Sissy Analyzes Random Things: The Attempt to Crack the "Code" in Cosmic Carnage/Cyber Brawl
--
I'll be honest, it's a silly thing from someone who wasted an entire weekend trying to figure it out.
Why did I do this? Because I wanted to. And I was nuts.
----
The odd backstory that led to this whole thing:
Long story short, this stream by DNOpls started my investigation. Relax and enjoy the lengthy playthrough. Since nobody knew the exact time or requirements to get the good ending, I wanted to know if I could crack the code. He had an estimate of about 15-16 minutes, and with the playthroughs that I've collected and looked at, I do believe that he did a pretty decent guess.
Unfortunately, with this game being... well, this game, that guess seemed to apply to only half the cast.
(Seriously, DNO is a very cool lad, go watch his stuff.)
----
Now, let's look at the various theories below. I know that reading through the observations that I've stumbled upon will not make any sort of sense at first, so I will mention some of the videos that I've found to support these findings. I will also list the respective videos after the explanations.
Theory 1: Time Elapsed and Rounds Won/Lost
To add time, add the "Time Elapsed" for each round that you've won and
lost. Yes, this also applies when you set it to infinite time in the options
menu.
If you watched DNO's playthrough to the end, you heard him say this:
"It doesn't matter if you 1CC the game. It doesn't matter if you don't lose
any rounds, really. It's all dependent on how quickly you get to that ending."
(For those who don't know, a "1CC" is a 'one credit clear'. That means
beating a game without using any continues.)
Now, it is true that the time is obviously the most important factor here. But it's often been thought of as the only factor. After looking through a bunch of playthroughs, it seems that the clock is stacked against certain characters. To explain this in simpler terms:
-The top row characters (Cylic/Jake, Zena-Lan/Ray, Naruto, and Tyr/Karl)
apparently have a 15 minute/900 second in-game time limit.
-The bottom row characters (Yug/Wishbone, Deamon/Finisher, Naja/Stere, and
Talmac/Bolt) apparently have a super strict 12 minute/720 second in-game time
limit.
(For those who don't know, I'm using their Cosmic Carnage names followed by
their Cyber Brawl names. Obviously, Naruto doesn't get a name change. When I'm
referencing a certain character, refer to that name so you can find out what
game run I'm referring to. The names and the story are different, but the game
and end goal
is the same.)
Looking through the runs, it doesn't look like losing rounds will affect the overall time limit negatively... unless you lose too many rounds and it will add up. The deck is already stacked against you if you're a character on the bottom row, so there is literally no room for error there.
A top row example:
Let's look at two different Ray playthroughs. One time squeaks under the 15
minute mark, clocking in at 14:33. Another is a whopping 19:40. I think we know
which one ended up with the good ending.
A bottom row example:
A playthrough with Naja has a total time of 11:16 and gets the good ending.
However, a playthrough with Bolt has a time of 12:29... and gets the bad ending.
Theory 2: Remaining Life
To add your remaining life total, use that from only the rounds that
you've won. If you had to use continues, only add the remaining life from the
set that you won, not the set(s) that you have lost. That number will be out of
1400.
This is where the theory of "time only" went out the window.
I observed a Cosmic Carnage playthrough with Tyr. The run was finished with almost ten minutes on the clock, which was a nice time. Then... the time in the ending sequence was 24 seconds. I thought, 'Alright, 24 seconds shouldn't be a bad time to escape.'
24 seconds wasn't enough. The ending sequence cut off right when the escape pod was set to take off. So this spurred a second theory. Do you have to keep your remaining life high enough to get the good ending as well?
This is an odd factor, isn't it? It seems to affect the top row characters more than the ones on the bottom row.
Theory 3: Kills
To perform a kill, just use a special move that will take your opponent's
life to zero on your winning round, and it needs to be a clean hit or a counter
hit. If a character blocks the final special move, it will not count. Kills max out at seven since single player mode does not have mirror
matches.
(You'll know you've succeeded when you see a lot of blood. A kill can
remove the opponent's head, arms, or simply cut them in half via the torso,
depending on the move that you've used. If you catch an opponent in the air with
a special move on the final hit, you will just cut them in half. Everyone bleeds
red except for Yug/Wishbone, who bleeds a pretty gross light brown color.)
Are kills mandatory? If you're playing a bottom row character... they apparently are. Remember, you're playing as one of the renegades that hijacked a ship and caused this whole mess (according to the story for Cosmic Carnage). Pretty sure that they would run over or backstab themselves to get to the last escape pod.
And the kill factor took effect in a playthrough that used Deamon. The time was well under 12 minutes, clocking in at 9:41. However, that playthrough only had one kill. The playthroughs that involved Naja and Bolt had seven and six kills in their respective videos.
If you're playing a top row character, kills are apparently not required... unless your remaining life total is under a certain magic number.
Let's look at that explanation from the Tyr playthrough in the "Remaining Life" theory. As I went through the video, I noticed that none of the opponents were killed. The playthrough had a total of 917 remaining life out of 1400.
I've also observed a playthrough on the World of Longplays YouTube channel, where Naruto was used. The total life remaining for that playthrough is a super low number (493 out of 1400!), but six out of the seven opponents were killed, so there is a theory that kills might be needed to make up for any awful remaining life totals.
Another example will be taken from the playthrough that involved Ray's time of 14:33. The remaining life total was at 816. However, that playthrough had two kills, and gave the result of the good ending. So the theory here is that kills probably add 100 to your remaining life totals (and in tandem, gives the possibility that your total remaining life needs to be at least in the range of 1000 or more).
(Update: August 17, 2021: I've contemplated using this playthrough, but I've decided to relent and use it anyway. There's a playthrough of Cosmic Carnage that uses Cylic. The time was good, clocking in at 11:33. The total remaining life was listed at 715. There were three kills, which brought the count up to 1015. However, that wasn't enough. The bad ending was acquired.)
----
In conclusion, the alleged way to get the good ending for this game is:
-If you're playing as a character in the top row: Finish in under 15 minutes of
in-game time. Your total remaining life must be over at least 1000. Kills aren't
mandatory if you can keep your remaining life totals up.
--(Update: August 17, 2021) If the Cylic playthrough that I've mentioned is
true, then the magic remaning life number isn't just "over 1000". 1016 or
higher probably nets you the good ending, which means that one of the
listed videos below managed to barely scrape by there. I don't know why
an arbitrary number like 1016 is needed, but there it is, I guess.
-If you're playing as a character in the bottom row: Finish in under 12 minutes
of game time.Your total remaining life is apparently irrelevant. Kills are
apparently mandatory. (You do not need to kill all seven of your opponents. Some runs have
gotten away with 5 kills.)
To be honest, I'm not sure if the remaining life totals for the bottom row
characters even have a certain threshold. Most of the playthroughs that I've
found involved the use of characters that were on the top row
--(Update: September 12, 2021) Is it possible to play a bottom row character,
not have any kills, finish in under 12 minutes of game time, have a remaining
life total of 1016 or higher, and get the good ending? If this is true, then why
is the time the only difference between a top and bottom row character? Is it
through the parts selection where top row characters have armor and bottom row
characters don't have any of it?
(Update: October 6, 2022)
I can't believe this. Apparently, according to this guide by Zachary1021
here, the difficulty also affects the time that you're given to get
the good ending. However, it looks like the general theories still remain the
same. Beat the game, keep your life up, blah, blah, blah.
Yes, I did use his old and new playthroughs for this analysis! How funny!
----
Video playthroughs
Because you can't support your theories without evidence! Credit to all of the
folks that have uploaded their runs to their respective channels.
Unless otherwise stated, all playthroughs are played at the default difficulty
of 3. Most of the analyzed runs will fall under that difficulty.
Top row character playthroughs
Cosmic Carnage - Tyr
(Uploaded by StormStrikerSX9)
Difficulty: 1
Time: 9:41
1 Round Lost
0 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 917/1400
Bad Ending
Cosmic Carnage - Naruto
(Uploaded to World of Longplays, played by ScHlAuChi)
Time: 11:27
0 Rounds Lost
6 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 493/1400
Good Ending
Cyber Brawl - Ray
(Uploaded by Esonator2)
Time: 19:40
3 Rounds Lost
1 Kill
Remaining Life Total: 829/1400
Bad Ending
Cyber Brawl - Ray
(Uploaded by GameDude2)
Time: 14:33
5 Rounds Lost
2 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 816/1400
Good Ending
(Added August 17, 2021)
Cosmic Carnage - Cylic
(Uploaded by Sam Pae)
Difficulty: 1
Time: 11:33
1 Round Lost
3 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 715/1400
Bad Ending
*Note that this run uses savestates; however, the World of
Longplays also uses savestates for most of their game runs.*
(The reason why this analysis existed, tallied up for fun)
Cyber Brawl - Jake (DNO's run)
Time: 42:24 (24:20 was spent fighting Karl alone. If he didn't have to
continue, the total time would've been 18:46. Yes, I tallied all of that,
too.)
21 Rounds Lost; 8 continues
3 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 565/1400
Bad Ending (To be fair, he knew he'd get the bad ending.)
Bottom row character playthroughs
Cyber Brawl - Bolt
(Uploaded by Randomised Gaming)
Time: 12:29
1 Round Lost
6 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 1003/1400
Bad Ending
Cosmic Carnage - Deamon
(Uploaded by Randomised Gaming; this playthrough comes with commentary.)
Time: 9:41
0 Rounds Lost
1 Kill
Remaining Life Total: 841/1400
Bad Ending
Cosmic Carnage - Talmac
(Uploaded by Pochuo)
Time: 10:33
0 Rounds Lost
5 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 1054/1400
Good Ending
Cosmic Carnage -
Naja (Uploaded by Aszaxa; this playthrough comes with commentary.)
Difficulty: 5
Time: 10:19
1 Round Lost
7 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 763/1400
Good Ending
Cosmic Carnage - Naja
(Uploaded by Zachary1021)
This video does not exist any more. However, the end statistics were:
Time: 11:16
0 Rounds Lost
7 Kills
Remaining Life Total: 878/1400
Good Ending
----
That was a lot for an obscure game that got rushed, huh? It was pretty fun to try to figure it out.
--