S-ranking Cala Maria seems to be RNG based due to parrying req

[postal]

(yes, I already got the S rank)

So among other things S ranking requires beating a time limit and getting 3 parrys. For some ungodly reason only one of her attacks offers them: The puffer fish barrage, an attack that may only even give you 2 pink pufferfish instead of all 3. This becomes an issue thanks to the time constraint: You're gonna be killing the boss as fast as possible so you'll only be seeing her do about 3 or 4 attack cycles before she switches to medusa form, otherwise you'll run out of time. So not only can you possibly not even SEE the pufferfish barrage if you're going fast, but you might not even get all 3 pink pufferfish to begin with lol. And then ofc there's always the chance of her doing the 3 ghosts attack when you get the pufferfish, and then good god does it become a nightmare to not get hit and hit the pufferfish

so yea unless I'm missing something here, this S-rank requirement for her seems pretty silly lol, and you're probably gonna end up resetting a lot on this boss just to get the right pattern as I've found out. This boss reaaaaallly needs more Parry oppotunities IMO but yea does anyone else think this seems a bit lame? I've S ranked everything except the final bosses at this point, but this seemed like the only time I really felt like I was just hoping for good RNG to get the S rank.

[HighLanderPony]

Yeah, that could be looked at for potential future installments.

[steez battalion]

Couldn't agree more. This boss has the most RNG involved. This is the only one I have left to S rank, until a patch that changes some of her behavior I'll sit on the A- I got for the achievements and call it a day.

Even if you manage to parry everything without taking damage, once you get to the last phase you might be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ anyway because it takes an ungodly amount of time to wiggle out of the petrified state using a keyboard and you might end up taking damage.

Hope they fix her.

[postal]

Yea I don't blame you for waiting, I should've just waited too. It was agony getting that S rank lol. The absolute worst part was I accidentally almost did it perfectly on my very first attempt, but on the last phase I got cocky and got too close to her at the very start of it at what happened to be the exact moment she spat out one of those skulls, so I took damage. Couldn't stop thinking about that mistake for the next 50 consecutive attempts lmao.

[PietStokman]

Originally posted by CptBrian:

You're surprised? This game relies very heavily on RNG for its "difficulty." It's only half skill-based.

True. Still love the game tho. :)

[postal]

Originally posted by CptBrian:

You're surprised? This game relies very heavily on RNG for its "difficulty." It's only half skill-based.

RNG def plays a big role and all but this was the only boss where I actually had to keep restarting until I got a pattern that actually allows for an S rank. It's not so much an issue of difficulty as it is just being flat-out impossible unless you get lucky.

[Kaspu]

Originally posted by CptBrian:

You're surprised? This game relies very heavily on RNG for its "difficulty." It's only half skill-based.

But S ranking cala maria is the only thing in the game where you can get so bad rng that it's impossible to get S rank. Bosses in this game has very little rng compared to something like dark souls and even in souls games you can always win even with bad rng.

[Sad Pug]

The same could be said about Kahl (only first phase, and this boss is much bigger pain) and some other bosses, although what kind of annoys me is how inconsistent this requirement is.
I mean, sometimes, it will be enough to parry 3 times in the beginning to count as 3 (even though there are more phases with the chance to do that), but other times, you will have to parry once per phase (or even might screw you over thinking parrying would count, but it actually doesn't).

[postal]

For Kahl I just saved destroying the middle section for last and that gave me enough time to get the 3 parrys in. It's doable, it's just a huge pain. But with Calla there's a chance you won't even get an opportunity to get any parrys in and there's nothing you can do about it except restart and try again lol.

[Sad Pug]

Sure, but if you want as bad boss for parry req, it would be Sally Stageplay, because you have to parry one of each of her attack (heart, star, rose), but sometimes, you might not even see either heart or rose to parry. It's complete bullcrap, because it makes you go through whole fight in vein if you won't get rose in the last part (and few times that happened to me).
Same could be said about Vermin, to a degree - jumping on bubble gum and pink ghost balls on expert is not easy, especially if you're going for S.

[bslenul]

Yup Cala Maria was a nightmare for me too for S-rank, it's the only boss where you have to be lucky :/

-If she doesnt throw the pufferfishes on the first 3 waves of attacks you need to reset because you're gonna kill her 1st phase before you can get the 3 parries...
-If she throws only 2 pink pufferfishes -> reset (that was the most frustrating resets for me).

Phase 1 is terrible (for S-rank I mean, love the boss in normal playthrough), but the worst is when I managed to get the 3 parries, I was often so nervous that I made stupid mistakes in phase 2 or 3 and got hit D:

But finally got her after many, many tries!

Dr. Kahl's Robot the last phase was really hard to me but at least it wasnt RNG-dependent.

Originally posted by Dave Arnold:

Sally Stageplay

Yeah she gave me trouble too for parries, and I discover waaaay to late that the stars hidden in the meteors didnt count :( But at least you can get you 3 parries after phase 1!

[Leurfe]

Originally posted by CptBrian:

You're surprised? This game relies very heavily on RNG for its "difficulty." It's only half skill-based.

I agree with this, there's actually a lot of situations where there's no way out, it's not very fair but it's how the game is

[Kaspu]

Originally posted by Leurfe:

Originally posted by CptBrian:

You're surprised? This game relies very heavily on RNG for its "difficulty." It's only half skill-based.

I agree with this, there's actually a lot of situations where there's no way out, it's not very fair but it's how the game is

I have had that situation only on cala maria when trying to get S rank but that has never happened on another boss since the game always gives you a lot of space to dodge attacks

[divlyfein]

I agree with you. I just finished S-Ranking the entire game and, although she didn't make me rage the most, it was the most painful. When you really look at it the entire fight in itself is heavily RNG dependent. Way more so than any other in the game.

The first phase is exactly as you explained. Considering an S-Rank, you only get one opportunity at the parry phase. Sometimes only two can spawn. Sometimes certain patterns of the puffer fish combined with her additional attack have an extremely small margin of success getting all three parries.

The second phase she can sometimes turn you to stone when the eel projectiles are coming right at you. The timing of both attacks can sometimes make it pure luck whether you make it through without a hit.

The third phase is the same thing. Although you can set yourself up to not get hit when turned to stone by looking ahead, sometimes the margin for success is simply not in your favor.

I had no issue with the mechanics of every other boss in the game in terms of S-Ranking. Cala Maria was the only one I felt the RNG was overwhelming.

A possible fix, in my opinion, would be to make some of those floating skulls on phase three parryable. It doesn't have to be overboard, but at least offer that as an alternative for parryable objects in the battle. Aside from the parrying aspect, the RNG of the fight is forgivable.

[Schlepian]

Am i the only one who figured out you can wait for her to d puffer fish a second time and still get S rank - not really RNG at all.... just wait and stop shooting..

As for the time limit, IDK if that's required for S rank - I have a S rank that's @ 2:08 non yellow time on my scorecard and still got the S.

[bslenul]

Originally posted by Schlepian:

Am i the only one who figured out you can wait for her to d puffer fish a second time and still get S rank - not really RNG at all.... just wait and stop shooting..

As for the time limit, IDK if that's required for S rank - I have a S rank that's @ 2:08 non yellow time on my scorecard and still got the S.

Yeah I have a S with 2:06 non-gold on the frogs, but idk maybe the limit is at 2:10 so I didn't want to risk it. I prefer to reset immediately, it's frustrating enough already I can't imagine how I'd feel with all the requirement except time D: