I actually came away from this revisit thinking of the game more positively, in single-session action terms. On a whim, I decided I'd ignore the Jewel Knuckles/Mirror Cuirass secret this time, and get them "normally" - meaning after attaining Mist. (I'd seen the secret in GamePro like a week before I got my copy - would probably never have found it on my own, like a few other secrets). Jewel Knuckles are of course a hefty ATK boost, I typically use them well into the Inverted Castle. That jumpkick's aerial poke caves Doppelganger10's shit in.
Yes, Beryl Circlet was out this time around, for the same reason. ;3 Not that it matters. Galamoth,
pfff. Homie best wear a cup this time. >¦3
^ MUH DREAM HACKZ
(STATUE OF BAT ON OTHER SIDE
ITS LIKE METROID RIDORI/KRAID STATUES )
Part I: ~Magical Vacation Diary 2020~ "Year of the Coof"
So, my progression went Baselard (from Alchemy Lab) + Gladius, found after Doppelganger10. Doppy was fought at LVL9 as usual. A boss that tends to intimidate noobs. Tip: trap him with throwing axes and crouching stabs, while keeping your Leather Shield up. Most he can do, other than eat axes/stabs, is Wing Smash, which will miss you and drive him into a corner, where he's
really fucked.
Had a few sword upgrades en route to the Coliseum. Cutlass from the Chapel, Broadsword from Olrox's Quarters... and here, my blades started having trouble with the Coliseum's heavily armoured enemies.
Part II: Don't Cut Tin Men, Beat Their Brains In (R.I.P. BAELOR BREAKSPEAR)
At this point I could've easily winged it on aggressive spell use - pointblanked Hellfire into Big Black Balls will demolish anything in here, Tetra Spirit likewise, and while Soul Steal is pricey, if you know where to use it, it'll blow chokepoints apart.
However, I wanted to continue "normal" play, taking advantage of the game's systems rather than ancient experience. So I used the handy Library Card waiting at the entrance to Richter's arena, and bought the strongest club (aka HIT) I could. In hindsight, I coulda probably gotten that Morningstar from the Chapel, but this was all very ad-hoc.
Made my way back to the Coliseum and got the Shield Rod,
whose ATK left my expensive new club's in the fucking dust. (-w-) Felt a bit cheated. Reloaded my save (one per area! house rules!
), popped down a floor to the Shield Rod's hallway, and
massacred every last motherless fuck in there with my Big Black Balls. Keep the change ya filthy animals.
Were the devs saying
"attaining new gear with skilled adventuring is more efficient and rewarding than scrounging together coins and paying the Librarian for second-rate goods" ? That's the reality, in any case.
Part III: BOP TIL U DROP / Master Of The Knifing
Bopped the shit out of everything, grabbed the Holy Rod from the Library while picking up Bat, then the
Combat Knife (one of the two
ENDGAME WEAPONS OF BIRUFORD) from the Pit.
The Ultime Stabbing Weapon. "B-b-b-but CK loses out on Baselard's flurry by limiting you to two hits!"
WRONG BITCH :O Hold [forward] while feathering [attack] for a perforating flurry that'll leave the stoutest foes needing a crateload of tampons! They're for the stab wounds, puta!
Blap Blap / Blap Blap Blam / Mi gun goes "click" / Mi gun goes JESUS CHRIST! THE MAN STAB ME! OH FUCK SOMEBODY PLEABPTHHTHHHghhh
Everybody gangsta til OBMAR the knife-obsessed edgy vampire rolls up.
As if this wasn't a terrible enough consequence of the castle's
"Leave dangerous shit lying around for battle-hardened vampire killers to pick up" policy, I was soon at the Inverted Clock Tower! Where it was
MuhMuhMuhMuh... MOON ROD TYME.
Part IV: When Life Moons You, Give It Rod
Awww shit. They done FUCKED up now. The other
ENDGAME WEAPON OF BIRUFORD. Combat knife in right hand. Moon Rod in left. Distant targets are pulverised. Nearby ones are sushi.
"But what about ur shield?!" Shields are for cunts!
If something's survived long enough for you to need a shield, say Olrox and his vulcan spray, you didn't stab/club/Big Black Balls it violently enough. (Holy Rod command attack kills Olrox dead - slap the shit out of him with its air version for a classic
LVLUP freeze-frame!)
If you are a wiener: you will be glad to know that Moon Rod's command barrage inflicts such a brutal collective HIT, it will - with no grinding whatsoever - slay Guardians (golden Armour Lords) in two/three shots. That's thousands of XP a kill, easily enough to take you from LVL30 to LVL60 (ie: overkill), in ten/fifteen minutes. Park near the entrance, give 'em rod - you'll annihilate the accompanying Giant Brother in the process - back out, repeat. Or sweep the whole room, killing two Guardians at a time. It's pretty fun tbh, between their slow but hellaciously hard hits, the Giants' agile interference, and the rod's winning combo of startup delay and i-frames.
However, I avoid the Guardians until the very end, because Inverted Castle is already weaksauce, and grinding SOTN is 4 wieners. >¦3 I also like to leave the Black Marble Gallery for last, as it's one of the few areas with interesting hazard design. Those spiketraps are cool, as is their accompaniment, Zako Division tag champs
Nova & Jacko. It's a rad joint. Good target for ROTN's upcoming Classic Mode.
Part V: Don't Grind, Noobs! Use Your Equipment FFS
Also, with the
TOPAZ CIRCLET (Library), poison ain't shit.
MIRROR CUIRASS (Outer Wall) likewise for stone. Why's this important? Because Doppy40 is one of the only dangerous bosses in the Inverted Castle, and you've just nullified his Terminus Est and Stone Sword, leaving him open to a stiff Moon Rodding. And with
CATS EYE CIRCLET (Catacomb), you're on easy street for the Inverted Catacomb. Cat Damage abounds! If you're scared of Galamoth, here is how to kill him. Wait for his Lightning Shower pattern. Mist through his front leg. Tear his nutsack apart with your mightiest attacks. Mist back out as the pattern ends. The other patterns are self-explanatory and safe to either attack or hang back during. A simple boss with superficially nasty attacks and a ton of HP.
"What a big surprise. I hope for your sake you've got something inside that big body of yours." - Winston Churchill
"You puny pathetic thing! I'll step on you like an ant!" - Benito Mussolini
Epilogue: Of Luck And Cocks
All of these items are found, not dropped, as are all the weapons mentioned above. I never really twigged this before, but combined with low/no-save runs, it improved my opinion of SOTN a lot (objectively speaking - I'll be replaying this when I'm in Depends, regardless). Skinnerboxing sucks, but the game gives you more than enough cool toys that you don't need to. Combat Knife is far grittier and grimmer a blade than Crissaegrim or the other exotic swords. Moon Rod's QCF onslaught is mighty yet nuanced enough to support an entire game, and it's backed up by lots of other strong mechanics like the Chain Wing Smash, Superjump/Dropkick, Big Black Balls, Tetra Spirit, and eternal guilty pleasure Soul Steal (shoulda cost 2xMP tbh), all handling with sublime smoothness.
If this joyful cacophony of SOUND & VISION doesn't make you feel at least a bit better, see a MFN game doctor (`ω´メ)
Moreover, you almost never need to be in an area twice, giving matured single-sessions a surprisingly effective stage-by-stage feel. (the big exception, the Library revisit for Bat, still nets you lots of useful gear).
All this ignoring the perpetual splendour of Michiru Yamane's OST, and
TEH GRAFX. This game looks good enough to fuck. Literally!
I only wish the Obsidian Sword was a set drop. Its mighty, air-ok command thrust is killer. Not the hardest weapon to get, with the shit-tons of Lesser Demons that'll spawn in the Necromancy Lab, at least. Marsil, on the other hand... Jesus, that thing took forever, this time around. Good job Flame Demon's
"UOHHHHHH" death scream is hilarious. Dude sounds like he's blowing his load while burning to death, surely a confusing way to go.
I immediately started a new game, as I wanted to play the much-ballyhooed "Luck Mode." It's supposed to be hard. It's not. Unless, I suppose, you approach SOTN as an RPG, without bothering to learn its action elements.
BAD IDEA TBH Starts you off viciously under-powered and Euroshumpy, until around Outer Wall, where gradually, it becomes more and more indistinguishable from a regular run. My runs, anyway.
You want me to "luck off?"
HOW ABOUT I LUCK OFF ALL OVER YOUR STUPID LUCKING FACE (■`W´■)
Don't expect tons of drops either (I recall COTM's Thief mode being a lot more generous). Even with 200 LCK (base 99, plus two Lapis Lazulis and a Luck Potion), I had to Skinnerbox well over ten minutes for a Vandal Sword's Muramasa. Luck also has zero effect on the Jewel Sword; you'll get more jewels, but the ratio of low/mid/high value ones won't change.
Critical hits seem more affected - I killed Doppy10 so quickly with my usual Baselard/Axe strat, I checked the replay wondering if I'd glitched him. Turned out poor
DOPPEH_BOI had taken two Criticals in rapid succession, at 100 damage apiece, vs the normal 8 or so. Knife crime, it's no joke lads!
I didn't mind though! I enjoyed myself so much I Skinnerboxed all sorts of exotic gear, including several I'd either forgotten about or never knew. Did you know Fake Sypha's "Lightning" magic actually does Holy damage? Or that Beelzebub literally can't hurt a player wearing Dark Armour and the Topaz Circlet (since all his damage is either Dark or Poison?) Wheee!
SAFE CORPSE DISPOSAL 4 ALL, VOL.II
PUT IT AWAY LOVE, I'M WORKING HERE (■`ω´■)
I rove u Magical Vacation Dorakyura, see you in another three years. What? No lmao, the coof isn't going to get me, I'll bat it away with my enormous cock. >¦3