Progress 9/28

It's time to conclude this round's Xenosaga expedition in our Epic Other category.

I am exploring the manufacturing plant Mekabah, and like all of the other areas in this game, it is super long. I made it to the 44th floor - I did not have to actually clear 44 levels, I took an elevator to the 41st floor and have been working on puzzles and slaying large menacing beasts and robots through the four levels.

There is a door leading to an area in the 44th floor that is locked, and I have to work my way down the left side to the 42nd floor to find a button panel to open it. I head back up to the 44th floor and enter the new area of the complex.

There is the biggest Mech enemy I have ever seen standing there! Even the ones in Ring of Red look wimpy by comparison. Doh! I make sure I am healed up and ready for a fight. And here we go! COMBAAAT!!

His name is Kanthosis, and he don't take no guff!

Kanthosis has 3000 hit points, but I blast him to smithereens in four rounds, because that's how I roll. I give him a little of this!

Kos-Mos' extremely powerful cannon blasts Kanthosis to little itty bitties.

Onward we go. I break through a secret wall to find a treasure chest with a nice ring in it, and then I head to the left side of the map to find....another giant mech. This one in lavender. Lavender?

The heroes of the story! Well, 3 of them anyway.

Lavender mechs are good on the XP.

I smash the lavender robot in four turns as well. Then I reach a ledge. Jump off? It asks me. What? You want me to leap off down below to an unscouted area in the enemy's complex? All right I'll do it!

I land on a big satellite dish. And immediately I am besieged by THE BOSS!!





 

The Boss has two assistants, both named Schultz.

What the?

The fight is on! The Schultz's fire laser beams, and the Boss, Proto Dora has a huge sledge press that he keeps flattening me with. Kos-Mos blasts them with her X-Cannon, and Momo uses her Meteor Flyswatter thing. Yeah, don't ask. It's Japanese Anime' style. The less questions you ask, the better it will be for you.

Meanwhile I have Shion on healing duties, since she can heal all three characters simultaneously. Then Proto Dora raises a Beam Shield, rendering my most effective weapon, the X-Cannon, useless. I switch Kos-Mos over to her Dragon Hammer, which does nice damage but not remotely what the X-Cannon does, and now its going to be a slow whittling down process.

Halfway through the fight, Proto Dora absorbs the Schultzes to become more powerful. That's cold!



I finally realize that Momo has a power that will lower the Beam Shield, but it will take four hits to do it. Proto Dora keeps using massive health potions to re-heal 2,500 hit points at a shot, and a lot of damage I did is returned. This is a loooooong fight.

It takes twenty minutes, but finally I get through the beam shield, and defeat Proto Dora! Yeaaah! Boss defeated.

I would like to put a checkmark here, since it took me close to two hours of playing to get from the start of this area to the slaying of the current boss. Unfortunately, there is no save point anywhere nearby. Looks like we'll have to keep going.

Let's just pray together that I find a save point before running into another boss. In the last area, there were three massive fights and two of them took me many times to play through to finally win them. If I lose all of this progress, I will not be a happy game player.

I have to climb the tallest ladder I've ever seen, and then its time to creep around quietly looking for the save point. Unfortunately, there are demons everywhere. Yes. Demons! What the?



Eat some Laser Rain from Shion!



Do I look like Mario or Luigi to you?

The demons are tough opponents, but not as tough as Proto Dora, and my characters have advanced enough to be able to handle them.



Demons! Just what I needed.



Finally, I locate an elevator that takes me all the way down to the ground floor. Guess what's there? SAVE POINT! YEE-AHHHH! That, sir, is a checkmark!

Aside from Mercenaries, the other games left are all PC. I've been playing a lot of games while either taking a break from writing, thus needing to get away from my PC, or during commercial breaks during football, which I've been watching on my PC. So, now I will have to blow through the computer games to complete the third round. We're very close. Should be on Round 4 by the weekend. We'll see.

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The Scoreboard: Round Three!

MIND TEASERS: 5 of 6 defeated
Chess Titans - 3
Gabriel Knight - 3
Mahjong Titans - 3
Sherlock Holmes - 2 (Amok in the Black Edelweis. In Sweden, I mean Switzerland!)
Spider Solitaire - 3
World Series of Poker - 3

STRATEGY: 5 of 6 defeated
Civilization 4 - 3
Gladius - 3
Master of Orion: 3
Space Empires - 2
Suikoden Tactics - 3
World of Mixed Martial Arts - 3

SHOOTER: COMPLETE
Crysis - 3
Fallout 3 - 3
Killzone - 3
Medal Of Honor - European Assault: 3
Ring of Red - 3
Star Wars Battlefront - 3

PURE ACTION: COMPLETE
Devil May Cry - 3
God of War - 3
Gran Turismo 3 -  3
Madden Football - 3
Soul Reaver 2 - 3
Soul Caliber - 3

SWORD SLASHERS - 5 of 6 defeated
Champions: Return to Arms - 3
Dark Cloud - 3
Drakengard - 3
.Hack Infection - 3
 Oblivion: Elder Scrolls - 2
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams - 3

EPIC - FANTASY - 5 of 6 defeated
Dragon's Age Origin - 2
Dragon's Quest 8 - 3
Final Fantasy 12 - 3
Suikoden 3 - 3
Suikoden 4 - 3
Suikoden 5 - 3

EPIC - OTHER GENRES 5 of 6 defeated
Kingdom Hearts - 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance - 3
Mercenaries - 2 (Super Long Ace Mission!)
Rogue Galaxy - 3
Star Ocean - 3
Xenosaga - 3

ROCKSTAR MISSION BASED 5 of 6
Assassin's Creed - 2
GTA: Liberty City Stories - 3
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - 3
Manhunt 2 - 3
The Warriors - 3
Urbz - 3

GAMES THAT GOT THE BOOT DUE TO SUCKAGE

STRATEGY
1) Europa Universalis III

SWORD SLASHERS
1) Shadows of Rome

SHOOTERS
1) Freedom Fighters