Caladrius & Caladrius Blaze

[Mero]

Here's a better Caladrius AC arcade mode run, 84 million with custom Alex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGtQZhS-Cz4

[spadgy]

Ow - I just made it to the final phase of the stage 6 boss, just pixels left on the life bar, chucked out one of two bombs remaining, but assumed those large 'orbiting bodies' she tosses out would be destroyed by the bomb. They weren't, and I crashed into one. So close!

I did for the first time one-life it all the way to the stage five boss. Previous best was stage four. Crap score though.

But I did get this a few days ago (sorry ACSeraph!):



Spadgy - 41,984,310 - 6 - Caladrius - Maria1/Caladrius2/Kei3

[spadgy]

Boom! Got the 1CC! Now I feel like I never want to play this game again! Thank the shmup lords I downed it! It's over!

Not a high score though, but for a middling player with my less than great skills, it feels like one hell of an achievement! Only thanks to those stage 6 snipers, I've found this harder than any Cave game I've 1CC'd.

My 1CC score was 4,0770,080. A death mid way through stage 4, and not quite passing x10 on stage 3 was what kept me back...

[Mero]

chucked out one of two bombs remaining, but assumed those large 'orbiting bodies' she tosses out would be destroyed by the bomb. They weren't, and I crashed into one

Yeah, I did that as well. Congrats on the all clear too, great work.

[Kollision]

Kollision - 50,709,720 - ALL - Kei - Default E-shot



video is up as well
I tried to get a clean run at least until stage 6, but either fucked up on the 4th or the 5th stage....
I'm saying goodbye to Caladrius for now, let's see how the PS3 version improves on it.

[PurpleTheGuy]

Man, this game looks so nice. I wish I could get it, if I had a Japanese Xbox 360. What a shame. Does anyone have any details about what the PS3 version will be like, other than yeah, it's a sequel, but...? Is it true, that it will be like the Xbox 360 game (Like, it has the original Xbox 360 game and all, except with a lot of new stuff, obviously)? I heard that the PS3 release is region-free, and that's great, but, well, you know, I always like to be sure, especially if the game has caught my interest...

My apologies for asking here, but I'd sure like to know for sure so I can start to draw plans on how to obtain the game for the PS3, and I'm not sure where to ask; otherwise, yeah, if I had a Japanese Xbox 360, then I'd be busy playing this game as I would be on a dozen other shmup games, trying for the 1cc, then the high scores and big-shot difficulties, and try to actually put something on the leaderboards, rather than just comment and standing limp.

[Mero]

I tried to get a clean run at least until stage 6, but either fucked up on the 4th or the 5th stage....

You've still done well to get that score with a death before stage 6. I will check your video soon, congrats!

Is it true, that it will be like the Xbox 360 game (Like, it has the original Xbox 360 game and all, except with a lot of new stuff, obviously)? I heard that the PS3 release is region-free, and that's great, but, well, you know, I always like to be sure, especially if the game has caught my interest

No one really knows what PS3 Caladrius is going to be like yet, but yeah the content of the 360 original will certainly be in the PS3 version I'm sure. It definitely will be region free.

[spadgy]

I knew Kollision joining the Caladrius party would put our scores to shame! Great work Kollision, and nice to see you here.

[Kollision]

tks, guys.
even though Kei doesn't seem to be the overall best default character I think he offers very good possibilities for scoring.
only one of his elementals is fired with the default shot, and a very narrow one at that. MOSS could correct that and separate normal shot from elementals completely on the PS3 version, is it not?

[PurpleTheGuy]

No one really knows what PS3 Caladrius is going to be like yet, but yeah the content of the 360 original will certainly be in the PS3 version I'm sure. It definitely will be region free.

Yeah, I've heard the same on the other websites, so it really looks like this will be so. This is great news, indeed! I'll be looking forward to the PS3 release, no doubt! Thanks, Mero!

[ACSeraph]

That's one hell of a score Kollision, congrats. I've been wanting to get back into this, but I haven't been able to get it back from my friend who is borrowing it yet. What exactly is your general strategy for getting such a high score? Is it all just maximizing your route to build the highest possible multiplier and not dying? Major kudos for doing that with Kei also.

MOSS could correct that and separate normal shot from elementals completely on the PS3 version, is it not?

I think it was partly an issue of balance, with some weapons being good for survival but not scoring and vice versa. Acid Reaction for example is broken and makes survival mindlessly easy, but it fires your main shot making it relatively useless for scoring compared to the other defensive weapon options.

My guess is the PS3 version will be primarily based on AC, which has all the same weapon properties as Vanilla. But the scoring seems very shallow in AC compared to Vanilla, because your multiplier maxes out very quickly so it doesn't require (or reward) extremely detailed planning nearly as much as Vanilla does. It's possible I'm just missing something but it seems like taking a decent-ish route to max out the multiplier and then just not dying and killing lots of stuff is all you need to get an upper realm score in AC. Here's hoping they add a bit more depth to Blaze.

[Kollision]

What exactly is your general strategy for getting such a high score? Is it all just maximizing your route to build the highest possible multiplier and not dying?

Thanks, and yes, that exactly.

The worst thing that can happen is dying during the start of a boss fight, as I did in the video for this run on the 4th boss. I lost approximately 4~5 million there (even more infuriating is dying against the vampire guy in stage 5).
In my best runs with Kei I could get around 5, >5, >13, nearly 9 and >13 multipliers on all five stages respectively, so I assume my strategies could yield at least 55M+ on a no-miss run up to stage 6 (I hate stage 6 ).

I had no idea of how Caladrius AC played, thanks for the info.
Hopefully MOSS will try to fine tune it a little more for the PS3.

[Mero]

Playing with Caladrius you end up killing far too many enemies without adding to your multiplier, but I watched Kollision's replay and you can get almost everything with the E-shots with Kei, and his E2 shot is very useful for getting popcorn enemies that I always miss with Caladrius (especially on stage 4 where I could only get my multipler up to about 6 or 7 iirc).

[ACSeraph]

Yeah I could see that. I was thinking about trying another score oriented custom run with a new setup when I get my game back. I was thinking that Caladrius plus Kei's S1 for clearing popcorn, Sophia's S2 Toothpaste laser as a backup, and Kei's S3 because who the hell is going to use anything else? But it will be hell without the reflection ability, I'll have to re-learn (learn) a lot of patterns. In this case I still think Caladrius is the best choice because of damage output on bosses. You won't accidentally kill anything because none of those elementals fire your main shot.

The other thing though I've noticed in AC is that the skills drain faster if they are custom. So a character has significantly more energy with their own skills. Is vanilla also like that? I cant remember... If so then I would wager Kei is almost assuredly the highest scoring character, though I might still trade his S2 for something else.

[Mero]

when I get my game back.

Time to get the baseball bat out

The other thing though I've noticed in AC is that the skills drain faster if they are custom. So a character has significantly more energy with their own skills. Is vanilla also like that? I cant remember...

I can't remember either but I don't think so, I was playing with default Maria for quite a while when I first got the game and I don't think there was any differrence when I switched.

Didn't they also address the problem of weak normal shot power in AC?

[Kollision]

I'm so used to Kei I'd have a hard time playing with a different character.
However, if I had to choose a custom one I'd go for Alex or Maria because they move slightly slower than Kei and Caladrius, thus making it easier to dodge the most complicated boss patterns.

[ACSeraph]

Ugh I'm trying so hard to clear this and register a score with default Lilith, but shes so insanely useless. It's demoralizing; this game is breaking me... (again)

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - 31,360,950 - 6 - Lilith - Default



D:

...seriously fuck this game

But whatever, the clear seems to be getting closer, and I really just kinda brute forced my way through stage 4-6 anyhow. One more bomb and this would have been a clear.

Also that shit-ass score up there is 11th on the Lilith leaderboards without even taking into account the fact it was default. She's just that bad at getting the multiplier up. It takes all your energy just to survive at all. Most of my multiplier comes from the obvious big swarms of zako, I'm not sure how you can maximize much since her S1 apparently does like half the damage of her main shot and you can't possibly score well enough with her to get around to leveling it (the other two take priority).

[trap15]

Dat ahegao

[ACSeraph]

I'll make that same face when I finally clear the damn thing

[Mero]

I'll hve to watch a video of Lilith to see if she's really that bad, at least you nearly cleared it.

EDIT: Not calling yourself Dark ACS anymore?

[ACSeraph]

Yeah, if you find some good resources for her please link them for me. She seems bad and her weapons are pretty useless for scoring, but I would wager that Alex is still far far worse.

[ACSeraph]

Did I just devise a strategy For Graham that uses zero bombs? Why yes... yes I do believe I did Oh what difference a year of experience will make...

EDIT: Not calling yourself Dark ACS anymore?

Just saw this. Dark ACS is the name of my Japanese Live account, but may as well just go with ACSeraph because that's what I use on all the other scoreboards.

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - 36,268,490 - ALL - Lilith - Default



Fuck yeah got the clear! I spent literally all day yesterday perfecting boss strategies, and my work paid off. I even figured out how to survive Graham's dreaded sword grid attack bomb free. We have been approaching it totally wrong this entire time.

I really wish the character leaderboards didn't include custom characters though, or at a minimum I wish it told you what setup people were using. I'm sort of curious how my default score stacks up to other Japanese default players. I don't believe for a second that 65mil up there is default.

That said this run was pretty shitty. I really was only doing a practice run before I head out to do some errands today. I managed to get killed at the very last split second of the second boss, got killed three times by the fourth boss, and got whacked by a stray bullet my S3 failed to clear in stage 6. If I had to give you the biggest reason I think Lilith is difficult to play (lack of scoring tools aside) it would be that her S3 is very unwieldy and not really reliable for saving you like Tempest Willow is. It also has to be used way more sparingly since it takes some time to start up and swipe forward, whereas with Tempest Willow you can do very quick tap slashes to clear large quantities of bullets for very little energy.

Anyhow I quite enjoyed learning this game at a much higher level without all of custom Caladrius' defensive options. I plan to play more and improve upon this. I have a solid enough plan to no-miss everything, and I haven't worked on a scoring route for stage 5 at all, so when I get that done and actually execute it all properly I should end up with a pretty healthy score.

[ACSeraph]

Boss Rush:

ACSeraph - 6,257,960 - ALL - Lilith - Default



I am very, very proud of this.

[Kollision]

Congrats on both clears, especially the boss rush!
I need to try it seriously some time, only had sparse plays.

I even figured out how to survive Graham's dreaded sword grid attack bomb free. We have been approaching it totally wrong this entire time.

that's pretty awesome
I could never figure that out myself....

[Mero]

Great effort on the boss rush.

I couldn't find any videos of default Lilith but the record score for default Lilith in Caladrius AC original mode (which I presume is the same as the 360 version) is 56.1 million.

Other scores in here (Arcadia/Gamest record scores).

[ACSeraph]

Thanks guys New story mode ALL score coming soon, just gotta quit fucking up on the fourth boss.

I couldn't find any videos of default Lilith but the record score for default Lilith in Caladrius AC original mode (which I presume is the same as the 360 version) is 56.1 million.

Other scores in here (Arcadia/Gamest record scores).

Well shit I could probly do better than that with her given how AC works. I got like 73 mil once with Caladrius. I'll have to give it a go next time I head over to the big arcade.

[Mero]

Well shit I could probly do better than that with her given how AC works. I got like 73 mil once with Caladrius. I'll have to give it a go next time I head over to the big arcade.

No I mean in original mode, not arcade mode. Isn't it just the same as the 360 version (i.e the multiplier raises in increments of 0.02, no extra stages)?

[ACSeraph]

Ohhh I see. I forget the exact details of how Original works but yeah I recall it being pretty much the same as 360. Only thing is Original is significantly easier; it's basically a novice mode, and so that's why I quit playing it completely. Arcade mode on the other hand is mostly the same as 360 pattern-wise, except with some balance tweaks that make things easier overall. The easy scoring and extra stages make it so your weapons level up faster and you have more bombs to burn through, and everyone does a little bit higher damage than in 360. There are some differences with weapon energy recharge too that makes a difference in the boss fights.

Anyhow given that it's significantly easier and has the balance improvements I would wager that the 360 record score is a bit lower than that. Even so I'm guessing the balance is similar and Lilith has scores comparable to Kei (probably because she has a similar main shot. I'd love to see a vid showing off that guys technique for maximizing the multiplier.