Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[DrTrouserPlank]

Is there actually a reliable no bomb, no hyper route in stage 3 DOJ? Leaving aside the fact that I can't learn routes from replays anyway; this stage has to be one of the worst ever since the whole fucking thing looks the same so I can't even remember what is coming next. The latter part with the rings and the assholes who come in from the sides and spray their shit everywhere is of particular problem. Most replays I've seen have people on their pixel thin route with their strict hyper plan for the entire game so they can conveniently cancel all the bullshit when it gets stupid. That shit isn't going to help me since I may or may not have a hyper at any point in the game.

So to summarise, is this shit even possible without bombs and hypers with any degree of consistency, or is it just like every stage in this game, no miss it once, die 5 times the next time ... give up even trying to beat the game.

Incidentally, I am going for the 1mc of this game instead of the 1cc. That is the "one monitor clear" where I try to complete the game on the same monitor I start with and not either punt it out the window in frustration or put my joystick through it. Maybe I should factor in the number of joysticks in this calculation as well? This may be the creation of a new metric of achievement.

[mycophobia]

Is there actually a reliable no bomb, no hyper route in stage 3 DOJ?

yeah

[To Far Away Times]

When I 1ALL’d DOJ I had my first death on the cannon in stage 4.

For stage 3 you want to be aggressive in going after the tanky mid size enemies (memorize which side of the screen they spawn on - a vague left or right side will do) and get in the center of their bullet streams. It’s scary but it’s the safest way. Otherwise you’ll get walled. Try to play as high up on the screen as you can that’s safe to do so. This stage gets nasty if you fall behind. It’s been ages since I’ve played DOJ though, so I don’t remember too many specifics.

[mycophobia]

why no bomb anyway. work some bombs in there

[DrTrouserPlank]

why no bomb anyway. work some bombs in there

Because the developers had the brilliant idea of not keeping bomb and hyper on separate buttons, so in order to "bomb" I have to waste whatever hyper I might have (which is potentially far more useful on a boss or scoring opportunity) and then probably bomb it off to lose the rank increase.

I'm not adverse to planned bombing, but there are problems with that approach.

1) I feel it is just side-stepping the problem at hand rather than dealing with solving it properly.

2)I may or may not have bombs or hypers available at any given time.

[mycophobia]

gotta walk before you can run. i'm assuming you haven't cleared the first round yet, in which case don't worry about saving hypers for scoring opportunities or whatever. also hypering during a boss makes it harder in my experience. just put some bombs, or hyper+bombs, in your survival route for now and when you clear go back and clean it up

[pegboy]

For survival runs you never want to hyper on a boss unless it's to finish it off on low health.

If it's a "panic hyper" you almost always want to follow it up with a bomb.

[DrTrouserPlank]

So how much of a piece of shit is strikers 1945 to clear on the first loop?

I'm trying something that isn't Cave since I'm never going to clear any of their shit, but I have to say this feels pretty rigged. The hitbox is highly questionable and the game obviously descends into bullshit even by the 4th or 5th stage. Nothing on the surface seems that hard when you watch a replay, but it's kinda bullshit when you play it. Even if you can memorise the fast shots that actually kill you by making you dodge into them since they are aimed offset, it still feels like quite an ask.

Shame the Psykio collection version is laggy as shit and has no practice mode. The laggy delay on the bomb is fucking ridiculous. What a disaster that is. I can't get autofire working in MAME so trying to find a way to seriously practice it is not easy. If I don't have a way to savestate level 5 onwards I probably won't bother since playing runs is a fools game.

[Starfighter]

Personally I think the average Psikyo game is waaay harder than the average Cave game. I don't know about Strikers 1945, but in Strikers 1945 II I've never ever gotten past stage 5.

[Stevens]

I clicked on my Steam queue today. As the screen switched I caught the briefest glimpse of two pilots I remembered from long ago. It wasn't even a question at that point. I was buying Under Defeat. Again.

For a game I haven't touched in eight or so years this one is coming back quick, made it to 1-4 on my 3rd credit.

How I missed my old friend..

Stage 5 - spider tanks. Took five minutes in practice to remember how I dealt with them. 1 CC incoming.

[Aceskies]

Radiant Silvergun on the Switch. What a hard game. Really satisfying dealing with bosses, but not really sure I am enjoying the rest of it.

[Stevens]

Still Under Defeat.

Picking it up again was a no brainer, but Wes112 has been inspiring. Said he would crack six million and he did. I don't think it is entirely out of the realm of possibility for me either.

There is also an INSANE 7,000,000 run from about a month ago by a pilot who goes by DDY. It is seriously fucking outstanding.

For anyone who is curious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HDyGB2 ... yorn%C2%AD

The good - My scoring is on par/better than it was when I was last playing. I can now crack 900,000 after stage 2. The 2nd half of stage 3 has always pain a pain in the ass to score on, but I think I can finish 3 with around 1.5.

The bad(ish) - My 1st 1 CC in UD in seven years still eludes me, but I am at the point of any credit now will be the one.

That said I haven't really played shmups seriously since Ketsui dropped on the PS4. That was around the time I noticed my eyes weren't cut out for bullet hell anymore, so I took a break and played other stuff.

I didn't think I would just hop back in the COCKpit (You here Goompy?) and run the game again. I would have been a fool to think so. That said my progress so far has been motivating.

I had forgotten how much I love this game, even though I have a beautiful daily reminder. This game is in my blood like Bloodborne or OutRun.

[BIL]

For anyone who is curious - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HDyGB2 ... yorn%C2%AD

Ah yeah, didn't recall his nick offhand, but I must've subbed to him at some point. Inspiring, and a timely reminder of UD's unique ballistic aspect... rockets express mailed from downtown straight to the enemy's grill, come hell or high water

[guigui]

DDP DFK : I could trigger the second loop in 1.5, pretty happy about this, real achievment for me.

Second loop entered with one bomb left in stock, and I could survive the whole 2-1 level I dont know how. My son next to me counted that I survived for 5 seconds in 2-2. Not sure I'll try to get any further, 2nd loop looks very intimidating.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I dabbled a bit in Mushihimesama again, I hate the scoring in the modes that require button mashing to do counter banking cause I just... don't get it, or click with it. My Arrange score gets to Aki's last TLB phase but can't quite clear, but the score is like a third of what my friends can get in S5? Fun game, but I'm not invested in the scoring system.

[sunnshiner]

Under Defeat (arcade mode). Still. Trying to get to 1,000,000 points. Still. Dreamcast (emulated) and XB360.

I'm ok with the fact that I will never 1cc it. I can consistently get to the stage 3 boss but I need both bombs and lives to beat it. I can't even brute force a clear on easy mode by credit feeding FFS, I'm just too old and too slow and too scrubby, so I'm just playing to improve my scores. I would like to break the million point barrier soon.

[Klatrymadon]

You'll get there, no problem! Are you using the rocket to take out larger targets? It'll help with threat-management if you use it pre-emptively, and you'll get some nice 2x10k bonuses into the bargain.

[guigui]

DDP DFK : I could trigger the second loop in 1.5, pretty happy about this, real achievment for me.

Second loop entered with one bomb left in stock, and I could survive the whole 2-1 level I dont know how. My son next to me counted that I survived for 5 seconds in 2-2. Not sure I'll try to get any further, 2nd loop looks very intimidating.

...

And then I took a look at Jaimers' 2-ALL clear of the game. Not sure I want to play it anymore

[sunnshiner]

You'll get there, no problem! Are you using the rocket to take out larger targets? It'll help with threat-management if you use it pre-emptively, and you'll get some nice 2x10k bonuses into the bargain.

Thanks! I'm trying to use the rocket more but timing the shot and managing the cool down and recharge is tricky while being shot at

[Sanguis]

Coming back to Under Defeat as well. What a game . Truly a great classic.

[To Far Away Times]

I swear 19XX triples in difficulty when you reach the second to last stage.

It seems like a very reasonable clear up to that point and then the game is out for blood (and quarters).

[Stevens]

Under Defeat. Got my 1st 1 CC (of UD) in seven years today, almost cleared 2-2. 3.6ish.

EDIT - Back to back trips to 2nd loop. It's coming together.

[Steven]

After a combination of no motivation, getting sick, and generally feeling like shit, hence my general absence here for the past month, I finally felt not-shitty enough to decide to begin STG rehabilitation and played a shooting game for the first time since December 18 (I think): KyuuTai. Gave myself a 30Hz autofire button to make the rehabilitation a bit easier, no missed to the end of stage 6 where I died from not paying attention, and then game overed just before the stage 8 boss, a total garbage performance, but I will accept it for now given that I played while tired and with a headache. I'm actually kind of glad I game overed when I did because it's late and time to go to sleep.

I haven't really played games for the past month and a half, haven't played STGs for ~2.5 months, and have spent most of this month rewatching DS9, so it's nice to finally get back to the way it was before. I don't know if I'm going to continue running through STGs that I like, play the entirety of Memories Off or whatever instead, or completely fuck off and finish DS9, but I have a feeling it's probably going to be DS9 for now with some random STGs thrown in in various places. I almost played Daioujou today before I remembered that I kinda completely hate that game, so we'll see.

[copy-paster]

I swear 19XX triples in difficulty when you reach the second to last stage.

It seems like a very reasonable clear up to that point and then the game is out for blood (and quarters).

Yeah the difficulty peaked significantly at st5 onwards. Did you know about the charge bomb mechanic before? For some reason the attract mode didn't tell how to use it and once you get to know how it works, it'll be one of the most satisfying feeling on a shmup journey.

[Lethe]

Slowly getting somewhere in PoDD. I think my old PB was only 75mil or something, after playing one (usually ragequit) credit most days this month I've got to 91 (and this was on a run where stage 5 Ellen blew herself up 30 seconds in). Survival consistency is still awful, I overreach too much and I doubt playing Kotohime is helping since you can't time your level 2s at all, you just have to fly by the seat of your pants. It's hard to give up her basic specs though - the only character who's better is Chiyuri, and she's basically a suicide pick for me right now as I'm too much of a gorilla and can't handle her bomb lockout during charge attacks. How people manage to play this game with the crap slow characters I have no idea.
Here's hoping I'll see a hundo soonish... I'll try to record it.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Survival consistency is still awful, I overreach too much and I doubt playing Kotohime is helping since you can't time your level 2s at all, you just have to fly by the seat of your pants.

Isn't PoDD also possibly the toughest Lunatic clear of all the Touhou shmups? It's pretty darn difficult to 1CC it, the AI just refuses to die in the later levels. Brutal for survival play. Pretty fun against another person I might add!

[Lethe]

Isn't PoDD also possibly the toughest Lunatic clear of all the Touhou shmups? It's pretty darn difficult to 1CC it, the AI just refuses to die in the later levels. Brutal for survival play. Pretty fun against another person I might add!

Yes and no. For survival-only you can lame away a lot of the difficulty by refusing to play the game properly - avoid reflect wars if you can and only spend meter to counter a boss summon that you can't speedkill. The AI will eventually die from random mistakes when put under limited pressure if you're tenacious enough, even on round 1 of the final fight where there isn't any timeout. On the other hand, some high-rank patterns are super nasty, you only get 2 extends, and compared to PoFV the difficulty doesn't drop anywhere near as hard after you lose, so brute-forcing a 1CC isn't viable like it is in most of the series. Plus it's also, you know, fast, which some people can't handle well at all.

If you're actually trying to engage with the mechanics then it's got to be one of the most chaotic games in the entire genre. Besides balancing momentary decisions with constant planning of a few seconds in advance, you'll want to strategize on matchup and whether it's an early or late stage (since you fight everyone every run, and only three opponents are fixed order). Even good players will sharply take their foot off the gas for the final two stages due to the risk of impossible situations from getting multiple things thrown at you at once.

[Starfighter]

DOJ. I've finally learned to reach stage 4 without losing a life so... now I'm practicing stage 4. By the time I can clear stage 4 and 5 consistently I'm sure I've forgotten the first half of the game again.

[Lemnear]

Many of the IPs owned by Hamster.

USAAS Mustang:
I never thought I could like it so much!

Gunnail:
I think it's the most CAVE-like thing before CAVE, paradoxically ignored and yet it is only 2 years ahead of DonPachi, but this time for the SHMUPS of that period is an infinity.

Pinguin Kun Wars: My secret drug.

Thunder Dragon:
I tried to put the MIDI of the OST to make it Metal and it's incredible. Other than that, the game is cool! I'm really enjoying it. There Is "something" in It...

Of course every now and then I always reopen DOJ and Ketsui but because now for me it is like the prayer before bedtime.

[Dharmajones93]

Hi! Just going to say I've been around here for a few years, but posted once maybe?

Recently inspired for no particular reason to get back in to these games, and thought I would check in here to see how things are and so pleasantly surprised y'all are still at it.
Picked up a copy of 精霊戦士 Spriggan! Will be my first 1cc attempt in ages, so wish me luck!

Hope to be more active in the community from here on, but I've been with y'all in spirit!