Astlibra Revision Boss 18: Marionette (Secret Boss/ Saving Shiro)
0Well this boss sure does have a design.
Difficulty: 10/10
This fight is absolute bullet hell on higher difficulties and I straight up could not beat it on Normal mode. I gave it a solid 10 attempts but I had to lower the difficulty to easy mode and it still took me two attempts.
This fight is straight up bullet hell there's no real nuance or strategy I can give other than don't be where the attack is and try to have double reflect because she fires off so many projectiles that it'll do considerable damage back to her. All bets are off in her second phase though.
So for those wondering how do you fight this boss.
First when you travel back in time you'll get the option to bring Shiro with you. DO NOT BRING HER WITH YOU! She'll help out in the dungeon but if she's with you then the demon king will kill her off permanently after the boss fight.
Continue through the castle as normally until you get to the fight against Lisa. Once Gau rejoins it is important that you go back to the start of the castle in order to talk to Shiro again and tell her to follow behind you and Gau. She needs to be near the scales in order to return to the present and not be locked out of time.
Once you've done both of those things head to the roof and kill Deus Ex Machina. From there you'll be given a cutscene where Shiro joins up when the coast is clear only for the last remnants of the demon king sense her magic abilities and forcibly take over her body (where does all the extra mass come from?) beat the boss and she'll be lying on the ground unconscious but alive and you're able to return to the present while seeing a cutscene of Gau saying goodbye to his little sister Lisa. If Shiro was dead then this scene would play immediately after killing Deus Ex Machina.
When you return to the present there will be one of two outcomes you see. Either this one where everyone is getting ready to go visit Lisa's Grave in the white flower cliffs... or a scene where they're getting ready to go but then a private talk with Kuro and she bursts into tears crying but can't understand why... the reason is being killed in the past meant Shiro was erased from history so not even her sister is able to remember her.
As for rewards for saving Shiro you get a Love Crystal, these are needed for the true ending (however you don't have to get every single one of them so don't worry you're not screwed if you miss this one) as well as some extra story beats, Shiro rejoining you for a later area, and the achievement for killing Marionette.
Don't worry about missing the achievement this boss does make an appearance in a post game dungeon if you missed the fight here.