Part III.
Individual boss comments:
High Max, Round II: Well, the worst of the worst might have come and gone, but that doesn't mean I don't have a load of bullshit waiting for me before the en...
Part III.
Individual boss comments:
High Max, Round II: Well, the worst of the worst might have come and gone, but that doesn't mean I don't have a load of bullshit waiting for me before the end. Even though portions of it were incredibly hard, it's too fun not to fuck with High Max as much as possible.
The biggest added threat is the fact that his large sphere is used much more commonly, which drags on the amount of chances you have to fail the precise dodge. Figuring out how to dodge his few new attacks was also cool.
Triggering High Max into his desperation with X is a very tricky affair. The only weapon that can reliably destroy a barrier quickly enough to make him sweat is the Yammark Option. However, this is a very unwieldly attack, and to top it off, you need to put High Max through a LOT of punishment before he'll finally get fed up and head to the center of the room.
Add that to the fact that you need to keep him frozen still long enough to work on destroying his barriers, and things are incredibly convoluted. For obvious reasons, letting him scour the perimeter of the arena is out of the question. There's absolutely zero chance of avoiding him. The desperation is nifty, too, although I still question why the easier of his two is in the second fight.
Gate: Wow, what a monumental jump in difficulty. I'd almost go as far as to say he's equal to the Nightmare Mother this way. No, I'm not joking.
Gate is much more unpredictable than he probably comes across as watching his fight. You never, ever know which or how many of his orbs he's going to fire at a given time, and the very involved natures of each one, as well as the complex terrain, vastly increase the number of very different bad situations you can be caught in. You have a lot to remember and react to during this fight, and things proceed quickly enough that it's easy to let your mind slip and fuck everything up.
There are very specific patterns you can catch Gate in to hasten his use of the energy orbs, but other than speeding up the outcome, this does nothing to aid in the fight's difficulty. Too often I've lost an attempt simply because I was overwhelmed past the point of reaction by several orbs at once, because I misstepped, or because I made a stupid on the spot decision. This battle, for seeming so pacified and methodical, is the furthest from those it's possible to be.
The key issue that skyrockets his difficulty so extremely is the same issue that plagued the Mijinion fight: your dash is no longer a get-out-of-fuck-up-free card. These two battles defines themselves by catching you off guard, but with the dash, you can usually salvage this. Without it, you need to keep a clear head about not only what's going on, but any and all potentials that might shortly arise.
It's an overwhelmingly confusing thing.
Also like with Mijinion, a lot of luck is required in this battle by the end, because it's unpredictable to the point that there will always be close calls where you are at the mercy of chance, not skill.
Sigma Reborn: Probably the most difficult
time you'll ever have standing in one spot with your arms crossed.
That's really not saying much, is it?
Hell Sigma: Probably the most difficult time you'll ever have surrounded by several disembodied heads all suffering from Dissociative Memory Disorder and the half formed body of a mildly retarded supervillain in a fugue state.
That, believe me, is saying a shitload.
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That will conclude, from X1 to 6, what was meant to be a timekiller and became a small fucking odyssey. As always, though, I'm somehow diseased enough to have enjoyed it.
Until next time, which will be in a game as far removed from X6 as it is possible to be, I bid you all adieu.
Tracks used, in order:
Rush - Losing It
DigitalPiece - World's Apart
Raison d'être - In Absence of Light
Symphony X - Oculus Ex Inferni
