The BIG thread of Shmup grievances.

[SuperSoaker360]

Astebreed's Chapter 5 boss final is really annoying me. There's just so much shit going on and it's really the only hard part in the game for me. The rest is a cakewalk in comparison. It's just that attack in particular that's keeping me from 1CCing the game.

[Captain]

Wow, Gradius is really kicking your ass I mean try harder it's not that hard.

[Krooze L-Roy]

I kind of dislike smartbombs in general. When I die with a full stock of bombs, I kick myself, yet whenever I use one in a panic, I think "you could have made that gap, you pussy."

[ACSeraph]

Yamato in Darius II is the cheapest piece of shit I've ever seen in a shmup. It's total luck hoping he won't run at you and force you into a massive pile of undodgable bullets, and his attacks are random, so there is no strategy for him that will guarantee your safety (short of an unrealistically high autofire rate, which can't be done in the saturn version). He can (and just did) ruin even the most perfect of runs. He is the very definition of cheap. Also whoever is responsible for the bad Saturn porting that makes the non-Yamato path impossible deserves to be shot.

At least for today, this is where the Darius hate at.

[LordHypnos]

I haven't been able to no miss Mars Matrix stage 3 for like a week in an actual run
It's just slightly different every time, and Whatever strategy I had to do it like 1/3-1/5 of the time I just can't seem to remember. I spent more hours than I'd probably like to remember practicing it this weekend, and I'm only no missing like 1/10 to 1/20 of the time now. Feels bad.

[Pteriforever]

I kind of dislike smartbombs in general. When I die with a full stock of bombs, I kick myself, yet whenever I use one in a panic, I think "you could have made that gap, you pussy."

This.
So. Much.

[LordHypnos]

I kind of dislike smartbombs in general. When I die with a full stock of bombs, I kick myself, yet whenever I use one in a panic, I think "you could have made that gap, you pussy."

This.
So. Much.

me too.

[trap15]

Don't kick yourself for using resources. Kick yourself for not using them. That's the big misconception about bombs, that they're for panicking and flailing out of a bad situation. They're given to you to use them, not to hoard.

[nasty_wolverine]

Don't kick yourself for using resources. Kick yourself for not using them. That's the big misconception about bombs, that they're for panicking and flailing out of a bad situation. They're given to you to use them, not to hoard.

This. I was playing SDOJ B-Shot autobomb on, couldnt make it passed stage 3 midboss. I realized i was being dumb and and not bombing at all. so i bombed and hypered the shit out of the stage 2 boss, 1 hyper and 2 bombs for the midboss, 2 hypers and 1 bomb for the stage 3 boss, made it to halfway through stage 4 before ending the run, mostly because i have no clue for the rhythm of that stage. Reached my new personal best. And i have only put in about 4-5 hours into this game and i can make it to stage 4 just because of bombing the tough spots.

So, unless you are a top tier player ranked about top 10 in the world, i wouldnt worry about using bombs to get out of a pinch. Even top tier players will recognize tough spots to bomb when they are learning the game, which with eventual practice they will figure out not to bomb.

Lesson for the day: A bomb used is a life saved. (Tell that to the war protestors!!!)

[LordHypnos]

Lesson for the day: A bomb used is a life saved. (Tell that to the war protestors!!!)

FWIW, I have started seeing it this way more, over time. I just suck at knowing when to bomb. I'm sure it will come with practice

[CloudyMusic]

I knew that large full-screen cancels in Futari God can cause the UI to blink off the screen momentarily due to the sheer number of sprites present, but I was very surprised to discover that it can also cause your player sprite and even enemy bullets to momentarily disappear, and I've died at least once because of it. Shouldn't your ship and enemy bullets be prioritized higher than score flair and gems?

And, yeah, not dying with bombs in stock is still something I'm trying to get better at. It's so tempting to say "maybe I can dodge well enough to escape from this situation" that I always end up kicking myself afterwards for being so arrogant when I die because of it. Being forced to bomb due to your own mistakes sucks, but losing 3-4 bombs from dying sucks a lot more.

[BIL]

Yamato in Darius II is the cheapest piece of shit I've ever seen in a shmup. It's total luck hoping he won't run at you and force you into a massive pile of undodgable bullets, and his attacks are random, so there is no strategy for him that will guarantee your safety (short of an unrealistically high autofire rate, which can't be done in the saturn version). He can (and just did) ruin even the most perfect of runs. He is the very definition of cheap. Also whoever is responsible for the bad Saturn porting that makes the non-Yamato path impossible deserves to be shot.

At least for today, this is where the Darius hate at.

I was considering getting the Saturn port a few months back, but decided I might as well stick with the similarly hard to see PS2 version on Taito Memories II Joukan. Really glad I didn't go with it after reading your posts, I had the impression it was a solid port besides the obvious display caveat.

[Blinge]

Exceed. the first one is garbage, I never want to see the colour red again.
Played a credit of the second, wow re-used assets, GG. a poor man's ikaruga
..I don't get how people are liking this series at all..

[Krooze L-Roy]

Serpent enemies: whenever a serpent rears it's probably-the-only-vulnerable-part head, it's like "well, here comes a slow, aggravating part, cause this fucker is gonna come at me from every annoying angle in the book." I do kind of get a kick out of it though when they make a little loop that you think you can hide in, but then go "nah" and fire a bullet through their own body.

[ACSeraph]

I do kind of get a kick out of it though when they make a little loop that you think you can hide in, but then go "nah" and fire a bullet through their own body.

80's shmup trolling at its finest

I was considering getting the Saturn port a few months back, but decided I might as well stick with the similarly hard to see PS2 version on Taito Memories II Joukan. Really glad I didn't go with it after reading your posts, I had the impression it was a solid port besides the obvious display caveat.

It gives off the superficial impression that it's a solid port, and it damn well could have been with even a little bit of testing. There's a lot of forgivable weird quirks in it that make it different from the arcade original, but it's really one single severe bug kills the whole thing for serious players. You probly already saw where I mentioned it before, it has to do with broken hitboxes on the lasers shot by certain enemies, that cause them to kill you even when you aren't even close to being hit by them. And it's not as simple as just approaching them differently either, because in certain stages the only viable strategy against them is rendered unusable by the bug. Probably if you were to learn every stage you could come up with a reasonable survivable path through the saturn version that avoids said enemies and Yamato, but it's sad that you have to plan your stages are the game's own brokenness. My obsession with beating it is really no more than a personal vendetta.

But since you brought up the PS2 version, how is that port? I've been thinking about getting it under the assumption it's a straight emulation of the arcade version. I'm especially interested in what kind of settings are available, for example can you map auto-fire and non-autofire to different buttons? The Saturn version would have been a lot more palatable were that an option. also protip: Set your HDTV to zoom mode to avoid going blind playing Darius.

[Mero]

.
But since you brought up the PS2 version, how is that port? I've been thinking about getting it under the assumption it's a straight emulation of the arcade version. I'm especially interested in what kind of settings are available, for example can you map auto-fire and non-autofire to different buttons? The Saturn version would have been a lot more palatable were that an option. also protip: Set your HDTV to zoom mode to avoid going blind playing Darius.

PS2 Taito Memories version is fine, You get the option to torn autofire on or off but it's either on or it's off, you can't have auto and non-auto mapped to different buttons.

To my knowledge Darius II is the only Taito Memories game where it gives you the option to turn on autofire where it's not default.

[mastermx]

When you've been playing for a long time. And you realise, that when you close your eyes, you can see bullet patterns on the back of your eye lids.

[BIL]

But since you brought up the PS2 version, how is that port? I've been thinking about getting it under the assumption it's a straight emulation of the arcade version. I'm especially interested in what kind of settings are available, for example can you map auto-fire and non-autofire to different buttons?

Seconding Mero - it's pretty much vanilla emulation and seems comparable to MAME, but unfortunately unlike MAME you can't have dedicated auto/non-auto fire buttons. Also, interlacing. Still, I'd rather have an imperfectly presented accurate version than an outright busted one.

I think of it as a free gift included with Rayforce. ^__^

[LordHypnos]

When you've been playing for a long time. And you realise, that when you close your eyes, you can see bullet patterns on the back of your eye lids.

This happens to me too. It kinda makes me feel concerned that maybe I've spent too much time on shmups, but I don't mind it that much. Used to happen to me with Tetris, too, when I used to play that a lot.

[mastermx]

I can never get into shmups with auto bomb. They make me feel like I'm credit feeding through the game. If I get hit by a bullet I should take responsibility for it, instead of just losing some bomb stock.

[LordHypnos]

I can never get into shmups with auto bomb. They make me feel like I'm credit feeding through the game. If I get hit by a bullet I should take responsibility for it, instead of just losing some bomb stock.

I tend to agree with this, except it's mostly because I almost always play more sloppily. It's like I need kind of an instantaneous feedback of dying in order to pay close enough attention.

[mastermx]

Yes I get that too. It decreases tension too much.

[Squire Grooktook]

I can never get into shmups with auto bomb. They make me feel like I'm credit feeding through the game. If I get hit by a bullet I should take responsibility for it, instead of just losing some bomb stock.

DDP SOJ balances it pretty well. You can choose to have one autobomb, or have a higher bomb stock. with autobomb, you have 3 bombs, but lose all of them if you get hit once. It's a pretty good risk reward balance.

[mastermx]

DDP SOJ balances it pretty well.

I'm salivating as I read this. I'm gonna buy SOJ eventually. Just gotta get a 360 first. That's actually another shmup grievance I have. Shmups and their 360 exclusivity.

[CloudyMusic]

This isn't even a grievance with a particular game, but with myself. I only just now realized the fact that in DOJ, Shotia, Leinyan, and Exy are named after Shot(ia), Laser (Lei-zaa), and Ex(y)pert.

[IrishNinja]

I kind of dislike smartbombs in general. When I die with a full stock of bombs, I kick myself, yet whenever I use one in a panic, I think "you could have made that gap, you pussy."

haha, this all day...damned if you do, damned if you don't!

[LordHypnos]

Mars Matrix stage 4 boss is too hard

Also, it's bothering me that my high score of roughly 125 billion has around 411,000 experience. I've surpassed 411,000 by a lot quite a few times, but never surpassed that score

[Captain]

The moment when you can easily deal with bosses and minibosses and pattern-making enemies, but lose to a random bullet from nowhere.

In RefleX specifically, it's so annoying and rage-inducing.

[LordHypnos]

Fucking ring powerups in Cho Ren Sha 68k. I probably just need to practice more, but it's like impossible to actually get in the middle and stay there

[Squire Grooktook]

Fucking ring powerups in Cho Ren Sha 68k. I probably just need to practice more, but it's like impossible to actually get in the middle and stay there

The strat I usually use is once your inside > slight tap downward > wait a few milliseconds > slight tap downward > wait a few milliseconds > repeat until you get it.