After reaching Inkwell Isle III, I was getting decimated left and right, and I couldn't beat a single level, no matter how hard I tried. I eventually took a break—a good 6 month break! When I came back, I downloaded some guides and figured out strategies to get all the way to the end. I finally managed to get to the Finale about two weeks ago, fighting against King Dice (doesn't anyone consider it weird that Dice gets the main entrance to the Devil's Casino with all the flashing lights and big carpeted walkways and that the Devil only gets the side entrance with barely any room for even a cup to walk in?) and Satan himself.

Surprisingly, and to my immense relief, the fight with the Devil actually wasn't too much difficulty! The first phase is insane, though. With the demons running left and right, their timing was ALWAYS the worst--showing up on one side right as the Devil's Dragon form covered up the entire other side, popping up in the middle of the Ram form's attack...all kinds of ridiculous enraging moments. Once I got down to hell itself, however...it was surprisingly easy and manageable. Now don't get me wrong, I still got killed a bunch of times, because I got panicked and fucked up some relatively easy problems. Then again, I also got screwed a couple of times, especially on the final damn phase with the Devil's tears. For some reason, it never registered my parries and I'd either fall right through or get hurt. By tears.

For quite a while, I was wondering if it actually was possible to parry the tears or if MDHR was setting us up for the biggest troll joke in video game history...but a few deep Google searches confirmed it for me before I could make an ass of myself. Thank God.

So I finally beat it, and saved the Inkwell Isles, all that good stuff. Expert Mode has been unlocked, and I'm already telling you ahead of time--no way in hell! :-D

Here's the video of the moment I accomplished this heart-pounding benchmark!

(Notice that my first time beating it, I actually almost did it perfectly.)

Something else I noticed after the game ended and I checked out the YouTubes--apparently the theme for fighting the Devil—Admission to Perdition—had snuck in the theme motifs of nearly every boss in Cuphead in a massive orgy of mash-up medley madness, highlighting the seriousness of the fight ahead and what(and who) lies at stake. Somebody put up a (half-decent) video with the visual aides, go check it out. These people are very observant of such an amazing musical feat of ingenuity! I certainly couldn't hear it over my bellows of anger and putting my head through every wall of the house...

So yeah, Cuphead is finally finished, and a new Last Course is on the way. What are my thoughts?

Man, this game is great.

What makes the difficulty isn't the small amount of health or the trial-and-error phases of bosses...it's the chaos. Having so much going on on the screen at once, watching out for obstacles and hazards and the bosses themselves--that's what makes it so challenging! Of course, the visuals are incredible and the music is great. Don't really have a chance to do 2-player co-op, but I've seen videos and it is so crazy. lol

Making the weapons and powers interchangable was also a great idea; it allowed people to find and create their own methods of beating their adversaries, which is awesome! The characters are great, too--all of the bosses have something to if not like about them, at least admire--in a white-knuckle, high blood pressure kinda way. Except for Grim Matchstick, obviously. Grim Matchstick makes me want to cut my head off with a dry spoon,shove it inside myself, use a plumbing snake to push it all the way through my intestines and guts, until it emerges back out through my neck hole, catch it in my hands, gently peel all the skin off my head, toss the skull in the trash can, flip the head skin inside out, and sew my hollowed inside-out head back onto my body. Using thread and needle. And the thread is covered in herpes.

Well, looks like I'm off to my next adventure! Which seems to be a combination of the N. Sane Trilogy and cleaning up achievements on Unravel Two. Let's get to it!