Well, this video shows nothing but another presentation of those games video wise. It seems that there is nothing much to do on the right as well. Its just that the player wants to do more. Ok, when playing for score possibly there is a reason for playing this way. In my Tatsujin 1ccs I've done as well a little entertaining game by trying to kill the first enemies as close as possible (as you can see
here). And the first two mid sized enemies have the right amount of health for that what they are able to do on screen. In melee range they can stand it just about three seconds each.
I never felt, that some enemies can take to much bullets. Its quite perfectly balanced I guess.
And yes, I've said, that there is sometimes not so much to do if your powered up. But if you want to be powered up in the lets say fifth stage, you have to deal with the whole game in low power mode, because you have to learn it bit by bit obviously. The most "emptiness" is in stage 4 but if you mess up, this seems to be emptiness turns into a really hard stage with tons of things you have to recognize. And if you haven't learned every little enemy that comes out in a unusual spot or the position of the tanks which can shoot you off the sky superfast, you won't have much time in overpowered mode.
And in the fifth stage, you have to be super aware of everything and its very hard to keep your weapon power beyond all those waves. The players who look like they are bored within some parts are mostly really aware and have memorized in the past the whole stage with low power for being able to recover even on these areas. @Mycophobia has spoken about "chill parts" but these gets only chill if you've played the game very long because if you forget one single enemy if can quickly be over and without the higher firepower most parts in this game are NOT chill.
And in your text you've linked, you only write about the 1st stage and it seems that you have not compared the game with others vertical STGs in the year 89. Its stage design is possibly one of the best in its time and age. And it surely was an inspiration for many later games and companies so this quote is kinda off:
Maybe they made some good games afterwards like Outzone or Batsugun but overall I am very happy they went under because such sluggish and badly designed shmups don't deserve any success in the arcades, and also because their bankrupcy gave us CAVE and Raizing whose shmups are for the most part much better paced. Same goes for Takumi and Gazelle's Air Gallet.
And Tatsujin was very successful I guess.
And the other points... I don't know... 5 minutes are to long for a first stage? Its long for a cave style danmaku but many other shooters have 1st stages around this number. Its a positive thing when you see how hard the second stage becomes and how much players will only have fun with the first one
-Actually, the entire first stage (and maybe the whole game?)'s level design is like that : tons of piss-easy enemies that are sent in extremely repetitive and boring waves and all of a sudden you've got one enemy that is much beefier, can move pretty low on the screen to point blank you, and who spawns with a few pals of his to make you panic and mess up. And then back to boring enemy waves. There is zero logical progression with increasing difficulty like in a well designed shmup. Nothing here makes sense. Besides, some of the midbosses have attacks with two long shots that look like you can get between them but it's impossible given your gigantic hitbox.
Its a but much to say such things if you haven't played much beyond stage 1. Gigantic hitboxes are normal in these days. For my 1cc I had to study these piss easy enemies very well because they are sometimes a larger threat than the midbosses. And its sometimes not much of a difference compared to some modern danmakus where there are nearly harmless popcorn enemies in between to let you keep your score chain.
-Right after that, you've got two mid-boss looking enemies with a billion HP. If you don't have a powerful autofire, the fight lasts forever. I was so fed up with them that I ended up bombing them just to make them leave my sight but even that wasn't enough.
nearly all players here play with autofire, right? as mentioned earlier, they do not stand that much bullets, if you know how to fight them. eaching you to use patterns and strategies for even the earlier enemies is a very good thin within a STG.
Even the first few waves in the game only consist of a single harmless enemy that spawns on the left, then another one the right, and then another one the left, over and over again like 15 times. Wow, what an impressive way to get fired up for the rest of the game.
Its quite normal to have some more boring minutes in the first stages of many shooters. I can not say its much fun to play it so much till you get a 1cc but this was not much of a difference in other shooters. And this part is like the whole game designed for further loop. In the second loop even this part gets a little bit dangerous. And I hold it here like Mycophobia: its a nearly perfect beginning for someone who's playing this game/a game like this the first time. And even in ths 1st stage the end of it gets much harder and gives you a strong foe at the end of it.
But Tatsujin is surely not a game for everyone so its ok, that you don't like it. In the past I didn't liked it either. But just because of the difficulty after the first stage. Even then I adored it for its stage design (especially after playing Fireshark which lacks in these terms a bit).