"Euroshmups" overly logical?

[WelshMegalodon]

That isn't true when checkpoints are involved, but I see your point.

[MathU]

I'm not familiar enough with the Darius series to know offhand, but I am curious: are the games at least theoretically playable/beatable without utilizing the shield? I recall seeing a Gaiden superplay some time ago where certain patterns struck me as nigh-undodgeable...

Almost everything in Gaiden can be dodged except for a few attacks that get really obscene at high adaptive difficulty levels--but those ones can generally be avoided with clever manipulation of boss health so that you kill them fast or time the initiation of an attack phase change so they don't get the chance to use them. There's only one attack in the game that almost demands one come with a shield or use a bomb because it's so fast and randomized. One thing to keep in mind in various Darius games is that a shield often increases your collision zone. Attacks that seem unavoidable with a full shield often aren't without one because the hitbox difference is so significant. Anyone know of any euroshmups with this sort of shield-size nuance?

[d0s]

They were more interested in creating a flashy momentary distraction for glue huffing teens than the intricacies of arcade gameplay, OP

once europeans figured out you could do that without any gameplay and invented the demo scene things got a lot better

[BIL]

It's true. I sniffed so much fuckin airplane glue from the post office between rounds of Squidgy The Space Faggot, BITD... :[ (we needed lifebars to compensate for the brain damage... and now I'm fucking sterile!! )

(you AMERICUNTS probably know him as "Marvin The Space Meatball," lmao - owned!)