Tatsujin Ou (Truxton II)

[Steven]

Yeah, I guess you have to like fly around and hit him in the sides with the red weapon without damaging the eyes to do it safely. For now I just point blank him until his nose cannon appears and then dump 3 bombs into him and watch him die.

[Flobeamer1922]

You'll want to have those bombs for later if you end up learning the game enough to get deep into it.

[Steven]

It's a temporary solution just to get past the stage 1 boss; I'll learn how to actually kill him without bombs eventually. The farthest I've ever made it is the stage 2 boss, but that was some time ago and I never bothered to record my score. Time to make a save state so I can practice the stage 1 boss.

[Steven]

Yay, I can kill the stage 1 boss without bombs now. Not having like 5 years of input lag thanks to the new MiSTer core helps a lot, as well, as I feel way more comfortable making precise movements instead of macro-dodging everything.

Tatsujin Ou
Steven - 311,800 - 02 - 1P - MiSTer

Spoiler

So does everyone play this game at max speed or just get some of the speed pickups or what? I started playing at max speed but didn't really like it so I switched to picking up like 3 speeds, but if you do that you have to dodge the speed powerups that come after that, which is annoying, so I'm trying max speed again. At least max speed is mostly pretty controllable here; in Tatsujin I always smash into shit if I pick up more than like 2 speeds.

[mycophobia]

tatsujin and ou are all about the max speed

[Steven]

God damn it. I guess I finally have to learn how to not slam into the stage 1 miniboss in Tatsujin at max speed, then.

[mycophobia]

zoomin' around is part of the fun. it's part of what makes the games special. just gotta get a handle on it

[Flobeamer1922]

Max speed is also optimal for score, since all speedup items are replaced with weapon items once you're at max speed. For a game like this, you'll want to get as many score extends as possible.

[Steven]

Yeah, score is one of the reasons that I went back to playing this game at max speed. I feel very uncomfortable with Tatsujin's max speed, but it's not too bad here. I am terrible at both games, though.

[Steven]

I randomly made progress today; I actually made it to the miniboss on the speed section in stage 3. Sadly, I cannot post my score because I did it at Mikado and they put the DIPs at 5 lives to start with, but progress is progress. Still died on the stage 1 boss and ended up bombing the crap out of him, sadly.

BTW how the hell are you supposed to recover if you die against the insane zako wave at the end of stage 2? I made it through there unharmed today, partially thanks to being at max speed, but I have died there before and I have no idea how you are supposed to recover on that without using bombs at all.

[Steven]

Tatsujin Ou
Steven - 384,410 - 02 - 1P - MiSTer

Spoiler

Progress, I guess. I can now sometimes no bomb no miss to stage 2 boss, but sometimes not.

[Flobeamer1922]

Nice, Steven! If it's of any help, I recorded a video last month for zako rush recovery. The trick is to hold down while you're at the bottom of the screen so that the zako throw themselves off screen and don't crash into you. Collision is nearly a nonissue this way, so you mostly just need to worry about dodging their bullets. https://youtu.be/p1LXbsDfT40

[Steven]

Thanks, and I'll definitely try this if needed! It's interesting that that works that way, although I think I can see why; the enemies react to the player's inputs and move accordingly, and they will attempt to follow you and end up moving off of the screen, right? I wonder if that works on those crazy helicopters in Kyuukyoku Tiger.

I am seriously considering going for the clear on this game this year. My most difficult achievement so far is probably clearing 2P Same! on 1P side, so this is a massive increase in difficulty. Is there a recommended way to practice dealing with the way the item table works? I'm resetting the game every time I game over to reset the item table, but for recovery I can't really see a way to efficiently practice that, as even if I use save states that still might put me in an awkward place if I practice recovering assuming that I will get a specific powerup and I might get something else instead in a real run. No choice but to memorize enemy placements and just do what I can with what the game gives me, right?

[NMS]

Thanks, and I'll definitely try this if needed! It's interesting that that works that way, although I think I can see why; the enemies react to the player's inputs and move accordingly, and they will attempt to follow you and end up moving off of the screen, right? I wonder if that works on those crazy helicopters in Kyuukyoku Tiger.

I am seriously considering going for the clear on this game this year. My most difficult achievement so far is probably clearing 2P Same! on 1P side, so this is a massive increase in difficulty. Is there a recommended way to practice dealing with the way the item table works? I'm resetting the game every time I game over to reset the item table, but for recovery I can't really see a way to efficiently practice that, as even if I use save states that still might put me in an awkward place if I practice recovering assuming that I will get a specific powerup and I might get something else instead in a real run. No choice but to memorize enemy placements and just do what I can with what the game gives me, right?

For the item table, there's not much you can do about it. I also reset the game so I get the same order every time. But it's a very simple table so I don't think it matters too much (always power-up, then speed-up, then power-up, speed-up, etc., with a bomb very rarely).

For recovery, well, there's pretty much 2 versions of each checkpoint depending on the item you get from the first carrier you'll see: with a power-up and with a speed-up. If you could choose you'd want a power-up every time, because having no power-up truly sucks. It's of course possible to get a bomb but it's rare (basically 1 item in 32 is a bomb), so I wouldn't think too much about this scenario, and treat it like a "speed-up recovery" if this happens to you. Once you get just one power-up you've pretty much almost recovered because you're already pretty strong in this state, and with a second power-up it already feels like you're at full power. So you shouldn't think too much about the order beyond this, only what happens in the first 30 or 60 seconds after a checkpoint.
So you have to practice a speed-up strat, and a power-up strat. Generally, the speed-up strats will require you to use a bomb or two just to survive, unless you've routed that checkpoint really well. And yeah, you often have to memorize enemy placements really well.

If you get a speed-up first in some checkpoints it can become borderline impossible, and sometimes it may be worth suiciding just after getting the speed-up, so you can restart with a power-up next time. One common example is the two "dragonfly" enemies during the second half of stage 5, for which one of the checkpoints contains 2 carriers (I forgot which one). That one is extremely hard with a speed-up start, and what generally happens to me is that I'll get the speed-up, survive for a while until I get the second item (power-up), but at this point I have no remaining bomb and just die... then respawn at the same checkpoint with a speed-up in the first carrier, so it's an infinite loop of failure. Whereas if you suicide just after the speed-up, you respawn with the power-up and it makes the checkpoint much easier. Don't use this strat everywhere because you don't want to throw away lives in this game, but for this checkpoint I'd honestly recommend trying it, and that's what I actually do (it's a terrible checkpoint regardless of your item though).

Of course, the power-up can come in 3 different colors and several initial directions, so the routes will slightly differ between those, but not too much. So I wouldn't spend too much time practicing every combination of color and direction: only practice a speed-up strat and a power-up strat.

[Steven]

Excellent, thanks. I have not played the game for a while, but I'll definitely make use of this. I might buy a PCB this year, although it is very expensive, so I know I shouldn't, but it would be very nice to play on PCB.

[Steven]

lol this game.

Tatsujin Ou NEW VERSION
Steven - 475,330 - 03 - 1P - MiSTer

Spoiler

No miss to stage 3, then died like 30 seconds into the stage lol. I fought the stage 3 boss before several months ago when a friend and I credit-fed through the entire game on his PCB, but I have not played anything beyond stage 2 since then. I'm still worried about the potatoes on stage 6, but that comes later. ROM hack is noticeably easier due to stronger weapons, I think, and the extra bombs definitely helped. Might go for the clear on the ROM hack instead for now and then try the regular version later.

Here's one more, but for the regular version:

Tatsujin Ou
Steven - 516,880 - 03 - 1P - MiSTer

Spoiler

[Nguyen VinhLOC]

Just uncovering this replay from Youtube, the player is TOR, he is 5-ALL truxton ii, feel free to bring it to stg weekly episode if you want

TOR - 7.161.080 - 35 - 1P - Unknown

video links for stg weekly episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhrNS5-UIfI

[Nguyen VinhLOC]

Myself 1st attempt
達人王

Vinh Loc - 190,620 - 02 - 1P - PCB

https://www.instagram.com/p/C422rbTs4Xg/

[Steven]

Went to go watch Kamui play Battle Garegga, but somehow ended up getting a very unexpected new score for both this game and its predecessor along the way.

Tatsujin Ou
Steven - 539,660 - 03 - 1P - PCB

Spoiler