Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou are you f****ing kidding me?

[xorthen]

This game, OMFG, this game simply doesn't give a f***! It will brutally rape you, burn your corpse and then urinate on the ashes. I've played some shmups before, but this game is relentless! Anybody else freak out at how insane the difficulty is in this game?

[Plasmo]

Touhou is harder.

[xorthen]

Plasmo posting off topic!

[Jockel]

No, you're off topic. This thread is now about Touhou.

LOOKATDEMBOOLITS

[xorthen]

Shit posting in my thread.

[KAI]

And it has 2 loops!

[Plasmo]

Your mom is off topic.

Reimu is my favourite. Look at her hair!

[Casey120]

I love DoDonpachi Dai-ou-jou, it has that perfect cherry bottom !

[Patashu]

Dear all posts except the OP: Y'all are dumb lol

This game, OMFG, this game simply doesn't give a f***! It will brutally rape you, burn your corpse and then urinate on the ashes. I've played some shmups before, but this game is relentless! Anybody else freak out at how insane the difficulty is in this game?

Yes, DaiOuJou is very unforgiving for a newcomer to the genre. It's a lot harder than the game that came before and came after it, and many parts of it are designed to be very aggressive if you don't come into them with a good plan (Stage 3.....).
On this Japanese maintained list of how difficult different shmup clears are: http://www.wikihouse.com/stg/index.php?STG%A5%E9%A5%F3%A5%AF%B0%EC%CD%F7
DDP DaiOuJou 2-ALL is a 45/50, the hardest listed - even above Mushihimesama Futari Ultra!
DDP DaiOuJou 1-ALL is a 21/50 - which sounds a lot lower, until you realize that this puts it on par with Ketsui 1-ALL, a little lower than Mushihimesama Futari Maniac and a little higher than Death Smiles LV3. A 21 is already 'incredibly difficult for someone who isn't a seasoned veteran', basically.

So what can you do about it?
-Practice! Grab shmupmame42 http://shmupmame.wordpress.com/download/ and make savestates at every level, every miniboss, every boss and if a section is kicking your ass a lot, make a savestate there too. Practice and get a feel for how to get through it safely and consistently. This will involve 100s-1000s of savestate loads until it feels perfectly consistent - but you will be improving by a LOT doing this. Remember, there's never an unwinnable situation, only poor routes and techniques.
-Watch a superplay! If the best players have a certain path through a stage or boss in DaiOuJou, it's because it works for them - they're interested in scoring hard, but they also want to get the score before they die of old age, so they will be playing safe. If they have a plan to deal with certain popcorn - it must be a well worked out plan, so you can just steal it and be confident it's good.
-Play a different shmup! There's no shame in starting on a different title. For starters, if you play on the Black Label version, the difficulty of clearing goes down (21/50 to 19/50 for 1-ALL, 45/50 to 37/50 for 2-ALL). And there are tons and tons of other great shmups that will challenge you to improve without feeling overwhelming for you - Dodonpachi 1-ALL is a 17/50, for example, and Mushihimesama Maniac is an 18/50, Original is a 15/50, and these three modes are really fun to learn, practice and execute.

[Skykid]

This game, OMFG, this game simply doesn't give a f***! It will brutally rape you, burn your corpse and then urinate on the ashes.

Ain't it a beauty.

Vanilla is a mean bastard. Try BL, the whole thing will click sooner.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Eh, DOJ is certainly a brick wall, but I just can't get as into it as other games. Doesn't get properly merciless until the third stage. Games like Ketsui and Gun.Smoke have the decency to engage you right away.

[Kollision]

whwre's moderatio fgs

[Bananamatic]

git gud

[Spark]

Hold Shift for focused movement.

[Skykid]

Eh, DOJ is certainly a brick wall, but I just can't get as into it as other games. Doesn't get properly merciless until the third stage. Games like Ketsui and Gun.Smoke have the decency to engage you right away.

Chain stg1-2 for engagement.

[trap15]

Why are you playing such a kusoge. Go play a good game like Black Heart.

[KAI]

I'm drunk thread 2.0

[SuperSoaker360]

Ketsui is harder and manlier.

[nasty_wolverine]

try ibara on for size...

[chempop]

Hold rapid for extra slowdown.

Fixed

[Skykid]

Ketsui is harder and manlier.

DOJ is God.

[Blinge]

No Gods or Kings, only MEN :3

[RaidenViper]

go play Pink Sweets

[Kaiser]

Ketsui is harder and manlier.

NOWHERE AS MANLY AS THIS

[CloudyMusic]

Ketsui is harder and manlier.

DOJ is God.

We know you prefer it because of the element dolls.

[el chuddo]

DOJ is God.

+1

[mastermx]

The difficulty is what attracted me to DOJ. It's such a good game. Practice and the improvement will be noticeable. I've never played BL but if you get good at DOJ you will be more able to pick up other shmups with a high difficulty. You're only as good as what you play. Good luck.

[xorthen]

You guys are some hardcore MOFOs and masochists. Dying in this game must feel pretty good to you. Would you recommend playing easy mode to learn the game or should I stick with normal?

[ptoing]

Have you cleared other, easier Cave games or shmups in general? If now, how about doing that first. Start small, build up. Donpachi and Dodonpachi are pretty doable, as far as survival 1ALLs go.

[Never_Scurred]

DOJ is the only shmup I've ever bothered to *attempt* to master. The best I could do was a 1CC with only one bomb in the last stage. Took many months of trial-and-error, air-punching, lack of sleep, stick-bashing, yelling, and ragequitting to softcontinuing. Felt like an abusive relationship where your spouse kicks your ass, then throws $100 bills at you and says "go pretty up for me, bitch". All for that lil' 1CC. The only game harder than this for me was F-Zero GX story mode.