Hero Core

Furthermore, it seems like quite a few of the bosses actually get easier as they enter pissy boss mode, which seems like a subversion of the usual tactic.

Tetron, for one. It makes sense on Grand Mother since her prissy boss mode isn't a desperation attack so much as she ran out of ammunition/resources for her initial method of attack. At least the Guardian boss gets harder (or at least less predictable) in his second form.

Hmm, let's see(these are from memory so I'm not completely sure):

1. Rock Crusher: The eight power cores don't fire when destroyed, making the boss easier as it goes on
2. Silencer: Doesn't change in difficulty as the fight goes on
3. Plasma Hydra: Gets harder when destroying a head means that more heads come out, but once the number of heads starts actually going down, it gets easier. (And in hard mode, I'd say the heads that fire LAZOR are easier than the ones firing those parabolic shots.)
4. Reaper Drone: Doesn't change in difficulty as the fight goes on
5. Liquid Metal Processor: Doesn't change in difficulty as the fight goes on
6. Grand Mother: Gets easier when it runs out of Mothers
7. The Guardian: On my first playthrough I felt like it got easier when it entered pissy boss mode but now I think the opposite is probably true.
8. Star Splitter: IIRC, easier once it enters pissy boss mode.
9. Elite: As a Dual Boss, when you kill one, the other doesn't actually change its tactics, meaning it gets easier. There's also the fact that Expel stops working near the very end.
10. Eliminator: Doesn't change in difficulty as the fight goes on
11. Cruiser Tetron: His second form is easier than his first, and his third easier than his second.

edited 7th Jun '10 8:01:27 AM by Ponicalica

Tetron's easier than the later bosses, because it'd be unfair if you're not good enough for the optional content, but then the end boss is even tougher. Also to make it easier to face him early.

I actually like bosses that degrade during the battle because I dislike cheap shots - imagine if Tor suddenly did the phantom hammer during his last chunk of health after a five-minute fight. I tried to do it subtly in Iji, with Iosa and Tor removing their supermoves as their HP goes down.

I also think it makes you feel better to see that the boss is getting worn down, and it gives you more hope and will to beat it. If you keep failing at it for half an hour until you finally win, only to find that it turns invincible and starts jumping up and down while throwing exploding guns that shoot chainsaws at you all over the level, many just give up there and don't try again.

At least, that's what I think.

Yeah, not having to face an even tougher attack during the Guardian's second form, for example, was nice.

^^ Speak for yourself. I find Tor's supermove easier to deal with than the alternative of his damn particle attack that almost always takes off 3hp (without the bonus for full health).

So I've been progressing through the game the right way this time (facing the bosses in order) and I love it. For some reason though in windowed mode there's slowdown sometimes during:

• large boss explosions
• getting hit by some enemy shots (like the laser firing enemies)
• using a save point
• entering the overheating liquid

The save point is understandable, since it can't update the game while saving. The rest are probably because Game Maker is more CPU intensive than it looks, it could be down to your specs.

^^ If there's slowdown, try turning off motion blur. That worked for me.

edited 9th Jun '10 1:45:44 AM by Darxzero

Yeah, I think those things are due to motion blur not properly working on Vista or 7.

I just beat the game.

Fucking awesome. Even though Tetron was a pushover, I still enjoyed it.

RIP Hero ;_;

I'd say that fighting Elite at level 8 is harder than fighting Tetron at level 0.

Of course, Elite is difficult because In order to make your weapon most effective, you have to put yourself in the way of their weapons

Elite was a BITCH.

But then I discovered the Gradius wall cover trick works well against their bullet sprays

Yeah, I think Daniel Remar designed the room to make Expel possible to be hid from.

I don't get it. I didn't find the elites to be especially hard (though I only reached them on my normal run; I still haven't finished off Guardian or the Annihilator Factory on Hard).

Sudden Death Pacifist

Well I did find Zero before anyone else here. That's the closest equivalent to sudden death in this game, right?

I'd say that the closest equivalent to sudden death in this game is the first game.

I'm sad that Hero Core doesn't recreate the Tetron fight from the first game, in that the entire screen goes black except for you and the boss. There's too much crap on the screen in Core that couldn't be removed. Though Tetron's second form perfectly imitates his pattern in the first game.

1.2 is out now, with some easier rooms... the annihilator+hunter have turned into annihilator+soldier and the annihilator+annihilator room has turned into annihilator+hunter.

Also Normal boss rush, but reallyjoel's dad will scoff at you if you play it. Unless you play it in Russian, which was proofread by Iji.

edited 12th Jun '10 11:44:37 AM by Ulti

Downloaded. Died against the second form of the Guardian in my first attempt at normal mode Boss Rush due to making too many mistakes against its first form. Will have to try again.

Beat normal mode Boss Rush in 10 minutes 40 seconds. I got a B-rank.

I tried to switch to windowed mode to screenshot the victory screen and the game crashed.

I also noticed that Tetron's room, before it disappears, has him imprisoned, as opposed to being a throne in the normal game. Built by Flip Hero in order to help him train?

What are the ranks?

edited 12th Jun '10 5:14:57 PM by Ponicalica

For the record, Daniel, is the comment about the Russian version implying that the translation isn't so good, in reference to the running gag in the MSPA of Iji being a terrible writer?

Well, I hope it is.

^ What in the hell is that AVATAR?

UBOA

^Thanks. I guess.

That game looks "interesting", I'll look it up on this site.

edited 12th Jun '10 6:03:36 PM by BattleMage