Stella Vanity V0.2 & 0.21

[Aisha]

Area 4 has a lot of large ships that appear in succession after the mid-boss. They can easily fill the screen with bullets, and each one also clears the screen of bullets when defeated. That entire segment might be good for a fully-charged Delayed Shift. Everything prior to the mid-boss could be used for collecting coins; you can always start out with the bomb trick as well.

I think you can actually start each stage with the bomb trick because each stage has a mid-boss that drops a bomb, except for Area 7, I believe.

Area 3 is kind of empty. I don't really try scoring on it, but I guess it has to be done if you want to increase the rank. There seem to be some good enemy spawns after both mid-bosses (well, the second is just that regular enemy with a lot of health) that you can try making use of.

Areas 3, 5, and 6 are the hardest for me to score on. They just seem really devoid of bullets to me, but I haven't really gotten around to working on them yet because I'm still trying to qualify on Area 1.

EDIT: Finally, one of the three hidden bosses: Elm Order - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1citnj-w1c Easy, C-Type, Story Mode, Rank 4. Judging by the description, I think the player died along the way as well. I believe the difficulty of the extra bosses is the same across Easy to Arcade; some of those patterns are probably pretty mental on higher difficulties.

I also noticed that the instrumental version of Dante's Labyrinth plays during the final boss in this replay. The regular boss music plays during the hidden boss fight, so that leaves three tracks that I haven't heard in the game yet (Merciless Angel, 地脈胎動, and Lightless Angel).

[Aliquantic]

Oh, nice find for the TLB! I only managed to get to the regular boss on Easy rank 4 because I'm a bad player I wonder if it might be a different one on S-type too? Not that I can rank up there anyway, given the difficulties involved with actually getting enough coins. Mmh.

[Aisha]

It's probably the same for S-Type; I remember TRIS-GRAM writing that C-Type has an easier time encountering the hidden bosses, but a more difficult time defeating them. I think. I also doubt that is the TLB of the game. It doesn't look murderous enough, plus the video title calls it a false boss.

It's frustrating. Lemulene's biggest problem is that her starting Ethereal Shift and Counter Shift charge rates are really low. At level 1 with no boosts they start at 132 and 150 respectively, which is miles behind Azerlete's at 204 and 230. It more or less makes it impossible for her to have two meaningful Ethereal Shifts before the first mid-boss, at least without spending another bomb -- and even then it doesn't seem possible. Even pushing her Blade/Ethereal Shift Charge up to level 29 isn't enough. It might be possible on Story Mode with accessories, but I'd rather not go there yet.

Maybe the stage path for Lemulene is completely different and it's not really necessary to have two Ethereal Shifts before the mid-boss? I have to figure something out...

[Aliquantic]

For what it's worth, my 250m+ Azerlete path only has one ES that brings you to 7000, but that requires a pretty good starter, of course, and I can't get anywhere near that with Lumilene. Though I'm playing C-type more now...

[Aisha]

Here's another run where a player reaches Elm Order on Easy, and actually defeats it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OarDK5aB3BM That final pattern is pretty mean, but I'd like to see it on higher difficulties. Well, two more hidden bosses remain to be seen, I think.

[Aliquantic]

I've managed to get to rank 1 on Hard with S-Type (273m and 3 bombs with Azerlete, which is relatively easy) and on Nightmare with C-Type (just no miss it), so it seems at least that the rank requirements aren't any harder on higher difficulties if you can actually survive them S-Type rank 2 is just as elusive as ever though...

[Aisha]

That's good to hear. I would have thought that the qualification requirements scaled with the difficulty since I'm guessing that it gets easier to get higher scores with more bullets everywhere. I'm still stubbornly sticking with Lemulene and grinding out Area 1. I keep trying the same things over and over again but the score is never enough. I think that is insanity? On my best runs I can get around 140 million, but that is far from enough. I either level the jewel class to diamond and run out of stage to collect jewels before the boss, or I just leave the jewel class at emerald and collect way more jewels before the boss but score less because they aren't valuable enough.

Version 1.20B should be published pretty soon. It's mostly a bug-fix patch, but some of them are pretty major. I also think it's now easier to encounter the hidden bosses if you have Auto-Guard turned off, or something along that line. In fact, I think it's a prerequisite to encounter the TLB, with another being that you must be on Rule Mode. Both restrictions will be lifted for the difficulties its defeated on. Rank doesn't seem to be the only element used to encounter the hidden bosses either.

I can't make sense of the last sentence in the 06/23 diary entry, but it seems like it contains useful information.

EDIT:

(ノ-_-)ノ┻━┻

145 million. I even managed to level the jewel class to diamond well before the end of the stage. 50 million was earned from Fram A. herself. I probably could have used a Delayed Shift against her last bullet pattern and cashed in by using a Counter Shift and then letting her repopulate the screen with bullets before defeating her, but I was greedy and wanted to squeeze in a Counter Burst Mode instead. If not for the segment just before the last boss where I couldn't do anything to score, there's a good chance this run would have qualified for a rank increase.

EDIT2: Nevermind. Filled in the part before the boss with two bullet conversions and only 150 million.

[Aisha]

...And the second false TLB is revealed, Vier Dummy. Some of the patterns from the hidden boss in the 0.22d trial are reused, but I think a few of the new ones are pretty creative; I particularly like the one with the rainbow columns early on. I guess all that's left to reveal now is the real TLB.

[AttObl]

Gah... Sorry for the necro, but I'm trying to play the new version of the Stella Vanity demo, and I got that error on the screen. It shows some text, and when I click on it or press a key, the game closes.

What happened to the demo? (Or my Windows 7 Laptop?)

[Aisha]

I'm not sure if I can help, but post a screenshot of the error (press Print Screen and paste into Paint). Also, you downloaded the demo from DLsite, right?

[AttObl]

And yes, I downloaded the demo from DLSite.

[Aisha]

Thanks. The error is basically saying that it can't load the files that it needs, which is a new one to me.

Try downloading the demo again. The archive probably wouldn't even extract in the first place if it wasn't downloaded correctly, but you never know. Also make sure that it's extracting all of the files and not skipping over the ones with Japanese names.

Also, when you run the game for the first time, it tries to create a bunch of files in its directory, so there could be a permission conflict. Try running the game as the administrator or moving its directory to a location that isn't protected.

[AttObl]

Ah... Thank you!

I solved the problem. I was using 7-Zip, so that might be the cause of the problem. I used the regular extractor instead, and the game works pretty well!

[Aisha]

It's strange that 7-zip misbehaved like that, but I'm glad to read that you got it working.

[Aliquantic]

I just come back to this game, trying to play STGs again (ugh), and the 1.20c patch seems to have the very nice side effect of raising scoring a lot, possibly by making jewels be worth more? In any case, I can trivially rank up on Arcade now for areas 1 and 2, 4 shouldn't be too hard but 3 is still looking problematic. Now to survive this game with rank! (S-Type)

[Aisha]

There is a run on Nico Video where the player scores 4.2 billion on Normal; granted he did it on Story Mode and was at a very high level, but it's still interesting to watch. If I remember, he scored between 600-700 million in Area 1 alone. The bulk of his total score came from the first few stages as he just seemed to switch to survival play after a point.

[Aliquantic]

Could I have a link please? I couldn't find it on Nico (I suck at searching)

Sort of curious to learn more about the scoring mechanics given how I can't reproduce my 350m stage 1 on Rule Arcade... I'm stuck on the usual 250m again. I did manage to get to rank 4 on Easy S-Type nwo and can raise the rank on higher difficulties, but the Arcade 2 clear is still elusive.

We should agree on a single mode/difficulty for a challenge contest

[Aisha]

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18250704
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18250830
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18250960
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18251058
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18251158
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm18251325

Keep an eye on his Combo Bonus during the Area 2 boss. I am sure this run would have unlocked the real TLB had he had Autoguard turned off, but he didn't so he faced Vier Dummy instead.

One thing that caught my eye is that agains Vier Dummy, he kept sacrificing lives for full bomb restocks. Maybe it's something really obvious but I don't know how he did it. He didn't seem to get hit, and it's not a function of his accessories, as far as I know. He did it once just before the final boss as well.

I haven't played in a month. I never managed to qualify on Rule Mode. Not with Lemulene. I'd really like to know of it's even possible to do so, both on Rule Mode and on Strict Rule Mode. It's kind of disheartening if only one character can pull it off.

[Aliquantic]

It's definitely possible to qualify as Lemulene now and not that much trickier, but I can't find any good reason to play her on any difficulty... her only true advantage seems to be a better range in Delayed Shift, but you can use Counter to get out of jail anyway with Lightning girl. And you really want the higher damage on most big enemies, especially bosses.

To get a full bomb restock, hold down the bomb button when you are out of bombs and you'll trade a life for a bomb. It's been around since 0.30 IIRC, as part of the broader "bomb for points" mechanics. And thanks for the links!

What is Strict Rule Mode?

[Meseki]

What is Strict Rule Mode?

It was added on 1.20C, and is accessed by holding left or right when selecting Rule Mode (according to the site). It says something about not changing any status and that the challenge will be fixed, so maybe you start at a lower level. It also says something about hidden bosses being worth more points or something. However, the trial still seems to be based off of 1.20B, so I'm not certain about the differences.

[Aliquantic]

Thanks I've tried Strict Rule mode but can't really see any difference on Arcade S. Oh well, anything that's not Story can only be good

Damn, I've tried replicating that guy's use of Assault on the first stage, and it's a lot harder than it looked on the video... maybe if you get in the habit of doing Assault right before Blade, all the time?

650m on Arcade S after areas 1 and 2 and some mistakes... made it to rank 4 despite atrocious deaths and no real scoring on area 4. Then got properly murdered!

[Aisha]

It's definitely possible to qualify as Lemulene now and not that much trickier, but I can't find any good reason to play her on any difficulty... her only true advantage seems to be a better range in Delayed Shift, but you can use Counter to get out of jail anyway with Lightning girl. And you really want the higher damage on most big enemies, especially bosses.

To get a full bomb restock, hold down the bomb button when you are out of bombs and you'll trade a life for a bomb. It's been around since 0.30 IIRC, as part of the broader "bomb for points" mechanics. And thanks for the links!

What is Strict Rule Mode?

How did I not know that for so long?

I haven't played 1.20C yet so that's great if qualifying with Lemulene is much easier now. Maybe now I can actually practice the other stages. Before I took a break, Area 1 was seriously all I played. I'll probably pick the game up again once 1.20D is released.

I think Strict Rule makes your character's stats fixed, so levels and 忌晶石 investment aren't reflected at all, unlike Rule Mode where your stats are still affected by how you spend 忌晶石. I am not sure if your stats still gradually increase during a playthrough though. Medals unlocked in Strict Rule Mode will get a ☆ next to their name and will add more points toward your Class Level.

[Aliquantic]

Have you played it much more? That game mauls me so badly, I still can't do a rank 2 Arcade clear with either C or S, a rank 0 Hard clear, and even my attempts at an Easy rank 4 clear are being thwarted by stage 7 I might have to switch on autobomb just to get somewhere...

[Aisha]

No; I've been inadvertently distracted by Castlevania games this month. I blame that thread in Off Topic. I'm still following developments though. Someone finally unlocked the real true last boss, which prompted TRIS-GRAM to reveal all of the hidden boss requirements on his blog. He also released version 1.21. The main features are that certain accessories can now be used in Rule Mode, and that Autoguard status and bomb usage are no longer factors in encountering a hidden boss at the end of the game.

[Aliquantic]

Uh, has anyone had any success running the 1.2x versions with Xpadder/joy2key or something else? The game doesn't recognize either of my Hori stick or Hori pad, and doesn't register any input from any software mapper. Pretty annoying Edit: Nvm, all you need to do is run Xpadder as admin under Win 7 and it works.

On the other hand... can you run the 1.22 version Aisha? I get error messages about not having valid authentication, but 1.21 works fine :s

[Reiko]

I play this game as well. I like it a lot, although I am not very good at it. Not knowing Japanese, and therefore not knowing what any of the accessories and such do, doesn't really help.

Version 1.22 works for me, but I need to disable my anti-virus first (Avast) before running the game. Was the same with 1.21 actually.

[Synnae]

Those are my specs:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/Z4ag ... TlVmHmkhOo

Even with a computer like this, the game still lags for me. The fps drops to around 45 or 30 whenever there are purple bullets on the screen. Is this normal or do I need a better computer?

[Meseki]

Those are my specs:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/Z4ag ... TlVmHmkhOo

Even with a computer like this, the game still lags for me. The fps drops to around 45 or 30 whenever there are purple bullets on the screen. Is this normal or do I need a better computer?

You could probably turn off/down some of the effects in the options, like the Effect Level, Coin/Bullet Light, and BG Level. If necessary, you could turn down the FPS, but I can usually keep at least 30+ FPS on most things with an nVIDIA GeForce 7200GS, which I'm pretty sure is considerably worse than a GTX 650.

[LtC]

Isn't that 30/45FPS slowdown built into the game for when there is certain amount of bullets on the screen? That's how I remember it from the old demo. Haven't played the full game though but I really doubt you'll need a monstrous PC the run the game unless the developer fucked up the optimization big time. If all the drops bring your FPS to ~30 or ~45 you should be just fine.

Been thinking of getting the full game since I really liked the demo versions but I've been hesitating for a long time since it's digital only and with apparently quite ridiculous DRM. Has there been any change to this?

[Synnae]

So... lemme see if I got this straight. There's no way to prevent the framerate drop in the game regardless of how good your computer is? That's a shame, since I wanted to play it at constant 60fps. Guess I'll have to deal with it then.