Why exactly is DDP considered an easy clear?

[Iconomancy]

I've been trying to get my DDP 1-all for 30+ hours and I can't even do stage 3 consistently. Been watching runs on YouTube, including Pan's "How to safely" video multiple times but I just can't for the life of me get "good" at this game.

Spent maybe 8-10 hours in Ketsui and I feel like I have bigger chance clearing that than DDP.

[MovingTarget]

I've been trying to get my DDP 1-all for 30+ hours and I can't even do stage 3 consistently. Been watching runs on YouTube, including Pan's "How to safely" video multiple times but I just can't for the life of me get "good" at this game.

Spent maybe 8-10 hours in Ketsui and I feel like I have bigger chance clearing that than DDP.

Consistency is something I am trying to work on with other games. 95% of my runs end by dying to a stupid break in focus to some silly random bullet. I think its just something that takes time to iron out.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Spent maybe 8-10 hours in Ketsui and I feel like I have bigger chance clearing that than DDP.

Ketsui is a much harder game. The patterns in it are far more complex in how they move, and the lock-on shot is much more demanding in positioning to get lock ons in the first place since it's limited by range, which DDP's laser isn't. DDP's laserbomb is also much stronger than Ketsui's bomb is, and you get a lot of bombs due to how the max bomb system works. DDP also has aura damage, offering massive pointblank damage on targets if you get can the aura around your ship that appears when using the laser to touch your enemy. The shot types are generally also very powerful; B-S and C-S can use shot for most of a stage and just wipe everything out with ease, whereas the shots in Ketsui are far less dominating in raw damage vs the lock shot.

DDP is not considered an easy clear. This likely stems from a beginner misunderstanding of difficulty when people who've been playing arcade shmups for a few years talk about it; it's relatively easy for a CAVE game (powerful shot types, easy 1UP to obtain, lots of bombs to use) but in a general sense it's still a difficult arcade game.

[mirkvid]

It took me 2 or 3 months of practice to clear DDP, it's not easy . Granted, I have limited play time these days. Keep at it, use save states to practice hard sections, and chart your progress to visually see where you need to improve and you'll get there.

[pegboy]

Assuming this is only about the first loop then yes, its only cosidered easy when you compare it against the full range of arcade clears and difficulty levels that exist.

You get a lot of lives and a redicoulous amount of bombs to work with. I think if you no miss the first 3 stages you can pretty much bomb out most of the later stages. Learn the cheese strats for boss 4 and 5 and you will have even more lives and bombs to work with.

[Jonpachi]

Play as Type C/Shot, and pay attention to your bomb stock. Bomb every time you need to at first. Notice how each time you die you get an additional bomb added to your stock. Get good enough to get to 20 million (second extend) and you'll soon be able to just power your way through the game. If you can get to the final boss with a life left, the 1CC is basically free as you can just bomb your way through the first loop boss.

[Lemnear]

I've been trying to get my DDP 1-all for 30+ hours and I can't even do stage 3 consistently. Been watching runs on YouTube, including Pan's "How to safely" video multiple times but I just can't for the life of me get "good" at this game.

Spent maybe 8-10 hours in Ketsui and I feel like I have bigger chance clearing that than DDP.

I thought so too, but I was basically only playing with Type-A, then I swapped to Type-C and saw the possibility, even if I haven't tried it definitively yet.
As for Ketsui, I find it easier, or at least it seems designed for me in every way. I play it alongside DOJ, and I have much more difficulty with DOJ than with Ketsui in general.

[dethcow]

I've been trying to get my DDP 1-all for 30+ hours and I can't even do stage 3 consistently. Been watching runs on YouTube, including Pan's "How to safely" video multiple times but I just can't for the life of me get "good" at this game.

Spent maybe 8-10 hours in Ketsui and I feel like I have bigger chance clearing that than DDP.

the 1-all is "easy" compared against other arcade shmup 1ccs, not "easy" with respect to most modern games which mostly play themselves (even souls games are as easy as you want them to be since you could always trivialize any boss by summoning help)

ddp 1-all is easy because you can horde resources and just bomb the hard parts. once you "git gud" enough, there's plenty of resources the game spits at you to eventually be able to clear the first loop playing for survival while half-asleep, your eyes glazed over and barely paying attention

[Buzzy]

The problem with Cave games is playing them for survival is too boring, but on the other hand playing them for score is painfully autistic (almost to speedrunning degrees). There's no "middle ground" so to speak. Not only that but, their games suffer from extreme levels of jank, mostly with regards to the slowdowns and other programming issues. Overrated developer; don't bother clearing their games when there are actually good shumps you could be playing. Also, personally I hate shumps with micrododge-heavy patterns (which is what danmaku is all about), that Cave helped in pioneering with DDP.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

ragebait troll account, interesting, I had my suspicions on the Gradius V post

[Starfighter]

I coincidentally wrote about this just the other day! Not DDP in particular, but percieved shmup difficulty in general. As I wrote then, it's quite easy to fall into the trap of comparing oneself to the folks that are exceptionally good at the genre. I've seen people go "I'm no expert at this game, but I beat it easily" and then it turns out they're like the fourteenth best scorer in the west (which in their eyes actually proves they're not experts, believe it or not ).

This forum is a good example of where very skilled players talk about the games as easy (which, to them, they really are) and then someone reads and repeats it and then we have a notion of easy games that's more tuned after the hardcore audience. This is not always the case, of course, I've seen plenty of users writing about the games in a very perceptive manner (BareKnuckleRoo being one of them, as evident by his answer in this very thread).

I guess to some degree it's like reading video game reviews back in the day - you sort of had to find a reviewer that had similar taste/skill as you to be sure you got an acceptable impression of games you hadn't personally tried out yet. So if you're a beginner, first and foremost look at what beginners have to say about a game's difficulty, if you're an intermediate player, listen to what the intermediate... you get the point!

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

[dethcow]

I coincidentally wrote about this just the other day! Not DDP in particular, but percieved shmup difficulty in general. As I wrote then, it's quite easy to fall into the trap of comparing oneself to the folks that are exceptionally good at the genre. I've seen people go "I'm no expert at this game, but I beat it easily" and then it turns out they're like the fourteenth best scorer in the west (which in their eyes actually proves they're not experts, believe it or not ).

This forum is a good example of where very skilled players talk about the games as easy (which, to them, they really are) and then someone reads and repeats it and then we have a notion of easy games that's more tuned after the hardcore audience. This is not always the case, of course, I've seen plenty of users writing about the games in a very perceptive manner (BareKnuckleRoo being one of them, as evident by his answer in this very thread).

I guess to some degree it's like reading video game reviews back in the day - you sort of had to find a reviewer that had similar taste/skill as you to be sure you got an acceptable impression of games you hadn't personally tried out yet. So if you're a beginner, first and foremost look at what beginners have to say about a game's difficulty, if you're an intermediate player, listen to what the intermediate... you get the point!

i honestly think people sell themselves short when it comes to shmups

i encourage everyone to track how many hours you spend on a particular shmup, for the following reason:
if you put ~50 hours into a shmup, chances are pretty good (depending on the shmup, of course) that you will be "pretty decent" at the shmup (quite possibly with a survival 1cc of it). but if you put ~50 hours into a fighting game, you are still very much a noob. ~50 hours in a rpg isn't even enough to beat the main story for many rpgs (not that there's really anything to "get good at" in that genre), and ~50 hours in a dota clone means you don't even know how to remotely play the game yet.
shmups are one of the genres most respectful of your time among all genres, and i think if more people actually tracked how much they actively played whatever shmup, they'd see that the problem isn't that they "aren't any good at it", but that they just haven't actually put the time in.
there are people on my friends list that have like 500 hours in vampire survivors. i'm 100% certain that if you put 500 hours into a shmup, you are going to be very, very good at it, regardless of what your own self-assessment of "skill" may be.

[Starfighter]

Also a very good point!

[MaXXX]

I'm pretty terrible at shmups and I made it to the last pattern of the last boss on one credit. My only other clears are Mushihimesama and a couple of the older Psikyo shmups that are easy to cheese.

I have played it on an off for close to 20 years though. When I first started getting to stage 3 was an acheivement

[BEAMLORD]

DDP is a hard game. Yes, it is generous with resources, and you can pick up 3 extends during the course of an average run, but it's no walk in the park, and those resources are no good unless you are able to execute your bombs and hold on to your lives long enough to stand a fighting chance. Sometimes you even have to dodge stuff

I've been playing it with serious intent to 1-ALL since around May/June, and have cleared it once, around 2 weeks ago. Still holding me hostage, as I wasn't recording when I had that run. Now, I can't get near it again

It's a Cave game. They're not easy for the majority of players, but they're not impossible, with a bit of time and application if a 1-ALL is your goal. So when someone says they're easy, unless they are Jaimers or Clover-TAC, don't believe them.

[MJR]

Hate to say it but I agree with Buzzy; I have mostly given up playing Cave games and gone back to Toaplan games.
Horses for courses I guess.

And yeah, I began playing DDP when it was out on Mame. Seeking tips for it made me discover shmups.com and then this forum was natural place to follow.
Never got further than 2nd loop; I practically gave up after clearing the first loop.