I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[Mero]

Play Girls 2 ALL clear

https://youtu.be/rG0I8PgapWk

My first Mame game

The later midbosses in this game are a pain to deal with but this time I had enough resources.

[stellar_light]

Completed the 1.5 Futari Ultra 1CC!!!



I knew this was going to be another timesink (~130 hours compared to the 90 or so for Mushi 1 Ultra) but I don't think I was prepared for how intense of a grind it'd be; I picked up the routes fairly quickly and was getting great results during practice, but I have an issue with horrible nerves during long high pressure runs and it turns out that described pretty much all of the game--there's so many more opportunities to choke during a 7 minute final boss than one that's only a couple minutes. I threw a lot of good runs during Larsa 2 and even 3, I was afraid of how much longer I'd be stuck there but I finally got it on my sixth Larsa 3. Routes and bosses have much more variation and ways to go wrong than Mushi 1 especially with all the extra RNG, and stage 1 is ???????? but I can actually kinda appreciate starting each run with a shock to the system instead of auto-piloting through the earlygame every time. Wildly inconsistent mode in a game that's always had major balancing problems but I love it anyway, and am very glad I finally pulled through.

Full replay with caption commentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZU9FItjwXk

(I tried trimming down the captions as much as I could so it wasn't constant walls of text but there is so much to cover that it still ended up being somewhat overwhelming keep up with, especially during Larsa, so I apologize for that lol)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Really well done, amazing!

(I tried trimming down the captions as much as I could so it wasn't constant walls of text but there is so much to cover that it still ended up being somewhat overwhelming keep up with, especially during Larsa, so I apologize for that lol)

I'd rather more descriptive text than not, hah. As an FYI, YouTube already killed their old "annotations" system, wiping them from many, many older videos, and there's no guarantee the closed captioning they currently offer won't suddenly get wiped. I'd recommend adding hardsubs using something like Shotcut, especially given you have nice wide open areas to do so to the left and right on your video. That way your video isn't at the mercy of Youtube in the future wiping all your hard work adding text to the run.

There's like an entire series of super detailed Mega Man videos I used to enjoy that had all their annotated text wiped by YouTube that I am heartbroken about, so I absolutely do not trust them with subtitles anymore and am a firm hardsub believer, at least where YouTube is concerned.

[stellar_light]

Thanks!! I've been considering a more permanent option for incorporating subtitles into the video without having to rely on YouTube, would definitely be good for being able to comfortably fit as much as text as I need without it obscuring the gameplay part of the screen. Just wanted to get the replay up as soon as I could for this, since I knew it was inevitable that I'd need to go back and edit some of the captions later.

[Faith]

Completed the 1.5 Futari Ultra 1CC!!!

Big congrats!! This is definitely a very crazy mode... one of hardest STG clears I think? TLB is sad, sad joke.

and am a firm hardsub believer, at least where YouTube is concerned.

I think, if want do "hard sub" it is best have two upload (so... one with sub, one without). For me, I find subtitle very distracting, and will usually turn off. Will only turn on if need to read what player have to say about specific area, if I struggle understand without more info! But that is usually rare. Only "good" feature with using YouTube sub is it allow person viewing video to turn on and off on demand. That is convenient. But also understand the problem when YouTube delete it >.<!~ I had seen some players do this, upload it twice!~

Because anyway, sometimes, I think... some people prefer to speak than do sub. And sometimes... when have a lot of things explain... it is easier to pause replay and explain than to try speak fast or type fast or show too much text and it become spam anyway! So... doing one "commentary upload" and one without is good idea!

[1000Eyes]

Completed the 1.5 Futari Ultra 1CC!!!

Awesome skill. Well played!

Now that you are one of the few people qualified to have an opinion on it, how would you rank the various Futari modes in terms of quality?

[To Far Away Times]

Completed the 1.5 Futari Ultra 1CC!!!

Whoa, that's crazy impressive! I've dabbled a little bit in the less difficult God Mode in Black Label and even that is basically meme level difficulty right from the start where all you can do is laugh at how absurd it is.

[stellar_light]

Awesome skill. Well played!

Now that you are one of the few people qualified to have an opinion on it, how would you rank the various Futari modes in terms of quality?

Thanks!! It's difficult for me to make that call both because Original and Maniac are much less fresh in my head and also because even though Futari is up there in my favorite CAVE shmups it's definitely one of their most inconsistent and lopsided games, and pretty much every iteration of it is weirdly balanced in some wack way. 1.5 AbPalm gets to functionally play an entirely different game from all the other characters because his damage is so high, 1.0/1.01 plays much different, and I love Black Label but it completely tramples over the design of the original. Speaking just for 1.5 though, Ultra is easily my favorite despite all its issues but I'd say that Maniac is the much more tightly designed and elegant package that scales up the difficulty at a very smooth, intuitive pace--one of the most solid modes CAVE has done in my book, only thing I could hold against it is that the second score extend is stingy enough that there's a solid case for just skipping it entirely on a survival clear. Original is my least favorite but I do like it much more than Mushi 1's Original mode.

[Faith]

Original is my least favorite but I do like it much more than Mushi 1's Original mode.

Futari BL Original is better! For scoring, it is very aggressive... since want to PB non-stop, so need to memorize everything >.<!~

For Maniac, and 2nd Score Extend... I find actually easy as long as score St 1 & St 2 a bit lol. Then rest of stages can play survival without much worry. I think, this is quite normal for a Mushi Maniac mode. Even original Mushi, if want get 2nd Score Extend... need to make at least smallest effort score St 1 & St 2, lol. Anyway, in both these games, these two stages not too bad @_@"...

[stellar_light]

Futari BL Original is better! For scoring, it is very aggressive... since want to PB non-stop, so need to memorize everything >.<!~

For Maniac, and 2nd Score Extend... I find actually easy as long as score St 1 & St 2 a bit lol. Then rest of stages can play survival without much worry. I think, this is quite normal for a Mushi Maniac mode. Even original Mushi, if want get 2nd Score Extend... need to make at least smallest effort score St 1 & St 2, lol. Anyway, in both these games, these two stages not too bad @_@"...

I do enjoy how much spicier the rank and bullet speed is in BL Original!

I don't know that I agree the Futari Maniac score extends are comparable to Mushi 1 Maniac--I hadn't understood much about Mushi 1 scoring and could still get both extends by stage 4, whereas I cleared 1.5 Futari Maniac with only 180 mil of the 250 mil needed for the second extend. I felt like BL Maniac's extends were better balanced since the scoring is a lot less punishing, it's much lower commitment and you can fill the gauge basically whenever you want whereas if you mess up your meter at the wrong time in 1.5 Futari Maniac you can end up wasting all the time spent trying to build your multiplier.

[Angry Hina]

After my last 1LC of Cotton 100%, I switched to Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (in its x68000 version from the Reboot package) on normal difficulty.
Its a bit harder than Cotton 100% but less interesting designed (boss fights, are long and boring and the stages look more uninspired). The Barrier magic is again a very strong defensive technique (its not the case in the original version of the game). You mostly have to be sure to have enough blue crystals and you can more or less play in invincibility mode all the time.

https://youtu.be/flCuvzrwHqo

The 1,153,600 pts. where enough for the 12th place in the switch rankings (global?)

[Turrican4]

Finally managed a 1cc of Massive Attack Difficulty Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype Definitive Edition PS4. For me it's the best Euro Shoot'em Up, ever. Still much room for score optimisation.

All 10 RARE Enemies.

https://youtu.be/B6ECPP6pSUA?is=wf9nN9KYqyPlXZ1P

[ratlhead]

I've just 1CC'ed Hazelnut Hex I know that it is a drop to the ocean, compared to the recently posted achievements such as Mushi Futari 1.5 Ultra, but I've enjoyed the process anyway. I haven't managed to score over 4 mil and, consequently, not entered the leaderboards yet, but I'm feeling like I can improve my score (in a not very distant future, I hope)

[OmKol]

We need more Futari stuff so here we are, this is another Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 Ultra 1CC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoF77FDVXQ

Everything was solid in this run except of stage 3 boss (bad rng + died during very random attack I really hate). I already reached Larsa no miss twice and failed but I tried to continue with 1 miss because even when I don't believe I can do Larsa with one less life it was still a good practice for me.

And you know what, this Larsa fight was insane, you need to see it, I can't believe I actually did what I did in this fight. Easily highlight of this clear.

And congratulations to stellar_light, very impressive Larsa fight with even tighter resources!

[CIT]

I did it! I finally cleared Viper Phase 1 New Version (Japan) on one credit.



I've been on kind of a little quest to beat shmups from the mid-90s that I love but that I never managed to finish. Previously also cleared Gunbird and Shienryu but I think this might be hardest 1CC I've managed. Started playing it at the beginning of the year, and took me until now to nail it. I used the Arcade Archives version to practice the bosses and difficult spots and did my runs on the PCB.

At this point I have the whole game routed out so I never really need to dodge anything, cuz that hit box is ginormous, lol.

[Faith]

More people need to clear this useless ship lol, its lasers are so cool!!~



Shot being too narrow and laser lock-on taking about same time to fire as Faith need to make pizza in kitchen = ultra level frustration >.<!!~

Also another very big problem is the shot have zero cover behind ship and very little side cover, so... especially in Stage 4 where have that part after Mid-Boss with all the zako UFO flying in at lightning speed... very easy for them to crash into you. And with the super crazy and chaos movement TLB... DPS is very, very bad. Shot too narrow to hit, and lock-on too unreliable. So for this run... go into Stage 5 Boss with 4 extends, just to lose one there and another two at TLB X_X"... lol. Crazy!~

[Faith]

At this point I have the whole game routed out so I never really need to dodge anything, cuz that hit box is ginormous, lol.

Congrats!!! But this remind me: I once heard someone say they hate STG that need any routing lol. Funny idea. But actually, that is why Faith likes expert modes... because usually they become so routing heavy, that it is nice during run to be a bit less stress about dodging. There is always a balance. If make STG 100% dodging like Cho Ren Sha or Crisis Wing, sometimes means in one day... can do less run. Like... I can play Arcade Unlimited non-stop for many, many hours. Because route is so solid, that brain can be a bit more relaxed for good part of game. But if play, like... Mushi Original Max with light-speed bullets... do like 3 runs and already so tired x_x"...

[CIT]

Congrats!!! But this remind me: I once heard someone say they hate STG that need any routing lol. Funny idea. But actually, that is why Faith likes expert modes... because usually they become so routing heavy, that it is nice during run to be a bit less stress about dodging. There is always a balance. If make STG 100% dodging like Cho Ren Sha or Crisis Wing, sometimes means in one day... can do less run. Like... I can play Arcade Unlimited non-stop for many, many hours. Because route is so solid, that brain can be a bit more relaxed for good part of game. But if play, like... Mushi Original Max with light-speed bullets... do like 3 runs and already so tired x_x"...

Completely agree. In my opinion stages 4 and 5 in Viper Phase 1 are actually much harder than 6, 7, and 8 (with the exception of the stage 7 boss) once you get them solidly routed, so the last third of the game actually feels a bit chill, after some tense dodging in the middle stages.

[Angry Hina]

I did it! I finally cleared Viper Phase 1 New Version (Japan) on one credit.

I've been on kind of a little quest to beat shmups from the mid-90s that I love but that I never managed to finish. Previously also cleared Gunbird and Shienryu but I think this might be hardest 1CC I've managed. Started playing it at the beginning of the year, and took me until now to nail it. I used the Arcade Archives version to practice the bosses and difficult spots and did my runs on the PCB.

At this point I have the whole game routed out so I never really need to dodge anything, cuz that hit box is ginormous, lol.

Big Congrats to you

[Faith]

And Faith thought Type-III was bad... Type-II is completely new world of pain x_x"...



Fk, fk... fk this ship. Curse Yotsuba for thinking "oh yes! Crimzon Clover exactly kind of STG to benefit from trace-options-ship" lol. Usually, I like trace a lot! Great in Mushi, great in Blue Wish Desire. But in CC... this one really rubbish. Biggest problem is ship moves slow, options move slow. So doing reposition is very slow and painful. Not like Blue Wish, I think the trace ship is fastest moving. So can very fast put options to where needed. So here, I feel: game is fast, ship is slow, and cannot react quickly to unexpected things. This also makes DPS very, VERY unpredictable very often!!!

Also another problem... despite being trace, coverage is actually very, VERY poor!!!

If you put all 4 options to right side for most coverage, then left side of ship becomes ultra vulnerable, because main ship shot is ultra narrow. If put 2 options left and 2 options right, that is still more narrow than even Type-III. This causes a lot of problems in Stage 3 & 5, especially when being attacked from both top and bottom >.<!~

[Faith]

Haha after do Type-III & Type-II then Type-I become like easy mode >.<!~



Good ship, only problem is it move super ultra slow. Generally, not big problem. But struggled to properly route the 2nd attack of TLB1 where it shoot laser down and have the fanning shot going around... because the TLB movement like magnet to you... and because Type-I move so slow... need to route Bomba/Break here or it will crash into you x_x"... but, generally, quite low frustration ship. Guess shot power a bit weak is annoying, but as long as you know own problem area... just make sure Break ready!~

This is also easiest ship to dodge TLB2 final desperation phase, because of slow means very precise movement. Faith will call this the "zen ship!!"

[Faith]

Faith has no idea how even managed this rubbish... Arcade Boost is worst mode ever >.<"... and with Type-I... just pure sadistic torture x_x!!!~



Really don't understand why in STG difficulty wiki they say Arcade Boost easier than Arcade Original??? With Type-Z maybe????? For those not know: Boost is ultra rank heavy. Anything you do... increase rank. Too much break? Rank up. Too many star (both total + per stage)? Rank up. Fill gauge? Rank up. Even every time you bomba... rank up!!! And... in this mode... you have no Double Break. Only Single Break... which you cannot control. If gauge is full, ship will auto go into Single Break. Only way to stop it is Bomba or Die. This means routing is actually very, very precise... because if you build too much gauge, and Break auto activate... and suddenly 5 second later you need bomba... too bad. Bomba not ready yet.

The worst part with no Double Break for Type-I... is Type-I damage output... even during Single Break... quite horrible. The part struggled most to route was 3x Metal Lotus in Stage 5 before boss. That part is just impossible with Type-I with no Double Break. Even other YouTube video for this mode... everyone just bomba spam there (which make rank up in time for boss+TLB, and also means bomba line is horrible for boss).

All these problems become super obvious in Stage 5, where normally, in Original and Unlimited... we route Double Break for area that need DPS.

Had to pause one time (at Stage 4 scorecard) because bladder lol >.<"... but also to take few seconds to rethink whole start of Stage 5 route because ended Stage 4 with Gauge different than routed plan which is common to happen in Arcade Boost because little control of Break!~

[Creamy Goodness]

Just got the clear on Andro Dunos 2. In general a good game especially for a doujin. But it did have some questionable design decisions that took it down a few notches. Overly tanky enemies at some points including bosses and power ups that bounced off of the edge of the screen rather than the environmental hazards could be annoying. It would get really infuriating when a powerup I want to get is stuck in an environmental hazard. And the practice mode where you are never close to properly being powered up made the clear process take longer than it should have. Overall I give it a 7/10.

[Faith]

including bosses and power ups that bounced off of the edge of the screen

Haha!! Had very, very similar complaints when doing Crisis Wing runs few weeks ago... if your ship kaboom near edge of screen, fk stupid power-up will drop from ship then immediately disappear from screen!!! That was so super annoying... ship from full power can become zero power just because all power-up from it fall on left or right side of screen if you make mistake of getting hit at the sides. Was really super big WTF moment and had few runs destroyed because zero power ship near end of game is over >.<!~

Congrats on clear!!~

[CIT]

I just cleared Sonic Wings. The game is pretty easy, with the exception of Stage 7, which is a rather nasty skill check, as positioning and timing have to be spot on and it's almost impossible to power up again if you get clipped.

I've previously cleared SW Reunion, SW Special, and SW3, and I definitely prefer the latter two over this as I also found it rather janky.

I really like the Sonic Wings series' personality and quirkiness tho.

[Angry Hina]

Played SW3 just recently a bit and thought its very uninteresting in... everything? This was a bit surprising. But after a while, I felt, that Iam possibly just a tiny bit away from: its so simple and uninspired, that it has a bit personality and appeal just because of that? A bit strange ^^;

[acab420]

Been messing around with ShotTriggers releases and adding Arrange clears to my scrub-ass list. Just cleared Battle Garegga Premium. Not Hard-hard but the most challenging of the one's I've played in this category.

My lifetime achievements:
Battle Garegga Rev.2016: Super Easy and Premium
Dangun Feveron: Super Easy and Fever
Dodonpachi Daioujou Rinne Tensei: Super Easy (one life), Arrange S, Arrange L
Ikaruga Easy Mode
Ketsui Deathtiny -Kizuna Jigoku Tachi-: Super Easy (one life) and Deathtiny
PAWARUMI Normal

I hope to buckle down this year and get 1-Alls for Ketsui, DOJ BL and Ikaruga Normal.

[CIT]

Played SW3 just recently a bit and thought its very uninteresting in... everything? This was a bit surprising. But after a while, I felt, that Iam possibly just a tiny bit away from: its so simple and uninspired, that it has a bit personality and appeal just because of that? A bit strange ^^;

I think SW3 actually might be the best game in the series. ^^

But yeah, on a surface level the SW games seem just kind of like a poor man's Psikyo. I think you have to see SW1 in the context of the time. Most arcade shmups were super hard, had slow ships, and a kind of plodding pace. Sonic Wings was simple, easy, and very fast, and had a character select like Street Fighter II which came out the same year, so it was actually quite successful in arcades, spawning several sequels, the entire line of Psikyo's games, and some other offshots like Visco's Storm Blade.

In many ways I actually prefer Sonic Wings games over Psikyo's stuff, precisely because they are so incredibly simple (no charge shots, no bumping into enemies, no flashing medals, etc). So to me they are like the McDonald's cheeseburger of shmups — not gourmet, lacking depth and nutritional value, but you know what to expect, it feels familiar, and sometimes it scratches that itch.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Played SW3 just recently a bit and thought its very uninteresting in... everything? This was a bit surprising. But after a while, I felt, that Iam possibly just a tiny bit away from: its so simple and uninspired, that it has a bit personality and appeal just because of that? A bit strange ^^;

I think SW3 actually might be the best game in the series. ^^

But yeah, on a surface level the SW games seem just kind of like a poor man's Psikyo. I think you have to see SW1 in the context of the time. Most arcade shmups were super hard, had slow ships, and a kind of plodding pace. Sonic Wings was simple, easy, and very fast, and had a character select like Street Fighter II which came out the same year, so it was actually quite successful in arcades, spawning several sequels, the entire line of Psikyo's games, and some other offshots like Visco's Storm Blade.

In many ways I actually prefer Sonic Wings games over Psikyo's stuff, precisely because they are so incredibly simple (no charge shots, no bumping into enemies, no flashing medals, etc). So to me they are like the McDonald's cheeseburger of shmups — not gourmet, lacking depth and nutritional value, but you know what to expect, it feels familiar, and sometimes it scratches that itch.

For CIT,

What about Video System Co.'s Turbo Force/Hyper Force arcade stg jamma pcb as well?

And have you played/tried out the Seibu Kaihatsu SPI cart of Viper Phase 1 U.S.A. with it's novel 2-loop feature (not found in the Old Version or New Version Viper Phase 1 SPI cart releases either)? Fabtek made sure that Viper Phase 1 U.S.A. was different from it's JPN counterpart of Viper Phase 1 New Version with the 2-loop feature -- thus making it a "true" quarter-muncher in the American arcades back in September of 1995 grand debut.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[To Far Away Times]

Played SW3 just recently a bit and thought its very uninteresting in... everything? This was a bit surprising. But after a while, I felt, that Iam possibly just a tiny bit away from: its so simple and uninspired, that it has a bit personality and appeal just because of that? A bit strange ^^;

I like Sonic Wings 3.

I'd never put it in a Top 25 list, but it's perfectly serviceable for what it is. It's short (8 stages in 10 minutes!), fast, fun, simple to understand, has branching paths, and doesn't overstay it's welcome.