I hope Mike Z and his stupid cat burn in hell for all eternity

[Artifice Shell]

As someone who doesn't use a guide, that was the most infuriating waste of time and effort I have ever experienced in a video game for the sake of an "easter egg". It's one thing to disrespect the player's time by making them backtrack all over each map without a convenient fast travel system to resolve quests, but this secret crap was downright insulting.

Before anyone gets dismissive and says something stupid like "it's optional lol", imagine you're playing the game without a guide. You've been collecting ringsels scattered around in hard-to-reach places, and there are still new ones hidden away in the very last section of the entire game. You think maybe one of the last ones is behind a secret wall you noticed. Oh, wait. This is the hardest platforming challenge in the entire game, requiring you to combine moves in ways that were never even hinted at anywhere else. There aren't any save points, so it looks like this is an all-or-nothing run that might loop you back around to the main map.

Great! You solved the cheap Kaizou Mario platforming puzzle! Now here's an incredibly cheap boss out of nowhere. Waste 20 minutes fighting it only for it to pull out some BS party-wiping attack when it gets to its final form. Want to go back? Too bad. Remember when I said there weren't any save points? Either you beat this boss, or you quit the game and admit you wasted all of that time without receiving a reward that may be the last collectible in the game. Screw you, completionist! How dare you try to maximize your enjoyment of the game?

Let's say you actually beat the boss. Was it protecting the last ringsel? No! It was just a stupid cat some NPC told you about earlier. Maybe the NPC gives you the last ringsel or something to acknowledge completing the most unfairly difficult task in the game? No! The easter egg hatched, and inside was a giant middle finger.

I'm not going to be a jerk and give this game a negative review or anything, but this is a PSA for anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation if they happen upon a secret wall in the last area. This completely deflated all of my momentum and enjoyment of the game. Now I just want to be done with it and forget about ever playing it.

[ZexxCrine]

considering there isn't any acheivement for getting all the ringsels either im not sure why your complaining about an optional thing that got in the way because you thought it would get you an optional thing.

[Artifice Shell]

Did you hear the part about being a completionist? And technically, the proxy for the ringsel achievement is getting both the Attack and Defense Level 5 achievements. But life's not all about achievements. Thanks for trying to de-escalate, though.

[ZexxCrine]

Artifice Shell님이 먼저 게시:

Did you hear the part about being a completionist? And technically, the proxy for the ringsel achievement is getting both the Attack and Defense Level 5 achievements. But life's not all about achievements. Thanks for trying to de-escalate, though.

I didn't hear anything from this text.

jokes aside
if you are trying to be a completionist you would do it anyway no? game aint complete when there is a boss you havent battled. and no there are like 6-7 more ringsels than are required to get both to level 5

[qazimod]

I took the boss on after the credits rolled and I was dropped back into the game, so the actual boss battle wasn't too bad (healers help a lot - I had Thornai and G&H in my party, and Thorani's Lv.3 was good at keeping us safe!)

The platforming was much more challenging than the boss (and even then it's only the bits after the ceiling hops that got a bit much), but the whole thing's just a bit of fun, so it's all good.

[Ciaran]

Ahh, yes. I also remember stumbling onto that place during my initial blind play, before I got the final power jump, and fighting that damn cat for hours. It just does so much damage with its attacks at that point, especially in the OHKO later forms, so I basically had to perfect guard everything. After a few attempts of just learning the evolving moveset, it was almost manageable! But that final form always crushed me, usually by that fast attack that hits the entire team. I was pretty damn heated that night, wasting 20-30 minutes every fight just to get sucker punched with a hard-to-react full party wipe. After 6-7 hours of failure, I finally just moved on and decided to come back to it later.

And then I reached the final upgrade, and had a relaxing stroll through the cat battle. It's really absurd how much of a difference the plot power ups bring to the table. At that point, I was having such a good time having just breezed through the battle that I didn't even bat an eyelash at the lack of reward. Sort of a situational blessing, there. I get you though. It's pretty unusual in modern game design to leave the big, optional challenge unrewarded.

Gotta be real though, if you beat it at that initial point that it becomes available, you're damn good. Better than a great majority of players. Hat's off to you.

[Guardspec]

Dude. there are actually more ringsels (like 4-7) in the game than you need for the trophy, I can confirm this as my OCD made me collect them all. The final boss platforming area you speak of? Yeah, it's retarted.

[TemmieNeko]

Artifice Shell님이 먼저 게시:

As someone who doesn't use a guide, that was the most infuriating waste of time and effort I have ever experienced in a video game for the sake of an "easter egg". It's one thing to disrespect the player's time by making them backtrack all over each map without a convenient fast travel system to resolve quests, but this secret crap was downright insulting.

Before anyone gets dismissive and says something stupid like "it's optional lol", imagine you're playing the game without a guide. You've been collecting ringsels scattered around in hard-to-reach places, and there are still new ones hidden away in the very last section of the entire game. You think maybe one of the last ones is behind a secret wall you noticed. Oh, wait. This is the hardest platforming challenge in the entire game, requiring you to combine moves in ways that were never even hinted at anywhere else. There aren't any save points, so it looks like this is an all-or-nothing run that might loop you back around to the main map.

Great! You solved the cheap Kaizou Mario platforming puzzle! Now here's an incredibly cheap boss out of nowhere. Waste 20 minutes fighting it only for it to pull out some BS party-wiping attack when it gets to its final form. Want to go back? Too bad. Remember when I said there weren't any save points? Either you beat this boss, or you quit the game and admit you wasted all of that time without receiving a reward that may be the last collectible in the game. Screw you, completionist! How dare you try to maximize your enjoyment of the game?

Let's say you actually beat the boss. Was it protecting the last ringsel? No! It was just a stupid cat some NPC told you about earlier. Maybe the NPC gives you the last ringsel or something to acknowledge completing the most unfairly difficult task in the game? No! The easter egg hatched, and inside was a giant middle finger.

I'm not going to be a jerk and give this game a negative review or anything, but this is a PSA for anyone else finding themselves in a similar situation if they happen upon a secret wall in the last area. This completely deflated all of my momentum and enjoyment of the game. Now I just want to be done with it and forget about ever playing it.

in the LISA games, the dev hid easter eggs in ridiculous spots, and your reward is LITERALLY a middle finger