Game:

Steven Universe: Attack the Light (2015)

Duration: 8:33

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5

Okay, we should be good now... video instability should cease for at least longer than the next TWO times I decide to be lazy and stop posting videos. Such improvement!

This time, we finally finish up... most of our tutorials... I think! Probably! At least the ones that will control our actions, usually in our own self-interest, but we'll see.

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Indigo Caves
Stage 1-3:

Fierce battles in Attack the Light (on Diamond Mode, that'll mean almost all of them) reward prudence and action above all else. The most important factor is removing enemies' capacity to attack... usually by punching their lights out. Occasionally by disrupting their ability to strike. Always in an appropriate and orderly fashion according to threat level.

For instance, the enemy with the rubble on its head will resist attack of all types unless it is struck with Garnet's Shield Breaker first... but besides that, it will also lose its capacity to attack for several turns, because that same rubble would be hurled at the Gems. Mole enemies will burrow one turn, then attack the next... unless you disrupt their tunneling and reset their cycle. Bats are by far the strongest attackers we've seen so far, but aren't that resilient if you throw your attacks their way. Scorpions are ever-present, but not a huge threat unless they're part of a particularly large group.

This typically means the obvious... defeat as many enemies as you can as quickly as you can so that they won't hurt you anymore. It also means cashing in some of your regular allocation of Star Points on a specific special move to keep an enemy you don't necessarily need to defeat to keep from harming you, thereby freeing you up to reduce opposition elsewhere. Some of this is fairly obvious,some of it will require an enemy use their particularly nasty moves or flex its damage-dealing muscles first... but very rarely will it be the kind of thing that will catch you completely off-guard. Yet. Even on Diamond Mode.

Of course, this brings us to the subject of ambushes... they seem to be similarly prearranged similar to how you find enemies hanging around to fight the first time around for the most part, including being scripted to show up as you're backtracking in certain expected cases, like what you'l be seeing here. The most important thing to note about them is that you'll lose the initiative and have to suffer a whole round's worth of enemy attacks before you get to act. Depending on the enemies involved, this can get rather brutal in a hurry. Since they're set up with the intent of you beating them and moving on, however, the actual danger is whether or not your party is in good condition when you enter it... which is why I might annoyingly end up wasting a bunch of turns making sure the party is in top condition before the end of battle. For some reason, Steven never thinks to encourage his pals when the battle's over.

As I'm sure you've picked up on, we're given some fairly frequent WWSD ("What Would Steven Do" of course!) moments wherein we're allowed to choose Steven's reaction to new developments... or sometimes just hangin' out with the Gems and making idle conversation. There usually aren't particularly "right" answers so much as there are answers that will make one Gem or another happier. This is met with a small rise in that Gem's Harmony and some bonus experience points.

You've surely noticed that I've been playing favorites with these moments, generally playing along with Amethyst over obvious opportunities to impress Pearl. (Plus one instance of exposing Garnet's more impulsive and adventurous side.) This is MOSTLY because Amethyst is lagging behind so severely in the utility curve, and even this latest level up wont' change that (gee, an even more prohibitively expensive skill, thanks) just yet, every little bit counts. On the other hand, Amethyst and Steven are buds, more so than how he interacts with his other rockmoms, anyway... so it makes sense either way. Actually, it feels like these stages are designed to encourage a lot of potential Amethyst-pandering for one or both of these reasons.

On a personal note... it's not actually in my nature to favor Amethyst... though I'm not exactly down with choosing a "best Gem" and all the ... ... ...disharmony that's resulted from people taking that a bit too far. I would probably lean more towards agreeing with Pearl more often than I'd care to admit. That said, I guess after thousands of years, one of the personal problems you DO learn to get over in a hurry is how to take Amethyst's goofiness in stride and move right along, so I'm glad there's not too much guilt for indulging her.

Wait, Steven doesn't get attacked... so what good will that added effect of Bubble Shield actually do? The mystery deepens!

The game is almost as interested in "secret areas" as Steven himself is... to the point that it's one of the itemized completion rate categories presented at the end of the stage. It's pretty handy, if a bit vague.

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