Day 15: The Root Pack

Cuphead and Shadow of the Colossus are two game whose gameplay mainly consists of boss battles. Sure, there's stuff you can do in both games that don't involve beating a boss, but at least 80% of the game is boss fights.

Now I haven't played Shadow of the Colossus, so Valus is out. However, I have played Cuphead, so that means it's time to talk about The Root Pack.

This trio of produce are most likely the first of the debtors that Cuphead and Mugman fight on their quest to collect Inkwell Isle's soul contracts for the devil.

This fight is divided into three phases, starting with Sal Spudder...

(Lyra appears. Expect her to do this a lot this chapter)

Lyra: You mean Moe Tato, right?

Me: That's a fan name, Lyra, and you know it.

(Back to the fight)

Sal only has one attack, spitting out three dirtballs and then one pink worm that you can either dodge or parry. As you dodge and shoot away at Sal his attack gets faster, but he'll eventually slow it down to its original pace. After taking enough damage, Sal goes down and it's Ollie Bulb's turn.

Lyra: Weepy.

Me: Fan name.

Ollie will pop out of the ground and sensing he's in danger, he begins to bawl his eyes out. As you shoot away at him, you need to dodge the tears as they fall from above. Occasionally there will be a pink tear which you can parry. Once Ollie goes down it's then time for Chauncey Chantenay.

Lyra: Psycarrot.

Me: Will you cut that out!?

Being the last phase of the fight, that also means this is the most challenging phase too. Chauncey will use his psychic powers to summon carrots that will home in on you. You need to destroy them by shooting at them in order to get rid of them completely.

After a while, Chauncey will open up a third eye and shoot lazers from it anywhere from two to three times depending on the difficulty setting of the fight. This attack is easy to avoid, but it can be a challenge if there are homing carrots still flying around the arena. After dealing enough damage to Chauncey, the fight is over.

This fight is the easiest in the game, but I still deem it more challenging than some of the easier bosses I mentioned in the marathon. You can make the fight against Chauncey more challenging however, as in later updates of the game, by refusing to fight Ollie Bud you summon a fourth member of The Root Pack in the form of Horace Radish. Horace will basically act like Sally Stageplay's parasol and spin around on the floor chasing you, meaning you'll have to jump over Horace while dodging Chauncey's other attacks.

The fight against the Root Pack does a good job easing the player into the boss fights of the game, while also providing enough challenge that makes it a bit more difficult than your average first boss.

Not bad for a group of produce.