Shmup Spotlight Vol 1: Student of STG, Juju Kenobi

[Mark_MSX]

Hi everyone,

I am happy to announce the start of a new article series I am working on called Shmup Spotlight. This is an article series that gives players a place to talk about their journeys and processes behind getting their high scores or clears, as well as their history with the genre. Volume 1 is written by Juju Kenobi about his recent DOJ BL 2-All. I think it as definitely something you all are going to enjoy.

http://electricunderground.io/shmup-spo ... ju-kenobi/

[waiwainl]

Nice read thank you.

[Mark_MSX]

Thanks for reading!

[__SKYe]

Good read indeed, thanks for the effort.

About this part:

I selected a series of replays, 1CC clear and such, and started learning. This is something strange I noticed in the Touhou community and shmup community in general. When I was struggling on a part or a boss, I would immediately go watch a replay and learn from more experienced player the best way to do it. Every time, I started playing a new Touhou game, I watched Minogame’s “let’s play” about the game. I always went in “prepared”. But the rest of the community, I feel, gives a lot of importance to self-discovery. Even on shmups forum, sometimes you can see people talking about “monkeying” strats. In my case, I always try to gather as much replays as I can and learn as much as I can through the experience of other, better players. It’s way faster for me.

I'm squarely in the "learn things on your own" category -- I always try to exhaust my possibilities (whether I actually manage to get through the challenges, or I cannot find a way to do so) before I look at someone else's run. You can get good really fast by researching how others do it, but you lose the experience of discovering things as a first time player -- and you can't get that back.

[FRO]

That was a fun read! I'm not nearly as dedicated as that, because I don't have that kind of time to spend on only shmups, but it's fun to read about other people's journey to success, and what they did to achieve it.

[Mark_MSX]

Good read indeed, thanks for the effort.

About this part:

I selected a series of replays, 1CC clear and such, and started learning. This is something strange I noticed in the Touhou community and shmup community in general. When I was struggling on a part or a boss, I would immediately go watch a replay and learn from more experienced player the best way to do it. Every time, I started playing a new Touhou game, I watched Minogame’s “let’s play” about the game. I always went in “prepared”. But the rest of the community, I feel, gives a lot of importance to self-discovery. Even on shmups forum, sometimes you can see people talking about “monkeying” strats. In my case, I always try to gather as much replays as I can and learn as much as I can through the experience of other, better players. It’s way faster for me.

I'm squarely in the "learn things on your own" category -- I always try to exhaust my possibilities (whether I actually manage to get through the challenges, or I cannot find a way to do so) before I look at someone else's run. You can get good really fast by researching how others do it, but you lose the experience of discovering things as a first time player -- and you can't get that back.

I can definitely understand that perspective! I'm not sure where I fall in the replay spectrum, I think probably somewhere in the middle. What I tend to do is try to devise my own routes or strategies for a shmup (like my funky DDP stuff), but in sections where I am hitting a brick wall I'll end up looking up how other people do things. I can see what you mean though, because if you don't give yourself time to experiment you won't find new strategies, but using replays is also very helpful. So that's why I'm probably somewhere in the middle.

[GFoyle]

I really enjoyed reading this, thanks!

It would be interesting to read also stories of such players who have become really good WITHOUT using mame / save points for practicing.

[Mark_MSX]

I really enjoyed reading this, thanks!

It would be interesting to read also stories of such players who have become really good WITHOUT using mame / save points for practicing.

Keep an eye out for some future Shmup Spotlights