Where the Darius Love at?

[Skykid]

some of my stuff:

I want! These aren't SGHistorica are they? Where'd you get the Hungry Glutton from?

[ACSeraph]

So much awesome up in this thread!

I had no idea Darius II on Saturn ran in the full widescreen mode. I'm a little short on cash right now, but I may have to splurge now and eat instant ramen for the rest of the month...

Currently my Darius collection is just:

Darius Gaiden (Saturn)
G Darius (PS1)
Darius R (GBA)
Darius Burst (PSP)

Darius R is "often chastised" for good reason I think; it's pretty bad. For some reason though I still ended up putting time into it and got my first 1cc in it a few days ago.

Love the graphics in G Darius but the game is pretty intense for me. Gonna take a lot of practice to clear it. I'd kill to see this game with an HD makeover.

I have a soft spot for 2D so I actually like the visuals in Gaiden better than even G, but I suck at playing it. That first boss leveling the tower when it enters is frickin awesome.

I got the digital version of Burst to play on the Vita TV when it comes out. Liking it a lot so far, but I think I'm missing certain things in the gameplay system and I can't counter laser for anything.

Question: Is the "top" path in Darius games necessarily the easiest one or does it vary from game to game. I still kinda suck at Darius so I'd like to try to take on the easier paths first. What would be the preferred survival path in Gaiden and G Darius?

[KAI]

ABDHLQV it's the easiest route in Gaiden.

[Skykid]

ABDHLQV it's the easiest route in Gaiden.

Got one for Darius II? Been playing it on MD recently.

[KAI]

Not sure about it, but the upper route should be the easiest one.

[The Coop]

I've been a fan of the Darius franchise since the first time I played the original tri-screened arcade game many years ago. Oddly enough, the final time I ever got to play it was on my birthday, and I finally beat the game (on one quarter to boot).

As for my collection...

Sagaia- Master System + Genesis + GameBoy
Darius Twin + Super Nova (Darius Force) - SNES
Super Darius + Super Darius II- PC Engine CD
Darius II- Saturn
Darius Gaiden- Saturn + PS2 + PC
G-Darius- PS1 + PS2
Darius R- GBA


I really wish I could play Darius Burst and it's various versions. But, I don't own a PSP, there are no arcades even remotely close to where I live, and since the game never got a port to a home console, I'm SOL.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

I want! These aren't SGHistorica are they? Where'd you get the Hungry Glutton from?

Gluttons is a scratch built model I made. I cast it, so there are a few others and I have molds.

[ACSeraph]

Lemme get this straight... you saying you built that glutton from scratch? That's ridiculous! Looks totally pro, nicely done!

[KAI]

I really wish I could play Darius Burst and it's various versions. But, I don't own a PSP, there are no arcades even remotely close to where I live, and since the game never got a port to a home console, I'm SOL.

What about emulating it? You don't a suppa powerful PC to play it.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Some sort of limited release guidebook coming out about now

[To Far Away Times]

The Darius games are awesome. G-Darius, Darius Gaiden and Darius Burst are top notch.

[Pyongyang]

That scratch built model is incredible! Well done, awesome work! (Got any spare? )

Didn't know about the Darius Odyssey book coming out so soon. I saw something about it ages ago but thought it may have been shelved (excuse the pun). Seems sold out in a lot of places but managed to snag one at CD Japan (aka Neowing) just now for ¥2000 plus SAL. Only 8 copies left though at time of writing this.

160 pages. Full colour. B5. Loaded with Darius goodness!

Thanks for the heads up Sly Cherry Chunks!

[ACSeraph]

ABDHLQV it's the easiest route in Gaiden.

I tried this one out just now on my saturn copy, did fairly well considering I'm pretty new to Gaiden. Made it to H on my first credit, then credit fed (3 total credits) through to Q. All seems pretty reasonable. What's all this I keep hearing about a rapid fire "cheat" in Gaiden though? It has it by default but it seems slow in the Saturn version especially compared to G Darius.

[CIT]

Question: Is the "top" path in Darius games necessarily the easiest one or does it vary from game to game. I still kinda suck at Darius so I'd like to try to take on the easier paths first. What would be the preferred survival path in Gaiden and G Darius?

It varies from game to game. The whole "top route easy, bottom route tough but higher scoring" thing really only applies to G Darius.

In Darius and Darius II it really depends on what final boss you feel most confident against. In Gaiden ABDGLQV is accepted as the best route for scoring and survival. In Darius Burst the top route is easiest and also easiest to score on.

In Darius Force the top route is the hardest and longest. In Darius Twin just make sure you pass through zone J to get a high score.

[Captain]

eh sadly I don't actually have a physical copy of a darius game, but thanks to [DATA EXPUNGED] I played and beat them all.

edit: OMFG those gluttons are awesome.

rapid fire cheat

using autofire or mashing the fire button like you would in some other games results in much faster shot rate then holding down the button does.

[The Coop]

I really wish I could play Darius Burst and it's various versions. But, I don't own a PSP, there are no arcades even remotely close to where I live, and since the game never got a port to a home console, I'm SOL.

What about emulating it? You don't a suppa powerful PC to play it.

Didn't know there were PSP emulators. I tend to stick to the 16-bit/32-bit eras with emulation, since my old PC can't do 3D emulation very well once I hit Dreamcast and PS2 levels.

That said, I gave it a whirl, and the game ran surprisingly well (I used PPSSPP). Not a bad little game. Feels a lot like G-Darius, though perhaps a little easier (I got to one of the final levels before losing my first ship) and with noticeably odder music.

using autofire or mashing the fire button like you would in some other games results in much faster shot rate then holding down the button does.

Not with the rapid-fire cheat on the Saturn version

[cools]

I have the recently reprinted Darius poster framed and on my wall. That's it.

[scrilla4rella]

[MathU]

What's all this I keep hearing about a rapid fire "cheat" in Gaiden though? It has it by default but it seems slow in the Saturn version especially compared to G Darius.

It's a cheat activated via button code that converts the shot rate to about 30 times per second. This is far faster than the default firing rate by simply holding the shot button. It basically chews through enemies and bosses so fast that they rarely have a chance to do anything threatening. In the process the player is never encouraged to get good at making use of rocket weaponry or even worry nearly as much about main shot power-up management (piercing waves do less damage than other shot types) OR consider adaptive difficulty vs. point management tradeoffs because the game's adaptive difficulty becomes so much less threatening (despite the increase associated with every tap shot fired). Darius Gaiden was designed well around its default firing rate and you lose a fair bit of its depth using that particular cheat.

In Gaiden ABDGLQV is accepted as the best route for scoring and survival.

This depends on quite a few different assumptions, but outside of using an autofire cheat for milking Great Thing's drills, I believe the scoring route with the most potential is actually ACEHLQV (with a couple other routes involving Zones M+Y or Zone Z trailing not too far behind it). Because Zone G ends in Prickly Angler and it's fairly easy to blow up many of its body parts in the process of beating it when you're learning the game--and thus shoot the adaptive difficulty way up--I might recommend Zone H over Zone G for beginners looking for an easier clear. Zone H also happens to have a higher scoring potential than Zone G for various reasons.

[Aleksei]

That scratch built model is incredible! Well done, awesome work! (Got any spare? )
Didn't know about the Darius Odyssey book coming out so soon. I saw something about it ages ago but thought it may have been shelved (excuse the pun). Seems sold out in a lot of places but managed to snag one at CD Japan (aka Neowing) just now for ¥2000 plus SAL. Only 8 copies left though at time of writing this.
160 pages. Full colour. B5. Loaded with Darius goodness!
Thanks for the heads up Sly Cherry Chunks!

If you checked my first post on this thread, you would've seen I mentioned the Darius Odyssey book, I pre-ordered in on CD Japan as well.

ABDHLQV it's the easiest route in Gaiden.

Got one for Darius II? Been playing it on MD recently.

I did ABDHLQV on Darius, I know that doesn't help w/ Darius 2 but if you want to take a break and do the original quickly then I recommend that route.

some of my stuff:

I want! These aren't SGHistorica are they? Where'd you get the Hungry Glutton from?

Finally, as fellow modeler of Gundams, scratch of Outlawstar, Big O, and misc. I am thrilled to see such a beautiful Glutton. Marvelous job

[ACSeraph]

What's all this I keep hearing about a rapid fire "cheat" in Gaiden though? It has it by default but it seems slow in the Saturn version especially compared to G Darius.

It's a cheat activated via button code that converts the shot rate to about 30 times per second. This is far faster than the default firing rate by simply holding the shot button. It basically chews through enemies and bosses so fast that they rarely have a chance to do anything threatening. In the process the player is never encouraged to get good at making use of rocket weaponry or even worry nearly as much about main shot power-up management (piercing waves do less damage than other shot types) OR consider adaptive difficulty vs. point management tradeoffs because the game's adaptive difficulty becomes so much less threatening (despite the increase associated with every tap shot fired). Darius Gaiden was designed well around its default firing rate and you lose a fair bit of its depth using that particular cheat.

Soooo... I just tried this out for the hell of it too. You aren't kidding about how overpowered it is. I also agree with you from what I played earlier that the game seems legitimately balanced without the code. But I noticed in our high score thread this cheat is considered legit? Whats up with that? I mean, it's an actual code for a cheat that is unavailable in the arcade version (I assume). What's the logic for allowing its use?

[Kollision]

good question, mate.
code users step up please

[KAI]

Auto-fire is cheating cause it breaks the game. Period

[hdd60311]

Darius series fan here, and play Darius Burst Another Chronicle EX for score attack now.

[MathU]

I mean, it's an actual code for a cheat that is unavailable in the arcade version (I assume). What's the logic for allowing its use?

The reason I always hear is that it's about "evening the playing field"--as if one's button-mashing ability isn't part of the toolbox of skills differentiating the very best of the best players. You have to be pretty damn good at Darius Gaiden already for that to even become an important factor in inching out top scores anyway (better than any of the skill demonstrated in that high score thread at least).

The other idea comes from there being an official hack of the arcade game, Darius Gaiden Extra Version, wherein all the levels are jumbled around and there's an option to play through the game on every single stage instead of just seven at a time. The hack features the 30 Hz rapidfire as the default with no option to fire slower. This was possibly to compensate for the adaptive difficulty maxing out before you even get halfway through all those stages, though all the stages also means a lot more extra ships than usual which can offset the difficulty increases a bit by your deaths.

Some people take the official hack's existence to mean that it was designed around 30 Hz rapidfire from the beginning, but it's fairly obvious that it wasn't when you play the original enough with and without it. And if you want to argue along those lines, the original Darius I and II actually do feature autofire as dip switch settings... While Gaiden does not. If Taito was considerate enough to think of such settings all the way back in those games, wouldn't they have hidden them in the service mode options for Gaiden if they had meant for you to shoot that fast? No, because the autofire rate they actually thought was reasonable they put right into the game as default. The autofire featured as a dip setting in those earlier Darius games also does not fire your weapon at nearly the same rate as the cheat in Gaiden, and unlike Gaiden the playing field is much greater while you're still restricted to four or five shot projectiles on-screen at a time.

The only thing the rapidfire cheat really does is allow you to easily bulldoze any other scoring routes by milking Great Thing's drills (though a Darius score competition would be more interesting with separate tables for different final zones to begin with), and negates any sort of strategizing that might have been involved in managing rank versus where you get your points. I can respect whatever rules you want people to follow for a particular competition--it's their thing, they can compete how they want, and coming up with something specifically wacky or different from the main idea of a game can certainly lead to some fun results. But at least don't pretend like the game was designed around it or that it doesn't break it wide open.


Sorry for that wall of text, I don't really want to start up another debate about this but it's hard to contain all these opinions when the I love the game so much and hate to see so many people missing out on things by playing it with that silly cheat.

[BIL]

Do all copies of Darius II MD have that particular warping pattern on the plastic sleeve, I wonder? Makes me feel a bit better about mine (which was actually a replacement itself). Maybe it's to do with the custom Taito snapcase.

Beautiful collections, Kollision, Pyongyang and SCC.

edit: MD Darius is MD, LOLOL

[Xyga]

Do all MD copies of Darius II MD have that particular warping pattern on the plastic sleeve, I wonder?

Mine does.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm surprised the Gaiden scoreboard doesn't divide autofire / non-autofire scores.

30hz autofire is pretty gamechanging at several points (midbosses it can kill in seconds, some bosses like Folding Fan still get plenty of time to be dangerous) and the default autofire doesn't feel unreasonable considering you can get a decent amount of spread + safety shielding + bombs.

The other idea comes from there being an official hack of the arcade game, Darius Gaiden Extra Version, wherein all the levels are jumbled around and there's an option to play through the game on every single stage instead of just seven at a time. The hack features the 30 Hz rapidfire as the default with no option to fire slower.

Actually, if you press button 3 midgame, it opens a settings menu and you can adjust the autofire rate in the Extra Version, or even turn it off completely if you like. The speed equivalent to the normal Darius Gaiden seems to be 01C.

[lilmanjs]

I've never really gotten into the Darius series, but Darius Burst is what is hogging my psp time atm. Whenever I fire up the psp its to play that. Some great music in that, if only my headphone jack wasn't slightly borked.

[MathU]

I'm surprised the Gaiden scoreboard doesn't divide autofire / non-autofire scores.

They should also consider separating arcade from Playstation/Saturn port scores because there's some subtle but important differences between them.

Actually, if you press button 3 midgame, it opens a settings menu and you can adjust the autofire rate in the Extra Version, or even turn it off completely if you like. The speed equivalent to the normal Darius Gaiden seems to be 01C.

All that's ever done for me is pause the game. Is there something else to it?