EXZEAL (PC) - 14.6m - Stage 6 - 2P side

Описание: Sadly the replay for my 12m 1CC run desynced, as did the one for my personal best score (about 16m). Fortunately I have this one that has a score inbetween, doesn't desync and gets as far as the final boss. So at least I can share some of my strats.

I think this game is quite hard to clear primarily because of the randomness of Stage 5, though there are few factors that compound this The game has some physics based gimmicks wherein you can shoot enemies and they move around and collide with each-other. The first examples of this are the circular enemies in stage 1 before the boss - these are a good example of how hard such mechanics can be to handle consistently, but here it's not hard to survive and there aren't that many points at stake.

In Stage 3 things become more complicated with the cube maze consisting of a mixture of destructible blocks you can easily clear and indestructible ones you have to push around. As an added complications there are enemies that can shoot you and also push the blocks. Fortunately there is a safe route along the right of the screen (the left of the screen doesn't work because of where the enemies can spawn) so this sections isn't actually as scary as it seems at first.

Stage 5, however, is where things really take a turn. There are large asteroids that split into three smaller asteroids when destroyed. There are also indestructible asteroids you can launch by activating their boosters with your charge shot - these block your shots but not the enemy shots, which come from enemies disguised as big and small asteroids. All of these objects can collide with each other and this can result in rocks bouncing around the screen in fast and unpredictable ways from any parts of the screen.

I've had runs where I've gotten through completely unscathed, and others where I've been smashed to pieces multiple times. Shooting rocks creates more rocks. Not shooting means the screen fills with both rocks and enemies. Bombing with destroy all the large rocks but leave intact the small rocks that spawn from their destruction. It's hell.

To make matters worse, all of these elements persist into the boss fight, though in smaller numbers. The most important thing for scoring in this game is killing the bosses with a high multiplier, which you achieve by killing the boss with a blast of charge shot that has also killed multiple other enemies. It's basically impossible to get the second extend without getting a reasonable multiplier on the stage 5 boss. So either you try your luck at a low resource run, or risk your life waiting for a big rock to float in front of the boss after you've weakened it but before it and any number of the other threats can kill you.

And you do need those resources because stage 6 is in and of itself quite a gauntlet - though thankfully the challenge isn't plagued by RNG quite so much. The boss spawns two waves of enemies - one after you destroy each of its eyes. The first is dodgable if you are lucky, but you should plan for a death here since you cannot bomb as if you kill all the enemies they will just respawn.

The second wave seems undodgable but there's a trick to skip (which I don't do in this run, hence no 1CC) whereby you weaken both eyes and destroy the second one right as the boss reappears. If you can do this, or otherwise survive, and have two bombs left over for next attack, then a clear is possible.

So overall this game has its fair share of frustrations, and though I'm not particularly motivated to increase my scores, I should say that there are a lot of things I appreciate about it. When it works and doesn't devolve into rng bouncing, the physics based obstacles are fun and feel unique. The scoring, while a bit too heavy on boss kills, is fun and satisfying and it feels great to fire of perfectly timed charged blasts at swarms of enemies. The game also has a great feeling of continuity between its stages (and those of Trizeal!) which makes the stages feel a lot more dramatic.