Review: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4
At last! The final chapter of the genre and style swapping experience that is Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness was released on June 7th. I was a big fan of the first chapter, not as much on the second one just because I didn’t much care for some of the attack mechanics. The complete departure from the style of the previous two when Zeboyd took over was a lot of fun in the third chapter. I loved the shit out of getting to play some 16-bit JRPG retro goodness and subsequently purchased Zeboyd’s other games. Did the 4th installment of Rain-Slick meet the expectat….. Of course it did. What kind of question is that? Let’s talk about how awesome it was.
Continuing the journey with a twist
Happens more often than you might think.
Oh hey… some spoilers are probably going to come up if you haven’t played the previous games. So Tycho destroyed the universe by summoning the god of doors at the end of the previous game. Hey, I said there’d be spoilers. Anyway, we pick up with Gabriel punching Dr. Blood in the face as they fall endlessly for a thousand years or so. It seems that hell is the only place that survived and that’s because the fourth god is there. Apparently when it comes to deicide you need to go big or go… to hell I guess. Our heroes find that they’re stuck in hell until they manage to kill the fourth and final god of the quartet. But hell is just a bit too bad even for Gabe’s god punching fists. So our principal characters must lend their abilities as trainers to the creatures they capture with their monstorb. Yup, sort of a Pokémon vibe, but with thankfully fewer monsters (I’ve found 19 in total). Combat still works on the same action bar method as the previous game. Not a big departure, just more delicious options for destruction.
As with previous chapters, the humor in On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 (RSPD4 from here on) was spot on and does not disappoint. Presuming that you did, in fact, enjoy the previous games or that you’re breathing. If you are a zombie, but enjoyed the previous games, don’t forget to grab Ninja Z in the third pillar (go through the red door and slip through the shadow beyond the chest). I bet you can guess what the Z stands for. Even though I spent over 20 hours in the game during the first weekend of its release, I did not tire of the writing. I even found it funny that the Editor in Chief of the Bibliotecha misspelled the name of his faction in one of the dialogue boxes. I may have fallen asleep with the controller in my hand, but that’s exhaustion for you. They really pull out all the stops in RSPD4: blighted hellscape, demon train, dark caverns, a zoo… the list goes on. RSPD4 is brilliantly executed from start to finish.
A few tips for RSPD4
Firstly, don’t rush through the pillars; once they’re done you can’t go back so you should explore every inch of them. There are no random monster encounters, so do not pass up any fights because you’ll want every bit of xp you can get. Secondly, be sure to do some exploring once you get the Daewhale and don’t just rush off to Overhell. Your final two battles with Fish Force can be had at the arena near Effluvia and provide some nice rewards. Cthulhu (world savior) can be found in R’lyeh near the southeastern corner of the world. He’ll fight for you if you can beat him. Then there’s Dr. MissingNo (a nod to the famous Pokémon glitch) in the northwest who provides the trainer bonuses formerly belonging to Dr. Blood. Lastly, try not to do a marathon run of the game and end up passing out in front of you computer. People like to tell stories if they find you passed out with a controller in your hand.
Another quick note about Dr. MissingNo: that guy is a pain in the ass to beat. On top of his powers, he’s also got more HP than any enemy in the game by at least 1. I was only able to do so by getting Dust Bunny up to the highest speed I could manage and keeping the good doctor stun-locked through a combination of Interrogate and Breather while my other characters piled on damage thanks to Mr. Beaks perforating and calling Deep Crow. I also had Brodent use Squeeze the Cheese and equipped him with Gabe for the Devil Knuckle ability and rounded out the party with Philosofly for revive and overkill. Just try to keep him from attacking since he has a group attack that will hit for 20k damage each. I’m going to guess you don’t have that much hp on your characters or I am really missing something that I need to know about.
My recommendation: play the hell out of this thing
If you’re still reading at this point, then you should really just go play this game. Well you should ideally have played the first three chapters of Rain-Slick first. In fact, go pick up all four games for about $20 total on Steam (presuming you buy both combo packs). Yes, you’ll definitely get your quota of dick and fart jokes filled in spades, but you know you like that sort of thing anyway. RSPD4 is a great way to cap off a fun quartet of silly and engaging games.
