One of the most grating things about the last part of the game is the LENGTH of it. Under the list of missions, you’ll only see one operation, but in reality, it’s THREE FUCKING CONSECUTIVE BATTLES.
Whitewater consists of 3 consecutive missions. =__=
There’s the usual set up screen before each fight though so you can change loadouts, replenish combat items, and switch out party members, BUT! Should you fail in any of these three battles, you’ll have to start from the beginning again. I’m unsure if you even keep any resources you get from the missions you successfully completed.
The biggest offender, however, is the difficulty of the final fight. It is fucking dreadful and because losing here means starting from the top again, it reallydiscourages players from replaying it to figure out what the hell to do. Instead, unless you’re masochistic and want to redo everything over and over for the sole purpose of figuring out the strategy, you will most likely just go to a message forum or Google for advice.
Of course, even with an idea of how to go about fighting the last boss more or less effectively, you still have to hope that you won’t lose all sustainability. And with AI allies falling unconscious left and right, and you becoming the main target of the enemies, the possibility of not surviving until the end becomes pretty high.
I don’t get why anyone should be punished for not defeating the final boss the first time. Why the fuck should I need to redo the first two missions? It’s a sadistic and terrible design. Admittedly, the second last boss isn’t all that difficult but the stupid Abductor has high defense and HP on every bloody part of its body so the battle can drag on. But again, who WANTS to redo this fight over and over involuntarily?
I haven’t read any interviews with the developer but I get the feeling this game was made for multiplayer in mind so solo players like me and probably many others out there are shit out of luck when it comes to tougher operations, or the final battle in this case. >_> (Yeah, I know there are people that completed it without enlisting the help of other players, but skill isn’t the only factor in success. The weapons, modules, and other things come into play too.)
Freedom Wars is a title I’d probably never purchase but because it was among the free titles in this month’s PlayStation Plus line up, I decided to give it a go. The game was slow to start but once I claimed a bunch of entitlement permits, things started feeling a lot more fun. Monster Hunter clone-type games are not something I’m very good at so I’m surprised I’ve gotten pretty far. And I did it without needing to request for co-operation from other live players from around the world. Go me! ^^;
As of now, I’ve put 89 hours into the game and I only just passed the CODE 7 exam yesterday. The reason for the lengthy play time isn’t due to my constant failing at missions — in fact, I hardly see the game over screen — but instead, continually replaying stages to grind for resources and Entitlement Points.
There were some hurdles along the way though like the Retribution during CODE 2. I became afraid to fight the Ramosa after that battle. ^^ However, after progressing a bit further into the game, I went back and started farming it for materials. :B
Another stumbling block was 5-3, but after two replays, I figured out what had to be done to survive it.