Favorite Parodius game - Now with unlimited poll!

[Mortificator]

We usually build on existing topics rather than creating redundant new ones here, but since the prior thread only has four replies so far, I figured we'd start over with a poll that doesn't time out. If anyone wants to close this or merge it into the other, feel free. No shade on KimagureMachibuse for opening, it's a good question!

My personal ranking: Oshaberi > Gokujo > Sexy > Da > MSX

Oshaberi gives the 1P & 2P characters different power meters, so you have the biggest cast of flyable craft. Rank isn't as vicious at the three arcade Paros. For gamers who are into Konami, having stages based on stuff like TwinBee and Goemon feels a little extra special. Aside from the SNES port of Gokujo, Osaberi's the only entry that always gives you the option for instant respawn (it's restricted to auto modes and co-op in the other Gokujo versions and in Sexy).

Gokujo's close to being a tighter arrangement of Da. The reused elements get extra elaboration: the Pirate stage gets an underwater phase, the Sweets stage gets more destructable, Lady Moai gets a reverse-fellatio attack, part of the Moai Battleship's expanded phase... though the battleship's music is inferior, replacing Farandole with the overplayed Ride of the Valkyries, a piece that was already used to better effect in the MSX game. Makes up for it by having the hottest final stage theme!

Sexy has a unique flavor with its stage missions. The game feels a lil' jank sometimes, but maybe I just need to get better at it.

[Bloodreign]

The Gokujou vote is by my hand, really my favorite game of the entire series.

[neorichieb1971]

Gokujou - Simply because it released with the PS1 and its the one I played the most. I prefer basic stuff too, some of the other Parodius games have side missions and objectives. I have a job just getting through the game without worrying about those things. Music and atmosphere is fantastic. I like the others, but this one takes the gold. Saturn version is best.

[parodius]

I would have voted for Paro Wars, but it's not in there so I voted Parodius Da!

Parodius Da used to be my favorite shooter at some point in my life, hence my username here and elsewhere.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Oshaberi's my personal fave for sure, for many of Mortificator's reasons. The SNES version is the one I've put the most time into, and it's the least cruel about how the roulette works. The PS1 version adding multiplayer is a lovely touch, and the additional tweaks you can make to how it plays are appreciated, but I find that when you trigger a roulette it moves faster than the SNES version, making it much harder to land it safely on a selection you want (timing it to get a shield is REALLY hard compared to the SNES I find).

[EmperorIng]

I just got ePSXe to run an iso of Sexy Parodius, so that feels pretty good - some audio warbles here and there but at least it's not flat-out missing backgrounds like it does on shmupmame (which is STILL better than recent mames for these Konami games? come the fuck on). I at least don't have to always dig out my saturn and its failing Action Replay cart every time I want some parodius action.

I should give Gokujou more than a passing look, but I kind of feel like the difficulty of this series is cranked far beyond even the average gradius title; I suspect that Gokujou, being the next shmup Konami released after Gradius III, was still on the "we need to make these games for experts" kick that made the former so unapproachable for many people. Maybe I'm wrong? I'm sure the SFC port is more palatable at the expense of some technical compromises.

As I said in the previous thread, from what I've played my vote goes to Sexy even if the rank management is stricter there than most konami games. The levels are unique, they dress up the gradius/life force tributes in creative ways, and the gimmick level structure makes it really fun to come back to and gives me a pretty tangible goal to focus on other than sheer survival.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I suspect that Gokujou, being the next shmup Konami released after Gradius III, was still on the "we need to make these games for experts" kick that made the former so unapproachable for many people.

Honestly, I think most people who play Parodius do so because of the cute 'em up aesthetic and the graphical quality more than "gosh I want a game with brutally hardcore rank". The difficulty feels turned up way too high, and rank is way too highly variable. The fact that these are present alongside the punishing roulette system that can cause you to instantly depower and be put in immediate danger, alongside a checkpoint system, all make for a series that's frankly far crueler to players than it needs to be.

Harmful Park (PS1) always felt like a far better balanced cute 'em up experience. Crank the difficulty up and it's tough enough without the overtly chaotic elements Parodius has. Ranger Dog too also nails the cute 'em up vibe without being outright cruel like Parodius can be.

[lovecraft]

I didn't like Sexy Parodius that much...
So far, my fav is Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius on Saturn with that awesome Ganbare Goemon stage !

[SuperDeadite]

Voted for Da as I've played it the most by far. The MSX original is worth spending time with too though.

[Herr Schatten]

Nice to see some love for Da!, as it’s my favorite as well. I like Gokujou, but rank in that game is absolutely murderous.

I would argue that for the series in general, the SFC and PCE ports are actually preferable to their arcade counterparts due to their less aggressive rank.

[copy-paster]

I just got ePSXe to run an iso of Sexy Parodius, so that feels pretty good - some audio warbles here and there but at least it's not flat-out missing backgrounds like it does on shmupmame

Dude why you use epsxe where duckstation exist.

As for me, Sexy is all around best. Strong stage design and rank is friendlier compared to other games in arcade entries. I also mention that Jikkyou Oshaberi PS1/Saturn also very good, has more characters, extras, generous extends, and balanced difficulty.

[EmperorIng]

Dude why you use epsxe where duckstation exist.

Damn, you're right bro, this emulator is waaaaay better than ePSXe. I was just stuck in the past (ironic because the new builds of PCSX2 I use are also built off of the duckstation core). Do you use runahead on Sexy?

[Bassa-Bassa]

I should give Gokujou more than a passing look, but I kind of feel like the difficulty of this series is cranked far beyond even the average gradius title; I suspect that Gokujou, being the next shmup Konami released after Gradius III, was still on the "we need to make these games for experts" kick that made the former so unapproachable for many people. Maybe I'm wrong?

Did you mean Parodius Da? That's actually the next Konami STG after G3, and indeed this one is alluded more than once in Da. And before Gokujou, we also got Detana TB, Thunder Cross II and Xexex...

I'm not entirely sure Konami wanted to ever keep G3's difficulty level on wards. I find Da (arcade) even easier than G2 (not to mention than G3, which apparently wasn't tested enough due to schedule), so I believe that Gokujou was made harder as an answer to the people expecting more, a bit like the R-Type II case. It's indeed a shame that this resulted in a bit overwhelming game (specially the arcade version), as Gokujou otherwise could have easily been one of the genre's peaks, but still found it way easier than G3.

Honestly, I think most people who play Parodius do so because of the cute 'em up aesthetic and the graphical quality more than "gosh I want a game with brutally hardcore rank".

Not from a Japanese perspective, though?


I'm not voting as I've only played seriously two of them. And I don't think I could pick one between Da and Gokujou, anyway - the former is more accessible, the latter, too pretty to let this slide.

[pcb_revival]

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius on PS1

Great game on the right hardware the sfc version struggles too much.

Has anyone managed to unlock the unused music mentioned at the cutting room floor website.

Also there is a block of text from the developers that requires translation.

https://tcrf.net/Jikkyou_Oshaberi_Parod ... ayStation)

[EmperorIng]

Amusing to read the OP and "building off other topics" and see yet another Kimagure topic to ask a single question about Parodius...

Did you mean Parodius Da? That's actually the next Konami STG after G3, and indeed this one is alluded more than once in Da. And before Gokujou, we also got Detana TB, Thunder Cross II and Xexex...

I guess I had gotten my timeline confused, I guess Parodius Da seemed a little cruder, visually, to me than Gradius III but that might just be superficial features. Konami's Gradius hiatus is pretty interesting in retrospect, even if they still maintained the gameplay style through the Parodius line. I guess III really was meant to be the final word for a long time.

I'm not entirely sure Konami wanted to ever keep G3's difficulty level on wards. I find Da (arcade) even easier than G2 (not to mention than G3, which apparently wasn't tested enough due to schedule), so I believe that Gokujou was made harder as an answer to the people expecting more, a bit like the R-Type II case. It's indeed a shame that this resulted in a bit overwhelming game (specially the arcade version), as Gokujou otherwise could have easily been one of the genre's peaks, but still found it way easier than G3.

Da easier than Gradius II? Isn't Parodius Da! usually considered as one of the hardest shmups to 2all in the Konami canon? You will find more Gradius III 4alls than you will Parodius Da! 2alls, though maybe a 1all isn't that bad? I haven't really played the game myself. SFC ports don't count! The fact that a loop of Da! is 35-40 minutes while a loop of Gradius II is less than 20 minutes... I dunno man, that's double the time that something can go wrong.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I wonder if G3 actually bombed.

Da easier than Gradius II? Isn't Parodius Da! usually considered as one of the hardest shmups to 2all in the Konami canon? You will find more Gradius III 4alls than you will Parodius Da! 2alls, though maybe a 1all isn't that bad? I haven't really played the game myself. SFC ports don't count! The fact that a loop of Da! is 35-40 minutes while a loop of Gradius II is less than 20 minutes... I dunno man, that's double the time that something can go wrong.

Well, I'm talking about one loop only, yeah. Never 1CC'd Da but getting to the 8th stage didn't take me too many tries even without autofire. G2 on the other hand... Da has a difficult stage 4 which you have to learn (something you can't do with G2's crystal stage), but bosses are easy in general, and the bell power can be of use.

[copy-paster]

G3 was, and still is really popular in Japan. There's over 100 1-ALLs in ACA leaderboards alone. Cube rush still being one of most used shmup memes too.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I mean, it had to be popular - it was a Gradius, after all. But enough for their expectations? With Da released 4 months later and the incredible feedback this got, I still wonder.

[StarLightMoonLight]

I've played through the PSP version Sexy the most, I had a blast with it trying to figure out optimal routes and trying to complete the missions, even though I felt some of the missions can be a bit unfair at times.

[EmperorIng]

The only tough missions Sexy are imo the Bath house mission (collect 300 coins) and the mining mission (destroy the 10... radios?). The former because if you don't know how Auto works you will not have enough speed to survive*, and the latter you need to know beforehand how to reach the limited number of machines (you will likely cover some up on your first few tries) - and even then you have a few spawned by the boss and you can use the Big bell to get through the walls and reach some.

I would add the Geisha mission (thieving little tramps! ) becomes hard, if not impossible, if you die. However, that can be said of any of the stages. And of course, surviving the rank is pretty rough in the game no matter what, especially on the last few levels.

*I only learned this recently in Sexy Parodius, but when using Auto, you need to limit yourself to 2 options (and only two) in the first stage, and during/after the second stage opener, pick up precisely one powerup capsule so that Speedup is highlighted, and you will get one of Auto's only speed upgrades in the game. Two speeds make getting the 300 coins very manageable, though I tend to use Alex (the pac man you get from the silver bell) with a few level ups to help me out.