Part 18: Video 14

Just realized this is the second time I’ve referenced a MGS game I’ve never actually beaten. WHOOPS.

Also still doing short vids, I'll try to squeeze out the next one superquick to make up for it.

Stage notes!

100 pt. Requirements:
-Clear time: 3:00
-Enemies killed: 28
-Mission: N/A

The annoying Yadokroids (crab enemies) can be taken down in a single jumpslash with the Proto form, which makes the rising water segment a bit more tolerable in hard mode. However, you’re gonna want to bust out your boomerang again for the boss, seeing as she gives you a limited amount of time in which to hit her.

The Temple of Ice continues the precedent set by the Temple of Fire by flooding the place with the appropriate elemental liquid. Of course, in this case, it’s water and ice instead of lava, which automatically makes it significantly easier. Again like the Temple of Fire, this one feels like a remix of the last couple ice/water stages; the level incorporates the water, fish enemies, and ice floes prominent in the Computer Zone, as well as a room filled with the annoying Snow Garms from the Zone’s roof. Due to the fact that water is roughly 70% less deadly than lava, this means the stage is roughly 50% more lenient! It still doesn’t have a checkpoint until the boss, but it’s at least smart enough to leave out stuff like the Mini Mines which makes it better than the CZ Roof in my book!

Honestly I’d like to say this stage is rather fun overall; it has some interesting water physics-based jumps, and while not standout amazing it’d still be pretty decent.
…buuuut I can’t. Like the Temple of Fire, this one has a rising fluid segment, with the gimmick this time being you’re on an ice floe being raised while enemies jump on and around you. I got no beef with the fishies, but the other enemy that shows up (the Yadokroid) is just horrible. For reference, they showed up previously in Panter Flauclaw’s stage, and while they’re far more at home here visual-wise, they’re placed so horrendously I can’t forgive it.

See, this is another instance of the screen just being too dang small; as your floe rises, the Yadokroids are meant to jump on with you. Problem is, they’ll invade before you even have a chance to see they’re coming, which means that more often than not they’ll just fall right onto your unsuspecting noggin. You can hear them coming ahead of time, but can’t tell which side they’re on, and making matters worse is their gimmick; they can’t be hurt until you slash their shells off, and even then it takes a bit to kill them, which means that they’ll

A: Jump onto platform
B: Get slashed once, which won’t kill them
C: Slide straight into you due to ice physics

and it is no fun at all.

Also, at one point it gives you one on each side.



This is not easy to deal with. It’s ~possible~ to climb up there preemptively and get the jump on em, but I use possible there in the loosest of terms because it’s fairly difficult to pull off without getting hit by the fish, spikes, or just failing to make the jump.

HOWEVER. This is only really a problem if you’re a massive sperg who needs (NEEDS) his/her perfect score, and if you fall into the water it’s perfectly possible to just walljump up avoiding the fishies and continue on your merry way. As such, it’s not as hard/bad as the last Temple was, just a little…unpolished. It also has some weird issues when it comes to the Yadokroids; I’ve seen them teleport around like Goku, and even managed to capture one using a boss door and spontaneously combusting ON FILM, YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST FOLKS.

Character bios!

Leviathan – Armed Phenomenon


Moveset:

• Blue torpedo: Exists the screen, yells out “Haha!”, and then comes barreling in from the same side she left on. Travels the length of the screen at whatever height you were at when she yelled.
  
• Navy Harpoons: Does the same as above, but comes in at a set height about 1/3 the height of the arena, trailing 5 ice harpoons. Said harpoons will detach, travel in one direction for a bit, then do a 180 and go in the opposite direction at a slightly lower altitude. Can change direction multiple times without leaving the screen, but won’t always do so.
  
• Glacial dragons: Yells out “I won’t let you escape!” and releases two segmented ice dragons from her top on bottom, which will then proceed to home in on you. They will not dissipate until they either make contact with Zero or are damaged sufficiently, but go down to a couple saber strikes.
  
• Fairy laser: Yells what sounds like “DUH DUH DUN” but is presumably “I’m not done yet”, then fires off a horizontal laser from her face, which produces large frost crystals in its wake. Said crystals float to the ground, and upon making contact, convert to smallish spiked pillars which slowly float upwards before dissipating.
  
• Ice knives: Yells “Come out”, charges briefly, then shoots out 3 ice knives towards the ground in front of her at varying angles. Knives ricochet upon contact with the ground, continuing travel at an equivalent upwards angle until they reach the opposite wall.
  
• EX Skill: Wyvern wall: Releases two segmented ice dragons from her back, which travel backwards a short distance before rapidly moving forwards and meeting together, trailing ice blocks behind them and forming a box. Should you be trapped inside, the blocks are destructible, but if not simply back off. Always immediately followed by a Blue torpedo straight through the middle, completely destroying the box.

Like Fefnir before her, Leviathan gets to go all HENSHIN and turn into a heavy military-grade attack craft, in her case a big submersible designed to resemble a Ray. She even gets a big transformation phrase, yelling out “More! MORE I SAY!” as she gathers energy.

Similar to her previous battle, the fight takes place in a submerged arena, increasing your mobility and opening up a whole bunch of options for dodging. She, too, will use the space to aid her movement, gliding on and off-screen fairly fluidly, and utilizing her newfound thrusters to move at a nice clip and smack into Zero. This means that the battle generally becomes a matter of trading blows; you’ll hit her, she’ll go offscreen and attempt to bodyslam you, you’ll go to the opposite side and get another swipe in, rinse, repeat. It’s an interesting concept and works fairly well (and even lets you double dip by allowing super-risky strikes on her while she’s boosting), but like her stage there’s a single problem weighing it down.



See, her first two moves both involve existing off the side of the screen and saying the same voice quote, before barreling in at high speed. Problem is, both moves have very different methods of dodging – for the first, jumping in place upon hearing the “Haha!” will allow you to glide over her, while for the second, jumping in place will cause you to get hit directly by a Leviathan you were meant to be below. They launch at such a speed that it’s impossible to tell which one’s coming until it’s literally upon you, and it means that you generally have to go all “ok, she just used the head-on one twice, she’s *probably* going to come in high this time.” It’s all guesswork, save for the first attack (which will always be the head-on version), and makes attempting a perfect run on her kind of unfair. You can minimize the risk if you see her leave by jumping immediately to make sure she goes high, but if you’re busy dodging stuff that’s not always possible.
Other than that, though, the battle is fairly enjoyable. All her moves are obvious variants on her normal form’s attacks, and a few of them (the ice dragon ones) mark the return of a move not represented in her humanoid appearance; said dragons were her EX skill in the last game. It’s not ~amazing~, but it’s a cool variant with a unique battle style.

Oh, one other thing. One of her quotes –



Is kind of funny to me. I had never played Zero 1 on my first run through the game, and always interpreted this as a literal statement; I figured that they were literally infected by something that caused them to go all warmech on you, and it wasn’t until I started wikiwalking years later that I was all “Oh, that was just a thing they were able to do. Huh.” This interpretation kinda gets supported by the next stage, but no, it’s just Leviathan saying she’s caught the BATTLE FEVER.

Music!

“Cool hearted fellow”, while kinda lazy naming when you realize the last ice stage also had “Cool” in its name, is actually a fairly awesome track. It has the same atmospheric feel as the last two ice stages, but this time sounds a little more…driven. There’s a definite sense of purpose present here. It’s good, I like it, and unlike “Melt Down”, I’d put it on par with its compatriots on the Official Discography Op Ranking Scale (ODORS).

Cool Hearted Fellow