Startropics 2: Zoda's Revenge - Chapter 4 Dungeon 2 Perfect Run

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Master Knight DH

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Published on July 5, 2019 12:28:58 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE_hZtuNbCY

Game:

Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (1994)

Duration: 7:41

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Perfect Run conditions:
-No damage taken
-No secondary weapon usage unless deemed necessary
-No kills unless deemed necessary

This level got to the point where I became thankful that Zoda Spawns were nerfed from in Startropics 1, by having their jumping be restricted to clearing water gaps--now the shoe is on the other foot, so surely they couldn't be irksome by involving a complicated non-kill room, right? RIGHT?!?!? AHAHAHAHA! (Yeah, you'll see where this is going.) However, after the Giant Rats (that's what I'm calling them anyway because there's no full source of official enemy names in general), who like to lunge but thankfully only do so with cardinal directions; is a room with 2 Owls and 2 Rattuses (I want to say that's the plural form of Rattus?), one of the latter is guarding the switch to the exit. It's a Godsend the room, especially the east side where you want the Owls and the non-guarding Rattus around so that they don't have you swarmed trying to use the switch.

After a couple of raft rides--and boy, this isn't even the worst time sink in the level--is a couple of Alien Bugs, which move around and stop momentarily to fire a 3 way spread shot. The direct blind spot in that spread shot is easily used for directional attack countering, fortunately, but be wary that the Alien Bugs could do their next firing earlier than you may expect. Then there's the Gels (again, unofficial name), which just hop around, randomly but they're no threat to a competent defense without power in numbers.

Skipping ahead past a few things not worth talking about, there's ANOTHER series of raft rides, and good heavens this room is a pacebreaker. It lasts 45 seconds without much in the way of activity--I admit I went out of my way to do other things, but throwing out the Try Your Luck Sign and the treasure chest wouldn't even have shaved off any time because the last raft would have been just leaving by the time I would get to it taking the 3rd one on the first cycle. And of course, every time I fail anything up ahead, which is no joke to begin with, I get to remind myself to do deep breathing going through this again and wondering what the developers were thinking not making this more veteran-friendly.

This is followed by the penultimate room, which I foreshadowed because yep, it's freaking Zoda Spawns in a non-kill room with an exit switch, well away from the exit at that. Even with the in-between game nerfing to the Zoda Spawns, I still have to bait them where they will have minimized trapping ability, especially when there's the issue that they like to be uncooperative at times. You see that one stubbornly guarded the exit on this particular attempt and I had to slip by it.

And of course, we have Zoda-X. It turns out most of his threat value just comes from having to fight him in an all arrows room. This gets thrown off by certain positions in the room having a given arrow tile pointing directly to one of the same direction, so continually walking onto the first from the second means that you don't get pushed into a different direction, a Godsend in this confusing mess that has me readying marshmallows at one of these positions to deal with the fire columns more efficiently. Unfortunately, the arrows still force your movement, which makes it easy to get clipped by Zoda-X's poorly telegraphed spreadshot. Zoda-X can also threaten to telefrag you trying to do this camping, so you can get caught by either of his attacks in panic from trying to get to safety. It's by sheer mercy that Zoda-X is stationary when he's phased in, so you can knock off a decent amount of HP quickly whenever you catch him.

But of course, you also have to deal with his true form, which fights exactly like True Zoda from Startropics 1 because that's what it is. ...or rather, you would, but Zoda-X just dies immediately and I break out the Psychic Shock Wave in celebration. I doubt True Zoda would have been that bad anyway, thankfully, thanks to Startropics 2's control changes. The arrow room would only have done so much to counterbalance more flexible jumping and attacking up against True Zoda's linear attacking ability.

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