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Dabir posted:supposedly DK64's code is pretty hosed to begin with, I mean this is the game where they had to pack it with the RAM pack in order to make it take an acceptably long time for a memory leak to make it crash You can swim through walls if you just kinda...swim at them for a second. Swordless Link did an amazing VLP of the game where he just casually broke everything without trying hard. It's one of the glitchiest N64 games, more so than Super Mario 64 but not as much as Ocarina of Time.
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Dec 31, 2019 01:27
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The N64 is held together with scotch tape. It's a wonder it was released at all considering how easy it is to bust any given game wide open
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Dec 31, 2019 01:38
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Even as children, I'm sure a lot of people accidentally broke DK64. I know I just grounded pounded at random and found a few places in different levels where my character would just clip right out and into the dark void.
Ramos fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Dec 31, 2019 |
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Dec 31, 2019 01:56
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I turned my N64 on once and the screen immediately just showed Donkey landing in the water of DK Isle. No matter how much I swam nothing got closer. An eternal swimming section is the N64 player's worst nightmare.
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Dec 31, 2019 01:59
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More good news! With some research help, the MQ devs were able to locate where Volt Shrooms' duration was altered to 1 turn. This change was made by clover, maker of the earlier Paper Mario: Pro Mode romhack, and was not desired in Master Quest. It's being reverted soon.
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Dec 31, 2019 12:37
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Just goes to show, as brutal as MQ can be, the devs aren't ENTIRELY out to screw the player.
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Dec 31, 2019 23:58
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KieranWalker posted:Just goes to show, as brutal as MQ can be, the devs aren't ENTIRELY out to screw the player. Just mostly
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Jan 1, 2020 02:01
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This is still better than FFT 1.3. They may make it so that only about one strategy works, which is bad enough, but at least I feel like a very astute player who knows the game back-to-front, which is indeed their audience, could deduce it with enough patience. 1.3 was also built on "one way is the only way", but it also involved long minutes spent sandbagging the enemies, because they had infinite resurrection capabilities, among other vices. Having the smug dev posting in thread was just the icing on the cake. I agree that PM was originally too easy for what I would term an "average" gamer and I understand wanting to give it more chops, but this seems to lean too far towards the extreme. Perhaps the Junior/Lite/mitigated version will hit a sweet spot; I hope so! Here is the thread (requires archives) if anyone is curious. Your impressions might be different than mine, you might find it makes you look at this mod more favourably, or you might find it cathartic.
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Jan 1, 2020 04:08
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I mean, for what it's worth Jeff, I'm not even that familiar with Paper Mario and I think I would enjoy playing MQ Lite, if the base game is as easy as it's made out to be.
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Jan 1, 2020 17:56
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KieranWalker posted:I mean, for what it's worth Jeff, I'm not even that familiar with Paper Mario and I think I would enjoy playing MQ Lite, if the base game is as easy as it's made out to be. Those are my thoughts as well. I appreciate that this mod isn't made out for me in mind, but nothing is above criticism. Some might say that those who don't make up the intended audience don't have any right to critique it, but I say that those people are perfectly valid provided that they can articulate why this is unappealing to them. I would contend that the "intended audience" is more likely to be blind to its flaws.
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Jan 1, 2020 20:47
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It makes me wonder how the spiritual successor Bug Fables handled its difficulty curve. I know it has a Hard Mode option off the bat but I'm unsure of what all it does. I've been waiting for a console port before I dig into the game...
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Jan 2, 2020 01:40
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Alxprit posted:It makes me wonder how the spiritual successor Bug Fables handled its difficulty curve. I know it has a Hard Mode option off the bat but I'm unsure of what all it does. I've been waiting for a console port before I dig into the game... Hard mode off the bat (hard mode being the intended experience). There are additional challenge badges that do things like double enemy damage, and you can freely mix and match to get the difficulty where you like it.
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Jan 2, 2020 01:47
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I dont know posted:(hard mode being the intended experience) This is kind of  , is there actually proof that this is the case or is it just something that was collectively decided on by the fans?
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Jan 2, 2020 01:49
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As far as how Bug Fable's normal mode handled its difficulty, it was generally pretty relaxed in my playthrough. Deaths were very rare, no complex strategies needed. By the end of the penultimate chapter, my go-to badge set-up and strategy was starting to feel overpowered, but the final chapter stepped up the challenge and took me off my high horse. I won't elaborate because its probably one of the best finale's i've ever played and is better experienced than heard about. The final boss also kicked my butt a little, and took 3 long attempts at the fight to nail completely. This is all from the perspective from someone who played Paper Mario & TTYD as a kid and doesn't consider themselves an excellent player, so i'm sure an RPG veteran could decimate the normal campaign, but to me hardmode is a looming threat to my skill level. In general I would describe Bug Fable's normal difficulty as directly analogous to Paper Mario's, just a little harder to stop it from being a complete breeze. Also, for those who want to get a little more out of the game, theres a couple secret codes you can find in the game that when entered as a new save file's name change the game. I'll spoiler tag it because learning it is sort of a reward in-game, but the code RUIGEE alters the game to mimic Luigi's challenge from Master Quest (Or perhaps its predecessor, Pro Mode), which is pretty cool to see. And while i'm at it, honestly the only reason I could think NOT to recommend Bug Fable to a Paper Mario fan is due to the situation with the dev's publisher, but I couldn't say whether or not letting that stop you helps or hurts the devs more.
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Jan 2, 2020 02:42
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Given the Devs last I heard asked people to not buy the game while the situation was going on :/
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Jan 2, 2020 03:53
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Gotta be pretty hosed up indeed, when a developer actually tells people to not buy their game.
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Jan 2, 2020 04:03
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Robindaybird posted:Given the Devs last I heard asked people to not buy the game while the situation was going on :/ Different devs, that was the Devil Engine guys. I don't think the Bug Fables devs have said anything yet.
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Jan 2, 2020 04:08
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Electric Phantasm posted:Different devs, that was the Devil Engine guys. oh, my bad then, but yeah, it's just a lovely situation all around
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Jan 2, 2020 06:40
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Alxprit posted:It makes me wonder how the spiritual successor Bug Fables handled its difficulty curve. I know it has a Hard Mode option off the bat but I'm unsure of what all it does. I've been waiting for a console port before I dig into the game... Hard Mode generally just adds HP, ATK, and DEF to monsters, no difference in patterns or anything like that. Hard Mode definitely isn't as punishing as Master Quest here, but it's tough. I never felt like I was forced into a particular strategy for a fight, and there were a bunch of bosses where I felt like I just barely squeaked through. Honestly, it was excellent. Also, every boss you beat in hard mode gets you a free badge. Felt like a nice little bit of design, because they tended to be things that were extremely useful in hard mode, but rather unnecessary if you play normal. Main problem I have with it honestly, is that it's weirdly stingy with healing items. For the majority of the game, your best FP item only heals 12 FP, and even your cheapest attack moves cost 3 or 4. There are only two items that heal more FP than that, both of which require cooking up pricey ingredients. Near the end of the game I found myself farming money after most bosses to afford the healing items for the next boss.
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Jan 2, 2020 07:39
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Apologies for the delay. There have been some technical difficulties with General Guy's installment. ... this may be a nice way to say he's kicking my rear end.
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Jan 9, 2020 12:58
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Quackles posted:Apologies for the delay. There have been some technical difficulties with General Guy's installment.
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Jan 9, 2020 13:02
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Quackles posted:Apologies for the delay. There have been some technical difficulties with General Guy's installment. Dying technically does put an end to a run.
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Jan 9, 2020 13:49
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at least I know its not just a me issue because gently caress general guy
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Jan 9, 2020 13:59
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Capfalcon posted:Dying technically does put an end to a run. Yeah, but it does give you some general problems.
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Jan 9, 2020 16:40
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Look you can't make a battle plan that works against every guy in the game. You need one for this specific guy.
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Jan 10, 2020 21:41
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Part 29: General Guy - The Quackles Review Let’s see what Watt can do!  That’s better.   When we get out of the Lantern Ghost’s room, Watt’s light reveals a hidden block. There’s a Snowman Doll inside.  We ride the elevators to the Super Block we passed by on the way in, and upgrade Watt. She starts at Super Rank, effectively.  Her moveset includes Electro Dash (her default, defense-piercing attack), Power Shock (which inflicts Paralysis on an enemy), and Turbo Charge (which buffs Mario’s Attack by 1 for a few turns). Both Power Shock and Turbo Charge cost 2 FP more than the base game.   Dropping down from where the Super Block is, we find another hidden block. This one has a second Deep Focus badge!  There’s a third hidden block in this room, at the doorway leading to Red Station. It contains a Volt Shroom.   And Red Station has a hidden block, too, with a Super Shroom. Time to check every inch of the Toy Box for hidden blocks!   There’s a hidden block in Green Station - it has a Fire Flower.   And inside the wing branching off from Green Station… OK, what is that Koopatrol still doing here?!   Due to a bug in the game, we find ourselves fighting our friend the Koopatrol again. This time, though, we’re a little better prepared…   …because we’ve got our friend Watt to break through its Defense! Watt does 3 damage at Super Rank. Her damage has been decreased from the base game; there, she did 3, 4, or 5 damage depending on rank. Here, she does 2, 3, or 4.  We seem to have Smash Charge and Hammer Throw equipped from the Lantern Ghost fight, so Mario Charges.     We end up farming Koopatrols in grand style.   There aren’t any hidden blocks in this wing of the Toy Box, alas - but we can keep refighting the Koopatrol, if we want. It’ll respawn if we go far enough away and come back.   At this point, our inventory is getting full. Also, we ended up using two Sweet Shrooms during the Koopatrol fight, so we need to restock on healing items. We end up storing the Shooting Star, then cooking the Fire Flower we picked up (plus another one that was in our box) into a pair of Egg Missiles. (We also make more Sweet Shrooms.)   There’s a message on the Toad Town notice board that will become very relevant in our future.    Back in the Toy Box, we fight the Koopatrol again for our own amusement, getting another 15 Star Points.  Now it’s back to the block hunt! Pink Station has a hidden block, but it’s in the back, by the lever we pulled earlier.   We get sniped by a Spy Guy on the way there, and run for it.  There’s another hidden block by the back of the railroad crossing; it has a Super Soda.   The block by the lever contains a Thunder Rage.   We get sniped on the way back, too!!  There’s only one wing left to search: Blue Station’s. The station itself has a hidden block with a valuable Stone Cap! That makes two total in our collections.   Another hidden block, by the Anti Crew’s chest, has a Maple Syrup.    To round it out, there’s two blocks in the Shy Guy playground, with a Fright Jar and a Mystery. Because the Toad Town shop now sells Pebbles instead of Fright Jars, the Jar is a limited-quantity item now!  The Mystery, meanwhile, has a few mild effects, but it can also be given to Tayce to have her make a random dish. There’s also a 50% probability that it turns into a Mistake, instead.   We end up with, of all things, a Sleepy Sheep! Now that we’ve gotten Watt, and found all the hidden blocks in the Toy Box, it’s time to finally fight the cause of all this Toad Town ruckus: General Guy.    …buuuuut we can’t keep ourselves from challenging that Koopatrol ooooone more time.    After preparing, we head to Red Station, and then back to the dark room we saw earlier.   Watt lights it up, revealing a dead end with a cohort of terrified Shy Guys.   So terrified, in fact, that they break down the wall at the far end, and run for it!   I take a moment to figure out our badge layout before we go on. In the original game, the fight with General Guy went like this: Wave 1: Summons a horde of Shy Guys. Not a problem with Defend Plus. Wave 2: Summons Stilt Guys. We can knock ‘em off their stilts with quake attacks. Wave 3: Summons Shy Stacks, kind of like a Pokey made of Shy Guys. Spin Smash can knock them down. Wave 4: General Guy in his tank. The tank is heavily defensive, so you’re supposed to use Watt. As such, I add a layout that packs Spin Smash and Power Quake to deal with the early waves. Sadly, we don’t have D-Down Jump— in the original game, we’d get it in Tubba Blubba’s Castle. Here, we got Power Quake instead. Oh well! We have a bit of BP left over, so I also add Medicine Man. Now, time for us to fight a general. General Guy - The Quackles Review   General Guy opens with impressive presentation, and a true generalissimo vibe.  As long as we keep it secure, we have permission to do whatever we want. You hear?! I don’t care for you, sir. You are rude, and furthermore, you’re trespassing in here. Our Toy Box is off limits to the likes of you! The treasures inside this box are for Shy Guys only! And that Star Spirit's fate is none of your business! Prepare to fight me, sir!  They charge us.  Music: Keeping Pace    This is the Shy Squad. It'll attack us with all its members at once. The number of times we're attacked will equal the number of Shy Guys in the Squad. Its attack power is huge when there are many Guys, but it drops for each one that falls. Let's use an attack that does tons of damage so we can decrease their numbers and increase our chances! The Shy Squad loses a member for each point of damage it takes.  The Squad has 11 HP left, so it attacks for 1 damage… 11 times! We have Defend Plus, so we ignore it. (The Squad does not appear to have been changed from the original Paper Mario).    After one more round of attacks, the Squad is down to 3 HP. They bail.  Next, General Guy himself rides onto the scene! We can’t fight him just yet, though.  Mario! You, sir, will pay! You beat my infantry, but that’s all you’ll do! Prepare for the next wave! Stilt Guys parachute in from above! Go! Attack, Stilt Guys! Fight! Fight! Fight! Yes, sir! Right away, sir! This is a Stilt Guy. Yes, as the name suggests, Stilt Guys are Shy Guys on Stilts. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me... If you attack 'em by shaking the ground, they'll fall off their stilts and become normal Shy Guys.Stilt Guys have the +2 HP bump that all Shy Guys got in Master Quest.   In the original game, Stilt Guys attacked for 4 damage. Here, they do 8. We’re not waiting around to find this out, though— one Power Quake knocks both off their stilts.    …which means they’re regular Shy Guys again, acrobatics and all! We aren’t wearing Zap Tap, so Bombette does a Power Bomb to KO the Stilt Guys before we take more damage.  I guess it’s time for my special battalion…  Attaaaaaaaack! Yes, sir!!!!! This is a Shy Stack. Whoa, this pile has an incredible sense of balance! Look at that stack! If you have the Spin Smash ability, you can knock ‘em off one by one. Obviously, their attack power decreases when there are fewer of ‘em in the stack.Shy Stacks got a +4 HP buff compared to the base game.   We Spin Smash posthaste. In Paper Mario, Shy Stacks did 1-4 damage per attack, depending on the stack height. Here, a full Stack does a whopping 12 damage, going down to 10 damage at three members, then 8 damage at two, then 6 as we knock more Stack troopers away. And we have to deal with two whole Stacks at once!   Shy Stacks, like Pokeys, also lose members to Kooper’s shell attacks. We heal, using our first Sweet Shroom so as to not bite it.    Stacks aren’t as annoying to deal with once they’re down to two members or less, but it’s still unpleasant. We Spin Smash again, and Kooper deals the final blow to the front Stack.   Gah! Grrrr...! Nobody embarasses the brave Shy Guys of my army! Nobody! Fine! I'll beat you myself! Now it's time for the main event!  Our first step is to test the defenses of General Guy’s tank. We do this by having Bombette blow it up. In the vanilla game, the tank had 2 Defense. Now, it has 3. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! That hurt! Where’d you learn to fight? You must be cheating! The tank is, sadly, immune to Quake attacks - another change from Paper Mario, where quakes pierced its Defense. The lightbulb on the back does take damage, though.  General Guy reacts by summoning a Pyro Guy! This is entirely new to Master Quest - once General Guy was in his tank originally, he didn’t have any further backup left. In this game, he’ll summon an ally each turn, as long as one of the two free spaces in front of him is empty.  General Guy also has a fearsome lightning-bolt attack, courtesy of the lightbulb on his tank. The attack’s damage (6 to Mario, 2 to partner) is only slightly upgraded from Paper Mario - it did only 5 damage to Mario there - but that’s not the nasty part. The nasty part is that if Mario doesn’t block the lightning attack, it’ll now paralyze him for 2 turns, like the Big Lantern Ghost! Fortunately, this attack has obvious visual and sound cues, so it’s a lot easier to block than that freaking lantern. I only make the block for Mario himself, though, and Bombette gets put out of commission for a bit.  Next turn, with no partner, we find ourselves in a pickle. The tank’s hatch is too high to hammer, and its Defense is sufficient to protect it from jump attacks. Since the tank’s immune to Quake, Mario has no good way to actually damage General Guy!  Spin Smashing the Pyro Guy does do defense-piercing damage to the General, at least… one point of damage.    The Pyro Guy retaliates; then General Guy summons another Pyro Guy and hurls a 4-damage bomb at Mario. (The animation for the bomb is faster than in the original game.)    At this point, Mario’s in trouble! We heal up with another Sweet Shroom. The Pyro Guys retaliate, and General Guy does another bomb throw. (It’s a 50% chance as to whether he does the lightning attack or the throw each turn. This can stunlock you if you’re unlucky and he decides to use the lightning while you or your partner are paralyzed.)  We’re finally able to get the tattle for the Toy Tank next turn! It has 60 HP - double that of the main game. This is General Guy in his tank. The tank seems to be dangerous even though it's a toy. Not only does the General give commands from the tank, but he also throws bombs and uses electric attacks. His electric attack will also hurt your party member, so defend yourself carefully. He’ll lose the electric attack if we break the light bulb. Normal fighting styles seem ineffective because the tank is well fortified.Though Goombario doesn’t mention it, the lightbulb’s HP has been raised from 8 in the base game, to a whopping 40 here - and it still has the 1 Defense that it had in Paper Mario, to boot. We won’t be shattering that any time soon - so General Guy will continue to be able to make lightning attacks for the rest of the battle.   We’re kind of in a tight spot with all the Pyro Guys, so we use the Snowman Doll we had lying around in our inventory to KO one. (I’m informed General Guy’s tank is to be made immune to ice in an upcoming patch; Thamz had forgotten that Snowman Dolls were buyable in bulk by the time of the General Guy fight, and came to the conclusion that, if Double Dipped, they allowed the player to skip too much of the battle.)    When it’s his turn, General Guy summons a Spy Guy, proving his supply of reinforcements is truly infinite. (Thankfully, the General can only summon Spy Guys and Pyro Guys.) He also does the lightning attack, but we block with everybody this time!    We’re able to KO the Pyro Guy with Power Shell this turn, and use up our last Sweet Shroom. Our inventory now has left: two Egg Missiles, the Sleepy Sheep we cooked, and a Thunder Rage we had lying around. General Guy still has 52 HP, and we don’t really have the resources to sustain a battle of attrition at this point. But we’ll go down fighting.  Next turn, we try using Watt on the tank. Grrrr! My high-tech tank defenses don't seem to stand up to that electric attack! Quit doing that! It's... it's too powerful! You're breaking the rules of war! And Mario uses that Sleepy Sheep, the first we’ve used in the game…    It stuns General Guy’s summons for a turn. (The tank is immune to all status.)    And even later, at the last of our strength, we try out one of those Egg Missiles we cooked up. It works splendidly, ignoring General Guy’s defenses and doing a full 8 damage!   Ultimately, though, with 20 HP left on the Toy Tank, we succumb.  So, at this point, I did some reading on General Guy and his assorted minions (on Mario Wiki and in the source code), and I discovered some interesting things: • Stilt Guys can be knocked off their stilts with a properly timed jump attack, which means we don’t need to bring Power Quake. • Shy Stack members’ slingshot attacks now inflict an incredibly long Shrink - 5 to 8 turns, depending on Stack height - if you don’t block them. • The Toy Tank is also immune to Fire. • If you dodge any of General Guy’s attacks with Outta Sight or Repel Gel, he will boost his Defense by 1! He does this up to twice. • And, most critically, whether the General summons a Spy Guy or a Pyro Guy isn’t random. Instead, it works on the following formula: [1] If Mario’s HP is 30 or more, summon a Spy Guy. [2] Otherwise, if the last digit of Mario’s HP is 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9, summon a Pyro Guy. [3] Otherwise, if the last digit is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, summon a Spy Guy. This means, we can manipulate his summons by careful attention to our HP! I’ve checked the status weaknesses of Pyro and Spy Guys, and I have a plan…  Remember how we had that Stop Watch from Dry Dry Desert in our shop storage box? It’s time to get it out. The plan involves using the Stop Watch to stun General Guy’s minions, at least at first.   We also add Super Shroom to our item stock. The Super Shroom is to ensure General Guy summons the right minions…   …for which we’ll also need to keep on Medicine Man. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain as we go along.) In addition, we didn’t have a good way to damage General Guy last time we fought him. With Hammer Throw, we can bust through that tank armor of his and do 3 damage a shot.  To battle again!    The Shy Squad can’t do anything to us, so while Mario beats them up, we Charge once with Goombario.   Mario knocks down the first Shy Guy with a Jump, and Goombario can KO with the other with his charged Headbonk.   When the Shy Stacks come out, we Spin Smash and Power Shell immediately. Those slingshots hurt!    Once we do it again, only one Stack member is left - and Mario has 13 HP. It’s time to put our plan into action!     We use our Super Shroom. Thanks to Medicine Man, it restores exactly 15 HP, setting Mario’s HP to 28. Bombette blows up the last Stack, putting us into the battle’s next phase.    We get the Tattle, then switch back to Watt before we hit the General with Hammer Throw. Everything’s ready.  Because the last digit of Mario’s HP is 8, General Guy summons a Pyro Guy! For this strategy, we ideally want two Pyro Guys.   We successfully block the lightning attack, too - though, by putting Watt in the partner slot, we were hedging our bets. Watt is immune to the electric attack, even if we mess up the timing.  Mario now has 25 HP. General Guy’s minions act before him, so if we don’t block the Pyro Guy’s attack, we’ll end up with 18 HP when General Guy summons - and he’ll call in another Pyro Guy.   We attack General Guy the best we can.   The Pyro Guy attacks; we don’t block, and General Guy summons a second one, as planned.  Let’s stop the world!  We get the results we were hoping for. Pyro Guys are 90% weak to Stop. Now they’re both stunned!   We clown on General Guy for a bit - though I do misclick, sending Watt in to attack a Pyro Guy. Watt ignores spiky and electrified enemies, but she’s still hurt by fiery ones!  Watt is still stunned once the Pyro Guys come to their senses. We’re out of Stop Watches, but I’d normally try to re-paralyze them with Dizzy Shell at this point. (This is why we wanted Pyro Guys. Spy Guys have a big enough duration decrease to Dizzy that they’re effectively immune.)   We need to sit through a turn of attacks, instead. Mario eats a Sweet Shroom, and we brace for impact.  Dizzy Shell takes, fortunately… but then disaster strikes.  Yep. We mess up the timing for the lightning attack, and are paralyzed for two turns.     Things play out on their own from there.  So yeah. The moral of this story is… well, to be honest, that strategy was going pretty well until the lightning attack happened! But this just goes to show we can’t effectively play this fight as a war of attrition. The longer the battle drags on, the more likely we are to mistime a lightning attack and effectively bite it. At this point, we just need to find a way of dealing mass damage to General Guy - or at least more than 3 damage per attack. And the good news is, we’ve already seen it in action!   We have two Egg Missiles in our inventory from our recent cooking spree. There’s two more in our shop box, and we cook up a fifth.   We also make a fourth Sweet Shroom for healing, and get a Dizzy Dial from the box in case of emergencies.   And we take off FP Plus to add our old friend Double Dip! It’ll be Egg Missile time in short order. I decide Medicine Man isn’t worth it, and put on Smash Charge (for turns Mario has nothing to do) and Hold Fast (just in case).    We have the resources and the strategy. This plan’s foolproof!  (In the interests of full disclosure, I should probably mention that I did actually get beaten up by General Guy about four times at this point, while using this ‘foolproof plan’. We’re just going to skip over those for the sake of pacing and presentation.)    The Shy Squad still isn’t able to do anything to us. Goombario charges and KOs one of the Stilt Guys right away, like last time.    However, this time, once there’s only one Guy left, we have Goombario charge again! Mario Hammer Throws the Stilt Guy to KO it.    The reason for this is, when the Shy Stacks come out, Spin Smash and a Charged Headbonk can KO one Stack entirely. This way, we’ll take less damage from the Shy Stacks going forward, and can stall in this phase. This is particularly important, as we want to do as much damage to General Guy on the first turn of the next phase of battle, while he doesn’t have any minions to help him out.    Once the Shy Stack is down to a manageable height, we try to paralyze it with Power Shock! Shy Stacks are 70% weak to Paralyze. Power Shock is a button-mashing attack like Dizzy Shell, but it only affects one enemy.   Our first attempt fails, sadly, so we take a bit of damage.    The second time works, though! The Shy Stack member is paralyzed, so we heal up with a Sweet Shroom - more to restore FP than HP, at the moment. We’re going to be using a lot of FP in the next few turns.   Next turn, we switch to Goombario and Charge. Mario Charges his hammer, too.   The turn after that, Goombario Charges to full. We KO the last Shy Stack member with a Jump attack to keep our hammer charge.   Showtime!     We start by Double Dipping Egg Missiles, shaving 16 HP off General Guy’s tank.   Then, Goombario goes in for the fully charged Headbonk! The tank’s Defense reduces the attack’s damage by 3 per hit, but it still does 10 damage total once the dust settles. 26 HP down; 34 to go.   We’re still at full HP, so General Guy summons a Spy Guy. He also does the bomb attack, luckily.  Kooper attacks the Spy Guy, putting him into slingshot mode. We really don’t want to have to deal with that hammer if we get stunned - and the slingshot inflicts Shrink, which’ll break us out of a stun early.    Meanwhile, Mario tosses another two Egg Missiles.   We get a Pyro Guy in the back slot, and General Guy tosses a bomb a second time.    We’re running low on FP again. The plan is to heal next turn, as we’ll take good damage from the Spy and Pyro guys. This turn, we spend our Hammer charge, and get Watt on the case to deal her 3 damage to the General.   Unfortunately, the General retaliates in the one way that’s most aggravating.   ….aaaaand we mess up the timing! Thankfully, Watt is untouched, thanks to her electric immunity.   The next turn, looks like we’re in a pickle! We do the only thing we really can: attack with Watt.  The Spy Guy attacks - and his shot shrinks us! We’re no longer stunned. But, we only have 5 HP left…  And thanks to Hold Fast, when we guard the Pyro Guy, we take only 4 damage instead of the 5 we’d normally take when guarding. Mario is now at 1 HP. We need General Guy to use the bomb attack (which will do no damage if we block it with Hold Fast active), or it’s all over.   And General Guy does! We block it, and we’ve got him.     And believe me when I say that it is incredibly satisfying seeing that Toy Tank fall apart.  It’s not a clean victory. General Guy’s minions don’t run for it when he’s beaten, and we do have to KO them before the battle is over. (In retrospect, I should have used Star Storm to KO the Spy Guy and the tank at the same time. Ah well.)     After sitting out a round of attacks with Outta Sight (which we had just enough FP left for, with Flower Saver), we heal up with a Sweet Shroom and we’re ready to go! The Spy Guy gets removed, and we battle the Pyro Guy until he falls over.  Sweet victory! We end up just 4 Star Points short of a level.   General Guy and his cohort bail, leaving behind the captured Star Spirit.   And so we conclude the saga of Shy Guys’ Toy Box!  To save the fourth Star Spirit, Muskular, Mario and team disbanded the gang of Shy Guy toughs. Slowly, it seems as if the life force is returning to the once bleak night sky... But the stars won't truly shine until the Star Rod is wrested from Bowser's evil grasp. Three Star Spirits still await rescue. Where in the world are they being held?Final Review - General Guy While General Guy has an excellent aesthetic and innovative concepts, the overall difficulty of the fight detracts from the experience. In particular, the final phase, which appears to be a battle of attrition but can be compromised by a single slip-up on Mario’s part, renders the battle frustrating for anybody who doesn’t break out the heavy artillery. Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ - One-star general. Would not battle again. Badges: 52/90 (New: Deep Focus) Recipes: 38/50 (New: Sleepy Sheep) Star Pieces: 98/202 (we still have 28) Chuck Quizmo’s Quiz Questions: 26/64 Game Overs (this time): Six, all to General Guy. All but one of those was from messing up the lightning attack and getting beaten up while paralyzed. Game Overs (total): 24. Yes, that’s right - General Guy has been responsible for 25% of all our KOs thus far. Quite the achievement! SUMMARY OF CHANGES FROM MAIN GAME (in this installment) • Watt does 1 less damage when attacking. • Watt’s Power Shock costs 2 FP more. • Watt’s Turbo Charge also costs 2 FP more. • Stilt Guys now masters of stabbing. (+2 HP, +4 Attack.) • Shy Stacks hand-picked by General Guy, now incredibly dangerous! (+4 HP. Attack does 6, 8, 10, or 12 damage depending on stack height, and Shrinks for 5-8 turns.) • General Guy’s tank is reinforced, and his attacks are more deadly. (+30 HP, +1 Defense. Immune to Fire and Quake. Also immune to Ice after next patch. Bulb has +32 HP. Bomb attack sped up; lightning attack does +1 damage, and now inflicts 2 turns paralysis.) • General Guy now summons Pyro Guys and Spy Guys whenever there’s free space while fighting him. Next Time On Master Quest: Let’s relax by baking a nice cake or something. Quackles fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 10:17
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What does killing the bulb do? Giving it 5x HP sounds like Thamz really didn't like whatever the designers intended.
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Jan 11, 2020 10:39
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NGDBSS posted:What does killing the bulb do? Giving it 5x HP sounds like Thamz really didn't like whatever the designers intended. Once the bulb is broken, General Guy will no longer use the lightning attack, and will only do the bomb toss.
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Jan 11, 2020 10:40
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Quackles posted:Once the bulb is broken, General Guy will no longer use the lightning attack, and will only do the bomb toss. 
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Jan 11, 2020 10:46
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I can't imagine how much time this strategy took to plan and execute, and I'm sure this isn't the worst it'll get--thanks for keeping at this to show us it all. It's been a fascinating look at a (more than) challenging Mario RPG so far.
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Jan 11, 2020 10:54
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King Cohort posted:I can't imagine how much time this strategy took to plan and execute, and I'm sure this isn't the worst it'll get--thanks for keeping at this to show us it all. It's been a fascinating look at a (more than) challenging Mario RPG so far. You're very welcome. Your comments give me the will to keep going, 'cause this game gets pretty wack sometimes. I'm thinking I might start taking a look at boss rematches soon, within the next chapter or two.
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Jan 11, 2020 11:05
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General Guy always felt like both my favourite boss but also the hardest boss in the base game. It was great to see how much more Mario Souls they made him.
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Jan 11, 2020 12:47
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Quackles posted:You're very welcome. Your comments give me the will to keep going, 'cause this game gets pretty wack sometimes. You already know what the general guy refight is going to be, deep in your heart.
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Jan 11, 2020 14:10
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So other than spamming double dip with eggbombs and snowmen, I wonder how they intended you to fight this battle. Because "spamming items" wasn't the intended strategy by the sounds of it.
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Jan 11, 2020 14:52
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The ending to the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan where that guy sneaks up close to the pill boxes and throws a live grenade in it, but it's Mario throwing an Egg Missile in General Guy's tank.
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Jan 11, 2020 16:01
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Randalor posted:So other than spamming double dip with eggbombs and snowmen, I wonder how they intended you to fight this battle. Because "spamming items" wasn't the intended strategy by the sounds of it. Isn’t there a badge that makes defending easier? I imagine the fight would go much more smoothly without getting stunned by lightning.
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Jan 11, 2020 16:14
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Randalor posted:So other than spamming double dip with eggbombs and snowmen, I wonder how they intended you to fight this battle. Because "spamming items" wasn't the intended strategy by the sounds of it. It sounded like it was more the snowmen that was the problem, since you can buy them in bulk and they damage everything on screen, which will make the summons really easy to deal with while also dealing big damage to the tank. Egg missile you have to cook, which is a hassle, and it only targets one enemy
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Jan 11, 2020 16:41
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Here's what worries me... eggs are, unless I am mistaken, a limited resource, and I am afraid that later there will be another "my way or the highway" boss who will require them and our long-suffering OP will be hosed. On another note, as much as I hate "one true solution" game design, I do understand closing off the snowman... well, it's not an exploit; let's call it a method. I'm with Randalor in that I also wonder what was the approach to this battle that the devs had in mind. I'm also looking forward a bit to ThisMod Jr as I think that it might hit a sweet spot between challenging and sadistic.
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Jan 11, 2020 19:30
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“Oh. You can get a multi-target attack item in bulk? gently caress you, boss is immune to it, learn to block scrub and find out our one solution to the boss fight!” loving christ, that battle looked like a slog and a half. And they intend to BUFF the boss next patch? gently caress you too, devs!
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Jan 11, 2020 19:38
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Quackles posted:You're very welcome. Your comments give me the will to keep going, 'cause this game gets pretty wack sometimes. It's really a fascinating look into the game, and I'm greatly enjoying you breakdown and explanation of the game.
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Jan 11, 2020 20:12
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