Home Games Boss Rush: Jack Of Blades
Boss Rush: Jack Of Blades

Boss Rush: Jack Of Blades

0
0

maxresdefault

Ah, youth! Back when I was just a wee little nerd, still naive in the ways of Peter Molyneux and his bullshit speeches, I remember my brother showing me a little game called Fable: The Lost Chapters. I remember having to upgrade our computer just to run this game, which should tell you not only what graphics capabilities were like back then (the game is rather cartoony by today’s standards) and how crappy our family PC was.

So, having invested upwards of €100 to both upgrade the PC and buy the game itself, you can imagine how invested me and my brother were in playing this. We were sold on a dream of this epic moral game with features never before seen in gaming, and while a lot of those features weren’t delivered until Fable 2 many years later, we were still damn impressed by what we played.

Your character changed based on how you played, be it as a pious warrior dedicated to the protection of the innocent, or as an absolute hell raiser dedicated to flipping off the town guards and getting drunk on the regular. You could be whatever kind of badass character you wanted, and everyone would know your name by the end.

However, that notoriety doesn’t come easy. In order to become the badass, you need to defeat the badass and there is no one in Albion more infamous than the one and only Jack of Blades.

Humanoid Jack

This guy invented the term ‘badass’ from the very second he stepped out of the Void. The first thing he did upon stepping foot into the world with his Court, The Queen and Knight of Blades, was demand that everyone bow down to him. So what does every maniacal super villain do when you don’t show respect? Burn everything to the ground! He literally torched the entire world because people wouldn’t bow to him.

What’s more, when the people of Albion refused to bow again, because let’s face it, this dude is kind of a dick, Jack and the Court lifted the sea into the sky and flooded everything. Admittedly, maybe he was just trying to put out all the fire he started, but it was still a dick move, bro! Again, the third time the people refused to bow, Jack decided he’d had enough of it and just twisted everyone’s mind until they turned insane and finally they bowed to his will. Say what you will about his methods but, hey, he got results in the end, right?

So, I hear you asking, how does one go about defeating someone who is essentially as powerful as a god? Well after a long convoluted sequence in which you’re imprisoned for a year, tortured, and escape you find out that Jack has stormed the Heroes Guild, presumably killing everyone standing in his path, kidnapped your mother and sister and is attempting to use them both to power up a mythical sword that will pretty much destroy everything that ever existed.

Now the boss battle itself is actually pretty standard, once Jack murders your mother (spoilers, by the way!) you’ll fight a bunch of his minions. Before his shields go down, you beat him up, the minions come back, rinse and repeat until done. It’s a method that’s tried and tested a billion times by now, but it doesn’t do too badly in forcing you to round off your character as you need both melee and ranged attacks in order to win this one.

Then, finally, you’ve thrown that last fireball, Jack dies, and you take his mask as a trophy. You can also choose to either keep his sword by murdering your sister or just throw it away. Regardless of your decision, all is right with the world again and you can go back to- Hey! Wait a minute! He’s not dead!

Dragon Jack

Yeah, if you own The Lost Chapters or the recent anniversary edition of Fable, you get a whole new storyline to play with, and no matter how many times you stabbed Jack in the face after removing his mask, he’s just gonna get back up. In fact, not only does he resurrect himself, he turns into a dragon and brings a whole undead army with him. This time around it gets a tiny bit harder as, not only do you have to do a lot of hunting for the souls of heroes to power up an all powerful sword, but Jack can also fly and shoot fireballs and did we mention he’s a goddamn dragon now?!

Again, the fight boils down to the same tropes we expect from video games; hit him in the face, he’ll fly into the air, fight his minions, dodge the fire, hit him in the face again. It takes a fair while based on what method you use. I’m a big fan of the sword to the face technique, but if you want to be some sort of magical Hawkeye or Robin Hood, using a bow works fine too.

Now, finally the dragon has stopped moving. It’s got about 500 arrows in each eyeball, I think it’s safe to say he’s dead now. You’ve saved the day, and Jack Of Blades shall never again harm another innocent child in Albion… Assuming you’re a good character. At the very end of the game when the dragon is lying in a pool of its own blood, you’re told that in order to finally destroy Jack, you need to throw his mask into a pool of lava and all of a sudden this thing becomes the one ring.

It talks to you and tells you that you’ll unlock the power that will make gods envious if you try it on. Tough luck there hero! If you can’t resist that fine looking mask, not only will you die, but Jack is reborn within your body. Now how’s that for a kick in the crotch? But hey, look on the bright side, you’ll never have to hear the Guildmaster say ‘Your health is low!’ ever again!

Have you fought against Jack of Blades? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
SOCIALICON