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DinoHunter2 — WOTM2: Final Boss

#bosses #wotm2 #cerebulon #warofthemonsters2
Published: 2016-12-31 14:47:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 10496; Favourites: 128; Downloads: 42
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Description

"The Last Stand!" is the final boss fight in story mode, and the only one to always be the same regardless of what path lead up to it. The stage starts with a normal battle against a random opponent, who can be any of the playable characters, including the player's monster, or Vimoor or Despira, who do not appear in Story Mode anywhere else. After they are defeated, a cutscene takes the player into a mysterious, technological lair, beginning the final boss stage.

A cutscene will play showing the player stomping into the main room of the lair, looking at a giant TV screen and a control console with a domed brain plugged into it. Images of maps, famous cities, nuclear stockpiles, Planet X, and the Zorgulon aliens flash quickly before abruptly stopping; the brain's containment unit hums and glows, now aware of the intruder, and it emerges from the control panel as a hovering, armed pod. The player monster roars and it snaps its claws angrily, flying over to the side of the room toward one of the many large, dormant machines. It lowers into the cockpit of an enormous robot, bringing it to life.

The fight begins with the mech slowly strafing left and right, locked onto the player. The brain on top can be targeted, but the dome around it protects it from harm. It will alternate between three attacks during this phase: stopping to shoot energy bolts from its antennae, lifting it's tentacles and slamming them down in front of it, and swinging one tentacle horizontally like a jumbo-sized backhand. All of these attacks deal a large amount of damage and should be avoided at all costs. This part of the fight leaves no opportunity for the player to do damage, but will end on its own after a few seconds.

When it ends, the mech will lift its tentacles above its head and aim them at the player, locking on and slowly gathering energy. At this moment they can both be targeted and harmed; there are numerous two-handed objects that can be picked up around the room and thrown at them. Doing so will take away a chunk of the Boss' health and send it back to the first phase. If the player doesn't stop it from charging, both tendrils will fire continuous rays of green energy that cannot be blocked or dodged, seizing them in place and dealing a colossal amount of damage. No character can survive this attack twice.

Whether they interrupted the lasers or had to endure them, the boss will return to the first stage of the fight afterward and cycle between the two repeatedly. Each tentacle must be struck a total of three times before it is destroyed, surging with energy and recoiling into the body. If one is disabled before the other, the boss will continue to attack the same way, only with one arm. When both arms are shut down, a cinematic will play showing the mech stumbling back and sparking. The brain yells angrily in the indistinguishable alien language as its dome glows brightly and it turns its body sideways. One of the tentacle arms suddenly extends again, shooting completely out and flying over the player's head. They roar and turn around, seeing it coil up like a snake and rise behind them, fingers snapping like mandibles. The other arm slinks out of its socket and the intruder finds themselves in stage two of the fight, outnumbered three to one.

In this part of the fight, the player has three separate mini-bosses to contend with, all with their own separate healthbar. The main body segment which contains the brain is the slowest and least lethal of the three: it simply strides around the level, shooting low damage energy bolts from its antennae and occasionally charging forward. If it gets close enough, it will lift one of its legs and stomp down hard, creating a small area of effect that deals moderate damage and sends the player flying.

The two tentacle-snakes are much faster and more aggressive. They share the same moveset, but attack independently from one another. They can snap at the player (a very fast, hard to avoid attack that deals a decent amount of damage), sweep their bodies toward them (easier to predict and jump over, but longer range and more powerful), and burrow underground. When underground, they will pop halfway out of the ground three times, trying to follow the player and strike from below. This is not hard to avoid, assuming the other two mini-bosses don't interfere. Burrowing monsters can still be hit by the rising attacks and will be thrown out of the ground if struck.

As in the first stage, all of the mini-bosses are completely immune to conventional damage. Their attacks should be avoided at all costs, as their combined efforts can reduce the player's health to zero very quickly. The only way to get ahead in this stage is to bait the three bosses into accidentally attacking each other, as they are the only things big and strong enough to hurt themselves. This can be done to any of the bosses, using any of their allies. The main target should be the body, as the two tentacle-snakes cannot actually be defeated. Their health will stop dropping when they have only a small amount left; after that, they'll instantly dive underground if they're about to be hit. This is because, while all three do need to be defeated, only the main body's defeat can progress the fight.

After the player tricks the tentacles into lowering the main body's health to halfway, it will stop and shake, ejecting the brain pod. A metal globe rises from the empty port and it then resumes fighting as the pod hovers around above. It does not have a separate health bar, as it is still invincible and flies too high for the other mini-bosses to hit. Targeting it is completely useless, so the player should ignore it other than when they need to avoid its swooping attacks. The headless body bot, meanwhile, gains a new attack, being able to stop and fire electricity from both the antennae and the metal globe. This attack tracks the player, but can be dodged, and thus used against the tentacle-snakes if they still have health. Eventually it will be the only one left with a (feasibly damageable) healthbar, and so it should be defeated by tricking the dome or tentacle-snakes to attack it.

When the walker bot's healthbar is depleted, a cutscene will play showing it short circuiting and exploding, shooting stray bolts of electricity in every direction. The player's monster is zapped away to the other end of the room as the other three bosses take the full current and are promptly electrocuted. The heads of the tentacle snakes both explode and the flying bot crashes to the ground, shattering its dome and exposing the pulsating brain inside. The player's monster shakes themselves and steps forward, surveying the four smoldering, robotic corpses. They turn their attention to the brain, who's convulsions gradually slow down and stop, apparently dead.

Bursting out of the pod, the brain and its true body emerge and scream, shaking off slime and gesturing furiously. So begins the final part of the final fight: the rematch between the player and the newly regenerated Cerebulon.

As in WOTM1, Cerebulon fights more like a normal enemy than a Boss, being susceptible to any kind of damage and moving freely around the map without a pattern. While he is something of a break from the madness that was a four on one fight, he is easily the most formidable individual boss of all. He is cunning, fast moving, and relentless. His combos are just as long as they were in WOTM1, and now he has three different ones he can perform: one ending in a shove, one ending in an uppercut, and one ending in an upward juggle. If not blocked or countered, these can deal a tremendous amount of damage in no time. He is still a skilled combatant, prone to countering attacks and catching projectiles, and will use objects to his advantage the same as any other monster. Also like them, he now has a full set of moves, including a divebomb and special attacks. He will try to prevent the player from gathering energy powerups and take them for himself, unleashing them as either a close-range blast or a powerful, continuous eyebeam that pushes enemies back like the hand-beams of his WOTM1 robot. Worse still, the fight is now timed: As the cutscene showing his entrance ends, the TV screen in the background will turn on (regardless of whether it's been fully damaged or not) and display an ominous countdown. If Cerebulon is not defeated before time runs out, the entire lair will self destruct and kill the player.

If the player does beat the clock and defeat Cerebulon, a cutscene will play showing them uppercutting him into the control panel, shattering it and electrocuting him. The countdown clock malfunctions and the TV screen explodes, leaving Cerebulon's motionless, charred body to slump forward at the player's feet. They roar victoriously and the camera slowly pans to the side, showing the corpse's subtly moving. Cerebulon's head suddenly splits open and another crawling offspring pulls itself out, screeching and spraying slime. It tries to run away, but this time the winning monster catches it before it gets away, crushing it under their foot like a bug. They give an extra loud victory roar and the cutscene ends, leading to the character ending and final credits...

Artwork © Chris Eye, 2016.

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Comments: 10

MaddKossack115 [2019-10-30 14:28:13 +0000 UTC]

Ok, I just stumbled across this (thank TV Tropes for leading me to the original War Of The Monsters game page, and browsing for "WOTM Fanfiction" eventually leading me to this). And I LOVE the effort you've put into this all around!  That said, I did wish to suggest a few things - nothing for the Cerbullon boss fight proper, but a suggestion for the "normal" fight leading up to it.  

First, instead of "randomly" choosing a monster, I'd have it be similar to the "Fight Your Rival!" levels from Street Fighter IV or Tekken 4/5 - where the player character faces an enemy with a personal connection to them (either a friendly rival, or a hated adversary), and has a dialogue exchange with them which expands upon their backstories and/or illustrates their motivations for winning the game before the fists start flying.

And in case you're wondering how the heck that'll work with monsters that don't "speak", that's where subtitles come in (see again Tekken 5, where a kangaroo shoots the breeze with a living wooden statue: m.youtube.com/watch?v=dH5TiEkC… ).  Heck, some monsters may even be capable of human speech (such as non-transformed Wulfric, Medula via "psychic mind link", and the various giant robots - I especially imagine that Ultra-V would have a Hamtastic Japanese voice actor barraging about becoming "the ultimate being", while Robo-47 would sound like a mixture of Liberty Prime and the Futurama version of Richard Nixon, i.e. Everything about the McCarthyist Red Scare-era America dialed Up To Over 9000).

As for who the "rival fights" are, the full list will have to wait for now, but some ideas can include some "Mirror Matches" (such as Congar fighting Mecha-Congar), and established rivalries from the old game (Magmo vs Agamo) and the new one (Kyuma deciding to satisfy his "particular interest" in Ultra-V).

And for the second thing, since you mentioned Vimoor and Despira aren't present in the current version of the story branches, perhaps one or two can be subbed in the story mode to prevent a "Mirror Match" scenario (for the levels with the player characters established in cutscene battles against rivals, perhaps a twist can be that Vimoor/Despira takes the "arriving player character's" place in the cutscene, before the fight begins wih the actual player in a different starting place based on where they were in said cutscene (such as the "Magmo vs Agamo Volcanno Battle", if you're playing as Magmo or Agamo, it's Vimoor or Despira that gate-crashes the fight, and you fight them along with your ORIGNAL rival - and yes, I did establish that they would be "pre-Cerbullon battle rivals", but that can easily be explained as the opponent having been Not Quite Dead in the last battle; say what you will about that sentient pool of lava/walking rock pile, but he is a TENACIOUS bastard...)

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DinoHunter2 In reply to MaddKossack115 [2019-10-31 18:53:09 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm glad you liked my project! Subtitles for the monsters is probably just a tad more comical than I was thinking for the tone of WOTM, but you have some interesting ideas and I really appreciate you taking the time to share them.

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MaddKossack115 In reply to DinoHunter2 [2019-10-31 22:14:17 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the reply!  I admit, seeing as the original game was a riff on 1950s B-Movie Monster Schlock (not unlike "Destroy All Humans!"), I don't think subtitled conversations between the monsters is THAT much goofier compared to the initial buy-in (and what you said so far isn't like the "Zilla-verse" reboot in taking itself oh so seriously anyways).

That said, I would restrain use of it for most of the game (most of the cutscenes you wrote don't really need dialogue), limiting it to the "Rival Battle" and "Pre-Cerbullon Boss Fight" (where he psychically TALKS INTO YOUR MIND - all while giving a Hamtastic performance an Intergalactic Conquering Evil Overlord deserves), and perhaps the opening and ending cutscenes of each character.

I actually have WAY more ideas, but I'll save that for Notes with you.  Until then, I'll once again give kudos for just how far you've taken this, and I do want to check your other projects out when I have the time!

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EthanTavitas [2019-05-04 03:12:35 +0000 UTC]

How long is the countdown?

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DinoHunter2 In reply to EthanTavitas [2019-05-04 03:15:14 +0000 UTC]

I didn't have a specific time in mind.

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Dragonsmana [2016-12-31 17:52:31 +0000 UTC]

Nice, I always felt like the WOTM version was going to have a UFO mode, until the legs popped out of phase 2 lol.

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IceTitan64 [2016-12-31 17:45:48 +0000 UTC]

The nostalgia is real. 

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BurgerKingGhidorah [2016-12-31 17:20:12 +0000 UTC]

Now THIS! Feels like a good reprisal of the original boss. Love the whole idea that it's in the mothership this time around. What kind of aesthetic does the lair have?

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DinoHunter2 In reply to BurgerKingGhidorah [2017-01-02 10:33:11 +0000 UTC]

It's got some of that same retro-alien aesthetic, but more junky looking. It's kind of a MacGyvered evil lair that he's made by salvaging technology from his ship, the humans, and the UFOs that got downed before the War began.

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BurgerKingGhidorah In reply to DinoHunter2 [2017-01-02 17:01:59 +0000 UTC]

Noice. I think it'd be a cool little easter egg to have there be a levitating throne, that's actually second form of Cerebulon's ship from the first game.

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