Rolling Gunner / Over Power [Mebius - PC/Switch]

[EmperorIng]

ROCK ON AND ROLL OUT!

GD: Scoring Thread
General Topic A || General Topic B [Switch]
ORIGINAL: https://youtu.be/PdE47RGt1O8 (RS - 11.1 billion - TRUE ALL - by "R")
CASUAL: https://youtu.be/bLb2DVGSKJA (RX - 379 million - TRUE ALL - by "MKW")

Post scores in this format:

Code: Select all

MODE
Name - Score - Stage - Ship - Platform - [url=]link[/url]

[/size]

ORIGINAL

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & Satis & 7,151,790,210 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC & [url=https://imgur.com/a/5FHxJmj]pic[/url] R=2 & SPM & 2,489,002,720 & 6 BOSS & RX & Switch & [url=https://youtu.be/l4VsysR2ZPg]video[/url] R=3 & BareKnuckleRoo & 2,232,755,370 & 6 TBOSS & RS & PC & [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSR_msIa8t0]video[/url] R=4 & CSF & 1,762,827,350 & TBOSS & RS & PC & [url=http://www.restartsyndrome.com/userimg/1u660pOriginal-20112154915.png]pic[/url] / [url=http://www.restartsyndrome.com/userrpy/1u660rOriginal-20112154915.zip]replay[/url] R=5 & Petezilla & 1,052,871,710 & All & RF & Switch & [url=https://twitter.com/petezilla87/status/1253820971481473027]image[/url] R=6 & marus-MPO & 702,210,290 & ALL & RS & PC v2.01 & [url=http://www.restartsyndrome.com/userrpy/42u660rOriginal-20401183652.zip]Replay[/url] R=7 & Special World & 282,395,310 & 5 & RA & Switch & R=8 & EmperorIng & 235,054,350 & 5 MBOSS & RS & Switch & [url=https://imgur.com/lnl38ZK]pic[/url] R=9 & Goompaolo9500 & 50,904,570 & 3 BOSS & RX & Switch &

CASUAL

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & Satis & 282,631,010 & TRUE ALL & RA & PC & R=2 & BareKnuckleRoo & 276,523,510 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC ver 2.10 & R=3 & Special World & 250,138,780 & TRUE ALL & RA & Switch & [url=https://ibb.co/ckB8Qy4]pic[/url] R=4 &Doudinou & 214.605.930 & TRUE ALL & RA & SWITCH & [url=https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/28/pkgh.jpeg]image[/url] R=5 & SPM & 198,148,130 & TRUE ALL & RX & Switch & [url=https://ibb.co/JnG4567]image[/url] R=6 & BEAMLORD & 182,165,490 & TRUE ALL & RA & Switch & [url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/6d99dihyi6age5b/IMG_20200828_114034.jpg]pic[/url] R=7 & marus-MPO & 178,586,970 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC v2.01 & [url=http://www.restartsyndrome.com/userrpy/42u660rCasual-20325193824.zip]Replay[/url] R=8 & EmperorIng & 177,830,700 & TRUE ALL & RX & Switch & [url=https://i.imgur.com/K9mCilU.jpg]pic[/url] R=9 & Goompaolo9500 & 128,502,780 & TBOSS & RX & Switch &

NOVICE

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & Satis & 266,075,620 & TRUE ALL & RA & PC & R=2 & BareKnuckleRoo & 265,415,950 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC ver 2.10 & R=3 & Special World & 228,155,860 & TRUE ALL & RA & Switch & R=4 & SPM & 196,432,080 & TRUE ALL & RX & Switch & [url=https://ibb.co/bQjKCw9]image[/url] R=5 & EmperorIng & 191,953,630 & TRUE ALL & RA & Switch & [url=https://imgur.com/7pUVwc4]pic[/url]

EXPERT

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & Satis & 2,563,186,760 & 5 BOSS & RX & PC & R=2 & SPM & 1,093,185,220 & 5 BOSS & RX & Switch & [url=https://ibb.co/KV8RRS1]Image[/url] R=3 & BareKnuckleRoo & 992,898,550 & ALL & RS & PC & [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVS-PhR-BA]video[/url]

OVER POWER MODE

OVERPOWER ORIGINAL

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & BareKnuckleRoo & 10,913,210,450 & TRUE ALL & RA & PC & R=2 & Doudinou & 10.274.200.410 & TRUE ALL & RA & SWITCH & [url=https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=21/28/buf4.jpeg]image[/url] R=3 & EmperorIng & 8,203,839,930 & TRUE ALL & RA & Switch & [url=https://twitter.com/ec2151/status/1351757735306567692]link[/url] R=4 & FCE & 7,214,866,540 & TRUE ALL & RS & Switch & [url=https://imgur.com/a/FSGsnae]image[/url] R=5 & Special World & 5,839,040,140 & TRUE ALL & RX & Switch & R=6 & Jeneki & 3,721,508,470 & TRUE ALL & RX & PS4 & [url=https://i.imgur.com/546JStF.jpg]Link[/url] R=7 & andrew_F-91 & 2,538,325,130 & ALL & RF-42RA & PC & [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1VNY_rMA-Q]Replay[/url] R=8 & marus-MPO & 2,513,891,490 & ALL & RF-42RX STORK & PC v2.01 & [url=http://www.restartsyndrome.com/userrpy/42u740rOriginal-20324200530.zip]Replay[/url] R=9 & mitsuruga & 1,861,168,010 & ALL & RX & Switch & [url=https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=1454140#p1454140]link[/url]

OVERPOWER EXPERT

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & BareKnuckleRoo & 8,090,419,910 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC ver 2.10 & R=2 & Warp_Rattler & 4,422,672,270 & True All & RA & Switch & R=3 & & & & & &

OVERPOWER CASUAL

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & BareKnuckleRoo & 6,046,186,910 & TRUE ALL & RA & PC & R=2 & Sunnshine & 1,607,434,800 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC & [url=https://i.imgur.com/rd1RVBS.jpg]image[/url]

OVERPOWER NOVICE

R=RANK & PLAYER & SCORE & STAGE & SHIP & PLATFORM & ADDITIONAL IMAGE/VIDEO R=1 & BareKnuckleRoo & 9,734,375,990 & TRUE ALL & RA & PC & R=2 & & & & & &

No thread for this? Absurd. Come on, guys!

Mebius presents a slick indie with a variety of difficulty modes, Cave-esque bullet curtains, and a point-blanking focused scoring/medaling system.
Master your hypers and the rank system to go for the TLB!

TLB Requirements:
Novice/Casual: 1CC the game up to the St6 boss
Original/Expert: 1CC the game up to the St6 boss with a rank of lvl15 or higher

How is rank achieved?
You advance 1 rank for every 10,000 medals gained in Hyper Mode.
Autobomb: -1 to rank
Bomb: -2 to rank
Die: -3 to rank

I'm not going to discriminate as to what mode you play. They're all there so you might as well use them right?

Post scores in this format:

Code: Select all

MODE
Name - Score - Stage - Ship - Platform - [url=]link[/url]

[/size]

Link is for video or snapshot taken of your final score. It is optional but encouraged.

For Stage, use what is given at the score screen (e.g. T. BOSS, TRUE ALL, etc.).

[EmperorIng]

NOVICE
EmperorIng - 191,953,630 - TRUE ALL - RA - Switch - link

CASUAL
EmperorIng - 135,070,940 - T. BOSS - RA - Switch - link

Probably shouldn't be too long for a Casual clear. Don't be afraid of the name; it's still pretty tough.

This tho

Spoiler

This is a heartbreaker. Done on my morning commute (don't laugh; I have an hour train ride ).

[CStarFlare]

Original
CSF - 1,328,743,570 - 6 Boss - RS - PC

I so rarely get to sit down with this but every time I do I seem to improve. Which hopefully means my next session will be a clear!

replay

[EmperorIng]

Nice job on our first Original score post! And a good one, too! It makes me wonder if there is an easy way to upload replays via the Switch. I wonder if they are stored on the SD card or something. But then how would you play them back? Just thinking out loud.

I was practicing Original briefly yesterday, and while I still didn't beat stage 3, I did get a new best score.
Practicing Casual made me get to the TLB again, and improve my score by 40 million. If I didn't blow my chance at the extra 1up at the stage 4 midboss, I am sure I would have gotten the clear.

[EmperorIng]

True ALL! The TLB is really damn tough; I feel like I got lucky. Doubly so since this run had several stupid deaths and/or cancel miscues. Can I do Original, too? I still haven't beaten stage 3...

EmperorIng - 177,830,700 - TRUE ALL - RX - Switch - link

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Scores I'm not happy with (pc ver 1.20):

Novice Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 220,351,190 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

Ashamed of this one, I somehow managed to die on the TLB by getting hit repeatedly by easy stuff, argh.

-

Casual Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 221,842,810 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

It's a clear, might go back and try to improve it.

-

Original Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 1,645,795,820 & TBOSS & RS & PC

I was working on improving a 1.2 billion ALL clear and suddenly I got good enough to trigger the TLB and now I can't feel satisfied unless I clear the TLB. ;w;

-

Expert Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 625,303,890 & Stage 6 & RS & PC

Somehow I limped my way into Stage 6.

-

Note that the game ranking screen uses MBOSS, BOSS, TBOSS, ALL, and TRUE ALL to identify dying during a midboss of a stage, the boss, the stage 6 tlb, a 1cc with the normal ending (no tlb) or the true ending (tlb cleared).

[EmperorIng]

Thanks for posting so many! I'm sure the TRUE ALL is not far away for you. That Original score is mighty fine indeed!

I tried Original, again, and still died before reaching the 3 boss, again. About ready to give up.

Note that the game ranking screen uses MBOSS, BOSS, TBOSS, ALL, and TRUE ALL to identify dying during a midboss of a stage, the boss, the stage 6 tlb, a 1cc with the normal ending (no tlb) or the true ending (tlb cleared).

This point is well-taken; I've removed my own stage categories and would rather have people use just what's on the ranking screen for stage/boss, rather than make up my own terms.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Unfortunately, a TLB clear in Original feels like it's far away. I've been streaming Rolling Gunner and it's nothing but repeated restarts. Beating the TLB basically requires getting to the final boss with 4 extra lives stocked and some bombs, if not all 5 lives. The Original TLB is way harder due to its speed being affected by rank, and generally being much faster and dense than Casual... Have been half tempted to purposefully drop rank and get a better score that's just an ALL clear but that feels somehow too weak willed. I'm so close, I just need a full run where no major mistakes happen.

[CStarFlare]

I've been streaming Rolling Gunner and it's nothing but repeated restarts.

I feel this so much. Full runs followed by half an hour of restarting because I took three hits in stage two.

I think the rank messes me up more than I had appreciated at first - stages and bosses go from "OK, this is an easy one" to "why did you take three of my lives?" as my score goes up. There is no good reason I'm not capable of no missing maybe up to the stage 6 boss but I definitely am not. I'm probably a fairly distracted player, and mistakes often cascade due to survival being routed around having a hyper for certain parts.

Anyway, after probably 6 hours of grinding this weekend I've finally taken out the stage 6 boss on Original. I think three runs ended when I made it up to the final two cancelling ships in stage 6 with a life and three bombs in stock, only to autobomb to the stage enemy. This time I avoided it and thus nabbed the "clear." TLB's opening attack seemed fairly manageable with macrododging but I ate a bullet and it ended my run. Could have been 1.8B if I'd held together long enough for a cancel. Oh well. I don't feel up to a TLB clear now so I'll put it aside and wait for my copy of Over Power to arrive.

pic / replay

Original
CSF & 1,762,827,350 & TBOSS & RS & PC

[EmperorIng]

is Over Power a separate expansion, or is it DLC you apply to the game? I guess that is what it will be for the Switch but I'm not sure about the PC version.

[EmilyGims]

Original
CSF - 1,328,743,570 - 6 Boss - RS - PC

I so rarely get to sit down with this but every time I do I seem to improve. Which hopefully means my next session will be a clear!

replay

Me too. I also rarely get to sit down with this... But I hope next session will also be much clear)

[CStarFlare]

is Over Power a separate expansion, or is it DLC you apply to the game? I guess that is what it will be for the Switch but I'm not sure about the PC version.

I don’t know yet. I do think it requires the original game though so probably the latter.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's a patch that updates the base game, that's why you need the original game to play it. It changes two things:

1) It adds Over Power Version as a separate menu option to the main game (you swap between Over Power Version and Original Version menus, each one has its own menu).

2) It adds the option to both versions to play with either the original or the new arrange soundtrack.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Original Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 1,737,744,630 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

Got the TRUE ALL clear today whilst streaming. Wasn't as aggressive with scoring, more focused on survival from S4 onwards. The trick is during the TLB to use Power Up -> damage it as long as possible, and when you have to Limiter Release for safety, immediately bomb after using Limiter Release which causes you to suck in all the medals and immediately have a Power Up ready to go. This also helps during normal bosses if you don't think you'll be able to end the current phase or survive the Limiter Release bullet speeds. I entered the final boss with 4 lives, 3 bombs in stock and the fight went exactly as planned.

edit: Pictures of scoreboard here. Some new scores today:

Novice Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 236,813,060 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

Went into TLB with full lives/full bombs (6). Ended game with full lives, 5 bombs.

-

Casual Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 230,958,040 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

Bad run, got hit way too much on TLB, actually died twice which I am ashamed about.

-

Here's the full run of the Original TRUE ALL Clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obxgz3H9Ngo

[EmperorIng]

Great job posting all of these new scores Roo. Definitely in awe of your skills with the game - you too CSF! I'll have to watch these replays later as they might give me something, anything to make progress.

Speaking of which, I did for the first time make it to stage 4. I barely made it to the stage 4 midboss, and since I had never seen his patterns at this level I quickly died. This still feels like shit - my rank was around 0 for most of stage 3 due to overbombing or nervously bombing out of fear of getting an autobomb. It's like I'm not playing the game correctly. I haven't comprehended your strategy for quick hyper fills, Roo, and some of the bombing was from that.

I'm looking forward to eventually playing Over Power and breezing by to another clear of the game.



Original Mode
EmperorIng & 127,614,090 & 4 MBOSS & RX & Switch

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You'll get there eventually. There's a knack for getting the timing down of getting a bunch of medals to spawn just as the red meter is emptying, and you'll find going low on the screen so the medals have more time to drop on you as the red meter empties helps too.

One thing to be aware of is you can actually wide dodge a lot of the stuff in the game or misdirect it by moving rapidly. A lot of the stage 3 midboss attacks actually apply here, as do many other things. Even the RA (the slow yellow one) can move fast enough to do this to some extent with its rapid shot.

Upped my Casual score today. Expert is coming along too, I had a great run where I died in S6, and that's only because I was chatting with someone and I got distracted and horribly botched S5. If I'd done S5 decently I think a 1CC of Expert was within reach. It's actually pretty manageable compared to Original!

Casual Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 244,220,120 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

The medal collection in this run went very well and I would've been content with it had I not gotten hit too many times and died to the TLB once. Even on Casual the final boss has a few tricky attacks I got sloppy on, and went in to the TLB with only 2 bombs in stock.

Edit: finally got a nomiss of Casual Mode, made it to the final boss with 6 bombs stocked, had to use them all (a couple dumb hits too) but all lives stocked on the clear meant a juicy end bonus:

Casual Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 252,242,300 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC

[BareKnuckleRoo]

EDIT: Version 2.10 fixes all the weird slowdown from version 2.01.

Please note that scores obtained with versions up to 1.20 should probably not be considered compatible with scores from 2.00 (Over Power) onward. Or rather, 2.00's Over Power patch makes the original game easier, so clears with the patch applied aren't equivalent with a clear of the 1.20 versions.

The problem is that the Over Power version adds way, way more slowdown to the original game. It triggers almost constantly, for instance on Expert the S1 Midboss does not have slowdown, whereas if you're playing the original game with the Over Power patch it has constant slowdown. The red helicopters in Stage 2 also trigger slowdown constantly. The last attack from the Stage 2 boss has constant slowdown, but it's jittery, as if it rubber bands back and forth. The Midboss of Stage 5 in Original difficulty's last phase now has slowdown, making it far easier to dodge.

The same goes for the other difficulties like Original. Essentially, it makes the main game easier to play after it's had the Over Power patch applied. And I'm not entirely sure it's intentional for there to be all this extra slowdown?

There's also varying levels of slowdown. Unlike Mushihimesama Futari or Blue Wish Resurrection Plus, it's not just On or Off. There's actually even slower slowdown when it gets really dense now.

Please note that scores obtained with versions up to 1.20 should probably not be considered compatible with scores from 2.00 (Over Power) onward. Or rather, 2.00's Over Power patch makes the original game easier, so clears with the patch applied aren't equivalent with a clear of the 1.20 versions.

The problem is that the Over Power version adds way, way more slowdown to the original game. It triggers almost constantly, for instance on Expert the S1 Midboss does not have slowdown, whereas if you're playing the original game with the Over Power patch it has constant slowdown. The red helicopters in Stage 2 also trigger slowdown constantly. The last attack from the Stage 2 boss has constant slowdown, but it's jittery, as if it rubber bands back and forth. The Midboss of Stage 5 in Original difficulty's last phase now has slowdown, making it far easier to dodge.

The same goes for the other difficulties like Original. Essentially, it makes the main game easier to play after it's had the Over Power patch applied. And I'm not entirely sure it's intentional for there to be all this extra slowdown?

There's also varying levels of slowdown. Unlike Mushihimesama Futari or Blue Wish Resurrection Plus, it's not just On or Off. There's actually even slower slowdown when it gets really dense now.

I'm curious to see if all the extra slowdown is a glitch, or if it's a deliberate change. We'll know when the Switch version gets Over Power, I guess.

---

(I'm leaving the next part of this post out of the main Rolling Gunner thread for now because it contains some spoilery opinions about Over Power I'd rather not advertise in the main thread until Over Power gets a wider release or perhaps an update.)

Please note that all of my current submitted scores as well as any future scores I submit are from the latest 1.20 version of the game and not the 2.00 Over Power patch, because I deleted it and reinstalled it fresh up to 1.20 a day or so after trying Over Power. I reinstalled the Over Power version to the base game to see if I still had the same opinion of the Over Power Mode

Spoiler

(it's a disappointing arrange mode that trivializes way too much of the original game with constant, effortless bullet cancelling, I mean I can't properly emphasize how slackjawed with disappointment I was when I first tried it and my opinion hasn't changed since clearing Over Power Expert)

and went to play the original game version with the remixed soundtrack only to realize it was slowing down everywhere in places it never had before.

Spoiler

I swear I'd play probably play Sine Mora over Rolling Gunner Over Power again. It's mind-numbingly easy and is the among the most boring arrange modes in any shmup I've played ever due to how much you can constantly cancel bullets with your gunpod and the new Buster Cannon. Expert difficulty in the Over Power mode is arguably on par with a Casual difficulty clear of the original game. I'm not interested in playing it with a right stick to move the gunpod now, which is apparently a thing and probably makes it even easier. The bullet cancelling trivializes the bosses, meaning the stages are the only spot with any difficulty. And the stages are basically the same thing over and over: cancel through enemy attacks and have to deal with the constant revenge bullets being fired at you when you destroy enemies. Indeed, this is the only main threat in stages; you're encouraged to crank the rank up for points which increases how many revenge bullets are generated. It's stage after stage of revenge bullet cancelling with nothing else to really dodge. It makes Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu look like it has almost no bullet cancelling at all by comparison. The hardest part of the bosses is at high rank they fire revenge bullets on death back at you that tend to surround the heck out of you.

And there's no bombs! Gone is the satisfying skill-based bomb and now, in addition to the constant bullet cancelling you can do, you get multiple recharging shields that let you take more hits than if you were playing Novice or Casual in the original game.

The controls also suck. No true rapid fire button now so you have to button mash. And the gunpod controls if playing with a D-Pad/Arcade Stick/keyboard feels less responsive because there's a transition period from the game registering mashing and holding the shot button, so it snaps the gunpod into place less quickly and reliably than the original game, something that's a major issue considering the importance of bullet cancelling now seeing as how the main difficulty comes from enemy explosions constantly firing bullets back at you. That's really all you'll be dealing with - enemy attacks are easy to cancel but the threat is all the stupid Deathsmiles Level 999 style revenge bullets. They're a lot easier to deal with than in Deathsmiles, but like I said before you basically you never get to enjoy dodging any of the game's actual bullet patterns in Over Power due to how the Buster Cannon cuts through everything.

I haven't been terribly vocal about my disappointment with Over Power because it's been just released, and I don't want to upset people looking forward to it, but I was looking forward to trying it since I loved the original game and want to support the devs, but man, it's just not fun to play.

Unfortunately, I also don't enjoy the music a whole lot, either. Stage 2 and 4 are the only good remixes I think. Stage 6 and the TLB themes in particular are very disappointing to me and completely lack the intensity of the originals.

edit: I cleared Expert Over Power with a TLB clear on my third try, got an ALL clear on my second. It's an extremely easy arranged version of the game even on Expert (easier than an Original ALL clear of the standard game in my opinion) and the main challenge is all the revenge bullets the game spawns at high rank. I think I went into the final boss at 48 Rank out of 50? There does not appear to be a Stage 4 1up item in Over Power, unless you need to beat it with a full shield stock. I had two extra lives left and a bit of shield when I beat the TLB.

Over Power, Expert Mode (Over Power ver 2.00)
BareKnuckleRoo & 11,868,127,110 & TRUE ALL & RS & PC
edit: This version 2.00 score is obsoleted by 2.10 which patched out the slowdown. I've redone an Expert True All clear run of version 2.10.

more edit:

Got real aggressive with scoring, was taking the RX for a spin. A few mistakes here and there but I think I'm happy enough with these to maybe record them for posterity. Casual run ended with full life stock + 2 bombs, Novice was full life stock + 4 bombs.

Novice Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 246,040,600 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC

Casual Mode
BareKnuckleRoo & 262,211,130 & TRUE ALL & RX & PC

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Original Mode, ver 1.20
BareKnuckleRoo & 1,820,380,260 & TBOSS & RX & PC

I tried to lower the rank at the end and go for an ALL clear but I had autobombed too many times throughout the run. Didn't have the resources and triggered the TLB at Rank 18 with 0 lives and 0 bombs. Oops.

[EmperorIng]

Nice job taking the lead!

I've been playing around with RA myself the last few days, if only to improve my chances on st3. I've made it to stage 4 precisely what... twice? Thrice? It puts me in a foul mood.

I have a better time with the turrets, but the sections afterward with the small planes flooding the screen usually fuck me over.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Don't feel obligated to use rapid shot all the time on them if you have trouble. Sometimes it's best to lock the gunpod so you can strafe more easily and keep shooting in one direction as you tap dodge to control popcorn enemies. Note that your blue bullets are a lot weaker when using the focus shot, but are still more than capable of downing popcorn. Some ideas on dodging here, MS Paint to the rescue: https://imgur.com/a/92Uu6uF

[marus]

I picked this game up in February while I was in Japan but didn't get around to installing it until today. The game's fun! I only did two runs so far. I did a run of Original and lost all of my lives in stage 3, then I did Overpower Original and no-missed the game (albiet with no TLB). I guess the point of the arrange is that you're overpowered, hence the name. I didn't really dig the arrange mode but there might be something to it I'm missing once you get into scoring. For now I'm more interested in working on a clear of the vanilla game though.

Is there no tracking of scores for Overpower? I'll post my score up anyways:
Overpower Original
marus-MPO - 2,513,891,490 - ALL - RF-42RX STORK - PC v2.01- Replay

[EmperorIng]

I was actually waiting for someone to post a score to add a table. Congrats!
Roo has a similar view of Over Power, namely that it's too easy. I don't mind feeling like a badass as much. Original kills me usually by stage 3 anyway, so you're not alone there.

[marus]

I don't mind easy games, but I don't think the way Overpower handles the difficulty is well done. Most of the enemy and bullet patterns aren't changed from what I could tell, so it feels more like you're plowing through the game using cheat codes rather than playing a game that was deliberately designed for a certain difficulty. It seems like it could be fun for lolz every once in a while, but it's kind of underwhelming for a separate paid DLC. After reading through Roo's comments I can definitely understand his disappointment, especially after waiting for it for so long.

Anyways, I decided to work my way up from Casual mode first before moving on to Original and maybe eventually Expert. I managed to get a TLB clear pretty quickly, although I had to abuse the autobomb a lot. Even with the lower bullet count I was still getting trapped all over the place due to enemies coming from every which direction, which is a cool change of pace from most other shmups I've played! I feel like I'll need some strict routes to handle the higher difficulty levels.

Casual
marus-MPO - 178,586,970 - TRUE ALL - RX - PC v2.01 - Replay

[marus]

I did a few runs that kept ending on stage 3, then I did some stage practice where stage 3 continued to wreck me. Then I decided to do one more run and somehow flailed all my way to stage 6. It seems like you build hypers really fast, which really helps with dealing with a lot of the bigger enemies and bosses. You also get a ton of slowdown on some of the later bosses, especially the stage 5 boss. I didn't rollback to v1.20 to compare but I think I can imagine what Roo is talking about with the increased slowdown, because it's pretty extreme in some cases. I just built a really beefy computer too (Ryzen 3950x and RTX 2080 TI), so my computer should be more than fast enough to run this game unless it just has weird hardware compatibility.

I got this run with RS, but I think I like the spread shot of RA better. It makes dealing with some of the popcorn spreads easier. I still want to mess around with the different ships a bit more before committing to one though.

Original
marus-MPO - 363,374,670 - 6 - RS - PC v2.01 - Replay

[EmperorIng]

I settled on the blue ship RA for my Original runs, if only for the increased speed made macro-dodging a little easier. Roo's crude-but-charming mspaint guide above should give you some pointers for stage 3, for what it's worth. It's a really, really difficult stage and one that kinda makes me dread jumping back in whenever I highlight the option on my switch menu.

I am impressed with your progress though! As you can see, all the flailing definitely gives a big score penalty in this game. The slowdown you mention I think is more of a coding handicap than any actual issue with our computers.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Version 2.10 resolves all the slowdown issues in the original OverPower update.

Updated Novice and Casual scores above with image links (forgot to earlier). I've also got the replays for them as far as I know, just haven't uploaded them anywhere yet.

I don't mind easy games, but I don't think the way Overpower handles the difficulty is well done. Most of the enemy and bullet patterns aren't changed from what I could tell, so it feels more like you're plowing through the game using cheat codes rather than playing a game that was deliberately designed for a certain difficulty.

I think that really captures it; it feels like you're uh, overpowered. And not in a good way for game balance. I suspect it might be an intentional design on the dev's part? But that doesn't mean I enjoy it. I'm more annoyed about the Overpower version's slowdown changes, I would like to see some clarification if the added slowdown to the normal mode is the "intended" way the game was meant to be played or not.

I got this run with RS, but I think I like the spread shot of RA better. It makes dealing with some of the popcorn spreads easier. I still want to mess around with the different ships a bit more before committing to one though.

All three ships should be viable for the modes; there's enough dense patterns that RA can micrododge through stuff and use the slower speed to its advantage. The problem with RA is that RX's spread is nearly as good unfocused with much better speed, and RS has even better speed with slightly greater problems in popcorn killing (though the higher precision may be better for score). RX and RS have some really, really helpful macrododging options (where you make a wide dodge around the outside of a pattern instead of through it).

[marus]

All three ships should be viable for the modes; there's enough dense patterns that RA can micrododge through stuff and use the slower speed to its advantage. The problem with RA is that RX's spread is nearly as good unfocused with much better speed, and RS has even better speed with slightly greater problems in popcorn killing (though the higher precision may be better for score). RX and RS have some really, really helpful macrododging options (where you make a wide dodge around the outside of a pattern instead of through it).

After spending a few days practicing with RA, I've decided to just stick with RS instead. RA's spread isn't that useful in the later stages due its lower damage if you don't land every shot, and as you mentioned the increased speed of RS makes dodging some patters way easier.

Speaking of which:

Original
marus-MPO - 702,210,290 - ALL - RS - PC v2.10 - Replay

I just got this clear! After switching from RA to RS I saw almost an immediate improvement and was able to luck out this clear. I basically had a perfect run up through stage 3, and then managed to get through the game with some liberal bomb and hyper spamming. I still want to practice this game some more and go for a TLB clear. I've practiced and have a fairly consistent route for stages 1-3, but I don't have the same comfort level on stages 4-6. I did a lot of flailing around in this run and would like to achieve a run that didn't rely on so many lucky dodges.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Congratulations on the Original Clear!

Because RS has all that high speed as well as the ability to attack in any direction at any time, the advantage of spread isn't as important in this game. All ships can effectively cover enemies appearing on the field when handled well, and the focused shot is what is needed to power through tougher enemies, so the two ships that can move faster when using the focused shot are generally better performance. Of course, use whatever you're comfortable with! The downside RS has with dealing with popcorn is pretty minor; its real disadvantage is the very high movement speed it has can make some of the extremely tight, dense patterns a bit trickier to dodge through them precisely (though in many situations you can wide dodge around them).

A TLB clear seems to be very difficult in this game. It's quite a bit more difficult than just a straight clear as you have to be able to trigger the TLB by beating the final boss with a sufficiently high rank, then you need to actually clear the TLB, who is vastly harder on Original than it is on Casual. The TLB is a huge resource hog with some very scary attacks and I honestly don't feel comfortable going into it on Original unless I have 3 extra lives stocked, perhaps 2 extra + 3 bombs minimum.

Have we discovered if there's a way to get a 1UP item in Stage 4 in OverPower out of curiosity? Does it just no longer exist?

[marus]

Have we discovered if there's a way to get a 1UP item in Stage 4 in OverPower out of curiosity? Does it just no longer exist?

You know what, I didn't even notice that the 1-up was missing there. I have no clue if there's a different way to trigger it or if it just doesn't exist anymore.

[andrew_F-91]

Rolling Gunner OverPower - Original -RF-42RA Attack Stork - All - 2,538,325,130

replay - https://youtu.be/Y1VNY_rMA-Q

I don't know if it matters or not, but I just played on a stick, and didn't use the right analog controls.

I to did not notice the 1up in stage 4, and I seemed to kill the enemies the same as usual (though I still randomly have it not surface in original).