Gunbird

[Lyv]

We have a 1,603,500 score on the french forums, if you want something to shoot for.

In any case, congrats, you've been ripping through those games recently!

[Vludi]

Much appreciated Lyv and thanks for the info, good to know that more people play this game.


Video

Yuan Nang
Vludi - 1,650,300 - ALL - 1P - No - Mame (World)

Got lucky and didn't get the train stage in the loop, although I still did a major mistake (dying in Mines boss with 5 bombs). Nevertheless I'm pretty satisfied with this run

[GeekMan1222]

Finally got a 1cc woot

Marion
Geekman1222/DMC - 705,800 - 2-1 - 1P Side - No Auto - PCB

[Despatche]

All these loops on the board make me feel like I really screwed up somewhere.

[EmperorIng]

Time for a little activity inbetween my Sengoku Ace practice. First time ever triggering the extend, and first time I made it so far on a single credit. Unfortunately I had panic-bombed too much on 1-5 to make it deep into 1-6 (the sarcophagus boss got me).

Imagine my joy when that three pillar midboss makes an appearance in Gunbird. Fuck you asshole, I've been savestate-practicing your bullshit in Sengoku Ace. Can't trick me twice.

Marion
EmperorIng - 448,500 - 1-6 - 1P - YES - Switch

[Square_Air]

Marion
Square_Air - 1,402,300 - ALL - 1P - Yes - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Japan)

Video

:^)

[Jaimers]

Marion
Jaimers - 1,451,300 - ALL - 1P - Yes - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Japan)

Video

[Maurener]

Valnus
Maurener - 1,695,700 - ALL - 1P - No - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Japan)

VID

[Despatche]

Holy shit.

[CRI]

La Calice Cup Score
Marion
CRI - 841,300 - 2-2 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Japan)

Spoiler

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Tetsu
BareKnuckleRoo - 728,400 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMAME 4.2

Pleasantly surprised to have beaten the first loop in Calice Cup. Tetsu's bomb is ridiculously slow on startup but you can plan its uses and pretty much flatten all bosses with it. His charge shot is pretty much useless but his actual main shot itself is quite potent. Low move speed and slow, unsafe bomb makes him a major liability in the loop I presume.

[DenT4F]

Yuan Nang
DenT4F - 804,400 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMame v4.2


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9ehy016fE


Was very surprised and pleased to clear this during Calice Cup earlier this year... friendly competition is a great motivator!

[Lags]

Yuan Nang
Lags - 782,800 - 2 -1 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMAME v4.2


Very cool game. Might explore second loop some more.

Valnus - 1,695,700 - ALL
VID

Fantastic run, wow.

[EmperorIng]

A new personal best! I'm doing fairly well for a version of the game without save-states or practice... Just grind out every version of the first three stages till you are a master.

First time making it to the stage 1-6 boss. I actually was taking a number of these later bosses/midbosses slow, not focusing on firing (other than my charge shot). This way I was more trying to learn how the patterns looked and how to dodge them rather than scrambling to kill the bosses asap. That being said, I really messed up on 1-5's boss, dying to the two mini heads because I got confused and out of position for their simultaneous spreadshot. It was forced to use two bombs which did me no favors for the next stage. I can't remember specifically but I might have died again messing up on the tombstone midboss.

I need to learn the patterns for the three Trump ships right before 1-5's boss. I get nervous and panic-bomb there when Rogue's two appendages fly towards you and start shooting.

Marion
EmperorIng - 522,400 - 1-6 - 1P - YES - Switch



I wish I could have made it to the skull or dragon variant...

[EmperorIng]

I'm slowly getting my way there. I'm so close to the 1ALL now.

EDIT: DISREGARD, SEE NEW SCORE BELOW
Marion
EmperorIng - 632,200 - 1-7 - 1P - YES - Shmupmame 4.2 (Japan)



Decided to switch to shmupmame for this practice session on ricky's suggestion. I'm doing about the same, performance-wise, so I don't know (yet) if I can blame my deaths on Switch lag!

I might have gotten the worst RNG on the 1-6 boss yet in this run. I first got the mech or golem, which is by far the hardest boss of the first phase. Then I got stuck with the Tanuki, which had me scrambling with a panic bomb. Then, after the Tanuki blew up, 5 orbs showed up at the top of the screen and rammed me, dropping me by one power level. Then the dragon showed up! I was keeping to the strategy to kill him safely (at the sound of the roar start moving left or right without stopping) but with my weakened power and the dragon's erratic movement, a slip up due to nerves was inevitable and I got a bad death in. I was slightly out of position for the final phase of the Trump trio.

Can't wait to break through this! I got some save-states to practice this last rough patch. However, the choice of what stage I get for 1-3 can really impact my bomb usage. I am resigning myself to the reality that I -will- need to bomb at the Train stage with the two rows of house turrets. And that I -will- need to bomb at least once for the Castle boss, or the mine boss's first form. Too risky otherwise. To say nothing of the train stage boss at 1-3, in which I might panic bomb twice.

[EmperorIng]

YES! FINALLY! Got so nervous that I couldn't even enter my name properly. A 1ALL with Marion!

EmperorIng - 784,000 - 2-1 - 1P - YES - Shmupmame 4.2 (Japan)



And a video of it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlJTAY-opQ8

A no-miss until the final fight with Rouge, Claude, and Ace on 1-7. Lost another life to Atler because I couldn't figure out the point-blank strategy, but I managed to hang on and enter the loop with a life and some bombs to spare! I wasn't prepared for the insanity of a loop 2 boss though. This game is so good (at least its first loop!).

I'll be working on trying to improve this score tomorrow, but I felt the need to share!
EDIT: I think it'll take a while to improve on this score, based on my two other 1alls!

[EmperorIng]

Still no 800k, but I am soooooo close. A new personal best came roaring out of tonight's practice session though, so it was a good way to end the night.

Marion
EmperorIng - 799,700 - 2-1 - 1P - YES - Shmupmame 4.2 (Japan)



https://www.twitch.tv/videos/564275932

I am pretty happy with capturing this footage because
a) this showcases a different set of levels than I usually get or have recorded (castle > forest > train)
b) this video also has a guest appearance of the rare tanuki boss on 1-6, whom I have only seen a handful of times in all my practice.

[EmperorIng]

It finally happened! One week of practice later and I managed to break past the 2-1/800k ceiling, in style! BREAKIN' ON THROUGH TO THE TOP 5 BABY

Marion
EmperorIng - 882,400 - 2-2 - 1P - YES - Shmupmame 4.2 (Japan)



Video
I'll work on a youtube upload later... EDIT: Here it is!

This run saw me get impeccable luck, and I was able to react to a variety of circumstances in an advantageous way. First, I got a 'golden' stage order: Train > Castle > Forest. Not only did this mean I wouldn't limp into loop 2 with the dreaded train or castle stage as my first, but I got those stages out of the way early on so as not to use a precious bomb. Secondly, getting the mine stage as 2-1 was a real stroke of luck, as it's easily the least difficult of the four stages in its second loop. Third, getting a no-bomb until 1-6 meant that I snagged two 10k max bomb bonuses.

Man, I am so glad I managed this. I was already giving up hope that I'd pull it off. Lots of failed attempts even with save-state practice.

[Battletoad]

Yuan-Nang
Battletoad - 784,100 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - Steam

Finally another Psikyo 1-ALL (after I struggled quite heavily on Strikers 1 and 2). Have been playing this a lot since it was released on Steam this monday.

Yesterday evening I was really pissed at myself for dying at the final boss when he barely had any HP left. Then after a short break I gave it another go, died on stage 2 (!), but kept going to clear it.
I think I don't care for the 2nd loop here. I'd still like to improve my score a little bit and try out the other characters.

I barely played Gunbird 1 in my active shmup days, it's a really great game. GB2 still improved a lot, but thankfully GB1 is much easier. Almost a relaxed experience for a Psikyo shmup.

Spoiler

Unfortunately I can't really post another picture because there's no "local" leaderboard when you're playing score attack mode on Steam.

[Battletoad]

Yuan-Nang
Battletoad - 820,900 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - Steam
https://imgur.com/9iS1jHy

Valnus
Battletoad - 825,900 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - Steam
https://imgur.com/cfswyTy

[EmperorIng]

nice work! How does the steam port feel to you?

[Battletoad]

Yuan-Nang
Battletoad - 909,400 - 2-2 - 1P - Yes - Steam

https://imgur.com/b26Plx1

Yes! Finally finished the first loop with any spare lives (even two of them) and reached stage 2-2 for the first time.
Thankfully stage 2-1 was the castle stage, so probably an easier one of the bunch.

I mostly feel comfortable with the first loop now. I just suck hard at the dragon boss, never killed him without throwing at least one bomb AND losing at least one life. I roughly know what I have to do, I just can't (yet).

I'm really happy with this run and score though! I'm probably going to 1-ALL it with Marion and Tetsu as well some time. Ash is crap.

nice work! How does the steam port feel to you?

Thank you!

It plays absolutely fine from what I can tell. And it feels awesome on my rotatable PC monitor. The steam port is probably just like the Switch port (which I haven't played, but others say so), with added online leaderboards.

I don't know about input lag, it seems to be fine/minimal. Depends on your setup of course. Only a few times I died thinking that I had panic-bombed just in time, but that could simply be me getting older. ^^

There is some weird stuff like the options menu being in YOKO even when you're playing the game in TATE. And the separation between normal mode and score attack is a bit odd. Score attack is where you have to achieve scores for the online leaderboards. It plays like normal, it is just fixed on default difficulty 5 and no continues allowed. If you get a new highscore on normal mode, you can't upload it to the online leaderboards in hindsight - even when playing on default difficulty and without continues. But otherwise I have no complaints at all.

A practice mode would have been nice, but the game is so short that it doesn't bug me much. You can still creditfeed the later stages to play them over and over again.

[Battletoad]

Some clears from the last days. Even Ash isn't as bad as I thought, besides his delayed bomb.

Marion
Battletoad - 844,300 - 2-2 - 1P - Yes - Steam

Ash
Battletoad - 755,600 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - Steam

https://imgur.com/k5pLi2H

Also got a slight improvement with Yuan-Nang, but maybe I can break 1 million with her. I can still improve my score or save bombs on some midbosses in loop 1.

[Klatrymadon]

Nice work, mate! It's interesting that you find Ash pretty bad - I don't like using him either, and favour Yuan-Nang, but his main shot always feels like the strongest in the game. His charge attack often takes too long to be useful, but it's mitigated by how quickly he mows everything down with the standard shot, I think. Valnus and Tetsu are the ones I find slightly underpowered compared to the rest (although Valnus' punch is devastating, of course), which is a shame because they're both really likeable.

Edit: Maurener's Valnus run is incredible! I guess the trick is to play him very aggressively.

[Battletoad]

Yes, I gotta agree Ash's standard shot is pretty strong. That makes up for some of his weaknesses. Yet in general I just hate the idea of delayed bombs in Psikyo games. Like Gennai or Koyori in the Sengoku series.

Valnus is not underpowered at all for my taste, like you probably saw in that replay.
Not only is his special attack very powerful, but the lasers also give you great crowd control. And his movement speed is alright. He is my second favourite character after Yuan-Nang and yeah, he's really likeable, too.
His damage output seems better than Marion's to me. He just can't do that point blank trick at all.

[Battletoad]

Yuan-Nang
Battletoad - 1,063,200 - 2-4 - 1P - Yes - Steam

Almost ashamed to break the 1 million mark like this.
The 2nd loop performance was hilarious and stupid (I still don't have nearly enough practice there), but if you want to watch it, here you go:

https://youtu.be/uUQSel_vbYY

After a solid 1st loop I got the castle stage as 2-1. I can usually get through it pretty well (except for the boss), but died a very stupid death to a robot that I could have killed way earlier and more aggressively. Lost 4 bombs, too. Without those bombs the castle boss just destroyed me.

On the other hand, the mine stage (2-2) was fine and I got through the jungle (2-3) with lots of luck.

I've had several better runs overall. This was just the first time without the dreaded train stage in the 2nd loop, so hooray for me.

Some slight improvements with the others:

Valnus
Battletoad - 886,400 - 2-2 - 1P - Yes - Steam

Ash
Battletoad - 761,600 - 2-1 - 1P - Yes - Steam

https://imgur.com/T6cfu9X
https://imgur.com/mDsrRd1

[third_strike]

It's been a while since last time which I cleared a game. Something tells me I'm going to get beaten up a lot in this game, but it doesn't hurt to try. Or it do?

Valnus
Third_strike - 1,156,500 - 2-2 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMame v4.2 (Japan)

Edit:
Third_strike - 1,313,400 - 2-3 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMame v4.2 (Japan)


Edit:
Third_strike - 1,625,000 - 2-6 - 1P - Yes - ShmupMame v4.2 (Japan)
Notes: 1.03M and 1 miss in1st loop; no train in 2nd loop.

[EmperorIng]

damn, crazy fast progress so far man! I'm envious

[third_strike]

Thank you!
But as I said before it was pure luck because the train stage didn't come. I haven't had that luck anymore, so my runs always end at this stage as I don't know how to get past it.

Just like in Samurai Aces, the first stage you play has a 90% chance of appearing in the second loop. I always start with the train stage then it always comes on the second loop and kills me. It takes a lot of resources to get past the train stage with Valnus, because the weak shot and low lasting bomb. I will need upping my skills to the next level to beat this game.

[wiNteR]

I don't quite understand it. Is this game different from other (or perhaps later?) Psikyo games in that the first three stages are different between first and second loop? If so, which other Psikyo games do this?

Because normally in a number of other Psikyo games while the initial three stages are randomized (though it seems to be controllable with a save state), the same exact three stages appear in the next loop (and in the same order too).