Part 24: 23. "Cunningham!!! No, Snatcher! I'll get you for this!!!"
Ladies and gentlemen, this very update - this one - is a big reason why I didn't give up on SD Snatcher.
23. "Cunningham!!! No, Snatcher! I'll get you for this!!!"
Welcome to the Caves. Junker HQ is apparently no longer in a high rise and it turns out it was connected to a huge system of caves somehow. You know what? Whatever.
Gilian is certainly more excited about this than I am.
Especially considering the cave is loaded with a new enemy! Meet...
Piston Giger. The first thing you'll notice is the giant shield, which you're gonna have to waste ammo on.
Unfortunately, the giant head that I'm targetting doesn't contain all of this guy's HP which means you must destroy the shield to kill this thing. To that end, I recommend just pounding on the shield until it's gone.
Piston Giger will reveal himself to attack, but that begins and ends in his attacking animation, so you've got no shot of actually hitting him in your turn.
C. Killer helps, but it usually only paralyzes him for about 2 turns anyway.
Piston's strongest attack is in his... cyber staff? Spear? Whatever? He also has a mouth blaster and a cannon in his head for no reason. I really have no idea what this thing is supposed to be.
I prefer using the M.Maxim so you can at least take out one of his eyes before the shield goes down. Annoyingly, the shield can take a lot of punishment.
Also, with the exception of the Human Snatchers, Piston Gigers are the most disturbing to dismantle, I found.
And here he is, minus shield.
I don't know what it is, but that destroyed head bothers the hell out ofm e.
JUST DIE ALREADY!
The trick here is that the torso holds all the precious HP you need to deplete to take these things down.
As you can see, I didn't realize this until the last possible moment.
They give pretty good experience, which is good considering that...
There's a damn ton of them.
And now, we're going to return to Junker HQ and learn the truth about Geoff!
If you didn't figure it out, the reason Geoff is in here is because Harry has to die, according to the plot, but the game still needs an RPG merchant.
For all intents and purposes, meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
I would also very very highly recommend you load up as if this were the final dungeon of the game. In fact, if you're gonna farm here for the best weapons, now is the time.
Not because we're near the end of the game...
Heh heh heh. Oh Lord.
The caves are an annoying maze of dead ends and Piston Gigers.
Gilian: ... I can't even fathom why there's $2000 here.
Metal: ... Maybe the chief was storing it in case he needed to escape?
Gilian: ... I guess.
Oh, and also the cave is full of...
MSX5 - The most fucked version of Piston Giger ever. Nothing about these guys makes any sense. Hitting their guns lowers their STR like anything else. Hitting the head - but not the eyes - lowers the ACC. Hitting the arms lowers their speed. Yeah, the arms. Hitting the legs and torso lowers HP. Weird.
Oh and like their counterparts, you'll need to waste ammo taking down that shield, too. And even worse.
These fuckers can call for backup. Fortunately, Queen Hospital's alligators and squids over-levelled me and while the broken HP system means every fourth turn on average is a healing turn, nothing in this cave poses a serious threat.
For God knows what reason, I don't have screencaps of their destruction, but it's mostly what we're used to anyway. And now it is time to buy the best weapon in the game...
The Express. It hits in a 3x3 grd and though the N. Point is stronger, it packs a punch in a very wide area.
Let's try it out in the cave.
(Shrug.) I like it.
Gilian: More money. But still no sign of the Chief or Jamie.
Metal: We've got to keep looking.
This north exit is your goal. Inside...
The Chief!
"I must protest such behavior, good sir!"
Here's something kinda new. The Snatchers are generally like humans, but in Snatcher, they pretty much serve their creator. Their creator (Elijah Modnar) believes the Snatchers to be the next proper dominant "species" on Earth, but you don't really hear too much about what the Snatchers think.
So it's good that someone's asserting their independence, is basically what I'm getting at.
"Words, Benson. Words which I cannot spell. Were is my dictionary?"
Fun fact: Gillian's original Snatcher taunts show his preference to the word "scum." "We've got you now, Snatcher scum!" when he finds Freddy Nielsen's sunscreen. "Scum! No reason to kill the poor animal," on seeing dead Alice. And "A hostage - You cowardly scum!" when the Chief takes Mika hostage.
Oh, that reminds me! I wonder if that'll happen here. Nah!
Uh oh! It's Snatcher Benson! I start this fight with a C. Killer in the hopes that it will work.
It does! Now it's time to shoot him and-
Have the fight suddenly end and Cunningham run away? Yeah, the fight with Benson lasts all of one turn. Okay, then.
In another throwback to the original, you have to track his blood through the caves... fighting enemies along the way. Groan.
Let's fast forward a little.
Okay, this is the game's way of knowing you're on the right path.
You know what? Let's skip a step here. We know he's gonna take Mika hostage like in the original, so let's just go there...
Gilian: Are you sure you're okay?
Mika: Yes Gilian, thank you for asking.
Gilian: I just... well...
Metal: Everything okay, Gilian?
Gilian: Yeah... I just had a hunch that the Chief might have doubled back to Junker HQ. (Weird.)
Metal: Let's get back to the caves. Hurry!
This took me a bit. It seems like the blood trail ends about here, but if you find this one notch in the wall...
It's a hidden passage!
Jamie and the Chief? ...Well, this is new. What the hell.
Easiest boss fight I've ever had.
WHA-?!
No! The whole point of Snatchers is to steal identities! Why would she just out and tell him- agh.
You probably could've gotten away with that by actually pretending to be Jamie, you know. Sheesh. Snatchers nowadays.
And even worse...
Benson crawls over and grabs Gilian's leg!
And now it's time for the real boss fight! Benson and Jamie!
...or just Jamie. Yeah, for whatever reason, SD Snatcher just presumes Benson dead at this point. So that brings the Junk Count to 9.
The Express ensures you're going to hit all of Jamie's head in one shot, so this isn't too bad. Like all Snatcher bosses, Jamie hits hard, but take out her mouth and things are significantly easier.
100 XP? Yeah, Jamie gives out less than the Piston Gigers do. Meh.
We are now in the ultimate act of SD Snatcher. In the original, defeating the Chief meant we were to learn the truth about Gillian's past. We were to see Mika mourn for Harry's death. We were to learn that Metal knew everything about Gillian all along.
What does SD Snatcher give us to start it all off?
How will the endgame begin. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... in the room to the north...
A GOD DAMNED SNATCHER WITH A BALLOON ON ITS HEAD 
It promptly runs off.
We are now officially in Hideo Kojima mindjob territory, kids.
Buckle the fuck up.
Version Differences
- Gillian junks Cunningham in Junker HQ in the original and Mika is taken hostage. There's no caves.
- Jamie is never a Snatcher - in fact, the game tries to trick you into shooting at her at the end.
- At this point, Gilian already knows that he's a professor, although that's revealed about now in the original.
- Oh yeah, there's no Snatcher with a balloon in the original.
Relevant Snatcher Media
Gillian Seed vs. Benson Cunningham and the end of Act 2