Steven's Same! Same! Same! 1P & Tatsujin Ou Log: A Record of Misery, Pain, and Suffering™

[blazinglazers69]

If you're concerned with the deadzone of an LS-32 adding input lag, you could try the LS-56. That sucker engages the microswitches as soon as you add the slightest bit of tension. There's even the Kowal short-throw mod for it, although I have not personally tried that.

[Steven]

I'll consider it. I'd probably have to put in some work to get any more modern levers to work with my Astro given the old wiring it has.

Today I felt only partially completely miserable instead of entirely completely miserable for the first time in several weeks, so I gave the game another shot and made it to stage 9 again. No miss until about 1/3 through stage 7, where I got sniped by a plane that I somehow missed and managed to mostly recover until the second half of stage 8 annihilated me. Then I found out Inomata Mutsumi died and I went back to feeling bad.

Doing laundry right now, but I will probably try again once I am finished with that. I was hoping to get the clear this month, but that will probably not happen.

[Steven]

Today I somehow made it to the final boss... of stage 9. Recovering at this boss is very difficult. It would be so much easier if you didn't lose speed when you die, but that's not how the game works.

Made it to stage 7 without dying, then got sniped by a tank on the diagonal bridge when I scrolled the screen and managed to bomb my way through stages 8 and 9 before the final stage 9 boss got me just before the planes at the end of the stage appeared. If I went any further I'd have been in stage 10. I have never made it past the stage 9 bosses without dying in any version of the game. I don't think I've made it to the stage 9 bosses without dying either, as I always seem to die on stage 9 prior to the bosses for some reason.

I am at a point where I am comfortable saying that I am very close. Unfortunately due to my schedule I probably won't be able to play the game again at all until the 27th.

[ZPScissors]

Out of curiosity, how much effort have you put in to learning recoveries? I'm still kind of on the fence on how much value there really is in learning recoveries for just a 1-ALL (except Stage 10 and late game bosses of course, those are basically mandatory) but I've started to chip away at that (and pretty much just for Stage 9 because I'm still not focusing on this) and even just from Crossfish's method of learning the beginning/middle/boss checkpoints makes a big difference in how effectively you can get through these stages on low power.

[Steven]

I haven't been keeping track of time exactly, but I have put some decent time into practicing recovery on everything starting from the Otakebi section on stage 5. It has helped me moderately with stage 6, a lot with stage 7 because I usually die there (and I can now die anywhere on the stage and no miss to the end because of it), and a decent amount on stages 8 and 9.

One thing that I do not like about Arcade Challenge is the way it treats the item table. If you choose full power it assumes no miss, which I guess is fair enough, no power assumes you are recovering from the specific place you choose to start at and sets the item table to the beginning, which is perfect, but if I want to practice something like starting at the checkpoint before the stage 9 bosses with a level 0 wide shot and 2 P items as if I had died against the boss with 2 P items, it will spawn me there with the item table assuming... I have no idea, actually, but it won't drop the third P. If I want to practice recovering there with 2 P items and then having to go get the third P item, I can't, so I have to start already having the 5-way shot and then pretend that the blue powerup that the item carrier before the boss drops is a P so I can simulate having to chase a powerup around to power up before arriving at the boss. It's not super terrible or anything, but I wish that it was a little better designed than this.

[Steven]

Today I went to Taito Hey and met some cool people, and among them was Battle Garegga world record holder Kamui.

Everyone other than me showed up an hour late, so for the first time in several months, I played Tatsujin Ou. Somehow, it was the best performance I had ever done. I was somewhere between 25 to 50% through timing out the stage 3 boss before its things smashed into me and I game overed with a new personal high score.

Everyone else showed up and then we watched Kamui play Garegga and then we went to Mikado and did it again there.

Watching Kamui humiliate Battle Garegga with one hand while not even looking because she was playing a different game on her phone at the same time with the other hand was quite something. I don't remember her Hey score, but the Mikado score began with an I, so she completely annihilated every score that is currently posted in the game's high score thread on this forum without even trying.

Talking with Kamui revealed some things: she seems 100% satisfied with the PS4 version of Garegga. I mentioned that I am working on Same! Same! Same! and Tatsujin Ou and she said that while she likes the music of Same! a lot, she has spent so much time playing Garegga that there are a lot of other games that she has never played, including Tatsujin Ou.

Part of me is impressed by the dedication, but the other part of me is saddened by the fact that Kamui hasn't played a lot of other great games because of that dedication. This the price of being the best in the world, isn't it? There are so many games that I want to play but have not, so if it is, I don't want to be the best.

[ryu]

I played Tatsujin Ou. Somehow, it was the best performance I had ever done. I was somewhere between 25 to 50% through timing out the stage 3 boss before its things smashed into me and I game overed with a new personal high score.

That's nice Steven. But now do it properly: one handed while beating Ketsui on your phone with the other hand.

[Steven]

It was Gothic ha Mahou Otome, so I guess it's probably close enough, right?

I really want to learn how to play Garegga now... maybe I might do that next after I kill some more Toaplan games. I have not decided what I want to do after Tatsujin Ou, but it will likely be Tatsujin. Maybe I'll try something completely different after that. RayForce, RayStorm, Garegga, Thunder Dragon 2, and Saidaioujou are potential targets for non-Toa shooting. I might even take a break for a while. Who knows at this point.

[ZPScissors]

I was somewhere between 25 to 50% through timing out the stage 3 boss before its things smashed into me and I game overed with a new personal high score.

Was it on the second time it went to the bottom?

[Steven]

I was somewhere between 25 to 50% through timing out the stage 3 boss before its things smashed into me and I game overed with a new personal high score.

Was it on the second time it went to the bottom?

It had already gone down the first time and it had been up for a while. If I had to guess it probably would not have taken much longer for it to move down again.

I have been wondering about the viability of the search laser. Is there anywhere that it is actually good to use? I just watched mycophobia's Truxton II replay a few minutes ago, and the search laser was used for the entirety of stage 4 aside from the boss, and also parts of the subsequent stages. Truxton II is not quite Tatsujin Ou, so the same strategies might not work on both versions. I guess I can just ask mycophobia about it, but if anyone else knows...

I may skip Truxton II in favour of going directly to Tatsujin Ou even though I know this is generally not recommended. I don't really have any interest in playing the overseas versions unless they are mechanically different, like if they have respawns instead of checkpoints, but I may make an exception for Truxton II if I have too much difficulty or frustration with Tatsujin Ou. I will probably also clear mycophobia's cool ROM hack as well, but I don't know if I will do that before or after regular Tatsujin Ou. I've been waiting for the broken audio on MiSTer to get fixed before I play it, as I really don't want to play this game with broken audio.

[Steven]

I have not really played the game for a while, but I'm stuck on the stage 9 boss. I hate this boss so much, and I've never made it past this boss without dying multiple times on any version of the game. Once I get past it I still have to bomb my way through the hardest stage in the game somehow, which I am not looking forward to.

[SMC]

I have not really played the game for a while, but I'm stuck on the stage 9 boss. I hate this boss so much, and I've never made it past this boss without dying multiple times on any version of the game. Once I get past it I still have to bomb my way through the hardest stage in the game somehow, which I am not looking forward to.

The key to the ninth boss is to understand that the aiming of each of the bullet spreads is determined well in advance - at the moment the cover in the middle begins to open.
If you move to a different quadrant from the one you were in when the cover began to open, you'll be completely safe from the spread, and just need to worry about the fixed-angle flame bullets. I tended to switch between riding on the lower and upper halves of the boss' sprite whenever the boss' position made this possible - this way you can stay completely behind the flame guns, which only shoot outward, and the proximity also makes short work of the bosses when combined with 30hz.