ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

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ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Image

________________________________________

Released under Taito's G-NET arcade platform in 2002, XII Stag is the first game released by Toshiaki Fujino under the Triangle Service label after prior business arrangements fell through with Oriental Soft.
The game is infamous for it's wobble shot mechanic, which is rumoured to have pissed off a considerable amount of arcade operators in Japan due to wearing down joysticks a lot faster than with other STGs. The game also shares a design trait seen in Fujino's previous game, G-Stream G2020, in that the content of some stages change depending on how you play.

Versions

Aside from the original arcade version, four ports exist of XII Stag, only one retains the original arcade title.

The first port made, and the only port that retains the smooth fade transitions, reflective boss warning screen and warning sound effect, is the Playstation 2 port. This version lacks all slowdown, has higher-pitched sound effects (and voices) compared to the original and introduces the Rapid Side Attack button. It is available in PAL and NTSC-J regions, personally I purchased what looks to be a french copy for less than $15 AUD. I have heard of possible audio looping issues present with this version but it is currently unknown if that's a software fault or just bad disc drive lasers in the PS2s themselves. This version also has a redesigned logo but retains the "XII Stag" name.

There is a PC "trial" build of the game called XII Stag Limited that was made a long time ago. It has no configurable options and only lets you play stage 4. It was available for some time on Triangle Service's website but appears to have since been pulled down.

A Windows Phone port exists, where the ship is controlled with cursor position much like Cave's iOS titles. This is the first port of the game to be branded as "XIIZEAL" - the change fitting in line with Triangle Service's first 3D game, Trizeal, and uses a different boss warning graphic and sound effect, along with removal of transparency in the black box under the Continue text, the transparency in the slide-in transition boxes and the "New Record/Wow Wuzza" speech that plays when you beat your personal best score on a checkpoint. Not much information is available about this version and emulation for this platform is difficult to achieve at the best of times, but from the video footage available on YouTube it appears no gameplay or other graphical compromises have been made.

There is also Shooting Love 10th Anniversary ~XIIZeal and DeltaZeal~ on the Xbox 360. The disc release only came out in Japan but is region-free and thus runs on all consoles. The pitch of the sound effects is the same as the arcade and slowdown is emulated pretty well compared to PCB footage, however on top of the aesthetic changes the first XIIZEAL port made, the side attack sound has been altered and the rapid side attack's rate of "wobble" is increased compared to the PS2 port. In addition, you cannot use the rapid-fire button for name entry, non-autofire shot button must be used there. As this version includes a Score Attack option where you can compete in specific stages for the highest score on the leaderboards as well as a more advanced graphic options menu compared to previous ports it is considered the definitive form.

As of June 6 2015 XIIZEAL also has a PC port, available for purchase via Steam. It is understood to have no emulated slowdown, however retains the visual/aesthetic tweaks and also the advanced menus of the 360 version with additional options for running at different resolutions and different control schemes.

Scoring
The scoring system in this game is relatively simple. You have a score multiplier that defaults at 1, and increases when you kill enemies and destructable bullets with either your side shot or thrusters by 1 up to a maximum value of 12. All enemies that are destroyed have this multiplier applied to it regardless of the weapon used. There is a synth voice that iterates the numbers as you get them which may annoy some people but is a good indicator of how well you're scoring - if you're at a point in the game where there's a lot of enemies appearing and you don't hear "TWELVETWELTWELTWELTWELTWELVETWEL~" you're doing something wrong. There are no extends.

Items are dropped at a rate that's directly tied to how much you're currently shooting at the time, and can drop from any enemy. This will aid your score by letting you pick up the maximum stock bonus for powerups and bombs. Make sure to keep all barrels firing!

The game also tracks your scoring progress through stage segments and compares you to the highest recorded score at that moment in time, shouting "Wow Wuzza" (which is probably supposed to be "New Record!" with heavy audio manipulation) if you beat it and shows the difference in value between them. At the end of a stage you also get a stage bonus which is basically just a tally of your stage segment scores, with a neat graph showing your overall performance compared to the highest recorded score.

Weapons

- Shot
You have, of course, a normal forward-firing shot. Upgrading via the bright blue module items will improve this weapon and will earn you 100 points every time you pick one up. It maxes out your shot strength after four modules, with any additional blue modules giving you a maximum power score bonus of 1000 points. Killing enemies with your main shot does not add to your chain counter but their death score will still have the chain multiplier applied to it.

- Bomb
Like most STGs you also have a bomb. It's an effective panic bomb providing you don't move around too much when it's first deployed. It's a black field that expands up to approx 3/4 of the screen and then disappears. Bullets that enter this area are cancelled and yield some amount of points depending on how many bullets the bomb absorbs. It starts at 10 points and for every bullet that comes in contact it increments up to 100 in 10pt increments, then to 1000 in 100pt increments. This can net you some score if you encounter a tough enemy that spits a lot of bullets at one time and you have a bomb to spare.

You are invulnerable while you remain in this bomb field, and enemies that enter this field have some damage dealt to them (enough to get rid of popcorns but not most other enemies), but will not add to the chain counter for enemy deaths. You *should* be immune to collisions as well while the bomb is active and you're within the field but there have been some suggestions that this isn't always the case due to buggy behaviour with the bomb's triangular portions so make use of this feature only if you're desperate.

- Side Attack
AKA The Wobble. This is the weapon that makes the game unique from other STGs of its time. By moving horizontally in one direction then rapidly pressing the opposite direction at least once (twice for the more powerful boom) in the presence of enemies you unleash a sonic boom that expands out, doing massive damage to most enemies and adding to the chain counter if it successfully kills an enemy. The ports of this game have a rapid side attack button that saves you the trouble of doing this with your joystick, but wiggling the joystick will allow you to do rapid side attacks *even faster* as there is no reload time for manual fire.

- Thruster
Your ship's own thruster also does damage and adds to the chain counter. You'll want to use this only for popcorns as it does weak damage by itself and most medium-sized enemies will collide with you if you attempt to use only this weapon on them.

See second post for a rundown of the stages in the game.
Last edited by BPzeBanshee on Fri Jun 12, 2015 1:54 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

STAGE RUNDOWN

Stage 1
Images TBA

Stage 1 is a fairly simple and short affair with some exception given to the boss. The best thing to do here for scoring purposes is to keep shooting and make use of the thruster shot at the back of the ship to kill the popcorns that come up, the wobble shot to kill the larger enemies that appear on the side, and collect the bombs/powerup items that will surely appear. As it is a very short beginning stage that serves little purpose other than to warm you up for the next stage you won't have to sit still for long.

The boss is a slightly trickier affair but not too bad once you get the hang of it. Start by sitting around the left or right hand side as opposed to the center of the screen - It likes to do downwards slams every so often, telegraphed by a halt in its horizontal movement and sliding upwards a bit before it comes crashing down which will ruin your day. The easiest and quickest way to kill it is simply by picking off its individual parts from the side of it using the side shot. If done successfully you can kill its parts and blow it up for maximum score before it really shoots much of anything!

Stage 2
Images TBA

This is the first stage where the game begins to make use of its branching path system - the layout and order of enemies will change depending on how you play, so this will be organised into individual blocks.

Section A
Initially you'll see more of the Stage 1 popcorns, handle them the same as you did in stage 1. After this, two large carriers will come in from the side with destructable parts to the side and bottom of it. Depending on how quickly you kill all of the associated parts you'll either end up in Section B or Section C, you want to end up in Section B ideally.

Section B
If you handled Section A successfully you'll end up here. The stage will scroll a bit to the left and you get a fairly long duration of psuedo-random popcorns raining down from the top where you can fire away with your forward and side shot to boost up your multiplier and get more stock/bomb items. Eventually medium-sized mechs with shields (aside from the shields they kinda look like the droids from Rayforce) will appear, the shield counts as a destructable piece so you want to show up on its side, probably easier on the right, to side-shot them into oblivion and transition to Section D.

Section C
If you end up here you done goofed. All you get is two sets of two enemies coming in from underneath the screen that drop a missile each, which turn towards a random direction and propel. You can kill the missile and the carriers that hold them individually but you don't get a lot of points from this "fail bonus" either way, and you end up straight into Section D.

Section D
Popcorn enemies will now start coming up from behind at pseudo-random x positions, which eventually follows by medium-grade enemies also doing the same. The time between this transition seems considerably shorter if you got to Section C instead of B. Eventually you'll end up at Section E after about 15 seconds worth of the medium-grade enemies.

Section E
The stage will scroll to the right and about three large jet planes will appear and try to do a wide shot aiming down of about four bullets each, after them the stage will zoom forward a bit and you'll have five medium-grade enemies similar to the ones in stage 1 appear and try to snipe you with a barrage of bullets shot early from the center-top, as well as two pairs on the left and right. If you're up in the top part of the screen you'll nail the lot with your side shot easily enough, just make sure to kill them fast.

Boss
The boss will either be blue or red. If it's red it is a more difficult version to beat. To get to the red version all you need to do is make sure you have a x12 multiplier by the time you killed the last enemy in Section E.

The mothership of sorts will appear from the bottom of the screen and hover up slowly. Like most of the large carriers present on this stage it has destructable parts underneath and somewhat on the wings. The ship is a non-collidable object so you can fly through it BUT it has bullet spawners on the center which like to shoot sideways and in three directions with little reload between them, so don't hang around on top of it for too long. Easiest way to deal with it is simply stay around the left corner and side-shot its parts to hell and back before it opens too much of its bullet entrapment patterns, or just sit around the top of center.

When it explodes a large droid will come out from it which IS collidable (so if you do the sit-in-center trick you'll then collide with it and die). It zips around the screen for a while during which time if you're up around the top of the screen you risk collision with it but can deal damage to it fast using side shot and maybe a bomb if you have a large bomb stock. Its choice of moves it uses when it goes back to the center seems to be random but it will generally either:
A) while aiming at you, move forward and shoot a spray of bullets then move back
B) aim at you for a bit, then lock its angle and move down and up while shooting bullets at said angle
C) do a all-round shot that starts from the direction its facing and goes around
(more added here?)
Either way, quickkilling him is the best way to go as he has no destructable parts and you want the best multiplier score from his death you can get, I usually get around x8 on a good day but if you're quick and rapid enough with its first phase I reckon you could get x10.

Stage 3
TBA

Stage 4
TBA

Stage 5
TBA

Stage 6
TBA

Stage 7
TBA

Stage 8
TBA
Last edited by BPzeBanshee on Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by P_HAT »

BPzeBanshee wrote: have no emulated slowdown
Maybe we can ask devs about it? I played only PS2 port, so i have no idea how much slowdown are present in arcade/x360 version, but i like my enemies's bullets slow :P


Btw, this is really dumb, i know, but when my multilayer is 12 killing enemies with guns earn me x12 score or i must kill them with side-read attack to gain it?
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by trap15 »

There's very little slowdown originally anyways, it doesn't matter.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

P_HAT wrote: Btw, this is really dumb, i know, but when my multilayer is 12 killing enemies with guns earn me x12 score or i must kill them with side-read attack to gain it?
I tested this myself with the popcorn enemies at the very start of the game, and it appears that the multiplier applies to all kills once earned.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

trap15 wrote:There's very little slowdown originally anyways, it doesn't matter.
Seeing as I've died on stage 4 as a result of having my timing thrownoff by slowdown when playing and comparing between versions I'd say it does matter - but not as much as Cave bullet hells where the slowdown is the game and you have to completely change your strategy from the PCB version, per say. I'm listing it here purely as a matter of comparison between ports, if you play between versions you should be aware of it.

Glad someone could confirm that detail about the shot so I'll add that to the first post but I'm a bit suspicious about the powerup bonus. I spotted on Kiken's video contrary to the 1000 points listed he actually gets 1100 points, so I'm wondering if that's simply a bug or the multiplier affecting it. I'd very much like to get exact score values if possible for some of these things.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by Nifty »

BPzeBanshee wrote:Glad someone could confirm that detail about the shot so I'll add that to the first post but I'm a bit suspicious about the powerup bonus. I spotted on Kiken's video contrary to the 1000 points listed he actually gets 1100 points, so I'm wondering if that's simply a bug or the multiplier affecting it. I'd very much like to get exact score values if possible for some of these things.
They give 100 by default when picked up, the max bonus is +1000 rather than 1000 only. It's a fairly common shmup quirk actually.

One of the first things I noticed upon trying XIIZeal (on PC at least) is that it doesn't have the full-speed main gun autofire that the PS2 port did. However, the autowiggle on the PS2 (playing on emulator) seems to mess with the autofire somewhat, which in turn can be partially negated by holding down regular fire and autofire at the same time while spinning.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Ah, so you get 100 points outright for it and you get an additional 1000 points if you have max power! Thanks for the explanation Nifty, I'll add this to the thread as well.

The autofire quirks are different from the PS2 to the other ports, I noticed this pretty much instantly. The rapid side attack auto button on the 360 does it a lot faster than the PS2 version does and does not affect the autofire of the main shot at all iirc. I really need to get some sessions back into this game and I'll try to list more details about the PC port once I actually get paid this week and buy it.

By the way, the autofire included with the games (PC notwithstanding) is not as fast as it can be using standard shot button with an autofire circuit of some kind. Anyone that's watched the XII Stag superplay will notice the player has jacked the firerate up something shocking and the item generation is a lot faster as a result.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by Cee »

BPzeBanshee wrote:
By the way, the autofire included with the games (PC notwithstanding) is not as fast as it can be using standard shot button with an autofire circuit of some kind. Anyone that's watched the XII Stag superplay will notice the player has jacked the firerate up something shocking and the item generation is a lot faster as a result.
Interesting because a few years back i discovered the same using the Xiistag ship on dreamcast port of trizeal, you could map 3 auto fire buttons and holding them all at once would allow some crazy high fire rate that just eats through bosses.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by P_HAT »

Hm, interesting, i haven't yet played this port with HORI or MadCatz stick, but as far as i can remember autofire on PS2 was waaay better with hardware switch on stick.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by EmperorIng »

Does anyone know what triggers the aircraft spam "boss" in stage 4? I just get the repeat of the large plane again... with attitude!
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by Cee »

EmperorIng wrote:Does anyone know what triggers the aircraft spam "boss" in stage 4? I just get the repeat of the large plane again... with attitude!
You have to destroy the last part of the big ship with a 12x and before it gets to far up the screen.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Spotted something about the bomb shield. The invincibility shield on the bomb's duration is not always the same! Perhaps this is the cause of the unexpected bomb shield deaths a few folks have mentioned.

I suspect it may actually have a reduced duration time depending if you're versing a boss or not judging from Kiken's 1cc run and also this video where the bomb early on, on the lesser stage 2 boss lasts as long as the player when some of the bombs in Kiken's videos clearly do not. I suppose rather than specific boss fights it may be tied to some kind of rank but without some more tests that I don't have time to do I can't be sure.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by Despatche »

i actually have xiistag limited if anyone wants that piece of history. i used to have baroque shooting as well, dunno what i did with it...
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

Can anyone confirm if you get more points from thruster damage compared to main shot damage?
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Despatche wrote:i actually have xiistag limited if anyone wants that piece of history. i used to have baroque shooting as well, dunno what i did with it...
I had a copy of XII Stag Limited as well at some stage but not sure what I've done with it. Probably on the external HDD somewhere.

Fun fact: I've also got the files for the first XIIZeal incarnation for Windows Phone and it suggests the port wasn't handled by Fujino at all.
Title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights
in and to the Software shall remain to Eurosoft International Inc.

The Software is protected by international
copyright treaties.
Copyright 2002, 2005 Triangle Service
Windows Mobile conversion by Eurosoft International, Copyright 2007
Enough to make you question how much coding/aesthetic changes was actually his work and how much was Eurosofts, at least for this version.
cave hermit wrote:Can anyone confirm if you get more points from thruster damage compared to main shot damage?
EDIT: I tried this out in MAME for frame-by-frame comparison and thruster does 10 points per tick, each individual forward shot is 10 points also.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by HydrogLox »

Despatche wrote:i actually have xiistag limited if anyone wants that piece of history.
BPzeBanshee wrote:I had a copy of XII Stag Limited as well at some stage but not sure what I've done with it.
Triangle Service's download link is still active.
http://www.triangleservice.co.jp/html/x ... index.html

There is also a page that relates to the Pocket PC version:
http://www.triangleservice.co.jp/html/x ... index.html
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Just when I think I finally have some time for something like an ST thread more shenanigans pops up. If anyone wants to write up a piece let me know and I'll edit them into the first post because otherwise I'm not going to be able to touch this for months. :(
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

Here are the secrets and alt. enemy waves I know of:

Stage 2:

-After the initial waves of popcorn enemies, a pair of large airships with red eyeballs show up. Quickly killing them triggers a large wave of popcorn enemies randomly appearing from the top of the screen, along with the appearance of three gundam looking robots that pop up near the end of this bonus wave; note that the gundam robots hold shields which are considered destructible parts.

-Just before the boss, three fighter jets appear, followed by a trio of stealth bombers at the top of the screen, followed by a pair of stealth bombers at the bottom of the screen. Destroying the three fighter jets as soon as they appear on screen triggers an alt. wave where the stealth bombers appear spread out on completely different edges of the screen. The one time I triggered this I wasn't able to kill the stealth bombers and they left, leaving the screen empty for a noticeable period of time before the boss showed up. I would assume that if you can quickly kill the spread out stealth bombers you would trigger another wave of enemies for a nice boost to your score, but that's just speculation.

-If you have a 12x multiplier when the boss fight occurs, you'll face off against a much tougher red variant of the normal boss, which has denser, faster attack patterns and a few new attacks where it strafes along the top of the screen firing off green oblong bullets. (Triggering the red variant boss for the first time also gives you an achievement)

Stage 3:

-After the tank at the start of the level there's a highway with three tanks on it initially. Just as the highway begins to scroll off-screen a red sportscar will quickly zoom on it from right to left. The car is destructable, and you'll earn an achievement for destroying it, but I'm not sure what the point value is, and it's very risky to try and destroy it since you have to pay attention to the enemies appearing from the top of the screen.

Stage 4:

-If you destroy every destructable part on the giant battleship, your ship will quickly accelerate forward to a bonus fight against a slightly more aggressive version of the giant battleship you just destroyed. This battleship however scrolls off screen much quicker regardless of what you do.

Edit: someone on the steam forums pointed out that if you can destroy the entirety of this second battleship, a third one will show up, scrolling off screen even faster.

-If you destroy every destructable part on the giant battleship while holding a 12x multiplier your ship will accelerate forward to a bonus wave where medium sized fighter planes zoom in one at a time from the left and right alternatively (i.e: one ship appears from the left side, once you destroy it another copy appears from the right side, etc.). Be careful, they will fire at you, and you CAN crash into them. Several of these planes appear before the level ends.

Edit: It seems that once the last part of the battleship scrolls onto the screen you have a limited amount of time to finish destroying the battleship, or else neither event will trigger.

One of these bonus waves gives you an achievement, and I would assume the second wave with the fighter planes is more lucrative for score.

Stage 5:

-After the second stream of popcorn enemies, tanks will start zooming in from the top and bottom corners of the screen. Destroying every tank that appears triggers an alt. route where you move to a dense forest which is suddenly destroyed to reveal a massive fleet of tanks that shoot at you as they move down off screen. This is followed by a fairly weak miniboss.
You also get an achievement for meeting this miniboss.

Stage 6:

-Near the end of the stage, there's a pair of large turret cannons:
There's a medium sized ordinary looking plane on the right side of the screen, just in front of the platforms holding up the aforementioned turret cannons.
Once it scrolls into your view it'll immediately begin to move underneath the turret cannon platforms, but you can destroy it before it does so.
Destroying the plane is worth a base value of 10,000 points (not sure if your multiplier affects this)
You also get an achievement for destroying this plane.

General:

When your firepower is maxed out, power-ups give you bonus points instead (1000 points base value).
Your bomb stock maxes out at 5, and collecting another bomb when you already have 5 gives you 10,000 bonus points.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by CStarFlare »

cave hermit wrote:Stage 4:
-If you destroy every destructable part on the giant battleship while holding a 12x multiplier your ship will accelerate forward to a bonus wave where medium sized fighter planes zoom in one at a time from the left and right alternatively
Does it have to be all at 12x? I feel like I've probably never done that, but these ships usually come for me. I always just make sure to hit the last two turrets at 12x.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

To clarify, when you destroy the last part on the battleship, you need to have the 12x multiplier. You don't need to have a 12x multiplier for the entire stage.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I played some XIIZEAL tonight and got absolutely nowhere thanks to not having much feeling in my fingers (it's bloody cold in Adelaide atm). I did start to write a bit more details for the stage specifics though, currently only the first two stages I've got covered and no supporting pictures.

I've looked through a fair few runs and attempted runs of my own cave hermit and I haven't noticed anything special with those three jets at the end. Have you got a replay for this or is there perhaps a detail I'm missing here? If there's another Section with specific requirements I'd like to get it added once I get video/image footage of it.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

Unfortunately I don't think the replay I have up on the leaderboards triggers that section and to be honest I'm still not entirely sure how I triggered the swapped around stealth bombers.

As far as I can tell though, the swapped around stealth bombers are triggered by destroying the three fighter jets extremely quickly, like the very moment they appear.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by BPzeBanshee »

So just to clarify what precisely is different about them? Is it that they appear first and THEN the top three do so or is their movement different somehow? Generally I kill the lot pretty fast but there's potential for score if you have enough bombs.

Also regarding collidability of bosses, I've checked out the stage 2 boss from my own runs and replays and also found the stage 4 boss appears to be completely incollidable BUT they seem to have a stronger tendency to shoot or fire off a bullet, so it's a dangerous thing to do for extended periods of time anyway. The stage 1 boss I believe has destructable parts that are collidable but the base itself and its angry-face wings are not. Perhaps the Japanese site someone linked in the other thread that showed destructable parts schematics may cover this better in which case we need a translator to help us out. Hopefully I'll get some screenshots next time I've got some spare hours.
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

BPzeBanshee wrote:So just to clarify what precisely is different about them? Is it that they appear first and THEN the top three do so or is their movement different somehow? Generally I kill the lot pretty fast but there's potential for score if you have enough bombs.
So normally once you destroy the three jet planes, the 5 medium-grade enemies show up in the pattern you described.
However if you quick-kill the jet planes, the medium grade enemies show up in a different formation; I don't really remember the formation well since I only triggered this twice, but the medium grades were much more spread out.

I don't know what happens if you destroy the medium grades in this alt wave, but I would assume it would trigger another bonus wave.
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cave hermit
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

BPzeBanshee wrote:So just to clarify what precisely is different about them? Is it that they appear first and THEN the top three do so or is their movement different somehow? Generally I kill the lot pretty fast but there's potential for score if you have enough bombs.
So normally once you destroy the three jet planes, the 5 medium-grade enemies show up in the pattern you described.
However if you quick-kill the jet planes, the medium grade enemies show up in a different formation; I don't really remember the formation well since I only triggered this twice, but the medium grades were much more spread out.

I don't know what happens if you destroy the medium grades in this alt wave, but I would assume it would trigger another bonus wave.
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cave hermit
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by cave hermit »

Just discovered a new alternate route in stage 5: After the first stream of popcorn enemies and the wave of tanks/jetpack gunners, a second stream of popcorn enemies appears, right?

So I was attempting a non-wiggle credit, and at this second popcorn wave instead of side shotting the stream like I usually do when I use autowiggle, I just used my normal shot on the stream to save my wrist strain.

It seems that this somehow triggered an alt route where rolling tanks and other enemies quickly poured out from the bottom of the screen, followed by a narrow row of tank pairs!
HydrogLox
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by HydrogLox »

BPzeBanshee wrote:Perhaps the Japanese site someone linked in the other thread that showed destructable parts schematics may cover this better in which case we need a translator to help us out.
Just sticking this here so that it doesn't get lost:

Millenium Crisis XIISTAG Page
https://web.archive.org/web/20111113020 ... /main.html
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Arthandas
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Re: ST: XII STAG / XIIZEAL (WIP)

Post by Arthandas »

HydrogLox wrote:
BPzeBanshee wrote: Just sticking this here so that it doesn't get lost:

Millenium Crisis XIISTAG Page
https://web.archive.org/web/20111113020 ... /main.html
Awesome find, thanks for posting!

The site is actually still alive and offers detailed info on other shmups like Trizeal or Vasara:
http://3w.to/rydeen
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