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Friday, December 13, 2019

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 5: Three of the Four Masters

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's my birthday. Oops.

I am on record stating that the three worst days of the year are Daylight Saving Time, Tax Day, and my birthday. Two of those are government-created (and should be abolished), but I suppose even in an anarchy I'll still have a birthday.

Let's just treat it like normal and proceed with KoopaTV's Fitness Fridays series. We're starting fresh with World 5 on Week 5. Little did I know that it'd be the most intense week of them all so far, featuring physically demanding exercises, along with introducing a set of important-looking NPCs. You'll also read some problems I have with the game so far. Let's get to it!

I'm starting on Sunday, immediately leveling up to Level 29 and unlocking the Overhead Arm Twist (red) Fit Skill, with a fearsome power of 90! Guess I'll never try the Fan Pose...

Anyway, World 5 is called “Dragaux Vs. the Four Masters” so this seems intense. I set my difficulty to 24... but the first thing is actually the third town. All the townspeople are talking about the Four Masters, who are...
  1. Allegra, the legs master
  2. Armando, the arms master (not to be confused with ARMS)
  3. Abdonis, the abs master
  4. Guru Andma, the master of balance 
(In Ring Fit Adventure's official release trailer, the four masters are the “tough rivals” on your quest.)

After declining to purchase anything at General Store Number 3, we walk over to Exertion River, where the leg master, Allegra, challenges us to run through it. As you may expect, the recommended fit skill is blue (for legs). Let's run!

Actually, most of this was using the river rowing power we obtained back in world 4. Good to see that it's not completely gone. In fact, the river in Exertion River is far, far more daunting and serious than the Sportan River.

After that, Allegra said she'd talk to the other masters about Dragaux. In the meantime, I have a fork in the road, so I go towards the optional-looking one with the treasure chest at the end. There is a Fitness Gym (as opposed to the Game Gyms we've been seeing)... and it's evil. It has the Leg Set, making me do a long series of Squats, Knee Lifts, Mountain Climbers (which is NOT a Fit Skill I've unlocked), and Thigh Presses.

Ring Fit Adventure fitness gym leg set Squat Knee Lift Mountain Climber Thigh Press
Getting through this was the most strenuous physical activity of the year.
All of these repetitions are consecutively, and you're given a point value for each one. Not enough points and you fail.

Let me tell you, I never want to unlock the Mountain Climber. I'm panting, man. The game thinks I should stop now... but I'm going to charge through Twilight Highway AND GET THE TREASURE.

After making my way through the highway—and having a very energetic exercise—I go to the treasure on the overworld map and get... the Open & Close Leg Raise Fit Skill, which is another recovery Fit Skill I'm probably never going to use! ...Ugggh. Well, I'm exhausted. Let's end this for the day. 

The next level is Loot Pass, where Allegra wants us to go through it only using the (leg-based) Fit Skills that she orders us to use. ...I'm starting to get the feeling that she likes getting her way, and she'll step on anyone who doesn't agree. 

Loot Pass is named that way due to “burglar bugs” called Slinkbugs. When I encountered them, I didn't get a chase sequence, but instill a “stand as still as a tree until they go away” sequence. This literally involved making a Tree Pose for what felt like a very long time! But by the end of it, I leveled up to 32 and got the Warrior II pose, the wide-ranging sequel to the Warrior I. However, due to Allegra's rules, I can still only fight the rest of the enemies with the single-target Leg exercises (Squat, Knee Lifts, and Thigh Press, in order of weakest to strongest). It took a while due to multiple enemies at once, but I was in no danger of losing the fight to my ridiculous defence.

Allegra recognised my leg abilities and now we can move on... tomorrow.

Ring Fit Adventure meeting Allegra Loot Pass leg master
Allegra looks like she'd be good friends with Tsareena.

Armando is hanging out at the Armie Temple, where he wants me to break 60 crates in a recommended 2 minutes in the course. I broke, like, 68 in 1:24. Next he wants me to get a B rank or better in the Aerochute Novice Game Gym. (At least it's not a Fitness Gym.) That's constant Overhead Side Bend Pulls as you're on a parachute and need to pull the Ring-Con (held above your head) and lean left, right, forward, or back to move towards the centre of point-giving rings. I got... an A rank! HA!

Armando's third and final challenge is at Arms-Race Gym, where the recommended Fit Skills are for Arms (duh) and the objective is to “Defeat Armando!” Is he a miniboss?! Yes, yes he is. He's ironically weak to Arms attacks, but besides the Arm Twist, we don't have strong Arms attacks. So I tried Warrior II and the Fan Pose, finally, and Fan Pose is actually really nice to recover hearts while I'm waiting for the two-turn Arm Twist recharge. Though it's quite... involved. Anyway, after an epic clash of will (featuring extended fist-o-wars), we defeat Armando and move to... the second half of World 5. Yeah, this is all only half (or less) of it!

Ring Fit Adventure Armando miniboss boss fight arm master
Of course the all-brawn guy is the one you fight. Though it was the best fight of the game so far.
  To Stopfoot Wastes, where someone with strong abs needs to break the boulders in the way so some generic NPC named Man can get through. I bet Abdonis is nearby. You see, this has a bunch (15) boulders you need to break with your abs, and rivers you need to row with your abs. It's also made up of recoloured areas from previous levels and it's quite noticeable.

There's a warp zone that goes right to the Town earlier in the world (that's how big the world map is here) and I notice there's four people asking for requests. According to the Select World menu, World 5 has 16 courses (we've done 8) and 9 requests (we've done 0), so I'm only 32% of the way there. Yeah, I'm definitely not finishing this up this week. Instead of doing the requests (I don't need to be more overleveled than I already am, yet), I go to the next level... and it turns out that NPC Man is really Abdonis in disguise, and he doesn't look generic! He wants to test me through the Birdseye Mountain Trail. First thing is this giant exercise ball named Yellow Puffersquish that is an HP sponge. Then more HP sponges and boulders, but I got to the end and after only two abs-based courses, we got Abdonis's approval! (I also unlocked the Wide Squat, which is a multi-targeting, more powerful Squat... but with your legs spread wider.)


Ring Fit Adventure Abdonis ab master Birdseye Mountain Trail
Isn't this just Claude from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but with a banana in his hair?

Time for the Guru... another day.

Friday, in fact. Well, I couldn't exercise Thursday because of that horrible Game Awards 2019. (Let's not talk about Wednesday.) Anyway, first up is a Game Gym guarding a treasure chest—Bank Balance (Novice). This involves walking on a tight-rope while holding a beam, pushing the Ring-Con into your abs, and leaning left or right to move the beam up/down on the left or right side. There are silver/gold coins on the sides, as well as bombs, and you need to step forward while tilting to collect the coins. In testament to my skill at banking, I got an A rank my first time and unlocked tomato and apple recipes. In the treasure chest were 3 apples and 3 tomatoes, even though I already have a bunch of them.

Speaking of money, I encountered a Gold Hoplin in the overworld map blocking the way to the Guru. Allegedly, Gold Hoplin will flee if you don't beat it quickly. I beat it quickly (two turns) and got 500 coins! (That's a lot.) It was blocking the Exertion Corridor, which features Yoga moves as the recommended Fit Skill type. I suppose Yoga is what the Guru of Balance is all about, so this must be their territory. That means a lot of Warrior I and Warrior II poses to come. The course was easy (and so very familiar to previous courses). After that is another Game Gym, Bootstrap Tower, which reminds me of Rayman Legends Origins for some reason. All you do here is push the Ring-Con and swing it down in order to propel yourself up to get coins. The surfaces you cling to on the tower move, so it's a matter of timing. Easy stuff. The Game Gym guys gave me a Peach Smoothie, which is basically a Life Shroom, judging by the description. (Revive upon death.) Certainly sounds worth it.

Next up is Leap-of-Faith Falls. No recommended skills, but I know we must be near to the Guru. This stage actually has new content in trampolines, which you need to squat on multiple times to get higher and higher height. We also had the return of the overhead ring pull zip line!

Next week I guess will be the week where we actually see the Guru and fight Dragaux in this world. I'm too sweaty to do much else today. I anticipate I'll be going through many of World 5's incomplete requests as well. It only says I have 52% completion, yet I look so close to the end of the world!


Ring Fit Adventure Exercise Log week 5 world
Week 5's Exercise Log. Sunday was the one with the dreaded Fitness Gym.


KoopaTV didn't get to cover a lot of things due to prescheduled features like The Game Awards and KoopaTV Fitness Friday, so there's a lot to look forward to next week that's going over quite a backlog of information. Stay tuned, please! (And wish Ludwig a belated birthday. If you want.)


Read Week 4's fitness log here!
See how World 5 concludes, and the dynamic actions in World 6... here!

8 comments :

  1. They put THIS much story in a dang fitness game. Good to know Nintendo is still capable of genuinely amazing things, or I'd be fretting over the state of the Breath of the Wild sequel!

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    1. There's more story in Ring Fit Adventure than Breath of the Wild, though so far, far less lore.

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    2. It took me a while to see just how interesting a point you raise, here. But what do you believe makes lore distinct from story? My impression is that lore is one possible medium to convey story. Which, yes, Breath of the Wild uses virtually to exclusion.

      But I like that! It gives the game the ability to accommodate both players who enjoy games with story, and games without/with only the bare minimum of story. And to me, inclusivity is the most important thing a game can have--the more people who can readily derive enjoyment from a game, the more highly I think of it.

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    3. Maybe I should dedicate a whole article to this.

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    4. If you did, it'd definitely be one I'd read in full!

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    5. ...You... you don't do that anyway!?!?

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    6. Oh, I don't read the ones related to the presidential debates at all, and I only ever skim the live reactions.

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    7. Well, I'm not self-reflective enough to know how much character development goes on with the presidential debates (from a KoopaTV perspective). I think with the current field I'm not going to change my mind or priorities unless people drop out.
      So in terms of KoopaTV continuing narrative, you probably aren't missing much—yet—as long as you know what my opinion is. I admit they're more propaganda pieces for external audiences.

      As for live reactions, those can sometimes have valuable nuggets of insight! (That'll be referenced by future articles I suppose.)

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