Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 - S+ Rank Run [Part 4]
19This is part 4 of my Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 S+ rank run. The fights against Zonda in the core of the Garden await, along with Copen and Gunvolt’s duels in their respective true ending stages. Here are my notes.
-Garden 3 is, in effect, a truncated boss rush. Two unique fights against Fake and Reverie Zonda are present at the end, but because these will also be present in Secret Mission 5, I decide to speed things along here by using damage-boosting equipment with both Gunvolt and Copen. I utilize the Micheal Clip, which grants only 1 tag, but greatly boots damage to that singular target. In tandem with the Lover’s Lenses, you can dish out damage astonishingly quickly. I forgo Septimal Surge because, quite frankly, it’s unnecessary, plus, I wanted to preserve SP for a clean Grand Strizer OHKO on Reverie Zonda. Copen has both the Shield Construct and OD King Slayer to accelerate his romp through the stage.
-Garden 4 marks the only appearance of Score Attack in this run, chiefly because I wanted to do the clashes between Gunvolt and Copen justice; they’d be over all too quickly with the equipment outlined above. Because these are solo fights, I take the same liberties here as I did with Gharui’s and Gibril’s fights; dancing around for some fancy finishers is the soup of the day once again. Unlike the other bosses, Copen and Gunvolt both lack any distinctive pattern for the most part, instead opting to dash, jump and fly about the arena; this means that there’s less room for creativity here when compared to something like Ghauri’s Tornado Bomb.
-Fake Zonda is unquestionably an extension of Inti Creates’ work on Prometheus and Pandora in ZX. Male Zonda and Female Zonda (henceforth MZ and FZ) take turns at bat attacking players with a variety of puzzling illusions, culminating in Phantasmagoria; a bewildering tandem maneuver.
-MZ’s moves—Falling Love and Doppler Desire—clutter the screen with mirrors, but luckily, easy solutions are present for both. Amusingly, Falling Love is solved by tap dancing forward—mashing right works just fine as long as command dash is disabled—and then doubling back to the left edge of the screen whenever there’s a gap in flashing mirrors. Broad Circuit and Crashbolt can instantly destroy the mirrors summoned during Doppler Desire, though, Copen has the option of flying up to tag MZ and using the rolling Bullit Dash to switch sides in the air anytime a clone rockets upward.
-FZ’s moves—Orb Valley and Leap of Faith—assault the eyes as orbs bounce all over the arena. On the surface, the chaos of these moves presents a seemingly inopportune time to attempt and deal damage, but both Gunvolt and Copen can land tags before the litany of orbs clutter the arena. Gunvolt’s ranged combat makes things simple, reacting to FZ’s position is easy. Copen requires a bit more attention; should FZ spawn on the sides of the screen, you need to quickly perform a rolling Bullit Dash through FZ to land a tag. This prevents the recoil of the dash from sending Copen directly into the arc of orbs that FZ summons for Leap of Faith. FZ always begins Orb Valley by floating to the left, so I recommend tagging her from the right and immediately landing to reduce the risk of taking a hit, although it’s possible to hover between the orbs even while Copen is airborne on either side of the arena.
-The key to Leap of Faith is accurately reading and reacting to the position of the bright pink orbs, these bounce off the floor once before leaving the arena while the deep purple orbs remain a persistent threat, bouncing off the invisible walls repeatedly. Unfortunately, the position of the bright pink orbs is inconsistent, so you can’t rely on any one path to dependably slither by every time. The number of variations isn’t too extreme, so as you practice, you’ll quickly develop an innate feel for evading the orbs.
-Phantasmagoria is an optical illusion and little else; once you acclimate to the flipped view, the consistent nature of the attack means that it’s rather simple to dodge. Just make sure to stand beneath MZ before the finale begins.
-Reverie Zonda is evocative of several final boss fights in the Zero series. Visually, she resembles Dark Elf-corrupted Elpizo and has an equally ominous theme. Her trickier projectiles surface memories of Seraph X's arsenal while her SP Skill is a direct homage to Dr. Weil's summoning EX Skill. With that said, her most basic attack, Card Throw, particularly the spinning version, is her primary threat. Copen can fly over the cards if needed, but Gunvolt is mostly relegated to frolicking in the corner. When Zonda initiates the attack from a high position, both characters can jump over one card and then dash under the rest.
Timestamps:
00:00 - The Garden 3 | Zonda [GV]
06:35 - The Garden 4 | Copen [GV]
09:59 - The Garden 3 | Zonda [C]
17:09 - The Garden 4 | Gunvolt [C]
Thanks for watching! Any comments or questions you may have are welcome as usual.
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