Also, Ibis and Balteus are widely considered the two hardest bosses in the game and I think the common denominator is that they’re the only two bosses which actually retreat. The AI of every other enemy is always aggro’d and mindlessly pursues you, but these two are scripted to move far away from you regardless of what you’re doing, which I believe is what throws people off. Because of this they’re the only enemies that feel like PvP opponents: You can be about to stagger one and then it will suddenly turn tail and get out of weapon range, etc.
I tried to play as much of the game under-leveled as possible and fought Balteus for the first time with parts you either start with or unlock automatically up to that point. He was the first thing in the game that filtered me, until I swapped out for the sword and used it aggressively, at which point everything fell into place. It made me realize that there’s basically no disincentive to hugging PvC enemies as tight as possible. Even if they have melee weapons or dodge-able projectiles with extremely fast velocity, they’re always disadvantaged by close proximity more than you are.
I have obtained Armored Core 4 Answer and I have started playing it (tutorials, first mission, first challenge). It seems to play very differently than AC6… for example, there is no lock on. Can you give me some tips as to how to play it?
Also, is there a preferable joypad configuration? I was fine with the standard configuration of AC6, and I find it difficult to adapt to AC4A on the Xbox 360, at least with standard key layout… should I persist sticking to that?
Thank you!
i don’t remember much about playing it and it was well before dark souls acclimated me to major actions being mapped to the shoulder buttons but you really don’t want to be touching both sticks when you’re quick boosting right?
You definitely want boosts on the triggers. You’re going to be turning and boosting constantly and ideally should have a finger on each shoulder button and both sticks most of the time. At least, that is how I played it. One of the AC6 options was similar to this arrangement as well.
I can almost guarantee you’re going to want to boost more often than fire those shoulder weapons.
Best stats info I’ve found is here:
In japanese but it is readable with google’s translation.
OK well I’m not the only one but this definitely feels like an extreme edge case
I do kind of think it’s psychological, like I’ve gotten to the point in my life where if I’m not happy with some weird gimmick I refuse to try, but it is too bad because I was enjoying the game
Are you trying to predict the pattern and fire ahead of time? Iceworm has one or two patterns where he gives you plenty of time so that’s not actually needed. I did the really basic tactic of pressing the button only after I have a perfect line of sight, and 80% of time that’s too late, but 20% of the time it works 100% of the time.
Since you only need to hit it four times, that’s good enough for an irritatingly long fight that I beat in two or three tries. But if you’re pre-firing and wind up too early on those, you might be wasting those free hits.
first time through i got it first try and it felt so good, best gimmick fight in years.
second loop it was a real roadblock out of nowhere, using the same build and everything.
Same, and with the Cataphract as well. I am “good at the game” but always whiff it with these bosses out of impatience. I think they both feel bad to me because they’re among the few times the game takes self-directed pacing away from the player; Regardless of build, everyone who beats them does it in the same way and in the same time. You don’t “control” either fight and this is totally unlike the rest of the game.
In so many games losing is fine because it’s a chance to reequip and retool your approach, losing in a specialized story level is inching closer to the exact sequence of events the game expects you to perform
Remembering dying all those times in the 2010s during scripted sequences in games like Dead Space and Uncharted. Nothing deflates epic drama more than experiencing an optional sudden death. Like, just make it a cutscene.
I liked Ice Worm though, probably because I didn’t struggle enough to see how scripted it was.
Runs a lot better with EAC disabled and, generally, syncs much better in any kind of multiplayer, too. It’s a bit buggy here and there, but good stuff. Make sure you watch the video on installing it, particularly in relation to your saves.
