Howdy folks. Been dumping a bunch of time lately into the frustrating-but-rad PC Engine / TG16 caravan shmup, Super Star Soldier (SSS from here on out). It's one of my favorites in the PCE Soldier/Gunhed lineage, but after looking around on the 'net a bit, I think the consensus it that it's got some balancing issues that hold it back. I was hoping to get a discussion going as to what ideas the community would put on a wishlist to make it a bit easier while still maintaining the series flavor. I have nothing against the current balance, especially from the perspective of preserving the style of its time. But I'm curious what changes the forum would make if we could wave a magic wand, and turn the game as it exists into the 'hard mode', and introduce a 'normal' difficulty more in line with Final Soldier and Soldier Blade.
Here are a few of the things I think could be tweaked a little but have a big impact for less hardcore players:
- Invincibility time after death feels short. Probably could be doubled.
- Powerups should be collectable while you have invincibility frames.
- Blue weapon damage could probably be bumped by 25-30%.
- Death always respawns you, only go back to the beginning of the level when continuing.
- Stage select from title screen for any stage you've gotten to since powering on the system, but only for practice (can't continue past the selected stage, have to play from the beginning to progress).
- Swap stages 4 and 5. 4 is a big difficulty spike (especially that boss!) and 5 is a relative pushover once memorized, compared to the stages on either side of it.
- Level 6 boss rotating orbs should be temporarily destructible and eventually regenerate. Otherwise the boss difficulty varies too much between weapons, since non-piercing weapons can rarely hit.
Anything else you'd do? I really love this game, but honestly think it would be more fun with a few tweaks for those of us who aren't into shmups for the punishment.
I'm much in the same boat, I think this game could have been really great, but a few balancing issues hold it back. It does have some of the best visuals and music on a hu-card, no doubt about it.
My main complaint is the final form of the final boss. I think he replicates too fast to defeat him with the standard pea shooter. I tried to see if it was possible with save states and it doesn't seem like it is? The green weapon feels almost required here.
The game very much has "Compile syndrome" where you can be crusing along and something hits you unexpectedly and you power down and it leads to a spiral of deaths.
The stage 4 boss is a huge jump in difficulty (I still can't get the pattern down 100% of the time), stage 5 is tricky towards the end, and stage 6 and 7 are pretty challenging. The boss rush on the final stage is kinda dumb but not a deal breaker.
I've brought this up with Garagga as well - I don't like boss repeats in short games. Refighting opponents you fought 10 minutes ago, at basically the same level of power, is padding I could do without. Cutting the boss rush entirely would be good, replacing it with unique bosses would be better. You can even pull a Gradius and recycle from prior installments, namely Starship Hector.
I'd still rather play Super Star Soldier than just about any other PCE vert, though.
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
Mortificator wrote:I've brought this up with Garagga as well - I don't like boss repeats in short games. Refighting opponents you fought 10 minutes ago, at basically the same level of power, is padding I could do without. Cutting the boss rush entirely would be good, replacing it with unique bosses would be better. You can even pull a Gradius and recycle from prior installments, namely Starship Hector.
What would you think of the idea of pulling the mid-bosses out of the stages and using them for the final boss rush? It's one of the things I don't love about SSS that occasionally the mid-boss and the boss of a stage are geared towards different weapon loadouts. That's a nice approach for a game with selectable weapons, but often sucks when playing a game where which weapons you can get are (mostly) based on fixed drops.
That's a neat idea that never occurred to me. I might make savestates at the minibosses my next run so I can string them together afterwards and get a feel for how a boss rush with them would play. The stages should probably be shortened a tad with that approach, since there wouldn't be the change of pace that a mid-boss brings.
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
Another thing I'd forgotten to put in the original post - there's no way to be absolutely certain without busting out Mednafen and looking at some RAM values, but I'm pretty convinced SSS doesn't downgrade your rank until you continue. There've been a bunch of times I've taken my first death on stage 4 or 5 and noticed the enemies and bullets are more plentiful than I've come to expect after practicing those stages tons of times using continues. If that is the case, I'd also suggest reducing the rank back to base on death as a potential tweak.
I have the Gamecube version of this - only played that and a old NES game. I've concentrated mainly on the caravan modes. But I always intend to spend more time with it.
Any insights into the differences besides the graphical update on Gamecube?
I don't have experience with the GC/PS2 Star Soldier, but looking at a vid, it seems to be its own separate thing, not an update of the PCE game. Totally different stages, different bosses, different weapons, meter, some danmaku influence...
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
minion wrote:- Death always respawns you, only go back to the beginning of the level when continuing.
There's already in-game system that lets you bypass checkpoints. Sometimes powerups will appear that freeze on the screen when you shoot them. Keep shooting them and eventually they will flash colors and float down normally. Collecting these will turn one of your remaining lives gold (watch the lives sprite when you get the first one), and if you lose it, you respawn in-place. These gold lives stack, and they will be used up first. Gunhed/Blazing Lazers has the same mechanic.
minion wrote:- Death always respawns you, only go back to the beginning of the level when continuing.
There's already in-game system that lets you bypass checkpoints. Sometimes powerups will appear that freeze on the screen when you shoot them. Keep shooting them and eventually they will flash colors and float down normally. Collecting these will turn one of your remaining lives gold (watch the lives sprite when you get the first one), and if you lose it, you respawn in-place. These gold lives stack, and they will be used up first. Gunhed/Blazing Lazers has the same mechanic.
Yep, I'm saying remove that mechanic for Normal mode - i.e. always respawn as though you had a gold ship in stock, for as long as you have lives.
Mortificator wrote:That's a neat idea that never occurred to me. I might make savestates at the minibosses my next run so I can string them together afterwards and get a feel for how a boss rush with them would play. The stages should probably be shortened a tad with that approach, since there wouldn't be the change of pace that a mid-boss brings.
Actually I changed my mind on this one. Since mid-bosses are such a core part of the series as a whole, I don't think pulling them out makes sense. I think it would stray too far from the series identity, probably. Maybe just reducing the HP of the bosses during the rush might help?
SuperDeadite wrote:Except that fucks you over at the final boss. You need full power or final battle is basically impossible. XD
Yeah, I suspect something like changing continues at the final boss to send you back to the checkpoint (the way a death without gold ship does now) instead of the beginning of the stage might be worth a try.
Yes, the GC/PS2 game simply called "Star Soldier" is really a new game, like Vanishing Earth was. I don't know why they called it that.
There is also a PSP game simply called "Star Soldier". It appears to be an alternate version of that GC/PS2 game with additions such as more ships. Also the game is completely vertical; you even rotate the PSP to play it!
Finally, there's Star Soldier R. This is a new game and not related to these two previous games. It's just caravan modes though.
