Beat the game an year ago with Gauntlets and thought of doing a NG+ now aiming for the Shura ending. I just reached the Duo Guardian Apes and had some thoughts regarding this boss encounter.
The design decisions regarding this boss really puzzle me. So the entrance is guarded by Snake Eyes Shirafuji and the boss is directly encountered after this fight. Now if you used some resources to fight Snake Eyes, its important to track back and rest at an idol before this fight lest you lose sen and experience in case you die. For a new player, it’s difficult to realise that.
The first phase of the boss fight is not difficult for an experienced player and can be finished without using any emblem or consumable. The second phase however where the brown ape appears is interesting. Last time I played I spammed the fireworks constantly and killed the white ape quickly first before 1v1 the brown one. It took me a few tries but it was doable. This time however I decided not to use any emblem thus no prosthetic items. I use Sakura dance for the first few tries but couldn’t get the job done. Now after dying a couple of times I realised that I have no emblems left because I used them all up and all my sen is gone as well. I think you lose 50% sen every death and by 3-4th attempt everything is gone. I do not wish to use the coin purses yet but that got me thinking that for a first time player even coin purses are finite because you need to use sen for upgrades and consumables.
It just doesn't feel like good game design where the game becomes harder the more you die. I remember in my first playthrough fighting Lady Butterfly and using up all my stock of snap seeds but still being unable to kill her. Ultimately I learnt to just run around the arena dodging the kunais, alleviating the need for seeds. This feels like a similar situation. Now I am not a fan of the game being made easier for you if you are dying a lot but its another thing to make it more difficult locking you out of your skills unless you go farm respawned enemies and come back to have another go at the boss.
I don’t think its a very easy boss and that everyone here just killed the two apes on their first few tries without depleting their emblems. How did you guys deal the apes without using any prosthetic items?