Yet another Monday Update where I talk about stuff that I already talked about. Depends on your interests, I guess.
MGR:R on Very Hard – Having beaten the game twice (on Normal and then Hard), I figured Very Hard would be straight up my alley.
Boy, was I ever right.
Unlike Hard mode, which only bothers to up enemy stamina and damage, Very Hard makes the game completely different. Whereas upgrades and the like leveled out the difficulty in Hard, Very changes enemy behaviour in addition to increasing their damage potential. Whereas the earlier modes forces enemies to attack one at a time, allowing for perfect parry timing, Very Hard lets all enemies attack at once. You can imagine this as a rude awakening right from the outset – the first level becomes a brutal exercise in frustration without the right mindset.
Seriously! When you die three or four times on the first fight, you know you’re in for a challenge. Metal Gear Ray, most definitely the easiest boss fight in the whole game, actually requires strategy as it can destroy you in two hits if you’re not paying attention. As this fight (and the whole of the first stage/file R-00) doesn’t allow you to use any of your upgrades, this really forces the player to get with the program or die a miserable death. All the bosses use new attacks and strategies, forcing immediate adaptation. Even Mistral dodges many more of your attacks than in the other modes (as well as pulling a few trump cards from her nonexistent sleeves). They obviously put an enormous amount of work into making these challenges both difficult AND fair, because piling enemies on top of you wouldn’t quite work; the configurations forces creative use of the weaponry on hand and technique.
PlatinumGames likes throwing their players into the deep end of the pool and forcing them to swim; that survivalist instinct makes every single fight a tense bout of strategy, reflexes, and the occasional dumb luck. At first, you’ll barely walk out of a fight with your bearings, but the risen stakes force a more concentrated and vicious mentality.
For example, you’d probably wait to parry certain enemies beforehand; on Very Hard, you’ll run right up to weaker enemies, hit them once, then instant Blade/Zandatsu for a quick kill. Hit multiple weak cyborgs and you’re even better. It’s all about the crowd control, whether by killing weak projectile enemies quickly or simply knocking others back/off their feet. Some configurations don’t allow this, so you need to parry weaker enemies and inadvertently use the counter on the stronger ones. The ability to block in all directions comes in handy during those situations where you’ll be surrounded.
It’s much more aggressive, and I love it! Being the glutton for punishment I am, the additional challenge still seems surmountable. I found myself making it through most fights with an S/A ranking eventually as I got used to the pacing of the new enemy fights. Some of them really require you to zone out and just parry everything, slashing away before some enemies can even blink. In that way, it’s quite similar to the PS2 Shinobi’s emphasis on speed. You basically become a cyborg ninja by virtue of the stakes presented, and every little obstacles remains quite satisfying…and fun, if you like your challenges in this vein.
If you do end up buying the game, then, I’d say you were missing out if you just came for the story. Each difficulty level actually teaches you the proper way to deal with the next, so you’re never left out in the dark. If only more games were designed so intuitively…sigh. Guess I’ll settle for this and more DLC in the future! My score of four stars stands, though, with that DARN camera. Stay in the middle of any room during a fight and it should alleviate most problems (or, at the least, remain a little more observant). The sound cues help a little, but you’ll definitely want to avoid the edges of the screen as much as possible.
And that has nothing to do with anything, but there you go. It’s Monday, and randomness reigns!
Platinum Games Soundtracks – Also, did I mention that MGR:R has an INCREDIBLE soundtrack? It’s almost perfectly fitting in every instance, and adds to the immensity of the fights. Visual and audio overload tends to be my style, apparently. I suppose if you don’t like metal, soaring 80s power vocals, or brostep style WUBWUBWUB you may not like it, but if something that hilariously bizarre sounds great to you, go ahead and give the vocal tracks a shot. The lyrics supposedly represent the thoughts and feelings of Raiden (and whatever boss he fights), and they actually fit into the overall narrative too. Seriously, it feels like a lot of work went into these songs. Japanese buttrock, here we come! Probably comes from my love of Guilty Gear and Blazblue’s soundtrack also, but perhaps you might like it.
Same goes for Anarchy Reigns’ original soundtrack. Like hip-hop? Like jazz? Like electronica? Even if you don’t, you might find yourself listening to this amazing soundtrack too (although it goes without saying that there’s some explicit language on it). If I lived in a dystopian future where people beat each other up in tournaments and killed people for money, I imagine this might just be my thing. It’s incredibly catchy and entirely fitting to the game too – if you’ve heard any of MadWorld’s soundtrack, it’s somewhat in the same vein (with many of the same artists returning), but it’s much more lighthearted and catchy.
My glowing praise, of course, comes from a place that wants to know who came up with the overall musical trend for each release. Some guy at PG thinks of the craziest stuff, and it just clicks for me every time. Who knows why, but you should really take a listen. I don’t think they even require a cursory knowledge of the game; they’re just great music in and of themselves.
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That’s it for this week’s Monday Update. Some cool stuff coming up!
