Startropics 2: Zoda's Revenge - Chapter 7 Dungeon No Damage Run

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Master Knight DH

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Published on July 11, 2019 2:22:37 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc31d8sQYMM

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Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II (1994)

Duration: 8:00

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For all intents and purposes, I keep this as a limited kills run until Zoda-Y, who I will get into on why he's making sure that's not happening. First, the stage proper.

The Frankenstein's Monsters each react to getting hit with invincibility until finishing their tile shifting, at which point they lose their top half and become much faster. The bottom half Frankenstein's Monsters are, of course, erratic enough, so I'm wanting to manipulate my target into moving toward me when I hit them, so that they are far less likely to move out of the way out of the attacks. And then there's a room full of Poe-like ghosts, with only the target not being invincible, and since that room requires me to kill the target, I have to put up with the ghosts spawning wherever they please with too little reaction time provided to avoid getting telefragged if I don't see it coming. What I do to get around that mess is count to 4 seconds from entering the screen for the first appearance of the ghosts, jump right at the 4 count to evade, and then count to 3 seconds from the ghosts' disappearance and jump slightly after the 3 count. It's not foolproof, but it does mitigate the RNG.

The tomb-carrying ghost 2 rooms after is basically like a Darknut from the original Legend of Zelda, with his frontal protection extending to diagonals, and also with a counterattack shot that triggers whenever you hit him, though the counterattack shot isn't hard to dodge. He's not too bad, but I'm wishing I could say the same of the hallway soon after that has 4 Noctos patrolling it. Noctos are even toned up in Startropics 2, as not only do they never stop moving, they actually move in cardinals in additional to diagonals, although mercifully, they move only 2 tiles in cardinals before switching to a diagonal--of course, RNG can dictate them moving only once in a diagonal before switching back, AND turning on a dime to catch you with a spiteful movement. I'm wishing the hallway was a mandatory kill room just so I could kill the Noctos. Technically, the room after isn't either and yet I kill one of the Zombies, but that was to get him out of the way to make that room halfway tolerable.

Fortunately, between this point and Zoda-Y, there's no more overwhelming RNG, although the Engineers--that's what I'm calling the guys who place mines anyway--could slow things down with his mine placement RNG making quick offense more difficult, particularly in the second room. I do, however, like the Sorcerer for being an actually creative enemy type, because those crystal orbs he places will fly right at you quickly if you hit them, so you have to make sure to watch your attacking. Clincher is, the Sorcerer rewards handling an enfilade with your movement, as doing that will confound his placement and score you offense opportunities. Obviously the room you fight him in is designed to hinder THAT, but it's not impossible in that room.

As for Zoda-Y, his first form has him teleporting into one of 4 positions, each teleportation having him release 2 Noctos and firing a spreadshot attack inbetween. Diagonal attacking is preferable to mitigate the issues of the first Nocto creeping up on you, though that still can happen, the diagonal attacking has its difficulty in setting up, and there's still the the problem that the spreadshot can catch you if you don't have the jump covered.

Of course, the second form, the owl-bat monstrosity, is the real killer waiting to send me back to the Nocto hallway. He can jump often to confound your offense, releases Noctos often enough and he can have both released at once, and of course, there's the flapping attack where a bunch of his feathers come flying at you. Ideally, you'd want the Noctos out when he starts this attack, and then you'd also want to bait the feathers where you can, mix in parrying dodges that would beat the followup feathers, and move in after the second wave of feathers to start beating on Zoda-Y. Thankfully, this shows that Zoda-Y is proof that durability can in fact be on a Glass Cannon, to the point where he doesn't need his own video like Mashing Miner did, because double-backing starting at the end of the first wave of feathers makes it far easier to be close to him by the end of the second wave, and what he ends up left with is his flapping attack's MASSIVE cooldown leaving him open to chaining.

Oh, and of course, Zoda-Y's room doesn't disable the kill penalty update. Shame, given that the stage actually has the KOs for each kill penalty increment at 3.

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