RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

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OptimusPrimeX
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RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

Post by OptimusPrimeX »

Ok i'm having the most frustrating experience with this game, and i just can't seem to get the hang of it !!! So hopefully someone can give me some pointers so i dont throw my DC arcade stick through the TV.

I've already read through this great detailed explanation of how the game works

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... psyvariar2

I'm using the DC arcade stick, and thats one problem. I'm not use to it, and am learning again, how to hold it. From what i gather, this game takes ALLOT! of movement with the stick. But i can't see it being possible with a PAD

OK well i can get through the game easier without buzzing as much, but that completely defeats the purpose of the game for me.


So what i'm asking is, how can i avoid getting my ship blown up so dam fast. I watched this video... and even though i dont expect to be this good immediately, i dont understand how i'm getting shot down so much.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FrpZOAsfWDY

I can't decifer when i can' just surf through bullets, because it seems at times the bullets go straight through the ship and i dont die, but as i'm still spinning, other times, i get killed ?? WTF. Especially in the first area where i can surf through the purple barrage of bullets.

Do certain colors of bullets have a different affect of how they pass through your shield??? This vid seems like the bullets pass right through the center !! ARG.

I even stopped the mech/ship and let it idle at the bottom of the screen. A whole slew of bullets just passed right through me w/out spinning? WTF.. i'm so confused.

someone help me out here.. This is a huge love hate relationship/[/url]
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incognoscente
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Post by incognoscente »

I'm not sure your level of knowledge of the game. Some of this you may know, some you may not.


While the ship has a small to mid-sized hitbox, I do not recommend relying on it for micrododges like in Cave games.

When you Level Up, you are temporarily invincible.

The neutrino gauge in the top-right of the screen shows how close you are to levelling up and shows your current level. The gauge color affects how quickly you are gaining levels. A blue gauge will allow faster than normal level gain, green is normal, yellow is worse, and red the slowest level gain.
The gauge wil change color depending on certain colored enemies being on screen in the game. Red-tinted enemies will move the gauge to yellow or red and thus should be killed as quickly as possible. Blue-tinted enemies will cause the gauge to shift to blue and thus should be kept alive as long as possible.

Spinning allows for faster levelling up when grazing bullets but does not change the size of the ship's hitbox. As I get tired of endless stick-wiggling, many of my stage strategies involve spinning and then holding to an edge of the screen. This will keep the ship spinning without needing to wiggle the stick. In addition, simply keeping in motion around the screen can keep the ship spinning.

It is possible to dash though bullets during the period of invincibility to buzz extra bullets, but you must cause a level-up first. This is where it is important to check the Neutrino Gauge. As you learn the stages, you can plan to leave your ship just-about-levelled-up before an enemy barrage to create the invincibility as quickly as possible.

The Area 0 midboss has 3 forms. The first form causes a red neutrino gauge, the second a yellow, and the third restores it to green. It is important to move the midboss through its forms as rapidly as possible to increase levels and score.
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OptimusPrimeX
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Post by OptimusPrimeX »

Man i'm starting to get the hang of it slowly. Thanks for the reply.


Two things i realized while playing earlier. One was that i needed to practice stick movement with my hand, because i was rusty and never really got good with the arcade stick, or learned how to hold it properly. Secondly, every time i hear my guage hit, it gives you a certain window of time that your invincible, as stated. So i'm starting to get a rhythm everytime i hear it. Since i'm getting better at up and down movement, i can catch a bullet spray as it comes towards me, start buzzing, move backward and right when the sound starts going, i move in and get into a rhythm. So there's times i have to avoid bullets a bit.

This game is so frickin addictive. Of course if your willing to " work out " your arcade stick maneuvering and muscles ^_-

thanks.. I'm not perfect yet, but i'm gettin allot better.
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Kaiser
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Post by Kaiser »

I have pro tip for you: If you want to gain levels as much as possible with shooting type, don't destroy blue spheres! They increase your neutrino gauge color (from red to blue) and they make your ship gain more level when destroying enemy! probably same happens with buzz type, if you don't destroy blue spheres then when you buzz as much as possible bullets without dying then you will gain a lot of levels.

PS. Finished game myself with gluon using shooting type
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brumma
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Post by brumma »

Does anyone know of any videos using the shooting type (Matreiya)? I'm just curious where are the best points to boost your level. Has anyone even ranked up enough to fight TLB with the Matreiya?
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Dann
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Post by Dann »

brumma wrote:Does anyone know of any videos using the shooting type (Matreiya)? I'm just curious where are the best points to boost your level. Has anyone even ranked up enough to fight TLB with the Matreiya?
oh it's very possible
---1mp0r7g4m3r on most other forums.

Cheers.
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brumma
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Post by brumma »

Dann wrote:
brumma wrote:Does anyone know of any videos using the shooting type (Matreiya)? I'm just curious where are the best points to boost your level. Has anyone even ranked up enough to fight TLB with the Matreiya?
oh it's very possible
Any tips you'd like to share?
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Dann
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Post by Dann »

-Don't underestimate buzzing. It's easy to get caught up in the "she's a shooting type, lets kill everything asap", but a lot of times buzzing can mean the difference between making Hard and staying at Normal.
-Make sure you get to the Hard version of every level.
-Milk bosses. Learn how long you can go before they self-destruct, and kill them as close to that point as possible
-Whore out the rolling/guard crush attack
---1mp0r7g4m3r on most other forums.

Cheers.
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Carmen
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Post by Carmen »

"Does anyone know of any videos using the shooting type (Matreiya)"

I haven't seen it in a long time, but I think the DVD that comes with the PS2 game has both Yuhei and Kei videos.
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Shatterhand
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Post by Shatterhand »

Does buzzing raises the shot-type level? Why should I care about buzzing while playing with the shot-type ?

Shot-type is a lot easier for beginners :)

Another thing... I play the PS2 version... I keep the roll button pressed like 95% of the time, is this a bad thing? (Or is it considered cheating?)
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MX7
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Post by MX7 »

Shatterhand wrote:is it considered cheating?
I always wondered this. Frankly, I find playing 'wiggle mode' games like Psyvariar and XII Stag extremely tiresome. They're so much more fun with an 'auto wiggle' button.
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Carmen
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Post by Carmen »

I don't know, I honestly feel that using the auto-roll (I have the PS2 version, as well) takes the fun out of the game. There is a high amount of tension trying to avoid a web of bullets while deciding to go into a roll to get as much buzz as possible. Its really a beautiful thing to experience, the amount of adrenaline afterwards. Auto-roll kind of makes this sort of boring. :roll:

BUT, you do NEED a joystick to play with roll. You'll kill your hand on a standard controller. So maybe in this situation its ok? Anyway, more to your question, I don't think anyone has come out and said they feel 'auto-roll' is cheating, as a lot of the experts say they score higher with manual buzz. At least, thats what I recall reading.
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BulletMagnet
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Post by BulletMagnet »

Shatterhand wrote:Does buzzing raises the shot-type level? Why should I care about buzzing while playing with the shot-type ?
Buzzing does help the shot type gain levels, just not as much as shooting stuff - in like manner, shooting stuff helps the buzz type, but not as much as buzzing. Either way, you're going to have to do a good amount of both to score high and/or reach the TLB no matter which type you're playing.

As for the auto-roll, I'm not particularly against it, though I do wish that the game had somehow included separate score tables for "manual" and "auto" rolling, just to make sure all types of players could accurately compare their scores.
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Carmen
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Post by Carmen »

"As for the auto-roll, I'm not particularly against it, though I do wish that the game had somehow included separate score tables for "manual" and "auto" rolling"

I don't know if thats necessery. I mean, only the PS2 version offers auto-roll that I know of (not sure of Xbox?), and I don't think there are many players who switch between both. But for general online high score threads, its a pretty good idea (if bloodflowers is reading this :wink: )

Yes, Shooting Type doesn't gain much from Buzz - the different is pretty huge actually. In the first stage I gain around 8-9 levels from the Area 0 boss during his last attack (the blue bullets) - I've seen more then double from my Buzz Type runs :shock: But its much easier to 'control' your nu guage with Shooting Type, since your shots make such a huge difference. You can easily get your nu gauge into a good position by shooting and killing the enemies you need. Far more mastery is necessery to gain such nu manipulation using the Buzz Type.
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Post by spadgy »

On the subject of using auto-roll, I think it just takes some of the depth and subtlety out of the game, and there's certainly more than one type of roll if you do it manually.

Of course there's the standard or 'soft' roll, where a little stick wiggle means you can then stop wiggling and just sweep left and right and up and down holding your roll. Then theres the 'hard' or 'butterfly' roll where you just keep wiggling and moving at the same time, and I'm certain that allows you to move much faster, and it's essential to move at that speed to 'ram' objects when you've got your 'level-up' shield briefly on. Then theres that hyper fast roll to stay on the spot, and the good old 'hold back against the bottom of the screen roll'.

Like the amazing player Saur in the Youtube video in the first post, I think buzzing and ramming is far more exciting and effective than just charging through shooting, using auto roll as some Cave-style second weapon.

Finally, use Saur's guide by pressing the 'more' bit by his comments to the right of his Youtube video. That taught me how to be a little better than useless...
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Some-Mist
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

Post by Some-Mist »

This is one of the only places I could find that discussed psyvariar 2! I'm hoping people are still around as I've been working on the game for a few months. I have an arcade stick but I've been using dpad as I'm more accurate with it as well. Being that there's no shooting type videos on the internet, I'm strugglin!
by the end of stage 0 I got to to level 35 ONCE without losing a single life. On average I'm at 31 end of level 1 (losing one life), 77 end of level 2, 130 by the end of level 3, and around 280 by end of level 5.

my biggest issue is stage 0 and getting into hard mode stage 1. Those big red balls usually knock me out right before the stage 0 boss spams the blue bullets. I'm often at level 19 by the time I reach the boss, and I don't gain many levels until the blue bullets come around. Is it possible to get around 50 levels in stage 0 with shooting type?

I've been trying to play without but the farthest I've gotten is the boss on stage 4.

I've read much of the advice given in the thread and have gone over the guides on this board. If anyone knows where to find some shooting type videos, please do post!

edit: nvm, just answered a lot of my own questions. finally beat the game for the first time but used like 5 continues on the gluon boss :]
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qmish
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

Post by qmish »

Shit I can't shield chain for life :cry:

I often end up dying in stage 0 at first wave in attempt to get it & go "melee" at enemies
How to "git gut" ? :evil:
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ciox
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

Post by ciox »

The most likely cause of death is stopping rolling at the last second (your grazing is terrible without rolling, and you will die instead of levelling up)
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qmish
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar2 - an addiction that drives me nuts

Post by qmish »

i'm ashamed to say i now use autoroll (though in XII Stag aka XIIZeal i prefer manual rolls unlike Psyvariar)... also took a look at some videos... So i'm doing a bit better now, just need to be more accurate - like i'm VERY tempted by ramming into enemies so i died many times because i was too confident that i m still with shield yet i m not and than bah.

:mrgreen:

need more practice as i only once got to hard level 1, and sometimes fail to get to normal; usually because i start panic that i dont gain enough levels and do mistakes like dying from this or that.

havent studied bosses much yet
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