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Friday, January 31, 2020

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 12: Wing Ability for an Up-B

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Well, now we know how Ring Fit Adventurer will recover...

Welcome back to KoopaTV's—well, it's really my personal—fitness log series, Fitness Fridays, as we—well, it's just me, but you can pretend to be doing it alongside me—play through Ring Fit Adventure in an effort to be more fit, flexible, and in better shape for all of life's challenges. Oh, and the Olympics.

Near the end, and again at the very end, of last week's (week 11)'s log, I lamented the existence of an in-game achievement (title) for playing the adventure mode for consecutive days in a row. I turned the game on Saturday just to claim it (and I fought the 3 Silver Hoplins—renamed Rare Hoplin, though it's still only based around giving experience points—mentioned at the end of week 10's log in the World 11 portion) and stopped. Except now there's a title not just for playing 7 consecutive days... but 10 consecutive days! This is why games are better off without achievements.

Ring Fit Adventure Titles achievements Adventure Fan Regular Maniac days consecutively
What happened to Ring Fit Adventure encouraging players to take breaks during the week?

Ring Fit Adventure Tipp take some days off is healthy
Ah, here's that tip. There's definitely some dissonance here.
“Rather than trying to train every day, taking some days off can help you maintain your good habit.”
Contradicts giving titles to people for playing 10 days consecutively.


Anyway, we're starting World 12: Wings of Daddalus. On Sunday, because I have to for the damn achievement. Still difficulty level 29, which is one away from the maximum.

The first level is called Clever-Trick Temple, which I'm hoping will wow me with novel level design. Sure enough, it has the push/pull puzzle blocks from World 9's Pushpull Temple that I really liked, with a treasure chest containing Almond Milk recipes that combine them with a variety of fruits. Surely not something you'd ever do with real milk. I can't confirm that Clever-Trick Temple is a palette swap of Pushpull Temple, but there wasn't anything inventive there. Moving on, there's a Sentry in the next level overworld that says I'm trespassing Eureka Village's holy mountain. The only person allowed there, I guess besides the Sentry, is the village leader, Daddalus. ...But since I'm not from the village, he lets me through. It's named Mt. Fearmenot. It's a holy awesome place where there's Milk on trees... and there's SNOW. There's also a massive cliff that we can't cross, so Ring forces us to quit the level and talk to the Sentry, who suggests we go to the next town to talk to Daddalus.

Ring Fit Adventure Mt. Fearmenot Wings of Daddalus cliff
“HOLD IT!”
Though unlike Phoenix Wright, Ring and Koopa#5969 DON'T go right off cliffs.

Over in town, Honey and Hubby welcome us to the General Store, Eureka Village branch, claiming that the village is full of innovative inventors that enable new wares. They now sell Cocoa, Almond Milk (useful for the new recipes, which grant guaranteed rush attacks and another effect), the new Pink Flamingo clothing set (increasing running speed...slightly), and the new Tropical Parrot clothing set (which is described as having a bonus of, “Drop half as much money on a course.” ...What does that mean? That sounds BAD). Ring asks Daddalus if we can have a flying machine, and Daddalus says that, for generations, Eureka Villagers have been developing the blueprints for an AIRSHIP, which just so coincidentally have been completed. Now they just need the tools to build it, which were stolen by monsters residing in the very nearby Monster Den. Daddalus wants us to barge in there, defeat the monsters, and get the tools. Then we'll get an airship!

Clearly, this game agrees with me that planes are better than cars. Ring starts off the Monster Den commentary by wondering if inventing something to beat monsters should've been Eureka Village's first priority. Indeed, it is strange that the village is located right next to a den of monsters... I got to level 105 in the first batch of monsters (giving me another heart container and having the amount of experience points I need for my next level up be exactly 5000—and it's 5000 from now on), went through some river rowing, found a recipe for Kefir Yogurt, and got more rowing. (Kefir grains are grown in Russia, which the game states, so Russia is canon beyond the name of the Russian Twist Fit Skill. The yogurt prevents enemies from spawning in a course, which is pointless since you can jump over them anyway!) The final enemies guarding the level's exit? One Belldog and one Mallusk. Underwhelming for sure. But after dispatching them, we got the tools. One problem: Daddalus needs a Birdy Bolt, and I need to fight in the robot-operated Battle Gym to get it. Alright. The Battle Gym ironically has more enemies in its four rounds than were present in the Monster Den, though. Proof that robots have no loyalties.

Ring Fit Adventure Kefir Grains ingredient originated in Russia
THE RUSSIANS ARE EVERYWHERE.
And they're also the only Earth country referenced in Ring Fit Adventure, at least so far.

On Monday, it turns out that, upon meeting Daddalus at Upsurge Studio (where he's built the airship and is ready to deliver it to us), he says it got destroyed by monsters. ...And then the game just tells me to “Reach the goal!” at Upsurge Studio without communicating what exactly we plan to see at the end of the goal. I mean, the airship being destroyed doesn't scream “run through the studio” as a sense-making recourse. Upsurge Studio has several different lifts. There's the traditional Squat-powered one, which is blue. There's a Back Press-powered red one. There's also a Chair Pose-powered green one. These are the same colours as their Fit Skill counterparts. Unlike the Squat or the Back Press, you just need to maintain your Chair Pose to move instead of constantly pressing or squatting over and over. At the end, some Robbin money-stealing crows appeared, but we Back Pressed away. Afterwards, Daddalus commended us for dealing with monsters (even though I double-jumped over all monster encounters) and says that there is an orb of light in the next level—Soleus Gold Mine.

That orb of light is Ring's final power, the Wing Ability. But it turns out that Soleus Gold Mine is a sweltering miniboss battle, featuring a Red Megaphauna+, a Yellow Protean Shaker+, and the miniboss, the Blue Pitbell. Blue Pitbell is horrifyingly ugly. There's a strategy from the enemy team here: The Yellow Protean Shaker+ spits out a debuff to make Blue Fit Skills less effective (which is what you'd want to use to hit the Blue Pitbell for super-effective damage), while the Red Megaphauna+ gives attack buffs to Blue Pitbell. After doing the standard boss fight RPG playbook of defeating the minions first, and then getting Blue Pitbell to half health, it did a massive super-attack of a giant tornado attack that I had to squat-ab-guard to block. No doubt influenced by the Wing Ability.

Ring Fit Adventure Blue Pitbell special attack mega ab guard miniboss Soleus Gold Mine Wings of Daddalus World 12
I'm not doing a good job bending my legs in the screenshot because I needed to unbend them to reach the screenshot button.

After beating the Blue Pitbell and giving Ring the last of his powers, he's all fired up to jump over the Mt. Fearmenot cliff. Unfortunately for his now fire-eyed adrenaline, two requests opened in town, and I want to do those first. Daddalus's son, Kiddalus, wants to invent a monster-busting robot, and wants me to beat up every monster in Clever-Trick Temple because... I don't know. Is the robot supposed to be modelled after me? Regardless, we never find out, since Kiddalus gives us two Rubies instead of a robot. The only robot we get is the Battle Gym robot saying he'll give us 500 coins if we complete that without using any smoothies. Well, duh. Of course I can do that. I beat this Battle Gym without using a smoothie before, and now it's the same thing but I have an even slightly higher level.

Ring Fit Adventure Wing Ability help screen
For your information, the Wing Ability is not a replacement for the Ring-Con hover.
It's environmentally-activated like river rowing.

Here I am, Tuesday night. The Byleth patch to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is live, but there's no patch notes, so I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure instead. Because the damn achievement. Today, I actually got the Fanatic for Fitness achievement (play Adventure Mode for 50 days total) and the Adventure Lifer achievement (play Adventure Mode for 10 days consecutively), and fortunately, there are no further consecutive-day titles one can obtain. I can finally stop playing Ring Fit Adventure every day of my life. The game is fun, don't get me wrong, but I don't even play my most favourite game ever for 10 days straight.

Ring Fit Adventure titles Adventure Lifer Fanatic for Fitness achievements awards
I was worried that there'd be another award called Adventure Afterlifer, awarded to those who play at least 30 days consecutively.
You'll know you'll have it because you'll be deceased due to not getting a break.

Anyway, let's use the Wing Ability! It's... actually fairly fun. You abdominally-press the Ring-Con to flap your wings. If you keep pressing it, you'll keep gliding. If you stop, you'll just... float there. You can tilt your body left and right to fly in that direction and pick up items and whatever. Otherwise, you can't really control where you're going since it's still on-rails. But it feels nicer than, say, rowing. I don't know how there are monsters past the chasm, but I didn't fight them. Just jumped over them (in-between flying sections) and kept going.

The level after Mt. Fearmenot is Tornado Temple. There is nothing particularly interesting about this. Certainly no tornadoes to dodge. The name may come from the temple being in a spiral shape, which is sort of tornado-esque? To be more interesting, Dashley appeared in town and asked me to run through Mt. Fearmenot in 180 steps. ...I hope she knows that it mostly consists of flying. I did it with only 88 steps and got 2 Rubies.

My happiness will now be abolished: While there are no Game Gyms (minigames) in this world, there is a Fitness Gym, and they're showcasing... the Flexibility Set. If I get a B-rank or higher I will earn the Leg Raise Lv.2 Fit Skill! It consists of...
  1. Seated Forward Press (x26)—This Abs Fit Skill has you spread your legs very wide while sitting on the floor, putting the Ring-Con to its left, and pressing it down. You're graded on how hard you're able to sustain the Ring-Con press. The game isn't aware of how flexible your legs actually are, and encourages you to bend them slightly.
  2. Fan Pose (x24)—This Yoga Fit Skill asks you to sit and extend your left leg diagonally, and bend your right knee and pull your heel in. All while holding both arms straight up while holding the Ring-Con, and then tilt your body to the left. (Then halfway it changes all lefts to right, and all rights to left.) Your back needs to be held straight the whole time, which I find impossible while extending my leg out. So I keep that one bent in order for my back to be straight. The game doesn't care; you're graded on how slow you go and your Ring-Con position.
  3. Standing Forward Fold (x14)—Stand up with your feet spread wide. Have the Ring-Con and your arms behind your back. Bend down, keeping your arms extended behind you. The key is to go slow. Also a Yoga Fit Skill, but there's no Pose signifier.
  4. Revolved Crescent Lunge Pose (x24)—An old Yoga favourite of ours. Put your left/right foot forward, have your other leg behind, keep the Ring-Con in front of your chest, and revolve the Ring-Con so your (opposite-side) elbow touches your front knee. 12 repetitions per side. The game will grade you before your elbow will actually reach your knee.
  5. Warrior I Pose (x24)—We've been doing this Yoga Fit Skill for this entire world, and the last one. 
I passed the whole gym with an average score of 99 points for an S-rank. Leg Raise Lv.2 is an awful Fit Skill. Anyway, next level... Fluttering Heights! Also not much to say here. But the next thing we can do is fight Dragaux, so that's all for tonight.

Ring Fit Adventure Fluttering Heights snowman coin eyes gold World 12 snow
I think this is adorable. I'm a sucker for snowman designs like this.
Better than Mizzter Blizzard.

Wednesday was a day off so I could play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Very necessary practice. Thursday, though? Dragaux-busting time. Honestly, I've missed his general presence in my life. ...Unfortunately, Guru Andma appears, and explains this isn't a Dragaux Stadium, but a Temple of Balance, and she has some friends she'd like me to meet. This involves using the Wing Ability in a giant tunnel that has severe headwinds, so we need to flap (abdominal press) rapidly to make any progress. If getting through the tunnel isn't incentive, there is an EXP Medal that's flying ahead (unaffected by the headwinds) that we want to be able to obtain. And we did so and got out of the tunnel.

Ring Fit Adventure Temple of Balance World 12 Wings of Daddalus Dragaux stone tunnel carving
Despite Dragaux not being physically present, the tunnel entrance has a stone carving that's literally his face.
Did he build that? ...Did Guru Andma?

Remember Ball? From the first few times we've seen Guru Andma? It was a Sufferfish enemy. Apparently it figured out mitosis, and divided itself into a Green Sufferfish and a (colourless) Sufferfish. Plus, there's Guru Andma in the middle. It's a three-way boss fight!

This time, Guru Andma isn't a total Wobbuffet and just sending my attacks back. I did a Warrior II Pose Lv.2 to hit all three opponents, and she countered with a massive Arm attack. Definitely not a counter to Yoga. On my second turn, I did a Warrior I Pose Lv.2 to defeat the Green Sufferfish, not hitting her at all, and she did her arm-leg-abs Tri Attack. But when I did the Leg Scissors Lv.2 (Abs Fit Skill) to hit her and the Sufferfish, she countered with a giant Abs attack. When I did a Standing Twist (Abs Fit Skill) to hit both of those again, she... fell asleep. Instead, the Sufferfish did a giant terrible attack that we had to MEGA-AB-GUARD to great effect. I wonder if she'll do nothing if hit by the same Fit Skill type two turns in a row? Well, I tried that with Legs... and after putting me through a giant wide squat, hitting her with a Leg Fit Skill (Thigh Press Lv.2) made her shoot out a small-energy foot at me. So she didn't do nothing... but it was underwhelming and she won't do the same massive attack twice in a row.

After beating Guru Andma, she thought Ball's mitosis would double their power, not halve it. Well, World 12 complete, besides some requests. Let's do those. A Lady wants me to run through the otherwise-useless Tornado Temple without fighting any monsters. After failing at the same spot twice (due to not being able to successfully jump over the monsters), I employed some Russian interference, ate Kefir Yogurt, and made all of the monsters disappear from the course. This somehow didn't disqualify me, and the Lady gave me the top part of the Peacock Contender clothing set; the Contender series is one you may remember from General Store 3 many weeks ago. This one has much better stats, and increases green-skill attack power by 5% if you have the whole set. Which I don't.

But speaking of green skills (Yoga), the Flexibility Set Fitness Gym has a request to get an average score of 90 points, which I did, and got 500 coins for. In fact, my average score was... a perfect 100 points. Ha. Meanwhile, in town, Honey the shopkeep wants me to wear the full Game Machine set, which is a very easy request, since I have it on already. She gave me a Peach Yogurt.

The last request of the whole world is from Daddalus, the titular figure of World 12: Wings of Daddalus. He kind of disappeared from the narrative after we got the Wing Ability, though. The reason? His son, Kiddalus, has disappeared after trying to research monster behaviour to make that monster-bashing robot he said he'd make after we did his request a few days ago. He was last seen at Fluttering Heights, and my objective is to search for him! Unfortunately, even though this SHOULD be the most interesting request, it's a mere matter of going to the end of Fluttering Heights, beating the generic Protean Shakers and Mallusk at the exit, and then somehow finding Kiddalus as a dialogue box proclamation once the level is over in the overworld. Kiddalus says he'll name his robot Mosnter Crusher Robo-Koopa#5969, which is a bad name. Daddalus gives me the shorts for the Peacock Contender, and we've 100%-ed World 12.

The game never quite explained how Kiddalus made it across the big Wing Ability section with no method of flight, but we're done for Thursday, of course.

Yes, I'm playing the game on Friday. Should I be practicing for the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament? Yes. Am I? Apparently not. Instead, I'll start World 13: El Dorago. This is a cursed world that Dragaux controls every aspect of, so presumably the name is of his divination. It's some dragon thing from Yo-kai Watch, apparently. In El Dorago, there are wanted posters everywhere of the Ring Fit Adventurer (which Ring may or may not also be on), so the population is terrified of our presence. Honey and Hubby let us in their store safely (though Hubby wants to report me to Lord Dragaux), where they are selling a Stone Dragon clothing set apparently made up of Dragaux Statue parts? There's no set bonus for having it. It's just powerful. I haven't encountered any Dragaux Statue parts though, so...


Ring Fit Adventure world 13 El Dorago wanted posters lady
May I see my wanted poster, or are you only going to tell me about the wanted poster?
I wanna see myself on it!

This place has six Dragaux Stadiums that are all simultaneously accessible with no details distinguishing any of them, and they all have a DEFEAT DRAGAUX mission. Plus one guy in town who wants me to find and hand him a Dragon Fruit or else he'll turn me in to Lord Dragaux. Uh... let's first try the Stadium on the left? This one features multiple Chair Pose-powered rail-carts, and two Tree Pose maneuvers to avoid Slinkbug infestations. Lots of Yoga-based things. At the end was... a fightable mini Dragaux statue. That could shoot LASERS. Scary, but considered a normal enemy and not considered a miniboss. That gave me access to a treasure chest in the overworld containing four Dragon Fruit, which pleased the townie and got me two Rubies for one of them. Behind the treasure chest was something far more nefarious: Squattery Wheel (Advanced), offering a Dragon Drink Recipe for successful completion.

Ring Fit Adventure El Dorago Mini Dragaux Statue laser attack ab guard
Mini Dragaux Statues can also jump and punch you, but lasers are cooler to talk about.
Beating them gets you a Mini Dragaux Fragment for the Stone Dragon set.

May I remind you that the Dragon Drink is the Dragaux-branded instant-level-up drink that I still have a bottle of from Week 7? After getting 90 points (A-rank), I learned the Dragon Drink Recipe is... five Dragon Fruit for one Dragon Drink. I don't have five.

Ring Fit Adventure Dragon Fruit
I had four.
More importantly, “the Americas” is mentioned, so that's canon too, instead of just Russia.
Interesting how Dragaux's favourite fruit is American, despite him obviously not being American.

Immediately after completing that Squattery Wheel (Advanced), a robot townie asked me to score at least 50 points within 40 seconds for 500 coins. After completing that and getting the cash, I headed to the right-most Dragaux Stadium. The entire level was two massive sets of stairs (which you must knee-lift through) and one Mini Dragaux Statue at the end. Beating this got me access to a treasure chest with Arugula and Ashitaba smoothie recipes, which are purely health-restorative. That also gets me access to this world's Battle Gym, consisting of four rounds of only colourless enemies that have no weaknesses to exploit. I learned that a colourless Protean Shaker's special ability is to lower the strength of three of your Fit Skill types, and increase the strength of the fourth. Immediately after passing that for 300 coins, the robot in town wanted me to beat it again (without recovering health, which I didn't do the first time anyway) for 2 Rubies, which I also did. Then I called it a night.

Ring Fit Adventure Exercise Log week 12 world 12 13
Even if you discount Saturday as legitimate, the rest of the week has been exhausting stuff.
Fortunately, I can take breaks now without fear of missing out.

Find out how El Dorago ends with Ludwig as he'll continue playing Ring Fit Adventure into his 13th week... next week! Do you think any of the remaining Dragaux Stadiums have Dragaux, or will Ludwig have to clear them all to unlock the true Dragaux Stadium? Also, what do you think of Ring Fit Adventurer's wings? There was a whole lore part of the Wings of Daddalus world involving Kiddalus having his wings burn up due to being close to the sun, but Ludwig never wrote it down because he thought it would come up in the storyline. It turns out it didn't, and therefore Ring Fit Adventure has actual lore in it, which surprised him. What do you think of Ludwig hating achievements unnaturally manipulating player behaviour?


The question about where Dragaux is is the subject of Week 13's fitness log.
Daddalus puts his genius to non-useful work as a consultant in World 35.
El Dorago in its entirety is covered in KoopaTV's Week 36 for World 36 Fitness Log, including Dragaux Statue videos.

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