天下制覇

Hiro’s Story – Chapter 9 (Hiiro and Lorie vs Lobelia)

This is not your momma’s Savior.

Sorry for abusing the Shooting Star Kick there. It’s about the only Super that you can do well because of all the traps on that stage and Lobelia’s lockdown.

Alright, I have 15 minutes to type up my first impressions before I have to run. Let’s see how I do.

First off, this ain’t Xross Scramble or Duel Savior. This is brutal I set it on Hard mode just… you know… because… and then Kaede proceeded to do things to my poor Hiiro that I can’t even share in public. Alright… it wasn’t that bad and I recovered to take her down on my first try, but this is a Hard mode that is finally actually hard. Imagine the Esca fight at the end of Xross Savior… now that’s every fight and there are no joke characters. Yeah… it’s nasty… and it feels goooooood. I tried to keep track of all the hazards in the Lobelia battle, plus Lobelia, plus the fact that she’ll leave behind Rubinasu for delayed Assist attacks and I feel so overstimulated right now that I doubt I’m able to blink anymore.

I blitzed through Hiiro’s story since I had an unexpected extra hour this evening, so I’ve picked up enough on the engine to ennumerate some of the changes.

• Hiiro can put on some absolutely inane pressure. Her Shooting Star Kick (air down special) has almost no delay or knockback on landing.
• Hiiro’s specials now change depending on which suit she’s in (from picking up items). The Max suit is just… ow. Painful craziness. On the other hand, if she picks up an item during a combo (or when the item runs out), it’s basically an automatic end to the combo since she stops and poses. Although, this can also save your ass if you’re being comboed.
• Lorie can substitute attacks for her own. Hiiro gets to choose who to use as an assist, each one with a unique Assist super. Some of them are awesome looking. Others… like the one with Yuu have a tendency to completely whiff.
• Apparently Immunity is actually spelled Imnity. I’ll chalk it up to Lycoris/Rico Risu. Silly summoners.
• You know those invincibility frames on backdashing? Ha. I miss them already.
• At least on Hard, the damage reduction near the end is insane, which can mean you spend half the battle with both of you at near death thanks to the healing foods that drop.
• Most of the characters have been retooled above and beyond the Assist attacks. Rea’s stomps, for example, now have a small explosion, and she charges on her neutral Special. She also has a weird kind of door feint. Oh… and she now has a laser. Yuu’s stomp-Super also now sends her shooting off sideways, so it’s a whole new level of nasty.
• There are a lot fewer characters than the Xross games. I think there are about 20 or so, though I’ve only unlocked about half. No males so far.
• Princess Whose-her-face from A Princess is Here (High Tension Romantic Comedy!) has some absolutely hilarious attacks.
• That doesn’t compare to what they did to Lobelia. My god. All her attacks are faster and now have a huge range on them. Combine that with using Rubinasu as an assist and good lord is she boss.
• Some of the hazards are: pools of acid or magma in the corners, springs that launch you upwards, falling guillotines and spikes in the floor, bomb mines in the corners, falling flower pots, etc.

Hiiro’s Story – Final Battle (AKA, get out of the damn corner, Lorie)

Check out Hemisphere’s quick writeup of Lorie’s story too (NSFW). I’ll be tackling that either later tonight or tomorrow morning before going after all the courses and survival mode. I already fear taking on Esca though. If Kaede’s been beefed up that much, I can only imagine what Esca will try to do to me.