AKA to BLUE

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Inglorious_B
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AKA to BLUE

Post by Inglorious_B »

Starting a thread to pull together collective knowledge on AKA to BLUE.

http://tanoshimasu.com/aka-to-blue/index.php#about
Last edited by Inglorious_B on Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AKA to BLUE

Post by Inglorious_B »

Let's start with the basics:

SHIPS:

You get a choice of 2 ships/pilots:

AKA pilots the red ship, Fire Bird. Wide shot spread, bomb deploys straight forward up the screen.

BLUE pilots the blue ship, Blue Owl. Narrow, ‘laser’ type forward shot pattern, but bomb can be deployed across a range of angles by steering the ship to move the blue directional arrow indicator.



GAMEPLAY:

There is only one mode in the game (at least in this original release) and difficulty is not adjustable. We are all in this together :D

The game is played across 5 discrete levels which can each be played again in isolation once completed. Your lives are replenished to 3 at the start of each new level and score is reset to zero, so the scoring challenge is on a per-level basis. No score will be recorded if you expend your 3 lives without completing the level.

Lives in the game function like hitpoints, in that your ship does not explode and then fly back on screen when hit. Instead you maintain your position and get a brief period (3 seconds ash) of invulnerability, as if you have lost a hitpoint not a whole ship. Your ship aura will turn white when invulnerable.


MOVEMENT:

1:1 ship movement (similar to all modern phone/tablet conversions) is a given in this game. The challenge is to develop your own route by steering around shots at your own finger speed. You can choose between shots which fire only when you touch the screen/move the ship, or constant autofire.


BOMBS:

Bombs are deployed by touching a second point on the screen (or optionally with a double tap). These bombs are unconventional, they do not clear the screen but act like a projectile destroying enemies and shots in their path. Size of the bomb sprite and distance that it will travel from the ship are dictated by the Bomb Gauge charge level (1 = minimum, simply protects the area around your ship for a brief moment. 5 = launches the largest bomb projectile for the furthest distance)

There is an autobomb option which functions as follows: On hit your bomb will auto-deploy at its currently charged level, which then reduces the bomb charge level and the chain counter to zero. As long as you have a minimum charge level of 1 when hit again you can continue doing this, but if hit with less than level 1 you will lose a life point. However, if you disable the autobomb option, you will lose a life point on hit and reset the chain counter BUT will not lose your bomb charge Level.



GAGUES:

There are 2 gauges to manage on screen.

Left side: Bomb Charge Level Gauge

- Fills from bottom to top, levels 1-5.
- Visual and audio cue when you increase a level
- Your ship's aura also reflects your charge level (looks pretty sweet)


Right Side: Chain Timer Gaugue

- Works exactly like Dodonpachi's chaining gauge
- Fills from top to bottom so that you can spot when it's about to run out (draining near the top)
- Is very generously long!!


SCORING:

Basic scoring as I understand it is a kind of simplified Dodonpachi DFK/Resurrection system. You want to build up your charge weapon level (here the bomb charge) to max then hang onto it until strategic moments where you can use it to skyrocket your score.

Basic stage score comes from collecting star items, which in turn seem to have a value multiplier based on your performance. Keeping Bomb Level at 5 and maxing your chain seems to be the basic strategy outside of boss fights, as this produces more and higher value star items when you destroy enemies.

You also get some more point items for destroying enemies up close (this is not unlike Mushihimesama Futari Original...)

The real scoring strategy however seems to involve bullet cancelling in boss fights. There do not seem to be many places outside of boss fights that you get dense enough patterns to make it worth bombing. Cancelling bullet storms with your bomb generates hundreds of score items, and keeps your chain count alive during the bomb which presumably gives you access to the chain bonus on those score items. The score items drop in value the longer you take to collect them however, so the optimum strategy seems to involve travelling with the bomb when you let it off. Note that the bomb only cancels shots that it touches on its path, which means other shots may build up behind you as you go. You will need to know your route out of these situations!

Cancelling many bullets also restocks your Level Gauge, allowing you to completely re-fill it if done correctly. Level 5 bombs produce the most numerous and valuable point items when bullet cancelling. However, you expend ALL of your chain count when you launch a bomb so that even if you re-stock your Bomb Level you will definitely lose all of your chain count built up till that point. There doesn't seem to be any way around this to keep the chain count alive when bombing, which leads me to think the chain count can't make a huge diff to score as you lose it all the time. If you find a way to let off and restock multiple bombs one after the other, you would seem to only get any chain bonus on the first one. Maybe you need to make the first one really count...

Final boss patterns seem to often feature long straight lines of solid bullets, which help to re-stock the bomb gauge even if you only have a little to use. Bosses also let off occasional clouds of black coloured projectiles which can be shot down to increase Level Gauge.
Last edited by Inglorious_B on Mon Mar 19, 2018 11:06 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: AKA to BLUE

Post by Inglorious_B »

Bits that I'm less certain about:

- Is there a way of keeping the chain count alive after a bomb? Is it possible to max it out at 999?!

- Are there any points where it's worth letting off a cheeky bomb outside of boss fights? Bcz to be honest it would make the stages a bit more interesting!

How do you get to that last digit on the score counter? Can this game be counter-stopped given that score is only ever stage based??
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Re: AKA to BLUE

Post by SavagePencil »

Don’t forget that you can direct the angle your bomb launches at with the arrow in front of your ship. This can be frustrating if you’re not paying attention.

I believe you can trigger stars by bombing in the right places. For example, in Stage 2 after descending from the clouds, near where land first appears, it looks like a bomb will trigger a cache of stars. Need to confirm!
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Inglorious_B
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Re: AKA to BLUE

Post by Inglorious_B »

SavagePencil wrote:Don’t forget that you can direct the angle your bomb launches at with the arrow in front of your ship. This can be frustrating if you’re not paying attention.

I believe you can trigger stars by bombing in the right places. For example, in Stage 2 after descending from the clouds, near where land first appears, it looks like a bomb will trigger a cache of stars. Need to confirm!
I think the directional bomb arrow is only on the blue ship- mentioned above (Ships)!

Easter egg bombing spots would definitely make things more interesting in the levels, have you managed to verify the stage 2 spot?

I know that in high scoring replays I have seen for Stage 1, the players can seemingly milk stars from the boss just after the 'black bullets' attack, with no particular rhyme or reason why this spawns so many stars (it's not obviously from bullet cancelling).
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