GD: PatriotDark

For posting and requesting strategic gameplay tips on shmups!
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mjclark
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Re: GD: PatriotDark

Post by mjclark »

So what advantages are gained by bullet grazing?
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Despatche
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Re: GD: PatriotDark

Post by Despatche »

Bump. Various tips:

Buzz is just a graphical effect you can turn on and off. It doesn't add to score at all, in either v1.0a or v1.0b.

Moruten's Laser is just going to give you grief during stages but generally lets you do what you want during bosses. It's... kinda hard to get the stage 3 extend with either Moruten type.

The "dark" types (A2 and B2) have a different bomb. It's sits on the screen longer but it's a smaller object. I don't know if it's more powerful than the "light" types, I doubt it because of how long it lasts though.

The "dark" Suika (A2) has a WILDLY different Laser from the regular Suika, where it homes in on whatever it can find, providing even more grief than either of Moruten's Lasers. You really need to micromanage that weapon. By contrast, the "dark" Moruten (B2) Laser seems... about the same as the regular Moruten Laser? Just it goes in different directions at first. The B2's Shot isn't as good as the regular B's I don't think, but maybe it's more powerful or something.

v1.0b is basically the Black Label, despite being labeled like a simple bugfix. You should really treat them as separate games. You can't even copy save files between them to unlock things like you can with other versions, though that's probably because 1.0b adds Extra2 and that messes with the save file structure.

Defeating enemies at closer ranges does not earn you more points from those enemies, but it does earn you more Crystals and those are actually worth 100 each. It doesn't sound like much, but you get a lot of Crystals and it really adds up just by itself, especially in a game with only nine scoring digits. Also remember that the point value of Gains is based on how full the Laser Gauge is! Not only that, but the value of Gains is also based on how many Gains you've collected in the stage so far. Be attitude for Gains.

Instead, it's the Combo that affects raw points from enemies. It doesn't affect Crystals or Gains at all, I don't think. You can, and should, carry the Combo into the boss. I'm pretty sure you can full Combo all five stages on all difficulties, but it's going to require delaying some enemies and speedkilling others. Full Comboing stages 1 and 2 is quite easy, but later stages require more routing effort.

The Gain portals are really important! Simply activating a portal is a free 500,000, and there are four in each stage, so that's a basically free 10,000,000 even if you do nothing else. Then you can get tons of points by planning your route so you lead aimed bullets into the portals. I don't know if these Gains still have the point values of other Gains but I don't see why they wouldn't.

Bombs never penalize you and are always good for scoring. Of course, this makes a no miss no bomb run (especially on v1.0a) more interesting.

Don't be afraid of late game being the typical ten-minute-long stage 5. Stage 4 and 5 are... surprisingly short, arguably too short. You're at the bosses before you know it, especially stage 5 where the final boss shows up and you're like "fuck".

Please play this game, it's cool. It's not really a ripoff of any particular CAVE game... all of its ideas are slight tweaks. Even the DDP chaining has the tweak of requiring you to carry the combo into and throughout the boss, which only Daifukkatsu started doing, and I'm pretty sure this game started development before Daifukkatsu... I think the demo came out before Daifukkatsu at least?

By the way, some of the music is pretty good. The stage 1 theme, the stage 2 theme, and the TLB theme are pretty solid songs.

please come back from gacha hell ltc we still love you
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blossom
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Re: GD: PatriotDark

Post by blossom »

Could you elaborate how v1.0b is more of a "black label" than a bug fix? I've only now started to check out this game, so I'm a bit curious what I "should" be playing. Also does anyone know how I might reduce/remove frame stutter?
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Despatche
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Re: GD: PatriotDark

Post by Despatche »

My apologies, totally missed that post.

v1.0b makes various things easier, chiefly stage 5. You also get more points in certain parts of the game, again chiefly stage 5. Both of these things seem to apply across all difficulties. This version also lowers the score requirement for the final extend, from 200,000,000 to 150,000,000. This, combined with the above, is important for Hard and especially Extra; it also allows you to get the final extend on Normal and maybe even Easy, for a small source of extra points. In exchange for making the rest of the game easier, v1.0b adds an "Extra2" mode that is above and beyond anything else either version of the game offers.

As for framerate issues, the best I've come up with is to set your desktop resolution to as close to the game's as is feasible and just play the game windowed. PatriotDark is 640x480 like most doujin games. This has also helped me with figuring out how to get Blue Wish Resurrection running right, which otherwise does not run right on newer OS versions.

In other news, Temperance Lance's website is totally down, possibly for good. I have reuploaded v1.0b here: https://files.catbox.moe/sg3vxj.7z
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