Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[ACSeraph]

If you find the chaining unfun, just ignore it. I hate chaining and completely don't even attempt it, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of DOJ played strictly for survival.

[CStarFlare]

Pestro87 asked me how I was doing at Futari God Mode... so I started playing again. I've got my eyes on the prize now, and have been using training mode a lot.

I still restart stage 1 about four times for every full run.

[endoKarb]

If you find the chaining unfun, just ignore it. I hate chaining and completely don't even attempt it, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of DOJ played strictly for survival.

DOJ indeed is a lot of fun even just for survival, but I feel chaining gets and unduly bad rep.

I love chaining, I think one just has to learn to take it bit by bit. I like to just play normally, taking mental notes along the way of all the places where I regularly drop my chain. Then, I start working on those spots that look easier to fix, and try to get slight longer, slightly more consistent chains every time.
It actually ends up being a rather addicting mini-game.

[ACSeraph]

It's not really that I find chaining to be a particularly hard or frustrating scoring system, it just goes against my core values as an STG player. I don't want to be forced into a system that requires me to lighten up on the enemies from time to time to keep my kills well timed. I strongly prefer games that focus on high speed brutality. Bullet Soul Infinite Burst for example is a perfect example of what I appreciate, the faster and more intensely you kill, the more the game will start to throw at you. The game matches your intensity, rather than the other way around.

But I don't have any problem with DDP or IKaruga and such being what they are with the scoring; I can still fully enjoy them in my own way without it. Radiant Silvergun is the game that really fucks everything up with the chaining. I absolutely hate that game.

[pokemon123]

yeah I guess. I don't know why I suddenly want to score when I used to not care at all about it. Eh I guess in the end having to memorize everything just sounds so tedious to me anyway so no point in playing if i'm not enjoying it at all.

[pestro87]

Pestro87 asked me how I was doing at Futari God Mode... so I started playing again. I've got my eyes on the prize now, and have been using training mode a lot.

I still restart stage 1 about four times for every full run.

Glad to hear man! It actually took me a good amount of time before I was able to get through Stage 1 consistently without restarts. I actually went back and improved my Stage 1 routes recently after I discovered some ways to squeeze out some more points so I'm back restarting Stage 1 again...

[Aquas]

Finally spending a little more time with Caladrius. Starting my endeavors on Arcade mode. Aiming for Noah Normal 1cc soon. Pretty fun :3

[Stevens]

Still ak zetsu. I've noticed I don't marathon this game like I did with Mars Matrix. I would blink with MM and 3 or 4 hours would have passed. With ak I put 2 or 3 credits in and I'm done. The fact that it isn't as hard as MM probably has something to do with it too.

I've also noticed in zetsu mode I use the focus shot like 99% of the time. I almost never use regular shot unless I need to be somewhere in a hurry.

[Jonst]

^ ak isn't a brutal survival mission... It is about scoring though. Regular shot is good for creating suicide bullets to cancel into score items.

I wish you were up against ketsui, seeing as this isn't difficult enough!

[Stevens]

^ ak isn't a brutal survival mission... It is about scoring though. Regular shot is good for creating suicide bullets to cancel into score items.

I wish you were up against ketsui, seeing as this isn't difficult enough!

How does Ketsui compare to SDOJ difficulty wise? Cause if they're similar I would probably be crying at this point.

I've made the stage 6 bosses three times now. I need to tidy up on the earlier stages..

[endoKarb]

How does Ketsui compare to SDOJ difficulty wise? Cause if they're similar I would probably be crying at this point. .

SDOJ probably "feels" harder, but they are pretty close in difficulty.

[Shepardus]

I should be working on my Death Roulette games, but I haven't had so much time for it this past week. I did, however, just play a credit (two counting a stage 1 reset) of Battle Garegga and managed to get to stage 7 (and 7 million points) for the first time:

[Jonst]

Nice one shepardus! Probably a clear not too far off!

@ Stevens, yeah, agree with endo, sdoj does feel harder in a lot of respects although I'm sure there isn't a huge gulf in difficulties. I spent a lot of time with ketsui last year, plenty of times it felt too brutal and impossible. It wasn't, it just took a lot of work whereas I've not put that kind of time in to sdoj and really studied and learned proper strats... One day though, I will. In the meantime I'm still enjoying my (self imposed) pressure free break from shmups, although it is a bit boring...

I'm weirdly relieved you haven't cleared ak yet, I'd have hated it if it was too easy for you!

[Bananamatic]

ketsui is way easier tbh

[Stevens]

I'm weirdly relieved you haven't cleared ak yet, I'd have hated it if it was too easy for you!

Made stage 7 tonight on my last ship, topped out at 241 million. Whittled the boss down to the last 1/3 of his life bar.

[Jonst]

^ Not long now!

In the meantime I've been sort of playing a bit of thunder force iv. I love the game, hit the stage 8 boss the other night, My memorisation isn't great on the later levels and I always lose a crucial powered up I would love to clear it, the only thing that puts me off to really going for a clear is the length of the game, it's a bit to long for me, 2 credits per session and I'm done.

EDIT: I'll probably play doj or sdoj!

[Stevens]

After I clear Zetsu I am leaning heavily towards picking up slash mode.

When I cleared Mars Matrix I was pretty much at the end of my Mars Matrix rope. It took me a lot of hours, I would guess close to 100 over the two months since I picked it up again. It almost got the best of me (as I'm sure Progear did with you). I wanted to go to elite mode/keep playing it but I am done with it for the time being.

With Fast Striker original (and soon zetsu) the clears came pretty quick in comparison so the desire to keep playing is much greater:D

Looking forward to moving on soon! Raiden IV will probably be added after the clear too. It has been on my back log for far too long.

[Jonst]

Glad to hear you'll move on to slash afterwards, it's a different beast but very fun!

Yeah, I know what you mean. It wasn't that progear was so hard for me, I would have cleared weeks earlier had it not been for the terrible control pad I had to work with that would randomly become unresponsive at key times. Ketsui was the game (so far) to bring me nearly to the end of my tether!
Having said that, as predicted, I've binned the idea of clearing thunder force iv and am instead going to go for a dodonpachi doj black label clear... (Let the pain/frustration begin!)

Good luck with your clears. I have every faith you'll pull them all off! I'll watch this space

[Pretas]

So I D/Led Gaia Seed off PSN and gave it a try. SCCed on my first play through even with the horrid input lag. Yeah... that game certainly is... a thing. I love how the designers just didn't give a shit about how the backgrounds fit into the environments.

If Gaia Seed had been a late PC-Engine CD release like Sapphire, it would be considered a hidden gem classic by fans and collectors of the system.

[LordHypnos]

Well, after still failing to pass level 5 in Omega Fighter yesterday (mostly just died too much in 4, because I hadn't practiced it enough), I've pretty much thrown in the towel on Death Roulette. Pretty lame showing, but I'm sick of the chain deaths. I did, at least, get an inp of the run with the shitty fourth stage, though, not that I really need it for such minimal progress.

Anyway, as a consequence, I ended up playing a bit of Mars Matrix again. It continues to provide fast paced visceral excitement. I had one run where I got almost 600k experience in the first two stages which was awesome (I think 598k, to be specific), but I kept screwing up in the third stage. Out of practice, and shit.

Also gave Rayforce a few tries in MAME, and really enjoyed it. Definitely kept me coming back for a good amount of times. Also, I think it might actually have the most stunning presentation of any shmup that I've ever played, not that I would play it for that alone (For example, Taito's Grid Seeker did not draw me in at all in spite of also having amazing graphics and good music, though not to the same degree as Rayforce). I definitely like the silly gimmicky parallax / scaling / rotation / line scrolling stuff, though (I also kind of like the dizzying background scrolling in various Naomi games, or Eschatos)

Also tried playing Zero Gunner 2 again, and at first I was like "wait, why did I like this again?" but then an hour later or so, I had to fight against the desire to put in just one more credit, and tear myself from the screen . It was one of those things where I was actually getting about 10,000 more points each time too! Still only made it to 1-3, though. I think I like the Comanche the best. Arg! I want this game to be less expensive!

[Stevens]

Comanche is the shit. If I get the clear it will be with it..

Edit - 256 million last boss in AK.

[Stevens]

Picked up Futari 1.5 on a field trip to Video Games NY today. I need to stop buying games..

[LordHypnos]

Finally got an Xbox, this friday. Haven't had much time to use it, but I played a few credits of Eschatos and Futari, and found them enjoyable. Looks like the Futari port has a few extra modes, too, are those any good? (Xbox 360 mode, and Arrange). How about the Time attack and Advanced modes of Eschatos? I already know a bit about CS and JSS. Probably will get digital Under Defeat HD soon, because of Stevens' challenge to me. A few other d/l games also look good.

[trap15]

Xbox 360 mode is just higher resolution graphics, same game. Arrange mode is incredibly dumb, but somewhat fun on Ultra.

[Stevens]

Very close to clearing AK zetsu. All the signs are there, just need to make it happen. Perhaps this evening? Or tomorrow since I've declared it a Steven's vacation day and I'm not going to work! Suck it work!

LH - 360!? Fantastic news. I know there are more shooters if you have a Japanese one, but there is still no shortage on the domestic 360. It really does have a lot of good ones. I look forward to playing Futari (back log growing) more so now.

Provided you haven't already bought Under Defeat HD I think you should try the Valkyrius demo. It is a fantastic game that needs more love, it is also quite a bit cheaper than UD HD (I think it's $5).

If you decide you like it I would amend my challenge to be Valkyrius on hard mode. It is seriously a dope game, and had it been a major release I could see it making the bottom of the HM list.

Off to MSG for Rangers/Caps afternoon tilt!

[CStarFlare]

Novice Ultra is where it's at. The rest of Futari's extra modes might as well not exist.

[To Far Away Times]

Playing some Gigawing now.

This game would be so much easier if it gave you an extra life or two through score.

[Jonst]

Nothing. Having a really hard time commiting to anything at the moment. Was going to try for a thunder force iv clear but the length puts me off then thought about a doj clear... But I have to finally accept that, although bastard hard I just don't enjoy the game I never have. I've tried to love it but I just can't

[Icarus]

Main: Pink Sweets v1.00 (X360)
Sideboards: XIIZEAL (X360) || Battle Garegga (AC)
Casual fun: Shooting Skill Test (Shooting Love 200X) (X360)

[ACSeraph]

Nothing.

You should play Eschatos. Break the Cave mold for a little while.