Two different Strider 2s

[Low]

Strider 2 is a decent game. The art is smashed by the pixel/scaling, and the flow of levels isn't as good as part one (due in part to the loading). *-neo

[StriderKyo]

Originally posted by GameHED
I find much pride in being able to escape the knifemen ambush without dying for example. This might seem impossible to any normal gamer who would accept a death and a new full health bar to take them on without being angry at themself.

Which part is the knifemen ambush? Is it on mission 4?

Either way, yeah, I definitely haven't put in enough practice. I've only just dug it out again because of this thread, but I hadn't really played it since august or september.

But I totally know what you mean about the randomization - certain bosses are just totally unpredictable. That's cool, it keeps things fresh. But even some of the ones that are predictable, like Scarabee or Caduceus seem impossible to beat reliably without taking a hit.

[Kidnemo]

Originally posted by StriderKyo
Heh, see, that may explain why some people find the game "easy" - you know unlimited boost isn't the default, right? It's like playing a shooter with unlimited bombs.

I really hope you guys who can win this on one credit without difficulty are messing with the options - difficulty down, more starting energy, unimited boost, whatever - and not doing all 6 levels. Otherwise my ego can't handle it. Certain parts in this game are just freaking hard. Even knowing the patterns, I'll still usually take a hit or two, and over the course of the stage it adds up.

I left everything on defualt when I played.

Though I think when I practiced I gave myself a couple of extra guys. It's been so long I don't remember.

But I know you can doooo eeeeiiiitt StriderKyo!

[sggg]

Well, I decided to try and get the game. Thanks to everyone for your input and impressions. It has me itching to play the game.

One thing I did notice that that the reviews for this game I found on the internet were among the worst reviews I ever read. It sounds like most reviewers just played the game with unlimited continues and then called it too easy. It was pretty annoying. So, I am thankful for all the comments here which illustrate that the game is good and challenging if you don't cheat.



Oh yeh, and good luck StriderKyo. You can beat the game.

[GameHED]

lol no the knifemen ambush wasn't a thing in strider 2 just an example in ffadvance of "an area that the designers knew was cheap and which would kill you, but only gave you a small chance of survival in.". But I wanted to illustrate that often if you managed to get past that with barely any health remaining, you almost always get rewarded afterwards with a chicken to replenish health. In the later stages they hide these behind pillars though.My point being that although some areas are cheap and you can't avoid everything, there is just enough health to be reasonable to be able to survive it all in 1 man. It's not like: if I stay alert I should be able to avoid absolutely everything and not get hit. It's more like: I WILL get hurt in this area no doubt about it, I just need to manage my health and ensure I know where the bonus health is and cut the head of the snake before it does too much damage and I die too early that I never got a chance to hurt it.

There are moments in strider 1 when if you maanged to build up enough health and are consistant enough throughout the whole level, even taking a hit won't mean much to you because so long as you win and mash the attack quick enough (there are times when you have small windows of opporunity so that speed of button mashing really does determine how much strength you will inevitably lose/avoid) you will get the reward of another energy capsule. The last boss in strider 1 is a great example, you WILL get hit, but its up to you to use each opporutinty before you lose too much health. (wasting opporunities to damage someone is almost as bad as taking a hit)

It's like a race to sap each other's health off first, rather than some kind of duel where you have to avoid and defend. This is it. He has a limited health bar, you have a limited health bar, and whoever is faster and/or has the most health, wins the battle.

my logic is this: there is no real excuse for dying so long as you maintain the consistancy throught the whole level and build up strength. If you've got 5 blocks of health by the time you get to the boss, even making mistakes won't kill you. bosses have a very limited amount of health and when you consider the speed with which you are allowed to attack at in this game, (millions of sword swipes a second ) they aren't really that mean for being hard to hit. Take the gravity boss for example. Many people will be disheartened to learn that taking damage is actually mandatory. There is no way you can kill it in 1 revolution, even if you are a really fast button masher. It's just been designed that way to hurt you before you can kill it. (maybe for dramatic tension? If a impressive enemy never gets a chance to hurt you, where's the fun in that?) ..But as a gamer; realising this ahead of time, you should have heaps of health by the time you get up to that boss and knowing that it IS possible to kill it in about 3 revolutions, you shouldn't fret. Survive that without dying? Collect even more health and continue with same man. (there's no excuse toward the end of that level with the gravity enemy, to have any less than 2 health bars imo)

So a lot depends on how consistant you are from the beginning of that level, because like in an rpg, you may need to build up health for areas where some hits are mandatory. This is an important aspect because some enemies will hit you "for free." If you were crap enough to set up a situation where by the time you get there you only have 1 block left, you shouldn't really expect to live or survive that level in 1 man because of your earlier inconsistancies.

I still can;'t beat the last boss without at least taking a hit, it's just the way they intended it. But see, that's OK! they give you health for free in that area, so there's no excuse not to have him dead before he saps you from health. if you only have 3 blocks of health, you can easily beat him, just go get that extra health after the first 2 hits.
5 blocks? you may kill it without even needing those free health! 1 block? you're dead! You shouldn't have screwed up with inconsistancies in earlier areas. (but when you die your new man will have at minimum: 3 health bars) This boss requires that you get hit first at least once, so that you can counter attack him with a more fierce flurry of attacks while you are invincible from the first hit.
You just need to get into position where he is reachable. You're button mashing speed will determine the time you can kill him in. If you're slow, prepare to have to take another free hit from him. If you're fast? you will kill it without it killing you.

...so for areas that are cheap and mandatory in strider 1, those are the areas I was reffering to. Where the designer;s have decided they can damage you and kill you outright by putting you in situations that you may have little actual control over, but which allow you to manage the damage done to you so that it is just survivable and you can still survive in 1 man. (but WILL in all probability have to take a hit based on the ambush and cheapness level.)

And in the case of the giant apes, they don't have any invulnerable parts to the body so they are REALLY easy. I was actually surprised they were a problem for some people. Really, all you need to do is take the initiative and mash the button before they even get a chance to hit you. No need to get into a special position yourself or anything fancy like that. Just get in range and mash away. Same logic for anything in the first game. My original reasons for preffering the second stirder game was that they made it a little more "active" than that by letting you dash and slide and wall jump and double jump around the screen like crazy, making the game feel more like you are in control of the technique you will use to kill things.