Amasarok - 1
There he was. Standing there. Eyes glowing, shoulders hunched, wide-toothed grin, as if the blasted thing was mocking me. Everything I had done up to this point hit me like a freight train at that very moment. Was I ready for this? Hell no. But here I was, face-to-face, with Amasarok, the final boss of Scales of Time: The Land of the Scorched. Here we go…
My first instinct was to scan the environment in which the battle was to take place. A huge pit of lava hissed menacingly from the far end of the enormous cave (a fire dragon WOULD live here I guess), but otherwise silence filled the vast cave where Amasarok resided. I turned the camera to the left only to find jagged, black rocks jutting out from the ground. Could I possibly lead Amasarok into a pointy doom? Unlikely. Amasarok might have been a giant, fire-breathing dragon with killer instincts, but not dumb enough to die by rock.
Disappointed, I panned to the right side of the cave only to find the same rocks decorating the landscape. Since I had not overstepped that imaginary line that triggers enemy encounters, Amasarok remained near the back of the cave. At that point, I knew that I couldn’t rely on the cave to help me defeat Amasarok. After all, this was his domain.
I took a long, deep breath, wiped my sweaty hands on the sides of my legs, and pushed my bangs out of the way. The watermelon flavor from the piece of gum in my mouth was non-existent at this point, but I kept chewing as if this gum was going to fuel me in battle. Slowly, I tilted the joystick forward and watched my burly level 70 dwarf mage traverse the obsidian cave. With a final check of my equipment and a weak “You can do this Maggie,” I pushed the joystick all the way and felt the roar of the dragon bleed through the speakers.
Amasarok moved effortlessly through the cave as his eyes locked on to my mage, who was named Ganko (“hard-headed” in Japanese), and I died a little inside. I glanced up at the top of the screen and saw a ridiculously long health bar – at that point I knew this battle was going to be brutal. Amasarok made the first move and swept his giant claw in my direction, but with a simple push of the square button I (I mean Ganko) dodged with ease. However, the dragon came back with his other claw and knocked the dwarf right on his back. Ouch. My health bar decreased 15%, but I did not let that deflate me.
I changed my strategy and decided to analyze Amasarok’s attack patterns first. As the sweat collected around my palms, I led Ganko around the battle field in circles, dodging here and there when needed. Soon enough, I was able to deduce the fiery dragon’s pattern: double-claw swipe, bite, rise up on haunches, stomp attack thingy, fire breath, repeat. I knew that my best chance to get some good hits in was after Amasarok’s fire breath since the dragon needed time to refresh the cycle.
As if on cue, Amasarok reared up its scaly head and unleashed a massive fire breath in Ganko’s direction. However, I instinctively pressed circle and was able to dodge right underneath the flames. Now was the time to unleash hell! I pressed triangle and triggered Ganko’s Ice Blades spell to hit Amasarok multiple times, landing a critical along the way. Yes! The dragon’s health bar shortened, but I knew the battle had just begun.
At this point, I knew I was going to have Ganko dance around until the opportunity presented itself again. In my mind I began thinking “Wow, this last boss is a breeze.” Did all the blood and tears truly culminate in this anti-climactic battle? Was my journey throughout the demanding Scorchlands a big, fat joke? While I asked myself these questions I snapped back to the game and prepared Ganko for another dodge-Ice Blades sequence. As I expected, not-so-scary-anymore Amasarok covered the battlefield in flames, which was Ganko’s cue to roll-dodge underneath. I was about to press triangle when all of a sudden an alien sound filled my ears. SWOOSH. Ganko flew backwards right over the rocks and straight down into the dark abyss below.
“NOOOO!!! Shit!!!” I threw my PlaySphere controller at the floor.
What was that attack? How come I had not seen the tail sweep up until now? Did I really lose the battle just like that?!
Face red with anger and fists clenched, I looked back at the screen to see “You are dead. Continue?” in bold, white letters. As much as my gamer half wanted to try again, my sensible half kept telling me that I needed sleep. I checked my clock. 2 AM. Whelp, guess I’ll try again tomorrow…
I snatched the controller from the floor, moved the selection over to No, and pressed X. As if to tempt me, the screen showed “Are you sure you want to quit?” I selected Yes before I could change my mind. Amasarok can wait another day to meet his inevitable doom.