Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP)

[semiconscious]

I hate the final boss battle as well.  I can only get the guy down to about 1/4 health left.  I cannot seem to properly dodge the times he sends out the multiple waves and it just eats my lunch.  Add to the fact that when you die, you lose all the ammo you consumed and so I have to basically go grind to collect money to get more ammo when I run out after a failed attempt...

after 8-10 failed attempts, i made a second save (to eliminate the bolt grinding). not sure why i didn't give up (tho wanting the ryno definitely had something to do with it ), but eventually, by staying as far away as possible & side-hopping, i succeeded (on the second playthru, bolt grinding is somewhat simplified by the fact that, the more damage you cause without receiving damage, the higher your 'bolt multiplier' goes up - caps at 12x, & doesn't go down til you're hit. makes the 'hidden' area i referred to above very useful)...

this is an unusual situation for me, as i'm usually the one who can't beat the boss everyone else can beat - like teggy, i'm more a max-out all the upgrades type (which is how i finally beat the boss in r&c:uya). good luck, y'all...

[The Grue]

Just beat that bitch.  Here's how I finally figured out a way to do it:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was going for another run at him and had him more than halfway down, so he started to do his other attacks.  I was against the edge of the platform and he sent out the multi waves of green at me.  I mistimed it and was ready to have my shield go, but then I realized it never hit me.  So, once you get him down to where he changes his attacks, just constantly run back at the edge.  None of the attackis will hit you and just keep using your PDA to get more shock rockets.  I did finally run out of money when I beat him, but I had him down far enough to where I just changed to the normal blaster to finish him off.  I think I had 30K bolts when I started.

Hope that helps someone out.

[semiconscious]

Just beat that bitch.  Here's how I finally figured out a way to do it:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I was going for another run at him and had him more than halfway down, so he started to do his other attacks.  I was against the edge of the platform and he sent out the multi waves of green at me.  I mistimed it and was ready to have my shield go, but then I realized it never hit me.  So, once you get him down to where he changes his attacks, just constantly run back at the edge.  None of the attackis will hit you and just keep using your PDA to get more shock rockets.  I did finally run out of money when I beat him, but I had him down far enough to where I just changed to the normal blaster to finish him off.  I think I had 30K bolts when I started.

Hope that helps someone out.

kinda what i did

Spoiler for Hiden:

by staying as far away as possible, tho i kept hopping sideways - maybe i didn't have to?

got the ryno - i'm not sure i've ever immediately replayed a game i've finished before. why do i love this game so much?...

[Kevin Grey]

Well it remains to be seen if I will ever beat this game or not (Might give that final boss battle one more shot) but, overall, while I found the game to be enjoyable I thought it was by far the least of the series (with the possible exception of Deadlocked).  High Impact did a good with transferring over the R&C "feel" to the PSP but there seems to be something missing.  The weapon designs weren't quite up to snuff compared to the rest of the series and the levels, in particular, were kind of disappointing.  Many had very neat concepts that weren't really taken advantage of:

Spoiler for Hiden:

  Like the micro-cities- if it wasn't for the cutscenes showing R&C shrinking down you wouldn't even know that they weren't normal size cities.

Still it was a very enjoyable experience overall and I'm glad I played it. 

[Teggy]

Grue - do you think what you found there is a bug or by design?  I'm definitely going to have to try that.

[The Grue]

Grue - do you think what you found there is a bug or by design?  I'm definitely going to have to try that.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Well, it seems to only work if Otto is far away.  If I am at the edge, but he is closer, it does not work.  So, I think there is just a maximum range for that attack and if you are outside it, you are okay.  I tried beating Otto again last night after I accidently chose to pick up my save before defeating him instead of going to the challenge mode with all my skills and it took me a few times to beat him because he was closer to me and my trick didn't work.

So, no, I don't think it is a bug.

[semiconscious]

Well it remains to be seen if I will ever beat this game or not (Might give that final boss battle one more shot) but, overall, while I found the game to be enjoyable I thought it was by far the least of the series (with the possible exception of Deadlocked).  High Impact did a good with transferring over the R&C "feel" to the PSP but there seems to be something missing.  The weapon designs weren't quite up to snuff compared to the rest of the series and the levels, in particular, were kind of disappointing.  Many had very neat concepts that weren't really taken advantage of:

Spoiler for Hiden:

  Like the micro-cities- if it wasn't for the cutscenes showing R&C shrinking down you wouldn't even know that they weren't normal size cities.

Still it was a very enjoyable experience overall and I'm glad I played it. 

while i agree it falls short of the greatness of the ps2 games, as a highly concentrated, portable dose of r&c goodness, this game easily surpasses any expectations i had - incredibly well done...

[Poomba]

I just picked this up (was a little hesitant after reading some of the comments regarding the difficulty of the final boss)...but now I'm more concerned about the game's length.

Can anyone comment on how long of a ride I'm in for?

[The Grue]

I just picked this up (was a little hesitant after reading some of the comments regarding the difficulty of the final boss)...but now I'm more concerned about the game's length.

Can anyone comment on how long of a ride I'm in for?

I think my played time was something like 7 hours or so.  I didn't do every race and mini game, though.  Still, I started going back through it again in the challenge mode which ups the difficulty and adds more armor and weapons.  So, if you like to replay games like that, there is more length.  Also, there is multiplayer if you are into that.

[Teggy]

Yeah, that was a definite minus on this one for me.  While I really enjoyed the gameplay, I picked this game up on Friday evening and I was essentially done with it by Sunday, except for the final boss, and I wasn't playing non-stop, by any means.  The minigames give you a couple of extra hours, but if you don't plan on using the multiplayer (which I don't), I think $40 is bit much for the game.

I think it is totally worth playing and one of the best games I have played on the PSP, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone who rented it or waited for it to go greatest hits.

[Teggy]

OK, I have to retract my assessment of last boss battle.  The reason I wasn't able to finish off the battle using my normal "get ridiculously strong and wipe him out" method was an oversight on my part.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I guess I just wasn't reading some of your guys posts right - I thought the shields were the kind that popped up in front of you and you had to stand behind them (didn't they have those in one of the R&C games?) instead of the one that surrounded you, so I didn't buy it.  Since I was having trouble I decided to go around grinding, upgraded to the Electro Rocket and then bought the shields.  At that point I discovered my mistake.  After I got the shields it was easy.  He goes down quickly to about 1/3 health with the Laser Tracer, then it's just rockets, jumping, rockets, jumping and more rockets with the occasional stop to reset the shield or buy some more ammo with the PDA.  The whole thing probably takes a minute.  I didn't even bother with trying to stay far enough away so that his attacks wouldn't hit me.

So again, I think my final verdict is that this is a very good game for the PSP, but definitely on the short side if you're only in it for the single player.  About half the planets of a standard R&C game, and only 1 or 2 activities per planet instead of the normal 2 or 3 with the console versions.

[Poomba]

Well I finally played a bit on the bus this morning and I can say off the bat that the camera is annoying as hell

Several times I found myself in battles with enemies that I couldn't see because they were off screen and the camera was panned to a nice profile of my character.

I need to spend a bit more time with this to get used to the controls I think.

[Kevin Grey]

I need to spend a bit more time with this to get used to the controls I think.

I set strafe controls to analog and strictly used the analog stick and shoulder buttons as my control method and that worked pretty great.

[Poomba]

I might have to try that as I played a little more at lunch (only arrived at the second planet - so VERY early in the game) and was doing better.

Seems to be fun so far...