Perikles - 1,616,900 - ALL - Yes - Gun Hohki
Video
Very satisfied with this run (glorious error on the initials notwithstanding). Died once in the first loop (on the second form of the final boss which oftentimes gets me), managed to pull myself together for most of the second loop before I mistimed one invincibility twirl (I put up the important survival information in the video description, you
have to know how this works in order to beat both loops) and died twice on the final stage, but managed to prevail in the fortress despite a tiny mistake that could've been disastrous. Died once on the easy final form of the final boss, but it didn't matter thanks to my heroic efforts beforehand. I know I'm theoretically able to clear the game without dying once, that requires quite a bit of execution, though, which is not my strong suit.
Anyway, in case anyone is interested to know how the scoring works, here is what I found out:
Depending on the number of crystals you pick up during the stage you'll get a corresponding bonus. And these are substantial: you can start the second level with as low as 60,000 points or as high as 110,000+ points, it's a world of difference. It's not always enough to just shoot down every enemy, there are some special preparations to make in the process.
If you really want to get the highest reward possible you must be careful where you finish off bosses. This is especially important with the first one: if he's mostly off-screen when he dies you'll get not much of a reward, if you wait enough for a sufficient amount of time and manipulate him correctly, he'll give a vast guerdon. I didn't really bother to learn it, but I probably should've, even though it worked out fine as is.
There are a lot of secret spots scattered throughout where you get a random amount of crystals when using the charge shot. Sometimes they come in form of a pentagram, or they constitute the word "Wink", or they are goblet-shaped (among a few others). Sometimes it just rains and you get nothing out of it, I have no idea how it works. I'm assuming there are a lot more of these in the game, I only found three in the first stage and two in the fifth.
The slimes in the second stage merge into larger specimen if you let them live long enough, rewarding patient players with more crystals. There are also the mimic enemies which elude me a bit: I think they always (?) drop three crystals, but the size thereof might be random, or dependent on some arcane factors.
At any rate, this game is a masterpiece. Just to think that this is a game where you can constantly render yourself invulnerable and it's neither broken nor easy (Japanese wiki lists a 2-ALL with a lofty amount of 40 (!) points although I do think that's exaggerated), the guys at Irem were truly masters of their craft. I also wonder how the overall experience might change with a different mean of controlling the character. I'm not one to debate about the advantages and disadvantages of different input devices, but I do wonder how hard or easy it would be to pull off the twirls with a stick or a keyboard. It took me a little while to get used to it, but I think my Xbox 360 pad I always use for these arcade games worked perfectly for this task.
While Irem games all have a tendency to maintain a perfect equilibrium of control and chaos, trusting the player's ability to flawlessly ride on the proverbial razor blade, I feel like Gun Hohki excels at this even moreso than some of their other games. The fortress section in the second loop is simply outstanding, if you invest the time to study its inhabitants you can rush through it and wreak havoc with your broom and main shot – but if you hesitate you'll get overwhelmed in no time at all. And if you die you lose a few precious seconds whilst waiting for your protagonist to spawn again, only worsening the situation.
11/2-5 boss is pure bliss. Your window of time for the twirl is minimal when he rams you head-on, I'm immensely glad I could show off a successful manoeuvre. He telegraphs his attacks just enough to where you can consistently dodge him when you know what's coming, but you always have to be on your feet as to which pattern he picks next. Brilliant. I actually unlearnt to do this in the first loop, guy's just too slow there.
My only gripes are the second boss on loop 2 (it's a gigantic pain in the ass to "deactivate" the right stones, this bastard loves to screw you over) and the turtle rush on stage 12/2-6 where you have to mash the twirl no matter what you do. Other than that I'd call it pretty much perfect for what it is. Considering that the scoring system is a lot more interesting than in most other Irem games (as much as I love Irem I'm not going to learn the art of masterful checkpoint milking) I'm startled how little activity this game receives.