Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 18: Cold, desolate experience

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - My game experience was honestly meh. Hope my log ain't.

It has certainly been an interesting week on KoopaTV, but we'll end it the same way we've been doing for the past several months (though it hasn't felt like that long): with KoopaTV Fitness Fridays featuring Ring Fit Adventure!

I finally increased my difficulty level to the maximum amount: Level 30. Now... let's fight through World 18: The Iceman Flexeth! The first level is called Shivering Valley, and we encounter an underdressed woman named Thermia whose only form of communication is shivering at us. Our stated mission is “Search for warm things!”

Ring admonished Thermia's lack of clothing, but has he seen what I'm wearing? That's not appropriate for winter.

Most of the level was just flying around (Shivering Valley is not a new level design but a palette swap level) and getting a French Onion Soup recipe (which prevents monsters from appearing with onions and cream cheese), but there was a Garnet Belldog forced fight at the very end. Not a miniboss. Just a regular durable enemy. It dropped a steaming-hot hand warmer (with monster drool) which defrosted Thermia. She told us that her friend is frozen and in distress too, at Wintry Watchtower.

To my surprise, there's a Berserk Robocycle there (I thought we wouldn't see them after World 17!). To my even greater surprise, Thermia's friend is Honey from the General Store!

You know, Honey has a pretty cute dress. No idea what's with her hair, though.

That means we get to go to the town and General Store 16, where Honey reveals the new village chief mandates that everyone can only wear light clothing, and since apparently everyone is a law-abiding citizen, that's why folks are so cold. Apparently, this new chief shouts a lot, and if you really have enough muscular spirit and concentration, the cold won't affect you. Ring believes the new chief is Armando, which makes sense considering how this game progresses its storyline.

Before we go confront the chief, let's do... some sidequest stuff first. Dashley appeared in town and wants me to complete Shivering Valley within 210 steps, which, again, most of it is just flying. I did it in 150 steps and got an insta-level up Dragon Drink. Then I proceeded down to the treasure chest south of town and got a new Fit Skill! ...Overhead Squat Lv.3. I replied with an expletive, clearly ungrateful. The chest was guarding the Aerochute (Advanced) Game Gym, which wasn't foggy or anything, so I cleared it on my first try without incident and collected 400 coins. This gave me access to a warp zone and another chest. The additional chest contained a Kale Recipe, allowing me to make a Kale Smoothie (heals five and a half hearts, made from two Kale) and a Super Kale Smoothie (heals nine hearts and cancels negative status effects, make from three Kale). Disgusting, but clearly the Super Kale Smoothie is resource-efficient. That chest guarded the Core Crusher (Novice) Game Gym, which I actually performed much more competently in compared to the past, and I actually got an A-rank in it, unlocking the Game Athlete achievement, which is to get A-ranks in all novice Game Gyms. I also got the recipe for the Cherry Smoothie.

Entering the warp zone still keeps me on the same screen (the whole world is in one screen), but gives me access to a Rare Hoplin fight for 4000 experience (there's four of them) and then Snowflurry Valley, a generic stage that's notable for the non-fun experience of flying through fog. However, it also has the dark-influenced animals from World 17! (Blue Dark Hart and Red Dark Eagle.) 

You can now see that I obtained (Spring Dancer) pants!
Unfortunately, you can now not see anything else. ...Not because the pants are mesmerising, but because there is fog.

Clearing Snowflurry Valley got me access to the Red Ingredient Recipe I collection, featuring...

1. Blood Orange Juice — For 1 Strawberry and 2 Blood Oranges (though I only have 1 Blood Orange), I can make a juice that heals 5.5 hearts and raises Red Fit Skill attack power by ↑↑! Orange juice of any kind still sucks, even if blood is delectable.
2. Apple & Tomato Smoothie — Described as “[a]n interesting combination!” in-game, this takes 2 Apples and 1 Tomato to heal 3.5 hearts and switch Fit Skill colours to red.
3. Fig Smoothie — 2 Fig + 1 Kale = Red Fit Skill attack power ↑↑ and Fit Skills are recharged.
4. Plum Juice — For 2 Vinegar, 1 Plum, and 1 Sugar, I can increase Red Fit Skill attack power by ↑ and switch Fit Skill colours to red. I lack a plum, however.

Unfortunately, it also gave me access to a new Fitness Gym, so that's enough playing for tonight. Level 30 difficulty will truly be put to the test with that. 

My shoulders and back actually hurt throughout Monday, so I didn't play. In fact, they hurt Tuesday. I don't know if my daily posture is poor, or my shell is heavier, or I'm just pre-emptively in pain because the new Fitness Gym is the Shoulder Set. I get 400 coins for clearing this:

1. Overhead Arm Spin (x60)—This Arms Fit Skill has one stand still, hold the Ring-Con above their head with their arms fully stretched out, and move their arms in a circle. 
2. Shoulder Press (x20)—Another Arms Fit Skill. Place the Ring-Con on your left shoulder and press it down... then do the same for the right shoulder. 20 repetitions per shoulder. Easy to get 100 points on, just keep the Ring-Con pressed down for the whole duration of the repetition.
3. Hinge Pose (x28)—An awful, glitchy mess. Widen your legs, and have your left (or right) arm extended under your face. Then your right (or left) arm goes from the 12 PM position on a clock to 3 PM (or 9 AM). The tip wants you to have your figure fully bent over and your non-Ring-Con holding hand on the floor, but if you try that, the detection will goof up and it'll be very uncomfortable. 14 repetitions per side.
4. Standing Forward Fold (x16)—A Yoga pose, like the previous and next exercises. You are supposed to extend your arms behind your back (which are holding the Ring-Con), and then bow forward while extending your arms in front of you. It will register as a repetition while the Ring-Con is above your head and not forward, though, which is goofed up.
5. Warrior II Pose (x28)—A reliable, friendly Yoga pose. Extend your arms to the side (T-pose, except your legs are squatting/bent) and slowly rotate your arms from your palms facing up to palms facing down, and vice-versa, while your left or right arm holds the Ring-Con. (14 repetitions per side.)

I must admit that my shoulders feel better after doing the Shoulder Set, as opposed to previous Fitness Gyms where the body part it's supposed to focus on feels much worse. While getting 100 points on the Shoulder Press and all three Yoga poses is easy (reiterating a point made in previous weeks: you will get a perfect score on a Yoga Pose as long as you do it slow enough), I was getting weird 95, 98, 99, 85, whatever, points on Overhead Arm Spin. Consequence of being on level 30 difficulty?

The next level, and this is actually to the storyline, is Freezing Freeway. First, we had to use French Onion Soup to defrost a man, who warned us a big black dragon flew past the Chief's House, and the Chief's House has a guard dog. 

Despite being named Freezing Freeway, most of the level is just rowing through unfrozen water.

Freezing Freeway had some plums growing, so I could make Hubby the Plum Juice he desires and get two Amethyst. Since I levelled up to level 159, I earned enough skill points to unlock Overhead Hip Shake Lv.3, a very powerful and very fun all-range move (395 base power). I also got another request in town from Game Gym Counter to clear the foggy Core Crushing (Novice) with 6000 points or more without hitting a robot's shield, for two Amethyst. You can play very patiently and succeed there, if your controls are acting properly.

The next level is called Rail to the Chief, which worries me because the rail sections in this game aren't fun. I was right.

The level afterwards is an obvious miniboss fight: Chief's Foyer. Miniboss fight... with miniboss music. Versus the Garnet Pitbell (and a Dark Scuttlebell+)! The soupless snowed man we saved didn't mention the Dark Scuttlebell+. Garnet Pitbell's MEGA AB GUARD half-health attack is basically a weird tornado because it can spin in place really fast. The MEGA AB GUARD requires us to basically squat and push the Ring-Con to our abs.

The Garnet Pitbell was spacing out and doing nothing for a plurality of its turns.
Sad!

With the Garnet Pitbell put down, I next played Ring Fit Adventure on Thursday. I could go right for Armando, but... let's do the newly-opened requests. The first one for tonight is to run through Snowflurry Valley in 190 seconds, because if you run fast enough, you'll get sweat in your hair, and if there's sweat in cold weather, your hair will freeze and look cool and we'll be popular. That's according to a man in town, who wants us to try it. After completing this, apparently his theory is accurate, and he gave us 800 coins and said I look more popular already.

Huh. I've never been the boss of an ice world before, but maybe I should volunteer for that next time Koopa Kingdom gets fortresses across the Mushroom Kingdom to guard against Mario. In any case, I'm happy this request had some lore-related effort put into it, unlike the next one.

In the next request, Thermia (remember her? Frozen lady from the start of the world?) wants me to go back to Wintry Watchtower and destroy 40 or more crates, without asking her for a reason why. I broke all 50 and got the Arms Master...pants. There's no full opportunity for the full set (which boosts Arms Fit Skills by 5%), as we have no more requests left for now. Last level of World 18: Chief's House. Defeat Armando! Most of it is jumping over spiked logs rolling down stairs as you must climb them up, although there was an interesting section there you're running/jumping downhill and have to land in-between sets of spikes. At the end is our boss fight... Armando, with a Garnet Belldog+ and a Garnet Matta Ray+ at his sides.

Armando is not gonna have a good night, that I can tell you.

I wiped out his crew in two turns (with a Tricep Kickback and Overhead Arm Spin), as well as got Armando to half of his health...which means a mega attack I must defend against: With a 40-second Overhead Press. This defence knocked his energy arm back to him, lopping off another 1/4 of his health bar. One Overhead Arm Twist later, and Armando is out. In three turns. Wow. What a loser.

Oh, this is the first time World 18's overworld map shows up in a screenshot in this article?
Well, here it is. After it's done. Pretty small.

Armando lets slip that Dragaux is in the next world (because of course he is), but before we go there, three requests have opened up in World 18, and if I finish those, this world will be 100% complete. I gotta say, it's been very non-memorable.

One of those requests is Honey wanting me to wear the full Spring Dancer clothing set. Easy. She gave me two Persimmon Smoothies, which each double my experience points. I'll gladly take that. I'm sadly taking the next challenge, which is to “Pass through all of the rings and clear the course!” in the Aerochute (Advanced) Game Gym for an 800 coin reward. I should note this is not equivalent to “Get an S-rank!” because you can either pass through the ring's centre (full points) or its periphery (half points). Lastly, is the obligatory “do the Fitness Gym again” mission, for the slightly lovely Shoulders Set, for a reward of the Arms Master top clothing.

You can either look at 99 points as “Great job!” or “Why didn't you do it PERFECTLY?” I'm of the latter mindset.

With all that done, World 18 is complete! ...I'll take ONE sneak peek at World 19: Getting Rusty tonight, and play more on Friday...  Apparently, World 19 is Robot Land, and there aren't really humans around besides Honey and Hubby from the General Store. The Robots talk in out-loud binary, or Binarese, which Honey understands so she can sell to them. 

I feel like this is supposed to be analogous to something, but I can't quite put my claws on what.

The first level of World 19 is the Ohohwan River. (I supposed you pronounce that as 001 River.) It's raining, and the robots are concerned about their metal getting rusted. Ring remarks that the rain doesn't seem to be the work of Dragaux, which at least confirms that Ring doesn't have Dragaux Derangement Syndrome. Along the river (and its long rowing sections), we obtained the Red Ingredient Recipe II from a treasure chest, containing...

1. Red Mix Smoothie — 2 Apples, 2 Tomatoes, and 2 Cranberries = Red Fit Skill attack power ↑, Fit Skills all turn red, and heals 5.5 hearts
2. Tomato Herb Smoothie — 2 Tomatoes, 1 Cinnamon, and 1 Lemongrass = 3.5 hearts of healing and Red Fit Skill attack power ↑↑
3. Pomegranate Tea — 2 Pomegranates and 2 Black Tea Leaves = Red Fit Skill attack power ↑↑ and all your Fit Skills have a red colour
4. Strawberry Shake — 3 Strawberries and 3 Vanilla Ice Creams = Red Fit Skill attack power ↑↑, Fit Skills all turn red, and heals 3.5 hearts

Fun. Friday night we get to head to the Wanoh Hills, a filler level. Well, besides the Fitness Machine bottom and shoes we find there. We need the Fitness Machine whole set to understand the robot's language. Fortunately, in General Store 17, they sell the top. The robots have humourous dialogue. They also sell the Battle Machine set, which like the Game Machine set from many weeks ago, increases experience point gain by 5%. (Except this one has cutting-edge stats.) I'll put it on for the next level, the Battle Gym! (Which has robots that speak human-speak, also for economic reasons.) It's a five-round Battle Gym, also featuring the Green Dark Flamingo and Red Dark Eagle I thought I wouldn't see again!

Honey learned Binarese to do business with robots, and the robots learned human-speak to do business with humans.
Something seems inefficient here.

A thirsty robot that needs a Strawberry Shake was guarding the entrance to Ohwanoh Factory. (Apparently, smoothies are robot fuel.) Upon refueling it, it gratefully let us pass. This was another generic palette swap level with massively missed opportunities for lore. Wouldn't it be cool to have witnessed, you know, a factory at work producing the robots we see around here? But nah, nothing in the background like that.

While it is true that I am great, humans are trash.

I'll complete the night with... A MINIBOSS BATTLE at Heave-Ho Checkpoint. And what is here to greet us? A giant Garnet Scuttleknell with a Garnet Megaphauna+ and a Dark Megaphauna+ here to buff it (or summon other enemies). Apparently, this Garnet Scuttleknell was stopping anyone, including the robots, from passing to the right side of the map. There's still things to do on the left side (namely the town and its requests are there, and there's a Fitness Gym...) but I'm done for the night.

I'm done for the week, too. Look at all I've done!
(Sunday and Thursday having identical calories burned is kinda cool.)

 

Ludwig is upset that today marks when Ring Fit Adventurer and Dragaux are officially deconfirmed for being playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as they feature in a Spirit Event. He thinks World 19 is more interesting than World 18 so far, though he's looking forward to eventually reaching the end of Adventure Mode.


World 19 is concluded here, and World 20 also begins!
World 41, the Extra Fitness version of World 18, was actually a bit more interesting!
In World 42, Honey abandons learning Binarese and instead teaches the robots English.