Where the Darius Love at?

[Immryr]

yeah neon light illusion is such a pain for me.

[MathU]

The thing to keep in mind about Prickly Angler versus Neon Light Illusion is that while people may find the former to be an easier boss than the latter on its own, Prickly Angler can end up making the rest of a playthrough more difficult by significantly increasing the adaptive difficulty for the rest of the stages due to all the body parts you can easily end up destroying. You have to be quite careful with point-blank shooting and a white bullet-powered main weapon to minimize how many you destroy (the transformation from fry to adult still forces one on you). Neon Light Illusion, on the other hand, has zero difficulty-increasing body parts to blow up.

[CStarFlare]

It's worth controlling your rank by not collecting all the red items you can get. With high enough rank NLI in particular throws out some stuff that boarderlines on impossible to dodge but at lower rank it's quite manageable. If you need to bomb, sit inside the boss for extra damage.

It's probably been stated elsewhere, but if you're using a weapon that doesn't have normal bullets (ie, bullets the disappear when they hit things) you're severely limiting your damage output. Going full-wave significantly extends the length of boss fights because you have to wait for the shots to clear the screen.

[caincan]

always fun to see ghetto setup in multiple screens

[Dirty Casual]

Seeing this thread pop up reminded me that I've had something on my mind lately...

In Darius, bosses tend to:
-move a little, in slow and predictable patterns
-have multiple destructible bits
-rely on singular but complicated shot patterns

And in Darius II, bosses tend to:
-move a lot
-have one weak spot
-employ multiple shot types

For example, take King Fossil and Hyper Sting. King Fossil lazily floats up and down a bit, shoots an intense spread of bullets, and has destructible fins. Hyper Sting, on the other hand, approaches you from the right and the left (the second one is his brother I guess?), shoots bullets alongside thick lasers, and is only vulnerable in his mouth.

I can't imagine Drio Sawm being in Darius or Electric Fan being in Darius II. Granted, there are exceptions, like being able to destroy Alloy Lantern's alloy lantern.

The effect is that Darius bosses are less impressive but more customizable. Darius II, on the other hand, feels more scripted but also more stylish.

Would you agree that this tends to be the trend? Why do you think this is? (Do you think Darius II's bosses fit their stages better, maybe?) And do you have a preference for one style or another?

I prefer Darius' style, since it allows me to set the challenge as I like. Granted, Darius II's style has its advantages.

[Squire Grooktook]

Darius 1's boss patterns seem obviously a result of the technological and memory limitations of the era. Simple, repeating patterns and movement cycles, because scripting more probably would have taken up too much memory and whatnot. Similarly, if you play Rastan Saga, you can kinda feel how limited the physics are on many things.

I'm not sure I'd agree that having more elaborate patterns results in more predictability, that's more an issue of how much RNG is assigned to patterns/attacks/etc. Battle Garegga/Batrider bosses have some elaborate stuff going on, but they tend to choose attacks randomly, and there are a number of "random bullet spray" type attacks to keep you on your toes.

[Perikles]

My biggest gripe with Darius II (arcade; the 16-bit ports in general and the MD port in particular adressed this issue) is the atrocious movement speed of the ship - you can sit on the other side of the screen and still get hit from some boss patterns you saw coming from a mile ago. The first Darius feels tighter to me in that regard, the hitbox of the ship as well as the maneuverability seem moreso in accordance with the enemy behaviour. I still prefer II for the atmosphere and the mild challenge (the first Darius is a bit too easy for my taste, I'd rather play II MD or Force if I have a craving for that, level design is a lot better in these), but holy cow, I sure wish the Silver Hawk were a bit faster.

[Squire Grooktook]

I actually did some SUPER SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH on speeds influence on dodging, in my own game. It tends not to be as big as you'd think, since the difference between a "slow" and "fast" speed is often something like 1-2 pixels per frame faster. This usually equates to being able to get out of the way of a bullet 1 frame faster. Maybe 2, at most.

Of course that can still make a difference during seat of your pants dodging, as every frame counts.

The advantage of high speed tends to be more noticeable and frequently useful when more distance needs to be covered, as the pixels moved per frame adds up more over multiple frames ("slow" aka 1 pixel per frame = 30 pixels after 30 frames. "fast" aka 3 pixels per frame = 90 pixels after 30 frames). Hence medal collecting, macro dodging, aggressive play is where it shines the most.

Forgive me if that tangent was a bit off topic :3 just wanted to share that (hopefully) interesting info with anyone.

[Despatche]

I prefer Darius' style, since it allows me to set the challenge as I like. Granted, Darius II's style has its advantages.

I'm not sure any bit of this pans out the way you make it sound. Darius as a whole is designed around bosses with multiple parts.

Driosawm was originally designed for Darius, and was thus added to Super Darius; the basic fight is about the same, though it plays out differently. Electric Fan can only be damaged in the mouth, you might be thinking of the Gaiden version. All poor Iron Hammer has is a single fin.

Meanwhile, about half of the Darius II bosses have multiple parts. Right after knocking out Alloy Lantern, you take on Steel Spine with his orb shield and multiple fins. Then you have the multi-part Leadain fight, with the first phase requiring that you take out the arms first. Next is Red Crab, a fight that depends entirely on when you shoot the legs. Finally, you have Grand Octopus with all those annoying arms.

Remember that the Darius bosses had a bigger development process, as there were 26 planned, one for each letter. Darius II probably didn't have that kind of effort; they clearly decided to focus on more unique stages instead, reducing the number of final bosses and even reusing boss designs from the original.

[Dirty Casual]

Aha, thanks! These are all important insights. Sounds like I need more time with some huge battleships.

[M.Knight]

Thanks to all the throwbacks in DBCS, I started replaying the original Darius (Extra version of course), and due to my experience with DBAC, I am coming to terms with some of its features such as the low shot limit. While I used to find that frustrating, I realized while playing DBAC that it had a purpose and made the shooting more tactical, especially when you face the anchor-like things that bosses spawn.

Speaking of tactical shooting, I have the feeling Darius 1 puts more emphasis on the usefulness of missiles than any other game in the series. Many turrets are hidden behind walls or hills and before you get the wave weapon, you have to use your missiles. Even after you get the wave, you have to position yourself behind walls as to destroy those turrets with a well-placed shot. It gives you the feeling of clearing and securing a room before getting inside and I like that aspect of the game.

One thing I still can't stand though, is how enemy waves are independant from the walls and obstacles. Most of the time, it is fine, but when you can't get a power-up because the enemy carrying it went inside a wall, it's annoying. One time, I got a power-up stuck in an unreachable place between two pipes in a factory level because I killed it at the wrong time with my wave weapon.

All in all, it's an enjoyable game. Not the greatest Darius game IMO but it clearly doesn't feel as clunky as its age would suggest.

[soprano1]

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2747/

Interesting patch for those who like the MD version of Darius II (AKA Sagaia).

[copy-paster]

My biggest gripe with Darius II (arcade) is the atrocious movement speed of the ship

I think the ship moves normally, but the problem is the ship size is too big which the hitbox is the entire ship.

Almost forgot, when I revisit Darius Gaiden Extra 1P I unconsciously no miss no bomb Fatty Glutton and Titanic Lance for the first time, and yes with default auto shot 80. Feel the auto, man.

[Klatrymadon]

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2747/

Interesting patch for those who like the MD version of Darius II (AKA Sagaia).

Looks superb! Anyone played this? Interested to know what the "other stuff" they corrected might be...

[AxelMill]

Still waiting for Arcade Archives Darius. They announced it, what, five months ago? I'm sure it doesn't take that long to add a few filters no one's going to use.
I think this series' prices are insane for a single arcade game each, but hey, Darius is Darius.

[copy-paster]

Darius 1's boss patterns seem obviously a result of the technological and memory limitations of the era. Simple, repeating patterns and movement cycles

Interestingly, in terms of the story, it was the first time Belsar using Thiima technology for their battleship. Perhaps the battleship isn't fully established, so the result is like that.

[ACSeraph]

Still waiting for Arcade Archives Darius. They announced it, what, five months ago? I'm sure it doesn't take that long to add a few filters no one's going to use.
I think this series' prices are insane for a single arcade game each, but hey, Darius is Darius.

I was also wondering about this. Has anything more even been said though? I'm wondering which games are even going to make it over. At a minimum I want Darius Extra, since the game has never had an arcade-accurate console port. Gaiden Extra would also be mind blowing, but I don't expect that to ever happen. I'll be super pissed if they do Vanilla Darius instead of Extra though.

As far as price goes, I definitely don't find it expensive. A single arcade game, if good and well ported, is probably more value for your money than what passes for AAA these days. I just wish they were playable on Vita, can't really understand why they aren't.

[M.Knight]

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2747/

Interesting patch for those who like the MD version of Darius II (AKA Sagaia).

Does anyone know if it changes the SFX as well?
I really want to like MD Darius 2 because I feel it managed to capture Darius 2's feel one a single screen, but the shot sound effect is unbearable to me, even for Megadrive standards. (Maybe it is due to the emulator, though?)

[qmish]

Hey, did Darius fishes ever have such multijaws?:

Spoiler

[Heavy Viper]

WARNING!!
A HUGE BATTLESHIP
GIGER MORAY
IS APPROACHING FAST!

[Captain]

Risk Storage?

[copy-paster]

some love





Big Thanks to Zeraylph for the Fire Fossil image.

[rjosal]

That's a cool idea. I noticed Costco was doing photo mugs for something like $7 but didn't think of doing that...

[CStarFlare]

Got a funny copyright claim on my youtube page. Something triggered on my Darius Gaiden Extra video and someone is stealing my pennies*. Followed the claim info to a bandcamp page where I found this:

https://rafaelpereira.bandcamp.com/track/smart-rio

It's pretty clear where the issue comes from, but I think he's a decade too late to lay claim to that track. If he's not rapping about fish I'll be pissed. The other tracks on that album give me a familiar feeling but I can't place the backing tracks - maybe other VGM?

*not yet earned

[qmish]

Reminded me when Max Payne walkthrough got copyright claim cause some rappers used sample of it in their songs, wtf

[SePh1r0tH]

Why is there no topic as far as I can see on the Darius 30th anniversary collection for PS4??? It's out in Japan with some cool extras and still available at some retailers! It's pricey but I had to order...

http://gematsu.com/2016/11/darius-30th- ... ounced-ps4

It's ONLY the original Darius by the way. The other discs are sound tracks.

[AxelMill]

Why is there no topic as far as I can see on the Darius 30th anniversary collection for PS4???

Actually, there is.

[qmish]

What's wrong with me?! While i love many things about old Darius games (design, atmosphere, music, features etc.), i can't stand gameplay when i actially get to play them. Even Gaiden and G-, which are kind of highlights of series, leave me with "wtf?" feel regards how they play.

That being said, i'm still kind of nobody at shmups overall, but still... eh! It's not like R-Type 1-2 where, while ragequitting me even at 1st stage, i can see system and logic in it's game design.

[Durandal]

What's wrong with me?! While i love many things about old Darius games (design, atmosphere, music, features etc.), i can't stand gameplay when i actially get to play them. Even Gaiden and G-, which are kind of highlights of series, leave me with "wtf?" feel regards how they play.

That being said, i'm still kind of nobody at shmups overall, but still... eh! It's not like R-Type 1-2 where, while ragequitting me even at 1st stage, i can see system and logic in it's game design.

tbf the stage design for Darius games in general is not that great

[qmish]

I wish all of them would have boss rush modes

Though there are some great moments in stages, but mostly about presentation rather than possibilities.

Forgot to say, I like DBCS pretty much, so it's mostly me vs. older ones. Being chaotic and sometimes low visibility doesn't help.