreciate it.

[Voltgloss]

I inadvertently spoiled myself on the "boss heals if you shoot the wrong one" gimmick before I fought this boss, so I can't speak to the experience of learning that organically. I tend to agree with comments in Discord that the issue would feel fairer if there was a different audio cue when hitting the wrong twin, to alert the player something's amiss.

The only reason I don't put this stage as one of the hardest in the game is because it's possible to cheese much of it using the Penguin Sled. The darkness complicates matters, certainly, but is much less of an anti-Penguin measure than the falling blocks in Schirach's stage or things we've yet to see in other stages.

[Kilgamayan]

I tend to agree with comments in Discord that the issue would feel fairer if there was a different audio cue when hitting the wrong twin, to alert the player something's amiss.

There may not be an audio cue, but there is a visual cue, easier to see mid-battle than watching the life bar, in that the fake twin does not flash/blink when hit.

[Alice]

The fact that the easiest visual difference between the two is completely negated by the fact sprites just flip when they're facing the opposite direction is a rather bad oversight on the part of the devs. When you're making a character(s) where an asymmetrical design is an important point it's kinda important to make sure you give them distinct left/right facing sprites rather than mirroring them like you would a normal sprite.

[Ashan]

Anyone else thinking about those YouTube guys Rhett and Link?
What are the odds?

[Chirei]

oh no it was dr wily again!!! dangit!!!

and she rebuilt the mega white house!!!

[Joseph Staleknight]

"Well, looks like it's time to write down another RKS CD member ca--oh shit iris whaddup"

But yeah, now Iris is going full Hollywood melodrama here, exploiting the Church and the Magi relations for her own gain.

[Awoo]

Oh, boy, again!

Just once I'd like a Dr. Cossack to be the actual thing and not just a Dr. Wily thing

[Reverning]

Eifer was a good ending for Act 2 (and probably the intended one?), I'm glad you reversed the usual order to fight her last.

I'm a little surprised she had a normal health bar though. I was expecting them to have her do the whole re-fight in desperation mode, like Freudia did in the first game.