The Obscurest Chiaroscurist

"The Hype Manta Storm Big Man"

- Intro to Big Man's boss fight.

The Obscurest Chiaroscurist is the fourth boss mission in Return of the Mammalians.

Boss appearance
The boss is Big Man, who, unlike Frye and Shiver, does not rely on other allies; instead, he fights Agent 3 by himself by transforming into a large silhouette of a manta ray that leaves behind turquoise and yellow-green ink dotted with yellow Deep Cut logos.

Walkthrough
Big Man covers himself in his ink, then creates a giant blue shadow of himself that leaves a trail of ink as it moves.

First Phase
When hit enough, the shadow splits and will continue to split if continuously hit with ink; if left alone, the shadows fire projectiles similar to charged Tri-Stringer shots, drop Splat Bombs, or even use Splashdown and Reefslider. The shadows may occasionally become invisible as well, although they can still be tracked by their ink trails or the Hero Gear's Squid Sensor upgrade (the latter having the advantage of marking which shadow is the real Big Man: fake shadows will have a yellow icon, like an enemy, Big Man himself is marked with a red icon, like the goal). Among the shadows, one of them is the real Big Man. If the player hits a fake shadow when it is at its smallest possible size, an Octopod will be launched out of it and explode. Defeating the real shadow will reveal Big Man, leaving him vulnerable.

Second Phase
The shadows will become more aggressive and will attack more frequently. The Tri-Stringer attack will also gain increased range and fire more projectiles at once. The shadows will also split into more copies and may explode in a twister, so the Squid Sensor should be used to quickly identify and eliminate Big Man.

Third Phase
Four ledges will now rise out of the ground, making it more difficult to dodge Big Man's attacks. The shadows will also begin to use Torpedoes and Fizzy Bombs. Otherwise, it is virtually the same as his other phases, with no other new attacks added.

Trivia

 * The boss battle with Big Man is a reference to the boss battle with Phantamanta in Super Mario Sunshine. Besides having a similar appearance of a splitting silhouette of a manta ray, the color of the ink Big Man leaves is also identical to the electric goop Phantamanta leaves (albeit with Deep Cut's symbol). His title, "The Hype Manta Storm", is also a reference to the mission, "The Manta Storm", where Phantamanta is fought.
 * His titles in the Japanese, French, German, and Italian versions also reference the Super Mario Sunshine mission.
 * Some differences include: Phantamanta needs its all shadows defeated to clear the mission, and it doesn't attack directly, but with its electric goop.
 * Similarly to the final bosses of Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, some of the character dialogue changes on repeat playthroughs.
 * Big Man's ink color has the Deep Cut logo similar to Shiver's and Frye's ink colors.
 * The background of his fight has a shinboku, a tree used as a yorishiro that attracts deities in Shintoism. It's distinguished from a regular tree by its shimenawa, decorated with shide.