The Castle Eggman boss is too unfair, even for SRB2 standards.

[DitchWad]

How do you think a boss that has an unpredictable pattern and a near-impossible avoidance measure is good game design? I mean, the bookshelf jumping thing in Act 2 was god awful for how easy it is to fudge up, but to make a boss that's near impossible is going to far. At least make some sort of warning that it'll change patterns and space out the mace balls, because most of the time it's so damn picky.

Just a recommendation, but seriously, as Sonic, I can't pass this area, and it's actually harder with Tails because you have to jump to the boss, which can seriously give unpredictable results.

 

[Unknownlight]

The boss isn't too hard; I beat it the first time. Notes:

- You can either jump over the spikes or run away from them. Both are best for different situations. I recommend running when the spikes are slow, and jumping in other cases.

- Eggman presses a button (or something) right before the spikes' speed/direction changes. Pay attention. Keep in mind that the spikes will never reverse into maximum speed.

 

[Chromatian]

Basing this off the player's viewpoint, and not Eggman's:

Left hand raised: Maces will speed up in the current direction they're moving
Right Hand raised: Maces will switch directions
First hit: Only does one action, 4 seconds after said action the cage will rise
Second through Fifth hit: Does 3 Actions, slowly speeds up his pace with each it
Pinch: Flies into the air, a Spinning Chain will appear where Eggman once was, grab on, and jump to the stands of the arena. Afterwards, find another Spinning Chain in the arena, grab on, and aim to land on top of Eggman, as his fire and spikeballs will just knock you down. Land three more hits and he's done.

When you know he's going to speed up, get closer to him, you have less distance to run around when you're closer. If you're tails or Knuckles, and you feel like taking it easy, Climb or Fly up into the stands, wait for him to do his thing, when you know he's going to raise his cage, jump down and get ready to hit him.

It's a fairly easy boss all things said and done...

 

[DrStephen]

I played through the game as Tails and Knuckles. They make the boss easier, because you can go to the high level and laugh at him. When he's vulnerable, i just jump at him. The problems are when he gets pissed off. He is really hard to hit, but FAR from impossible or too unfair. It's the 4th boss in the game, man. It's called difficulty curve. It means the game tries to ease you into difficulty and tells you that the game is getting harder. It's not too harsh but it isn't too sweet.
With Sonic, you just have to have quick reactions and use the skidding. As Sonic's tip says: "Letting go of forward does NOT let you slow down in SRB2." By the way, he is the hardest character to control. No wonder why Sonic is the only one that can transform in single player.

Just try harder. I died a lot of times the first tries as Tails, but when I fought him again as Knuckles, it wasn't too bad.

By the way. If you think CEZ's boss is unfair, you don't want to know what bosses are comming after.

 

[akb778]

Yeah, this boss really isn't that hard to beat as Sonic. Like Chrome said, you have to find a spinning chain in the stands in order to hit him when he is in the pinch phase. And the first half isn't too bad once you figure out Eggman's actions.

 

[clairebun]

I played through the game as Tails and Knuckles. They make the boss easier, because you can go to the high level and laugh at him. When he's vulnerable, i just jump at him. The problems are when he gets pissed off. He is really hard to hit, but FAR from impossible or too unfair. It's the 4th boss in the game, man. It's called difficulty curve. It means the game tries to ease you into difficulty and tells you that the game is getting harder. It's not too harsh but it isn't too sweet.
With Sonic, you just have to have quick reactions and use the skidding. As Sonic's tip says: "Letting go of forward does NOT let you slow down in SRB2." By the way, he is the hardest character to control. No wonder why Sonic is the only one that can transform in single player.

Just try harder. I died a lot of times the first tries as Tails, but when I fought him again as Knuckles, it wasn't too bad.

By the way. If you think CEZ's boss is unfair, you don't want to know what bosses are comming after.

Please abuse the bbcode more, I don't think you quite got your point across. :V


Anyway, I think CEZ's boss is okay, but I think the warning for switching direction/speeding up should be more pronounced. You're mostly relying on muscle memory in order to react to anything he does right now. Also, the pinch phase was completely unintuitive at first because I thought you were supposed to hit his underside with the first swing. Maybe make rings pop up so that the player knows there's another swing to reach.

I think DSZ's boss is much more annoying at the moment just because of its pinch phase. It's pretty stupid to deal with as any character that isn't Sonic.

 

[Puppyfaic]

I consider this boss easier than GFZ's to be completely honest. Even if you get hit there's nothing stopping you from picking all your rings back up, and when you get to the pinch phase he's not even a threat to you anymore.

 

[clairebun]

I consider this boss easier than GFZ's to be completely honest.

not buying that. lol

 

[DrStephen]

BBCode Spam.

Please abuse the bbcode more, I don't think you quite got your point across. :V


Anyway, I think CEZ's boss is okay, but I think the warning for switching direction/speeding up should be more pronounced. You're mostly relying on muscle memory in order to react to anything he does right now. Also, the pinch phase was completely unintuitive at first because I thought you were supposed to hit his underside with the first swing. Maybe make rings pop up so that the player knows there's another swing to reach.

I think DSZ's boss is much more annoying at the moment just because of its pinch phase. It's pretty stupid to deal with as any character that isn't Sonic.

Firstly, I love spamming the BBcode <-- See? <-- See?

I thought the same about the pinch phase. Until I notcied there was another swing.

And yes. The DSZ's boss is REALLY annoying at the pinch phase. I can barely notice the difference between the fake and real eggman. THEY ARE BOTH SO FAT!
Anyways, I beated the boss as Tails AND Knuckles. It wasn't easy.

 

[Jellybones]

Please stop abusing the bbcode. Not sarcasm. It's annoying.

I think the boss isn't unfair, it's just a natural difficulty curve. Personally I just strafed to go with the spike balls as Knuckles since he can't really jump over them. Maybe if there was a pronounced sound effect that he was going to switch it that'd be better. I think it's good as is... it's a boss that needs to be figured out.

 

[clairebun]

Basically it just needs slightly better telegraphing.

 

[MascaraSnake]

The problem is that all the neat signs that the boss is giving you aren't visible through the cage.

 

[Sergeant Brown]

I personally think the chain balls are too sudden when they change directions. They should instead slow down and completely stop before changing direction.

In other fancy news, this boss teaches you how to circle-strafe.

 

[Grayvy Guy]

I find the best way to find the telegraphs is to stay somewhere relatively in the middle of what maces your between as I find it gives a good idea when to run at full speed or when to change direction (maybe even both). Jumping over the maces I find to be double edged because I find the hit box on them larger than the sprite itself.

In other fancy news, this boss teaches you how to circle-strafe.

Pretty much this, though I do personally wish they didn't take the strafe key out... Yeah I use the arrow keys. You got a problem?

 

[SSNTails]

"Letting go of forward does NOT let you slow down in SRB2."

A little off-topic, but I never understood this.... if you let go of forward, Sonic slows down, and stops. I'm not sure what this tip is trying to say.

 

[Vash]

A little off-topic, but I never understood this.... if you let go of forward, Sonic slows down, and stops. I'm not sure what this tip is trying to say.

I think the tip is trying to say that pressing the opposite direction slows you down more than simply letting go of the forward button. The tip is worded awkwardly, I admit, especially since it looks like you could go forward at full speed without pressing the forward button the entire time.

 

[Kaysakado]

It's probably to contrast it with the modern Sonic games, where letting go of forward will slow you to a stop almost immediately, whereas in SRB2, your momentum keeps you moving for a considerable distance.

 

[Unknownlight]

Letting go of forward stops you pretty quickly while on the ground, but barely does anything at all when you're in the air, unlike most 3D platformers. I'm not sure whether the tip should be reworded to indicate that, or if it's fine as it is.

 

[Liliam]

It's probably to contrast it with the modern Sonic games, where letting go of forward will slow you to a stop almost immediately, whereas in SRB2, your momentum keeps you moving for a considerable distance.

Particularly in mid-air, where if you let go of the controls in SRB2 you just about never come to a complete stop, whereas in more recent Sonic games like Sonic Rush and Sonic 4 you come to a dead stop within the second and then drop straight down.

 

[Ice]

I just think we need a strong audible cue that he's gonna change speed/direction and it'll be fine. Hell, just the "HEHEH" from the last boss or something.