I have 1CC'ed Dodonpachi DOJ White Label on the PS2 today! I used B-S to 1CC it and it was a hell of a ride! Let's start from the beginning.
When I opened this thread DOJ was just impossible to clear with my skills. Even with the help of everyone in this thread (especially moozooh with his mame replay and good tips) I just couldn't do it. I tried several times but I got murdered at the stage 2 boss which at that time seemed so fucking unfair I wanted to throw this game away. And don't even get me started on stage 3...
So I admitted defeat and put it away playing other games. I even 1CCed some games (like Futari Original, yes laugh at me again) and built up my skills while doing so. However i could never completely forget DOJ. DOJ for the PS2 had always a special place in my heart because it was my first bullet hell shmup that I bought. I got into shmups because of a silly video on youtube where someone defeated Hibachi. I thought: "Holy shit! This is insane! What game is this and do space ship shooters still exist?" Yeah, I called shmups space ship shooters back then because I only knew r-type at tht point and in order to not get cofused with FPS' I always called them spaceship shooters. I cannot stress out enough how important videos like "OMG HARDEST GAME EVAR" are on youtube in order to get new people to play shmups. They make a huge impression on outsiders.
The video just blew me away. I had to have this game. I got myself a JP PS2 with a voltage transformator (how do you call these things?) and DOJ for PS2. I hooked it up to my old CRT screen and got fucking murdered. Playing with a playstation controller was not really helping much and the game was so hard that I threw the controller across the room several times. "Why do i suck so much?" I searched for answers and dived deeper into the shmups scene discovering this forum. I read all the threads, got a JP xbox360, a JP saturn, several arcade sticks and started playing shmups. I began to understand bullet hell shooters more and more and after some progress I thought it was time to tackle DOJ White Label, my first shmup, again. At that time I also had the black label version, but it had to be the PS2 version, my first shmup, no matter what. Then I saw an incredible video of sapzdude who cleared Futari 1.01 Original. It may sound stupid to you but it impressed me so much that he defeated the harder older version noone bothers about anymore. I thought : "Hey that's the same situation like mine! I have an older version of DOJ noone cares about anymore too! Wouldn't that be cool to 1CC ?! Let's do this!"
So I started playing this game seriously at the end of January 2013. I played 3h a day but not on weekends and holidays. I always went for the 1CC because chaining in White Label is fucking impossible with SHOTIA and I don't like playing for score. White Label is fucking brutal. SHOTIA is just so slow and her laser sucks completely. You have to memorize everything perfectly because you won't have time to get away from danger. Another problem is: There are no White Label SHOTIA youtube videos (only superplays) or guides. I was on my own and whenever I asked about strategies for White Label the answer would be: "Don't play White Label with SHOTIA. It's horrible!" Every replay and advice is for Black Label in which SHOTIA is a decent choice for a 1 CC. Let me just add that I personally think that 70-90% of the replays with mame on youtube are cheated (some are obiously). These won't help either because they don't work in a real run. So I started practising like a fucking deranged ninja hermit chicken.
STAGE 1:
Stage 1 is pretty easy. I always do a little chain from the first enemies in order to have a hyper for the boss. The Boss is not that simple with SHOTIA. The first pattern can be dangerous so you always have to prepare to stop lasering in order to maneuver quickly away, even more so on the next pattern that crosses itself. It's quite diffficult and sometimes a stray bullet just hits you. That's what I have the hyper for. You can't compare the first boss of DOJ WL with like the 1st boss of ESPGaluda or Futari Original. DOJ is that hard, yes.
STAGE 2:
With SHOTIA everything is simple up to the fucking helicopter midboss. Your laser is so weak, that you won't be able to destroy it before the last dangerous pattern. I had to develop a strategy to always have a hyper for this guy because otherwise you will die here with SHOTIA. There is no other way. Then there is the easy section until the boss. The boss is fucking unbelievable. The blue little turds cross each other and there are constellations you can not dodge and will certainly die. They changed this boss' pattern in Black Label. In White Label this boss is serious shit and takes much more damage. SHOTIA's laser is not good enough and you will have to bomb sooner or later in the first phase. I developed a strategy where I don't take the bomb before the boss and let it float across the screen. Then I would hyper the first dangerous situation doing a little bit more damage. This makes the boss go so fast that you will need to bomb. I always bombed restocking with the bomb that floats around. Then comes phase 2. Phase 2 will once more show you how weak SHOTIAs laser in White Label is. You will have to bomb after dodging the first shots. Otherwise you will definitely die. Don't even try it. It's not worth the risk. The second boss is very hard in Whitle Label imo.
STAGE 3:
Here is where you truly begin to feel the differences between WL and BL. With Shotia shit just won't die fast enough so you really can stop using the laser in the first half. You have to keep your ship in the upper half of the screen and point blank the shit out of everything. For that perfect memorization is necessary because the bullets will start flying faster. You will reach the midboss where I developed a complicated tactic by using a hyper to avoid using a bomb. It's totally senseless to risk anything here so it's better to use a bomb than to die. Of course that doesn't mean that you will not die like a million times or more at this boss. When my hyper tactic fails I bomb immediately. This guy is too dangerous. After that comes the 2nd half where difficulty will ramp up again. Perfect memorization and timing are required here. If you don't destroy the enemies fast enough you will die. If you destroy enemies too fast you will die. It's very hard. The boss always requires 2 or 3 bombs with SHOTIA. The first phase is very problematic with the slow speed of SHOTIA but after some weeks i got the hang of it and was able to get through only using one or zero bombs. The second phase is pretty simple with SHOTIA : You will have to bomb twice or you will die. There is no interpretation at this point with SHOTIA. I tried a thousdan times. Your laser is too weak so 1 bomb won't do it and the pattern is flat outright ridicilous so don't bother with it. In Black Label this complete pattern is redisigned and made a LOT easier.
STAGE 4:
Rank will kick you in the nuts here. If you watched a Black Label 1CC Stage 4 is a walk in the park compared to White Label Stage 4. Bullets will come freaking fast and even their numbers will increase. Don't even start lasering once. Again: Upper Half screen and keep that autofire button pressed. I have developed a strategy for the first part where I don't have to bomb until the wagons with the tanks. Don't hesitate to bomb though if you fuck up. The wagons are actually somehow easier with SHOTIA because you can simply stay under them with your wide spread shot and destroy them before they get really dangerous. The rank will be very high at that point and it's not possible to get through like in Black Label. A bomb will be necessary then. After that comes the cannon with the 1up. Needless to say you absolutely have to get this without dying. I always use a bomb or a hyper. After that comes the section with the turrets on rails. I pointblank them on the shortest distance possible. This is the only way for me to not get completely overwhelmed by their screen filling bullets. It's hard but manageable. I have never seen that approach anywhere but it works pretty good with SHOTIA. The boss is actually doable. With good practise you can kill him by using only 2 or 3 bombs.
STAGE 5:
Absolute Hell. I don't even laser anything here except the 2 midbosses and the big station that shoots a ton of big blue bullets. I only use hypers for absolute pinch situations and bomb whenever necessary (the hive
). In spite of being pushed to the wall like a rat I keep relentlessly attacking by going up with my ship and point blank enemies and popcorn before they can fill up the whole screen. Then comes the boss: About 10 bombs and he is smoked whatever he may do.Let me get this straight: I think White Label is an imbalanced unfair piece of shit game with SHOTIA. SHOTIA flat out sucks. White Label should only be played with EXY. The other options are worthless and crappy. The more you play it the more you realize how white label was balanced around EXY. The patterns, the damage the bosses take and the whole flow of the game. Even with EXY it's incredibly difficult from the stage 2 boss on and keeps punching you in the face. I still can't imagine how one could even be capable of looping this bastard. Some say DOJ sports the men from the boys but what does DOJ WL then? Maybe the only good thing about WL is that it lead to a better game, Black Label.
Now for some screens of my setup:
http://imgur.com/YkHng9P,5CvO8mD,lRdIqP ... kk,dz0pbFA
It's finally done! It has been a long journey full of torture, learning, crying, rage, fun and i finally accomplished it. I 1CC'ed the first shmup i bought. I hope that this writeup can motivate some other shmuppers to not give up and give it their best! If I can do it you can do it too! It's too bad the PS2 has not a good option to record games but if anyone wants to see something i can record it with my new HD CAM. I also want to thank all the cool guys at shmups farm supporting each other.
Keep blowin' shit up fellow shmuppers!
TL;DR : I 1CC'ed DOJ WL with B-S, praise me a little bit
