DT3 - raocow and the game that ended

[Dark Hunter]

Goodbye, Hexor. No one shall mourn you.

I was surprised that he actually, permanently removed their abilities though (backtracking notwithstanding). Just a final "screw you" from the edge lord, I guess.

[Sebby19]

That. Fight. Was. Awesome.

Wow, I mean, I can really appreciate what you were trying to do Zephyr, and you definitely succeeded. The whole thing just works.

I just wonder what the text for the electric shield and eyeballs were.

I don't think Hex is gone-gone. He still had a chunk of health left, and I doubt a Mario stomp can do that much damage.

[Count Mohawk]

Either way, jumping on his dumb face is still cool

This needed to be said.

[Plutia]

music for tomorrow, since at least one person is going to ask

[jaxter0987]

• Gate H with Claire's mother looking for you
• Lava Caves
• The lower chambers of Neo Grime City, with Stalkers patrolling in the dark
• The Hexor fight in the warship, with a mangled version of the creepy Sonic CD boss theme edited by ZephyrBurst
• The Hidden Program Facility underneath Central City, with slowed-down dial-up sound
• The Vault, where you confront the Abomination

There's my list. I want to make note that Gate H is FAR above the others in terms scariest and most disturbing moments for me. That very first room in Gate H... No offensive abilities, gimped mobility, no Jerry, Jeremy or Chao, Claire freaking out and begging for help, being able to hide... I really cannot describe the sheer amount of dread I felt moving forward after that first room.

music for tomorrow, since at least one person is going to ask

The name fits perfectly.

[Plutia]

i can't wait for the warmaster fight

i really wanna say its platinum-tier good but that's probably just me being biased because i love the idea

[Money]

my favorite part of the fight was when hex completely disabled attacking he couldnt help but create an "H" of fire around him

[Slit08]

Wow, Hex was toned down massively in difficulty. I wonder if he wasn't toned down a bit too much honestly. After all he was supposed to be one of the game's super bosses and while I agree that he was insanely hard before I think he might have been made a bit too easy. Something between the old damage values and the new ones would be better.

Also Zephyr, I hope that you didn't change anything about the Warmaster difficulty wise. This guy should always be the way he is...

[ZephyrBurst]

Hex did way too much damage at launch. Most of the attacks were only dropped by 1, though a select few were dropped as much as 3, such as touching the hands. The fight is primarily a puzzle fight so once you figure it out, it's just going through the motions. The big help here that I saw help out Robin a lot as well was making sure things like the hands don't spawn when they weren't supposed to. Such as when Jerry is down and near the end. Also dropping the fire rate of the shielding orbs by half a second made a big difference in "this isn't so bad" and "I hate my life."

Oh yeah, running to the left on the first big attack near the beginning is intentional. I've heard of some figuring it out, but raocow is the first I've seen use it in an LP. That's been there since launch.

The Warmaster, other than an extra effect to note certain attacks, is unchanged.

Edit: I expected at least 1 episode 0.

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

Rest in pieces, Paul Hexorowitz (A time - A later time). You died as you lived: with people you were smugly trying to threaten mostly ignoring you and talking about something else more important. My only regret is that your last experience wasn't someone telling you to shut up yet again. But this will most definitely suffice.

[NegativeZeroZ]

Well look at you, Mr. I-Don't-Perform-Well-Under-Pressure, beating the longest boss fight in the game in one go. And a puzzle boss no less.

Have an onion, Mr. Cow. You've earned it. As for me, from now on I'm just going to roll dice. It's about as reliable as getting into your head.

As for "Mr. Edgelord," thank Christ he is actually dead so I don't have to put up with this unfunny joke anymore. I like Hexor, there I said it, call me emo if you want. Now stop beating the ashes of this long undead horse. The ellipses remark is frankly just grasping at straws.

On a side note, thank you Sebby for actually saying something about the boss. Hex is basically the "Shroud Lord" of this game in execution, but the desperation attack is at the beginning this time so you don't have to complete what in easier games might constitute an entire boss fight or two just to have another go at it. But from what I've been reading so far, people hate the inverse difficulty curve of Hex too.

I guess the takeaway from this experiment is that people just don't like desperation attacks, and Zephyr's usual approach of making a boss's regular attacks ramp up over time until they essentially reach desperation-level zanyness is preferably more organic and less tedious.

[Money]

wait so hex is actually dead

because that's kinda weird how you fight the big bad first and then go fight the dude who's (lets be honest) hardly done anything antagonistic towards you at all

or maybe some big climax shit goes down afterwards I DUNNO I HAVENT HEARD ANYONE HINTING TOWARDS ANYTHING LIKE THAT IM JUST TRYING TO GUESS HOW THIS IS GONNA PLAY OUT

[Lostsoldier20]

I guess the takeaway from this experiment is that people just don't like desperation attacks, and Zephyr's usual approach of making a boss's regular attacks ramp up over time until they essentially reach desperation-level zanyness is preferably more organic and less tedious.

Actually, this reminded me, I am actually upset in the lack of a desperation attack. Yeah, its nice the danmaku is at the start, but it doesn't feel that difficult. Once you chart a course through it all, you just repeat the same motions over because "puzzle boss." It would also break the flow if it were at any other point. Either way though, it isn't that "desperation" or amazing that I'd expect out of Hex.

Especially after the Vault fight where he completely wipes you out with no way to dodge. Where was this attack here? Yeah it takes a lot of energy to use, but he has the energy to take away four ability sets AND dashing, using all his other many attacks, all while making the arena hell-scape? We'd even be able to use the Co-op shield as the way to bypass it in-fight. You could even have Jeremy pop up to say something about the attack coming so you could have time to block it. This specific thing bothers me more than it should, I know.

Also, Hex does feel like he ramps up as the fight goes on. So the "inverse" difficulty curve isn't completely there. At best its a bell curve, starting to lower as you lose powers. This is arguable too, as there's still a lot of dangerous things coming out until you force him into the final phase. (includes the Mario jump, but is not just the mario jump)

Edit: Oh, and you can actually kill Hex too fast and put yourself in an unwinnable situation with when Jeremy puts platforms up. Too fast, and flames will rise up before the platforms. Nothing to do with the NZZ reply. But I accidentally did this today.

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

because that's kinda weird how you fight the big bad first and then go fight the dude who's (lets be honest) hardly done anything antagonistic towards you at all

or maybe some big climax shit goes down afterwards I DUNNO I HAVENT HEARD ANYONE HINTING TOWARDS ANYTHING LIKE THAT IM JUST TRYING TO GUESS HOW THIS IS GONNA PLAY OUT

I find it extremely interesting that the Abomination -> Hexor -> Warmaster trio of endgame bosses is fought in the exact reverse order of what you'd most likely expect. On a practical level, though, it sort of makes sense that Hex would go down before Warmaster, as presumably CHAOS would immediately have stopped listening to Hex without their leader giving at least tacit approval. And really, for all his posturing, Hexor seemed a lot more reliant on CHAOS to achieve his goals than they were on him. Though I am intrigued to see how the Warmaster will react to this change of circumstances. What precisely did Hex offer him that he apparently felt was worth putting his army and other resources at the Big H's disposal...?

As for climatic feces moving in an earthward reaction after this confrontation...well, Zephyr sort of very heavily implied as much in one of the developer commentary notes. Exactly what form it will take, though...well, I have to admit I really don't have the foggiest at this point. Excitement!

[Alice]

Wow, Hex was toned down massively in difficulty. I wonder if he wasn't toned down a bit too much honestly. After all he was supposed to be one of the game's super bosses and while I agree that he was insanely hard before I think he might have been made a bit too easy. Something between the old damage values and the new ones would be better.

I think this way kinda fits for Hex. He's obnoxious but he's not all that dangerous in a typically straight forward fashion. In the end despite how annoying he is and how much trouble he's caused he's still an inferior copy of Jeremy with a terrible attitude so having him seem dangerous the way he is while still being reasonable works for the character that's been built up around him in the series. Though I do think that the Mario bit might be spelled out too clearly for the player.

[Ometeotl]

Rest in pieces, Paul Hexorowitz (A time - A later time). You died as you lived: with people you were smugly trying to threaten mostly ignoring you and talking about something else more important. My only regret is that your last experience wasn't someone telling you to shut up yet again. But this will most definitely suffice.

Whoa buddy, I don't appreciate you bringing levity to this thread about a game that has been nothing but serious and dark and depressing.

[RobinLSL]

Classic raocow, finding out all the methods to cheese stuff! Good job mate.

[Money]

Hex: "Life is meaningless, we're all fake anyways, I strive for the destruction of everything"
Also Hex: "This just in, you're going to die!"

Am I the only one who finds that line super silly?
'
Also re:crazy danmaku part at the beginning: I think the main problem people have with it is that it goes on for soooo long. Not only that, but there's two distinct halves to it (the lightning and scrolling circles part, and the morph ball dodge part). Maybe it'd be better if they were split up by at least a bit of actual fighting, with the second part maybe when he hits half health or jerry gets better or something? I dunno.

[Meowthnum1]

Prior to the patch, I felt like Hex was one of the hardest video game bosses I've ever fought. Felt rewarding, though. GREAT job with this fight, Zephyr.

Also, I'm proud of raocow for figuring out the Mario solution on the first try. I think I marathoned the last ten hours of the game, so the Blargg fight was fresh in my mind - it must be tough remembering that little trick a month or so later

[TaviTurnip]

Every time raocow optimizes a boss it makes me and it shines through so well in this game compared to others for some reason.

[kitikami]

raocow did a really good job of figuring out this fight and pulling everything off. The running into the left edge of the screen trick was pretty amusing. I'm surprised that works, and glad raocow found it. Putting the idle character on top of Hex so the water barrier curse and Hex could both be attacked at the same spot (and so it was useful blocking some projectiles) was pretty clever.

I like how the Blarg boss foreshadowing that Mario abilities can't be blocked was brought back here.

[Plutia]

tomorrow


tomorrow
the end begins

[TaviTurnip]

I wasn't aware I was in the market of making exclusively Mario enemies.

Also Zephyr stop having extremely great taste in music please, like I have picked up like six songs over the course of this LP thanks to you and also today had one of my favorite songs of all time so there's that.

[Plutia]

also someone keeps writing erotic fanfiction in the comments could you please do something about that mr cow of rao

[Meowthnum1]

also someone keeps writing erotic fanfiction in the comments could you please do something about that mr cow of rao

It's really weirding me out.

Oh boy, the Warmaster! The Warmaster is one of the most fun bosses I've fought in a video game. I hope you enjoy!