GD: Trizeal

[DavidHolliss]

There is a small guy in the middle of the screen who throws up a rock, you have to keep knocking it up in the air (without it going off screen) as many times as possible - while destroying the enemies. Prehaps someone can describe it better ?

[Skyline]

Trizeal LIFTING is a minigame taken from Stage 2.

At the start, you have to shoot down the two gun turrets at the top of the screen. Along the way, tanks start rolling out from underneath them, and start firing. At this point, you can elect to score-leech medals from said tanks while using the Laser, sweeping back and forth to take out rows of tanks. I reccomend the Laser because as soon as you power it up, it's rather easy to take out rows of tanks. There is a time limit for the turrets though, so don't waste too much time. The most you'll get out of point leeching is a good 110,000 pts or more, if you care about that sort of thing. And for the really impatient, selecting the XIISTAG ship will dispence of turrets in a matter of seconds. Right when they pop up, use the Rapid Side-Attack on one of them, then dodge the other one's bullet fire, move in for the kill when it stops shooting. (The RSA is ridiculously powerful in this game...)

Once the main turrets have been destroyed, that's when the Lifting game begins. The brown mech at the center of the screen will get up, and throw this rock in you rgeneral direction. The object is to bounce the rock off of your ship, and keep it up in the air as long as possible...it's kinda like Shmup Hackeysack.

You get 10 pts. for the first bounce, 100 for the second, 1000 for the third. Your fourth bounce, and all bounces after that, will be worth 10,000 pts.

The rock's trajectory is based somewhat on where it lands on your ship. Ex: if it hits your right wing, it'll veer off to the right. However there are some instances where you'll hit it dead center, and the rock will start going right. If you bounce the rock off the playfield, you won't be able to retrieve it. There isn't a meter or any type of gauge that shows the rock's altitude, so for those getting the hang of it, just try to stay under it at all times.

The shape of your ship has a lot to do with how much leverage you have in this game, For the A-1 (1P) ship the Missile Form seems to be the best as it's the largest, as is the A-3's (2P) Wide Shot Form. The XIISTAG fighters sem to be much better for bouncing on alternate sides (left, then right, then left, etc) because of their wingspan.

____

On a different note, I noticed a glitch in the implementation of the Rapid Side-Attack for the XIISTAG TYPE-1 and TYPE-2.

Hold down the RAPID TRANS (or RSA in this case) button, and move right. The attack will be normal. Now, move left. Right-side attacks will be normal, but left-side attacks for some reason kick into overdrive!

At least they move smoothly unlike in the game XIISTAG, where Side-Attacking makes you wobble.

[RoninBuddha]

^i finally get it now.. but i can seem to get rid of the enemies.. hehe, i just plainly suck

i really need to improve my play here, i couldnt even 1CC until stage 3..

[icepick]

^ It's challenging! When I played the "Lifting x3" Windows mini-game, I couldn't survive for longer than 30 seconds (even with a slow PC), though a game pad probably would've helped.

With it included in the DC score attack, I was finally able to get to the "lifting" part! It took me about a million (all fun!) tries, the night that I first played the game, but I did bounce it only once.

I've been thinking of revisiting it, but I've been so busy with practicing the other levels for arcade mode--There's so much game to play; it's great!

I'm sure that you'll get the hang of it... I've not seen much of the third level myself, but I'm improving. Still working any kinks out of stage 2, and my score for that level still leaves much to be desired... It's so funny to be lifting while facing the boss, though. Ha ha! You can play the game as simply as you like, but the little features (destruction percentage, bomb reserve bonus, medal chaining, lifting, etc.) can really illuminate how intricate things can be!

Ah, I can't wait to play tonight...

[DavidHolliss]

Anyone worked out how to get 742,000 on Stage 1? even with the dragons, getting 100%, the bonus 50,000 points, I would only reach about 500,000 surely the rest can't be made up from chaining medals ?
Advice needed please ....

[RoninBuddha]

some of the bosses (especially stage 3) remind me of Virtual ON:OT style/design wise

[icepick]

Anyone worked out how to get 742,000 on Stage 1? even with the dragons, getting 100%, the bonus 50,000 points, I would only reach about 500,000 surely the rest can't be made up from chaining medals ?

I think that 688,000 might be the more appropriate benchmark, unless you're also using the XIISTAG ship... That said, I imagine that these guys are able to chain medals from start to finish, while getting close to (or actually getting) 100% destruction rate. Roughly guessing from memory, that could be around 250,000 in medals, 150,000 for 100% destruction and 100,000 for the boss, not counting points for destroying enemies themselves (and their sometimes multiple parts).

My guess is that XSK-san somehow did all this with the XIISTAG ship, while also absorbing bullets with the bomb...

It's still nuts!

[Herr Schatten]

Ok, I feel like really hitting a wall. My progress in the game has completely come to a halt.

It's the part with the rotating turrets in stage five that's causing me major trouble. I can one-life up until there quite consistently, but then I lose life after life within seconds if I don't blow out my whole arsenal of bombs.

Am I missing something? Can someone point me to a good strategy or a safe route? What weapon would be the best to use (the laser seems the obvious choice but I can't get anywhere with it either)? Any hints?

[DavidHolliss]

I have a video of Kiken clearing that part on one life, will upload it and post URL ASAP

[DavidHolliss]

it's here; right click and save as (about 11mb)

www.trizeal.co.uk/cannons.avi

thanks Kiken

[Ghegs]

Any idea what determines the amount of blue support fighters you get near the end of Stage 3? The most of I've had is four, one even stuck around long enough to help me out against the boss' turrets.

Not that they have a huge (or any) impact on the gameplay, but it does look kinda cool.

[Skyline]

Any idea what determines the amount of blue support fighters you get near the end of Stage 3? The most of I've had is four, one even stuck around long enough to help me out against the boss' turrets.

Not that they have a huge (or any) impact on the gameplay, but it does look kinda cool.

If you're using multiple weapons at the time (All 3 weapons at MAX for example), then that what determines their number. If you have only a single weapon (in my case, Max Laser only), only one shows up.

I could be wrong though.

EDIT: Heh, I wonder if there are any score bonuses if one of them, by a stroke of luck, stays by your side all the way to the Boss' defeat.

[Herr Schatten]

it's here; right click and save as (about 11mb)

www.trizeal.co.uk/cannons.avi

thanks Kiken

The link doesn't work for me.

Anyway, if that's the video Kiken posted earlier in the "impressions" thread, it's not that helpful for me, actually, as Kiken plays with the laser exclusively (for scoring purposes, no doubt) and thus plays the scene with rank down.

I always play with rank up and arrive there with all weapons at level 5, so the scene is a lot harder to survive.

Well, I think I got the scene down in the meantime. The best strategy seems to be to use the laser to destroy the turrets and then use the empty carriers as shields against the other turrets' shots. It's a bit tricky to do, because if you're not careful, a fully powered laser will destroy the carriers, too, and your shields will be gone.

Still, my strategy requires a lot of quick reflexes. If anybody has a better strategy or found a safe route, I'd be thankful.

[Ghegs]

Any idea what determines the amount of blue support fighters you get near the end of Stage 3? The most of I've had is four, one even stuck around long enough to help me out against the boss' turrets.

Not that they have a huge (or any) impact on the gameplay, but it does look kinda cool.

If you're using multiple weapons at the time (All 3 weapons at MAX for example), then that what determines their number. If you have only a single weapon (in my case, Max Laser only), only one shows up.

I could be wrong though.

I don't think that's it, I've got four fighters only once and I always play with all weapons at max.

Yeah, I thought about potential score bonuses, too. In the beginning of Stage 3 there's a whole bunch of blue fighters before they zoom away, maybe it's somehow possible to get all of them?

Hm, I've got an idea now, but I want to try it out before saying anything.

[DavidHolliss]

The link doesn't work for me.

Anyway, if that's the video Kiken posted earlier in the "impressions" thread, it's not that helpful for me, actually, as Kiken plays with the laser exclusively (for scoring purposes, no doubt) and thus plays the scene with rank down.

link works fine tbh, and yes it is the video Kiken posted previously.

[Zach Keene]

Having trouble finding the "safe spot" myself, any chance of someone posting a screenshot or bit more precise info.

It's exactly in the middle of the screen. DON'T MOVE. It will look like the bullets will hit you, but instead they will pass in a circle around you. Quite scary, but it works.

Actually I think the safe spot is wherever you happen to be when the dragons start firing. Just don't move after that and you shouldn't get hit.

Unless you do something daft like park yourself at an edge of the screen and a dragon plows into you.

[Herr Schatten]

Yesterday I credit-fed to the end (boo!) to unlock all the stages in Score Attack. Omake stage is very nice.

Strangely, after doing some practicing, the rotating cannons now pose no more of a problem than any other nasty bit in the game (like the stage 2 boss, the turrets just before the stage 3 boss or the asteroid field - all places where I still die occasionally).

The next part hindering my progression is the stage 5 boss now. Man, that thing is evil. The first few forms aren't really all that bad (although you can easily get cornered by the two cannons on the right), but when the hexagonal disks come out in support of the left/right cannon thingies, it gets really tough. Does someone know if there's a good strategy to take the boss apart bit by bit, so he isn't able to throw everything at once at you?


Some thoughts on the last boss: After the nightmare that is the stage five boss, this one seems quite doable, surprisingly. It's actually very easy to dispatch the inner shields even before the outer ones get in the way. The challenge starts when the core is revealed, because then the outer shields can get very annoying. But the attacks of the core unit don't seem to be worse than your average Cave-boss pattern and only seem to require some concentration and precise movement.

So I have an idea: It might be a good strategy to just wait without shooting at the beginning of the fight until the outer shields appear. Then you could take out the outer shields one by one, without destroying the inner ones. After the outer shields are gone, you could easily dispatch the inner shields and then tackle the core with enough room to maneuvre and without annoying shield units getting in the way.

I don't know if the above strategy will really work or if the game throws something particularly nasty at you when you take out the outer shields first, but I hope I'll soon find out.

[Ghegs]

If you're using multiple weapons at the time (All 3 weapons at MAX for example), then that what determines their number. If you have only a single weapon (in my case, Max Laser only), only one shows up.

I could be wrong though.

I don't think that's it, I've got four fighters only once and I always play with all weapons at max.

Yeah, I thought about potential score bonuses, too. In the beginning of Stage 3 there's a whole bunch of blue fighters before they zoom away, maybe it's somehow possible to get all of them?

Hm, I've got an idea now, but I want to try it out before saying anything.

Bah, no luck. I thought it might have something to do with the sixpack of turrets shortly before that part, but I couldn't get any consistent results. Even if I destroyed none or all of them I could still be getting only one blue ship. But weapon levels don't seem to have anything to do with it.

Oh well, it might not be important...but I do wonder. This is, after all, a game where getting certain results means getting more stuff to destroy (dragons) and/or cool little homages (Stage 4, y'know what I'm talking about).

[DavidHolliss]

Spent some time on Stage 4 last night, 850,000+ is well within my grasp, (just need that fabled all in one run) however, not losing a life on the asteroid field seems to becoming more and more difficult, do you all approach this section fully powered up or just stick with say the lasers ? also I've lost so many lives by the enemy ship that approaches from the bottom of the screen, is they're any warning signal he is approaching ?

Know it was asked above but find the Stage 4 boss really tough at times, not the easiest to judge when to use bombs and when not, annoyingly wasted a few to realise he was at a "unvulnerable stage" and the bombs had no effect on his health bar.

Any tips appreciated. Thanks

[Herr Schatten]

Spent some time on Stage 4 last night, 850,000+ is well within my grasp, (just need that fabled all in one run) however, not losing a life on the asteroid field seems to becoming more and more difficult, do you all approach this section fully powered up or just stick with say the lasers ? also I've lost so many lives by the enemy ship that approaches from the bottom of the screen, is they're any warning signal he is approaching ?

I play with all weapons fully powered up all the time. I usually switch to the laser when approaching the asteroid field, because it rips through all asteroids in front of you and even can destroy those that are really close to you without creating a mass of uncontrollable little asteroids in the process. That's the main advantage of the laser over the other weapons here. Especially the missiles tend to create lots of rocks that fly in odd directions and inevitably get in the way.

Shortly before one of the blue ships is coming from behind, you can see it in in the distance below you, flying a little up the screen and then back to the bottom. Whenever you see this, you know you have to stay alert, as the ship will be approaching your back in a few seconds. The game gives you little warnings like this all the time. Just think of the ships starting/darting past in the background in stages 1 and 3 or the shadows of the flying enemies in stage 2, which you can see shortly before they appear.

If you have your missiles powered (so they are there even when you use the laser), they will take out most of the blue ships quite quickly.

Know it was asked above but find the Stage 4 boss really tough at times, not the easiest to judge when to use bombs and when not, annoyingly wasted a few to realise he was at a "unvulnerable stage" and the bombs had no effect on his health bar.

I never use bombs during his first state. When he detaches the gunpods, I try to hold out as long as I can, then drop a bomb. This will get rid of the gunpods. After that I just try to dodge the best I can. Sometimes I don't need one, but most times another bomb is in order if one of the blue ships comes up from behind or a huge asteroid randomly comes my way.

[Herr Schatten]

Has anyone found out yet what the requirements are for making the bonus bomb in stage 5 appear?

When it appears, it appears in the scene where you descend the shaft, but I haven't yet figured out what exactly I have to do to trigger it.

It seems that there's a bonus bomb icon hidden in each stage. As far as I know the requirements to get these are as follows:

Stage 1: Clear the break out scene.

Stage 2: Scare away the bird.

Stage 3: Destroy both of the huge cannons. (I'm not sure if this is what triggers it, but the bomb always appears after I destroy the second cannon, so I assume that this is the requirement.)

Stage 4: Clear the break out scene.

Stage 5: ???

[Ghegs]

Has anyone found out yet what the requirements are for making the bonus bomb in stage 5 appear?

When it appears, it appears in the scene where you descend the shaft, but I haven't yet figured out what exactly I have to do to trigger it.

It was one of the trains (or buses, whatever) on the bridges, just destroy it and the bomb appears.

Stage 2: Scare away the bird.

Whoa. What bird? I did wonder if there's any bomb to be found in Stage 2...

Also, I noticed in Stage 5 there are those corkscrew-like things floating around, they give you 10k extra points if you hover over them.

[Herr Schatten]

Has anyone found out yet what the requirements are for making the bonus bomb in stage 5 appear?

When it appears, it appears in the scene where you descend the shaft, but I haven't yet figured out what exactly I have to do to trigger it.

It was one of the trains (or buses, whatever) on the bridges, just destroy it and the bomb appears.

Ah, I thought it might be one of the trains or one of the little ships flying upwards in the shaft. Do you know which one it's exactly? I think it must be on one of the first bridges.

Stage 2: Scare away the bird.

Whoa. What bird? I did wonder if there's any bomb to be found in Stage 2...

Shortly before the two towers and the lifting scene, before the helis appear, there's an obelisk standing in a well. On the tip of the obelisk, theres a pigeon sitting. It's hard to make out, because it's very small. If you hover over it for a few seconds, the bird will fly away and the bonus bomb will appear.

I found that out by accident when I retreated from a bullet.

Also, I noticed in Stage 5 there are those corkscrew-like things floating around, they give you 10k extra points if you hover over them.

I noticed the same with the arrow-shaped rocket that takes off sometimes during the asteroid field in stage 4. It also gives you 10k extra points when you hover over it. But I don't know what makes it appear either.

[Kiken]

Has anyone found out yet what the requirements are for making the bonus bomb in stage 5 appear?

When it appears, it appears in the scene where you descend the shaft, but I haven't yet figured out what exactly I have to do to trigger it.

It was one of the trains (or buses, whatever) on the bridges, just destroy it and the bomb appears.

Ah, I thought it might be one of the trains or one of the little ships flying upwards in the shaft. Do you know which one it's exactly? I think it must be on one of the first bridges.

Destroying any of the trains will release a bomb. I've managed to get 3 bombs through the decent, a couple of those were a trade-off though (use a bomb to destroy the train.. and everything else... and get the bomb back).

Also, with the stage 5 boss.... I take it most of you are running into trouble with that annoying yellow boomerang attack.

Well, I've figured out two possible safe-spots:
When the boss is further up the screen, hiding directly below the center of the arm that shoots the boomerangs at the bottom of the screen is a safe spot (from the boomerangs at least). If the boss moves closer in, the safe spot ends up being about 1 ship wing-span to the right (you could try going left.. but you wouldn't have much room to maneuver) of the center of the boomerang arm. The problem is the rather annoying directional gun on the center of the boss that just seems to fire in whatever direction it chooses.

Something else to point out is that if you're only using laser (and/or missile), you don't have to worry about hitting the purple orbs... as they only absorb yellow bullets (the same kind that the boss fires in a spread and that the hexagol tiles fire as well as your ship using Wide).

[Herr Schatten]

Destroying any of the trains will release a bomb. I've managed to get 3 bombs through the decent, a couple of those were a trade-off though (use a bomb to destroy the train.. and everything else... and get the bomb back).

This is true, but without bombing none of the trains except for one will stay on your plane long enough to be destroyed by any of the regular shots. At least it seems so.

Also, with the stage 5 boss.... I take it most of you are running into trouble with that annoying yellow boomerang attack.

Well, I've figured out two possible safe-spots:
When the boss is further up the screen, hiding directly below the center of the arm that shoots the boomerangs at the bottom of the screen is a safe spot (from the boomerangs at least). If the boss moves closer in, the safe spot ends up being about 1 ship wing-span to the right (you could try going left.. but you wouldn't have much room to maneuver) of the center of the boomerang arm. The problem is the rather annoying directional gun on the center of the boss that just seems to fire in whatever direction it chooses.

You don't happen to have pictures of the positions? I have tried to find them many times, but I always got hit.

Something else to point out is that if you're only using laser (and/or missile), you don't have to worry about hitting the purple orbs... as they only absorb yellow bullets (the same kind that the boss fires in a spread and that the hexagol tiles fire as well as your ship using Wide).

I'm pretty sure this isn't true. I arrived there with only the laser once, but the purple spheres absorbed it, too, and made yellow bullets out of it. But I think it's not really that important because I don't have any trouble with the right arm of the boss and usually just shoot the main body while the right arm is unfolded.

[Herr Schatten]

I don't want to see this topic die too early just because the internet ranking is over. So I thought I'd share.


Some notes on weapon usage:

Wide: The wide shot is best suited for clearing large amounts of popcorn enemies that are scattered around the screen. You can get a 100% shotdown rate in stage 3 fairly easily if you stick to the wide shot and don't let one of the little orange ships escape.

If you get close enough to a larger enemy to make all your shots hit him at once, wide can be fairly powerful.

Missiles: Believe it or not, the missiles are the strongest weapon in the game. If there's only one target on screen (like when battling some of the bosses) you don't even have to aim. If you have all weapons powered up and use the missiles and point blank an enemy, it will go down in no time. With the missiles, you can even easily destroy the outer shields of the last boss one by one.

The missiles prove especially useful when you go for a quick kill at bosses. They do wonders on the bosses of stages 2 and 4 and can take out the stage 3 boss even before the circle of yellow missiles closes in. The missiles are also useful for keeping annoying popcorn enemies at bay which are outside your line of fire. One example would be the two towers in stage 2. Just fire at one of the towers without having to worry that tanks from the other side of the screen interfere.

The missiles are totally useless when fighting many enemies at once. There's just too few of them on screen.

Laser: The laser is the weakest weapon in the game. Only the energy bursts of a level 5 laser do acceptable amounts of damage to enemies. For killing foes quickly, both wide and the missiles are a better choice. What makes the laser useful, however, is its piercing ability. You can hit enemies behind walls or quickly kill rows of enemies that are vertically aligned.

The laser is the only way of getting the 100% in stage 1, because the two little side cannons of the boss count against the shotdown percentage and with wide or missiles you will hit the boss instead of the cannons.


Bonus points:

In many places throughout the game, there are bonus points hidden. You have to fulfill special tasks and will be awarded with 10k points for completing them. Here are the ones I'm aware of:

Stage 1: If you clear the break out scene, you will be awarded with a huge medal that's worth 10k points.

Stage 2: If you keep lifting the rock the android throws at you, every contact after the third will be worth 10k points.

Stage 3: Shortly before you approach the big ship for the last time (just before the boss fight and after fighting the helis), you can see some spinning blue thing sliding to the lower left edge of the screen. You get 10k points for this, but I have no clue what it is or how you can trigger it.

Stage 4: Clearing the break out scene gives you another 10k medal. If you destroy all the space invaders cannons, a UFO will appear at the end of the bonus scene. Destroying it is worth another 10k points. Like I mentioned before, in the asteroid field, sometimes a rocket takes off at the right side of the screen. Hovering over it for a few seconds gives you 10k points. But similar to the spinning blue thing in stage 3 I have no idea how to trigger it.

Btw, in stage 4, it's not that hard to get the 100%, because the asteroids don't count against the stage total. You only have to destroy the "real" ships.

Stage 5: Like Ghegs mentioned before, just before the shaft there are corkscrew-shaped ships visible far underneath. How many of them appear depends on how many bombs you have in stock. There will be one ship for each bomb you carry. Hover over one of them for a few seconds and you will get 10k points for each of them!


Bonus enemies:

Most people will have noticed this: If you kill certain enemies quickly, you can make bonus enemies appear. I'm not talking about the bonus scenes you get for clearing a break out scene.

In stage 2 you can get a fourth heli if you kill the first three very quickly.

In stage 5 you can get another formation of four yellow ships while descending down the shaft if you destroy the first three formations quickly enough.

Any other scenes where you can make bonus enemies appear?

[maco]

Stage 3: Shortly before you approach the big ship for the last time (just before the boss fight and after fighting the helis), you can see some spinning blue thing sliding to the lower left edge of the screen. You get 10k points for this, but I have no clue what it is or how you can trigger it.

On stage 1 I've had a UFO/flying saucer appear at the cloud part of the level. No idea what triggered it as I've only seen it once, but I guess it could be something to do with score.
Maybe score is also the cause for the spinning thing in stage 3.

On the Lifting game if you pass 50 lifts, "LEVEL UP" will appear on the screen and the rock-man appears to get ready to throw another rock. Unfortunately I missed the (first) rock by a fraction before I found out for sure.

[icepick]

I don't want to see this topic die too early just because the internet ranking is over. So I thought I'd share.

No way!

There's way too much to this game for it to be through after a month... Plus, I've been wanting to visit/post in here, but it's been mostly discussion regarding levels that I haven't yet reached, so, I didn't want to spoil myself.

(I can make it just a bit to stage 4, which I'm loving so far. Also, I checked yesterday; This is the longest game discussion post in the strategy forum, and probably will be until... at least the second week of June, or so.)

Very interesting notes on the weapons and bonus items! I agree that the missles are extremely powerful when completely powered up, and being able to simply "focus on driving" can be very helpful at points. I like how everyone can manage their weapons and powerups as they see fit, to suit however they prefer to play (or depending on the situation).

On stage 1 I've had a UFO/flying saucer appear at the cloud part of the level. No idea what triggered it as I've only seen it once, but I guess it could be something to do with score.

Wow, really? I've played that level many many times, and have never seen anything like that... Now I really want to try to find it!

(I'm guessing by the "cloud part" of the level, you mean one of the three little segments in the sky near the beginning...)

I'd be interested in seeing your score attack score for stage one... Maybe you could join along in the high scores forum?

http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1781

Something that I just noticed: In stage one, if you look to the left of the screen after the first wave of enemies, you can see Scarab out in the distance. Kinda cool.

[maco]

Sorry, I was maybe a little vague.
It appeared either as I was still clearing the second group of ships or just after.*
Still vague, but that’s the best I can explain as it caught me by surprise, also I’ve only seen it once.
If it is score based though, maybe the XIISTAG ship will be better for the first group of enemies to find out.

My best stage 1 score is somewhere above 588,XXX + (didn’t break 600,000 though.), I only played arcade mode so I’m afraid that’s as precise as I can get.



*first group = ships at start of stage that appear from the right, second group appear just after from both sides of the screen.

[Zach Keene]

Haven't got around to trying it, but according to that Japanese site you need to push the TRANS button 12 or 24 times before whatever point of the level it's supposed to appear.