Finally finished

Okay, so I don't normally post twice in the same day, but I feel the need to add on to my earlier post from today. I finally finished Shadow Complex, at least for a few weeks. Maybe by the time I get back into the mood to play another Metroidvania type of game, Metroid: Other M will be out, or I could just buy Cave Story for WiiWare, which I've been meaning to play.

But yes, I have finished Shadow Complex, accomplishing my goal. Just a few minutes ago I beat the game for the fourth time. In doing so, I acquired not only the Minimilist achievement (beat the game with 13% or less of the items), but also the Insurgent Master Challenge (beat the game with 4% of the items). Now, originally I stated that I refused to use a guide, and I wanted to figure out for myself how to sequence break the game. Well, I gave in after spending about an hour running around the few rooms I had opened up, trying to figure out some secret passage. I got frustrated, and resorted to using GameFaqs, and found out something interesting. To actually get the Insurgent Master Challenge, you need to start out the game not by sequence breaking, but instead by using a sort of hidden passageway only available for about 30 seconds after a certain sequence of events. Normally this is sort of sequence breaking, but to me it seems more like the developers intentionally opened this passageway for players attempting to break the game. Yes, I understand that developers purposefully allow players (in most cases) to sequence break if they are good and smart enough, but this was much more intentional than just doing things out of order.

There is no way I would have figured out that this passageway would be open (there is absolutely no sign that a passage would ever appear there), especially having only 30 seconds to get there after one particular event. It was neat, but kinda cheap. Either way, after that I was stoked that I was much further in the game than I should have been, without certain items, but sadly, kept making wrong turns, and found that I couldn't go back. I had to restart the game like two more times (this is after starting the game about three times previously, before I checked a Faq, trying random ways to progress at the expense of accidently gaining 1% and the game automatically saving) before once again checking online where to go. And once again, I would have never figured out how to get past a certain door, though this time, it was definitely sequence breaking and pretty cool, since I only saw this done once in four times of playing through the game. After that I was pretty much home free, quickly acquiring the foam, and then sequence breaking from there on. This included a rather difficult sequence breaking to acquire the missiles, but it was worth it. From there it was easy to figure out how to activate the ending sequence, and finish off the final boss within two or three minutes. My final time was 47 minutes, and I actually beat it with 3% of the items, not 4%. Enough Shadow Complex, I'm gonna find something else to do.