![]() I had to use Zandatsu at the right time to keep restoring my health in the midst of all the chaos. I had to nail my parries perfectly, or else I’d be stalled just long enough for a rocket to hit me. They were followed by a couple waves of various cyborgs, Gekkos, and flamethrower-equipped water-strider-esque robots. Now, bear in mind, the first six guys weren’t the only enemies in this mission. It feels good that a single parry can turn the tide of an entire battle in a few grisly seconds, especially when you and your enemy trade parries until you win. Considering the clock keeps running at normal speed when you’re in Blade Mode or in the middle of a Zandatsu, you start appreciating the time you save when Raiden removes each spine one by one, snapping from glowing core to glowing core, before crushing them all simultaneously. Set things up properly and you can perform the finishing move OVER the other stunned enemies, which will allow you to pull off a chain-Zandatsu. A stunned enemy can be set up for a finishing move, which will allow you an easy Zandatsu (spine-ripping-out move). While the early enemies in hard mode didn’t attack often enough for me to even consider parrying, a proper parry can stun multiple enemies, not just the one you parried. You can also cut through most homing missiles pretty easily if you use light slashes while running. Aside from automatically blocking bullets, it’s a good way to get ahead of rockets. Instead, I quickly learned that Ninja Run was a valuable asset when being fired upon. Like Raiden, my combat style was forged in violence. Whereas some might find such a crushing defeat disheartening, in my case, brutality forced me change my playstyle. Sure, the action is a bit more over-the-top than your average Metal Gear Solid, but it felt like they mixed a bit of ‘90s anime into all of the ‘80s action movies that went into MGS, and that’s a combination that I couldn’t help but love. There were even some interesting character beats for Raiden as he came to grips with his repressed "Jack the Ripper" persona. It has that weird surrealism where you’re listening to someone talking about their tragic upbringing at one moment and notice a soldier playing with a cat off to the side the next. ![]() ![]() To its credit, Metal Gear Rising nailed the Metal Gear vibe for me. I loved the way they were introduced, and even when I wasn’t enjoying the game’s combat, I thought that the fights with them were some of the most interesting (and in one case prettiest) things I’d ever seen in an action game.īetween the bosses, the plot centered around VR training and child soldiers, and Codec conversations that ranged from completely silly to oddly specific about certain weapons. It doesn’t hurt that they mock Raiden’s sociopathic bloodlust in the name of justice every time they get a chance. While Raiden has been ludicrously powerful since Metal Gear Solid 4, the Winds of Destruction, four cyborgs with bizarre weapons (extending Sai! Polearms made of arms!) act as worthy rivals. This didn’t get me great mission ranks, but it got me through… and I was saddened by that.Īt that point, I was having the more fun with the non-combat, more "cinematic" parts of the game than I was with the gameplay. At that point, I thought combat didn’t have much to offer me. Since your combo rank at the end of a mission was based on the number of hits you put into a combo alone, I felt as though I could mash X and be just as effective. ![]() After a couple stages, I stopped seeing any benefit to diversified combos. Sure, things were flashy, but fights took forever and I never managed to finish my missions with S ranks. I was trying to play the game like Devil May Cry (my personal favorite series of action games), but no matter how flamboyantly I played, no matter how lengthy my combos got, I never felt like I was being properly rewarded. Even so, nothing I purchased quite satisfied me, and neither did the use of blade mode on a sparking, collapsing enemy. ![]() Thinking that perhaps the lack of reward for combos came from a lack of abilities, I spent all of by BP (Battle Points, used to buy upgrades) on new skills. The enemies put up little resistance, so I’d just wail away on them until they broke down, then use that time to activate Blade Mode with the left trigger (which will cut through some enemies in a single hit), line my slice up as required, cut through, and rip out their cyborg spinal cord/energy thing that completely healed Raiden and refueled his energy gauge, allowing for more Blade Mode usage. ![]()
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