#622 Virtual On (ARC) Bosses (1/2): Z-Gradt gameplay.
0Gameplay of the final boss Z-Gradt in the arcade version of Sega's Cyber Troopers Virtual On: Operation Moongate.
Well, here's a weird one. There's a great line in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum's character states that its scientists were "were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should". That pretty much sums up this video.
You see, for some arcade games, they list the character values in the test menu of the game. This has been extremely helpful to me in the past, such as allowing me to hack Necrosan in PR2, and what eventually led to me being able to hack Inferno in Soul Calibur 1, although you won't be seeing that one for quite a while yet.
Said values are also listed in the test menu of Virtual On 1 (though not the sequels, sadly), meaning that I was successfully able to hack and play as two characters no person was ever supposed to play as in this game. And oh, man, does it show.
The final boss of the game is one of my most despised in existence. Virtual-On really isn't the easiest to control game in existence (especially when being emulated), but it's still relatively playable. Z-Gradt however is essentially a giant boss. A horrible type of boss in an already unique and unfamiliar game. And he's broken as hell. He's pretty much a laser cannon on legs, pretty able to fire out endless ways of powerful, damaging lasers at you, which you have to be more careful at dodging than if you were facing a Touhou boss. What's more, he can barely be damaged. Your regular attacks will take off very little if any health off of him. The only time you can take any considerable damage against him is when he turns gold and relieves his giant laser cannon from the top of his head. Now, you're able to hit him. However, you still have to dodge his laser cannon, because if that thing hits you you're about as good as dead. And you only get maybe a few chances per match to actually get some hits on him.
Oh, but there's more. If you lose against him in a time out, well, you lose. If you win against him in a time out however...he self-destructs and you instantly lose the game. Which means you're winning but don't have enough time left, it's actually better to take hits from him in order to make sure you can at least continue. And all this means you have to play more or less perfectly in order to defeat him; get in enough hits when he's vulnerable and try not to take too many yourself. And you know what? I've never been able to do it. Not in the arcades, not on emulation, not on the Saturn port I own. I just can't do it. I won't deny I'm a touch antagonistic to non-traditional fighting games (I'm also a dismissive of the Power Stone and Psychic Force series in general), but Z-Gradt has more or less always prevented me from being able to enjoy this game fully. He's just such an awful boss.
Z-Gradt was eventually made playable in the fantastic Sega Ages port of this game on PS2. However, this is the very first time someone has hacked (or at least has recorded hacking) him on the arcade version. And, somehow, it runs with basically no issues. I derided Sega's 2D coding before for being utter shit (which it is), but holy shit was their 3D coding just incredible. We've seen before how botched giant bosses usually are in 2D games, at the least being mildly glitched and at worst being outright unplayable. Z-Gradt, however? Completely playable in human hands for some reason. There's not a whole lot you can do as him, I admit, but there's not like you need to do a lot. You get his weird little intro every time (which breaks the immersion of the game in a brilliant way, and provides a greater look into how the engine of the game was created more than ever before), and you see an error code in the top-left of the screen. Your vision is also quite obscured by his gigantic size. But, you know, that doesn't even matter. Just spam laser attacks and he will take out absolutely everyone. With no problem whatsoever. He can barely be damaged, and it doesn't appear you can change into his golden laser form, so you're not at risk. Even against Z-Gradt himself, he can barely damage himself, so it ends up as a kind of endless stalemate. Anime writers only wish they could create as much of a Mary Sue as this guy.
Z-Gradt is a weird little boss therefore. He's not very fun to fight, nor to play as. Yet, there's still something so novel about seeing him being controlled by a player that I still kinda enjoyed this playthrough, despite how dull it was on the whole. I suppose it's always enjoyable to be the first to do something. Next video however, we take a look at a significantly more interesting type of boss.