Sin & Punishment 2

[WarpZone]

[The train boss is another section that bothers me. I just can't see any way of predicting which tracks the boss is going to jump to. It feels completely random to me, and it's annoying when the boss is simply never on the same tracks as the train cars.

Yeah, I was just going to ask about this. At first I thought you should hit the switch right after he shoots a fireball down that path, but it doesn't always seem to work.

I also just rush the fist fight, knock him into the air, hit him again, then he falls further away. Then I dash up to him and start a combo right around when I see his elbow bending up. I still seem to get hit a couple times. It's actually my least favorite boss, although the first two forms are great.

Anyone have any tips for ariana, I'm about ready to put my foot through my tv.

First form -- remember you can slash the bird quills. Hardest part is a teleport-slash move when she's low on health, but I think there's a brief moment when you can hit her with the sword.

Second form -- it's important to watch her animation to see which of the close range attacks she'll do next so you can anticipate when to dodge. Hit her with a charge shot to cancel an attack and then keep shooting her as she falls into the water. I think you can also counter all her attacks with the sword

When the spikes start coming down I just clear out the ones in the middle so I have enough room to dodge. You can also counter her attacks with the sword if there isn't enough room. Maybe you can keep doing this to milk the spikes (do you do this, MrMonkeyMan? Your stage 4 score is impressive... I only have like 40 mil).

When the birds appear immediately go touch a blue one for slow mo (you don't need to slash it).

She'll summon a giant rock when low on health. Wait until it's really close and then do a three-hit sword combo.

-What is the question asked between each stage ? I answer no because answering yes just takes a lot of time for nothing...

It's asking if you want to upload your score.

The large red circle usually means you pressed A to lock on to something. This helps when you want to deflect something, but your main gun does half damage, so don't rely on it.

It's also a good way to take out popcorn enemies that take more than one hit to kill, by tapping the lock-on somewhat rapidly (but not so rapidly that you de-select before the enemy dies).

For Kachi, her regular shot is 'sticky' and automatically locks onto enemies within the outer circle of her reticule until they die or leave the screen. This does NOT do less damage. Just use the A-button lock-on to de-select her sticky shot from a particular enemy.

By the way, did anyone else switch the buttons around? I use A for the regular shot -- it feels more comfortable, and I can hold my hand steadier when slashing the sword.

[hermosaguy]

Thank you for those tips! Wow she was easy to beat after that...I kept going for the red orbs instead of the blue one and that screwed me over. What I am enjoying is the variation of the enemies and loving the huge bosses.

[jeremycarrier]

My least favorite boss is the Ship/Cheng Long Lee or whatever the hell in Stage 7. His second form when you fly all around him takes FOREVER to kill.

[MrMonkeyMan]

My least favorite boss is the Ship/Cheng Long Lee or whatever the hell in Stage 7. His second form when you fly all around him takes FOREVER to kill.

Yeah, that boss is really awkward, but he only pops out when you fly directly in front of the ship. I find that if I just dash in circles until I have a charge shot ready and then dash straight across in front of him and use the charge shot I get hit a lot less then bothering with all the extra targets.

You can also hit him as he passes by in the background when dealing with those long snake things at the start. Save your charge shots for him and you can start the 2nd section with his health already half depleted.

That fight would be a whole lot easier if your character was locked to the center of the screen. I'm always moving to the side of the screen to scroll around only to run in to something I couldn't see.

And I spent my evening going for an all clear on Normal with Isa. Got 491,235,079 points. Not quite the 500 million I was hoping for, but for a first try it wasn't so bad. Not sure when I'll give it another shot, it just takes too long. I did get the perfect bonus at the end which was pretty cool. It's also the highest all clear I could find.

So I have one question about browsing the leaderboards. I can only open about 4 in a row before the game just hangs at the connecting dialog. I have to wait around 5 or more mintues before I can start viewing leaderboards again. Is it just me?

[jeremycarrier]

^Damn, almost 500 million! I'm just trying to break 200 million myself. I'm only rank 36 currently. I don't tend to have that problem with the leaderboards.

And I think that train boss has a pattern for when he jumps. I managed to kill him the second go around since I hit almost every time. He jumps to the right, then the center, then the right again, then center(I believe he stays there so you can hit with two train cars). You got to fight those three towers, which are pretty easy. After he does the fire/jumping thing, you go back to running across the cars. He jumps to the left this time, then back to the middle. I was able to kill him by this point.

[jeremycarrier]

Ok, got into top 30 this time, but got owned by the fistfight AGAIN. ARGH. After I uploaded my score, I then proceeded to beat his ass like 5 times in a row(beat him, then exit, press continue, rinse and repeat). Got up to 191 million this time. I actually messed up on Stage 2, trying to milk the battleship boss, I actually let the time run out, and my multiplier dropped like a rock! That was embarrassing.

[MrMonkeyMan]

When the spikes start coming down I just clear out the ones in the middle so I have enough room to dodge. You can also counter her attacks with the sword if there isn't enough room. Maybe you can keep doing this to milk the spikes (do you do this, MrMonkeyMan? Your stage 4 score is impressive... I only have like 40 mil).

The secret is actually the lily pads she throws out. When they reach the foreground each one explodes in to 7 (I think) petals, and each petal has around 100 health. Slash them for a lot of points. If they do indeed have 100 health and you manage to get them all with a 16x multilplier that's a whopping 3.3 million points each time. Good luck getting them all, and it's actually quite hard to keep this up without getting hit by something as you'll often end up with 3 different attacks stacked on top of each other.

I actually just pulled of a really good run. I didn't get hit until there was about 70 seconds left, and she kept charging me, so I kept hitting her with my sword. I did enough damage to start some of her other attacks, so I just finished her off at that point. Got 83 million points. I could probably go for 90 million, but it wouldn't be easy.

Oh, and just so you know, you can milk the skeleton boss too. Start off with a charge shot on the medusa head ball, and then simply keep shooting it with your normal shot. Just dodge his attacks when he flings it at you, but don't hit it with your sword. You'll time it almost perfectly to take him down to 1 health with just a few seconds left. Use this time to let the ball build up some medusa heads then hit it with a charge shot. I think you can get an extra 1.5-2 million points from this over going for a quick kill.

[jeremycarrier]

247 Million! I know thats like half of MrMonkeyGod, but thats great for me. I choked big time on the final reflect bullets thing, but this is still the first time I finish the whole game without dying. I love this game more than my previous Treasure favorite, Dynamite Headdy. I think if I can somehow get to 300 million by some crazy miracle, I'll be set.

[hermosaguy]

Any tips for killing the boss surrounded by tanks that sits in the air? I'm getting my ass kicked up and down by the tanks, soldiers and when he using the machine guns on me.

[WarpZone]

^
MrMonkeyMan outlined a good strategy on the last page. In a nutshell: destroy the tanks right away.

petals

Doh! I always shot the lily pads before I even saw any petals.

For a better run I just need to get there without Slime Keeper slashing my multiplier. I can't seem to build it up to x16 again even by milking the next boss.

Fantastic scores, by the way -- hope you can hang onto first place for a while.

---

Weird glitch in stage 5: Right before the part where you go up a ramp and over a gap in the track, I somehow fell through the track and outside the level, just seeing the skybox and black void below. Waiting a while, I thought I'd have to restart, but the level was technically still going and I popped back on track after the section with mines on the road.

Question about the sword girl -- why does she sometimes hurt me even after I counter? I get hit, then somehow get knocked back and hit again on nothing (??). Am I just getting the timing wrong?

I've also been practicing stage 7 a bit and am starting to like it more, having more or less worked out how to do things up until Ariana. But I can't seem to consistently dodge or prevent her fire attack, killing my multiplier. And then she goes and does it again. Any suggestions? I know I can get some hits off the splitting rocks afterwards, but...

Three or four bullets kept me from the perfect bonus. Almost!

[guigui]

^

Question about the sword girl -- why does she sometimes hurt me even after I counter? I get hit, then somehow get knocked back and hit again on nothing (??). Am I just getting the timing wrong?

I think this has to do with the edges of the pink tube you actually fight into. The tube is invisible if you are in the center of it, but become visible if you come close to its edges. If she throws you on those edges, you get damaged by her hit, then by the walls.

A question about stage 3. I cant find any life refill between the end of the sidescrolling part and the death of the second security level boss (revolving panels boss). This is quite a long run without refill ! Do I miss some ?

EDIT : warpzone, about those special bonus in stage 3, maybe I can help a little :

Stage 3

1. 800 hits
2. ____ hits
3. Destroy all the flying enemies at the beginning, up until you start fighting the mutants
4. You get this from the last ceiling enemy before Security Level 11 -- from destroying them all?
5. (I think from destroying all the heads that pop out of the wall in the tunnels) : I agree
6. Reflect Hibaru's sword attack twice
7. Destroying a lot of crates simultaneously during the final boss (?)
8. Destroy all elements of Security Level 117
9.
10.

[guigui]

So, no one plays this game anymore ?

I cant imagine MrMonkeyMan/TSN not trying to improve his almost 500.000.000 score on the leader board. I mean, even though you're first, what does a score starting with 495.xxx.xxx mean ?

Well, is that just me or Slime Keeper is really hard in the middle of that 4th stage which is otherwise quite simple ? He gets me down almost every time. I cant time correctly the reflect of its pink chasing balls, I cant avoid its pink beam due to the screen not scrolling as I expect it, I cant move because I'm stuck in those slug, I'm burning alive because of those red bomb it sends to the ground. And those seem to happen all at the same time ! Any hints ?

[MrMonkeyMan]

But the game is 3 hours long

Slime Keeper is probably one of the most annoying bosses in the game. Those jumping slugs can be a real pain. Usually I focus on the slugs one one side of the screen. When he starts shooting spikes at you feel free to just keep dodging around the edges of the screen and shooting at him, or slashing your sword once or twice if there are leaches around. He will always charge up his beam after this attack, so get your charge shot ready and when he opens his eye let it go. This will cancel his beam and give you time to clean up some spikes, or find a safe spot before they explode.

If you're really crazy you can use those balls he shoots to take out the leeches for lots of silver coins. Good luck not getting hit doing that though.

And I have been playing. I had a battle for stage 3 with ZTF, but he managed a score over 81 million, and a perfect run for me would probably only be about 82 million. I just can't play that stage anymore though. Milking that gear boss is so boring. I settled for 78 million.

I'm currently working on getting over 100 million on stage 7. I can no miss everything until Deco, I just haven't put it together in a single run yet. I did have one run where I was going to get over 100 million, but I blew the perfect bonus at the end.

EDIT

Played stage 7 a bit and I got it. Just barely too. It was all up to how many special medals I got. Turns out I got all 8.

100,231,623

No miss up until the twins where I got hit right off the bat which kind of pissed me off, but I did a really well against Deco.

[WarpZone]

warpzone, about those special bonus in stage 3, maybe I can help a little

Thanks. I've updated with some others as well.

I have taken a slight break on the game for Mushi 2 but that is just too frustrating with the 360 pad so until I get something that works I might go back to this. I should be able to get over 300 million if I do a full run now.

Stage 7 trouble spots for me:
Ariana's fire slash
Ritter's eyeballs hitting me in the first part (the rest is easy)
Lee's second form (if I try and destroy all the parts, bleh)
Hibaru (the whole thing, though I think I'm not slashing them enough. Need to purposely die and practice)
Deco's homing purple balls (I dash in one direction and slash, but usually get the timing wrong)
The final battle when playing as Kachi - both her shots are horribly disadvantaged in this fight and I have to melee a lot more.

[guigui]

Glad to see you both continue to play this. I forgot about stage by stage scoring.

Thanks for the advices on Slime Keeper, they'll come in handy. Any hints about stage 3 life refill ?

[WarpZone]

I don't think there is one. Isa & Kachi mode gives you another health bar (which I should probably use to check out hard mode...).

[guigui]

I don't think there is one. Isa & Kachi mode gives you another health bar (which I should probably use to check out hard mode...).

Thanks warpzone, I kind of manage to beat stage 3 consistently now anyway. Your special medals walkthrough helps a lot too, I cant think of anything to complete it by now though.

Quick talk about stage 5
- It was a real pain until I discovered you can actually shoot those canisters on the side of the road, and that 4 of them do contain life refill !
- Chimaira keeper is also tough. I found I beat him more easily by killing only one of his two side eyes, then on focusiong only on the body. This way, he does not throw the pink chasing balls I cant reflect correctly, he does not use his tails nor enter bomber/diving/swirling/berserk mode !
- His slash attack may be cancelled with proper use of the sword. This is kind of hard to do though, since I think you have to be in the good part of the screen to make a real cancel.
- The swirling fire attack is hard to avoid. I found it is easier when you are in a corner of the screen, it gives you more time to escape. Never remain in the middle.
- The twin-beams attack is a bless for you. It gives plenty of time to shoot and reload charge shot. I just dodge it by rolling left/right or top/bottom according to how the beams started (respectively diagonally or not)

An all clear seems manageable to me now, while it did not one week earlier. But a lot of work still awaits me on stage 6 and especially 7.
By the way, stage 6 is REALLY funny. I cant help but laugh during the cow launching thing, and the fat hamster fight is epic fun.

[MrMonkeyMan]

Played through the whole game again, got 549,556,565. I am pleased. I'll probably take a break now.

[guigui]

Played through the whole game again, got 549,556,565. I am pleased. I'll probably take a break now.

Nice shot. I dont know who those guys who complained "the game is too short" on S&P1 are, but I think they should have shut their mouths correctly ! Now we have an almost 3 hours long game... Well I guess the scoring part of this is oriented level by level, which leaves us which seven/eight 20 minutes games.

I've been practicing a lot of stage 6 yesterday, and I cant beat it, at all ! Now it appears that the most important question to me is NOT "where are the special medals ?", but rather "where are the life refills ?" As far as I can tell :
-Just after the first run, when I kill the last of those very resistant and fast shooting robots
-Right before the Stromboli boss, in a part of the ship that becomes breakable by the end
-Right after Stromboli
-And that's all ! I cant survive the next part and arrive to the train boss. Do I miss a refill before the train ? Do you have any hints for surviving this part ? I always get knocked down by those flying robots right before the train...


Warpzone, about those special medals now, I think I made a mistake on stage 3 : you dont get one for destroying every part of Security Level 17, it must have been where I got my 800 hits. Also, about stage 6, when you write :
4. After Stromboli, do a three-hit combo when you fly towards the battleship
I cant do that, I tried like 20 times though. Do you mean that the three hit combo should destroy the ship instead of letting it sink underlava ? If yes, does that imply that I have to break each breakable part of the ship while revolving around it ?

[jeremycarrier]

Nope, you just got to get your skills up to the train. Note, however, that there is a life refill as soon as you get on the train, theres another after the Hamster thing, and another in that last batch of jumping things that come out of the lave right before the final boss.

[WarpZone]

There's also a life refill for attacking puppy keeper during the crane sequence.

In general for stage 6:

- keep practicing the opening section until you can do it without getting hit up to the point where it stops scrolling and you have to fight robots for a while. That part is hard, but if you get hit some you can still build up a x16 multiplier by the battleship.

- for the battleship, take an aggressive stance and deflect the missiles at the turrets. I don't think you have to destroy everything to get the special medal after Stromboli, though.

- try to have 100 or close to 100 health when you go inside the gate. Are you having trouble with the cows? When several come as a group, I make sure to use a single slash on the first one so I'm not caught in a combo when the others follow.

- after that, dodging the fire columns is kind of hard. Watch where the rocks are being dropped, I guess.

- I think you can destroy two of the big robots with a charge shot, and you can reflect missiles and melee. Prioritize them over the other targets.

I think I made a mistake on stage 3 : you dont get one for destroying every part of Security Level 17

I've gotten this, but only at the same time as the Just 0 Bonus. Maybe you need that, or just can't run out of time?

[guigui]

Thanks Jeremy for the tips about refill, I knew some parts have to be tough.

There's also a life refill for attacking puppy keeper during the crane sequence.

In general for stage 6:

- keep practicing the opening section until you can do it without getting hit up to the point where it stops scrolling and you have to fight robots for a while. That part is hard, but if you get hit some you can still build up a x16 multiplier by the battleship.

This is what I have to do in priority indeed. I cant leave this point with more than 20 life now, which makes 50 after the refill. Clearly not enough. I may have to use the lock on more often, I dont know why but I always think I'll be able to shot those robots things with my gun alone, which is a real bad idea after all !

- for the battleship, take an aggressive stance and deflect the missiles at the turrets. I don't think you have to destroy everything to get the special medal after Stromboli, though.

- try to have 100 or close to 100 health when you go inside the gate. Are you having trouble with the cows? When several come as a group, I make sure to use a single slash on the first one so I'm not caught in a combo when the others follow.

- after that, dodging the fire columns is kind of hard. Watch where the rocks are being dropped, I guess.

- I think you can destroy two of the big robots with a charge shot, and you can reflect missiles and melee. Prioritize them over the other targets.

I finally could get the medal on the ship, and tear it apart, cool animation ! I just had to time the sword correctly, which is not easy. No problem with the cows, except that I should not look at them flying in the sky, since it makes me laugh and miss the following one

I think I made a mistake on stage 3 : you dont get one for destroying every part of Security Level 17

I've gotten this, but only at the same time as the Just 0 Bonus. Maybe you need that, or just can't run out of time?

Now that you mention it, I may also have gotten the just 0 bonus the time I released the medal on Security Level 17. Is the condition "destroy all elements", or " get the just 0 bonus" or both ? I cant tell.

Also about stage 0 medals. I think the one you number as 5 is triggered by the fact that you break the boxes above the boss AND damage the boss with it. Medals 3 and 4 though remain a mystery to me. Some times I just kill every mechas with a missile and dont get one...

Yesterday, I started a full game at 11h30 PM, which is a bad idea. My run was my best until now though ! Got to stage 6 with 135 millions and stopped here, bed time. I hope the save & quit feature keeps track of your score, I'd like to upload it once I'll have loose to those blasting robots in the opening of stage 6.

[WarpZone]

I'm sure you can't save and retain your score. Otherwise MrMonkeyMan wouldn't be grumbling about the length

I may have to use the lock on more often, I dont know why but I always think I'll be able to shot those robots things with my gun alone, which is a real bad idea after all !

I just stay around the middle of the screen and try and deflect every single missile. If I have time I use the charge shot on less important targets. I also try and avoid dodging too much because it's easy to roll into a missile or that awful machine gun fire. Still get hit on that last part, though.

I finally could get the medal on the ship, and tear it apart, cool animation ! I just had to time the sword correctly, which is not easy. No problem with the cows, except that I should not look at them flying in the sky, since it makes me laugh and miss the following one

I updated the medal list and fixed some mistakes.

[guigui]

I'm sure you can't save and retain your score. Otherwise MrMonkeyMan wouldn't be grumbling about the length

You're right. Score was reset to 0 when I resumed my game. However, score when I saved & exit was still saved. Now I can go like 150 millions before dying like an idiot at Giant Keeper, great !

I've praticed a little stage 7, and it appears it is not that hard. During the last part of the opening ship, be sure to take all the eye thingies down, this makes a lot of missile fly onscreen, it is easier to kill the boss with those.
The two sword guys keep killing me half of the time though, they are so unpredictable.

About those special medals, I again got one by destroying all elements of Security Level 17, with timer at more than 3 seconds and 690 hits. I am pretty sure now that you have to do that before timer runs out as you wrote.

[WarpZone]

Just did a full run for the first time in a month. I would have made the front page of the ranking if I hadn't... died on the fist fight. Finally uploaded scores anyway and I think I'm #13, 'SPG'.

I'll probably be putting the game aside until next year.

Good luck, guigui. Use the sword on stage 7 Hibaru -- you can hit them even when they seem out of range.

[guigui]

Just did a full run for the first time in a month. I would have made the front page of the ranking if I hadn't... died on the fist fight. Finally uploaded scores anyway and I think I'm #13, 'SPG'.

I'll probably be putting the game aside until next year.

Good luck, guigui. Use the sword on stage 7 Hibaru -- you can hit them even when they seem out of range.

Oops, fist fight death never happened to me in a full run, but I know I would not like it either !
Thanks for the good luck, I fear I might be a little lonely here now. Do you know another place where the game is discussed in technical ways as it is here ?

My last run ended also by a stupid death, on Decko stage 7 : stupid pink chasing balls that I dont sword enough again, grrr. Also my fight against Chimaira was epic since I really screwed up the beginning and felt to 1 life while he still had like 1500... Then I just no-miss-blasted him to death, yay !
Got something like 220 millions on this run, dont know where it puts me on the board yet but I am quite happy. As always, with Treasure games, the urge to play again goes with the lot of opportunities I missed for score improving...

[Zweihander]

Got mine preordered. Can't wait.

[evil_ash_xero]

Got mine preordered. Can't wait.

You should be excited. This game is drop dead awesome.

[guigui]

Got mine preordered. Can't wait.

You should be excited. This game is drop dead awesome.

Preordered US version ? Is there a date now ?

[mumu]

How this thread is in OT I will never know.