Zone of the Enders 2 PS4 4k-edition

Watched most of the run, lots of consistent setups and just super smooth run. Think sub 1 hour is definitely possible with some optimization here and there, just gotta get a golden run in.

Khan wrote:He crushed it, utterly. 1:05:55, almost did it deathless too!

Here is the link to the vod https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1578846017

Never in my wildest dreams did I think sub 1h 10m was even possible, and now we are theorizing under an hour!

Made my month and we are only a day in

Been trapped on vacation for the past few days but can finally watch this properly, stoked for it

Jumping a few fights ahead from where we left off, but the good news is that I managed to do the CLOD Commander fight.

Since D.J., of course, doesn't have ranged options, pressing Square whilst dashing doesn't produce anything, but once an enemy gets in range, it will register as a Dash Blade. Therefore, by dashing in place whilst spamming Square, it's effectively buffering a Dash Blade for when the CLODs do spawn. Ideally, it's timed right so as to actually connect, but even if it doesn't, you can see it's still safe to secure a hit or two in before going for the grab.

I need to practice getting the specific positioning down for where the Commander will spawn, but since I managed it here, this should provide a rough idea for how to approach things.

Got tight at the very end, but I snuck by : P

Not much to explain   just a little challenge idea I wanted to try out

Trailers finally up. Put a bunch of ideas down in a txt file and forgot about it  

Good run! Watching it though I am reminded why I'm happy that we can soft-skip him as a boss, just too much on the defensive on our part I feel. Such a drawn out fight as a result.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Good run! Watching it though I am reminded why I'm happy that we can soft-skip him as a boss, just too much on the defensive on our part I feel. Such a drawn out fight as a result.

Totally get what you mean. I think he's always at a good length when playing regularly since BURST Shots can get good damage in and remove his Shield, but for melee you can really only consistently punish after his Dash attack, which he can be particular about. On Extreme it feels like...I'd say a 70/30 between getting parries VS. a proper punish after he goes for a Gauntlet

Whilst I'm here it's a good spot to show the one hard bump in the run (been recording things very out-of-order, as you can see   )

Description has the details

Project is up.

Awesome! Going to give it a watch. Saw that Bullseye already replied which is fantastic.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Awesome! Going to give it a watch. Saw that Bullseye already replied which is fantastic.

Its a little rough around the edges, but I'm happy with it overall for a first outing into that format.

I'm still shocked Bullseye commented. Hope my description didn't ping him

Need some tips with the camera. I’m getting my A to the S to the S handed to me by how shitty I am with the camera.

Generally speaking, Jehuty recenters when you do zero inputs. That's your 'recenter' key, so use it. Always use lock-on and adapt to what you're locked on to. The game is lightning fast, so the targeting/camera tends to have issues keeping up with you.

Mega weird question but does dingo like ken? Mainly wondering since from what I remembered he was going to have a weird sub plot with the main villian. But in the final release it seems like they scrapped that idea so now he likes her?

Will say Anubis is a pretty ass final boss. Biggest problem is trying not to sleep during his boss fight when he teleports for the thousand time.

> dingo
The original Japanese release heavily hints that Barhnam (?) is attracted to Dingo or that they were in a relationship in the past. This was removed from all Western releases.

> final boss
There's a pattern to keep him in a loop so you're always safe. It's somewhere in this thread.

Done replaying the game,it is very good! Played on hard so am hyped to play extreme but first am gonna of fourse play the difficulty’s below that. Here are my general thoughts on the combat and story:
The story is alright. Don’t think the voice acting is as bad as people make it out to be although nothing fantastic. The characters are cool. The main villian lacks nuance in my book and is kind of just a generic”FUCK HUMANS HAHAHA” type of guy. His voice acting is probably the best in the game though. The girl was cute,I did like the double plot twist that at first it’s revealed she is betraying the bad guy but it turns out she was lying all along. The game gives good explanations for this as well imo. Dingo was cool. Don’t have much to say except he is better than the last kid from zoe1 who was a whiny sack of shit(I really hate him haha). Like the 3d cutscenes although at times when they go for slow mo it’s much more laggy than I would like it to be. The anime style for cutscenes was a fantastic choice and wish more games did this. Really makes the game more immersive(if you care for that). Ending was sweet,ended in a pretty open note and I assume ken and dingo married? I dunno mainly just a guess since they dropped that gay subplot. That and it seems like they were making a romantic thing between them which was well,cool I guess don’t have much to say ha. Now we get to combat which is great! I do have some issues I want to get out there is 1. Camera is pretty funky,I think my main issue is the fact when you get to a wall the camera doesn’t go transparent and not giving us a option for increased sensitivity. As much shit as nu-gow gets atleast you had the option to control the sensitivity which isn’t here sadly. Instead it’s pretty weird what you have to do that being put jehuty in a direction and he looks that way automatically. Better than nothing but far from ideal. This isn’t a deal breaker though since the camera definitely grows on you and using pro controller layout was a smart move in my end. I also don’t use parry that much and don’t find too much use for it for some reason,you guys are way smarter than me though and you can probably breakdown the parry better than I can lol. Now we get to the good shit,the enemy encounters are some of the best I have seen. You always have multiple problems wether it be certain enemy combinations,hazards,cellars,timer,arena layout,etc. but the game gives you your tools wether it be grabs,the environment that has a lot of depth,subweapons,enemy weaknesses,etc. I just love how each encounter tests you on something different and has multiple ways to approach which encourages different sub weapons. I removed in the crusher I would put a decoy and have a group of annoying enemy’s come and watch them get crushed. This still requires skill however since the crushers aren’t so fast you can put a quick one and expect enemy’s to go there and die instantly,nor is it slow to the point it’s negligible and your decoy has a health bar through sub gauge. I do think at times whoever I skip a cutscenes I feel soooo overwhelmed with the amount of sub weapons I just gained. I think I got like 3 sub weapons after skipping one cutscene which really messed me up in the encounter with viola. I also think the wisp ability you have when you hold it to push enemy’s around should be a bit faster and give us the ability to bring them in a bit but not to our hands. Just if a enemy type is a bit far away to steer them towards them better. The enemy design is very good for the most part. Mainly mummy heads which are fantastic enemy’s and one of the best in the genre imo. That’s it for now gonna form my full opinion after a couple of harder playthroughs.

> plot
Yeah honestly I never watched it. On my first run I felt I was going to drop the game because of the slow pace and bad voice-work, so started just skipping them.

> controller layout
Pro has the advantage of allowing swapping on the fly, though tbh I prefer the old method as it pauses the game giving you a minute to get your bearings. That said Pro has a few advantages, like being able to grab enemies while a decoy is up (not possible with classic controls).

> encounters
All of them are pretty darn unique, there's no real filler fights or content where you feel it's padding. And as you note there's always something to toy around with or experiment with. Like using Decoy to avoid specific setups from bosses, or even grabbing a boss and letting the helpers kill them - timeless game.

Note that the game changes quite significantly on higher settings, so do play them!

PS: good post but if you can, add some breaks (enters) here and there. It was a bit hard to read.

>Plot
Don’t temper it being that bad. Although I did skip through and started taking the story legit half way through since it gets way better pacing.
That and I just think dingo and ken have a lot of chemistry which helps make it more engaging although nothing fantastic. The story definitely did feel like it was just there imo.

>game changes in herder difficulty’s
They change enemy placements right?

Mostly it changes enemy AI, giving them new attacks, higher levels of agression and especially changing boss patterns. For example Neph1 fires two shield-breaker shots before charging at you, meaning you can't just hold a shield.

The games an adrenaline rush ha,by the way is new game plus fun and a balanced or is it a mess?

NG+ is pretty fun as you can use all your special weapons the entire game, allowing you to derp around more with things like the Fuck-Mine. The unlockable suits are all overpowered in their own way though.

Will say, daemon x machina does have a cool feature that if you go on the ground you gain unique moves, do you think zoe2 should do something like this? Not sure me personally since the camera would need some adjustment in order for that to work.

It might be cool, but if they're going to add anything I'd like them to give us an Izuna Drop.

>Izumi drop
Actually, that would work better if the game was more ground oriented if that makes sense. They could make a spin off based off of zoe2 where you can fly, but maybe it’s a meter you have to manage? I could go more in depth if you want.

Izuna should work, since enemies actually can do it to you (Clods). Just make it a collision based grab, with damage based on proportion to the distance traveled. You can even allow for a frontal one, like Ryu has in low-ceiling stages in DoA.

How can I deal with laser attack from mummy heads (on super hard) ??? They track me so fast idk how to control them.

>mummy head lazers
You can cancel them with some regular blasts, get an enemy as a shield or use the environment to your advantage. Best way is to use the former since it’s the most simple and effective way to do it.

> lasers
Best bet is to dodge to the side honestly. You can get enemies as a shield but there's a very solid chance they'll die before the laser ends. You can also use the enviroment, or try and fly over them and quickly grab them (dangerous as hell). You can also Gauntlet them afaik, or just use Decoy if you have it.

The general tip though is to never let it happen. Make sure there are enemies with low-HP, so that they will try and heal them and pressure them hard.

Good luck!

Can’t wait to return to this game! Having a friend from America bring my ps5 for where I’m at, which should allow me to come back to both raggy and this game.