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Friday, March 19, 2021

Ring Fit Adventure Fitness Log Week 32: F.L.E.X. System

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - With spicy relationship drama!?

I'm pleased to present the 32nd week of KoopaTV's Fitness Friday series! This mostly features my playthrough of Ring Fit Adventure for Nintendo Switch, but sometimes there's other things in the log for you to read as well.

I'm playing through the Extra Fitness mode, which means I've already gone through the main story and its worlds. Extra Fitness's shtick is that I'm going through all of those worlds again, but now with brand-new dialogue to reflect we're training our bodies to be even stronger (which applies to me in real life, since I'm keeping fit to prepare for the Olympics this summer for Team Koopa), as opposed to saving the world.


This week, we're in World 32: Extra Fitness Lv. 207, which is based off World 9: Flex Dojo. This is Armando's world, and he's the master of... arms. Also, I get the impression he really likes fellow Nintendo Switch game ARMS, since he's constantly talking in ALL-CAPS about ARMS.

The world opens up continuing Armando's character development he got from the end of the normal Adventure Mode, so here's my obligatory spoiler warning to stop reading this if you care about Ring Fit Adventure's story and characters and don't want to read about their character development and don't already know about it...


Ring Fit Adventure Coach Armando Flex Dojo World 32 lady women
There's this lady...AND another lady!


Basically, Armando opened up the Flex Dojo back in World 9 because he wanted to spread arms training throughout the land... and he also wanted to attract a secret admirer—a girlfriend, by impressing them with bulging biceps. Unfortunately for Armando, all he got to the Flex Dojo were a bunch of children. Respectably enough, he's not romantically into kids, but he still helped train their muscles. Armando gained a big complex of seeking out external validation, since he didn't believe in himself. This was all while having a vain exterior personality to disguise his inner frailty.

I guess now in Extra Fitness, Armando finally gained self-confidence along with big biceps, and now he has multiple female clients while he acts as their coach. He wanted to give me personal training, but I need to get through a few levels first while he says good-bye to his ladies.

My first Sunday activity (and I feel like I have a lot less time to do anything thanks to Daylight Saving Time!) is to enter Town to General Store Number 28 and buy out the Silver Cocoon II (Set Bonus: Increases defense power by 5) and Cinder Beetle II (increases attack power by 5) outfit sets. Collectively, they require a lot of money, two Onyx stones (which I got), and two Topaz stones (but I only have one!). I need to find another Topaz. Somewhere. The first actual level of World 32 is called No-Brakes Mine, so maybe I can... mine for one? And immediately I'm greeted by a demonic and non-responsive glitchy Overhead Side Bend cart track. Fortunately, by the very end of the level, there's a squat-activated Treasure Chest with... one Topaz inside! Which means I can finish my shopping spree.

I've often written how bad the Overhead Side Bend carts are, but here's video of it:




With that now taken care of, the next level is Flyover Wilds. It's a low-key delightful level full of wild deer roaming through the fields. You get to roam with them.

Now there's a fork in the road. I can head to Armando now, but I'll go to the warp zone to let him spend more time with his ladies. I get three options at this part of the warp zone, but I'll get to all of them tonight. And unlike my Week 9 log, I'm actually attaching a photo aid to help you follow along:


Ring Fit Adventure World 32 Extra Fitness Lv. 207 Flex Dojo overworld map warp zone
We're starting at the threesome of levels at the bottom left and the chest,
but later in this world we're tackling the rest of the warp zone.


My first activity is the Fitness Gym Chest Set, offering a 425-coin bonus for completion at an A rank or above. I should mention I'm on difficulty level 29.
  1. Front Press (x26)—I strongly recommend taking a deep breath before each repetition, so you have air to breathe out during it.
  2. Overhead Press (x26)—Exact same recommendation regarding your breathing.
  3. Revolved Crescent Lunge Pose (x24)—Revolved Crescent Lunge Pose used to be one of the best Fit Skills in the early game, but it's fallen off hard so we're not using it anymore unless it's for these kinds of challenges. It actually is pretty hard if you focus on keeping your back straight the whole time, but not hard like squats are hard.
  4. Warrior II Pose (x24)—Pretty relaxing pose to end the set with.

Easy S rank and money! After that, I similarly cleared the Smack Back (Novice) Game Gym, with a less-thrilling prize of a Deep Red Smoothie. It's a great drink, it's just I won't really need it, I don't think. Otherside Street was more of a.... whatever-side street (and not even a street), with nothing to say about it besides how bleak it was. And finally... the overworld treasure chest to end Sunday night on contains... three Super Arugula Smoothies! ...Yuck. And unnecessary.

I skipped Monday because I woke up with a lot of pain in my left hip, and I was sleepy the whole day due to Daylight Saving Time, which you should contact your member(s) of Congress about if you're reading this from the United States. By Tuesday, neither of those problems have fully resolved, but I better suck it up and get a move on anyway if I want to finish the world by Friday.

I headed over to Arms-Race Gym to defeat Armando, equipping the Cinder Beetle II outfit for optimal attack power, since I don't want to get into a prolonged fight with him. It's not that Arms Fit Skills are difficult... but they can quickly get tiring, since they're all targeting just your biceps or triceps, with little variation.


Ring Fit Adventure Armando World 32 system F.L.E.X.
I'm surprised Armando even knows what a system is.
...Eh, that's not fair. He wasn't characterised as being stupid in this game.


Armando, uh, invented a whole new system of exercise, which I sure wasn't expecting. Maybe his new character development also gave him the mental capacity for...wordplay?

Ring Fit Adventure Armando World 32 fitness level extreme exercise flex
What was he doing before? Moderate exercise? (FLMX?)
Also, this confirms that Armando pronounces it Eff-El-Ee-Ex.
(Or else we wouldn't know it stood for something.)


When Armando got below half health, he unleashed his SUPER ATTACK, a big red energy punch, which I needed to hold a Front Press for 34 seconds to deflect. Armando went down soon after, without much else to say for the rest of the world. (He did drop a Topaz, though.) Some training session that turned out to be.

Ring Fit Adventure Armando World 32 defeated outflexed my FLEX system
Armando didn't fight any differently than World 9, so I'm not sure what the F.L.E.X. system even did.


I easily cleared the level after, Beltline Tower, which has wild Raspberries if you're interested. Afterwards, there was a fork to head left (to Dragaux) or right (to the warp zone and an overworld Treasure Chest). Obviously going to the right. The chest had one Dragon Fruit, and the Game Gym before heading to the warp zone is Dreadmill (Novice). Clear it with an A rank and get 5 Persimmons! What can you do with Persimmon? ...I have no idea. I looked through all of the smoothie recipes multiple times and none of them have Persimmon as an ingredient, so I either haven't unlocked it, or it's...purposefully useless. (I later saw I have an EXP-doubling Persimmon Smoothie in my inventory... but no recipe to make it.) By the way, I got 8800 on Dreadmill. The max is 9000. I feel very bad for missing those last two tokens, because 8800 is my high score coming into this. Would've loved to finally S rank it. So I tried one more time... and it's not the same sequence every time you play it. For some reason, it was easier, and I got the 9000 S rank! (With the title: Turning a Profit!)

Next time I play, I'll be clearing out the warp zone. I already started with the Rare Hoplin encounter, beating the two of them (1,000 base exp each) with a Side Step Lv.3 and a Knee-Lift Combo Lv.3. All that's left in World 32 are two Game Gyms, two normal levels, and the Dragaux fight!


The first Game Gym is Squattery Wheel (Novice), offering a Strength Drink for A rank completion. I got 95/100 points on my first try, which is an all-time high score for me. Still not an S rank, but if I tried to do that for Squattery Wheel I'd be here all night. And in pain. The last Game Gym of the world is Bootstrap Tower (Novice), which offered one Topaz for getting an A rank. I got another high score: 12,700 points (up from 12,300), but that's still not a perfect S rank score if I want that. I feel a lot better about grinding for an S rank for Bootstrap Tower (Novice), but... instead I'm heading over to the next level: Otherside Waterway. There was...water, sure. Not river water you have to row through and not swamp water you have to knee lift through... so it might as well have been grass. Whatever. The waterway guarded the last overworld Treasure Chest of World 32: one Defense Drink.

The last level before Dragaux's in World 32 is the Pushpull Shrine, which back in World 9 I originally gave compliments to for its creative level design. Ever since, I've continually failed at being successful with its block puzzles and I've come to... not really like it. Case-in-point: I immediately failed to pull the block at the first block I needed to pull. I've never sucked THAT early before! But later, I reached the Treasure Chaser (official name for the running squat Treasure Chest you got to chase) and got 100 coins, only possible if you push a block far enough (but not too far), and then manage to jump on it, and then double jump off that to a higher platform where the Treasure Chaser and a bunch of coins are. It takes a lot of coordination (which is why I usually fail at it), and my best advice is to walk, not run, as you're trying to manipulate blocks. Or... sometimes, you won't want to move at all and just stand still. The second squat Treasure Chest in the level, which requires jumping off a block you land on that's falling down a slope at the proper time, has a Dragon Fruit.


Ring Fit Adventure World 32 Pushpull Shrine pull block beginning failure loop
Since the game wants to make sure you understand the concept of pulling blocks towards you into a hole,
if you fail, you'll fall into the hole and circle back to the start to try again in a loop until you get it.
(Here, I pulled the block into the hole but...fell anyway, since you can pull the block while you're below it, too.)


Other than the beginning pull block goof-up, I actually successfully cleared every puzzle in Pushpull Shrine, which I think is the first time I've done that. Who knows how much treasure I've left behind in Adventure Mode! Before I ended Wednesday night, I went back to the Bootstrap Tower (Novice), and with just one (more) try, S ranked it with 13,900 points—a perfect score! This granted me the Hardcore Climber title. w00t! Dragaux, I'm gonna get you next! (...As opposed to... trying to get Squattery Wheel's S rank...)

The last stage is Dragaux Stadium, with Dragaux saying that even though Armando owns the Flex Dojo, Dragaux is still the big boss in charge of training me. Dragaux said that Armando being hung up over getting a girlfriend as his core fitness motivation could only lead to being unhappy, and you got to learn to love yourself and not depend on the attention of other people.

Ring Fit Adventure relationship drama Allegra attention Dragaux NOT THE POINT dialogue
I've said this numerous times already, but Ring is literally the antagonist of Extra Fitness mode.
That's not a joke. He is literally the driving force of bad things and drama.


And then Ring brought up that Dragaux wants to get the attention of Allegra... which enraged Dragaux and started an us vs. Dragaux fight. I'd rather side with Dragaux here, but alas... Between Dragaux's standard repertoire of punches (which hurt slightly more than usual, but nothing life-threatening), he had TWO super attacks. When he was still over half health, Dragaux jumped back to throw humongous boulders at us (one at a time). You need to break them with several air blasts, which you can spam a bunch of in a very short amount of time and not miss, since the boulders take up most of the screen. Then he did another super attack when he had about a quarter of his health bar left, which was jumping to the back and blowing a series of fireballs that oddly had meteor-falling sound effects. One air blast would take out one fireball; it's just there's a bunch he is breathing out at once. Both the boulders and the fireballs may contain health-restoring hearts...for some reason.

Ring Fit Adventure Dragaux fireballs super attack air blast World 32 boss fight battle
You may know Dragaux as a bodybuilding dragon, but that's typical for dragons.
You know what's really unique to him? He can BREATHE FIRE!


Eventually, Dragaux fell to repeated Fit Skill rounds, and dropped a Topaz, quite a bit of money, and enough experience points to get me to level 250. (Level 250 has no special rewards associated with it or anything; just 9700 experience to get to the next level.)

Ring Fit Adventure Dragaux sets up a doctor appointment nice guy
I wonder if Dragaux being a nice guy is where his women problems stem from.


After the fight, Dragaux said that Ring needs to visit a doctor, because Ring keeps hearing things that were never said. Dragaux then flew away, apparently to set up that doctor's appointment. (This references the end of World 30 where Dragaux said that no one ever heard him muttering about wanting Allegra's attention. ...In a “you better forget you heard it or else.” sense. It's good continuity.)

Ring Fit Adventure Week World 32 Exercise Fitness Log
For your information, I'm playing Ring Fit Adventure for far longer than the times on-screen.
It's just not counting the time spent on menus/stretches/me typing up my logs as I'm playing it.



World 33 will be a big collection of Game Gyms, so Ludwig will have lots of opportunities to get S ranks where he doesn't already have them. However, they'll be Advanced difficulty, which has different ranks than Novice difficulty, so the Novice rankings he lacks will have to be obtained through separate means, like Custom Mode. Let Ludwig know if he should quit playing Ring Fit Adventure and just watch soap operas if he's fascinated this much by character-to-character relationship drama.


Last week's world was World 31, which focused on abs instead of arms.
World 33 isn't drama-based, but Ludwig made substantial opportunities and gains as it relates to the Game Gyms.
Armando retires the F.L.E.X. system in World 55, but introduces the S.W.O.L.E. system as a replacement.

8 comments :

  1. Neat! Just beat Metroid Fusion, you should get it. Less than 10 bucks on the eshop! I now that has nothing to do with this post, but I've recently been on a 2d Metroid binge and I'm going crazy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm way ahead of you on beating Metroid Fusion...!

      Delete
    2. Terrific! Can't say I'll check out the 3d games but the 2d ones are right up my alley. What about zero mission or super?

      Delete
    3. I've never played Zero Mission but I did play and beat Super Metroid.
      (I've also beaten Prime and Prime 2 and...uh...quit playing Prime 3 and I've felt guilty about that.)

      In terms of comparing them, I like Hollow Knight more.

      Delete
    4. I've been thinking about getting hollow Knight as I've heard many good things about it. I know its a metroidvania and there's updates right? What's your favorite part about it. I just can't get enough of upgrade games.

      Delete
    5. I mean, there's not STILL updates to it.
      Besides my knight plushie, probably the art style and level design.

      Delete
    6. sorry i meant upgrades. You would think every metroidvania would have upgrades, but apparently some don't.

      Delete
    7. Oh, yeah, there's definitely upgrades to the powers you get that let you access new areas.

      Delete

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