Startropics 2: Zoda's Revenge - Chapter 5 Dungeon 2 Perfect Run

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Master Knight DH

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Published on July 9, 2019 7:06:24 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-DomTniuDc

Game:

Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (1994)

Duration: 6:36

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

I knew this was going to be a headache, all the way to the point of warranting practice on both the miniboss and Mashing Miner himself. This place is just full of RNG shenanigans.

The first highlight is the shooting gallery, barely a room in. If my rules allowed me to use the Psychic Shock Wave, the upgrade from that donkey who somehow could speak and somehow knew about it in the first place would have saved me a lot of trouble, with the 2 space advantage allowing me to turn those blue Scorpions on the platform into target practice. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the Dagger, which has equal range to the Scorpions' shots, AND having to jump on precarious platforming to even catch the Scorpions. Add to it that the Scorpions' shots also have wide hitting ability and I'm forced to be creative with the positioning whenever I go on the offense. Already the first 40 seconds is an odyssey in and of itself, and we've barely managed to get started.

Next highlight is more blue Scorpions guarding a chokepoint, this time a cliffside I have to jump to to avoid a kill room with purple Cobras. Since killing THESE guys are optional outside obtaining a vial of medicine soon after, I'm having to avoid them, which I don't get a lot of leg room for doing. Thanks to the cramped space, I need to watch the top 2 Scorpions to know when to jump, but RNG can be particularly nasty and have me get trapped unavoidably sometimes, even when hugging the abyss feature end of the whole mess. And wouldn't you know it, a few rooms later has more RNG from the Mimic Chests' coins due to their erratic behavior.

At least the boulder room is a breath of fresh air, and the Cactus Men room right is similarly tolerable. However, the Mine Cart Rider miniboss, especially thanks to his Gold Children mooks, is its share of pressure. Even if you ignore how loud the fight gets because MCR likes to spam shots, MCR moves around on the mine rails, and can appear and reappear on-screen from ANY of the entrances, even when it breaks the laws of physics, which means he can telefrag you if you are on any of the mine rail entrances when he reappears. In fact, even being near them can get you clipped by a suddenly fired bullet if you don't have the foresight to see that possibility coming. Now the solution is obvious, just stay near the center, right? Yeah, the Gold Children stand in the way of that, and they are incredible spazzes. Mike moves on ground faster than the Gold Children, but it's not by much, and if you jump anywhere near them, consider yourself at the mercy of RNG, because the Gold Children can pull contrarian movement. You can't even kill them to get them out of the way temporarily if you want to low score because the game doesn't disable the kill penalty update for this room. A Gold Child nearly even ruined this run by walking toward me when I attacked in his general direction; I don't know how this would have looked if the Dagger reached any further. You see how it's desirable to bait the Gold Children into positions where they'd cause the least amount of trouble, but again, their erratic behavior can make that much actually backfire due to trapping capability.

Oh, and by the way, wouldn't you know it, there's one last bit of RNG spite before Mashing Miner to cut short the sweet diagonal attacking freedom revenge on the blue Scorpions: in the room with the Miner Ghouls, one of their spawn positions is somewhere where you need to jump. I don't know what's more shocking: that I somehow didn't get caught by this despite expecting it, or that that much is shocking.

And of course, Mashing Miner needed his own video and THAT pushed the 5000 character limit for Youtube video descriptions, especially when he can do his fair share to have an opportunity to send you straight back to the rest of this stage. You can't blame me for breaking out the Psychic Shock Wave in celebration once he died. Seriously, game, give me that 7530 points. (And for some reason, Cactus Men don't contribute to the penalty. No doubt due to their deaths happening from self-destruct, even though the player is the one who sets it off.)

I'll be hoping the next level will be a Breather Level, because boy do I need it. Ah, who am I kidding, we know it will be.

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