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A single mission.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to make AZ sound terrible or disappointing, but being given a single mission (and a follow-up bonus mission) to run for the event’s six week duration leaves a familiarly bad taste. Hmm… it’s the flavor of MAG! D:
Before we get into the event mission, let’s do a refresher on how to use the Photon Reflector, a new tool (for online mode, at least) required for ice SEED purification. First, the Reflector must be placed on your pallet. Don’t worry, it won’t take up a weapon spot. Just like the Photon Eraser before it, the Reflector only takes up a spot in your consumables pallet. Next, you need to track down some ice SEED. As you may or may not remember from previous purification missions such as Operation Firebreak, there are a few steps that must be done in order to purify the SEED contamination: first purify the SEED zoma, next take out the blewme, and finally destroy the core. SEED zoma are small, gray orbs that are encased in large ice formations. Normally, there will be multiple zoma around a single core. Now that you’ve found the zoma, you’ll need a power source for your Photon Reflector. Luckily, wherever there are ice SEED zoma, there are photon spots. Photon spots are naturally occurring wells of photon energy. By standing on one of these with a Photon Reflector equipped, the Reflector can be used indefinitely. If you step off of the spot, however, the Reflector will be inoperable. So, while standing on a photon spot, maneuver yourself around to blast each zoma until its ice encasement melts away. After each zoma is purified, you’ll hear the noise of the blewme shattering. With its protective barrier gone, the SEED core can now be destroyed. Success!
Moving on, Frozen Flowers is Absolute Zero’s main event mission. Accessed from the GUARDIANS HQ on Clyez City 5F, you and your party are whisked away to the Mizuraki C.D. on Neudaiz, once a glorious autumnal scene, now a gray and frozen wilderness. The first block is fairly straightforward. Purify a few monsters, zap the SEED zoma with your Photon Reflectors and destroy the SEED cores to move on. Block 2 (accessible only if you have two or more people in the party) throws a unique situation at you and your party. Some of the SEED zoma are just out of reach of the Photon Reflector’s range. It’s an easy solution, however, as all you have to do to fill the gap is chain together a stream of Reflectors. One person stands on the photon spot (which likes to appear and disappear at set intervals, by the way) and shoots their Reflector at a second person who is within range of the zoma. The second person then becomes charged and can use their Reflector just as if they were standing on the photon spot. Following this, there is a room which requires at least three people to carry out the chain purification. (I recommend having four people for this one, as getting all three lined up just right can be a bit hit-or-miss. A fourth person leaves plenty of room for error.)
Hyuga and his clone.
As the mission continues, we head into Old Hakura Temple, once again contaminated by ice SEED. At this point, you will not need your Photon Reflector anymore, as SEED cores are purified simply by defeating all of the enemies in a room. With that said, there isn’t much to this area, except for a single puzzle room (accessible only if two or more players are in the party). Upon entering and pressing the first switch you see, your entire party will turn invisible. In this form, you can walk through the screen walls that form a sort of maze. Another switch will revert everyone to their physical form, while a foot switch can be pressed to deactivate laser fences. I could go into a whole explanation of how to solve the puzzle here, but it’s really a lot more fun doing it on your own. Just take your time; it’s not as difficult as it might seem!
Once the previous block is cleared, we move into the second temple block. In the mission’s base form, you simply collect your rewards from a set of clear boxes. But once the 25 million kill milestone was reached, a new route was unlocked. If you choose to take this new route, you’ll be transported to what is known as the temple depths. Here, you will be placed in a dark room with a single switch in the middle and numerous (invisible!) enemies swarming toward you. The switch can be pressed to make the enemies appear, but you may find that it’s not too difficult to follow the enemies on your mini map instead. In this room’s initial form, clearing all of the enemies would let you proceed to a new set of clear boxes. After the 50 million kill milestone was reached however, a second temple room was added. Basically, it’s the same idea with different (and fewer) enemies. Here you have a chance of facing one of three different spawns. If you’re (un)lucky enough, you just might get the room filled with Gaozorans, Komazlis and Kagajibaris!
Currently there is at least one more secret panel to be unlocked through the event kill count at 70 million points. It seems likely that this will add another dark room to the temple, but we’ll see for sure in a week or so once that milestone is reached!
You can watch a preview video of the base mission (without the extra dark rooms) on youtube.
That pretty much covers it for the the main event mission. Overall, it’s an enjoyable run, but with it being the only mission the event has to offer (bonus mission excluded, of course, since you can’t get to it without running this one), it can get stale after a while. Speaking of the bonus mission… well, I’ve gone on enough for now. We can cover that one later.
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