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#13: Sally Stageplay
Difficulty: 2/10
Design: 8/10
Fun Factor: 3/10

Sorry Raka :(

Sally might be the most "disappointing" fight in the game, in that I really like the design here but I don't particularly like the fight itself. It feel like it should be a first island fight with how basic it is, but it'll likely be one of the last fights in the game. I had just finished off Dr. Kahl's Robot before this, so it felt a bit like beating literal Bruce Lee in a fight before moving on to fight some guy named Bruce Lee who is an accountant from Akron.

I do absolutely love the second phase of the fight, and it is another one of those segments that perfectly encapsulates the good of Cuphead. You have Sally attacking, babies throwing bottles from the windows, and little wind up animals that you both need to jump over and dodge from above. There is a lot going on and it can get chaotic, but it is a thoughtful sort of chaotic where it doesn't feel like you're just going to get screwed over by RNG.

I also love the design, both in general concept and in execution. The transitions represent different stages in her life, and you go from a chapel to a house full of babies to more ethereal final forms after she "dies". This is also a great example of what I talk about when I say certain levels don't feel "alive" or feel boring, because it demonstrates what Cuphead can pull off when its really trying. Her concerned husband running back and forth in the background during the first phase is great, and similarly the way he morns at the end of the second phase is a cool animation you may miss if you aren't paying attention. And then she has babies helping her during the second phase, and it really just feels like they thought about how the maximize the background which some of the lower ranked levels just don't do. Compare this to Cagney Carnation for example, which takes place in a forest and doesn't have anything interesting going on in the background and you can see how much something like this really helps elevate a fight.

Unfortunately, Sally relies almost exclusively on the presentation because it is a completely unremarkable fight outside of that. I had a harder time getting the A+ rank on this my first time through not because of the fight itself, but because I kept killing her too quickly during the first phase and I didn't see enough things to parry. This has no business being on the third island, because she's even easier than Cagney Carnation and arguably less difficult than Goopy. If you have the Invisible Dash skill here, the only phase you will possibly get hit on is the second. She doesn't even move during the third phase, and the fourth just has you mostly jumping over an umbrella while shooting upwards.

This is a great example at how a good presentation can make a fight much more fun, because I definitely enjoy this more than Brineybeard or Djimmi even though those are probably better designed from a gameplay perspective. Outside of the second phase here, this is a completely unremarkable fight outside of the presentation, and would probably be bottom tier if I didn't like all of that so much.

Which brings us to the last of the "these were good, but I know there's something better out there tier of fights". Everything else from here on out I enjoy a lot.

Plop Tier
19. Goopy Le Grande

Listening To Someone Tell You About Their Fantasy Team Tier
18. Hilda Berg
17. The Root Pack

The Pink Starburst Tier
16. Djimmi the Great
15. Cagney Carnation
14. Captain Brineybeard
13. Sally Stageplay
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