Saturday, November 19, 2022

Live-a-Live #7 - Red Dio Redemption

Following on the heels of the shortest chapter (the wrestler), I go for the second-shortest chapter. This one is nearly all dialogue and story, oddly enough. These chapters are wildly different from one another so far. We had the dungeon crawl, the training minigame-fest, the fighting game, and now a story-heavy scenario. Wonder what the last three will have in store.



We join events in progress at a rugged saloon. Is my dude a sheriff? RAD.

 Unfortunately, no. I am... The Sunset Kid. A wanted fugitive. What's he wanted for? Being so damn good with the ladies.

Sunset faces off with his archenemy, the nefarious Mad Dog. They're evenly matched, so I lost this on the first try. It's mainly a matter of who gets the first hit off. How... appropriate.

Mad Dog constantly tries to defeat Sunset, constantly loses, and gets angry that Sunset won't ever finish him off. Maybe he should get a hobby or something.

 Everyone turns in horror when Sunset walks back into the saloon. Does he have bombastic theme music that plays when he walks out like a pro wrestler?

This is pretty much the Old West. People dueling because they lost their seat in the saloon or something. It's amazing we as a race later achieved space travel.

 The guy then proceeds to go hit on a 9 year old. Or in Japan years, our equivalent of a hot-to-trot college girl.

 This random jerk then proceeds to knock a kid right into Sunset. What is with this guy?

He then harasses Sunset's choice in drinks while everyone just stands around.

 
"OOOOOH" say the onlookers.

Sunset proceeds to knock the guy out. Turns out he's a member of a gang that has been terrorizing the town: The Crazy Bunch. The townspeople can't do anything about them.

 Mad Dog walks in and immediately outs Sunset as a fugitive.

 Once everyone realizes just who he is, their nipples immediately get hard with anticipation.

 Mad Dog demands that Sunset fight him again. Seriously... a hobby. There are all kinds of fun things to occupy your time with, even out in the desert. Read some books or start a harem or something. Come on.

 Both guys draw...and both immediately spin around and cap Crazy Bunch minions off-camera. That was some insane timing and perception.

Mad Dog decides to put aside his lustful cravings for hatred of Sunset after a lady from the town pleads with him.

Teaming up to take on the greater threat, but only until that's done.

The fact that this chapter takes place solely in and around this bar... reminds me of the last episode of Quantum Leap.

 We're getting into Walking Dead territory now. Don't feed the walkers.

A Mexican singing trio is on hand. They're very festive, and can be deployed to set death-traps.

 An alcoholic beverage? CENSOR IT! OUR CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO SEE THIS!

 That's better.

Soon, our heroes make some molotovs. They're going to battle the Crazy Bunch 'Nam-style.

 One of the Mexicans is lazy, too? For shame, Square!

 My woefully ineffective traps (I should have read up on this part in a guide or something, I totally did it wrong) manage to take out like two of the Crazy Bunch, leaving...a lot more when they reach the saloon. And they've got a damn minigun.

Here we go, the latest form of Odio. And he has a massive army with him. There isn't even any room to move around! What the hell!

Do what the game already told you to do: Drop Molotovs on them. A couple of those and most of them are done.

 Dio's gatling gun fires diagonally, so this is a bad place to be.

 After drinking a couple bourbons to heal up, Mad Dog gets the "drunk" status and starts whiffing all of his attacks. How many RPGs have alcoholic healing items that make your character a stumbling buffoon?

 As usual in this game, I barely win.

With Dio defeated and the Crazy Bunch six feet under, Mad Dog turns on Sunset and wants a battle right now.

 Sunset wants no part of Mad Dog, and just leaves. That pretty much concludes this scenario. Sunset never gained any stats or abilities or anything... luckily he's pretty strong. I think he'll be fine in the last chapter.

 The credits roll and the Mexican Trio plays a festive tune. And they all lived happily ever...

 ::record scratching:: Not so fast. Mad Dog is waiting for Sunset out here.

 "Why won't you KILL MEEEE" he says.

Another evenly-matched battle ensues. No much to this, it's a back-and-forth shootout.

 This is like a broken record. Sunset frightens Mad Dog's horse away and leaves on his own horse, with Mad Dog stranded here yelling "BLONDIE!" over and over.

 Well, that was a little anticlimactic. On to the next one.

More Live-a-Live Posts HERE

2 comments:

  1. "I'm gonna put the final period on your life of escaping death" might be the worst line of dialogue I've ever read.

    Like the last episode of Quantum Leap, but with more shootings.

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  2. You're right that the best thing about this is how groundbreaking it is to have a western in this genre. Trigun did a great job with it in the beginning too.

    I appreciate the randomness of what the NPCs are saying. The mariachi band made this 3 times better.

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