I wouldn't disagree that DOJ's chains are overall harder to learn than DFK's, at least from what I've played and learned myself (basically, I've done the 1-1 and 1-2 chains in DOJBL (although not at the same time) and similarly in DFK through stage 1-4), since in a large number of spots you can clear the screen as quickly as you want as long as you're ready to train your laser on the spot where the next enemy will come from. Plus, if you know you messed up in DFK you can sometimes bail yourself out with a hyper (although this can cost a lot of points).
But there's definitely also a lot of precision and strategy in the bullet-canceling phases, and I prefer it that way because it lets you improve more on a curve (Of course, since you obviously already really like DDP and DOJ, you might not feel the same way). Right now I can only usually get ~4400 hits at the beginning of stage 3, for example, but once I learn how to pull that up to 5000 I'll get to see a pretty significant score increase, if certainly not on the same level as learning a full stage chain in DOJ instead of two halves.
I agree that DFK's balance is less interesting, because the first loop is damn easy compared to earlier DDP games, and also compared to its own second loop (tbh it does look significantly easier than earlier DDPs as well though). You are playing easy first 4 stages, then make all your score in stage 5. I think the general strategy with the values of the stages, the difficulty of the game, the hyper cancelling bullets and the fireworks graphics style was to attract the more casual gamers into scoring. That's also why you have like 20 different tables keeping track of the best scores of the day with each ship type and subtype, so that most players can reach high in at least a table, and no general score board. To the seasoned scorers I'm sure the game feels more like a waste of time than the previous DDPs, since most of the game is dull, and the lack of general scoreboard feels like the competition is split and you aren't playing against a large pool of players like you would like to. I don't think I mind the stages' respective values very much, because they seem to reflect the difficulty rather accurately, but I imagine playing through 4 easy (relative to previous DDPs) stages before getting to the one stage that presents a nice challenge is disappointing. Also, the 50-50 distribution of points between loops isn't nice to the better players because achieving a score that is twice higher is much more than twice harder, and score is expected to reflect that.
I don't agree with this. In any game you're going to have some sources of score that are really important and some that aren't. I'm not too sure about this so feel free to correct me, but I guess my understanding of the score priority in DOJ goes like this (based mostly on
this post:
1) Chain timing and hyper usage
2) Bee pickups (reliant on #1)
3) Not dying or bombing
large gap
4) picking up small point items
While DFK's is more like this:
1) Chain timing
2) Canceling more bullets with hypers/at better times
small gap
3) Boss milking (reliant on #1 and 2)
large gap
4) Maximum bonus (ties in slightly to #1-3) (I'm not even sure this doesn't stack up pretty high late in the game. It seems to give about 10k every couple seconds even at the lowest)
another gap
5) picking up extra point items (non-autocollected stars and bee items)
And DFK is also a different game because of how relatively easy it is to stumble through the game with bullet canceling and hyper invincibility. Handing out a large survival bonus in a game where survival play is so contrary to how the game is meant to be played is something I wouldn't agree with, whether or not it was actually a calculated decision. (It probably wasn't.)
Also, I don't see the differing scoreboards as a flaw. If you have multiple choices that are actually, you know, different, then there are always going to be differences in the potential scores. If you want the highest number, you'll play the best/easiest one (which is often the same thing in Cave games) anyway, so I think it's a good encouragement for people to play with the less obvious types. And scoring as Bomb in particular is hardly trivial; the lower damage, hyper build, and weaker bullet canceling all make for a very different game. I know some people really like playing Bomb exactly because it isn't very powerful, which can do a lot for the early stages if you find them pretty easy.
But, to cut off and sum up, I don't want it to come off like I'm selling this game too hard, but I really do hope you give it a chance. You might be surprised. I know I was, because I had similar thoughts from watching the game and when I first started playing, but once it clicked, it became one of my favorite Cave games. For you I doubt it'll dethrone DOJ or anything, but I really do think you'll find it worth some quality time.
SDOJ also looks really good though. Even as someone who's not the biggest DOJ fan around I think it looks really exciting on the whole, and it seems like they've learned a lot from some of the other games they've made since DOJ.
nailing an empty coffin..
