Part 22: Bonus Video

Cool, and not-so-cool, extra stuff!

Stage notes!

Gallery mode, unlocked after beating the game on hard mode, is a cool extra, if a little unnecessary. Most of the image names are kinda boring and unimaginative, but Elpizo’s scary-ass eye with the title “watch” has always amused me. Also, for the record, it later occurred to me that “R. Elpizo” might stand for “Ruler Elpizo” – coming from his boss music “Supreme Ruler”.
The levels used for multiplayer are the only other new things to crop up here, and I’m not gonna lie, they’re some of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen included in a retail release. “Time attack” features 3 stages, the first of which is made from the temple textures, the second of which utilizes the forest ruins, and the third of which is…temple again.
And they all suck.

Meanwhile, “Enemy battle” and “Get items” mode are in the forest ruins and the temple, respectively.
And they both suck.

I honestly cannot BEGIN to fathom why these were included in the game, or why anyone wasted even a minute on this drivel. The framerate stutters constantly, the stages are unimaginative and bland, and the music.
Oh, god, the music.
I’m gonna let you see for yourself, because it really is a spectacle to behold, but rest assured it’s something special.

This entire thing boggles my mind, because parts of it actually seem to have thought put into it, like the decent (and entirely unique) menu music, or the preparation screen that lets each participant load from a save file and choose from any of their unlocked forms. It’s some decent stuff, which then leads into the literal blandest stage designs possible and an honest-to-god 4 second long looped drum sample.
My best guess as to what’s going on here is that they had some test environments lying around, and some dude with way too much time on his hands said “hey, can I design an interface to use that sweet link-cable port?” and then just dumped said environments in and called it multiplayer. Said dude probably also spent a couple hours with Magix or something and went home quite pleased with himself. To my knowledge, this mode was removed entirely from the DS collection, and I think we can honestly say that nothing of value was lost.

Forms!

=Ultimate Form=


The Ultimate form is the final reward you’ll be getting in the main game, a form only bestowed upon those who selfishly choose to consume each and every Cyber-elf in the game prior to completion.

Power-***
Defense-***
Speed-***

Having absorbed the energy of over 80 helpless lifeforms, Zero’s body evolves to a state beyond any previously experienced. His normal form’s stats are all boosted to a level above their norm, he loses nothing in return, and his body itself seems to ooze power from ever orifice, tinting his normal colors a deeper, richer shade than they were previously.

The most drastic change, however, comes from his energy-channeling abilities. Previously, Zero had to level and charge his weapons prior to unleashing a devastating strike, but he now has such a surplus of energy he’s able to pull them off with nary a thought. However, in order to prevent him from destroying his very body with the energy output, Zero has to channel the power in very specific ways to produce the desired outcome, which manifests itself in simple, Street fighter-esqe button commands you can input while playing as the Ultimate form in order to produce things like instantaneous charged saber slashes. The game doesn’t tell you them straight-out, but they’re all fairly simplistic – Here’s a full list, shamelessly stolen from another site because I don’t play pro fightans and don’t know how to communicate most of these:

-Buster Level 1: + Buster
-Buster Level 2: + Buster
-Saber: + Saber
-Chain Rod: + Chain Rod
-Shield Boomerang: + Shield Boomerang

The Ultimate form is actually a continuation of a Zero 1 unlockable known as the “Ultimate mode”, which was only unlocked upon killing all Cyber-elves (including Jackson) and finishing the game, which meant it took a minimum of two playthroughs and a buttload of E-crystals to get, but here, with a bit of effort, it can be earned in only a single run. The combos were also in the first game, but here, the form gives an across-the-board stat boost as well, which means there’s really no reason to ever not use it.

Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with the thing. It looks freakin’ sweet and has great stats, but at the same time I’m utter trash at performing the combos, and because I’ll inevitably attempt to anyway I’m constantly running into enemies. If you’re good at em, then knock yourself out, but note that all the permanent Cyber-elf effects you’ve used (which, in this case, is all of them) will continue to be active and affect your score, which means you’re neither getting nor seeing another EX skill in that file ever again. Because of this, I usually don’t bother playing with it (because EX skills are cool), but if you want easy mode this is essentially it.

Music!

I went a bit into the music already, but still. As previously stated, the menu music is actually fairly decent, and tertiary research tells me that it’s been recognized and remixed a few times under the name “Red Time”. A cool name if I do say so myself.
The other one, though, well. I personally don’t have any idea what they were thinking with this one, though I recommend you check it out – it really is just a looping, crackly drum sample looped over and over. Literally any in-game track would be better to use; they put literally Zero effort into this, and so I too put exactly Zero effort into removing the occasional sound of exploding bombs.
I really wish I could end this Let’s Play on a more positive note, but nope, this track is going to live on in infamy, forever positioned as the last thing to be written about.

Red Time
Multiplayer Game
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On that note,

~THANKS FOR READING, EVERYONE! See you next time!~