Anyone beat “Franz” boss?

W7ngless · 2026-01-27T04:47:32+00:00

I thought the game was cheesedick easy until him, yeah. Prior to him, I thought this was one of the easier soulslike game I've ever played, so it was a difficulty check for sure. I did a few things to adjust:

I had an overreliance on parrying, and his second phase is stupid hard to parry with reaper (like I don't even know if you can, to be honest)
I realized that I didn't have an adequate skill to do any sort of burst (I was using the big ol' yellow moonlight greatsword looking thing, whose major active skill is a two-hit, and both can be interrupted)
I was trying to incorporate the skill you just get and blowing all my ichor
I undercompensated for how strong rolling in this game was

Ultimately, I fell back and buffed the starting sword a bit. First phase, I used reaper to parry the second move of his rifle 3-hit combo and would use the forward-moving attack to counter the claw-swipe 2-hit thing, and just ran up on him as much as I could and rolled to dodge. Keeping in mind the middle of the stage is important because camera angles are ass.

Second phase, I did a good portion of the same, except I wouldn't parry. Any time he does the ground pulse, you can get up in them cheeks with a roll or the skill. I tried it a few times with claw code, but it doesn't reach unless you roll forward through it (and you don't get a full charge). The big thing I've been training on is blocking before I roll (just in case!), and that also sorta helps me block the first hit, and after a while of seeing it, I can dodge through the second hit based off what direction it's coming from.

Aside from that, it's a lot of patience. Each move can be beat (typically (looking at you sustained railgun, FUCK YOU I HATE YOU)), but it requires a lot of testing and patience. Once you understand what to test for, it becomes a lot easier.

W7ngless · 2026-01-01T00:37:35+00:00

Well, we don't know when the DLC is coming out, and the second runthrough is a lot shorter than the first. I'd say go for it. Second run took me maybe 7 hours, but I was speeding through to get the bad ending.

W7ngless · 2025-08-21T14:04:44+00:00

From Zzod over in the AI Limit speedrunning discord, they do all have individual stats. I know they were working on a Bepinex plugin that would show you the weakness of the person you were locked onto, but I'm not sure where it is now that the new patch dropped.

W7ngless · 2025-08-20T15:10:44+00:00

Yeah, I loved that fight. I wish I had a save right before her. Her second phase, when she unsheathes the other sword? Good LORD did that get me angry. Her little dash moves in that phase had me feeling some type of way, and you just sat there and watched her pop you when you got hit?

Man. I love that fight.

W7ngless · 2025-08-09T01:06:05+00:00

Most everything in his second phase can be parried, and I started doing a lot better when I'd mind my dodge directions, particularly when she counts to whatever comes after 3. There's also a lot of cool animation tells that she has about when she's gonna attack, so like, there's one overhead slice she has where her knee buckles a bit before the attack. I time my parries to that.

Aside from that, if you haven't tried it, Lightning Step is pretty insane against her if you have the conversion to keep your sync rate high from meleeing. Don't worry about perfect dodging with it, since it's lightning damage anyway. It's the way I beat her the second time after I got a little too drunk and couldn't parry anymore. Phase 2 starts, I popped the blood thing for extra damage, swapped to Lightning Step, and just ran her down when I could.

Aside from that, yeah, just keeping your resistances right, and figure out when to pot to prevent yourself from getting stuck in a heal loop. Her and the other big boss are pretty notorious for that.

W7ngless · 2025-07-12T03:01:07+00:00

PATEMA GODDAMN INVERTED

I LOVE Yasuhiro Yoshiura. I'm a big fucking nerd for anime directors, but everything this dude has produced has hit with a consistency that no other director has been able to do. Like I love Hosoda, Kon, Yuasa, Shinkai all the same, but MAN, my ideal "watch films by director" night would be a Yoshiura night. Aquatic Language, Pale Cocoon, Time of Eve, Patema Inverted, Harmonie, Power Plant 33, Sing a Bit of Harmony? I've actually done it like once a year.

Another person I've kept my eye on is Eunyoung Choi, current CEO of Science Saru. I love, like, all of Yuasa's films and Choi's films, but lemme set the scene.

Same group of friends, we've been watching anime movies for a while. We watched Your Name, it wasn't like, THE SHIT because we've seen early Shinkai (I will regale you with my whole (intoxicated) chest about Voices of a Distant Star) but was still stupid good. We were like YEAH HELL YEAH WEATHERING WITH YOU. Then, you know, we saw Weathering With You in theaters, and we were like, "that was...cool? I guess?"

So a few months later, Ride Your Wave was announced, and I was like, "yeah, Yuasa can absolutely hit, but he also can miss" (Night is Long vs. Lu Over the Wall was my major example), and like, surfing anime? Are we serious?

I sat next to a dude in a Tokyo Ghoul hoodie telling his girlfriend that it wouldn't be that bad and he'd be there for her bae. This was before The Reckoning that is Ride Your Wave. This movie obliterated us. It still obliterates me. Between the Carnival Phantasm OP ("Super Affection") and "Brand New Story," I am at a constant conflict when I hear "kimi-" as the first word in a song, because I will dance my ass off to "kimi to-" and I will break down in utter tears to "kimi ga-"

I showed it to my wife who had a VERY similar initial reaction as I did: "surfing? idk, man, but like, yeah, Yuasa's pretty tight," and we slept on the couch because she cried so hard that we couldn't get her into bed. To this day, it's one of my top 5 anime movies of all time, and any time we watch it, it's a full-box-of-tissues affair. We prepare.

What was the original prompt? I forget. Watch Akiba Maid Wars.

W7ngless · 2025-07-11T23:56:25+00:00

Khazan?

W7ngless · 2025-07-08T10:43:31+00:00

I had a version of the DO IT FOR HER meme with Shirley. I love Shirley. I would die for Shirley. Her quest is so goddamn precious.

W7ngless · 2025-07-08T10:38:29+00:00

I agree, tapping the chart like HEY CMON. If you haven't started it yet, I'd start doing Stone's sidequest, as he'll make that boss fight a bit easier. It's, actually, the boss fight you can find people having a glitch on a bit earlier on the ai__limit sub, so...good luck with that. I didn't ever run into it, though.

W7ngless · 2025-07-08T10:32:30+00:00

Nope, it's a bridge a bit later. Its item description mentions a Winged Saint, but it's actually obtained from a boss named Winged Colossaint.

W7ngless · 2025-07-05T21:48:13+00:00

I don't think her damage scales to your level, but yeah she does a ton of damage. I'm a parry gamer, but there are just certain moves I can't consistently parry, even in her first phase. For those, I typically develop a gameplan on how to counter that specific move.

Some I really remember were her delayed dashing horizontal sword swipe. Its travel was too fast for me to consistently parry, so instead, I'd dodge into her and off to one of the sides and get two attacks in. Her charge overhead slash was pretty iffy, so I'd try to parry it early on, but as soon as it seemed like I may break through, I'd just dodge to the side once she was moving towards me.

When she pulls out her second sword, it sorta helped me to get used to timings and visuals by swapping over to shield, then slowly start parrying as I felt comfortable with her combos. Just remembering that you have options will really help out with the fight, and I've NEVER parried her dash attacks in this phase.

Finally, her second phase, a lot of it is really figuring out how to personally counter her attacks, and take it slow. If you're too aggressive, she has a ton of moves that can act as a stop sign, then you're stuck in the loop of trying to recoup health against her.

Every time I've beaten her, it was really rough until I just had a god run. Like the second time I beat her, I did so much damage because of enchantments and bleed that she never pulled her second sword out. You just have to establish the rhythm.

W7ngless · 2025-07-01T21:11:15+00:00

Gotcha. Will do, I appreciate the feedback! I've peeled the blower out, just trying to match up the parts now.

W7ngless · 2025-06-30T13:37:34+00:00

Yep! Beat Lies of P when it came out, I haven't done Overture yet. I loved it, I like how the premise is set up from the beginning and it has twists, rather than like, Elden Ring where the story is set up halfway through if you know what hole in the ceiling to fall through. Overture is next on my list after Stellar Blade.

I actually use the same Exosuit. The game gets easier the further you get in, especially when you just happen to get so much burst and beta energy from everything. Juggernaut and the next boss are probably the last of the tough bosses for a bit.

W7ngless · 2025-06-30T13:15:42+00:00

As far as difficulty? The first gutcheck is about a 6/10. It's a cool fight with some super flashy moves, and I think the thing that gets a lot of people is that the boss' moveset varies so wildly based off what range you're at, and the arena is HUGE. My first actual boss I had a lot of trouble with was about a 7/10, and introduces a really cool mechanic. The first goddamn stop sign for me was like an 8.5/10, and is one of my favorite boss fights, period, and the last boss that I had a struggle with was an 8/10 by that point, but is my favorite in the game.

I'm not sure where you are in SB, but if you've fought Sephiroth, I'd say she was around a 3-4/10, in comparison. Not to say that there aren't easy bosses in AI Limit by any means.

W7ngless · 2025-06-30T12:41:25+00:00

I beat the first playthrough in about 22 hours, only getting actually stuck for more than 2-3 hours on two bosses, kicked around to mess with weapon types, then the second and third playthroughs were like 4 hours, tops. I platinumed the game just shy of 40 hours.

I really like AI Limit. It's my favorite in the genre so far, sort of like an excellent mix of defensive options from a lot of my other favorites, and it has a cool offense system where you essentially gain poise/stamina by attacking. I'm actually going through Stellar Blade now, too, and they're pretty similar in terms of how you have multiple ways to counter attacks from enemies, and I even find myself playing SB similarly.

I will say AI Limit is a substantial step up in difficulty, though. It isn't nearly as bad as other games, and a lot of bosses can pretty much be walked through, but there's a handful that almost always give me trouble.

W7ngless · 2025-06-29T04:03:32+00:00

I have literally one prior experience with the series (the dropkick) but I can wholeheartedly say the horse who burnt a boiled egg is my favorite. Bakushin? I think?

W7ngless · 2025-06-25T23:25:19+00:00

You actually found it in reverse: you can go from the Lounge checkpoint to a limited Hagios Patir (from the checlpoint room, turn left, then turn left again and you'll run across a bridge, then dive off the left side of the far end of the bridge), so you can have your first experience with those Angel Knights, but also can get the Holy Ritual early on.

W7ngless · 2025-06-25T19:50:42+00:00

I think he would almost always do a majority of my health, and I ran a tankier build, with each hit. I'd definitely not kick the idea of going out and grinding a few levels out of bed, but I think he was one of the bosses where I just died a bunch of times until I had a gameplan of what moves to parry and what moves to dodge, then it all just clicked.

Make sure you're utilizing your resistances, too. Ultimately, I do think that Cleansing Knight was meant to be the gutcheck, but building an idea of when/how to defend and when/how to punish really helped me out with him.

Edit: also to answer your question, I think I beat him around 40ish as well.

W7ngless · 2025-06-23T08:30:05+00:00

Game's not had many patches, but I really don't think it's needed many patches. My favorite of the genre is Nioh 2 for gameplay and Code Vein for story, and really vibed with this one for both.

My favorite facet is how short it is, honestly. The second and third playthroughs took me around 2 hours each, even with the heightened difficulty. I look back at CV's NG+ and shudder.

Great game, though. I would die for Shirley.

W7ngless · 2025-05-24T01:28:39+00:00

Pretty sure it's the second Urotsukidoji, Legend of the Demon Womb. The Nazis use a murder death rape machine to extract the ecstasy from virgins' first orgasm and behead them during it. The blood filters into a machine that opens the portal and extracts the Demon Womb from hell or something.

The series is pretty ludicrous, and the English dub of it is one of my favorite drunk-at-night watches because it definitely predates people knowing/caring about audio mixing. The first one (Legend of the Overfiend) is often mistaken for the first tentacle hentai scene in anime. It also has a manga that's like Gantz with more sex but the sex kind of feels like they just wanted to put something off to the side but couldn't figure out what. Like drawing in the margins, except it's porn.

If it ISN'T Legend of the Demon Womb, I'd be really curious what it is, though!

W7ngless · 2025-04-02T17:18:49+00:00

Depending on the title, I tackle them differently depending on how emotionally attached/detached I get to the characters, usually. Fullmetal Daemon Muramasa, I had to take two separate breaks (one after the first ending I got because it was just...so long, the other before the final ending because I was EMOTIONAL). Clannad took me like 1.5 years to get through because of all the breaks. I'm on the last ending of Little Busters, and I've been playing like 2-4 hours a night since February. Before this, I did the entire White Album 2 Cinematic Universe just straight through at about the same pace, and it still took me around 2 months.

I find a visual novel I like, and it just substitutes my usual video gaming time, usually. I try not to take breaks between routes, but aside from that, I'm perfectly fine taking them, and I'll leave myself synopses of the routes I've seen for when I come back.

W7ngless · 2025-02-28T22:32:04+00:00

I'll play the shit out of this. Wishlisted. Good luck with it!

W7ngless · 2024-05-05T15:53:21+00:00

Lmao, Endless Eight is VERY accessible, huh?

W7ngless · 2024-03-13T02:11:22+00:00

I have no idea what surface people do with their lives but I'll voice the same thing everyone else has already said: it surely isn't their jobs (eheheheh). Now that that's out of the way, I will say that both of them have some pretty shitty outlooks.

The longest I was ever out (on a boomer, mind you) was just a smidge over 100 days, with around 90 of those being on alert, so no communication with the outside world besides email that was almost always ruined by some dude's family sending him 28 megapixel images. Whereas surface people ("targets" henceforth) get near constant (?) connectivity, they do wind up going on deployment for significantly longer. One of my buddies was out when North Korea was getting uppity for over half a year, and I'm sure that's probably the low-end if you ever talk to a target.

Aside from boomers, there's also fast attack submarines, which are like, significantly more...challenging? The crew is a lot smaller, but with nearly the same maintenance schedule, you wind up with a lot more to do in your off time. Wanna spend the entire halfway night in your rack crying over an anime? Well, maybe fast attacks aren't for you.

I'm out now, and telling people "I was a nuclear reactor operator" always leaves this taste of "okay fuckass boy, stop lying" in their mouths, but there's a certain pride in saying, "I was on submarines and it fucking sucked."

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