Game:

Steven Universe: Unleash the Light (2019)

Duration: 5:46

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16

Just finished Unleash the Light. Overall, I'd call it a more balanced and polished experience than Save the Light (which, despite having a battle system I personally prefer, is much, much jankier and unpolished)

This is the first boss of Unleash the Light and it's actually tougher than the later bosses IMO. The reason it's so difficult is it's double drill combo attack. The boss targets 1 party member, and if you don't perfectly parry its attacks (it's harder than it looks) that party member is stunned or dead. And if that party member is Steven, you've already lost because you just lost the only character who can heal or use items.

The bosses gimmick is easy to understand: destroy its armor so you can kill the pilots that fall out. I use Amethyst's Fireball so that the armor breaks on the bosses turn and then I can use my turn to quickly kill all the pilots. There is some jank here; sometimes the boss summons side-goons with drills and if you try the same strategy (inflict burn, and use it to KO the pilot), it doesn't work as the side-goons will immediately run back into the cockpit during the bosses turn (instead of waiting for the next turn like normal).

It's a pretty simple fight. The difficulty is because it's early game and you don't have many resources or upgrades (you will eventually get the ability to use items even when Steven is KO'd too). Once you get used to the attack timing, it becomes a lot more manageable.

Here are my notes on the other characters. I'm only talking about the characters in this video, but I'll get around to talking about the others since I used everyone at some point.

Steven: He can't be removed from the party but he's okay. His heals are pretty valuable since not many characters have a heal skill in the first place. It's not actually that powerful, but because of the Star Point system, it's easy to finish up every fight with a fully healed party (all you do is kill hardest enemies, leave one alive and heal before finishing them off). His heals also massively trivialize the last dungeon since they build up so much super meter after a few upgrades that you can go into every fight with a super ready to go. Basically, he's required but as far as games with mandatory RPG protagonist characters go, he could have been a LOT worse. I recommend giving him the EXP badge so you can get his "use items even when Steven is KO'd" upgrade ASAP

Lapis: She's pretty strong in the early game but IMO she falls off hard. She's still decent for trash mobs (her super attack is very handy for difficult Ambushes) and her Crystals are nice damage boosters for the other characters but Lapis herself can't actually do a lot. Her lane attack becomes more annoying because the more you upgrade the entire cast, the more the other characters want very specific positions (e.g. Pearl always wants to be on top or bottom to power up her trident) and these other characters can hit other enemies without being in a specific lane (e.g. Pearl can trident toss at any position, while Lapis is limited to whatever's in front of her).

Amethyst: Also pretty decent in the early game. Her Fireball with Lapis' Crystals is very useful at the start. Amethyst actually remains pretty decent against trash mobs (she can stun, burn and gets upgrades that let her spread the effects to multiple enemies). She's not as strong in boss fights, and you eventually get Firesalt (which makes Amethyst's ability to inflict burning less valuable) but even then, Fireball's 1SP cost is still useful for certain fights with puzzle mechanics. Overall, she's very well balanced

Pearl: The exact opposite of the other two. She starts off underwhelming but after enough levels and upgrades, her DPS gets ridiculous, especially if you can consistently pull off Perfects / critical hits. Just wait until you see what she can do against the last boss (I'll save my Pearl notes for that video)

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