I've talked about this in IRC already, but I'll talk about it here.
On this day, I have no-damaged The Womb in The Binding of Issac, using
, and some pretty crappy firepower. Seriously, the battle against It Lives (the upgraded version of Mom's Heart), took about 25 minutes. XD
For those who don't know, Mom's Heart "attacks" by summoning enemies for you to fight. It starts out with two Eyeball enemies, which act like the Beamos from Link's Awakening: they shoot laser beams at you and they are a PAIN to get past safely much of the time. Thankfully, I had the Book of Shadows, which makes the player invincible for a few seconds, so I used that time to kill the robots. The boss will disappear until the enemies are dead, at which it appears again for a few seconds so you can shoot it. Mom's Heart isn't too bad, she summons some (relatively) easy foes, sometimes more Eyes, which can be killed by constantly circling the room while shooting. When Mom's Heart gets about 30% health, she stays onscreen and summons some (weak) enemies while tossing bombs at you. Easy enough, right?
It Lives on the other hand...It not only summons the enemies Mom's Heart does, it also summons Knights (annoying enemies that can only be shot in the back, and turn around frequently, and it summons BOSS ENEMIES. Yes. A BOSS THAT SUMMONS OTHER BOSSES. They're not too hard though, just low-tier stuff like Monstro (an ugly blob that bounces around and tries to land on you), Larry Jr. (snakes that slither around randomly and, er...poop), Duke of Flies (floats around like a moron and spawns flies to attack you), and Chub (a giant grub that charges at you and lays smaller grubs). I think there are others it can summon, but those are the ones I ran into. It should be noted that there's only one boss meter on the screen at any given time, so you can't see if a spawned boss is close to death or not.
Getting through The Womb was one thing (though having the Treasure Map and Compass, along with the Invincibility-granting Book of Shadows made it leagues easier). Getting past It Lives was something else.
After trudging through The Womb, I saw the boss door. I hadn't taken any damage. My Book of Shadows was ready. I was gonna take on this boss and get Mama's Boy, or get hit trying. I stepped through the door, and the battle was on. I immediately activated the book and killed the two eyes before they shot me, then started shooting the boss. Now, keep in mind that my firepower was pretty poor (or It Lives had a lot more HP than I expected), I was doing like one or two pixels worth of damage per shot.
has a starting shot power of two notches, and I had it at four when I got here, when I usually have it much higher. The firing rate was decent enough (four notches). I also had slowing shots too, but that didn't matter much on the actual boss since it doesn't move or attack much.
The main threat were the enemies. I had a few close calls with Knights closing in on me at times, enemies spewing projectiles in my direction, Chubs and other stuff charging at me and acting like utter spazzes (like those Larry Jrs)...I don't care if you don't consider The Binding of Issac a danmaku game, there's just as much careful dodging, twitch movements and timing involved as any Touhou, Cave, or other shmup involved. It was a pretty excruciating and panicky 25 minutes of gameplay. I didn't expect the boss to take so long to kill, it doesn't take more than ten minutes (or something around that) using any other character...But keep in mind that I'm using
, and doesn't have the Lucky Foot to help him out.
75% health...Then 50%...As the boss got closer to about 30% health, I got excited and nervous. Last time I got this far in The Womb without taking damage, I got hit by a bomb (that I didn't see running) and that ended that run. I was pretty bummed at that moment, and it kind of turned me off from Issac for a while, but I eventually picked it back up and started playing again, hoping to get that achievement...Needless to say, lots of lost runs there (even an amusing one where I died to a Blood Donation Machine of all things XD), and I was on the verge of just saying "screw achievements, they're not worth the effort anyways" and just trying to collect the remaining items. But once I unlocked
and started playing as him, I felt an urge to keep going and collect that d6. I died a couple times (one was due to bad luck, one was intentional because I had to leave), but this run...I felt compelled to try. I failed at No Damaging the Depths (which I firmly believe is harder than The Womb to No Damage due to some spastic enemies), but I had the Book of Shadows, so I still had a chance.
Who knew that chance would turn into THE run that I No Damaged The Womb? The bombs I saw coming clearly this time (it's a lot safer to stick to the sides than the top or bottom to dodge them), and the enemies were a threat (those firefly enemies that explode into bullets when shot, and the bee-looking enemies that shoot directly at you, among others), but careful and quick dodging saw me through. When the battle was over and Mom shouted out the muffled cry of Issac's name, the end-game treasure chest appeared in the blast-scarred, gib-covered boss room. I never took a single hit, and all I had to do was leave the room and come back to confirm it.
"Issac now holds the d6!" followed by "You got the Mama's Boy Achievement! Holy Crap!" I let out a satisfying cry of victory at that. I had done it, after what seemed like weeks of running into brick walls made of annoying enemies! My achievement wasn't recorded right away on Steam though, but I didn't care. That achievement was firmly under my metaphorical belt, and a simple fix to my game files made it (and seven other achievements) appear on my profile.
October 27th, 2011, 10 PM PST (approximately) will be the date that I will never forget, so long as I still have a working brain. I may not get such achievements in other games, but this was one that I am actually proud of, and worthwhile to get.
