About Ponzu...

[chefCesar]

I've seen people talking about the difficulty of this boss, going back and forth saying he's easy to saying he's hard and honestly I think Ponzu is quite overpowered as a boss. I think the people who are saying he's easy are just taking it for granted that they're getting great runs with good relics and blessings, which is great for them but sometimes it's hard to get a good run going and it can get really discouraging.
First off Ponzu's screech attack that damages around him has a very particular hitbox that you can't exactly pin down, which can make it hard to get close enough to damage Ponzu.
Secondly the amount of enemies that Ponzu summons is absurd. You'll finish them off and go to attack his crystal only to realize he's going back underground, only to come up again and summon more enemies.
And finally I think that there being a lot of heads is a great and unique mechanic, befitting of a hydra. But it doesn't really work well when you're getting very overwhelmed by all the enemies they've summoned, as well as the splurge of bombs and crystal... flame throwers? I guess?
Not to mention that the arena is very small for all the attacks that are being sent your way, sure you can use float boots or the like to go over the pits but if one of the dragon heads does their screech attack you're gonna take a ton of damage.
Ponzu also doesn't have a tangible pattern that it follows, usually it will attack once and go back down, but sometimes i'll see it attack twice and get caught of guard, only to take fatal damage. And the last phase just makes it more rapid.
Anyways I think that if you have to get a perfect run to beat a boss (That isn't even the final boss, the game isn't finished.) Then I feel it isn't entirely balanced. If you can rail Noori without taking a single hit, and then go on to get demolished by the next boss, it feels like an unfair difficulty spike.

Thoughts?

[Filthy peasant]

agree 100%

[DawnMayr]

i think its in a good place, and is in fact the ONLY boss in a good place. Selt is hard before you learn that it spawns larva 3 times every time before the spin attack but then is easy, and the other 2 have nearly no challenge at all. Ponzu is finally an actual boss with a lot to pay attention to if you are weak. the screech attack range is slightly shorter than throw range with iirc 3 hub area range upgrades. the "icethrower" is predictable, the mortar shots can be troublesome in combo but thats boss fights. the adds can be trouble if you are too weak, but thats how games like this work: some runs you just dont get what you need to suceed.(and if you JUST get ricochet, the adds are made irrelevant)