Tag: Nergigante

Finally felling Nergigante, and Gravity Rush 2 brings about a brief flurry of activity

skyraftwandererLeave a comment

Nergigante Falls: A few weeks ago, I wrote about my ongoing battles against Nergigante and how they culminated in a hollow triumph as another Hunter got the kill. Nothing against the other hunter but overcoming Nergigante solo was a personal goal of mine and I was upset that I could not see it through.

After that I left Nergigante alone for a good while. Did not want to fight it, didn’t want to think about it. The disappointment lingered, and rather than deal with it I went off to fight the Elder Dragons and finish the game. Well, finished the story. Monster Hunter World is one of those games that never really finishes. But as long as Nergigante was there, never being solo’d then Monster Hunter World would always be incomplete to me.

There comes a point where all things have to be confronted. After a few successes, I figured why not, why not give Nergigante another go. Quest accepted, let’s get to it. I made a few changes this time around. The weapon remained the same, as did the charm (Rathian Long Sword and Venom Charm) but the armour got an overhaul. A lot more dragon resistance with Dragon Resistance Jewels crammed in where I could. In addition, this new armour had a health bonus, so my health bar was chunkier this time around. All set, good to go. I was still nervous, but I was doing it.  

My anxiety was not helped by taking ten minutes to find Nerigante. I had got close to killing it before, failing after 40 minutes. Losing time was something I was not fond of. I finally found Nergigante, pleasantries were exchanged and we fightin’. And the fight goes well. I was more or less staying out of the way of Nerigante’s big attacks. When I was not, my cat was always there with a clutch heal or a distraction. I was careful with healing and weapon sharpening. Healing only when I knew I had an opening, and weapon sharpening only during breaks in combat. Nergigante has a habit of superman punching anyone who is doing something other than fighting it.

Iron Pineapple’s Monster Hunter World experience has a few instances of Nergigante’s punching ability.

I got its tail. I got so excited to keep up the pressure I forgot to carve it. I stayed away from the horns as best as possible – I find breaking those things with a Long Sword to be difficult – kept picking my spots and got the fight to the point when the monster limps and fails asleep – the prelude to the final phase. Now, I had managed this before and shit the bed so I would be lying if there were no nerves. But I figured as long as I kept up with what I had been doing, showed patience and aggression in equal measure then I would prevail.

There was not bed shitting on this day. And in comparison to the near miss, this quest took around 30 minutes. Which means if we take out the ten minutes of wandering around cluelessly, this kill took 20 minutes. That compares well with a 40-minute failure. 

Felt good. Felt real good. I had laid something to rest. I know that I can beat Nergigante now. I still respect it as a great opponent – but now it is one I can overcome.

Gravity Rush 2 and Getting Noticed (For a bit): People still dig Gravity Rush. I dig that.

I have been doing this blog for a while. Whenever I post a link goes out on twitter. Nothing much comes from them. Often nothing at all. Lately, I have been posting gifs that I have made on twitter – just to get them out there. Some of them get the odd retweet here and there, maybe a like. Basically, a roundabout way of saying my twitter presence is almost the same as not being there.

So, the gifs go out and there are a few retweets and a few likes. These where gifs from Sekiro, Dark Souls III and other games I played a lot of – my favourite games. I start sharing gifs of other games. On one particular day I see the notification tab lit up. I click it, expecting the same 1 retweet, 2 likes. Nope. 80 odd likes, 20 odd retweets. For some people those numbers are nothing special, but for me that’s insane. The gif in question? Gravity Rush 2.

Must have been a fluke. So, I send out another Gravity Rush 2 gif. Similar results. 3rd Gravity Rush 2 gifs gots some results but nothing major. I ran out of steam (read: run out of Gravity Rush 2 gifs) no long after, but the peak was fun while it lasted. Also, I learned there is a band of folks out there still love and adore Gravity Rush (as people should.)

It’s seemingly pretty clear now that Gravity Rush as a series is not getting any more entries but Kat’s adventures left a mark on a good few folk. There are posts on this blog of me declaring my love for Gravity Rush 1 and 2, hell, I declared Gravity Rush 2 my favourite open world game – I’ll stand by that. Heksville and Jirga Para Lhao are two of the more unique video game worlds and in a world full of serious, sometimes grumpy game protagonists, Kat was something different. She was cheerful and optimistic without being annoying – all while having some steel to her. I really do dig her. Not to mention she has to date the most fun way of moving around in a video game. Finally, it helps Gravity Rush 1 and 2 have whole bunch of missions and scenarios that boil down to more than “go to a camp and kill some dudes.”

It’s good to know Gravity Rush is still appreciated by some folk.  

Returning to Monster Hunter World, and a hollow triumph

skyraftwandererLeave a comment

Coming Back: There are some games you can take a break from, even up to a year. Games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider for example. You might not know where you are up to in the story but getting up to speed with the gameplay won’t take long. Monster Hunter World on the other hand is a game where a yearlong break requires a bit of catching up.

I had thought that Monster Hunter World was in the rear-view mirror for me. But I have been watching a fair few of Dunkey’s videos recently (they make me happy) and Dunkey has a Monster Hunter World video. I watched it a good few times, then watched Iron Pineapple playing Monster Hunter World and the urge to play Monster Hunter World arose again. One installation later and I was all ready to hunt again.

Well, almost ready to hunt again. After a long time away from Monster Hunters, things are confusing. I mean, the crux of the game is simple – find monster, hunt monster, stab/slash monster until it dies. But in practice, there’s a bit more to it. Monsters have to be tracked. Weapons have to be sharpened – took me a while to locate my whetstone. Weapons also have specific attacks and combos – remembered none of them – still trying to remember them. Then you have to make sure your cat has the right armour and weapon – admittedly I have not changed that, but maybe I should. And I have to make sure I have the right weapon and armour for a particular monster. It’s a lot take in.

Then I had to get used to the controls again – circle is not roll, X is – which also feels like a crime. Square is the use item button though – so all‘s right with the world on that front. Then there was getting used to the character movement again – a running dodge in Monster Hunter is a belly flop and I’m never fully on board with it. Then I fought a few monsters I had a decent record against, secured a few triumphs and felt a little more at home once again. Eventually I tried some level 12 and 13 hunts and succeeded. Sometimes convincingly – well, convincingly for me. I decided to seek a further challenge.

A disappointing triumph: What Dunkey’s video reminded me of was the fact I had never defeated Nergigante – a rather angry Elder Dragon who always got the best of me. So, on returning to Monster Hunter World I knew I would have to fight Nergigante again. More losses followed. About 4 or 5 losses in total, but losses in Monster Hunter sting a lot – there aren’t many games were a 40-minute boss fight can end in failure – I like Monster Hunter, never claimed to be good at it.

So, the hunt for Nergigante was starting to look less like a video game quest and more like a crusade. It had to die, and it had to die by my hand. If it took 50 tries – fine. As long as I did, fine. All that mattered is that Nergigante fell. What follows will be a weird, first world problem kind of a complaint – heads up.

I readied to face Nergigante again – each attempt getting closer and closer – except this time I was not alone. Another player joined me. Fine. That’s fine. Co-operation and help are welcome things, a good thing – but I really wanted to fight Nergigante solo. This was my personal crusade now, so getting help – I didn’t really want it. I guess I could have quit out and played the quest later but I was too polite for that (it would have been a dick move to the other hunter) so off we went.

The fight was going well – with damage coming from two different sources Nergigante was not his usual self. The fight went a lot quicker than usual because of this and the ending of the fight was upon us. Near the end of the fight, I took a big hit, and had to scramble away to heal. And while I was healing, away from the fight Nergigante was slain. Not by my hand.

It’s a few days after the fact. It’s the hollowest triumph I’ve managed in a video game. It feels like I’ve achieved jack shit. I want to say otherwise but I can’t. I want to say otherwise but I can’t. My first win over Nergigante and I didn’t get it. I am fully aware of how sad this complaint is – that other person just wanted to help/farm Nergigante parts – that’s fine – but damn I wanted this fight on my own terms. And I didn’t get that.

I mean, I can fight Nergigante again but that first victory never comes around again. And I didn’t seal it. I made no gifs of this, like I normally would. Just feel sad.

Doesn’t feel great. I’ll have to fight it again at some point – I do want that single player victory.