Funny coincidence with Saboten Bombers' similarly blue dude doin' his yanki zuwari on that very page! I might start a running tally of non-brawlers with enemies that do this when they've got a spare moment. (non-brawlers, because the list would immediately be deluged by a couple dozen Kunios at minimum - and Burning Fight!)Herr Schatten wrote:My favourite part, apart from the hilariously inane ramblings of the main bad guy, is how the zako enemies just seem to mind their own business until the player strolls along, then reluctantly get up and wearily shuffle towards their doom.
Ruefully enough, the very last pack of yankis, at the bottom of 7-1's tower, are actually dangerous - I always spawn them by scooting down the ladder, before retreating back up and carpet-bombing their position. Wondered if I was being over-cautious, but I just watched ExMos and Pasky's clears, and they do the same. Bizarrely difficult to disembark the ladder without taking a bump from the bone-idle plonkers! I wonder if that was intentional, haha... hard to tell, with ML's mean hitboxes.
Oh no, I was thinking more parity with Elta. The way things are, there's a handful of situations where the other forms are useful - Dragon cooks the last boss's nutsack and brussels sprouts nicely. Samurai pierces st2 boss's shield before he can reach his nastier phase. Raijin's aura fends off st5 boss's thorny bubbles. But in all except the first (where you're forced to pick a form), the loss of Elta's all-purpose shot is so costly that I, CIT, ExMos, Pasky and ben.shinobi (to name the clears I'm aware of) end up going without. I'd probably use Elta for the final boss, too, if I could.BryanM wrote:What?! You want more hitpoints, and more attack power?! What greed.BIL wrote:I think it'd have worked better to treat the alternate forms as limited-use subweapons, on the C button. Maybe make them desirable enough to go exploring for.
It's like a Rockman where not only is P best, but you're prevented from switching back to it without taking damage (and thus downgrading your P). So you simply don't use the other weapons. (I'm sure there's at least two Rockmans like this out there, tormenting his fanbase - those poor bastards ) From this viewpoint, it'd probably be simpler to make Elta less useful. But tbh, I'd rather have a game with a single good, strong weapon, than (quoth Rob, re: Axelay's Round Vulcan) a bunch of weak shit. (take it easy Axelay fans, I like Needle Lazor and Multiple Missile too )
The other forms do hold some interest for challenge runs. Mulling over a Samurai clear, because his orbital piercing projectile is unique and rad, and I could see his lack of pointblank creating some interesting problems! Raijin is an interesting character too, with his upped mobility and aura attack - though he's so damn weak, it gets old tickling bosses (I want to torch Azathoth's thorny nutsack and impressive shaft, not tickle them!). Dragon seems like an ordeal (can't hit crawling enemies without downshot?!) but I do have a shameless flamethrower fetish. Ninja is pretty much Slightly Better Elta (st1-2) / Significantly Worse Elta (remainder), not too interesting, while the Water dudes just aren't fun.
In fact, they are... Euroshumpy D: (■`ω´■)
There's quite a bit to play around with here, now I think about it. Also a nice assortment of unique enemies/midbosses you don't see without going off-path. It's not entirely successful, outside of score-chasing, but still nice to have around.
Water Dudes are easy to get once you hit stage 5 (can't recall if it's possible to get them earlier) - after the tunnel full of stabby skeltens, there's a pair of chests with a blue sphere apiece. Assuming you've stuck to Elta's starting kit (red sphere), the first will get you Water Knight, second will get you Water Man. Or whatever he's called, ugh. Their attacks bring to mind Castlevania's holy water (an unassuming short-ranged arc that erupts into hellacious DPS), and might initially seem good vs Frog Guys. Just doesn't work though, got no DPS to speak of.As it's been over a decade since I've played this one, I only have any recollection of the dragon and ninja forms, and vaguely think there might be a samurai form. So while I'm sitting here saying to myself "eh, the water forms can't be that bad" why the hell didn't I ever use them if that were the case? A bit of wasted effort on their part, to make these harder to get powerups undesirable, I'd agree.