GD: Darius Gaiden

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sikraiken
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by sikraiken »

CStarFlare wrote:Bump for game breaking question:

The Japanese Darius Wiki notes an invincibility glitch
Invincible technique
Sometimes ship becomes invincible state by a certain behavior.
Score summary of this work by this phenomenon is discovered had been aborted.
It sounds like this can be purposely activated. Anyone know how?
I made a video and added some information in the description:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-k61OP-Ag
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CStarFlare
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by CStarFlare »

Thanks!
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Shepardus
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Shepardus »

Turns out that searching for info about Darius Gaiden rank in Japanese (ダライアス外伝 ランク) brings up a lot more useful information than the same phrase in English. The first result I found on Google was this page, which has a bunch of specifics gleaned from watching memory on the PS2 port. It seems to be incomplete but it's a lot more than I've found anywhere else. Other results I found on the first page of search results didn't have specific values but corroborated the general ideas about what increases rank, namely:
  • Time
  • Shooting (each time you press the shot button - holding it counts as one press, including in Darius Gaiden Extra)
  • Destroying full waves (getting the formation bonus)
  • Destroying boss parts
  • Powerups (more if you're at full power)
These factors are scaled by the overall difficulty setting (normal by default) as well as the per-stage difficulty setting (the setting that says 3 for stage 1, 7 for stage 2, etc.). Starting rank is determined by the overall difficulty setting. Dying lowers rank by a small percentage (1/16). Rank affects the usual stuff like bullet density and speed, and also enemy speed and number of enemies. I think it also affects boss and midboss HP - not sure about the bosses, but high rank makes it significantly harder to capture midbosses.

The memory value given on that site is for the PS2 version, but I found the location for PCB/MAME. For both world and Japan versions it's the three bytes starting at 0x40887B, and for Darius Gaiden Extra (which is different for some reason) it's 0x40B4F5. Here are some MAME cheats to watch the rank:

Darius Gaiden:

Code: Select all

<cheat desc="Watch Game Rank">
  <script state="run">
    <output line="1" format="Rank: %x">
      <argument>maincpu.pb@(40887B)</argument>
    </output>
    <output line="2" format="Counter: %x">
      <argument>maincpu.pw@(40887C)</argument>
    </output>
  </script>
</cheat>

<cheat desc="Set Rank">
  <parameter min="0x00" max="0xF8" step="0x08"/>
  <script state="change">
    <action>maincpu.pb@(40887B)=(param)</action>
  </script>
</cheat>
Darius Gaiden Extra:

Code: Select all

<cheat desc="Watch Game Rank">
  <script state="run">
    <output line="1" format="Rank: %x">
      <argument>maincpu.pb@(40B4F5)</argument>
    </output>
    <output line="2" format="Counter: %x">
      <argument>maincpu.pw@(40B4F6)</argument>
    </output>
  </script>
</cheat>

<cheat desc="Set Rank">
  <parameter min="0x00" max="0xF8" step="0x08"/>
  <script state="change">
    <action>maincpu.pb@(40B4F5)=(param)</action>
  </script>
</cheat>
I'll add cheats to set the rank when I come back to this tomorrow. I'll also try to verify the findings on that page since I haven't yet confirmed anything except that the value at the specified memory location increases by 21 every frame in stage 1, which is consistent with what the page says.

EDIT: Updated the cheats to include ones for setting the rank. Also, I found out that what I read before wasn't a mistranslation as I thought it was - the game actually adds to rank each time you press the shot button, not each time you shoot. Holding the shot button counts as one press, even in Darius Gaiden Extra. This seems like it was intended to punish/balance autofire usage, but the difference isn't all that massive. Destroying boss parts is still a much bigger influence on rank. In order, I think the biggest contributors to rank are:
  • Destroying boss parts
  • Picking up powerups when at full power (this includes shields when you're at maximum durability but not maximum upgrade level)
  • Getting score bonuses (destroying full waves, capturing midbosses, etc... basically anything that pops up with a number when you perform the action)
  • Picking up powerups (including silver score shields, gold shields, and extend items) when not at full power (each is similar in magnitude to score bonuses but there aren't as many powerups as there are waves)
  • Survival time and pressing the shot button (not sure yet if this should be higher on the list, but there's nothing you can do about the former at least)
Dying lowers rank but only by a pitiful amount...
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copy-paster
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by copy-paster »

Is there a effective strategy to defeat Crusty Hammer (all incarnations) and Storm Causer?

Videos are welcome, I'm bit lazy to searching right now.
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CHI
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by CHI »

copy-paster wrote:Is there a effective strategy to defeat Crusty Hammer (all incarnations) and Storm Causer?

Videos are welcome, I'm bit lazy to searching right now.
I'm guessing you're still at it with Extra Player 2 Side :!:
Anyways, check this replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hetc0CSMX2U
Me and the others find this very using, enjoy :mrgreen:
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GeekMan1222
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by GeekMan1222 »

I enjoyed this, I keep coming back to this game and Espgaluda 2 over the past few months. I been playing all up but the stage 3 boss really does me a number, I can usually make it to stage four but the damage is already done and its practically a game over lol. Thanks for the guide. The rank explanation was useful info!
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Blinge
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Blinge »

Great work on the rank stuff Shep.

Anyone got advice for the latter half of K zone? It's a bloody nightmare. I can barely see what's hitting me from all angles. :|
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Furtin72
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Furtin72 »

Lots of great informations for a noob like me! Thanks so much everyone!!!

Edit: Since its not mentioned, is bombing influencing the rank in any way?
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EmperorIng
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by EmperorIng »

IIRC, bomb stock doesn't seem to affect rank other than its role in destroying boss parts - in which doing so (with shot or bomb) will increase rank regardless.
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Furtin72
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Furtin72 »

EmperorIng wrote:IIRC, bomb stock doesn't seem to affect rank other than its role in destroying boss parts - in which doing so (with shot or bomb) will increase rank regardless.
Ugh - its a trap!
:P
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ubersaurus
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by ubersaurus »

Dredging up this topic for a question: I've got the US Saturn release of this game and cannot get any of the button codes to work - autofire, extra continues, extra difficulty levels, etc.

Were these taken out or changed when the game was brought stateside?
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copy-paster
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by copy-paster »

ubersaurus wrote:Dredging up this topic for a question: I've got the US Saturn release of this game and cannot get any of the button codes to work - autofire, extra continues, extra difficulty levels, etc.

Were these taken out or changed when the game was brought stateside?
I haven't tried out Saturn port, but I'm pretty sure the codes also work in US release. Maybe there's something wrong on your controller, or you input the code incorrectly.
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

They should still work. Keep in mind that this autofire code supposedly doesn't increase rank the same way that using autofire on the arcade version does, so the game will be significantly easier this way. This is on top of the fact that on Saturn the rank rises a bit too slow in general. Playing on Mame or Darius Cozmic (after the major patch) will be the only really accurate way to play this game. Otherwise the Saturn port is pretty nice.
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

I'm at the point where I've already cleared the game on one life with close to 11M points so I'm just looking to improve my routes and get more consistent. I want to eventually get to 12M plus.

One of the things I'm noticing more and more as I get better is how much your position with regards to height has an effect on enemy spawns. This is true of all kinds of enemies from the little popcorn to midbosses and even some bosses.

The game illustrates this for you at the very first popcorn enemies of stage 1. If you are in the upper part of the screen a whole wave of enemies will spawn below you and vice versa. If you are midscreen some of the wave will spawn above and below making it just a bit awkward to clean them all up.

This is a theme that runs throughout the game and becomes important when making routes that are the most safe while also getting all enemy wave bonuses.

Edit: One other note i just thought of is that this can change from one enemy to the next within the same wave of small enemies. If you change height the enemy spawns will react accordingly. In other words they all don't necessarily follow the leader in that sense.
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

Arrgh. I was on a potential 12 million Z route run coming into the last boss with all captures, full bomb stock, 4 extra lives. Ready to get that big baller end bonus and took the stupidest death on Curious Chandelier right as he was almost done. Tea bagged by one of his last remaining dingleberries and I just stood there and took it. It was definitely the nerves.

Taking a hit in that situation is an immediate 1.6 million drop between losing the life and the 2 extra bombs. So sad.

Anyone out there good at this boss? I still take random hits to my shield earlier in the fight from his tracing grenade attack that seem almost unavoidable. Its about preemptively creating space between his little aiming reticle and your ship, but sometimes the grenades just like to catch up with you all of a sudden. I know how to not get cornered, its when I'm seemingly in the clear that my shield is getting nipped.

Why does he have to do this annoying attack literally about every other time he does something? Even the superplays I've seen show the player's shield getting hit by this once or twice. It may just come down to having some extra hits on the shield to spare?
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

There's a mechanic in DG that a lot of players might not notice at first. You have a certain degree of aiming of the angle that you drop missiles at when you hold left or right while shooting. Holding right will make the missiles go farther and have a bit more spread and holding left will drop them almost right below you.

A basic application of this is having more control over hitting a ground based enemy from above. It can mean in certain instances where you want the standard aimed missile it might be worth sitting still and letting go of shot for a split second. Tap shot again and you will get the more predictable normal spacing on the first batch of missiles. Tapping right then shot can be a useful way to reach a grounded enemy that is just entering the screen.

Also there are some really specific uses that I've noticed, and I'm sure more that I haven't found. One is on Zone C when milking the torpedoes from King Fossil. Every so often he will ride the bottom edge of the screen making it impossible to sit in the normal safe spot under his chin to hit the torpedoes as he fires his spread pattern above you. When he does this go to the upper left side of the screen and tap left before dropping a missile, and you can actually thread the needle and clean up the torpedoes with good timing. A very small point gain, but swag points off the charts if you can do it. I've had runs where he will randomly do this rare bottom edge riding 3 or 4 times in a single fight. There's no risk in going for it so might as well try it.

A more crucial application is found on the Zone O boss Fatty Glutton. If you want to score on this boss you want to destroy all of his fins, and if you're really greedy, milk his destructible shots and mini piranhas on the first form, then quick kill the last two forms as they can be a bit tricky and don't offer any extra points. The problem is every time he opens his mouth and is vulnerable, your missiles may land on him. This means he dies too fast to destroy all of the fins worth 30k each. The fins have quite a bit of durability. You can take advantage of the short lob missile aiming by riding the left edge and only using up/back or down/back diagonals to move. You still have to be careful about where and when you fire as the little piranhas he spits out need to be quick killed before they explode and release a spread shot, but you don't want to hit Fatty's mouth while it's open. If you're careful you can keep him alive this way indefinitely and rack up a nice score.

Don't feel bad since he can still fly just fine with all of his fins blown off. Apparently he didn't need them anyway.
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by ACSeraph »

I haven't had much time for posting or playing shmups the latter half of this year, but I'm loving reading all the knowledge bombs in this thread.
Rastan78 wrote:There's a mechanic in DG that a lot of players might not notice at first. You have a certain degree of aiming of the angle that you drop missiles at when you hold left or right while shooting. Holding right will make the missiles go farther and have a bit more spread and holding left will drop them almost right below you.
This is actually something that exists in most Darius games. It's a really interesting mechanic imo, and it's basically required to master survival play in 1 and 2. You can actually tap left and right rapidly to "throw" the missiles without moving forward or backwards much in the older titles.
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Prickly Angler
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

Keep in mind that this autofire code supposedly doesn't increase rank the same way that using autofire on the arcade version does, so the game will be significantly easier this way
Excactly ! That’s because the Saturn cheat doesn’t function the same way that the 30hz autofire does : while the former only adds one « pressing unit » to the rank every time the button is press, maintaining the 30hz autofire will add 30 « pressing units » to the rank per second. That’s why if using 30 hz one should only fire when needed. The best technique is the one used by M.Knight, Jaimers and others, which consists of alterning between default autofire and 30 hz depending on circumstances.
This is on top of the fact that on Saturn the rank rises a bit too slow in general.
Definitely
Playing on Mame or Darius Cozmic (after the major patch) will be the only really accurate way to play this game
Also a difference that isn’t very well know is the fact that the missiles (or « bombs ») the Silver Hawk fires actually don’t have the same angle (missiles are fired in a more rightward direction on the saturn)
One of the things I'm noticing more and more as I get better is how much your position with regards to height has an effect on enemy spawns. This is true of all kinds of enemies from the little popcorn to midbosses and even some bosses.
Yes, that is the case in other Darius games too
Edit: One other note i just thought of is that this can change from one enemy to the next within the same wave of small enemies. If you change height the enemy spawns will react accordingly. In other words they all don't necessarily follow the leader in that sense
.

Exactly, and that can lead to some really stupid deaths hahaha
Ready to get that big baller end bonus and took the stupidest death on Curious Chandelier right as he was almost done. Tea bagged by one of his last remaining dingleberries and I just stood there and took it
That attack is absolutely terrible… Never found a good way to dodge it
Anyone out there good at this boss? I still take random hits to my shield earlier in the fight from his tracing grenade attack that seem almost unavoidable. Its about preemptively creating space between his little aiming reticle and your ship, but sometimes the grenades just like to catch up with you all of a sudden. I know how to not get cornered, its when I'm seemingly in the clear that my shield is getting nipped.
I no-missed no-bombed it countless on the Saturn version, on arcade the best I did yet was one using one bomb. I’ll try to no-miss no-bomb it tonight on my stream, and if not i’ll upload the runs where I show how to dodge it. This attack isn’t really difficult once you get the hang of it, the key is to always stay on the move and never go through where the reticle has aimed. This attack can also return on the boss last phase but it’s pretty much the same thing. Not sure if we’re speaking about the same pattern though lol.

There's a mechanic in DG that a lot of players might not notice at first. You have a certain degree of aiming of the angle that you drop missiles at when you hold left or right while shooting. Holding right will make the missiles go farther and have a bit more spread and holding left will drop them almost right below you
A good technique is also to hold left with the homing missiles, or « multi-homing napalm bomb » to keep the Darius terminology (homing missiles is a pleonasm lol), that way your missiles home in in a better way. You can see that technique at 19:50 against Deadly Crescent : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/838335362? ... V-5KShYgmw

Good luck with your 12 M objective :wink:
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

The fight with Curious Chandelier starts at 18:50 : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/847010896

I was trying to beat my arcade PB (10,3 M) on that route, that's why I didn't bomb. I truly hate that dingleberries attack, anyone good at it ? Come to think of it my positionning doesn't seem tto be that good.
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

Interesting details about the missile pattern being different on Saturn and holding left to alter the path of the homing missiles. That was all new to me.

As far as autofire use, besides the technique you mentioned of firing only when needed and alternating between default and 30hz, I also have my pad set up to have default, 15hz and 30hz. If I'm using auto I usually just do 15 hz unless I'm point blanking a boss or something where 30 hz will make a bigger difference.

I noticed on your Deadly Crescent fight during his first form your shield got tagged by the purple lasers that rotate upward in a circular arc. It's much easier to use a safe spot to just avoid this attack completely. One is lower right down by where the word CREDIT is. The other is trickier and is right up by his head between the lasers and his spiky top fins. You can count the amount of times he does the usual orb shaped bullets in between purple spreads to be prepared. But the easier way to tell that you need to get in position is that he will briefly freeze in place just before he moving to center screen and firing the purple lasers. Both of the safe spots can be used to damage his tail fin while he's in this position. That tail fin is tough to get BTW.

I also noticed how ridiculously high my rank is compared to yours :shock: Maybe I need to focus more on rank control. My rank meter ends up like yours plus 100. Bullets are waaaay faster. I'm thinking the biggest factor is I'm destroying all boss parts. I might need to chill out on the boss parts until I'm getting a no miss more consistently. They really push the rank.

Best I've done against the final dingleberry attack (the one where he releases a cluster of tiny balls that release 1 aimed bullet each) is to sweep across the bottom of the screen then up and to the right. Then retrace your steps down then to the left. I just hope he doesn't do this attack and randomly does one of the other patterns. The worst is when he switches to the purple tracking lasers while the berries are still out there. :evil:
Good luck with your 12 M objective :wink:
Thanks! I dont have much time to play, but I'll get there eventually. One of the things that's currently holding me up is that damn octopus capture on the last stage. One by one I've gotten pretty strong at getting all the captures consistenly, but this one is definitely the trickiest. If the rank is high it's so easy to kill him before the capture ball.

BTW Prickly Angler, are you playing on Switch or PS4?
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

Another little scoring trick that applies to the J zone (Neon Light Illusion stage on the down route):

If you bomb right before the point near the beginning of the stage where the screen freezes and then does a warping effect, you can kill the enemies that you can't get with your shot in time. Their bonus appears to get multiplied somehow and you get a fat score boost around 40 or 50k. I actually use the music as a cue for the correct timing of the bomb.

Then a bit after this you can use another bomb to help destroy the waves of large blue fish. They also give a nice bonus worth much more than you get for picking up an extra bomb while having full stock.

Since the lower route has enough bombs later on to end up with 5 by the end of the game for the max bonus, the optimal path for score is to actually use 2 bombs on this stage rather than go for a no bomb run.
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

I noticed on your Deadly Crescent fight during his first form your shield got tagged by the purple lasers that rotate upward in a circular arc. It's much easier to use a safe spot to just avoid this attack completely. One is lower right down by where the word CREDIT is. The other is trickier and is right up by his head between the lasers and his spiky top fins. You can count the amount of times he does the usual orb shaped bullets in between purple spreads to be prepared. But the easier way to tell that you need to get in position is that he will briefly freeze in place just before he moving to center screen and firing the purple lasers.
Yeah I know, but that pattern is way too fun to dodge ! Usually I’m consistent enough so that I get touched once or twice max, but sometimes I don’t even see the pattern because I’ve damaged him too much already. The place where I sometimes use the safepot is zone Q because it is too tight, but otherwise and if I have a shield I like to go for it.
Both of the safe spots can be used to damage his tail fin while he's in this position. That tail fin is tough to get BTW.
Usually I don’t go for boss part destruction, since otherwise the two last captains become too hard to capture. When playing with the regular autofire rank control is mandatory for scoring, you can still destroy parts but unless you reach a certain level captains are more interesting. I used to destroy boss parts on saturn but rank is different there (way lower, though I’ve come to think it might be a bit higher early game, like stages A, B, C but not sure). Also Deadly Crescent (or ranky Crescent) is a boss I’ve never really tried to rank control, usually I jus want to get rif of him asap, but it could be interesting to try to destroy him more methodically because he has a lot of destructible parts.
Maybe I need to focus more on rank control.
If you can no-miss no-bomb the game at high rank it’s fine, but if you have trouble with that or with the captures try to go a little easier on the bosses. Time also increase rank quite a lot so be careful

Best I've done against the final dingleberry attack (the one where he releases a cluster of tiny balls that release 1 aimed bullet each) is to sweep across the bottom of the screen then up and to the right. Then retrace your steps down then to the left. I just hope he doesn't do this attack and randomly does one of the other patterns. The worst is when he switches to the purple tracking lasers while the berries are still out there.


I see, I’ll definitely try that thanks. And yeah, when he switches to the purple tracking lasers right aftewards it can be brutal
One by one I've gotten pretty strong at getting all the captures consistenly, but this one is definitely the trickiest. If the rank is high it's so easy to kill him before the capture ball.
Yeah it’s tricky, at high rank the only solution is to point blank him with the white balls (non piercing shot) + 15/30hz
If you bomb right before the point near the beginning of the stage where the screen freezes and then does a warping effect, you can kill the enemies that you can't get with your shot in time.
Actually you can do it even without using a bomb, just with good positioning : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/847010896 (at 7:45)
Their bonus appears to get multiplied somehow and you get a fat score boost around 40 or 50k
What happens in most Darius games is that everytime you shoot an entire wave the last ennemy of that wave is worth 10 times the value of the ennemy + its regular value. So to be exact here we have : 4k + 4k +4k + 44k = 56k. There is also a small rank increase if you do that.
Then a bit after this you can use another bomb to help destroy the waves of large blue fish. They also give a nice bonus worth much more than you get for picking up an extra bomb while having full stock.

Since the lower route has enough bombs later on to end up with 5 by the end of the game for the max bonus, the optimal path for score is to actually use 2 bombs on this stage rather than go for a no bomb run.
Exactly, it’s nice a to know i’m not the only one who likes the lower route haha :)

And I play on PS4 ;)
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ubersaurus
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by ubersaurus »

Just a follow up on my last post - I recently got a Saturn ODE and could thus try out the JP Darius Gaiden version, and the code works great there. So it really does seem like Acclaim either had it removed or changed when they brought the game to the US Saturn.
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Prickly Angler
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

As we've pointed out the Saturn releases share some differences with the arcade version : though you will find the excact same patterns and stage layout : 1) the missiles are fired in an incorrect angle 2) the rank is lower overall 3) autofire cheat works in a different way than external autofire 4) some slow down here and there (actually it doesn't necessarely means the patterns are easier to dodge). Aside from thoses differences and others (like Titanic Lance nerfing) the port is grea.t
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

There's a cosmetic difference on Saturn where the trees in the background are missing on the Zone B boss. It's a really cool effect on the arcade version where the boss scrapes along the ground and shreds a path right through the forest leaving bare earth in his wake. On the Saturn there is only bare ground. It looks kind of funny because the animation of the torn up pine trees spewing out from underneath the boss still happens.
Actually you can do it even without using a bomb, just with good positioning : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/847010896 (at 7:45)
Wow, I never knew that. Although I've never had any luck with it so far. Seems like one enemy is just coming onto the screen as the freeze happens. Maybe rank has an effect on this pattern in some way? I'm pretty sure later on in Zone O there's a place where an extra one of these enemies appears at higher rank. I'll have to mess around in training mode some more.

Also there's a good pattern to avoid our good friend the so-called dingleberry attack of Curious Chandelier. Basically you're doing a full counterclockwise loop around him. Starting out middle far left quickly drop down to the bottom left corner as he drops the big cluster of mines. Go along the bottom edge of the screen to the right then up to the upper right corner. You can hang there for a second or two and let your back missiles take out a few mines. As soon as you see one flash to indicate it will detonate and release its aimed shot move along the top edge to the left. If you time it right you will be coming around to the upper left side of the boss as he starts the first wave of the purple aimed rapid fire attack. Head all the way back to the bottom left corner and look to find the gap between purple waves. Heading back up during the faster second half of the aimed purple lasers you should be cleaning up the last of the dingleberries safely.

He also has other iterations of this attack. One from the right and one from the upper middle that are another ball of wax. But I think in most cases other than being insane enough to try to milk it for a few more points youb won't come across these.
Prickly Angler
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

There's a cosmetic difference on Saturn where the trees in the background are missing on the Zone B boss. It's a really cool effect on the arcade version where the boss scrapes along the ground and shreds a path right through the forest leaving bare earth in his wake. On the Saturn there is only bare ground. It looks kind of funny because the animation of the torn up pine trees spewing out from underneath the boss still happens.
Thanks for pointing this out to me, I had no clue and now that I see it i'm like "how couldn't I notice ?. I'm currently referencing all the known differences (both cosmetic and gameplay) between Saturn and Arcade for the french forum, and I'll probably post a translation here so if there is anything that comes up to you let me know ;)
Maybe rank has an effect on this pattern in some way? I'm pretty sure later on in Zone O there's a place where an extra one of these enemies appears at higher rank. I'll have to mess around in training mode some more.
Yes definetely, you can even see that on attract mode, where rank is high and more ennemies pop up.
Also there's a good pattern to avoid our good friend the so-called dingleberry attack of Curious Chandelier. Basically you're doing a full counterclockwise loop around him. Starting out middle far left quickly drop down to the bottom left corner as he drops the big cluster of mines. Go along the bottom edge of the screen to the right then up to the upper right corner. You can hang there for a second or two and let your back missiles take out a few mines. As soon as you see one flash to indicate it will detonate and release its aimed shot move along the top edge to the left. If you time it right you will be coming around to the upper left side of the boss as he starts the first wave of the purple aimed rapid fire attack. Head all the way back to the bottom left corner and look to find the gap between purple waves. Heading back up during the faster second half of the aimed purple lasers you should be cleaning up the last of the dingleberries safely.

He also has other iterations of this attack. One from the right and one from the upper middle that are another ball of wax. But I think in most cases other than being insane enough to try to milk it for a few more points youb won't come across these.
Ok I'll definetely try that !
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

I think that's all I know about the differences on Saturn. Only odd thing I ever notice on the Cozmic Collection is an audio glitch right at the beginning of the King Fossil fight when the little silver balls come out. Sort of an annoying high pitched eeeeeeee sound. Happens every so often. Maybe this was on F3 also? Who knows. That and one minor thing is there's no option to make the aspect 4:3. F3 hardware is I think only 224p instead of 240. So on a CRT the image would be stretched to fill the screen. Its only sixteen pixels shorter so its not that noticeable.

I'm also glad there is someone else out there playing the down route. Although judging by the Switch leaderboards, I'd say this route was pretty popular is Japan.

Speaking of that route, what's with the bomb pickup on Zone J? Is it triggered by destroying all of the big fish?

There are so many little details in DG. Like I just figured out that on Zone J you have to destroy the boss tentacles from the very root using a very time consuming setup to get max points. Not sure the point difference vs destroying the blade at the end first. A lot of players probably figured this out much sooner than I did. :oops:

DG is kind of like Battle Garegga in that it looks like a pretty straightforward game, but has a lot of depth under the surface when it comes to scoring.

Edit: Oh another minor difference about the Darius Cozmic collection version: The bomb has a super rapid flickering effect over the whole background when it goes to that reverse negative look on the original version. This seems to be removed probably to reduce risk to epileptic players.
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

Only odd thing I ever notice on the Cozmic Collection is an audio glitch right at the beginning of the King Fossil fight when the little silver balls come out. Sort of an annoying high pitched eeeeeeee sound. Happens every so often
Might happen with every boss that comes from the 1st Darius (King Fossil, Electric Fan, Fatty Glutton, Great Thing and Coronatus) ? Those little balls are always there as a tribute whenever one of those bosses are fought. Did you ever noticed it on any other boss ?
Speaking of that route, what's with the bomb pickup on Zone J? Is it triggered by destroying all of the big fish?
No, the bomb is carried by one of those ennemies that fire at you while running away, but only if you fire at them first ! I found out about that a few days ago while watching replays from Lerebours and Bofner (to which I owe a big thanks). The safest strat is actually to not to fire at all, if playing without rapid it's safest to just ram the ennemy while having a shield because that large green/red wave is absolute crap, the ennemy will most likely run away while fire at you. With rapid you can do just like I do but instead you can fire at the ennemy once he arrives and it'll be fine, that large wave is actually not bad at all with rapid cuz you have a continuous fire, which isn't the case when you have the two white balls or two little plasma waves behind the large plasma wave. The thing is you will miss out on a lot of points though.

See for yourself : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/870292860

Another strat that is possible with rapid is to just shoot at everything, it'll be trickier to get the bomb but I've tried a bunch of times from savestates and it's definitely doable, and that way you can make some points on the fish
Like I just figured out that on Zone J you have to destroy the boss tentacles from the very root using a very time consuming setup to get max points. Not sure the point difference vs destroying the blade at the end first. A lot of players probably figured this out much sooner than I did.


The only two players western players I know that use that technique are MathU and Erppo that are both record holders in their respective categories, so yes it's pretty high level, and quite risky, it's fine not to know it don't worry man. Here's what MathU explained on his YT channel : As a final scoring secret, Neon Light Illusion's tentacles give more points when you destroy them closer to the body. The very bottom tentacle, in particular, goes from a paltry 100 points if you destroy it at the tip to a whopping 204,800 points if you destroy it at its very base. The top tentacle is worth 51,200 points at its base (it is even possible to destroy it one segment closer for 102,400 points, but this is extremely difficult and requires some luck along with pixel-perfect precision).

I don't bother to do it since I usually just want to kill Neon Light Illusion ASAP lol. And yes it's incredible how many details programmers put in, for instance there is two ennemies carrying green P-ups at the end of D, but the thing is that the second one will only appear if you kill the first green ennemy : miss the first and you'll automatically miss both, Gaiden is full of little details like that. It’s not as secret heavy as Raizing games but there’s definitely a lot of details that were put in that make the game worth going over and over again, I'm always amaze to discover new stuff despite having played the game for so long.
Edit: Oh another minor difference about the Darius Cozmic collection version: The bomb has a super rapid flickering effect over the whole background when it goes to that reverse negative look on the original version. This seems to be removed probably to reduce risk to epileptic players.
A BIG thanks for pointing this out to me, I never noticed since they also removed that effect on the Saturn (I played the Saturn version since 2016, before moving to the cozmic) but it’s very noticable on mame. It’s such a shame that it was removed ! I mean I can consider the concern and why they removed it on default settings, but they could have put an option to put it back (maybe it was too difficult to handle).
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Rastan78
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Rastan78 »

Well that one is trickier, on zone D you need to rush as fast as you can to get the red power up, and sometimes you just can't do the quickcapture just because the red power up spawns at an unwanted place. Also it can't be done if you jacked up the rank too high with either of the second bosses, but that is only when playing without rapidfire.
Thought I would refer to this quote here since it's more on topic. If you want you can get to the needed power level on Zone C by the time you reach King Fossil. Then you can disregard the red medal at the beginning of Zone D and still have the white balls. You need to get every red powerup along the way. I'm surprised how long it took me to develop the pattern to consistently get every powerup and medal at the end of Zone C. Some of those enemy spawns can feel so random. That last red enemy has a tendency to run away if you're don't have a good position.

As far as that minor audio glitch I've only noticed it at King Fossil, but I've played that boss so many mlre times than others.

Thanks for the insights about the Zone J bomb. I had no idea those enemies even appeared there. I always get the bomb to appear off screen and pick it up as it just peeks out at the bottom left corner of the screen. Maybe bc I'm bombing the 2nd wave of big fish. I'm still a little confused about this section even though I at least understand where the bomb is coming from.

It does seem that enemies can get destroyed off screen to the top or bottom in this game. A good example is that first gold screen clearing medal on Zone A. If you get it at the wrong time it will mean the enemy that carries a blue shield will be destroyed before it enters the screen and you miss the shield pickup.

One area I need to work on is avoiding killing enemies with captains. So do enemies killed by captains never yield points? It seems that the wave bonus does count even if the last enemy is killed by a captain.

Another random question is are there any differences with the 2P blue ship? I in know about the difference in G Darius but what about in Gaiden?
Prickly Angler
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Re: GD: Darius Gaiden

Post by Prickly Angler »

Thought I would refer to this quote here since it's more on topic. If you want you can get to the needed power level on Zone C by the time you reach King Fossil. Then you can disregard the red medal at the beginning of Zone D and still have the white balls. You need to get every red powerup along the way. I'm surprised how long it took me to develop the pattern to consistently get every powerup and medal at the end of Zone C. Some of those enemy spawns can feel so random. That last red enemy has a tendency to run away if you're don't have a good position.
I was refering to what I call the quick capture of the third captain that can be done on zones D and E. I'm thinking you might refer to zone F since you've mentionned King Fossile ? On zone F it can't be done because it has ceiling. Actually I've never seen anyone other than M.Knight (and me) use that technique but it's definitely a cool trick, I'm sure somebody in Japan must have discovered it too :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cyyhu7tVW8

A bit risky on zone D because of that red power up but on zone E it's 100% consistent. Also depending on how high is the rank it's sometimes not doable, and if you don't have white bullets just forget about it 8)

On zone D I just do the capture with the large big wave, it's risky but I've gotten use to it. I still fail to do it from time to time but overall I've gotten much more consistent over the years. The reason why I'm picking every single power up is that I want to be fully powered with the little options for the Neon Light Illusion J fight and to do that you need to pick every single one one of them.
As far as that minor audio glitch I've only noticed it at King Fossil, but I've played that boss so many mlre times than others.
Ok, then I'll pay attention and come back to you ;)
I'm still a little confused about this section even though I at least understand where the bomb is coming from.
I'm still too, the other night I spent 45 minutes with savestates just on this level. What I found was that a second, or even half a second difference can mean ennemies might spwan or not. So far (might be wrong ?) this is the only section of the game where ennemies don't appear specifically because you use a bomb, and they don't get destroyed either since I got no point out of them, it is indeed one of the most intriguing (and beautifull btw) section of the game. What I can say is that the best for points is to use the bomb as soon as the big fish appear on screen : that way you can get 12-15 (4x3 + only 1-3 that appear from the ones that come flying in all directions) fish but be aware that you'll not get the bomb.

Actually while writing found this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRg_2xC ... e=youtu.be

Completely different strat with rapidfire, the guy (WR record on that route by the way) destroys every single one of them but notice the bomb doesn't appear either, impossible to do without rapid since you lack the firepower to do so but I'll definetely try to delay my bomb a bit like he does to see what comes.

Also after seing that video I understand what you're saying about bombing the beginning of zone J cuz of the extra ennemies rank brings.
It does seem that enemies can get destroyed off screen to the top or bottom in this game. A good example is that first gold screen clearing medal on Zone A. If you get it at the wrong time it will mean the enemy that carries a blue shield will be destroyed before it enters the screen and you miss the shield pickup.
Yes, in Darius Gaiden ennemies can be destroyed while they're off the screen but only for a little while (unlike Sôkyûgurentai for say). It also works for the left and right sides of the screen, for instance when picking the gold medal at the wrong time in zone F you'll miss out the bomb coming from the left
One area I need to work on is avoiding killing enemies with captains. So do enemies killed by captains never yield points? It seems that the wave bonus does count even if the last enemy is killed by a captain.
This is also something I need to work on, I do it on first and second stages (more consistently on the first than the second one) but later on it makes you take a lot of unecessary risks. And no, even if the wave bonus appears on screen (and probably raises rank too) all the points go to the captain, I've found out about that very recently. On valuable waves this can make a difference.
Another random question is are there any differences with the 2P blue ship? I in know about the difference in G Darius but what about in Gaiden?
Except the fact that you're playing a woman, that the ship is blue, that some endings are different, and that you start stage one at the bottom of the screen, there is absolutely no difference (unlike other Darius games)
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