Ade
;3
New Mop-Up Operation # 4 (NMU4)
Special note: This review is looking at the quest in its Hunter’s Boost Road form without the timer involved.
Objective / Mission Bumper: Military Commission: Eradicate the outbreak of monsters around the subterranean desert’s middle levels. (Desert 2.)
Client: Pioneer 2 Military
Reward: 22,000 Meseta on Ultimate difficulty plus Shichishito (low tier katana) on first clear. Subsequent clears still pay the full Meseta reward but give a Scape Doll in place of Shichishito. (Thank God.)
Author: Sega / Sonic Team
History / Tidbits:
I left Sega PSOBB after getting my first character to Lv. 165 because the in-game cheating started to run rampant around this time, so I know very little about the history surrounding NMU4. There wasn’t much Subterranean Desert content available (besides Free Field) when I left the game.
Because I didn’t become familiar with NMU4 until playing it on Schtserv years later, I have to politely bow out on this section. This makes me sad because I’ve specifically been told the history segment is many readers’ favorite part of these reviews, so if any former Sega PSOBB players have interesting facts available, please let me know. I’d be happy to add them to this section and give you credit.
Enemy Counts:
Source: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/New_Mop-Up_Operation_4
Gimmick / Theme:
Defeat all the enemies. That’s seriously it. And I love it.
A quest that simply tells the player to go kill stuff will never lose points for using that as a standalone objective. It represents the overwhelming majority of PSO.
Section Score: 20 out of 20 possible points
Enemy Density / Placement / Pacing:
The quest begins with medium to strong enemy density and eye-pleasing wave placement. It keeps the pace very consistent throughout.
(Now that's a cool looking spawn!)
Combinations of Gorans and Pyro Gorans make for interesting combat due to their slight behavioral differences. Although this applies mainly to melee and ranged characters, Forces must still be aware of the compositions if attempting to merge-swap or otherwise avoid redundant Technique casting.
Most Sand Rappies spawn a good distance from the player and can be easily scared off with ranged attacks or Techniques. Having the choice to skip these enemies and speed up the run is welcome.
Merissa A’s appear in decent quantities throughout, but often spawn very close to doors or other points of interest, giving non-trap users little time to react. Although this is easily mitigated by memorizing the spawn placement, it came off as a bit cheap the first time.
One major benefit to this quest is the complete lack of Zus, which should have never been added to Desert, in my opinion. (Astark would have been a much better choice for a repeat Crater enemy since Zus always get stuck behind walls or chasms, but I digress.) Although Zus drop some desirable items on certain Section IDs, not having to deal with their glitchy Desert behavior was a blessing.
Goran Detonators are lacking. Only three appear in total, and they don’t appear until the second-to-last wave. This was an odd choice given that Free Field Desert sprinkles them all throughout the maps, so treating them like some climactic “big deal” didn’t make much sense. Sonic Team loses a few points on this decision.
Only one Girtablulu resides in the final wave of the quest, but this is understandable since early Sega Episode 4 quests seem to have painted Girtas as the “big bad” of the area, and used them sparingly until later in Episode 4’s lifespan.
Oh, I almost forgot. Satellite Lizards and Yowies are there, too. They’re just sort of…doing their thing: walking slowly and barfing on players. Bring something to poke them with. In all seriousness, there’s a good chunk of both variants. They never came off as overused or annoying, which is what counts.
Section Score: 27 out of 30 possible points
Challenge / Fairness:
NMU4 doesn’t throw anything unfair at the player in the way of combat save for the few dubious Merissa A spawns mentioned earlier, and no points were taken off in this section since that was already addressed. Waves appear, best approaches are extrapolated, and combat happens. The PSO circle of life, so to speak. This quest does an especially good job of that, and doesn’t impose a bunch of confusing or disjointed waves on players. (I’m looking at you, Maximum Attack 3!)
There are a few dangerous traps placed near enemy waves, but some of the transition areas also have needlessly high-damage traps (with no other enemies around) that serve no purpose other than potentially one-shotting the player; effectively making them an HP check. Using traps like this is dumb, and Sonic Team was way too interested in it. Bring an Android.
This quest also commits the biggest PSO sin: Needlessly wasting the player’s time, and on multiple occasions! First, a couple of long corridors (with zero enemies) serve as the perimeter of the large central room of Desert 2. Although a few containers are placed in these corridors, it would have been better to shuttle the player around with green warps and move the extra containers to the end as a reward.
Second, a number of dead ends are marked by doors that APPEAR to be open but are blocked by huge boulders on the other side. This is annoying because it adds another low-value (but necessary) thing to memorize, whereas most quests simply keep the doors locked to avoid confusion.
Finally, there’s one instance of a huge backtrack through several fully cleared rooms and hallways after pressing a laser fence button. Maybe Sega was hoping this would help them eek out a few more monthly subscription fees by keeping players busy with pointless activities? A green warp placing the player back on course after pressing this button would have gone a long way. It speaks volumes that parties feel the need to leave a Telepipe at the fence, but solo players are out of luck. Big points were deducted for this. As I mentioned in my review of Lost Hell Pallasch, actions like this are insulting to the player’s valuable time, and will not be given leniency.
(Okay, so I just press this button...)
(...and run back through the room I just cleared...)
(...and an empty hallway I came through 45 seconds ago...)
(...and ANOTHER room I just cleared...)
(...and STILL ANOTHER hallway I just visited a moment ago...)
(...and NOW I'm back on track. What an amazing, immersive experience.)
As a parting thought to this segment: I know I said I wouldn’t mention the timer, but one could argue that these “time waster” mechanics were added to keep the pressure on. On the contrary, this same effect could have also been achieved by simply adding the warps I suggested and cutting the timer down by however much time these filler areas intended to waste.
Section Score: 15 out of 30 possible points
Reward for Effort: NMU4 is a mostly quick quest that pays a high Meseta reward and a Scape Doll each time it is finished. Nuking Forces with TP-saving equipment can rack up big money by spamming this quest, and Charge Weapon users (save for Vjaya) should be able to recoup most of their losses. Building up piles of Scape Dolls for later use never hurts anything, either.
Section Score: 20 out of 20 possible points
Overall: NMU4 comes as a welcome addition to this month’s HBR, which was otherwise weighted very heavily toward Episode 1. It holds up well even today due to satisfying enemy waves, better-than-average hunts for a few key items, and a generous reward. Perhaps a few heartbroken Anniversary Event hunters who didn’t get the Heaven Striker of their dreams will find redemption this month. We can only hope!
Overall Score: 82 out of 100 possible points
8.2 / 10
Explanation of review / why I am I doing this: Every month I want to review one quest from HBR. I really enjoy being creative. I used to like drawing and writing, but my current profession does not provide a lot of creative outlet. I hope these reviews are enjoyable and create discussion.
All reviews are going to be done on Ultimate difficulty since the vast majority of the game takes place there.
Thanks for reading!
Special note: This review is looking at the quest in its Hunter’s Boost Road form without the timer involved.
Objective / Mission Bumper: Military Commission: Eradicate the outbreak of monsters around the subterranean desert’s middle levels. (Desert 2.)
Client: Pioneer 2 Military
Reward: 22,000 Meseta on Ultimate difficulty plus Shichishito (low tier katana) on first clear. Subsequent clears still pay the full Meseta reward but give a Scape Doll in place of Shichishito. (Thank God.)
Author: Sega / Sonic Team
History / Tidbits:
I left Sega PSOBB after getting my first character to Lv. 165 because the in-game cheating started to run rampant around this time, so I know very little about the history surrounding NMU4. There wasn’t much Subterranean Desert content available (besides Free Field) when I left the game.
Because I didn’t become familiar with NMU4 until playing it on Schtserv years later, I have to politely bow out on this section. This makes me sad because I’ve specifically been told the history segment is many readers’ favorite part of these reviews, so if any former Sega PSOBB players have interesting facts available, please let me know. I’d be happy to add them to this section and give you credit.
Enemy Counts:
Source: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/New_Mop-Up_Operation_4
Gimmick / Theme:
Defeat all the enemies. That’s seriously it. And I love it.
A quest that simply tells the player to go kill stuff will never lose points for using that as a standalone objective. It represents the overwhelming majority of PSO.
Section Score: 20 out of 20 possible points
Enemy Density / Placement / Pacing:
The quest begins with medium to strong enemy density and eye-pleasing wave placement. It keeps the pace very consistent throughout.
(Now that's a cool looking spawn!)
Combinations of Gorans and Pyro Gorans make for interesting combat due to their slight behavioral differences. Although this applies mainly to melee and ranged characters, Forces must still be aware of the compositions if attempting to merge-swap or otherwise avoid redundant Technique casting.
Most Sand Rappies spawn a good distance from the player and can be easily scared off with ranged attacks or Techniques. Having the choice to skip these enemies and speed up the run is welcome.
Merissa A’s appear in decent quantities throughout, but often spawn very close to doors or other points of interest, giving non-trap users little time to react. Although this is easily mitigated by memorizing the spawn placement, it came off as a bit cheap the first time.
One major benefit to this quest is the complete lack of Zus, which should have never been added to Desert, in my opinion. (Astark would have been a much better choice for a repeat Crater enemy since Zus always get stuck behind walls or chasms, but I digress.) Although Zus drop some desirable items on certain Section IDs, not having to deal with their glitchy Desert behavior was a blessing.
Goran Detonators are lacking. Only three appear in total, and they don’t appear until the second-to-last wave. This was an odd choice given that Free Field Desert sprinkles them all throughout the maps, so treating them like some climactic “big deal” didn’t make much sense. Sonic Team loses a few points on this decision.
Only one Girtablulu resides in the final wave of the quest, but this is understandable since early Sega Episode 4 quests seem to have painted Girtas as the “big bad” of the area, and used them sparingly until later in Episode 4’s lifespan.
Oh, I almost forgot. Satellite Lizards and Yowies are there, too. They’re just sort of…doing their thing: walking slowly and barfing on players. Bring something to poke them with. In all seriousness, there’s a good chunk of both variants. They never came off as overused or annoying, which is what counts.
Section Score: 27 out of 30 possible points
Challenge / Fairness:
NMU4 doesn’t throw anything unfair at the player in the way of combat save for the few dubious Merissa A spawns mentioned earlier, and no points were taken off in this section since that was already addressed. Waves appear, best approaches are extrapolated, and combat happens. The PSO circle of life, so to speak. This quest does an especially good job of that, and doesn’t impose a bunch of confusing or disjointed waves on players. (I’m looking at you, Maximum Attack 3!)
There are a few dangerous traps placed near enemy waves, but some of the transition areas also have needlessly high-damage traps (with no other enemies around) that serve no purpose other than potentially one-shotting the player; effectively making them an HP check. Using traps like this is dumb, and Sonic Team was way too interested in it. Bring an Android.
This quest also commits the biggest PSO sin: Needlessly wasting the player’s time, and on multiple occasions! First, a couple of long corridors (with zero enemies) serve as the perimeter of the large central room of Desert 2. Although a few containers are placed in these corridors, it would have been better to shuttle the player around with green warps and move the extra containers to the end as a reward.
Second, a number of dead ends are marked by doors that APPEAR to be open but are blocked by huge boulders on the other side. This is annoying because it adds another low-value (but necessary) thing to memorize, whereas most quests simply keep the doors locked to avoid confusion.
Finally, there’s one instance of a huge backtrack through several fully cleared rooms and hallways after pressing a laser fence button. Maybe Sega was hoping this would help them eek out a few more monthly subscription fees by keeping players busy with pointless activities? A green warp placing the player back on course after pressing this button would have gone a long way. It speaks volumes that parties feel the need to leave a Telepipe at the fence, but solo players are out of luck. Big points were deducted for this. As I mentioned in my review of Lost Hell Pallasch, actions like this are insulting to the player’s valuable time, and will not be given leniency.
(Okay, so I just press this button...)
(...and run back through the room I just cleared...)
(...and an empty hallway I came through 45 seconds ago...)
(...and ANOTHER room I just cleared...)
(...and STILL ANOTHER hallway I just visited a moment ago...)
(...and NOW I'm back on track. What an amazing, immersive experience.)
As a parting thought to this segment: I know I said I wouldn’t mention the timer, but one could argue that these “time waster” mechanics were added to keep the pressure on. On the contrary, this same effect could have also been achieved by simply adding the warps I suggested and cutting the timer down by however much time these filler areas intended to waste.
Section Score: 15 out of 30 possible points
Reward for Effort: NMU4 is a mostly quick quest that pays a high Meseta reward and a Scape Doll each time it is finished. Nuking Forces with TP-saving equipment can rack up big money by spamming this quest, and Charge Weapon users (save for Vjaya) should be able to recoup most of their losses. Building up piles of Scape Dolls for later use never hurts anything, either.
Section Score: 20 out of 20 possible points
Overall: NMU4 comes as a welcome addition to this month’s HBR, which was otherwise weighted very heavily toward Episode 1. It holds up well even today due to satisfying enemy waves, better-than-average hunts for a few key items, and a generous reward. Perhaps a few heartbroken Anniversary Event hunters who didn’t get the Heaven Striker of their dreams will find redemption this month. We can only hope!
Overall Score: 82 out of 100 possible points
8.2 / 10
Explanation of review / why I am I doing this: Every month I want to review one quest from HBR. I really enjoy being creative. I used to like drawing and writing, but my current profession does not provide a lot of creative outlet. I hope these reviews are enjoyable and create discussion.
All reviews are going to be done on Ultimate difficulty since the vast majority of the game takes place there.
Thanks for reading!
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