Mega Man X8 No Damage (Layer): Sigma Palace ~ Final Stage [Hard Mode]

Mega Man X8 (Layer/Zero): No damage taken, where I'm playing through the game on Hard Mode. It's a NG+ file, so of course, I'll have all of the weapons. This is not a minimalist run, so I'm using everything at my disposal, but still remaining fair for the No Damage challenge. This is the Legacy Collection version, so all game-breaking glitches are no longer present and I'm playing Mega Man X8 glitch-free; the way it's supposed to be. Before you ask, the custom music I use will be listed below near the end of the description. Thanks for stopping by.
MAN.
Okay, I wasn't expecting this to be that problematic until I did practice runs for it. I had a harder time with Sigma Palace than I did with Gateway, and that's just friggin' crazy. No matter what way you slice it, Sigma Palace is HARD if you're going no damage. This is only because you're fighting THREE final bosses in a row. All three of which aren't exactly pushovers either. But I'll get to that in a minute. First thing's first, the palace itself. The exterior is fairly simple: a speed running segment that is a blast to traverse through. Mainly K Knuckle usage here to speed things along even further.
Vile is Vile. But in this appearance, he's easy. With the huuuuge room at your disposal, his random flight patterns aren't even an issue, and when you knock him out the ride armor, he's only got one of three possible directions to travel. Once he goes one way, you'll know which way he'll go next (why in the stuffin' muffin' did he not function like this in the Jakob is beyond me). But once he's down, you're practically speed running again through relatively harmless obstacles through the palace until you reach Gano--I mean, Sigma.
THIS is what I call a true Sigma battle. He may very well in fact be one of the harder versions of Sigma, and that's in a GOOD way. The battle's fast paced, he's got a good kind of unpredictable moveset (minus when he does his barrage of sword swipes. He'll always do that after he drops to 75% HP) and nothing feels cheap. If you get hit, that's your own fault 100%, and I admit to failing to Sigma quite a lot because of me not reacting fast enough. The number of warps he does when dropping down with his sword is randomized, so there were plenty of times where I just bumped into him thinking he was going to warp again. Still, couldn't resist throwing Zero in there. I mean, Zero and Layer are 100% similar, so I did a Zero vs Sigma for epic effect.
Lumine... well, the ONLY thing cheap about first form is the same issue with Vile in the Jakob: there will be times where you can't predict where he'll float to, and that'll put you in a position where it'll be difficult to react to. But unlike Vile, Lumine isn't fast with it, so if you're really sharp, you CAN react to it with human reaction speed.
Seraph Lumine on the other hand... he can just go sit down somewhere. He's not hard overall, but certain things he does just rubs me the wrong way. For starters, he does have a set pattern all the way up until he reacts 75% HP (which is a short amount of time), so everything he does beyond that point is mostly RNG. Since he's not like a normal boss, however, this isn't much of a problem. Seraph Lumine isn't very mobile, he lets his long range dish out the pain. The most annoying move he has when he shoots out the diamond shaped energy shots that rain downward. The combinations are all randomized, so you can't practice for it. You just have to... pray the waves of energy aren't too hard to memorize.
All right. I'm done. Think I need a break from this marathon for a while...
Music (BGM):
Title ~ Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact - Jazzy NYC '99
Zero and Layer dialogue ~ Maplestory - Temple of Time
Stage ~ X-Men: Mutant Apocalyspe - Magneto's Space Fortress
Vile ~ Dungeon Fighter Online - Castellan's Chamber (Boss)
Sigma Intro ~ Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Meet Ganondorf
Sigma vs Zero ~ Danmaku Unlimited 3 - Warning!
Lumine ~ Shining Force Neo - Vandolf Battle Theme 2 (might not find this on youtube)
Seraph Lumine ~ Danmaku Unlimited 3 - Danmaku Unlimited
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