Part 45: Challenges B

Today we're going to do more challenges.



Just added a Hi-Ether.



This one is pretty easy.



Just use Blizzara repeatedly on its face. You can use other magic, but it's just so satisfying to use Blizzard right on the face.



1:40 requirement. It's very lenient.



This one is a bit harder. Normally, you'd use magic (like I did just above), but apparently the game thought of this.



Fortunately, limits aren't counted as "attack", so any misses with it is fine. This mission would've been easier with Limit Recharge (the item that resets the yellow bar), but it's still not that hard.



We can't miss even once here. I probably should've made and brought Limit Recharge, but it worked out fine.





Just follow the purple path. Make sure to get the two that are in the air. This way, you should be able to get everything while the green ring is intact. This way, we don't need to go to The Palace and get the rest of the emblems.



The time limit is 1:00, so we're cutting it pretty close. To be fair, my route is less efficient than the one I showed. You shouldn't fight enemies here.



This one is... You know what? I'm tired of saying variations of "This one is easy. Just do like before, but ignoring all optional bits." Let's talk about something else.



Welcome to Lite's Play: Gitaroo Man. It's a rhythm game made by KOEI. This isn't going to be a full LP since it works better as a VLP and I suck at editing videos. Brass Monkey and Ambisagrus did an LP of this.



Here's the menu screen, with each of them being very self-explanatory. The portrait on the left changes based on which menu you currently have selected. I won't bother showing the story since Brass Monkey already did in his/her LP, but to be honest the story isn't great. It's servicable, but the main draw is in the gameplay.



I'll be alternating between both games in these challenge updates, particularly when I have nothing to say. I won't be bothering with hiding spoilers for this game, so you also don't need to because this game doesn't rely on twists (and to confuse people who don't read these updates). Honestly, this is just going to be me rambling about a completely different game to pad these Challenge updates.



Where was I? Oh, yeah. Deserters. Blizzara works well as a trap for them. Limit works better, but it's hard to get your HP low enough to do that. The time limit is pretty strict, though. And somehow I managed to kill all of them before the others managed to spawn. 1:00 requirement, which is kinda strict.



This one is actually interesting. Well, interesting as in the time limit is so strict I can't finish this with 3 sigils, so I'll leave it for later instead.



This one is also actually interesting.



Well, interesting in that you have to dick around on a stealth mission. On a timed mission. Great.







And don't forget to move both the pillar and the box. High Jump isn't enough to help with this.



The rest is normal, really. The time limit is 7:00, which might seem lenient but remember that we need 3 minutes to follow Pete and 1.5 minutes to move the box and the pillar.



This one is also interesting in that I can't finish it. This is our first mission to Beast's Castle and you need to press all switches in the Entrance Hall Upper Level, which you can't if there's enemies nearby, thus wasting your time. Next!



The new thing here is that we can reach this one with High Jump.



Yeah, this map is a mess. Get the one behind you first, then grab the one requiring High Jump (below the arch), then follow the purple path. If you get them all with the green ring, you shouldn't have to detour for the final one like I did. Just make sure not to try to grab the one I marked "Too High" since High Jump LV1 isn't enough for that.



1:40 time limit. It's actually much easier than fully completing this mission normally (which we still haven't done yet).



This one is kind of like a puzzle. I switched my Blizzara and Thunder with Fire and Aero for this one.



First, get this one by the starting point.



Jump twice and kill this glob.



Then go through the door and kill 2 more. This will complete the mission.



We can jump 3 times this mission, so it probably has more solutions. This kind of missions are interesting and forces you to think, unless some others.



Just use magic to snipe at groups of enemies. Nothing else to be said here.



While we're on the boring challenge, let's meet our first Gitaroo challenger: Panpeus. He's a crying demon baby. Yeah, you should watch the other LP to gain some context. Spoiler: It won't help.



I mean, you can probably tell what's happening, but not why it's happening. Yeah, I'm using a screenshot format for a rhythm game. Deal with it. The videos are at the bottom of the update.



This game uses the left analog stick (PS2) or the only analog stick (PSP) to move the cone. You have to make sure that the cone covers the line while pressing a button when the bar gets to the center. O, X, [], ^ all works for this. All fight begin by charging, in which you'll increase your HP when you hit the notes.

After that we get to...



Fuck. You can get hit once and still get 3 sigils, but this is still a shock. Especially since this is almost the end of the mission.



For context on how I managed to get hit and how I almost got a Heart(less) attack at the end there.



By the way, I forgot to mention that Cogsworth is in this mission, but I fought two Soldiers near him and he didn't react, so I didn't bother mentioning him before.



For this mission, we're capped at low level, but it's not a big deal.



What is a big deal is that there's a dark portal in U-1's room. Yeah, U-1 is the boy's name. It's a stupid name. Even the dog's name (Puma) is better.



And it somehow changes a room into a corridor. Okay

Anyway, as I was saying before getting interrupted by a Sergeant, we move on to the Battle Phase. It contains an Attack and Guard phase.



You can see the current phase of the battle in the lower right. In Guard Phase, you have to press the corresponding button when it reaches the center of the screen. You can tell that this is the PSP version because the X and ^ has less distance to the middle.

Also, this game is WEIRD. I mean, just look at that pig. You'll miss most of these while playing the game, since it's so intense.



The Guard phase can be filled with buttons. This isn't bad, but later it will be worse. Much worse



Oh, and I guess there's an attack phase too. It works exactly like Charge, just that you'll reduce the opponent's HP if you hit the notes. For both Attack and Guard, you'll lose HP if you miss (this doesn't happen in Charge).



It's hard to pay attention to what's happening while playing, like the pig and now the robot. I guess they're sending their troops? The song's name (Twisted Reality) really fits here.



Speaking of not paying attention, this is what happens if you mistime the block with Cymbal Monkey. This status effect reverses the controls basically make Lock-on worthless. I waste some precious seconds waiting for this to subside on its own.



Thankfully, killing the Neoshadows doesn't even take 10 seconds. The time limit is 1:55. Oh, and I guess Lumiere's here too, but he's not being a dick. This time.



...



So, after dealing enough damage to pass the (invisible) threshold, you'll move on to the next phase of the battle. If you didn't, the fight will just repeat until you do.



The hard thing about the earlier battle phases is the switch between Guard and Attack. You can see the line from Attack while the last button from Guard is still there. You can also see the giant TV behind Panpeus.



It's hard to see normally, but the picture in the TV changes. It's a nice attention to detail.



Yeah, that thing just grows. It's kind of a dino...thing? Maybe?



It easier to see the TV screen from this angle.



And finally, there's the pig form earlier riding a train. Okay.



Back to the challenge. This one isn't even worth showing, really. It's just padding.



This one is interesting and require some effort to it.



Remember: This is the mission where Roxas wields a stick.



Cogsworth!!!!!



This is actually the fourth attempt since Cogsworth is being a dick this time and the time limit is strict.



I mean, you have to complete it within 0:45 and I'm less than 2 seconds below it. Yeah, some of these challenges can be pretty brutal.



Speaking of brutal...



This might look hard, but it isn't once you know the trick.



You'll want to bring plenty of Thunder for this one.



Yeah, Thunder is good against this boss. Too bad we didn't have it the first time.



Blizzara to the face will always be great



You do have to use the Keyblade when it's in tornado mode, though, since it's immune to magic. We can use it 10 times before losing sigils.





This is kinda nice for forcing players to use a new way to fight the boss, but it could be frustrating if I didn't use a guide.



Nope.



Yeah, remember this? Yeah, just do the same as before except you have to start over if you die. I lucked out by not getting any Samurai until the 4th to last jar (there's 3 jars with them).



These are our spoils. Special mention goes to Thundara (which I won't be using until later).

Now that we're done with a lot of challenges, let's check back on U-1, Puma, and Panpeus.



Looks like everything is going just fine

Harmony is just the final phase. It's just to show you that the song is about to be over and you're about to win.



That's U-1's winning pose. Complete with dramatic lightning.



This game isn't complete without the sexy sound of "You Win"





New reports:



Oh yeah, there's some girl called Pico. She's U-1's crush. We see him about 1 minute total if actually watching the story and 0 minute if just playing the game (not including her face in the menu screen).