Part 17: Video 13

This is a thing that exists, apparently.

(Also sorry about the sucky pic, only decent graphic of this duder isn’t composed well for a mugshot.)
(Also also sorry I lied, this one’s super short too. Bite-sized videos for everyone.)

Stage notes!

100 pt. Requirements:
-Clear time: 2:40
-Enemies killed: 37
-Mission: N/A

Good luck beating this one in hard mode without using the shield boomerang! Platforming doesn’t get any harder, but it’s hard enough as-is.

Hoo boy, the Temple of Fire. Out of the three fire-themed levels, this one’s definitely my least favorite. It is also kinda overly hard!
A sort of remix of Phoenix Magnion’s stage without the cool bits (nonlinearity, secrets), it features the return of the Tellybombs and their accompanying destructible walls. Unlike the Power room, though, their usage to break through multiple objects is now required! This would not be so bad if the placement of said objects did not necessitate you to hit the bombs at very awkward angles!
Like nearly straight up!
While sequestered in a very small area with a ceiling!
As another Tellybomb bares down on you!
All the while above a very deadly pit of lava that will swiftly dispatch you if you mess up even slightly!



What I am saying is some of these maneuvers may not be entirely fair.

Oh also did I mention there aren’t any checkpoints until the boss? There aren’t. So if you fall off one of the collapsing platforms prior to it, have fun redoing the whole thing!

I don’t overtly dislike this stage, but when compared to the like of the last flame stages it just falls flat. First few jumps are fun enough because the Tellybombs can just be shot straight forward (or you can skillswing with the chain rod), but the second set just feel like a slog where you have to carefully line up really awkward attacks and respawn a bomb if you accidentally hit it while it’s inside a wall or something. Final rising lava section is cliché and SOMEWHAT ok, but for the love of god put a respawn flag up when you get to it, making players redo the whole thing is just too cruel.

Character bios!

Fefnir – Armed Phenomenon


Moveset:

• Dragon treads: Constantly moves towards you from the right, scrolling the stage along with him. Contact damage will occur should he touch you, and the screen will simply drag you along if you try to be sneaky and get behind him.
  
• Vital burner: All active dragon heads take turns charging, then spewing out very long-range tongues of flame. Extend just far enough to allow safe passage at the far side of the screen.
  
• Blast bomb: Launches two round bombs from his uppermost cannons, of which one falls at the far side of the screen whilst the other lands slightly in front of Fefnir. Explosions linger on point of impact for a short time, so jump over the far one and continue moving.
  
• Fire shot: Shoots rings of fire from each active dragon head. Once all are destroyed, he’ll use a weaker version of this (complete with rings 1/3 their previous size) non-stop, after yelling out "I won't be defeated!" in Japanese.
  
• EX Skill: Fire wave: Begins to move the lower left-hand cannon up and down while charging. Followed up by a swift sequence of 7 subsequent 3-ring fire blasts shot at varying heights. No matter the height, they can be dash-jumped over, and the move can be disabled by destroying Fefnir’s lower cannons.

It’s Fefnir again! Hi Fefnir! What’s up Fef-
OH GOD WHY ARE YOU A TANK NOW

Say hello to the “armed phenomenon” feature, folks! (Your favorite robot pals, now with limited-edition transformer functionality! Action figures coming soon)
In all seriousness though it’s not *quite* a random thing they threw in to justify another bout with these guys. See, the final boss of Zero 1, Copy X, demonstrated the first instance of this particular power in his fight by transforming himself into a large, Seraph-like form for the final clash. Seeing as Copy X was based on the original, and the Guardians were made from X’s roboDNA, it stands to reason they’d have their own variants of the move. That’s presumably the logic, anyway. This version takes the Dragonic theming and really rolls with it, and looks pretty cool.

In Fefnir’s case, the transformation brings with it one of the most unique boss designs in the series. While the big man himself remains the primary target, he also comes equipped with a clutch of dragoncannons, each of which function as simultaneous offense and defense for Fefnir. Initially, the foremost cannons will be obscuring his face (making him nearly impossible to hit with anything but a very well-aimed buster pellet or a close-up charged saber), which means the primary objective is to firstly disable his weaponry; they each have their own attacks and individual health counters to whittle down, but also possess the same electrical weakness their master does, allowing you to take out all 4 of them at once with 2 charged electric slashes.
Should you not do so, though, you’re in for a rather tough fight. While the front two cannons are easy enough to take out (and doing so will reduce the number of shots his attacks produce), the back two are nicely sequestered and difficult to hit, which will give you a decent bit of trouble. This version of Fefnir also gets his third health layer back, and even plays out like Mega Scorpia did back in the intro stage, which can stretch the fight out over a long period of time and result in your ranking taking a beating. He’s not ~too~ bad in normal mode, but in hard mode haha good luck managing to hit him consistently with anything other than the shield boomerang.
As for his EX skill, it’s annoying and lasts way too long, but stops one you destroy the lower cannons, so once he uses it it’ll usually be the last of his major attacks you see before forcing him into his final pattern. Once all the cannons are down, he’s utterly trivialized and only uses the same predictable pattern of shots over and over, so you’ve basically won at that point.

One last note on the battle, this is a just a weird thing I discovered post-recording. If you choose to use the Tenshouzan on him, which would normally seem like a super bad idea that would end with you getting squashed, you’ll instead redirect ALL his cannons towards the ceiling and stop the tank in its tracks for a good 3 seconds as the heads just kind of vibrate in place.



None of the other skills have a special effect on certain bosses (at least as far as I’ve seen) and this one’s especially odd seeing as the skill in question is the one associated with Fefnir’s own element, but there you go. It clears the obstructions, essentially giving you a clear shot whenever you want it, but note that it’ll only work as long as the cannon you’re hitting is still functional; once it’s down, the move won’t have any effect, so you’ve got 4 shots with the skill before you have to deal with the tank normally. And no, the Rise form’s slash doesn’t produce the same effect.

Music!

“Melt down” is the name of the stage theme this time, and to be honest it’s super similar to ”Passionate” from Fefnir’s last stage in that it’s fairly low-key and slow. Strangely, though, the sound doesn’t interest me as much as Passionate’s did. I couldn’t tell you why, but it makes this one match the stage as my least favorite out of the three fire themes. Still not bad.
Also a theme called “The End of Legend”, AKA the latest entry in “tracks OP forgot about and only just remembered exist”. It plays whenever you lay the smackdown on a Guardian, though it first appeared in MMZ1, named the same. It played after defeating Copy X, making the name fairly accurate, but here it’s questionable as to whether Fefnir qualifies as a “Legend”. Regardless it’s kinda boring and loopy and I’m pretty sure identical to the Z1 version.

Melt Down
The End of Legend