Luminous Avenger iX 2 - The Last Mission [Hard Mode; No Damage X]

白き鋼鉄のX2 天上の楽園2 Xランク 【ハードモード ノーダメージ】　
Final Kudos: 5136
Clear Time: 06:01:29
Score: 920292
Alright, this is it. The last stage. This one's difficulty is a given, but this is also one of the most fun missions in the game. This stage doesn't really have gimmicks but the enemy placements can be pretty tricky.
The double boss fight is what makes this one seem the most scary. But to be honest with you, the setup with the last 4 enemies in the Hanging Gardens legit might be the hardest sequence I've encountered in this game. And that's saying a lot. Staring at me do it and saying "Orly now?" is one thing, but you can't understand how long it took me just to even figure out how to optimally make score of them.
The placements are so purposefully deliciously bad that this little corner is now something I really respect. I deleted 3 paragraphs here breaking down why it's so tricky. Instead I'll just say that it feels like you have to thread 6 needles in a row with perfect accuracy in a 10sec time limit.
Anyway, Phase 1 Mother is a pretty vanilla boss. She uses renditions of the GV2 EX Weapons as attacks which is a nice touch. She is generally pretty forgiving but her AI starts getting a little stupid if you go behind her.
Using the boomerang to crack the shield is hella fun to do. Throw that shit offscreen and watch it chase you, lock on at the exact same time it lands and feel like Batman.
Enjoyable boss all round if not a bit easy (not complaining). Would like it if most of the mistakes she forces weren't just plain old contact damage though.
Now True Mother. The real last boss. This one is an endurance and a don't-panic test.
Take a deep break, look at the colors of the background, and listen to Igniter. This fight is actually a big deal if you can't get 2 cycles out of one lifebar. Being forced to play through another 3 or 4 attacks each time does a lot to wear you out. Optimizing wheel damage on the bricks is the most important part of this fight imo. After that comes consistently evading the attacks.
I took a very textbook approach to this fight. This is the one place I don't wanna style or be fancy. Wind still consistently robs me of runs but I dealt with the worst wind patterns here quite nicely. It actually almost looks like I know what I'm doing. Yikes.
Fun stage overall. Is it just me or is every enemy in this stage really cute?
Would play again.
In any case, there's not much iX2 content left from me.
I put tremendous amount of effort into every one of these videos from routing, recording for days and then editing and making sure the music is perfect. I'm starting to get tired now.
I will just do the DLC Bosses in a 5-in-1 video and then think up excuses to not do Boss Rush and that'll be it. I was planning on a Normal Mode longplay and maybe an iX2 tech roundup video, but I don't know.
I kind of want to get through some other games before Gunvolt 3 drops.
Speaking of GV3, I hope Kirin's gameplay has some high level and high execution aspects to it. iX2 got killed publicly because it has no casual appeal, but the skill ceiling it has is quite respectable in truth.
If GV3 is all casual appeal and no deep dive depth I'm going to be soft upset. I also don't want the meta being pushing enemies 2 screens with Gunvolt to be 'optimal' again because that shit is outright boring to watch imo.
Hanging Gardens 2 0:00
Mother Boss Fight 1:08
True Mother Boss Fight 3:28
Results Screen 7:09
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Music:
-Vanishing Trail [Ys VIII]
-Cosmo Dancer [Caligula Effect]
-Igniter [Luminous Avenger iX]
#白き鋼鉄のX2 #gunvolt #LuminousAvengeriX2
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これはゲームであっても遊びではない

[@bkbrent]

Watch more iX2 here: kzbin.info/aero/PLnZO2uX0-UzZIIq9Cu7UHLCgb4Ib5veTu

[@bkbrent]

Okay, that's all the game's normal missions done.

[@blakewalker94]

That was awesome as hell.

[@milky1234123]

you have no idea just how pleasing this is. I love seeing gameplay of people playing this game fast and doing it well. Kudos

[@halodragonmaster]

That was sick. And enjoyable. Thank you. I'll be sticking around for the rest.

[@justicemagnum5242]

Fantastic work as always! Watching you’re videos always makes wanna go back to iX2 and try stuff , as a result I love the game even more as time goes on. It’s a shame that this game is so divided amongst the community and the discourse surrounding it seems to literally never end. As for Gunvolt 3 stuff, it seems that Kirin’s main way racking up score is to spam arch chains (warp slash) as much as possible and switch to Gunvolt when you’re chain is at x4 in order to nuke and rack up big score with him. The GV3 website does indicate that Kirin will get special techniques like zero’s EX skills but unless using them grants you a kudos bonus (and a large one at that) the game doesn’t really seem to encourage using them outside of maybe bosses.

[@bkbrent]

I am really excited for GV3 but I'm trying hard to manage my expectations. I'm kind of at a weird place where if it doesn't offer me a high skill ceiling and execution based difficulty akin to iX2, I might be disappointed legit because of how people treated iX2. But on the other hand, the warp slashes and the GV dunks look just plain old fun to do. Will upload videos of it around August regardless.

[@lancergv2331]

GGs on the runs! Just binged all of them. I don't think there's much to worry about with GV3. Kirin is essentially a streamlined Copen who's rewarded instead of penalized for killing multiple things at once, and GV looks like a score machine. The extreme amounts of pushing enemies around in GV2 was a symptom of both horribly inflated timers (something the DLC by large addressed) and the minimum damage being reduced in the transition to 60 FPS. GV3 puts a timer on GV in general and substantially raised the minimum damage thanks to the electric projectiles. It's still gonna be there of course, but it's not going to absolutely dominate stages like it did in the Sewers. The biggest concern IMO is that there might be too little Kirin in Score Attacking. Hard to say until release though.

[@bkbrent]

Thanks for watching. I was thinking the same thing on that last point actually, but I guess we will see in 6 weeks

[@bkbrent]

Yo. I trust you've finished GV3 👀 What do you think of the game?

[@lancergv2331]

@@bkbrent ​ Well the story is amazing 10/10 /s First, the bad. GV has been gutted to total uselessness in scoring. Any usage of him at all is strictly detrimental. It's too bad, as that mechanic of retaining Chain with him would of been amazing. Even with IPs, he can't reach S++ ever. Such a waste to make him a noob crutch, when there are so many already. Similarly, much of Kirin's kit isn't terribly useful. Most Skill Image Pulses and most melee attacks kinda just, exist. Sure Kirin can string all her melee attacks together, but this is a heavy commitment and not at all rewarding. Typically mashing 7 charms and air attacks will net you the best DPS, and mashing downwards into a boss and spamming Arc Chain can be safe during extended periods in boss fights. I was right on the money with Arc Chain though. Kirin is really Copen 2.0, faster, streamlined, and more technical. She's almost a GV Copen hybrid, rewarding multikills and not landing. You can swipe at an enemy to kill then AC a different one, advancing the Chain and netting a Quick Aerial. *Do this to start Chains especially.* You can be fairly creative so long as you remain airborne, go nuts. Hell, if you're quick enough you can Arc Chain > Arc Chain to net Quick Aerials. The game is deeply disappointing and still worth playing, if that makes sense. Additional notes: Djinn will always appear if you reach 7K without the song ending, afaik. So it's not RNG if you're playing decently, fortunately. Kill Points don't exist. Overkill is gone. Time Points are ridiculously minimal. Kudos are king, milk out every single one. Time reqs are mostly loose enough to try things, to the extent that IPless Kirin can anyway. S++ reqs are incredibly tight overall, particularly on BB's stage. VS Missions are impossible without crazy cheese ATM. Due to how checkpoints work, Kudos early are far more important than Kudos at the end. Seriously, avoid GV. Even if you get cheeky he gets fewer Kudos from raw damage anyway. Very Hard doesn't do a great job at restricting you. You get access to a few cool utility IPs sure, but you also get the comically overpowered Djinn IP, which makes you invincible for a long time. Competitive play will be IPless on Very Hard, imo. Sorry for the full length review. 😅

[@bkbrent]

@@lancergv2331 lol nah I like reading opinions from people who can articulate themselves and not just yell the things they feel. Gonna have to disagree with the Kirin being a streamlined Copen though. I think you might be talking about her from a scoring standpoint, and in that case I can agree. Presumably with the Technical aspect being that you actually have to look at the stage and look for opportunities for group kills as opposed to the "I see you, I kill you" Guard Bonusless Copen routing. But her movement being way more restricted makes her play more like a more like a rhythm game to me tbh. Perfectly routing stages can feel scripted because that's kinda what it is, but the lack of freedom and expression in Kirin's toolkit(outside of boss fights) when trying to play for score is kinda the thing I feared before GV3 came out -- high level play might not be that exciting to watch unless you already play the game a lot and can appreciate people's painstaking efforts. I also don't really feel like my execution is tested outside of how well I can match falling timings with fuda throws and potential spots for the held down fuda. But it's week 1 and and I'll keep trying stuff. I'm working on Very Hard No Pulses runs super slowly and legit feel everyone's runs, if you can actually do them, will end up looking very similar to each other. To the point I've decided I'm not watching other people play this game lol. GV is GGs, unfortunately. If you wanna play him, you make the conscious decision to not care about score and I guess I've kinda accepted that. Kinda wild because he might have more room for expression that Kirin. Bonus edit: I also dislike that arc chain mash on bosses for invul keeping.

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

@@lancergv2331 thanks for the review. I think I'll just buy GV2 first before I try other Gunvolt games. Although I still do wanna try iX2 thanks to what BK Brent showed in his videos.