Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

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porchka66
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by porchka66 »

Missile Dancer on Nintendo Switch.
Available since yesterday at European and NA eShop.
Great little lock-on Action!
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Gunbird on Saturn. What an awesome port, I just got sucked into it for like 4 hours. Running it through an OSSC to a .5 ms delay monitor in tate, with that perfect Japanese controller, this feels like some rolls royce gaming ish. Aside from the OSSC (which is worth every penny) it's not even an expensive setup. I really wish Gunbird 2 had a home port with as little lag as this one does. At least the Saturn gave homes to Strikers 1 & 2 and Sengoku Blade. 25 years on, this system is like a low-latency life raft for games.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by To Far Away Times »

XoPachi wrote:
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:.Some of the solid shmup design elements that rewarded player skill and encouraged good dodging and resource usage fundamentals got kinda cast aside to satisfy roguelike fans and their insatiable desire for being at the mercy of RNG for basic gameplay elements I guess.
I wanted to say something along these lines but left it out.
Monolith was a rogue I played because I hate rogues. Like HATE rogues. I only like 3 including this one. But this game was my favorite. Still is. I love the game still but this issue is feeling like the games that pushed me away from this genre. Its unfortunate.
Monolith is the best rougelike hands down. In fact, its the only one that's ever really grabbed me. I'm not a big fan of twin stick shooters either. I've only played the DLC and updated version, so maybe I'm missing out. I'm not a huge fan of the ammo balancing but I guess it works out well enough. It's important to grab the guns that have efficient ammo consumption and that makes a lot of weapon combinations useless unfortunately.

Still, i prefer it to the current rouge like darling Hades. Hades isn't a shmup of course so I won't strat too off topic here, but while I enjoy its high quality voice acting and variety of dialog, as well as its progression, at the end of the day the gameplay is prety ho hum. And the art style is sometimes good, and sometimes its tweened a little to much and I get that offputting "made in flash" vibe. Monlith has a pretty dang solid shmup/zelda dungeon hybrid at its core with solid pixel art that is incredibly tasty.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by To Far Away Times »

XoPachi wrote:
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:.Some of the solid shmup design elements that rewarded player skill and encouraged good dodging and resource usage fundamentals got kinda cast aside to satisfy roguelike fans and their insatiable desire for being at the mercy of RNG for basic gameplay elements I guess.
I wanted to say something along these lines but left it out.
Monolith was a rogue I played because I hate rogues. Like HATE rogues. I only like 3 including this one. But this game was my favorite. Still is. I love the game still but this issue is feeling like the games that pushed me away from this genre. Its unfortunate.
Monolith is the best rougelike hands down. In fact, its the only one that's ever really grabbed me. I'm not a big fan of twin stick shooters either. I've only played the DLC and updated version, so maybe I'm missing out. I'm not a huge fan of the ammo balancing but I guess it works out well enough. It's important to grab the guns that have efficient ammo consumption and that makes a lot of weapon combinations useless unfortunately.

Still, i prefer it to the current rouge like darling Hades. Hades isn't a shmup of course so I won't stray too off topic here, but while I enjoy its high quality voice acting and variety of dialog, as well as its progression, at the end of the day the gameplay is prety ho hum. And the art style is sometimes good, and sometimes its tweened a little to much and I get that offputting "made in flash" vibe. Monlith has a pretty dang solid shmup/zelda dungeon hybrid at its core with solid pixel art that is incredibly tasty.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

I'm working on clearing normal mode in GG Aleste 3. I have no real problems clearing any segment in training mode, but I have yet to achieve a run where I actually manage to string them all together. One time I was literally just seconds away from beating the final boss, but I lost my nerves and went under.

I can usually no-miss the first five levels, but the last two are brutal. If I die just once and only lose one level from max power, it's usually still possible to recover, but two lives and powerup levels lost mean that I can kiss my run goodbye.

My major chokepoints:

- The rotating diamonds attack of the stage 5 boss. In theory I know how to lead them to create big enough gaps to squeeze through, but sometimes I execute a move poorly and then things can get ugly fast.

- The stage 6 midboss with the laser whip. Again, in theory I know how to handle it, yet it still manages to catch me unaware more often than I like.

- The second form of the stage 6 boss. The other forms aren't too difficult, but here the RND often screws me up. I've had bullets/materializers appear right on top of me several times. On other occasions they all appeared at a distance, and I could breeze through the attack.
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Marc
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

First impressions of Devil Engine is that it looks pretty, and is balls hard.

Oh, and I picked up Zed Blade while it's on sale. It's OK I guess? Kind of mid-tier P47 / EDF shooting. Enjoyable enough, apart from that horrible, horrible soundtrack.
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Licorice
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Licorice »

Playing Xexex.

Aesthetics are a mix of state of the art, height of popularity, 1991 boundary pushing AAA arcade shooter and eroge bootleg for yakuza operated pachinko bars. Even the music, which is a mix of Gradius space adventure and 80s porno funk.

It is super fun to play. While I don't have more than 10 hours experience with either series, it's obvious the play is a mix of Gradius and R-type, leaning more heavily towards Gradius despite the presence of the force-like "flintlock". It has two very frantic and fun levels with looping vertical push scrolling, something I love and strongly associate with Gradius. Gets more memorizery towards the end, especially the final stage. I haven't played the second loop, so I can't comment there.

I find the flintlock fun to tactically deploy; you can employ it both offensively and defensively. Important to note that you can launch it forward by cancelling a charge shot, and that the tentacles (which grow from 1 to 3 as you power up the flint) cancel bullets. However, I do find it difficult to get it to reliably latch onto bosses. Might be because I'm currently playing on multiple credits, so it's almost always powered down. In any case, if you do get it to latch on to a boss, they go down quickly. Even if you don't, they're not very difficult on the first loop. Most of the difficulty comes from the brilliantly constructed stages, which you can clinically cut through with good routing and flint placement, or if you don't yet know what you're doing, scrape through relying on improvisation and skill.

The checkpoints are very fair on the first loop, and recovery is almost never a problem. This makes credit feeding through the game a good way to learn it. You can't just auto-win, because there are checkpoints, but it's not a grueling experience either with recoveries that require arcane and weird routing.

Was it the Einhander thread that someone pointed out that the dev team is shared, and the ships are designed similarly? The games play quite differently, IMO, but I love them both.
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Mykaizer
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Mykaizer »

Just beat Super Star Soldier.

My christ that last stage is a bitch. One the most intense boss fights I've ever had! I was at one hit left and no instant revive(still don't know how that mechanic works exactly) Luckily I had the green laser weapon otherwise I don't think I would have beaten it. They just had to shove a boss rush right before the final boss. That boss with the little drones can be hard to predict.

All in all solid game. I don't know if I'll play it on the harder difficulties. Maybe one day.

How would SSS compare to Soldier Blade in terms of difficulty?
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Stevens
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Stevens »

Not sure but Soldier Blade is fantatic.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Myketosis wrote:Just beat Super Star Soldier.

My christ that last stage is a bitch. One the most intense boss fights I've ever had! I was at one hit left and no instant revive(still don't know how that mechanic works exactly) Luckily I had the green laser weapon otherwise I don't think I would have beaten it. They just had to shove a boss rush right before the final boss. That boss with the little drones can be hard to predict.

All in all solid game. I don't know if I'll play it on the harder difficulties. Maybe one day.

How would SSS compare to Soldier Blade in terms of difficulty?
Nice! Super Star Soldier gets crazy hard at the end. I think last boss is impossible if you only have the peashooter since he multiplies too fast. I want to love Super Star Soldier but there are couple of dumb little things like that. It is a cool game though.

Soldier Blade is quite a bit easier. It shares a lot of the strengths of SSS, with imo, better game design and balance, making it pretty much the peak "compile-like" shmup on the PCE. A few attempts should see you through it without much issue. SSS is quite hard for a console exclusive 16 bit shmup, up there with tough games like Thunderforce IV.

Soldier Blade made my Top 25 this year and SSS was an honorable mention.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by To Far Away Times »

Myketosis wrote:Just beat Super Star Soldier.

My christ that last stage is a bitch. One the most intense boss fights I've ever had! I was at one hit left and no instant revive(still don't know how that mechanic works exactly) Luckily I had the green laser weapon otherwise I don't think I would have beaten it. They just had to shove a boss rush right before the final boss. That boss with the little drones can be hard to predict.

All in all solid game. I don't know if I'll play it on the harder difficulties. Maybe one day.

How would SSS compare to Soldier Blade in terms of difficulty?
Nice! Super Star Soldier gets crazy hard at the end. I think last boss is impossible if you only have the peashooter since he multiplies too fast. I want to love Super Star Soldier but there are a couple of dumb little things like that. It is a cool game though.

Soldier Blade is quite a bit easier. It shares a lot of the strengths of SSS, with imo, better game design and balance, making it pretty much the peak "compile-like" shmup on the PCE. A few attempts should see you through it without much issue. SSS is quite hard for a console exclusive 16 bit shmup, up there with other tough games like Thunderforce IV.

Soldier Blade made my Top 25 this year and SSS was an honorable mention.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

Myketosis wrote:How would SSS compare to Soldier Blade in terms of difficulty?
Soldier Blade is noticeably easier and the difficulty curve is much better balanced overall.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Moose Life on PS4. Only had a quick mess around last night, if you like Minter, you'll like this. Polybius, except speed is user-controlled and you're fixed to the floor or ceiling. VR compatible of course, which I'll try out with a few beers tomorrow.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

Whip Rush on the Mega Drive. It has been on my list since forever, not least because of the cute player ship that looks like a superdeformed R9. I got a slightly battered copy off ebay for a decent price. It's the japanese version, so it includes the brilliant backcover art.

The game is surprisingly tough. I went in it expecting an easy cruise comparable to its contemporary Arrow Flash. Instead, I got my ass handed quickly. Even the first stage requires strategic use of powerups and options. If you're just flailing about, the game doesn't hesitate to murder you with cruel efficiency. The farthest I've gotten so far is the stage 2 boss.

The game seems to have a reputation of being fairly mediocre. I don't really understand why. What I've seen so far is more than solid. I, for one, look forward to spending more time with it.
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

Incidentally, the Whip Rush ship cameos in Vic Tokai's Battle Mania games, as the powerup drop-ship. :3

Image

Pretty sure those are crateloads of their FC Rockmanesque Magical Doropi in the foreground... interesting outfit, were Vic Tokai. That interview is hilarious, btw!
Takayan wrote:...so when I told them I wanted to make a sequel they said “No”, I asked why and they replied "Just no”.
:lol:

Super solid console hori, with great music too - Rob's positive review turned me onto it a while back.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Kiken »

Herr Schatten wrote:Whip Rush on the Mega Drive. It has been on my list since forever, not least because of the cute player ship that looks like a superdeformed R9. I got a slightly battered copy off ebay for a decent price. It's the japanese version, so it includes the brilliant backcover art.

The game is surprisingly tough. I went in it expecting an easy cruise comparable to its contemporary Arrow Flash. Instead, I got my ass handed quickly. Even the first stage requires strategic use of powerups and options. If you're just flailing about, the game doesn't hesitate to murder you with cruel efficiency. The farthest I've gotten so far is the stage 2 boss.

The game seems to have a reputation of being fairly mediocre. I don't really understand why. What I've seen so far is more than solid. I, for one, look forward to spending more time with it.
Whip Rush sits in my personal MD/Genesis top 5 shmup list. It doesn't really do anything flashy aside from the take-off sequence, but what it does do is consistently solid. It has a bright, vibrant colour palette, pretty good music (not TechnoSoft tier, but still decent) and a fairly straightforward power-up system. I think doing well in the game comes down to 2 things: understanding the Option functionality and realizing just how versatile the Fire weapon is.

The Options can be rotated 90 degrees at a time so long as the player isn't firing but when the player is firing, holding down both Shot and Option launches the pods up/down or forward/backward. It may seem goofy at first, but you can get the pods buried inside some boss weak points to do increased damage. Plus using this in key locations can help take care of enemies at the edges of the playfield without having to make any risky maneuvers.

The Fire weapon has 8-way direction shot (it fires in the opposite direction of the ship movement) making it the go to weapon considering the number of stages in the game that scroll in multiple directions.


As for me, I've been suffering through the recent Capcom Collection version of Giga Wing on Switch. I'm determined to get an all clear with Isya. I've only been getting to stage 6 thus far.

Aside from that, StarCreator was kind enough to lend me his EXA Label unit so I now have Aka & Blue running in my Taito Excelina. I freely admit to be total garbage at this game... furthest I've made it is the stage 3 boss. Hoping to at least get to stage 4 in the next couple of weeks.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Lethe »

After reading Kanzaki's comments I tried out D-Force.2 - no not that D-Force. This has got to be one of the most confusing experiences I've had with any game. On the one hand, it's yet another high-quality one-developer doujin full of passion and enthusiasm, with some impressive production quality for a project of its kind originating from the early/mid 2000s, a cool game system with freely rotatable options and Shikigami no Shiro style grazing, and tons of references to other games (the developer's Cho Ren Sha obsession is evident). On the other hand, it's a game where you shoot giant sprites of anime girls to knock their clothes off, but only on three (3) occasions, and everywhere else it's totally indistinguishable from any other shmup. "Undressing" games like this don't seem to be that uncommon, but the extremely high overall quality of this one contrasting with the sudden appearance and absence of said elements is really bizarre. It also has an atrocious letdown ending due to an unfinished final boss.

The developer's site is down but the game has been uploaded in this thread; it's also still accessible on archival crawlers. WineD3D is enough to get it to run properly (it probably won't natively on recent systems).
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Marc
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Varth. Enjoying it, but just found out there are 30 stages...... :shock:
Yeah, I know they're a bit shorter than the average, but considering my best at the moment is the ST7 boss - I think I'll probably exhaust this one long before seeing the last half.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

I forgot I own ESPGaluda 2 on the 360 and decided to play it again after a decade. I usually avoid uh..."character STG's" but Cave's ESP series was an exception and this one was a personal highlight for me. I always thought this game was just really cool. I love the abundance of aesthetic choices at play. High fantasy, a very brisk sharply drawn anime style, what appears to be a small touch of Steampunk. and Victorian architecture. But at the same time it's clearly crazy futuristic. The machine designs are brutal. The rail mounted battle drone in stage 3 is one of my favorites in this game and that one guy who shows up again in stage 4 has a ridiculous monstrosity to fight in. Honestly, I'd watch a show of this to get an understanding of what's going on in this game.
...
What IS going on in this game?
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Licorice »

Playing Radiant Silvergun. This one is going to take me *quite* some time to get an arcade mode 1CC on, but I like how I can familiarize myself with the game in Saturn mode, and also work my way up with the difficulty and lives settings. I'll try progress naturally for some time before applying the save state practice hammer to the clear nail.
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penny
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by penny »

Recently I was able to get my hands on Soukyugurentai (Saturn ofc) and it's pretty much what I've exclusively ended up playing for the past few weeks. I especially love the weapons of the blue ship. The ALLRANGE (circle) weapon is really fun to use and can kill enemies from all sides which makes it a bit easier to survive.
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Marc
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

I've played Terra Force for the past couple of nights and getting close to the 1CC. Think I was on the last level last night, but oh my eyes, that pulsating brown background...... In fact it's pretty much a flaw all the way through - I spent a couple of games dodging foreground scenery before I realised it's exactly that. Also seems to have weird streaks of not wanting to give you power-up waves of a certain colour, unless there's a way to manipulate it that I'm unaware of.

I also can't work out the switch between viewpoints - after the first two-three minutes, all the game really seems interested in is kicking you back to the side-scrolling levels ASAP?

Scoring sucks in that you're pretty much forced to power up speed-up all the way in order to force waves to drop screen-clearing bombs, which makes control a nightmare.

Over-busy visually, and nothing special play-wise, but I'm enjoying it and will continue up until the 1CC.
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minion
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by minion »

Amazon.co.jp had a timesale on Aleste Collection so I grabbed it. Actually enjoying it more than I expected (not normally a fan of shooters before the 16-bit era). I definitely get the Power Strike II hype, so glad it got republished so I can own a copy without breaking the bank.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Giga Wing coop is fun for casual relaxing and shooting, but I got distracted at one point while chatting, and thought I died.

Except I didn't. Thank you tiny hitbox.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

I started playing Blue Wish again because I want to play it properly. I'm not good at Hell mode sadly. I can get up to stage 3 before I start dying but I think it's beyond me. I can hit stage 5 on one credit in original though. Most of my deaths lately have been slippery movement. Game feels sort of sensitive for me. I feel like if I give it a good grind, I could actually clear this soon.

(Please god tell me going into stage 2 with 3.4 mil is a good start so I know I'm playing this game right...)
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I got a new PB in Donpachi, making a bit of progress into the loop. Got to 2-4, but it's really hard, the S3 boss is a lot more aggressive and fast...
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

i wish the donpachi second loop didnt have revenge bullets
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Same. I actually lose steam once I get in the second loop because I find it boring compared to DDP, everything does the exact same thing, fires giant clouds of revenge bullets...
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Lethe
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Lethe »

XoPachi wrote:I started playing Blue Wish again because I want to play it properly. I'm not good at Hell mode sadly. I can get up to stage 3 before I start dying but I think it's beyond me. I can hit stage 5 on one credit in original though. Most of my deaths lately have been slippery movement. Game feels sort of sensitive for me. I feel like if I give it a good grind, I could actually clear this soon.

(Please god tell me going into stage 2 with 3.4 mil is a good start so I know I'm playing this game right...)
Are you playing BWR+? Survival can be kind of sink or swim in Plus thanks to survival-focused scoring + every extends. Build up your consistency on the first few stages and you should get enough resources to clear. There's also a massive difference in difficulty between Wait on/off runs, especially Hell where the slowdown is extreme (Hell with Wait on isn't that much harder than Original IMO, more crap on the screen = more score = more extends and it's still all aimed at you). Non-Plus is a nightmare by comparison: there are only two score extends and you have to fight the TLB every run.
3.4mil after stage 1 Original is about typical if you're not milking cancels or tick points.

I've also often felt this game was a bit "slippery". I seem to go from safe to making an easy-looking movement and suddenly exploding. It might be to do with the hitboxes - I think Prales mentioned during his Shmup Slam 3 run that he thinks they're asymmetrical or something.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

Lethe wrote:[Are you playing BWR+? Survival can be kind of sink or swim in Plus thanks to survival-focused scoring + every extends. Build up your consistency on the first few stages and you should get enough resources to clear. There's also a massive difference in difficulty between Wait on/off runs, especially Hell where the slowdown is extreme (Hell with Wait on isn't that much harder than Original IMO, more crap on the screen = more score = more extends and it's still all aimed at you). Non-Plus is a nightmare by comparison: there are only two score extends and you have to fight the TLB every run.
3.4mil after stage 1 Original is about typical if you're not milking cancels or tick points.

I've also often felt this game was a bit "slippery". I seem to go from safe to making an easy-looking movement and suddenly exploding. It might be to do with the hitboxes - I think Prales mentioned during his Shmup Slam 3 run that he thinks they're asymmetrical or something.
I'm playing Plus with wait and guard both turned off using Peace.
I was curious about the hitbox. It does feel slightly off center. Sometimes I feel like things hit me from the back earlier than they should and the game's very sensitive. Evident in the menus. One analog tap and it flips through 3 options.

I've been getting a bit more brave in how I play this. Actually waiting for heavy enemy patterns to fill the screen before hitting the last bit of health on screen clears and get up to the top of the screen to get chests as soon as possible. I'm able to get my first extend before the stage 2 boss which is about normal for me in any game like this.
I keep getting to stage 5 and then just losing everything though.

EDIT: WHERE can I get this game's soundtrack? I cannot find it. :l
I love this sort of 2000's StepMania/DDR-ish music. Man this takes me back to middle school.
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