Zone of the Enders HD: Day 2

Oh god thankfully I remember the controls cause it's been roughly 2 weeks since I last played.  So starting off with an SOS mission.  I'm starting to hate these.  Cause I'm doing my best to keep civilians out of harms way but it feels completely useless.  

This guy is just stuck behind the bridge. It can't destroy it for some reason...In reality it plotted a trap for me. 

So on with the main game. Fly to the mountains and get shot down...to the point that ADA our smart mouthed talking AI gets infected with a virus.  So here's what I feel is a joke to this game.  Cause of that shot and ADA being infected with a virus.  I'm down to literally 1 HP.  Leo and Celvice suggest we run away.  But uh... I'm combat right?  At least I think I am??? Either way before I try to get some distance another long range lock-on beam says die and well I die. Apparently I can run away and I'm supposed to get out of dodge ASAP.  This reminds me of MGS moments. Like MGS3 where you're supposed to die but instead of loading your game you pick an item that revives you.  Or MGS where the game says hey if you die here you can't continue.  Anyway time to book.

Ah crap...

ADA's infected with a virus and the only thing that can restore her is an anti-virus software but at the same time...THERE'S ANOTHER S.O.S.  This is a cruel joke. So taking the S.O.S. thankfully every enemy is LVL 1 so I don't risk getting damaged...but this is obviously a trap to encourage me to be reckless. I luckily take them out and WTF A C rating?  How fast does this game want me to take out enemies?  This is getting annoying. 

I thought I had to be out of combat to leave an area? Nope time for me to die again.

Back to the main game.  Gotta avoid combat at all cost.  I probably could take these guys on but uh no damage runs aren't my thing.  So we restore ADA back to normal.  But the boss that shot us.  We need things to take it down. Many  LPers of today would be like this is uneccessary padding. But lets see them find a way to dodge a lock-on laser.  Well that would be easy except one of the passcodes to this weapon is held by an enemy using stealth camo.  While I'm all for taking down these enemies ADA says no but suggest if we find the enemy we took control to help break down the satellites we can detect the enemy.  So backtrack.

JEHUTY IS STUCK AT 1 HP, VERY LITTLE WAS DESTROYED AND YOU GIVE ME A C RANK?!

After dealing with that. We can take on the stealth camo enemies.  I noticed that the enemies have got tougher. But not so much that I don't know how to deal with.  In fact maybe I'm learning ways to deal with them.  As long as I can keep them blocking I'm okay.  But I did notice these guys are whipping out new attacks.  Homing Shots. Charged Sword attacks.  Oh geez.  

I did come across an SOS mission where one of the enemies decided to hide behind a bridge. Or really I should say they were stuck there. It couldn't even destroy the bridge. So I tried to take advantage of it but the guy turned it's cannons towards me and fired killing me.  X_X 

You have to be incredibly lucky for these guys not to get an attack off on the satellite. 

Another S.O.S. mission that just made me cringe and express some hatred. Oh no the enemies are attacking the space port and it could cause some serious harm to the colony. Alright lets save it.  The very moment I get in there.  DAMAGE TO THE COLONY AND CIVILIANS!  WTF GAME! I had maybe 2 seconds to respond before that message showed up.  Again how fast do you want me to go?! Does Jehuty come with a Time Stop function or something?!  So another C rating cause they got 1 pot shot off in the right place.  

So back to the main game and I collect some new subweapons. Ones I actually like.  So the first one is Comet.  It's a homing shot.  Finally something that's actually has a decent bit of accuracy and damage.  Some of the enemies do dodge it but have to make an actual effort to dodge.  Then there's gauntlet which I guess throws an air fist or something. It's pretty strong and it's not as useless as say the Javelin or Halbred or whatever.  I did start finding a use for Geyser and Phalnax to keep some enemies at bay while I deal with one enemy or keep them blocking while I approach.  So that's good.

I finally obtain to subweapon to deal with the upcoming boss...but uh...I need ammo for it.  I had to spend some time gathering ammo for it.  That wasn't fun cause I came to another conclusion.  I want to see someone play this game with no damage at all to the colony or civilian casualties.  The 2nd one is likely possible. But the first one.  I feel it's impossible.  While you're battling other enemies supposedly on patrol take pot shots at buildings for no reason what so ever.  But the game will gladly nag you that it happened.  Honestly with an attack from an enemy force inside a colony. You should expect some damage heck probably the entire area flatened. I'm just getting annoyed every time ADA goes "Damage to Colony due to battle is increasing." ESPECIALLY WHEN I HAVE TO SHOOT THESE PORTER THINGS!

You have to manually aim at these small things. And the cursor isn't reliable.

Yeah I'm not sure if I explained Porters in the previous post.  So in some areas there's these things that you absolutely cannot lock on to.  You have manually target them and shoot them each 2 or 3 times.  Problem with this? Even with the targetting cursor, your aim isn't accurate.  Good luck hitting these small porters.  Especially without damaging a random building.  Why you want to shoot these down? Well shooting down all of these will reveal a hidden item Zelda style.  You need these...and in one of these porter bits...hides the Decoy Subweapon ammo.  Sigh...

Boss Tyrant

So on to the boss.  He taunts us saying if we kill him then all the smaller enemies in the area will go down.  It took me a bit to figure out the first phase cause it seems like he's not gonna use that lock-on laser bit right away.  About half health he shifts to a chase me down mode.  I tried using a walkthrough's method of dealing with this phase. Apparently if you throw geyser down under it. You'll get a lot of damage....guess what...it didn't work.  Cause the boss has a small weakpoint. Okay I'll say it didn't work as intended.  Geyser is too random to actually hit a lot of the time.  I just have to dodge and hit it's small weakpoint.  This is also one of those bosses where the most dangerous stuff comes straight from the weakpoint while every other spot is impervious to damage.  I also can't get in it's face and slash it which I developed a habit of doing to EVERY enemy now at this point.  I mean the normal lock-on attacks and most of my other moves don't really work that well.  But I did kill it later thankfully.

I need to stop trusting strategy guides completely. This method got me killed.

So once the fight is over. Collect my spoils, leave, and move on. But before that I collect Mummy!  A good Subweapon that heals me over time and guards.  Yay...but something's off...The walkthrough I used mentioned I could get this much earlier.  But it didn't show.  I kept searching at every opportunity.  Nothing until now. Anyway...

  Cutscene time  

I think this is the first and only mention of BAHRAM in this game. I know it's a big thing in the 2nd game but uh...no explanation on them here?

Elena the woman at the beginning contacts Leo with a change to the mission plan.  Oh great this should be good.  We're to give Jehuty to a man named Rock Thunderheart.  Thunderheart notes that due to the attack the space ports have all been locked down and we'll have to take a harder route. He casually mentions there will be more fighting.  Leo goes back to his not wanting to kill schitck. Thunderheart basically tells him to shut up and just do it backing up his reasoning with that he's inside Jehuty a killing machine so he has no right to talk.  Honestly I question myself in this argument thinking up reasons like, "Well how about I get out of Jehuty and you guys come get it yourselves." Or something like that.  Everyone calms down with Leo saying he'll do it.  And we leave for the moutain only to be shot at again. But this time we avoid it.  Seems the next set of missions will have to be on the ground cause someone can snipe us from afar.  

The "You're in the giant killing robot, so why are you complaining?" argument

Zone of the Enders HD Collection - ZOE 1 HD Day 1

Zone of the Enders HD Collection 

ZOE 1 HD Day 1

Part 1

Part 2 Next Sunday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjcvuKO1KzI

So against all my plans to upload something else that I worked hard on. I ended up having to default to this game.  After all I had the openings uploaded might as well keep going.  Also the original videos I had planned got deleted somehow and I can't seem to recover them :(.  (It was Elder Scrolls III btw). Anyway might as well get up and record this. 

I still want this. Maybe as a model.

So I had somewhat an idea what to expect. I was expecting ZOE2 but not as good cause this is the first game. This is also the game that no one really talks about.  Besides the GBA one (yeah there's a GBA one).  Heck even the opening to this HD collection barely highlights ZOE1. Not even MGS: The Twin Snakes makes note of it. Weird...Anyway lets start.

These are my only options??? Okay

So options there's nothing there. You have captions for the demo and the game itself. Which I assume is subtitles.  Nothing else.  Okay? Difficulty Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard.  Well I'm going with Normal cause I'm not insane. I know that some that still live in that age it's considered "baby mode" but I got games to play and I don't wanna get stuck cause the AI decides to kill me for breathing.

 

AD 2172 and we're as far as Jupiter in Space Colonies. So 150+ years from the time of this blog.  That's hopeful...I think. 

Well either this character has some morals against killing or maybe she's one of those I want to fight all the time types?  Or maybe this line is misplaced?

I wish cars would do this when you get in.  Also nice way to introduce the tutorial for the game. And it's optional.

So we start out with a 6 minute opening. Sounds about right. I don't mind. This definitely starts out like a Super Robot anime. Some group is about to attack a space colony to acquire 2 Frames or Super Robots. Then we shift to our main character Leo who's picked on I guess cause he's an Ender?  What's an Ender?  I guess I'll find out as I progress.  Man bullying sure is different in 2172.  I would never expect to see my so called friends tied up begging for help from bullies?  Are they Leo's friends? Anyway the bully session gets interupted by an attack from an opposing force.  Leo acts...I want to say pretty natural for a sudden threat appearing right in his face. His friends yell for help and Leo just stands there scared stiff as a giant robot falls and crushes them. Leo runs away to what looks like a robot hangar.  After a stroke of luck he finds himself in the cockpit of Jehuty where ADA begins talking to him. I kill a few guys then cutscene.

I'm clearly evil and I'll let you live this time. 

Well like another Super Robot trope ADA points out that Leo isn't supposed to be the pilot of Jehuty. Well wherever that pilot is. He clearly wasn't good enough to be here. After a good tutorial. I guess the training wheels are off. I have what I guess is my training mode boss fight with Viola and her Frame. She doesn't do much and gets an order to retreat.  Viola does the typical villain dialogue saying she'll be back for round 2. And not too soon after that we get another Super Robot trope.  Everyone is dead and ADA being an AI doesn't feel any remorse. We then get what's the main goal of this game. Some group calling themselves Atlantis calls Leo and asks him to deliver Jehuty to them. They apparently need it to save the world. Leo gets angry that he's going to have to kill more people and argues but eventually he agrees to it. Honestly they must be desperate if they're offering what could be considered a Blank Check. Well if all we have to do is deliver Jehuty to them...simple.  

Thanks for describing my Depression ADA

Yeah right...Not simple at all.  ADA brings out how there's issues with doing just that. The first being that Jehuty just got overhauled and has no weapons. So we need to collect programs to use these before moving on. After being shown another basic of the game I finally get the option to save. I'm also advised to avoid combat. Cause Leo is just a kid and inexperienced.  This is where I worry. Considering that this is a Kojima game and how MGS games go. I feel like the game is gonna somehow scold me for getting into fights or not getting into fights.  I really don't know what to do here about that. I feel like I need to fight to understand how to play this game when the time comes. There's also a LV.1 next to my health bar.  While enemies are LV.2 sometimes LV.5 Good god.  I feel this is significant somehow and will somehow bite me if I'm not careful.  Also if I don't fight these guys will take random potshots at the colony and ADA gives remarks that the colony is damaged or people died. Really giving my moral compass a run for it's money aren't you. 

I feel like this is how most arguments or debates go these days.

So after making it to the world map and landing somewhere else. More story. We meet another character Celvice. She's running to the church to look for survivors. Leo argues with her that she's stupid and there's probably no survivors there. Rather convenient that we forget we have a Super AI computer that can scan for vital signs. Anyway we come across my 2nd boss of the game.  He's pretty simple and starts employing tactics to drag out the fight. After the fight Leo argues with ADA about killing him. ADA has 17 reasons why we should kill him. Leo tells her to shut up and he gets away. ADA has good arguments but forgets she's arguing with a kid. After Celvice fails to find anyone at the church we pick her up. Celvice and Leo make up.  ADA reminds them that there's a game to play and brings up another problem of the mission. While getting to our destination should be a straight shot. It's not.  Apparently the oppossing force took over a satellite system that employs microwave energy and they're using it as a barrier. Quite a cruel one at that. Basically Jehuty says anyone caught in that barrier will pretty much be cooked alive. And Jehuty's weapons don't work inside the barrier.  Hmmmm...Well there's a way to disable it an incredibly convoluted way but it's a method. But before that.  I'm introduced to side missions.  While on the world map you come across areas sending out an SOS. ADA insists that we ignore them but Leo says we should go help. My moral compass is being tested again.  Out of the 2 or 3 times I've done these I feel like the game or any anime character would tell me that I'm doing more harm than good by trying to help.  Every time I've done one of these a building gets destroyed or a person dies. Just makes me think of Gundam SEED Destiny where the main character grows up and blames me for the death of his sister, vowing revenge.  In my defense I'm doing everything I can to help. I'm trying to drag the battle away from populated areas (Keyword "trying"). I'm trying not use my energy weapons cause I could miss and hit a building.  But it's not really working.  Honestly I feel like I'm better off just going buck wild on these guys and hoping for the best. The health pickups are fairly generous and the enemies so far only prove to be nuisances. They basically teach me that I should take these kind of guys out first like the ones that like to fire large laser rounds. 

An Incredibly Annoying Mission 

Well my thoughts on the difficulty change a little bit after.  But first subweapons. These subweapons feel rather mediocre.  I have a Javelin that doesn't go very far and it's accuracy is questionable. Phalnax that apparently fires in a spread but I wonder if it's hitting anything at all. Geyser works like a trap but only on the ground and for a very short time. To make it more useless most if not all my fights are in the air. And Halbred which isn't a halbred but a concentrated laser. I kinda like this but it fires continously, is slow, and the enemy AI is smart enough to get out the way.  There's also a sniper rifle but it's really a joke. It's really there for certain "specific" purposes.  I'm also very much getting a Metal Gear Solid feel. While I've never played a MGS game you might ask how can I say that. Well watching playthroughs of it give me that feel. In particular there's some backtracking involved to solve one problem or more. Going back to our microwave satellite problem. We have to disable or destroy the satellites. Problem is that they're protected. I need a passcode to shut them off or gain access to shutting them off.  Which to get the passcode I need to travel to a different area I've already visited. So a lot of back and forth involved. This isn't to say Metal Gear Solid is the first game to do this, cause I can think of many games that have done this. Castlevania, Wonder Boy, various RPGs. It's not unique to this game. It's slightly annoying but it makes sense in a way.  

So the enemy difficulty spikes up.  ADA gives me warning that there's enemies with enhanced AI. They look like just any old enemy but they're competent. Honestly too competent. These guys send me to scrap heap easily if I approach them the wrong way.  I don't really like my special weapons but I have to make use of them. I also have a problem with using weapons outside of combat. I'm generally trying to get the jump on enemies for a pre-emptive strike or to fire at some other targets that I just can't lock-on to (which ADA explains I should destroy).  I can't aim properly outside of combat.  Even with a crosshair my aim still feels off. Also I can't really make any adjustments to my aim when I do a Burst Attack.  

Aiming At anything Outside Combat is annoying

Before I call it a day here there was one more problem added to disabling the satellite.  It's protected by the same energy field that the big one stops us from.  ADA brings up that you can remote control one of the enemies if it's unmanned. So after some searching we find one. ADA then tells us not to die. Not cause we'd have to find another one. But instead if the robot we're controlling remotely dies then Jehuty's AI will be severely damage....so ADA dies...and we need ADA.  I have no idea how survived the combat sessions I did. I just mashed.  And we managed to disable the satellites.  

Seriously for this part I just mashed and prayed

Well so far I've only been hung up twice. And it's generally falls on where do I go or what exactly do I do in spots.  Combat requires me to step up my game at times but it's still rather simple.  I'm still looking for a reason as to why no one really talks about this game.  Maybe I'll find it. But likely I won't Just like with Sly 4, Crash of the Titans, Sonic 06. My brain just isn't good enough to see what everyone else sees.  But that's day one for you. 

I feel like certain Anime characters would be breathing down my neck right now cause people died.