Zone of the Enders HD: Day 2 Part 4 - The Finale

Apparently this is endgame territory.  As soon as I enter the mountains I'm given probably the most linear path this game has directed me. Everything's also narrow.  Which means a lot of my weapons are actually useful.  No where for enemies...or myself to really dodge.  But one more weapon for the road.  The Bounder which does like this bouncing shot thing once it hits a wall it bounces towards it target.  I noticed that the path is pretty much just full of ammo.  So no need to worry about backtracking to restock. It's rather obvious we're in endgame territory.  Videogames don't really do well in hiding that we're reaching the end.  

I feel like stocking up all that subweapon ammo was a waste of time. There stocking me up to full here.

Boss Fight Nebula

Proceeding through the path. It ends with a boss obviously.  It's the guy that shot at us.  He's actually kinda tough.  The first phase wasn't really anything notable.  He just flew around did very little damage.  It's the 2nd phase where I was like WHAT DO I DO?!  It just makes me miss ZOE2 where ADA would make a suggestion when I'm in trouble. 

This actually took me a while to figure out an effective strategy. Especially when I'm being shot at leaving me little room to try things.

Apparently I'm supposed to break it's barrier.  Kinda hard when it's big attacks are the only time I can attempt to break said barrier. He also flies away and circles around.  The guide said land a burst attack on him.  Easier said than done. Even when trying to pre-emptively hit the guy with one as he lands is near impossible cause there's so many lasers to interupt me. Ugh. But it's made up of what I think is the funniest moment of this game.

"Do you think that affects me?!"

He kept repeating this line as I unloaded Phalnax at his face.  And it was doing quite a bit of damage to him.  I guess it does affect you. LOL

Well it's killing you so I guess the answer is yes. 

So once he's defeated and gone. Another not kill and pass through a tunnel. Save Game Prompt. Yeah we're in endgame. Uh...Viola is having an inferioty complex and challenges us.  

Boss Fight Viola

If you wanna dock this game for it's English voice acting go ahead. But the lines are pretty much Super Robot Anime tropes.

So the funny thing is...I was doing well the first round till the 2nd phase kicked in.  She's really tough and the guide's tips got this boss fight completely wrong.  But explain that later.

I'm glad Viola is kind enough to let Leo have his anime argument with ADA and let him go anime to break out of this cutscene trap.

So the first part of the fight she's kinda toying with us but not.  We end up in a cutscene attack that we can't avoid and the game did well enough to make the enemy invincible for the phase change so I can't get any more hits.  Oh no Viola's got us and is ready to kill us classic evil villian style.  Which means she's gonna take her sweet time while we can converse everything that's going on. 

Leo argues with ADA who's about to hit the eject button and self-destruct Jehuty. Leo values ADA's life. But uh what about Celvice who's in the cockpit with you?  Doesn't matter in classic anime/videogame fashion everyone's lives matter.  No arguing. So we break out of cutscene attack and it's a full on match with Viola and her Nieth (which is pronounced Neet? weird) 

So the guide says get in close range combat with her. I think this is the last time I'll listen to a Walkthrough's advice on combat. She utterly destroyed me.

OH GOD THIS IS TOUGH!! Not only fast she's incredibly aggressive.  So here's the funny thing. The guide I was reading said Oh you're better off fighting her up close.  The guide got me killed multiple times.  I kid you not every time I got in to close range combat any hits I made were lucky swipes.  Thanks guide for getting me killed AGAIN!  So what I ended up doing.  Keeping away from her and shooting everything I got at her.  She was completely open when doing a charge attack and the walls kept me somewhat safe to prep another move.  

She goes down and it's time for revenge....or not.  As angry as Leo is he can't bring himself to kill Viola.  I mean she is the woman that killed your friends. Oh well. Leave her be.  We finally make it to Mr. Demanding Thunderheart.  Alright here's the keys we can go now right?  Wrong. Time for a lengthy cutscene that I'll attempt to sum up.

Long Cutscene time.

So Thunderheart is waiting in a taxi? He says that Leo's not done yet. Apparently BAHRAM (whom I think is the first time having the groups named dropped in this game) planted bombs in the colony. If they go off the colony will fall out of orbit and drop into Jupiter killing everyone on the colony.  Apparently they want Jehuty that badly that it's a "If I can't have it, No one will" scenario. Thunderheart wants Leo to get back into Jehuty and stop the bombs. Leo breaks down which is rather expected considering how many people he's likely killed up till now. (Which...leaves me to question.  Did he really kill anyone at this point?)  

OH COME ON SHE WASN'T EVEN ANNOYING! 

Celvice encourages Leo saying they can do it together. A nice heart to heart. But that heart to heart gets ruined by a gunshot. Celvice falls over and the person who shot her is none other than, Taa...daah Viola.  Still on her inferioty complex she says she did it to make Leo mad. Well congrats it worked.  Viola leaves and then Leo chases after.  

Viola literally just created a Super Robot Anime Protagonist.

Leo has a heart to heart with ADA.  ADA tries to figure out why Leo he made the choices he did. Leo explains his backstory.  Which apparently none of his parents wanted him and all his so called friends and teachers besides Celvice didn't want him either. Apparently for the first time he's actually needed and that's why he's doing all this now.  Meanwhile Viola flaunts her inferiority complex saying that her machine is immortal. Her frame is heavily damaged but it seems to be some sort of design feature as Neith's arms are now just floating debris.

I honestly thought it was cause he was an Ender or whatever.  I did hear the beginning of the game right didn't I?  Didn't they call Leo an Ender?  What is that? The heart to heart ends and what starts is probably THE HARDEST MISSION IN THIS GAME!!!

Back to game

Okay not as hard as I originally thought but god it's freaking hard.  So remember when they mentioned bombs in the colony. What I have to do is find the bombs, which thankfully ADA points out. And then grab them for like 10 seconds.  This sound easy on paper but if I drop the bomb or if I'm attacked while holding a bomb I'm taking significant damage. And it's not easy with tons of enemies around taking advantage of a stationary target.  

I'm just praying no enemy is nearby or no random projectile hits me.

When ADA points out a bomb I got 60 seconds to get to it and disarm it properly.  But there's waves of enemies about that will love to interupt me.  This is not easy.  Especially when I can't move. I have to pray that the enemy is far enough away that they won't take a shot at me while I hold the bomb. 

After I finally struggled through that. Viola shows up again. Ready for the final round.  In her damaged. She's a lot easier than last time or I'm just in the moment that this is the end. Or I'm just pissed that she shot Celvice like that. 

How can you make your arms like that?!

Leo basically finishes her off via Cutscene and sends Viola on a one way trip into Jupiter.  Leo contemplates saving her life but Viola interupts saying if he does he'll kill him, everyone he loves, and other people too.  Well we can't anime this one.  She tells us her life story which apparently she lost everything.  I don't know why but I feel like like she's similar to MGS1's Sniper Wolf. I really don't know why.  Well Leo's no Goku so there's no saving her as she explodes in Jupiter's gravity. 

So we get Viola's backstory before death.  

Well our victory is short lived as the awesome machine piloted by a guy I don't like shows up.  ANUBIS!!!! He pops in out of nowhere and Nohman who talks about how he's gonna kill Leo as a gift to Viola.  The fight starts and he gets a free shot at me.  Oh god he's gonna kill me.  He toys with me while I try EVERYTHING I CAN to damage him.  I get a message saying that they're gonna blast open a way for us to escape just survive for 15 seconds....Okay.  

OMG IT'S THE SEXY SUPER ROBOT!!! Yeah I have a biased love for Anubis.  I mean seriously that thing is sexy. 

All Anubis does is teleport around then right in front of me about to slap me.  I dare not try close range cause I think he's gonna win in that game.  All the weapons I tried....nothing.  I was about to try the Sniper Rifle but time ran out. The game ends. 

Final Cutscene

Yeah rather ironic the A.I. that was all against self-sacrifice has a program directive to sacrifice itself. 

We make our escape to the ship and before Leo can leave.  Leo asks ADA a question. What does she intendo to do with Jehuty once on Mars?  ADA explains that Jehuty is to infiltrate Aumaan Fortress and self-destruct.  Leo complains which honestly is rather ironic since ADA was complaining about ilogical actions to Leo then suddenly wanting to understand Leo and human emotions.  We last see a disappointed Leo but a happy and alive Celvice and the other guys.  Then the credits roll.  

Ranking

That ranking is just telling me I shouldn't have bothered with a lot of stuff. Also 6 hours more like 4. I was paused for at least 2 hours. 

My ranking is a D rank. Saved 8 times. Died like 18 times. And SOS missions were subpar at best. Game took 6 hours. Sounds about right.

Last thoughts

Well I'm certainly glad that ZOE2 exists.  While it's understandable that Jehuty's combat abilities rather suck in ZOE1. I was struggling. This game definitely has the Metroidvania feel (I hope I used the right term) where you go to one spot to get one thing then progress with said thing or go back and see what the new thing you got can open up.  The game is rather cruel in rankings. One destroyed building, A few civilians die. C rank at best. I also feel like the block function in the game is completely useless.  Things I want to block I can't. I may as well attempt to dodge out the way.  Only a few parts hung me up and honestly I think I could've done better without a strategy guide.  I hate how generally useless a lot of sub-weapons are.  The AI either knows how to avoid them or they just plain suck.  It's sad.  

The game has great music. There's not much to say there. If we're gonna argue voice acting. I honestly don't care in that department. It's hard enough to read your lines properly. Only time I expect great voice acting is for anime based games where you could grab the voice actors from the anime to play there in-game versions. 

Story? Well it's what I expected. If you're expecting me to hate on Leo cause he complained about everything. I'm not. I don't see a problem with complaining about the job thrusted upon you by circumstances. It's really a typical Super Robot Anime/Manga story. What I will complain about. The unexplained stuff. Unless I heard wrong throughout the story. 

• The game mentions Enders at the start of the game when Leo is getting bullied.  What is an Ender? I figure it's something important to the game and it's one of those things that make you special like with Gundam and Newtypes, (or Innovators, or Coordinators, etc).  But it's not explained. Or revisited. Maybe it's a typo in the script? Or maybe it's in some other form of media?
• While I know what BAHRAM is. They're the enemy force in the 2nd game. They only brought them up once. So I imagine anyone being introduced to the game that's paying attention at this point would wonder who or what is BAHRAM.  
• Did Leo actually kill anyone throughout the game? Excusing Viola and my subpar piloting skills that led civilians to there deaths.  Did anyone actually get killed?  Unless I'm mistaken all the enemies besides bosses were remote controlled?  Which if so why didn't ADA or anyone else try using that plane of reasoning. I guess cause of war mentality?  Either way.  I don't think Leo actually killed anyone?

It does make me curious about the GBA game.  But I doubt I'll play that it's pretty rare and looks to be a time consuming strategy RPG. I'm moving on to the 2nd game. 

I do kinda see why no one really talks about the first Zone of the Enders game that much, if at all.