Played this today, 1CC'd all 4 modes with Arashi.
It's got the feel of a Toaplan game, albeit with a much more forgiving hitbox and lots of resources at your disposal. The medal system is pretty fun to level up by collecting coins first, though getting it all the way to Rank 10 wasn't quite as rewarding as I hoped it would suddenly be in terms of score! Standard is quite easy as expected, got the 1CC with Makoto on first attempt. Expert took a couple of tries to learn the finer points of bombing, but once you realize bombs last forever (like 4 secs of invuln), you can use them to pointblank rush stuff down and throw your sheer resources at bosses.
Somewhat disappointed I had to setup rapid fire for this: it has a shot + focus button, but you do way, WAY more damage unfocused for all shot types vs holding focus. It's trying to be anti-CAVE in a sense I suspect, but what happens is you realize you can hold shot and tap focus now and then to overlap both shots for even more damage, and then you're using doubleshot all day long aside from the occasional focus to precisely dodge something (or using just normal shot to collect coins and build medal meter). The tapping speed needed to keep the overlap shots going isn't too bad, especially as Arashi though, but I'm still lazy and setup a rapid fire script for this.
Arashi in particular is broken with the double overlapping shots as his focus shot is decently strong, and his pointblanking with his main shot is ridiculously powerful. The setup I used for rapid fire via AutoHotKey:
z - bomb
x - focus
c - shot
this AutoHotKey script makes c into focus doubleshot, plus makes v a normal shot button for gaining coins
v::c
~*c::
While GetKeyState("c","P")
If GetKeyState("x","P")
{
Send {x down}
}
else
{
Send {x down}
Sleep 1
Send {x up}
Sleep 100
}
return
The character ratings in the selection screen are mostly lies:
• Makoto: Has about the same damage at long range as Axel and Arashi with overlapped shot + focus shots.
• Axel: Good damage even without focus shot, no spread except at medium range with focus shot.
• Arashi: Worst attack rating of all characters in selection screen,
best attacker in the game. Massive spread and has the most damage gain from using overlapping shot + focus due to having the strongest focus shot. Normally focus shot alone is tricky to use as it has a long gap between shots, but by overlapping it, you fill the screen with shuriken and cancel all coins into medals easily by hitting them with giant focus shuriken. Highest bomb damage in the game due to having the highest pointblank damage during bomb. Only downside is that insane movespeed during bosses is tricky to learn to control, but with good bombing you can basically resource your way to the clear by bombing through the tight patterns. Even when not bombing, hitting with his middle line of shuriken + giant shuriken seems to match Makoto and Axel for raw damage at long range.
• Karin: Highest attack rating of all characters but actually has second worst damage in game due to receiving almost no boost from overlapping shot + focus. Minimal pointblanking bonus when bombing means bosses take a while, stages are tricky due to lower damage, etc... probably the hardest character to clear with.
• Amelia: Even lower damage than Amelia. She's pretty much the same as Karin, except her normal shot is slightly weaker but far better at sheer coverage during stages when at high power. She might be better than Karin is for clearing due to the extra shot spread (her shots spread out as wide as Arashi but with less damage in total), but has the longest boss fights to deal with. Even when on top of enemies with all shots hitting her damage is a far cry from Arashi.
That was fast!
