How do you choose your ship/route/mode?

[Rastan78]

It can be tricky to settle in and commit to just one choice when learning a new shmup. I figure most players fall into one of these archetypes to some degree. Identify with any of these?

Mr./Mrs. Normcore: You go straight to the strategy section to find out what everyone else is using or pick the default vanilla ship. The ultimate conformist. If you're playing Garegga it's Wild Snail. Darius Gaiden, V Route all day. Shikigami? You're going with Kuga. Why work harder when you don't have to? The shortest distance from point A to B is the best am I right?
If you were playing a fighting game your pick would be: Ken Masters baby!!

The Dabbler: You literally cannot pick the same ship twice. Why commit and actually learn to clear the game when there are so many choices? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? You might never clear this game, but when there are so many other games who cares?
Your FG pick: ?Random? Select!

The Specialist: You want to be that one weird player that can get results with the most oddball and difficult choice. Who cares if your high score will always be lower when you have bragging rights? You 2-ALLed Gunbird 2 with Hei-Cob and will only play Fumiko OV on Shikigami 2 no matter how many times someone tells you this:
https://youtu.be/ZZDzf_wguQU
Your FG pick: Zangief/Q

Love at First Sight: You walked up to a cab and that one character was just too cool. "Holy shit. You can be a lizard man in this game?" That's it I'm playing this shit. Where are my tokens? You've never touched another character since. If another player picks lizard man first you're pissed. You could pick out your character based on one image from a magazine article before you even got eyes on the game.
Your FG pick: Hugo

The Expert: Of course you'll clear Ultra mode. Original and Maniac clears are just a warmup. When you specialize on one game for 10 years you're going to learn every single ship, every route no questions asked. Eventually you'll get around to writing that ST for the strategy section, but you only need to get WR tier scores with a few more ships first.
Your FG pick: The whole cast

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

I'll take specialist. I'm in it for the fun and enjoy not dying over scoring hard (with exceptions).That means I'm definitely gonna try everything the game has to offer including the funny stuff, and won't care if it's worse.

Holy shit. You can be a lizard man in this game?

Is it fixeight or gaiapolis

[Rastan78]

Fixeight!!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Hold on a second, let's not forget Hanse in Bakuretsu Breaker complete with inexplicable JoJo stand rush ORAORAORA bomb.



I think I'm totally Love at First Sight. I tend to pick one based on if I like the design/shot type, and if they're fun and reasonably viable I'll totally play silly/low-tier characters. They may end up being top tier after all when you learn to use 'em.

[copy-paster]

The imagery before the game starts (unique to each characters) and all the bombs are obviously JoJo references, complete with PNG stock photos attack you in the space.

[Rastan78]

I have to admit to edging into Dabbler territory on more than one occasion. I will say I love games that present these kind of choices whether it's Batrider, Shikigami no Shiro, Darius or others.

[EmperorIng]

I've picked enough oddball choices in Alfa System games etc. - Initially Kim in Shikigami 1 (when a lot of people stick with Kohtaro), Niigi GB in 2 (might still be a mistake lol), or Ece/Lale in Sisters Royale - that it seems to me that I fall in the Specialist camp.

Granted for a lot of games I want a normal, dependable shot/ship type, but when it gives me a choice I don't mind stepping outside of my comfort zone, like deciding to 1ALL Sengoku Blade with Junis (erroneously called by some the worst character choice, when that designation clearly goes to Sho).

I have my limits though. If the game has a character that's too quirky then I start to get frustrated and feel like I'm wasting my time.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Someone now has to make a "You can be a lizard man in this game" thread.

I have my limits though. If the game has a character that's too quirky then I start to get frustrated and feel like I'm wasting my time.

Agreed. Quirky but workable/effective? Good. Quirky and bad? Not good.

Reco Abnormal in Futari 1.5 is over the threshold for me I think. I'm okay with her being unusually fast when using laser, but it's extremely annoying that her lockon range (which does most of the damage) is miniscule, and if you let go of laser to make a tight dodge you're pretty much only getting lockons again if you bomb. The ineffective lockon range which forces you to laser or die during bosses exclusively (and get close to enemies or the boss at the start of each wave) is a dealbreaker IMO.

[Rastan78]

If you ever get the chance watch WIZ play Niigi type II on the Shikigami II Appreciate DVD released back in the day. He scores higher than the records with Kuga. It's really something to watch given how unorthodox Niigi GB plays.

Sometimes that unorthodox choice will end up being top tier in the right hands like BareKnuckleRoo pointed out. Aryustailm in Blazing Star comes to mind also.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Aryustailm isn't an off-pick. It's the single best scoring ship and most players that realize how score works in Blazing Star tend to figure it out and take it. It also has solid offensive power. If anything I'd say the Dino without the Force is the off-pick!

[Rastan78]

Yeah I guess Aryustailm isn't so much an off pick as an expert player pick. Higher learning curve and risk compared to a ship like Windina but higher reward. Sort of like Gain in Garegga. Whereas the oddball pick would be the Dino 135 in Blazing Star or Chitta in Garegga.

[SPM]

All of them up to a point (won't ever reach a true expert approach, but won't reach a true "anything" approach either haha I'm "the dabbler" when it comes to your 5 options XD). I jump from one to another depending on mood and game. (3,4 > 1 > 2,5)

However, I tend to gravitate towards characters/ships with original mechanics or some sort of handicap/limitation (only if the game is not too hard! If that's the case, the OP ship for me please!) Except for Sho, that one's terrible XD Give me Junis and her lovely lemur every single day

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah I guess Aryustailm isn't so much an off pick as an expert player pick. Higher learning curve and risk compared to a ship like Windina but higher reward. Sort of like Gain in Garegga. Whereas the oddball pick would be the Dino 135 in Blazing Star or Chitta in Garegga.

Dino 135's pretty solid. You don't have the frontal shield the Dino 246 has (which makes it the stronger ship IMO, first one I cleared with), but it has a better charge shot, moves a bit faster, and its damage/spread is comparable to Hellhound (like an inbetween Hellhound and Windina pick in terms of DPS?).

Aryustailm is a solid straight shot ship with an unorthodox charge shot that can turn into a shield, but it's pretty decent. The weird thing that makes it a good example of a quirky ship, and what trips up some folks into struggling with it, is that it's the only ship in the game that is weaker when using its rapid fire shot vs using is slower shot. In fact the piercing beams are much weaker than say Hellhound's rapid shot. It seriously hurts Aryustailm to use rapid fire at a high rate because the piercing lightning beams, despite looking cool, are actually much weaker than the smaller barrage it fires with its slower tap shot. Its slower tap rate shots are actually pretty decently strong. Not on the level of Windina / Peplos rapid fire, but better than Hellhound from what I remember.

If you use Artyustailm with a rapid fire button, it's crucial to tweak your rapid fire rate to be slow enough not to trigger the piercing lightning beams, cuz they're ridiculously weak.

[MathU]

I often play random in fighting games because it's just plain fun and keeps the game interesting for far longer than playing the same character forever. The added benefit is that half of skill of fighting games is in reading other players, and it helps me learn the fundamentals and how to fight against the characters I play as more effectively. This makes me all-around good at those games and win often even though I don't specialize as much as others.

With shooters, on the other hand, I feel less interest in playing every ship because a long playthrough is different from a 2-minute match and a lot of shooters don't have quite the degree of uniqueness in ship selection. I always check out all the options until I find one I'm comfortable with and then typically stick to it. Though I do tend to avoid options that seem too overpowered or are obviously unlocked through cheat codes, because I want to master the developer's most "intended" and balanced experience first. Only with exceptional shooters like Hellsinker do I find myself returning to over and over and trying to master with every ship/character choice. Games with multiple stage chains like various Taito games are somewhat weird to lump in with character choice because the routes are essentially each playing a whole different game. If you really like a Darius game, you'll probably want to beat it on multiple routes, multiple discrete "games".

I play nearly all my shooters for score pretty much from the outset as I'm learning them and progressing towards actually beating them. What I certainly don't do, however, is play follow-the-leader and mindlessly conform to whatever community's score play standards. Because sadly people are often so interested in chasing raw numbers that they'll make play style choices that dilute the depth of the games they play. For example, playing slave ships with no charge shot in Raiden Fighters games or blasting games with absurd rapidfire cheats they weren't balanced around.

The one style of play which I think the OP is missing is that a lot of arcade shooters since the '90s have had difficulty "modes" where the modes contain different amounts of game content. I almost never waste my time on this stuff, why would I want to master only a fraction of a game? I only make an exception for Raiden DX whose training mode is actually a completely separate experience from the others.

[Rastan78]

Because sadly people are often so interested in chasing raw numbers that they'll make play style choices that dilute the depth of the games they play.

You know the fact that other people choose to play in a different way from you isn't a terrible thing. It could be that they're also having fun.

The one style of play which I think the OP is missing is that a lot of arcade shooters since the '90s have had difficulty "modes" where the modes contain different amounts of game content. I almost never waste my time on this stuff, why would I want to master only a fraction of a game?

Agreed. You mean like the beginner mode in Gradius III? I think devs just put these there bc they were afraid casual players would be scared away or they wanted to give new players a way to get their feet wet. At the same time neutering the length and not offering the full game is a way to keep the beginner mode from stealing the show and becoming preferred over the main game. Best to just skip them or use them as a way to get familiar with the game for the first few credits.

[BulletMagnet]

Reco Abnormal in Futari 1.5 is over the threshold for me I think.

The real kicker with her is that, if memory serves, despite how tricky she is to use she still doesn't do quite as much raw damage as Abnormal Palm.

[Sumez]

Definitely normcore. I have a hard time forming an attachment to any specific mode starting out, and having options up front in a game that I don't actually know the implications of always bothers me, so I'll either go with the default or rely on the experience of others. This goes for everything in any genre, not just ship types.

Usually it takes a lot of experience with a game before the strengths or weaknesses of specific ship/character really shows, so eventually I'll end up picking my own favourite, and have occasionally ended up with the "specialist" choice just because it clicked better with me, but there's an equally good chance I'll become so comfortable with my first choice I'll never be able to adapt to another.

[Randorama]

No cheapskate bro option? I am all for exploiting the strongest ship in the game, including unlock codes and the like. Golden Bat, 2P side twins in Gekirindan, Beltiana and Olisis in Batsugun, and so on.

Life is unfair. I am unfairer, and I win (FG: Gouki/Akuma with endless pokes, thankyouverymuch).

[Rastan78]

The closest I ever came to blind 1CC on first credit was Raiden Fighters Jet in an arcade. Made it to final boss (and got all the good stage order) on my first play ever using Fairy! Of course I had experience with the other games especially RF2. True #Cheapskate bro tactics.

Cheapskate bro FG pick: Third Strike Chun Li SA II
Just as OP as Yun but takes none of the skill and practice.

[davyK]

I'm a bit of a dabbler . If things start getting stale I will try a level with a different ship from time to time, though if I get serious I will usually settle on one ship - quite often I stick with the default but not always. The pain that caused when I started playing Gigawing - the default is probably the worst of the bunch...

Once I know a game I tend to veer toward those with wider shots. DDP Blue for example.