Zone of the Enders 2 PS4 4k-edition

Shame! If you ever pick it up again let us know, I always enjoy talking shop about this game.

Wasn't sure if I'd shown this one before, but caught it on video this time around. Fun little loop! Uploaded some other little vids on Extreme too.

What's a good strategy to defend the LEV units? Wisp and grabs seem slow for that fight, I also tried homing missiles once with no luck at all.
It's incredible how many enemies can be present at the same time, a truly technical marvel. I'm amazed by games like this and not by shallow "next gen" titles with no new ideas (generalization, but you get it).

Basically what you want to do is huddle the LEVs together in the middle. To do this you need to Geyser them raw without lock-on (takes a bit of practice) and grab them, then quickly dash to the middle. You have to be incredibly fast with this as once the first wave of reinforcements happen you'll need to have backed them nearly all up lest they start dropping like flies.

When in the middle they can really hold their own with minor Geyser support to heal them up. At that point it's best to stay up high and use Halbert, since the kills you'll be making will restore more than enough meter. If you go into the red, use Wisp to get some safe kills in in hopes of a heal. Be sure to not use Mummyhead to heal, you need your meter to survive here.

It is extremely hard to SS rank this fight on the harder settings, best I've managed is an S-rank which is pretty easy with the above strategy, but I always end up losing 1 or 2 LEVs.

And yeah the game is really freak'n impressive. WHich version are you playing by the way? PS2? PS4? PC?

Thanks for the idea, I'll try it later.

>version
I'm playing it on PC and I have no problems. Sadly I don't have a PS2 anymore but I coud also buy the PS3 version or even the PS4 one if there are interesting differences.

The PC version is, imo, the best version paired with PS4 due to the framerate. As you note the game is very technical, but the PS2 really struggled with the game, barely holding 20FPS at times. The PS3/X360 releases performed even worse initially. There's a section on it in the article I just published.

Good luck on your VH run :)

VH is done. Super Hard seems tough, even raptors are better at defense. I did the fake battle with Anubis and nothing else. I was just curious to test the difficulty a bit and the game keeps giving me satisfaction and challenge.

>article
I just read it and it's a very good work, congrats! I didn't know about that developers rivalry that fortunately enhanced the game.

Raptors become very dangerous on higher settings. As noted in the article a lot of patterns change on higher settings as well, theirs included. Facing them head-on will result in clashes and into them canceling those clashes into a guard-breaker slash. Note that clashing restores meter, which can be really handy.

Extreme, the one after Super Hard, is really...bonkers. I hit a major roadblock until I got more comfortable. If you need any tips or whatever hit me up here, but also be sure to experiment yourself! Game's a gem!

Got the game a couple of weeks ago after hearing Raeng sing his praises and fell in love immediatly. The level design is pretty, just fight after fight pretty much, but the combat and the encounter design is fantastic. The enemies work together and are super aggressive and fights are always different.
I did a couple of runs and finished both Hard and Very Hard. I had started Super Hard, but I really wanted to try Extreme so immediatly went with it and I decided I want to try and go for SS rank for the first run. If I'm not wrong the requirments are:

0 Continues
19 or less Saves
SS on the "protect the city" scenario
S on the "save the Levs" scenario

I love how the limitations on saves make you do long section in a single segment, really forces you to learn how to deal with all the enemies effciently.
My save plan for now is:

1) After Viola
2) After Cellar
3) After Vic Viper
4) After Canyon
5) Before Save The city
6) After Save The City
7) Before Viola AI
8 )  After Escort
9)  Before Pillars
10) After Pillar
11) After Inereth
12) Before Save the Levs
13) After Save the Levs
14) Before Anubis 1
15) Before Anubis 2

Which gives another 4 saves I can use in particularly hard sections.

Played a fair bit today, even reaching Viola was really hard to do single segment and took a lot of tries. The fight just before with 2 Raptors, 1 Mummyhead and the cellar is really hard. Tried to play it safe but getting hit by the laser is easy with how small the room is. I instead just went super aggressive, immediatly grabbing the Mummyhead and using it  to damage the cellar and then kited around to get the pole to finish it off. Actually in the actual run I got really lucky, after killing the Mummy the 2 Raptors just didn't do anything for some reason, letting me kill the cellar super easy.
Viola took a few tried herself, but once I reached her with close to full health she went down easy.
After this I actually did the entire segment up to after the Big Cellar fight first try. Cellar was close, but I just played it safe and just kited the Mummies around and killed them using the poles.
All of this only to realize I forgot to record after Viola so I had to redo the entire segment again, but I managed to the Cellar first time again. Actually the problem was the fight just before, lock on was being a bitch and I got sniped by the Mummy's laser a fair few times.

I'm having a ton of fun planning everything out and learning how to deal with every fight. Really makes you appreciate how different each of them are and how interesting the enemies are to deal with.

I honestly wouldn't focus too much on getting an SS-rank on your first go through Extreme, but that's me haha. Extreme is rough enough as it is with sections like Canyon and City being serious hurdles if you're not experienced. Doing the Canyon in a single segment is absolutely brutal and can lead to a ton of restarts on a first Extreme run.

Note that some save-points actually don't save. If you clear half of the Canyon, if you die you reset at the halfway point. But if you save and then quit, you have to redo the whole thing. The easiest way to note a change is if the file-name changes.

Also note that the requirements are based of off what was imo the easiest way. The system is pretty open ended, I have a post about it in this topic somewhere to allow for your own routing. If you get SS on Aumann (save LEV) you can even die 10 times IIRC. It's a pretty neat system, just not well explained, I think someone got it from a guide or w/e.

> encounters and enemy teamwork
Glorious isn't it?

> mummy with raptors
My strat there is pretty similar to yours, rush the mummy with a grab. Another solid strat is to stagger enemies with a short shot and immediately melee attack them afterwards to keep them in block-stun. After two hits you can safely grab them.

>Wouldn't go for SS right away

Oh trust me, I know it's a terrible idea. For now I'm having fun tho, individual sections are pretty short so I don't mind having to repeat them.

>Requirments

Yeah, I know there's a point system, saw it on Gamefaqs. This seemed the easiest way to do it, especially because I don't need an SS on Save the Levs. Getting an S is arleady going to be a nightmare.

Made a lot of progress today, just reached the Viola AI fight.

First section was from Taper to and including Vic Viper, didn't take too many tries. The Taper section is not really, the thing that gave me problems was the fights just after with the Raptor with commanders, they can melt your health. Vic Viper wasn't that hard, but the successful attempt was super messy. Got really anxious and fucked up the loop multiple times.

After that it was the Narita fights and the Canyon. Naritas are super easy with Gauntlet and Geyser, but the Canyon was a nightmare. Did the right branch, sniped most enemies on the way with the ranged burst, but the fight with the cellar was super hard. Killed the Mummies with Gauntlet leaving alive the raptor piloting them so they don't respawn, and after that used the bombs and melee to destroy the cellar. After that I was low on both health and energy so the next fight with Mummies and the commander was super tense. Kited them around and picked them off with grabs one at the time, seriously felt like it took ages. The left branch had some close calls, but was easier to deal with.

I like what they did with Nepthis on Extreme. You now need to be close to here to avoid their projectile which makes the fight a bit more interesting. Still pretty easy.

The "Protect the city" segment took way less attempts than I had imagined, only around 7 or 8. Gauntlet and the ranged burst makes it relatively easy to spawn kill the spider. It does take a bit of rng as I had some attempts where the building took 2% of damage invalidating the SS rank.

Train was super easy as always, Gauntlet to deal with the enemies at the start and then spawn kill the others once you destroyed each carriage.
Second Nephtis was easier than I thought. Use the big guy as a shield to stun her, 3 attacks into melee burst and the 3 or 4 Gauntlets into the wall melts her health. Repeat 3 times or so and it's done.

Now I need to do Viola AI and the Escort single segment and then work on the City and Pillars fight.
The section that scares me the most is till the "Save the LEVs" one, I know it will take hours to get the S rank.

I haven't seen your clips yet (I don't think you've uploaded them yet), but for these notes:

> Vic Viper
You can grab loop him or get him stuck in Burst loops pretty easily. Fighting him straight up is weird, as he'll start 'easy' (no assists) on Extreme, but if you die he'll remember what state he was in and can start fully decked out, making it really hard. Still really appreciate that to dodge ripple you have to position yourself in the beam, really unique stuff that you don't see often.

> raptor with commanders
Very underappreciated section that can absolutely decimate you if unprepared. Geyser is your friend here for sure. On my other runs it was a bit set of bait>punish. Doing it with Damaged/NoSub was really hard.

> cellar
> already using the degrading method on the mummies to turn them into raptors
I'm so proud.

Note: you can easily kite them around at that point and do some swings at the cellar using the Pole nearby. Bonus points if you charge it. For the other cellar you can use the bombs yeah.

> mummy commanders
Be sure to do that one last, as the first one you do has a cutscene. By doing the mummies last you can start the fight off with a fully charged Spirit Bomb, killing some and weakning the rest enough to make healing their prio. Immediately dash in and start grabbing. Clean up with Geyser/Gauntlet.

> Train
I always found this one pretty tough, if you run out of meter it can be pretty rough. I like how the timer gets more tiny per difficulty level.

> Second Nephis
Really easy fight. Probably hardest boss without Subweapons imo. Broke Infinity_divide and nearly made me want to jump out the window.

The run is done. Viola AI was boring as always, and those electric turrets during the escort section fucked me over a couple of times, but in general that segment was pretty easy. Mine field was easy, especially because I arleady knew you can spawn kill the second wave of the second fight with the big cannon.

I decided to skip the city going to the Leopardo fight immediatly, actually gave me some problems.
I got hit pretty hard so I started the pillar room fight with no health. Played it very safe sniping enemies with the ranged burst. Cellars stop spawning after sometime so they weren't a problem.
In general it took way less attempts than I thought.

Inereth was a bitch. I did it no problem first try, almost a perfect fight but I forgot about Anubis and got killed. After that Inereth started to be a royal pain in the ass, ignoring decoys and giving me terrible patterns during the dark section. Took way too many attempts lol.

"Save the LEVs" was an absolute nightmare, almost made me quit the run. Even going for S rank is incredibly hard an way too reliant on RNG. If too many LEVs decide to push forward you fail, if enemy reinforcements focus too much on one side you fail, if the game doesn't give you metatron and energy when you need it you fail. There are way too many thing that can go wrong.

After some tries on my own I just checked here for a strategy and watched Bullseye Strider walktrough, but the thing that made the run was watching a run by a chinese player. Made me realize I could use a grabbed LEVs to transfer geyes to others in SOS. It does heal for less, but it made it a lot easier to make them survive when there are a lot of them in SOS state.
I also got really lucky, got energy and health just when I needed it and the enemies didn't focus too much on the damaged LEVs.

After that the run was done, Anubis didn't give me any problem.

Outside of "Save the LEVs" the run was a blast, having to do sections in a single segment forced me to have a plan for every fight and gave me an even greater appreciation for the enemy design.
The game has seriously become one of my favourite action games, absolutely fantastic title.


>Clips

They are not up yet, now that I'm done with the run I'll upload the entire thing on yt.

>Raptor fight

First time I was like "they are just some raptors it's not gonna be a problem".
I got raped in a corner immediatly after.

>Degrading Mummies

That's thanks to your article. During the first playtrough I noticed that sometimes Mummies didn't respawn but I didn't know why.

I did the left branch exactly like that, using the pole while kiting the enemies around.

>Train

You can spawn kill every group outside of the first (and sometimes the last doesn't get hit if you are too early with the burst).

The Viola escort can be done pretty safely if you stay below and use Spirit Bomb and then just hold dash while going up (goes really fast).

> skip city
Heresy. But understandable. I'd highly recommend doing a full City Clear Single Segment down the line, it's very intense!

> inhert
Like Zakat he can completely screw you over. He has a unique section on the PS2 version (at least, I've never seen it on PS4) where he'll absolutely swarm you with walls of mines. Still no clue on how to avoid that.

> anubis
First time it was a bit tricky for me to learn how to evade his projectile. I like that you basically have to stay on him on Extreme as his homing projectiles is impossible to dodge at range.

> favourite
It's really freak'n good, scary isn't it? I had a similar realization last year also wondering "just why the hell is this game so obscure".

> train
Forgot about that! That's absolutely correct.

Will you be doing the NoSub? Or the VR missions?

>Inhert special attack

He actually did it to me in some of my attempts. It seems to be triggered if you are too slow to lock on to him after he disappear in the dark. A couple of times he did the mines just before disappearing and lock-on got stuck on them, while I destroyed them he started doing the wall of mines. I'm pretty sure it's a fail state as I don't see a way to dodge it.

>NoSub

I'll probably try it and see if it's something I enjoy. For now I want to do another 0 continue run (ignoring rank) to see in how few saves I can do it.

One thing that's also enjoyable, is to just play the game on and off without saving and see how far you can get. The game is delighfully short so you can easily do it in 1-2 hours. It's a good way to test new stuff out.

Finally starting this game after picking it up on Steam sale a while back. Really fun so far! I love the Gradius boss, gave me a big stupid grin on my face. Will continue to play.

Always happy to see someone pick up this masterpiece. Hope you like it.

Awesome to hear man, I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely like we all did!

Beat it once, really good game! Love all the creativity with subweapons. This game really feels like depth over complexity to me, controls are pretty simple but there are so many interactions.

Final boss kinda sucks ass though, maybe there's something I'm missing. Definitely gonna do a second playthrough!

Alright, completed Hard. Some thoughts:

This game might be the best use of an SSD I've ever seen on PC. You can go through the whole game with split-seconds of loading time, it's amazing. Just nonstop action.

Everything related to story was either bad to begin with or was butchered by the localization. The English dub is truly awful, luckily some kind souls have modded it out on PC.

Really short game, but with good variety. Every encounter feels unique. My only complaint is that more open encounters like the city with the elevators would have been cool.

The camera is kinda annoying to control sometimes. It's a struggle sometimes in the vertical crusher room, and extremely bad in the LEV assault section.

Subweapons are unbelievably good. They interact with the other elements of the game in such an organic way, yet there are so many of them. Sets the new standard for me.

I think I'm missing some subweapons, I guess they're in a secret zone or something?

Most bosses are more like puzzles than actual fights, which is a wise move I think. I've been thinking about this problem: when your combat is designed around multiple enemies, how do you do 1v1s? If anyone has some examples of this being done well, I'd like to hear it.

Thank you so much for the quick strats for finding Taper and Anubis 3, really helped.

Gonna keep going. This game gives me a Vanquish feel, except even more compact.

>depth over complexity
Indeed, very easy game to understand and pick up, but every time you play you’ll find some new details or tactics.

>English dub is awful
Really bizarre considering MGS2 came out two years prior and had a great dub(for the time anyway).

>more open encounters like the city
Agreed with this, that’s my favorite section of the game, wish it was a bit longer though. The emphasis on collisions works well with the more claustrophobic sections like the Mars valley too.

>camera
It definitely becomes a game of manipulating the lock-on, unfortunately. Wish they would have done some alternate for the remaster, though I’m sure that’s more difficult to do than just doing a new control layout.

>subweapons set the new standard
Been saying this for a while now. Really hard to give credit to some other action titles when this set of weapons is so good. Stuff like swinging a geyser’d enemy and stunning anyone you hit is just brilliant.

>missing subweapons
Oh? I think the only missable one is Mummy.

> when your combat is designed around multiple enemies, how do you do 1v1s?
Are you reading my mind? I’ve wondered this for a long time now. It’s why, and this may sound crazy, boss fights are almost always my least favorite part of action games. Using all the mechanics to multi-task taking care of different foes, to then usually being locked in a game of “memorize attacks and punish while usually being locked out of mechanics and systems” just bores me.

>Vanquish feel
What a compliment!

> depth over complexity
The inputs are very easy, I kind of like how they managed to tie nearly everything to two buttons, which works wonders. Having Jehuty default to melee or range due to proximity is genius.

> SSD usage
Note that the game just has fast loading in general, even on PS4 it loads nearly instantly.

> story
A lot was cut from the original plot, half the wack gay-love story between Dingo and Barham was cut entirely, leaving us with a weird 'in between' plot that just makes zero sense.

> fights
They're all unique, seriously haven't seen a game like this. I often praise Ninja Gaiden, but Itagaki and his protoge's could learn a thing or two from the ZoE2 team on how to make each fight feel fresh and unique by just changing a single enemy or adding a little verticality or another weird element into the mix.

> camera
It helps a bit once you get more familiar with lock-on prioritzation. If you have Geyser, you'll prioritize allies, for example. There's also a 'softlock' (a semi transparant icon) that if you press lock-on you'll go for that one next, but it's all a tad annoying. Having Jehuty slowly reset the camera when stopping is highly annoying, would've prefered a button.

> subweapons
Mummy is missable, it's in the city that leads to the crusher room.

> bosses
Interestingly they still have some creativity to offer. Viola AI can be toyed with using Decoy, which you get just beforehand, while Gauntled+Decoy can screw up Inherit. You can use Gauntlet to nuke Fake Anubis' armour and even stand on top of Zakat to charge Vector Cannon for a OHKO - so there's some creativity within the puzzle bounds.

> 1v1 in a game about hordes
There's the simple solution that NGII and Doom Eternal do, i.e. just put enemies in the boss room as well. This is the easiest no-brainer way though imo. I think having the enemies work into the fight i.e. what Ninja Warriors Returns does near the end (use enemies as projectiles to hurt the boss) is a great touch. In ZoE2 that could mean a boss that spawns orbital frames and you have to use them to hurt him in turn. Multifights are also a way i.e. Three Stooges in God Hand.

Having a boss have multiple hurtboxes also helps, allowing you to use your area-of-effect abilities as well. Like how a boss might have a body, head and weapon, each which can be wounded and have specific HP values and when destroyed lessen his power. You see this used a lot in Grandia 2, where every fight is about enemy-management, yet bosses tend to be singular enemies, so they have multiple 'bodyparts' with unique elements to them.

You have the rival-fight for example in that game, Melfice, who has a chestpiece (buffs him) a backpiece (heals him), himself (casts offensive magic) and his sword (melee specials). You see this also in more 'bigger' fights in action-games, like the giant plant boss in Astral Chain for example if you catch my drift.

Almost done with Very Hard, just need to beat last boss again.

>last boss

I kinda hate this one, maybe I'm not doing it right. The fact that he can start a missile as you Zero Shift to him, instantly hitting you, is infuriating.

>XP system

WTF is this? No idea what to make of it.

>LEV escort

This just seems insanely random, apparently you're just supposed to bring them to the middle? Maybe I'll watch a video.

>subweapons

Yeah I got Mummy this time, I was getting Floating Mine too but you only have like 2 opportunities to use it so I never noticed lol.

Amazing game though, really excited to see how the enemy behaviors keep evolving.

> last boss
There's an easy-tactic against him laid out in this topic...somewhere. It's fullproof but only works on Extreme, since his AI is different there. Or are you talking about regular Anubis (the second-to-last boss)?
EDIT: for video-reference, I have both done on Extreme without ZeroShift on my channel. Might help you formulate a battleplan of your own for subsequent runs.

> XP system
It's very minor. It gives you more HP and slight damage boost. If you farm enemies early on you can OHKO some enemies later-on. It is very minor though, but can ruin setups if ignored. A low-level Jehuty's Spirit Bomb won't OHKO Clods in the Crusher Room for example.

> LEV
There's patterns to it, but to S-rank it on Extreme is a nightmare. There's a different wave-structure and some setups are just a bust the second it happens. You generally want to have everything in the middle by the time 'reinforcements' comes and have them cluttered together as well so they help each other out. Even then they'll need your help with Halbert usage to deal with it. Best I got was like 4 dead LEVs, enough for an S-rank overall though but not enough for S-S-S

> floating mine
Fun to use in the VR missions and repeat runs. Putting down a mine and then putting Decoy into the mine to lure enemies in it is just comedy gold. Using it as a melee-weapon is beautiful too.

>boss
Aumaan Anubis, the very last fight. I beat it though. The key is that he can actually be interrupted when charging the missile, but only if you dash up to him normally without Zero Shifting. Also blocking his attack string to bait the finisher spin, since he always guards afterwards and you can burst slash to break it.

>XP
That's pretty funny. I guess you farm Cellars if you need to hit a damage breakpoint? Really weird system.

>floating mine
Yeah, haven't messed with it yet, probably will test it in the extra content.

Found the tactic for the final boss from earlier on in the topic:

finally got a great strat for the final boss. I found out that if you do Zero Shift into two hits into charged slash it covers all options.

If you do it and he does his invincible flurry of blows, it will give you enough time to cancel out to prepare to avoid+punish.

If you do it and he does his charged energy ball, the first two hits deal enough damage to knock him out of it, the charged slash is bonus.

If you do it and he blocks, the first two hits are just a hitconfirm and the charged slash breaks his guard. If you do three slashes you'll clash which you want to avoid.

If you do it and he does sword blows back, you can just dash out.

100% safe, finally no-damaged him on Extreme this way. It's a bit of an exploit I feel, but fuck that boss haha.

Don't forget that you can also grab the walls for an item. Doing him with Damaged Jehuty is probably the most difficult thing (only possible in the challenge maps), since you don't have a reliable way to cancel his healing that's 100% safe.

> XP
Eventually things stop giving XP IIRC. The game actually plays into this in a few points, the final fight before Auman with the the infininitly respawning Viola AIs is there to allow you to grind some XP before the final fight haha.

>bosses
I completely agree that extra enemies is a good way to make boss fights interesting, because many other times the fights will just devolve into “remember pattern, punish”. You brought up Eternal, I do actually think the Doom Hunter boss is good, partially because of how much pressure the extra enemies add. This is partially why I love SoR4 so much: pretty much any core mechanic can be used on bosses, and they’re always fought with goons that you can throw into them for collisions, or use them to get the boss up against a wall. I guess it’s a balancing act of not making the bosses TOO susceptible to your usual tactics, otherwise they just become normal enemies with more health.

It’s also funny that we’re discussing this, as I re-watched Cvit’s NG video(don’t ask…) and he had this little rant about how “if your boss has extra enemies in it, it’s a bad boss”, which makes me think he hasn’t played any game that utilizes this well, or it’s just a bad reductionist take that he didn’t think through.

>XP system
20+ playthroughs later and I’ve never really paid attention to it. Interesting to read.

>F Mine
It’s crazy powerful and versatile, it’s one of the funnest “goof off” weapons I’ve ever seen.

STOP. GIVING. CVIT. VIEWS. INFINITY

> Fmine and subs
Nothing beats Vector Cannon in sheer badassery. The way they build it up, the setup, the voice lines, the moving parts - it just screams "Final Flash". I love how it's just a straight up OHKO without question to anything it hits. Wonder if you could setup a shot on Inherit...

I was only watching because I wanted to hear some bad takes while playing the Master Collection. I don’t know why I torture myself.

>vector cannon
The way the HUD looks during the setup is awesome. Suitably crazy weapon for the game’s style and aesthetics.

>I don’t know why I torture myself.

There's probably a doctor for this.

> “if your boss has extra enemies in it, it’s a bad boss”

Sounds like mechanically blind trash that got his ass kicked.

Beat Super Hard, onto Extreme.

I think a fun challenge run for this game would be no spinning throw. It has so many iframes, is counted as a "strong" attack for not spawning Raptors from Mummyheads and Clods, and just generally does lots of damage and crowd control.

Getting more comfortable with Anubis, still find him distasteful though.

What's the deal with Wisp hold R2? Only messed with it a bit.

>spin throw
After I did a lot of experimenting with weapons, I stopped using this move so much, going for raw grabs on Extreme is pretty hard(unless you bait out certain attacks first). Usually my derp tactic is decoy ->spirit bomb.

>wisp hold R2
I’m not really sure what the benefit is, honestly. You got anything on this Roy?

> spin throw
It is a bit too good isn't it? That said on Extreme grabbing enemies is pretty difficult, though there are secure (or at least, more secure) setups. I tend to now just use them as a melee weapon instead, the spin throw I only use in some bosses.

> Wips HOLD
It is the one sub I've never understood. You can tether an enemy and swing them around a bit. It's decently fun, you can smack them into other foes, or even into mines (delightful), but generally speaking you're far too easy a target when using it. So I avoid it.

Beat the Canyon on Extreme, absolutely brutal segment. Cellars tolerate no tomfoolery, you must have a plan or you'll get dumpstered. Luckily, charged metal poles are a great plan.

I really love the Mummyheads, one of my favorite enemies ever. Their missiles and machine guns will pressure you like crazy unless you pressure them first. Their healing is both a threat and opening, and it's something you can set up deliberately. They are great, but not free, potential grab targets. Their Raptor spawn on death can either be avoided with a strong attack, or deliberately triggered to block Cellar spawns.

I'm so fucking tired of overly telegraphed, "please dodge this with your iframes :)" moves, and the laser is the polar opposite of that. Crushing amounts of damage, tight tracking, and formidable range will either zone you out for lengthy periods of time or outright kill you.

There are some quick, reactive options to interrupt them, especially with subweapons, but the best strategy is to play around the attack in advance (damn I love those words). Use other enemies to set up a heal, cover your approach with lock-on lasers or subweapons, grab a plate or enemy to dash at them with, stay at range and kite the beam, snipe with spirit bombs, and more. It's such a breath of fresh air.

Obviously gonna keep playing.

Yeah the Mummyhead really encapsulates everything that's good about Zone of the Enders and action-games in general. I called it the game's "interplay" in the article, how every part doesn't work standing alone but also in combindation with every other element in the game, just fantastic design.

ZOE2 complete on Extreme! Fantastic game, I've said my piece about it in previous posts. I don't even hate Anubis anymore! (though he is still a tad boring)

Here's a video of me full clearing Secret City, my favorite part of the game. I love how you can tackle the level freely, gives a classic Doom vibe with the resource management and routing. Can even do fun/cheesy AI manipulations with the zone boundaries! Would have loved to see more sections like this.



For now I'm gonna move on, just because I have so many games to play. Compared to others, I feel like I'm behind, and still have a lot to learn about the medium.

Thanks to everyone for all the tips and mechanical info!

Great to hear you've had such a good time with the game! I think my favourite segment is still the starting raid on the Bahram ship, just so many great little encounters there. I think the beauty of the game really is that whatever it does, it does super well, and never repeats it for the sake of padding.

Which game is up next?

Alien Soldier and/or Battle Garegga. Might drop one temporarily if 2 arcade style games at once is too much for me.

Alien Soldier is really cool so far, the boss fights (most of the game) have some of that same dynamism as MH. Seems ahead of its time.

Garegga will take me a while, I expect to be at that for months. Really interesting game though, I think I will really click with the rank system once I learn it and the stages. PS4/XB1 port is also one of the best ports ever made for any game.

Also still playing MHFU one or two times a week, continues to be great.

Maybe something else, IDK yet?

Started playing this a few days ago and finished my first run on Normal this morning. A few mixed feelings but generally a pretty good game that I enjoyed playing. Random bullet point thoughts below:

- Mech designs are awesome. I assume Yoji Shinkawa of MGS fame worked on them as they're very remeniscent of Metal Gear Ray from MGS2.

- Really like the fast-paced and responsive movement. Some mech games go for a slower feel to make them more weighty, but I really liked that they sold the agility of the mech.

- The selection of subweapons is impressive. I didn't find that they were all useful, but I understand you guys have experimented more on the higher difficulties and found uses, so I will bow to your knowledge. Even though it's deliberately situational, I liked all of the aesthetic elements of the Vector Cannon (cool transforming animation, ADA's narration, BIG LASER BEAM etc.)

- I wish the camera had more customisation. It turns painfully slow during exploration sequences, and I'd have liked to zoom out and have Jehuty take up a little bit less of the screen.

- The story and voice acting were hilariously bad, almost to the point where it seemed intentional. You can tell this isn't a Kojima game, I don't think he'd let his game's narrative be presented this way if he were directing.

- Had a quick go of the Versus mode. Why on earth does the camera occasionally follow your opponent, framing you in the background as if you were the enemy? Bizzare design choice. I like the novelty of an action game offering a multiplayer mode, but I don't think I'll spend much time on this one.

- The environmental interaction during combat is pretty cool, you don't see enough of that in the genre IMO. Enemies taking extra damage via wall/floor-splat is great, especially when you can angle the knockback of your melee combo or use one of the subweapons to set it up (is it Gauntlet? I haven't learned all the names)

- Only just discovered the Pro control scheme after finishing the game. Does this give you access to grab AND a subweapon at the same time? I noticed they aren't mapped to the same button anymore.

- I like the short-but-sweet campaign, definitely a good thing for replayability with the different frames and NG+ options. However...

- There were a few sections I really disliked and don't look forward to revisiting. The "Find Taper" bit with the boxes was dull. The "protect the buildings/LEVs" fights seemed a bit of an RnG clusterfuck, particularly the latter. I didn't like the minefield bit either - reminded me of the part in MGS1 where you trace Meryl's steps to avoid the claymores, only it's far longer and outstays its welcome.

- Boss fights were generally decent, other than the final one, where I just adopted a hit-and-hope strategy. I found I could consistently damage him if you dodge his combo where he rushes you, and otherwise...well, I have no idea how I was able to sneak damage in. I did figure out that using the dash attack seemed to work better, after a few goes.

I might replay the game on a higher difficulty and see if the combat improves. I think normal lets you get away with too much, but that's to be expected for the default difficulty. Overall, good game!

Awesome to see another one pick this game up, glad you enjoyed it Greg!

> sub weapons
When I first finished the game I had the same stance, don't worry, higher settings and replays will force you to use them in better and smarter ways (also to fend of the monotony of regular melee attacks).

> vector cannon
The ultimate "Final Flash" in gaming imo. The entire presentation of the move is just fantastic.

> camera
It and the lock-on are legit the only thing I would like to fix, though granted that would be a massive undertaking since they are pretty darn integrated and I cannot imagine a better lock-on than they have now short. Shows once again that Priority-systems are sometimes better i.e. Ninja Gaiden.

> story
A lot, sadly, was lost in translation. The voice-actors were pretty good but undirected (like Dingo just saying a casual "no" when someone is killed, showing that the actor had no idea what his "no" was reaction towards). The entire sub-plot of Bahram being a homosexual with feelings for Dingo was dropped in the Western release.

> versus
It's a lot of funky fun for a friday night when you're 16 with mates on the couch, but that's about it yeah. There's a ton of unblockable setups with OHKOs. Did an afternoon of testing and some characters are just broken as hell haha. If I'm ever rich, I'm hosting a ZoE2 event the size of EVO.

> collission
Fun fact is that if enemies die of collision, they 'degrade' i.e. you get the Raptor that was within to come out. You'll later find out what the bonus to this is.

> Pro scheme
Basically. Note you can always switch to sub and grab and back by tapping L1, regardless of scheme.

> the dull sections
These are terrible on the first time through. Once you replay the game a bit you can dash straight through them. There's a guide to Taper in this topic...somewhere. Has a surefire way of finding him. For Protect Buildings it's a matter of spamming Gauntlet. LEV protection is a nightmare, always is, always has haha.

> bosses
Mostly puzzles with some smart sub-weapon usage being possible. The final boss had me stumped for a while too, especially on Extreme. There's a surefire pattern to him thankfully, but he's still dangerous. Note that all bosses and enemies have their patterns and attack-data changed on higher settings. So some attacks that you had to dodge in a specific way, now need to be avoided in another way.

>I didn't like the minefield bit either
I had to play this in Japanese.

The guides said to listen to the woman's instructions. None actually detailed the exact path. So I had to use a Japanese dictionary and learn the words for left and right. Don't know what she says when she suddenly shouts but I assume it's stop due to being about to run into a mine. So I did and it worked out.

I had a similar problem with the Japanese version on PC with the Inherit fight. You'll get all those vocal commands and it really messed with me. It's a pretty neat concept though, never saw something like it before (or since for that matter).

Looks like I missed the party for this by half a year. I'm just shocked that there's a forum for Zoe2 with more than 3 replies.

I've been fiddling around with speeding the game up, its brought some new life to Extreme for me. Gonna try slowly attempting to go for a single segment clear on NG.

I still hate Clods with every fiber of my being.

Welcome Khan!

Yeah ZoE2 is widly loved amongst us! Really a big fan just of its flow, but also its mechanics (love the grab).

> single segment NG extreme
Highly recommended, did a no-death Srun on Extreme single segment in the PS2 version last year and it was a fantastic high. Could never quite emulate it (so much little things that can go wrong).

> clods
You can use homing-lasers to force them to block which means you can grab them immediately (helped me a ton against the boss where they spawn during my no-subs run). Geyser of course locks them down but if they swarm you it's all over for sure.

Really wish we could Izuna-drop like them ;p

> turbo mode
Saw some stuff on your channel, good stuff!

It's a damn good game for sure, I really admire how deep the mechanics are despite being relatively "simple" (no long attack strings and such). Fantastic enemy design too.

>clods
They are rather painful, aren't they.

Got 10 saves down. Currently my problem areas are Neph 2 and Compressed Space Anubis

Neph 2 I cant find a way to introduce her to consistency on phase 1. It really feels like its a toss up on gauntleting her against the wall over and over and praying you got energy for the cage fight or the health to take a charge.
CS Anubis is as you can guess his tracking on one of his burst attacks. I haven't the foggiest idea what causes it to clip you. Any time I think I get it down it reintroduces its self. Is it just a range thing? It happens less frequently when just out of melee range but even then it still happens every once in a while.

An aside the other thing is Inhert during phase two when he yells "Eat this!" and Ada stops providing instructions. I think when he fly's away if you stay still it doesnt trigger it? but its a pain to test.

>S run extreme single segment
I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of struggle that took to get. It must of been immaculate at the very least.  

>how deep the mechanics are despite being relatively "simple"
I never can stop gushing about the elegance the game has when flying around and attacking in a 3d space. Even little things like the threat rings are utterly ingenious for handling offscreeners and I wish more games did something similar.
The only real thing that could need changing is target priority over mosquitos. Its like 1 of 3 things in total I disagree with.

> neph 2
I got lucky with her first phase on my no-death run. I skimmed your previous run and one tip I can give you is to use a longer combo on her. She has trouble recovering, so you can actually do SSSS > dash forward > SSS into Spinslash. THe final hit of the first chain sends her flying, but she can't recover in time before your second combo begins. Only works once per punish though.

> compressed space anubis
That's the second-to-last fight right?
It's fully a ranged thing. Here's me doing him without Zero Shift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL5hjHGVJBg

You might notice that I don't use spin-slash at the end of a combo unless it's the only hit I can do, the reason for this is that the spinslash sends him to far, and I really want to keep him as close as possible. Positioning is everything in this fight, especially sans-Zero Shift.

> eat this
Only move I haven't really figured out, that's his mine-spam right? I try to use Mummy there if possible or decoy but it doesn't really work it seems. You also can't use Gauntlet+Decoy there anymore to bait him into coming close which sucks.

> Zero death run
Honestly, it happened by accident. I was playing the game nearly constantly and hooked up the PS2 version for a replay and around the time I finished the clod-segment near the end before Anubis I thought "wait...i don't think I died yet". I almost died at the final boss. Here's the final result screen:
https://i.servimg.com/u/f55/19/72/66/28/eyotak10.jpg

I've never been able to replicate it, I always die somehwere or another or make a dumb mistake or cave to 'recording pressure' haha.

Comparing our scores I think I played it a tad more safe (way lower score and max consec.) but maybe also optimized a few more fights since I have a way higher killcount (nearly 400).

> elegance
Definitely, in a sense it reminds me a lot of games like Shinobi(PS2) and Ninja Gaiden. These games trim a lot of fat but keep everything relevant and aren't afraid to see things overlap. I kinda noted it in my article about ZoE2, but I love how there's also interplay between subs, like how a Geysered foe can be grabbed and then used to 'infect' others, or how you can lay mines in your decoy and so on.

> target priority
The lock-on in general is one of the worst parts, it just doesn't work for a game this fast. I think a priority system akin to something like Gaiden might've worked better, but honestly I can't even be sure about that.

>Longer combo
Very helpful, and also gives me an idea that brought some consistency to phase 1. Doing that up until a few pixels so she doesnt move to phase two, and punishing the next charge with SSSS > Dash up >SSS Geyser > SSS Burst Blade skips a cycle for only a little bit of energy. From there I ended up slowly following her with a plate and observing how she bobs up and down along her path before starting her burst shot and throwing the plate there into gauntlet if afar, repeat two more times and if close against the wall  S for her to block then burst blade and thats almost enough for 50%.
Phase 2 she loves to bounce off the walls at times, so I'm working the kinks out on that one. Overall consistency is really hard to maintain, but it keeps you on your toes.

>Compressed Space
Yeah second to last one. Your vid helped a ton on my positioning.

>Mine Spam
When he does do it, if I have the health and lack mummy my go to is just move forward guard and eat the damage. Its a rough failure state for sure.

>Comparing Scores
I just exploit the consec hits multipliers on mosquito swarms by sprit bombing them and using a pole in front of cellar spawns as I destroy them. My 1.5m was just from the hallway before the cellar room and stalls out the rest of the run. Its like you said in your article, really easy to take advantage off.

>Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden
Both excellent games and I can see the resemblance! The interplay between subs has always been a highlight for me as well, even as of just now I'm discovering new things about it, I had no clue you could lay mines inside your decoy! I always figured since switching off dispelled it you couldn't use it in conjunction. Thats really friggen cool.

>Lock on
I have a couple ideas on how to fix it, one way could be tapping L2 and the right stick in a direction to change target to another enemy type and have a priority to same type lock ons, or even have a user configurable hierarchy that you can set in a menu for what you lock on before others, like Mummyheads>Clouds>Rapters>Cyclops>Narita>Mosquito just as an example. I feel like it wouldn't need a total overhaul, just some kind of insurance you dont lock on to the group of mosquitos next to the guy who's actually trying to kill you. Even disabling mosquito lock on entirely would make a huge difference for most of the game.