Psikyo Game Difficulty Levels

[Jonpachi]

I just got the Psikyo Volume 3 pack for Switch so I could finally play a console port of Strikers 1945 III. In typical fashion, I am not terribly good at Psikyo games, despite playing the majority of their stuff over the years. Out of curiosity, I checked out a few youtube videos of high scoring runs, and I'd swear many players appear to be playing on EASY.

I generally always try to play on at least Normal, or "Arcade" if that's on offer, but have I been just setting myself up for failure? Do you typically try for Easy, or stick to arcade defaults?

[Jonpachi]

Also, such a shame that Strikers III is so FUGLY on the Switch. Backgrounds are a dithered mess, and the color palate looks like it was left out in the sun.

[Gamer707b]

I bought volume 2 myself and love it. Im not paying $150+ On a Saturn Srikers 2. Anyway, as far as your question goes, I play on the easiest settings and work my way up. After I get a 1cc on very easy , I go up to easy and so on. Im not only getting more play value out of these great ports (for me at least) but Im learning the game gradually. Even on "easy" settings , Psikyo games are not easy.

[EmperorIng]

at the very least, some of the lower difficulty levels can help you 'learn' a pattern in a macro sense, because often the general strategy between a low-rank and a high-rank pattern remains the same, it just demands stricter execution. Often times I see lower-difficulty patterns retain the same general shape; the higher-rank ones add more bullets, tighter spaces, and are faster. Anecdotally I think your brain can start to 'see' the pattern if it seems them in stages/gradually.

On a side note, the lower difficulties are helpful in some ports where it helps you unlock things: e.g. the Saturn port of Sengoku Blade has Marion as an exclusive character if you beat the game with all 6 others, so beating the game on Monkey 6 times is the way to go

[Jonpachi]

The Saturn port of Sengoku Blade has Marion as an exclusive character if you beat the game with all 6 others, so beating the game on Monkey 6 times is the way to go

LOL I've had the Saturn version of SB since at least 2002 and never knew this!

[Square_Air]

Never played one of the ports, so I've only truly experienced the arcade originals. Psikyo games can be challenging to learn without comprehensive savestates & level/boss selection, so I can see easier difficulty levels being beneficial for learning even second loops.

I haven't seen any runs from the new port of Strikers III yet, but some of these players might be using the X-36 secret ship which is easily the most powerful ship.

[AshWednesday]

Psikyo games at regular arcade difficulty tend to chuck shit at you faster than I find particularly fun to try to respond to with the extra frames of input lag on the Switch ports. I've still bought literally all of them on Switch cause I just really like Psikyo and I like having stuff in handheld form and being able to be able to like casually play one credit worth of Sengoku Blade while I'm on the toilet, etc.

So for that reason, specifically on Switch a lot of the time I turn the difficulty down compared to how I play the same games when I'm emulating them and practicing more seriously

[FRO]

On a side note, the lower difficulties are helpful in some ports where it helps you unlock things: e.g. the Saturn port of Sengoku Blade has Marion as an exclusive character if you beat the game with all 6 others, so beating the game on Monkey 6 times is the way to go

Just make sure your save battery is new/full before you execute this, or you'll never see Marion

[m.sniffles.esq]

I always (at least begin) on 'Normal' because I figure that's how the developer meant the game to be played.

Of course, the developer can mean the game to be played by feeding it lots and lots of credits... In which case, yeah, I'll probably adjust the difficultly. But with Psikyo, I've found that usually they keep 'normal' in the doable realm and generally have good difficultly arcs. That said, there are certainly more recent shooters that seem to trip all over themselves to show you how 'hardcore' they are from jump street. My rule of thumb, if I don't see the first boss within my first couple of credits (and not even 'beat' mind you, just 'see'), I'm probably going to knock the difficultly down. Unfortunately, my opinion of the game usually is going to get knocked down right along with it...

[Mills]

Striker's 1945 Classic by Mobirix on Hard and Very Hard Difficulty is definitely not fun once you get to stage 3. Don't even get me started on 2nd loop. Not going to bother chasing the online highscores. Way too many cheating f**ks on that. How the f**k does someone get over 900million on Very Hard Difficulty. I'll be happy just to get 2CC no miss on video when I get proper session time from work during this pandemic lockdown. Still having to work and so I'm just too tired when I get home to play. Still can't get a decent screen recorder to work properly.

New releases of Gunbird and Samurai Aces classic are definitely more fun on Easy and Normal difficulty. Not tried Hard or Very Hard Difficulty yet.

[BrianC]

On a side note, the lower difficulties are helpful in some ports where it helps you unlock things: e.g. the Saturn port of Sengoku Blade has Marion as an exclusive character if you beat the game with all 6 others, so beating the game on Monkey 6 times is the way to go

Just make sure your save battery is new/full before you execute this, or you'll never see Marion

At least there are backup options to alleviate that. Action Replay only has backup, but power memory supports direct saves, though cartridge swapping for jp games is not recommended.