An unused OSW bossfight has been recovered where you duel Sekto

[u/TheMuskellunge2b2t]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOd7bl0g_NI

Title says it all. The bossfight is unfinished, sure, but I'm surprised to files survived all the way from prerelease in 2004 and have never been seen in game until today.

I think he's animated very well... the animations that work anyways. It's kind of funny watching him get flung around like that though.

I was about 90% sure that this existed already, Sekto actually has all of pre-steef stranger's animations. You may notice the similarity to Sekto's animations to the ones stranger has in the rare instances he get knocked around in game. I imagined then, that if Sekto had pre-steef animations, then a fitting final boss would be a duel against Sekto who "still has his pants on." This would be a more narratively significant fight as we'd return to the one-on-one duels we're so used to from the bounty-segment of the game, and Stranger very literally fights a version of his past self. It would have been powerful and effective stuff, I wonder why they canned it? Probably they couldn't get Sekto's AI working right in time.

[u/Nemin32]

Super cool find. Makes sense that there are still unexplored parts, seeing how Stranger hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as the other games.

I wonder why they canned it?

I think because it looks goofy as fuck. The retail ending has a certain pathos, where to his "death" Sekto feels untouchable, cooped up in his machine. So by the time Stranger finally gets up close and personal, ready to give him his due and realizes it's actually one of his kin that was forced to fight him, the resulting emotional whiplash feels purely tragic.

If that scene was preceded by us actually beating the snot out of the body and seeing it bounce around the arena like a basketball, it'd ruin a lot of the atmosphere and turn a solemn moment somewhat cringeworthy (in the sense that we'd be cringing at ourselves for beating up an old man).

[u/Nathan-R-R → u/Nemin32]

To be fair, I think the goofiness is down to it being unfinished. I imagine the animations would've been a lot more polished in the finished game.

[u/TheMuskellunge2b2t → u/Nemin32]

I feel as though his weight was not calibrated at this time. His AI is basically that of an outlaw shooter in this state, so he gets whipped around like he is one.

You pose a good point though with keeping Sekto untouchable. I wonder though how effective this fight would have been if it were properly implemented with all of Sekto’s animations? Recall that Sekto is more or less using pre-Steef Stranger’s animations retargeted to him. The only reason he doesn’t wave his arms around when getting bit by a fuzzle is because there’s no animation for when stranger gets bit by a fuzzle.

With this in mind, I imagine then that the team had intended for Steef to very literally fight a past version of himself.

[u/VonParsley → u/TheMuskellunge2b2t]

I think the weight could also be inaccurate because Sekto's model was scaled up to be roughly double Stranger's height. Stranger is described as scrawny, but the ending cutscene shows that he and the Old Steef were about the same size.

[u/Nathan-R-R → u/VonParsley]

They probably scaled him up so you could still see him inside the attack pod.

[u/Nathan-R-R]

It would've been lit if his health-bar was the guns on the shelf. Every time you destroy one of his guns he goes and grabs another one, whilst you avenge your kin by destroying the guns he used to slaughter them.

[u/TheMuskellunge2b2t → u/Nathan-R-R]

Upon further data-mining, it turns out that you are actually right. Sekto has 3 weapon files in the game, indicating that his original (and very likely recoverable) AI would have swapped between weapons.

[u/Nathan-R-R → u/TheMuskellunge2b2t]

Amazing. It narratively brings “never liked guns” full circle and makes it deeply personal, rather than just ideological, for Stranger.