Final Heavenly Sword Boss is a Cheese-Monkey

[Musashi]

So after I spend long enough on the 2nd round getting the counter timing down for the sky lightning, I find the same strategy/timing completely ineffectual in the 3rd. This also tends to happen when he's at a critical point where he can't lose more health until getting flung into the catapult/tower.

Talking of which, I want to know whose idea it was to make this scumbag regain health any time the cinematic attack fails, never mind whose fault it was, but more on that later. That might be fair if there were also health jars for Noriko. But there aren't, so it isn't.

But the worst part: in spite of all the cheapness, I bring him down to zero health, watching closely for reaction buttons. The last one appears, I press it, clear as day. A few times for good measures even. The game decides to ignore it, plays the fault sequence, and returns health to the guy, leaving me with not nearly enough to get him back. Noriko dies, I storm away from the game.

I had the guy dead to rights and got robbed. What a rip.