You know me, I'm an apologist for the weird, hacky 3D of the Sega Saturn. Dark Savior took that to its limit, with its isometric role-playing game that also has a free camera and a fighting element? Developer Climax didn't even have 3D experience prior to it; they just jumped off the deep end!

This thing is bizarre, but I like it when games try!

It's been a dog's age since I shared a stream clip from one of my older streams. So here's one from Prototype. Redeem was well timed if you ask me.

Do you like side-scrolling platformers, deck-builders, pixel art, and Japanese yokai and folktales? Do you like supporting solo indie game dev hobbyists? Do you like FREE games? I know you do, so I would encourage you to please check out Choju Yokai Giga on Steam!

But wait! Would you also like to make me SQUEAL WITH DELIGHT? Then please consider leaving a Steam review! It takes less than a minute and it would REALLY help us out! Choju Yokai Giga was Daikon's first game and a real labor of love. I am fiercely proud of what he made, so much so that I even made a fan site for it. (The website's been under construction for almost a year because I am always falling behind on stuff! But that's not what this post is about!!) It's been tough seeing him pour all that passion and earnestness into this game only for it to get buried and forgotten. If you got the game on itch, it would mean so much to us if you left a Steam review too!

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's Ruby Weapon was the penultimate super boss. If you're unfamiliar with it, here's the TL;DR:

Engaging Ruby with 3 active party members means Ruby will randomly eject two of them from battle with it's Whirlsand attack. Additionally, he'll be invincible until it buries it's tentacles in the sand. So you have to enter the battle with two of your characters knocked out to render Ruby vulnerable. No biggie right? I'll just revive them once it does that right? You can, but after 32 turns Ruby will use Whirlsand. Those 32 turns come quick once all 3 members are active.

So how do you beat Ruby Weapon? There are a handful of strategies, and I'll detail the one my friend came up with when we were in 6th Grade and how I've refined it.

The original idea was looping Knights of the Round on Ruby (known today as the One-Man Summon Rush). In a normal scenario you could use Mime, but only Cloud will be fighting Ruby. You'll need to have at least 3 KotR Materia (which is very time consuming) or have 2 KotR and defeat Emerald to get a Master Summon Materia from the Kalm Traveler. Link Master Summon with X-Summon so you'll cast KotR twice every time. Additionally, you'll need a KotR linked with a mastered MP Absorb. Casting KotR twice will take 500MP, so you need to keep your MP full at all times. Luckily KotR and mastered MP Absorb, you'll get 1000MP back every time you cast it. Additionally, with the other KotR linked with a mastered HP Absorb, you'll get 10,000HP back every time you cast (good think HP/MP cap is 9999 and 999). This was the strategy my friend came up with back in the day before the internet was a regular part of our lives.

Note that I pulled a Batman and overprepared for the fight by maxing out Cloud's stats to 255 using the various Power/Guard/Speed/Magic/Spirit Sources you can morph enemies into (definitely use Yuffie and her Ultimate Weapon during that process).

But before we start looping KotR, note that Ruby can be stunned with an item called Numbing Needles. There's a whole low level strat that involves one character just keeping Ruby stunlocked indefinitely if you set it up right. It's a much longer fight, but it's doable. Wish I had known that back in the day.

Lastly, you'll want to stack Hero Drinks on Cloud. The item increases a character's Attack, Defense, and Magic by 30% with the ability to stack it 4x for a 100% affect. Even though a stat maxes out at 255, you can boost them to 510 in battle with that drink. So when the battle starts cast Big Guard for a safety net, then you'll need the X-Item Materia for Cloud so one item will be Numbing Needles, then Hero Drink. Then two more Hero Drinks, then another Numbing Needle followed by Hero Drink. Now you're ready to start looping KotR.

Why did I go to these lengths? Hitting Ruby with KotR prompts it to counter with Ultima, and with Cloud's Magic Defense at 510, Ruby's Ultima attack only hits Cloud for a measly 37 HP instead of one shotting him like it normally would.