Nefarious - Part 7 - Bad Company
5You know what happens after a breather level in a video game? The game gets a lot harder after that, that's what. And a difficulty spike is exactly what I encounter in this stage, set at the headquarters for Adept Co., the biggest company in the Human Kingdom and the one largely responsible for the higher-tech stuff seen in the country. I thought the game was hard enough as it was, but it gets even harder (and will become harder still later on--but I got through to the end, not to worry).
Since this is a work of fiction, a large corporation like Adept Co. would either be on the up-and-up and a beacon to all or a cesspool of shady activity, though that largely comes down to if the protagonist runs the company or not. Stark Industries? Yep. Sivana Enterprises? Nope. Since Nefarious is on the more cynical side, and Adept Co. is a faceless entity--at least up to this point--this company falls under the "shady" category. If you've forgotten, and we've been sidetracked for a little while, Crow is raiding the company because Becky's sources have found an artificial princess there, an entity designed to gather up royal energy and named Farrah Day. This is part of rival villain Dr. Cackle's plan to harness that energy for his own means, but unlike Dr. Mechano, these two appear to be direct competitors (as villains, not as businesspeople), so Crow is fully okay with stealing Dr. Cackle's stuff.
Most of the enemies found here are the same as in the tutorial stage back in Part 1. Difference is that there are a lot more of them, the terrain works in their favor this time around, and the stage layout is designed to knock Crow into pits of...whatever that stuff is when he suffers stunned knockback from getting hit. Also bottomless pits, as you can see by my multiple failures before I even get in the building! And then we got continuous lasers, spike balls, fans, and a rather lengthy orrery segment that I was really bad at.
But those enemies that follow the screen and keep away from Crow are the biggest source of this stage's difficulty. We saw one of them at the end of the tutorial stage, which followed Crow into the cutscene. I hadn't yet figured out how to reliably get rid of them (and there will be more of these in later stages), so they just kind of swarm around Crow and turn his life into a living bullet hell.
Of note is a digital diary. It's written by an unknown author and speaks of the creation of Farrah for altruistic purposes, but collaboration with Dr. Cackle twisted it into something the author had since deeply regretted. Crow may actually be doing something heroic, by accident, by coming over and taking Farrah out of this place. Certainly, Farrah thinks so, interpreting Crow's kidnapping as a rescue. Things must have been pretty bad in that cage. (Also calls into question the similarities between a kidnapping and a rescue. From the point of view of Mother Gothel, Flynn kidnapped Rapunzel.)
Upon her rescue/kidnapping, Princess Farrah Day provides Crow with unlimited grenades. He can throw as many as he'd like, and indeed, the rest of the stage becomes a lot easier despite enemy density being a lot higher. This was also where I realized how to hit the screen-following drones with grenades. Eventually, Mack catches up with Crow--as it turns out, Mack has had second thoughts about breaking up with Princess Mayapple, and Mack figured the best plan to find her is to look for Crow, which, really, isn't that bad a plan. Mayapple's nowhere in sight though, and Mack can care less about Farrah, so the two duel for mostly no reason.
This boss battle is all about shielding. Mack will throw projectiles at Crow's machine, which he must block with that hand, which absorbs the energy from the projectiles. Once it's full, the hand opens up to reveal a laser, which is this machine's way of damaging Mack. This time, the boss battle is pretty easy. Mack has no real tricks to make things harder, and all of his projectiles shoot directly right, making them easy to block.
By the way, those of you who know the game well will notice I missed something very important (other than the first digital diary entry). Don't worry, I will return for it in Part 14. Well, "them" anyway.
With Crow back safely on the Sovereign, we get a few more tidbits: Mayapple wants to disband Adept Co., Farrah is actually low on power and needs to recharge, Ariella and Malachite learn of each other's presence on the ship, Becky used to work at Adept Co. but didn't like how she felt like a cog in the machine, and Crow is surprised to learn he will appear on the dating game show Would You Date a Supervillain?, which will be what the next video is about.