Defeating Heat Genblem During His Spinning Laser
57Taking a quick detour back to MMZ4, in this video I showcase a method of defeating Heat Genblem not featured in my Z4 run. The basic premise is simple, but there is a good bit to discuss, so I wanted to give this the spotlight.
During his spinning laser attack, Genblem presents a myriad of opportunities to attack him while you’re dodging. In fact, it’s possible to defeat him entirely during this pattern, providing you land every hit you attempt. The attacks of choice are the charged Z-Knuckle and Sky Chaser. The Z-Knuckle is preferred over the charged Saber due to its faster animation; you’re less liable to incur landing lag when using it, though, you have to contend with a greater demand for precision resulting from its comparatively stunted range. Sky Chaser is the follow-up, and I make use of a property that I’ve exploited in many other fights: upon initialization, Sky Chaser (and Saber Smash) possess a hitbox above Zero’s head; this can be used to strike enemies directly above you.
Of course, landing all these strikes while moving quickly enough to dodge is easier said than done. Outside of execution, the primary issue you’ll encounter is one of luck. In order to pull off these exact movements, Genblem has to be kind enough to offer the requisite pattern at or near the start of the fight, which isn’t always the case. Other patterns indeed offer great chances for big damage, but for the sake of this video, I had to restart each time I was given an undesirable outcome.
Upon being granted the correct pattern, you’re given a free shot with both attacks as Genblem descends, which is rather generous. While revolving around the laser, it’s ideal to land the Knuckle hit as early as possible, giving yourself more time to move into position for Sky Chaser. The most common point of failure for me was not jumping high enough or being too far to the right; both cases will result in whiffing Sky Chaser. During most of the Sky Chaster hits, Zero is overlapping Genblem’s sprite, yet doesn’t take contact damage; the hit detection here is fairly forgiving.
A cautionary statement for those playing on the original GBA versions, as I am. In tandem with Genblem’s laser, the rocks generated by Sky Chaser will induce lag within the game engine, and you’ll experience slowdown. This can and will eat your dash input as you try to escape; this occurred numerous times and was something I had to acclimate to. This should be solved in the DS and Legacy Collection, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
Barring that oddity, you’ll notice that the margin for error here is rather slim; spending too much time on a Sky Chaser hit will see the laser catch up rapidly. In turn, the flames emanating from Genblem’s shell will also present a greater obstacle as you attempt to climb quickly to reset your position. By the end, I singe Zero’s legs while making that last sharp jump over. When fighting Genblem during his stage or in a full Ragnarok Core run, I recommend developing a sense for when to forgo an attack cycle in order to get ahead of the laser; it makes things significantly easier while not losing much time.
The precision and luck required to pull this off on a consistent basis are well beyond my means. I do intend to attempt this during future runs of Ragnarok Core but expect to see missed strikes and skipped cycles. My chances of replicating these exact movements in a successful run are dubious at best, and more likely completely nonexistent; such was the impetus for showcasing this fight in this manner. I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to leave comments and questions as always.
Other Videos By DZ3
Other Statistics
Mega Man Zero 4 Statistics For DZ3
There are 49,647 views in 9 videos for Mega Man Zero 4. His channel uploaded an hours worth of Mega Man Zero 4 videos, or 7.77% of the total watchable video on DZ3's YouTube channel.