Clair Obscur - Low Level No Attributes (Expert Mode) Part 1: Eveque (Évêque)
11First major boss fight in a challenge that some, rightfully, saw as inevitable for this channel. Let's go over the rules right away, shall we?
Lowest Level
AKA Low Level Game. Here is seen as being equivalent to Mandatory Battles Only, as we avoid all instances where experience can be gained, potentially resulting in extra levels gained but not necessarily so (later on, sticking to the MBO principle creates restrictions upon us, barring access to certain Pictos and other features even though we're overlevelled in relation to said early stages of the game in order to acquire a certain feature without actually levelling up). Some kind of exquisite plan of feeding all early experience to Gustave may be concocted, but try soloing the end of the fight in one of these battles and you'll see what it's like.
No Attributes
Another wildcard rule I thought would be curious to implement. All attributes stay at zero for the entirety of the run, leaving Pictos as the sole way of increasing stats like Health and Critical Hit ratio. With the health-boosting Pictos off, both Gustave and Lune remain at base 150 HP. This rule may seem redundant with the Lowest Level one set, as no amount of levelling will improve your attributes if you're not actually allowed to use those stats, but levels do affect how many skills you can learn and what Pictos you can access.
Expert Mode
Defined ingame as "hard difficulty with highly demanding combat". Enemies are said to deal more damage, which is most certainly the case, and there might be more? Dodging and parrying in a timely fashion is even more critical to success here than the game itself seems to emphasise.
Having previously complained about the lack of difficulty in the recent challenge runs I've done, incidentally some of which were similar to Expedition 33 in gameplay, I found a really worthwhile opponent in Eveque. On Expert Mode, many things the boss does OHKOs the characters, and I'm only entitled to two uses of the Small Revive Tint, meaning I can afford to be hit about 3-4 times (depending on the severity of the hit, 2 hits minimum). The rest of the time my rhythm gaming should be top notch, with magic bursts parried three times in a row to be followed by a counter and the two variations of the physical skill be parried with proper timing with seemingly greater difficulty.
The gameplan involves setting up Gustave to execute Overcharge when he has enough of both AP and charges (10 maximum is highly desirable), Lumiere Assault granting him most of the charges he needs for this purpose. As I get more charges per crit, Gustave gets three out of four of my Pictos, giving him both 23% natural crit rate and ways of restoring AP when the enemies are the ones active, also getting an additional 25% crit whenever Lune burns Eveque thanks to one of the Pictos' effects. Lune's purpose is therefore ascertaining that burn is always active on Eveque.
The battle may seem effortless due to how long I am able to maintain perfect timing on all of my parries, but what you do not know - as you cannot see it - is how much of an adrenaline rush this whole endeavour really is, and how it had felt going through all those failed attempts when I did mess up the timing... far too often, as I'm technically allowed back into action a couple or a few times thanks to revives. At least, the game is fun enough to watch to sympathise and empathise with the person playing with the dramatically delayed attacks.
I did it for a considerable enough time to learn a number of tricks along the way, such as how aiming at the boss's glowing heart at the start erases two of his shields, while pointing at another part of his body erases just one. Knowing this lets the player get that phat 450 damage early on at the start, which is comparable to Overcharge's damage when it fails to crit. Needless to say, my proficiency at parrying here is also nothing but an outcome of all that forced practice.
I lost Gustave at the most inopportune of times when the boss was charging his absurd nine-strike magic move, which is just way too many spells to dodge in a row even if I can parry three of them under normal circumstances just fine. Gustave surprises me in a most unpleasant manner once more when Overcharge fails to crit, leaving the boss alive; however, the boss's charge is cancelled as Gustave and Lune team up in a scripted duo attack, vanquishing him once and for all.
Both Gustave and Lune level up twice, from lv. 1 to lv. 3, after the battle. Both of them can now learn some skills. If I hadn't had to revive Gustave once, I would've been entitled to the 20% experience bonus, meaning I'd have to redo the battle all over again. I should be thankful for that failure to parry, then.
Such a satisfying mix of skill and strategy is how this battle turned out.