Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 3)

     Dr. Rafflesia is a serious douche.

     Ever play a game where something will come up that's just unusually difficult, to the point where you actually feel as if the game itself is, well, cheating?  It makes no sense, a machine has little reason to do so, but you still feel as if that's the case?  That's where I was at with Dr. Rafflesia.

That's the doctor.

     First off, you have to fight him on foot.  He's located in a bog that your vehicles cannot access.  He's also not in the same place, so you have to randomly bounce about to find the guy.  Second, hes got this ridiculous gas attack, and once you've fallen asleep from it, which is right away, it's open season for him on your sleeping body.  I did have towel items that I was able to use before his attacks that made my team "ready" for the gas, but it did no good, and I died.

     Death is actually pretty forgiving.  What happens is you end up back in the first village, with your father bringing you to some mad scientist guy who shocks you back to life.  That's it.  I didn't seem to lose any money, items, or experience.  That's all good with me.

     After I got my shit back together, I decided to go and try leveling up some more.  Exploring further northeast of where the Dr. was brought me to a field where I was under mortar fire.  Beyond that was a land bridge of sorts where there were 2 big-ass cannons.

Big

      You can load out your tank with "special" shells that will help you with this type of enemy.  Some are blast, poisonous, or in my case, piercing.  That helped out a ton, the piercing shells seem to damage the internal parts of mechanical enemies, causing the cannon to miss many attacks.  This worked out great.  After taking the first one out, I "dogged" back to Pobre Obre and restocked and repaired my tanks and went back for the second.  Why were these easier than Dr. Rafflesia?

     More exploring, winding past where the guns were, and past some cottage of old people that gave me shit about taking out the cannons.  I found another camp called Isaac's Spring, but the people there would not let me in, and suggested that I go north to another town.
    
     Taking the hint, I followed the direction to a place called Audrey, which was made up of 3 buildings.  There I found loads of tank shops, with one allowing me to modify the parts that I had, such as the on-board computer system.

Nice

     I also found a bar that was filled with thugs.  It seems that the town was being run by a crimelord type of dude named Caesar, and he has henchmen running all over.  Also at the bar was a girl who asked me to buy her a drink.  What the hell.  Sure.  At that point she got up and started mocking the thugs, and telling them that I was making fun of them, and that they should fight me.

Great.

     My slow ass then realized that this was the 3rd NPC that would be joining me, so, actually, that all worked out pretty good.  Earlier on my guys had discovered 2 UZI guns while exploring some cottage near Pobre Obre, so we actually killed the thugs pretty quickly.  After that we got thrown out by some guy named "Red Wolf", who happened to be the famous monster hunter guy from the first village, and who helped me get my tank.

     After dealing with that, the girl then properly joined up, vowing to beat up the Red Wolf guy.  I'm getting the feeling that the "end game" is going to involve fighting him.  But screw that.  Dr. Rafflesia was next on my to-do list.  See, Audrey had a vendor there who happened to sell Gas Masks, and I made extra sure to have all 3 get one.  Furthermore, I now had 3 with guns instead of 2.
     Once they were geared up I "dog-systemed" back to Negi looking for the Doctor.  I managed to find him again pretty quickly and this time kicked the living crap out of him, beating him in just 2 turns.  After that, I needed a break.

HuckleCat