Game:

Gargoyle's Quest (1990)

Duration: 10:49

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2

See? Look at that running time! Now I bet you're glad I broke things up a bit even with the total monotony of wandering through the desert of covertly-hidden conveyor belts.

This hole, whatever the heck we're to call it, is incredibly deep and treacherous. It's also particularly important to keep in mind that Firebrand doesn't so much fly as he does fall with style and control... so I guess it's a good thing we're dealing with a hole. Just don't let those souped up flappers running on Darkoan's fumes, you've got there, since the shortage of safe perches along our winding path will want to force them to work at full capacity.

The real threat with any particularly lengthy stage, at least when it comes to adding further length along the temporal axis, is having to restart... hopefully there's a checkpoint at least, but even those have to be strung along according to greater distances between them.

And it's not just you watching (or me having to deal with all the pointed reminders that breaks and breathing room will remain few and far between), Firebrand's deceptively-named Armor of Guile (and/or Deceit) will definitely still feel the strain. Remember, a lot of attacks will deal two points of damage, so that extra vitality won't exactly spread so far as one would prefer... although it will allow for a fair number of spike collisions, so that's good.

Of special note is the particularly tenacious and many-segmented floating vine enemy. It moves slowly enough, but it can take a ton of abuse. It's low speed also grants it a tight turning radius, so you'd be hard-pressed to run a particularly effective end run around it. You also have to take it apart piece by piece, and there's no early release in aiming for its head, since the rear segment will always go first.

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Zakkudruzer

Well, it's been awhile since we've had a particularly bizarrely-named foe, so here we go again with... what even IS this guy? I've always thought of it as some kind of biker skeleton riding between two monster snails, but that really doesn't make any sort of sense.

Anyway, the movement logic is fairly simple... he'll slowly advance on Firebrand's position while crawling along the ground, occasionally jumping through the tiered arena platforms if you're up higher than he is. He'll also stop in place every so often and reevaluate his facing. All things considered, it makes him pretty aggressive in his pursuit and somewhat tough to shake for long.

He's also rather keenly aware of his position even while offscreen, so it becomes important to predict his movements so as not to get caught up in a corridor without enough breathing room to slip away. It's those little breaks he takes (and whether or not he's really taking one while you're not looking) that will really throw off your predictions once in awhile.

He also fires the same targeted projectiles as Bellzemos, so hopefully you don't run afoul of a similar timing problem when delivering the final blow... that you obviously wouldn't have known was the final blow, or else this problem wouldn't even be a problem.

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