Special Demonstrations #19: Donpachi (Plasmo, 75.4mil 2-ALL [WR], Type C)

[Icarus]

One friend in our Chinese shmups community showed me the SD#6 and asked for a translated version, so I made one Chinese version of commentary subtitles, think it'd be better to post here first.
Special Demonstration 6: Original & Chinese commentary subtitles

Now that's pretty cool. Thanks.
Added to the thread OP.

[STG]

Great vids Icarus, thanks for putting these together! NAK is unreal at God Mode. And SDOJ 1.5 looks hellish at max rank.

[Lord Satori]

Man, Spiritual Larsa is a terrible TLB compared to the original one. You have this epic boss music in her first form and it changes to this mellow, sweet kind of melody, and for whatever reason she's 1/3 the size of her sprite in her first form.

[Patashu]

Man, Spiritual Larsa is a terrible TLB compared to the original one. You have this epic boss music in her first form and it changes to this mellow, sweet kind of melody, and for whatever reason she's 1/3 the size of her sprite in her first form.

(It's a reference to the TLB of the first game. The last attack is meant to be a similar kind of difficulty to that TLB's last attack, too - except you can "cheese" it by doing what NAK does in the replay.)

[Lord Satori]

The one thing I did like about it was that in this form she seemed to have a more lamenting personality which syncs up better with the story.

[CHI]

A big shout out goes to CHI for sending the replay my way...

[Icarus]

So we come to another Battle Garegga replay for Special Demonstrations #7, featuring our generous benefactor T3-神威. However, this isn't a Gain replay as you'd be expecting from her. ^_-

She recently picked up the Wild Snail again for fun, and after a month or two of practice, bashed out this insane replay for me to edit. This is currently the highest-scoring publicly available Wild Snail replay online - not counting the WR run by Yamanaka Masato which is currently an incomplete download - which makes this run extra special as an archive of strategies with a Garegga ship. I'll not spoil anything that goes on in the replay, however, as it's pretty boss.

I also enlisted Eaglet to write up some commentary for the run, as I felt that it would be better not copy-pasting my annotations from the Gain replays here. Many thanks to Eaglet for both writing the annotations, and for translating Kamui's brief set of notes on her own run as well, which I've sprinkled throughout the run here and there. And of course, much love to Kamui for her continued generosity in providing these runs for me to share with you peeps.

Enjoy!

(Also note: Eaglet and I are aware that we might not have translated Kamui's first message accurately, but for want of a better translation I'm leaving it up for the time being. I also need to add my notes to the commentary, but that can be added at a later date.)

[emphatic]

Awesome!

[Aleksei]

Annotations were a little fast in the beginning and fullscreen makes them cut off after a while but watching it on large player worked out well.

I was especially impressed with the beginning of stage 6.

[Plasmo]

What a treat!

Thanks very much Kamui, ICR and Eaglet!

[Eaglet]

Thanks!
I feel like i got most of the finer details in there, but i know i missed some stuff (for an example how Kamui powers up to special shot in stage 5).

Thanks again Kamui and Icarus for creating an awesome super play!

[emphatic]

Does an .ass file exist for this video?

[CStarFlare]

Great stuff, as always.

I imagine this has already been asked, but does Kamui play Batrider? Garegga's great, but there aren't enough world class Batrider videos for my tastes.

[Icarus]

Does an .ass file exist for this video?

Currently, no.
The .xml is provided in the OP, you can find instructions to convert them somewhere in this thread.

I imagine this has already been asked, but does Kamui play Batrider? Garegga's great, but there aren't enough world class Batrider videos for my tastes.

100% devoted to Garegga.
If you want high-level Batrider, unless I can get in contact with the Japanese WR players somehow, Aquas is your man.

[Icarus]

Special Demonstrations #8: Battle Garegga!

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ＷＯＲＬＤ ＲＥＣＯＲＤ！ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

I was recently in Japan for annual leave from work, to go sightseeing and to meet up with my friends over there, including the Stunfest crew and many others. While there, Kamui very kindly gave me a DVD with a number of replays on it, including one of her most recent WR, and asked if I could edit it for her.

Well, of course I would. No need to ask, it’d be my pleasure. ^_^

So here we are. The Special Demonstrations series has exclusive access to the WR replay for Gain, and in an extra special treat, Kamui herself has provided some in-depth commentary of her strategies throughout the run. There's a lot of technical and strategic information in there, and it's a rare thing to learn some new tricks from it.
It's a rare, intimate glimpse into the thought processes of the world’s best Garegga player. :3

Once again, many thanks to Kamui herself for being so kind to send me the original replays unasked for, of which became the inspiration for the Special Demonstrations series, for taking the time to annotate her own replay, and for working with me in its creation. Keep up the good work, Kamui!

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone! No idea what I'll do for the rest of the series yet, but I'll think of something. :3

[chempop]

Looking forward to watching this! Wow, I can’t believe you are already up to #8

Frothing demand for Dimahoo and Batrider special demonstrations

[CStarFlare]

Every time there's a new entry in this series I go "Garegga again?"

then I spend the next hour with my face three inches from the screen with my mouth hanging open

Great run as always from Kamui. Her Earth Crisis and stage 5 platform notes especially were interesting, as was her little monologue about sacrificing optimal scoring for consistency.

[SapphireDensetsu]

Every time there's a new entry in this series I go "Garegga again?"

then I spend the next hour with my face three inches from the screen with my mouth hanging open

[ProjectAKo]

I had heard of Garegga but I've never even played or seen it before watching the SDs but it has me entranced now. I really want to play it someday. I'll be watching this for sure.

[Blackbird]

We should stage some kind of celebration for when she finally breaks 21mil, that would be off the chain!

[Icarus]

Every time there's a new entry in this series I go "Garegga again?"
then I spend the next hour with my face three inches from the screen with my mouth hanging open

This may be the last Garegga entry - from Kamui at least - for a while as she notes that it's becoming increasingly more difficult to get a new PB. Hence all the work involved in building a more consistent run through the first six stages.
I might ask if she knows if players of any other ships would like to contribute. Maybe someone like SDD-Kaede…

We should stage some kind of celebration for when she finally breaks 21mil, that would be off the chain!

Dunno what to do when she hits the Gain 21mil WR, but I have something planned for Garegga's 20th Anniversary…

[pestro87]

Many thanks to Kamui and Icarus for sharing this!!! Hooooooooly shit is all that I have to say

[Van_Artic]

i crapped my pants to this video
pleased to hear that the "infinite pattern" is not that infinite afterall, i called that shit like 4 years ago :3

[Shepardus]

Absolutely incredible play, it's rare to see this high level of both planning and improvisation come together so seamlessly. Kamui's commentary is an especially nice treat to have for this video, and I spent a long time making sure I read everything even though it's unlikely I'll ever reach the level where it's actually relevant to me. I'm even more impressed than before at the level of dedication she puts into improving her runs.

I've got two questions, if you don't mind: Is there any particular reason why Kamui uses Gain B in this replay while she uses Gain ABC in Special Demonstrations 1 and 3? Also, is there any reason for the extra credit in the machine (being displayed under the player 2 score)? Batrider increases rank faster for each extra credit in the machine, but I'm not aware of any such behavior in Garegga.

[Icarus]

I've got two questions, if you don't mind: Is there any particular reason why Kamui uses Gain B in this replay while she uses Gain ABC in Special Demonstrations 1 and 3? Also, is there any reason for the extra credit in the machine (being displayed under the player 2 score)? Batrider increases rank faster for each extra credit in the machine, but I'm not aware of any such behavior in Garegga.

Good questions.

1) No real reason, she tends to change ship types every so often.

2) This replay was recorded in a different arcade to the ones in SD 1, 3 and 7, and this arcade likely gives two credits per coin. I don't believe there is "extra credits rank" in Garegga, so it is safe to load up.

[Aleksei]

GOD-LIKE.

[z0mbie90]

Thanks alot for sharing this. So impressive the skill, knowledge and execution is just spectacular.

[pbsk8]

Could someone explain this thing about the ranks? Increase and decrease??

[Eaglet]

I would advise you to read the Garegga strategy thread, but in short:
Rank is a dynamic difficulty system that continues to increase based on factors like; autofire frequency, shots fired, item pickups and bombing.
That is; everything that you do in the game makes the game harder. Enemy bullets gain speed, enemies gain more HP, bullet density increases, enemy behaviour becomes more aggressive, more popcorn enemies spawn etc.
The only way to decrease the rank (difficulty) is to suicide. Low rank is required in order to score easily in certain parts of the game while high rank give more points in other parts (the end) of the game with certain ships.

[guigui]

Garegga is a bottomless well, and T3-Kamui is at the bottom. Congulatulations to both of you.