As a fighting game fan, I know a cheap boss when I see one. That I know how to beat the likes of Jinpachi, Goenitz, and Magaki, et al., is proof that I can handle a cheap boss when given time to get to know them better. The boss battles in GVGN+ take the concept of a cheap boss and instead turn it into a very, very unfun version of "monkey in the middle". I'm not sure if the phrase "gangrape" would be inappropriate; in fact, it may be underselling the experience.
Let me begin by stating one problem that has persisted from the original GvG: You are given an AI controlled partner who serves two functions:
1)Jack all of your kills when the enemy is being easy, or even just moderately difficult
2)Sit in the background when a high level enemy comes into play. Due to camera issues, I can't visually verify if it's indeed sitting, nor whether it's thumb is, in fact, occupying its rectal area. But I have my suspicions.
This is annoying enough when your opponent is Nu Gundam, which actually means you have roughly 8 enemies, including its partner and the bits it shoots out . It becomes downright tedious when you're near the end of a route and the computer has decided the game has been sufficiently fun by that point and turns on you viciously.
Unfortunately, Namco/Bandai has also decided that a mere "boss" is insufficient. Which I'd agree with, if said bosses weren't mechanized death factories loaded with numerous versions of death blossoms and other patently unfair advantages such as super armor. No, we get the "boss stage", wherein we fight two mobile suits of the game's choosing (usually 3000 point level suits from the Gundam Overpowered Collection)at the aforementioned high difficulty. Then, and only then, we are greeted by one of the villains of the numerous Gundam timelines in their huge, ultra-mecha.
They are flanked by the 2nd-most powerful suit in their series.
It's sad that the most innocent crime in all of that is violation of canon. Your Gundam is suddenly thrust into a nightmare situation: run the fuck away and spam your beam rifle, or stand there while Nu Gundam, Alpha Azieru and all 12 of their bit/funnel weapons shoot lasers at you. When they're not doing that, you will undoubtedly try to take on the Alpha, which practically gift wraps your suit with a tag that says "To Amuro Ray: Please sodomize me". Presumably, your AI partner is somewhere filming you getting backjacked until you explode,and eventually, you lose enough that the difficulty ramping eases up and you can just barely win out.
Isn't it enough that the target suits are unholy machina bent on your destruction? Do they really need a tag team partner just in case their Fuck You Beam didn't penetrate through to destroy your backside? One battle pitted me against 2 Zetas, complete with temporary god mode enabled, followed by Nu Gundam and ZZ Gundam, followed by 3 HYAKU SHIKIS and Gundam Unicorn. Such a lineup would be an appropriate defense if, say, the very constructs of Time and Space suddenly became violently malicious.
Alas, I still play, and I still have things to unlock. But it saddens me that this genre, which is suffering from decent games, now has to suffer the same overblown challenge-mode bullshit that fighting games put themselves through. It doesn't lead me to better myself; I'm playing as well as can be expected. It leads me to abuse a tactic because it's the only one an overwrought enemy AI didn't plan for.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to flying my amazing Gundam DX in a complete circle while beating the fuck out of the square button. Fun, huh?
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