Title: Cloudward, Ho!
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Marya Junková (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Daisuke Bucklesby (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as Vanellope ‘Van’ Chapman (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Montgomery ‘Monty’ LaMontgommery (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Olethra MacLeod (she/her). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Maxwell Gotch (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed them, catch up on our review of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth episodes!

With the Queen of Zern and her minions close behind, our Intrepid Heroes return this week to enter combat in a giant crucible. They’ve had no rest. All their injuries and limitations remain from the fight that first started at the observatory back in Zood. Though they had suggested Ghost Dog was left in Zood, he appears with our group as does Bert.

Zernians go after Freya and Kočka. Keeping her husband close, Van finds a crane, managing to turn it on as she joins the fray.

Maxwell follows suit, launching himself forward and throwing one of their enemies into the lava, incinerating the automaton.

Marya attacks the other, freeing Kočka. The pair then make their way to another crane and power it on. A clockwork snake weaves its way after her; however, Marya blocks its attack.

A dreadnaught charges Monty. Whirling its chainsaw, the monstrous robot nearly bloodies the naturalist despite Courtney dodging. In retaliation, the little dino tries to grapple the machine. Unfortunately, he fails, but Comfrey joins him, giving hope for some redemption and forgiveness between the two former friends. With some help, Monty and Courtney launch the dreadnaught into the lava.

Unfortunately, that’s not it for Monty. As he remains in the lowest point of the crucible, he faces the Zern automatons as they make their way into the crucible.

Higher up, Daisuke makes two bullets out of the Zood gold which Comfrey had hidden in the Zephyr before taking up a position as a sniper, picking off their enemies from afar as Maxwell continues to throw more automatons into the lava. When it comes to overall kill counts in Dimension 20, Maxwell is definitely getting up there. Even if he doesn’t surpass the characters from Crown of Candy or Neverafter, he’s leaning hard into gore.

As the group fights off the encroaching Zern soldiers, they pull parts from the junk piles constructing a giant mech, which they use to make their escape.

Highlights

Dimension 20’s Art Department always hits it out of the park. However, as they switch styles every now again, highlighting different character artists in different series, there are some I like more than others; however, regardless of the character designs, they go all out for the combat maps.

Every single close-up of this Zern junk yard crucible shows unique bits, sacrificed into the trash piles, and the haunting glow of the lava has an extra edge of magma momentum compared to the first major attempt for below-level lava in Fantasy High: Junior Year.

Gears, wheels, and random bits of metal and other items cover likely a mountain mold. Only way I could see this being better is if they had used resin, taking a pile of actual miniature pieces and replicating that pile to form the base beneath the layer of junk, but considering the revamp that happened after the battle at the sunken temple, the crew likely had to create this with less time than their usual endeavors, and it is still amazing.

Final Score (3.5 out of 5 Stars)

The sound mixing being a bit off, to the point where I kept pausing as I thought the background music was coming from another tab. It also didn’t completely match the tone at certain points when the group leaned into bits and the actual fighting paused for conversation and planning.

Also, as much as I love a bit, we didn’t need Wisconsin P. Toad. It really disrupted the flow, and the pacing wasn’t the best this episode before that. If this one came out in an Adventuring Party, I think it would’ve fit better.

Overall, there didn’t feel like much forward progress in this episode. Hopefully, the new mech will prove useful on Zern, but we’ll have to wait for next week’s episode to see. Let us know what you think in the comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

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The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

New episodes of The Boss Rush Podcast release every Monday morning on YouTube and all major podcast applications like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Patreon supporters gain one week early access. 

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