Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Shepardus]

You can do it! As long as you're reaching stage 5 with enough lives in stock you can bomb through most of it and still have enough for the boss. Don't be afraid to use bombs in stages 3 and 4 either, it's better to get through safely using a bomb than to risk losing a bunch of bombs to a death. Use Leinyan or Shotia rather than Exy if you aren't already.

[Eaglet]

[Stevens]

I played so much Under Defeat today I should be covered in thick black smoke.

I fell short of my 3 million in the first loop twice by less than 30,000 and I knew immediately where I lost those points.

The last time this happened I had a full stock of ships on the final boss and I suicideed twice because I was certain I wasn't going to make the 2nd loop, except I did. And instead of a full stock of ships I had none.

I finished with 4,092,220, which is only 270,000 less than my high, but I reached it a full stage and a half sooner than in my previous best run.

I've decided I no longer give a shit about the 3 million in loop 1. I just want 5 million, and I know I can get it.

[Jonst]

You can do it! As long as you're reaching stage 5 with enough lives in stock you can bomb through most of it and still have enough for the boss. Don't be afraid to use bombs in stages 3 and 4 either, it's better to get through safely using a bomb than to risk losing a bunch of bombs to a death. Use Leinyan or Shotia rather than Exy if you aren't already.

Cheers! Yeah, this is it. I've got a fairly solid route through the game. I pretty much do most of what you've already said... I'm just inconsistent. Sometimes I make it in to stage 5 with a life in stock, sometimes 2, sometimes 3, then will die to stupid stuff! I've made it to the final boss a few times and died with about 5 bombs in stock! Hopefully I'll get it before Christmas!

EDIT: damn Stevens! It's never enough for you eh?! what will you do when there's literally nothing left to do on ud??

[Stevens]

damn Stevens! It's never enough for you eh?! what will you do when there's literally nothing left to do on ud??

Contrary to popular belief I do own other games:D!

Hopefully by the time I've gotten everything out of that game Grev or someone else will have released another helicopter shooter that builds on the formula.

I can dream right?

Actually I'll move onto Zero Gunner 2 and finally clear it proper.

[Blinge]

Kinda feel in the same boat atm tbh with Ikaruga. None of my good scoring runs have been without shitty mistakes here and there, my consistency isn't anywhere near what I want it to be.
The other day I knew I'd had enough when I choked and threw away a great run at the beginning of stage 5, something I should be doing in my sleep by now. Instead of the usual rage or trying again or w/e I was genuinely upset. That's time for a break if there ever was one.

[Squire Grooktook]

Spent some more time with Judgement Silversword on Hard. Not the first time I've played it, but I figured I should spend more time with it.

If Eschatos was designed to be a "normal stg" (quoth the developer), than I think JSS is definitely more bullet hell oriented. Patterns are denser, enemies are more difficult to preempt, and the shield seems to be more like a purely defensive tool than the offense/defense balancing act in Eschatos.

There was some talk about whether JSS had superior bosses to Eschatos or not. I kinda agree. Much like the rest of the game, they're more in your face with bullet patterns. A lot of bosses from the first half of Eschatos can be nulled pretty hard with smart shield use, whereas JSS forces you to just deal with difficult patterns. Danmaku is a rare treat in Eschatos and a constant presence in JSS, and I think these kinds of denser boss patterns make more sense for Qute/M-Kai's style, because the zakos are really a large part of Eschatos's unique aggressive style, and without them the boss fights need a bit more "oomph" to channel the same amount of intensity.

That being said, Eschatos's bosses are still great (especially the late game ones), so this is more like comparing Garegga to Batrider, with one being a 10 and the other being a 9.999.

Overall I like that the bullet patterns have that unique, Qute/M-Kai style fast dodging, but outside that the rest of the mechanics don't feel quite as unique as they do in Eschatos. The enemy movement is slightly more predictable and standard than the crazy zakos in Eschatos, and the offense/defense balance of Eschatos doesn't seem quite as developed in JSS. I think both games are relevant, with Eschatos being the main course and JSS being a simpler but "purer" game.

[Stevens]

Kinda feel in the same boat atm tbh with Ikaruga. None of my good scoring runs have been without shitty mistakes here and there, my consistency isn't anywhere near what I want it to be.
The other day I knew I'd had enough when I choked and threw away a great run at the beginning of stage 5, something I should be doing in my sleep by now. Instead of the usual rage or trying again or w/e I was genuinely upset. That's time for a break if there ever was one.

We are in exactly the same boat.

I did best my high score this morning by a little (and even though I said I didn't care I hit over 3 million in the 1st loop in the same run), but truthfully I should have stopped playing an hour before. On the other hand I ended on a positive note.

Prior to that there were many many stupid mistakes.

Keep at it Blinge, you'll get there.

[Stevens]

Went back to Zero Gunner 2 for a bit, since it's my 3rd week home from work. I changed the difficulty from normal back to the arcade default of 5, and lo and behold I reached the 1-6 boss on my 1st try.

It is kind of cool to see your skills evolve over time.

I'm still a ways off from a clear, have to practice 1-7 a lot.

Edit - And I just missed 5 million by 175,000 - or 1 quick kill of the 2-4 boss. So close..

[Shepardus]

Dodonpachi and Dodonpachi II: Bee Storm. Despite Bee Storm supposedly being a relatively easy clear I feel like I'm closer to a Dodonpachi 1-ALL than a 1cc of Dodonpachi II - I got to stage 6 in Dodonpachi once yesterday and once today (in today's run I no-missed the first four stages too and no-bombed the first three), while I've still yet to get past stage 5 in Bee Storm, and there's more stages in Bee Storm. I feel like I'm more comfortable with Dodonpachi's movement than Dodonpachi II's, though I can't quite put my finger on why. My (oftentimes failed) attempts to point-blank and graze in Dodonpachi II may be part of the reason, though I think the level design and bullet patterns are a bigger factor. Dodonpachi's bullet patterns are quite varied and very engaging to dodge regardless of whether I know what to expect or am improvising, one of CAVE's best in this regard from my experience. I like a lot of things about Bee Storm (energy mode ftw), but unfortunately its level design/bullet patterns isn't one of them. To me many of the bullet patterns feel very sluggish and only become difficult because the enemies have so much damn health that they inevitably crowd the screen unless you bomb (which fortunately isn't a bad thing to do in this game). It's still fun overall and it's got a cool style to it distinct from all the other Donpachi games, but it could have easily been even more with some extra polish here and there.

[Squire Grooktook]

Been playing some Batsuugan (NOT special) casually lately.

Solid game. I kind of want to really like it, being Toaplan's swan song, a fresh title that inspired many later danmaku games, and for standing on a bit of a balance between bullet hell and classic style. It doesn't seem that good though. There are some nice fights here and there (the second boss is brillaint), but a lot of stages feel a bit bland to me (doesn't seem to be a lot going on with enemy formations or placement), and there are a few parts that seem a bit long winded (various parts of the Saturn fight feel a bit drawn out). Solid game and worth playing for sure, but I don't think I can call it a favorite at the moment.

There's a second loop though right? Will have to see if that changes on loop 2.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Normal version is only one round.

It's special that has a second loop which starts at stage 2, then a third loop that starts at stage 3, then a 4th loop starting at stage 4, so you get to milk the stage 4 boss 4 times.

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^That's a shame. Maybe I'll try bumping up the difficulty dip switches and see what happens.

Speaking of, Broken Harbour mentioned a while back that he encountered "lightning fast bullets" in Batsuugan Special version, apparently due to difficulty settings being off. I tried it out myself on maxed settings in Mame, but it felt identical to regular Batsuugan Special. Maybe it was the Saturn version? Dunno, really would be interesting to play Batsuugan Special with Psikyo bullet speed.

[Gamer707b]

I finished MGS 5 a week ago so Im looking forward to going back to Layer Section. At this point I just want to finish it,(don't enjoy it too much) so that I can get Souky on my Saturn. That game just looks SO juicy. My birthdays coming soon. Might tell the wife to get me it.

[Immryr]

Been playing judgement silversword the last few days. It's a real fun game, but a bit frustrating to practice. For one thing all of the mashing means I can generally only play two credits back to back before I have to give up, secondly I haven't yet unlocked many of the stage selects so I'm just playing from the start.

I havent managed to 1cc it on easy yet, the area 30 boss keeps killing me. I feel like I could clear it pretty quickly if I could practice the boss a little so I've switched to playing on normal to unlock things quicker. Most runs have been crapping out around area 26 so far.

[drunkninja24]

Friend of mine picked up Crimzon Clover on a whim last week, so I decided to give it a go for the first time in a few months....and ended up making it all the way to the Stage 5 boss in arcade mode, further than I have before. Now I'm glued again trying to finally snag an Arcade Original 1CC (with Type Z but still). I've gotten to TLB, but always seem to screw up somewhere stupid during the course of the run and not have resources to deal with shit when it really counts.

On a related note, I've also broken my months old score records twice in the last week at least

But damn, I want that 1CC, I'm gonna fucking snag it if its the last thing I do lol

Also, does anyone know what triggers the text bits just before entering the building in Stage 5? Gotten it a few times but can't pin down what makes it happen: http://imgur.com/52ZCQ90

[Shepardus]

I believe whether the text appears and which version appears is random.

Still playing Bee Storm. I'm not sure why people say this is an easy clear, I'm having a lot more trouble with it than Dodonpachi. I just can't deal with games that don't give a lot of lives, and Bee Storm only gives you a total of four. I feel like if I make a mistake anywhere, whether it's accidentally tapping myself into a bullet as I try to get some graze (happens way too often), or getting point-blanked by an enemy I thought I could seal, or colliding with an enemy, the run's good as over... What's especially frustrating is that it often feels like the bullets are just sitting there and I'm the one running into them, rather than the other way around.

[cave hermit]

I've been playing Darius Gaiden; since I started using auto-fire my average performance has improved dramatically.

I just completed the game using only one continue at the start of stage V; I lost the last life of my initial credit to OCD suddenly demanding I touch my ship to the top and bottom edges of the screen, which ended with me colliding into the octopus mid-boss as it showed up on screen :/

Ignoring that, I'm sure I can get the 1CC soon...

[Moonwalker]

Fighting with Ibara atm but getting raped by the bitch. Typical addictive love/hate relationship...

[Jonst]

Fighting with Ibara atm but getting raped by the bitch. Typical addictive love/hate relationship...

Been there! Although it's mostly love on my part.

[Moonwalker]

Yeah same here, the brutality is making some hatred though. I am still too weak I guess...

[Jonst]

^ every year I go back to it, Fucks me up every time, even playing low rank gets rough! I'd be happy even with an arrange mode clear... One day.

[cave hermit]

Put another credit into Darius Gaiden: got up to Risk Storage with 2 or so lives; managed to reach Risk Storage's second to last attack phase (with the grey goo torpedos and giant green orbs).

Just gotta keep at it...

[Stevens]

Mushi Futari 1.5 original/maniac to break up my failing at Under Defeat.

It's nice to play something you don't know inside out.

[Jonst]

^ nice one Stevens!

I should be getting fast striker out the way, after coming close too many times a couple of years back. Instead, despite everything that pissed me off with ddp doj bl, I find myself playing white label?! It's like I don't hate it as much as I tell myself I do...

[horaceappleton]

Taking a break from Phantasmagoria Trues (Terminus scoring is silly) & finally looking into Crimzon Clover. It seems like one of those games that's more and more engaging every time you play it again. Credit-feeding Unlimited has really helped with memorization for Original, oddly. If I start taking it seriously, I think I want the Unlimited clear.

But soon I'll have a Saturn Action Replay cart, if Play-Asia ever actually delivers it, & it'll be back to Garegga full time probably.

[Jonst]

Played some fast striker tonight. It all came back pretty quick, managed to start hitting the final boss by my third credit. I don't see it taking too long, provided I stop making ridiculous mistakes by playing too cocky... I had fun with it though. Hopefully I can squeeze another clear before Christmas!

[Stevens]

I'm not surprised! Fast Striker Original only took me a few days to clear. I would love to give Maniac a serious try one day but without a training mode it would take some time.

[Jonst]

Yeah, I feel it shouldn't take too long but I bet it takes me more than a couple of days!... For me, it's kind of like espgaluda. The whole game is no problem, it's just holding it all together for the final boss... It does have some tricky parts at the end, so I need resources!

[Stevens]

The Guardian isn't too bad. There is some help with him below if you want it. This is also presuming you haven't figured it out too:D

Spoiler

His 4th and 5th patterns (when he is on the left side of the screen) can be avoided completely if you are on the same side. Doesn't seem to work when he is on the right side.

The last boss (tower thing) is also not too bad with the exception of that red spewie pattern he spits out after he leaves and comes back. I've seen people dodge it and it does end, but that seems to be more of a scoring thing.

You want to know what annoys me the most about Fast Striker? The fact that it clearly shows that NG DEV can release a solid, bug free, shooter on the DC.