#486 Groove on Fight Bosses (2/3): Bristol playthrough.
0A playthrough of the sub-boss Bristol in Atlus' Groove on Fight.
Bristol's moves:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/saturn/197497-groove-on-fight-gouketsuji-ichizoku-3/faqs/5294
Groove on Fight is the first and only game in the Power Instinct series to have sub-bosses. Why this is, I'm not particularly sure, but given the sheer absurd difficulty of the bosses in Matrimelee and Power Instinct V, it seems they just preferred to have one, huge, ludicrous challenge at the end. Design-wise, I think it's meant to act as a sort of sucker punch to the player. The problem however is that said bosses (Shinkuro in PI5 and, in particular, Sissy in Matrimelee) have a tendency to overshadow the rest of those games, the same problem with occurred with the General in Kaiser Knuckle. It's a shame too, considering all three of those games are fantastic in their own right, but the absurd spikes in difficulty couldn't help but overshadow the rest of those games.
Groove on Fight actually avoids this to an extent. Bristol-D is quite powerful, but not by any means impossible to defeat. A powerful boss who is still bearable to defeat. What's more, the sub-boss of the game is Bristol in his human form, and isn't dramatically difficult, while still being quite a solid character to both play as and fight against. He issupposed to be something of a throwaway character (a bit of an anticlimax really, in order to then sucker punch you with the Bristol-D fight), and yet he's still surprisingly competent. He is ludicrously combo-savvy, able to strike together powerful, hard-hitting combos with ease. What's more, his special moves interlink incredibly well with these combos (similar to King Leo in Kizuna Encounter), while also still retaining their individual uses as a strike move and an anti-air move. The majority of his moves focus on leg-based attacks for some reason, including a projectile he fires from his leg, and this helps to add to the swiftness of his play style. Finally, his special move sees him taking out a pistol, and shooting the opponent repeatedly. This doesn't do tremendous damage, however, it is unblockable, meaning it certainly has its uses if it lands. Despite being unplayable in this version, and in effect being a throw-away character, the sub-boss, human version of Bristol is incredibly competent, and actually an extremely good character. He's not overpowered either, so the fact that he's not unlockable or time-released in this version is quite surprising, considering he's only a bit more powerful than the regular characters.