Magical Drop III 1CC, anybody?

[Davey]

I've been on a Magical Drop III kick lately, and I seem to have hit a wall. Usually things go like this:

1.) Beat everybody pretty easily up until Empress, who always beats me.
2.) If I'm too slow and fight World instead of Empress, I usually beat her, but then go on to Black Pierrot, who's just plain psychotic.
3.) Purposefully get a low score so I don't face Black Pierrot, get beat by Tower.

Has anybody 1CC'ed this game? Empress seems conquerable with practice, but beating Black Pierrot on the first shot seems inhuman. And even then, Tower would probably be impossibly hard.

This is in the Japanese version, btw. The US and Europe versions are much easier. Even Empress isn't all that tough.

I tried to get some MARP replays to work, but it just says CALENDAR ERROR when I try, most likely because of the combination of:

- The old versions of MAME used for recording
- The obscure DLLs referenced by those old MAME versions
- The different version of the ROM (Neo Geo ROMs were all redumped at some point, I think, maybe more than once?)

[iatneH]

I'm playing a MVS cart on a US motherboard with default settings... is this easier than playing the same cart on a JP motherboard?

I don't quite remember but I might have cleared it..... or maybe not :\

[Davey]

I'm a dirty pirate and don't know much about playing on real hardware, but MAME uses the same ROM for all three versions, you just specify which region's BIOS you want use when you start the game.

So I think the answer to your question is "yes," but I don't know.

From GameFAQs:

Oh, and (editorial ON) for the love of God, if you ever come across this
game on an MVS set to English-language mode, beg the arcade operator to
somehow change the language to Japanese. The English-language version
has the plot cut out, a whole difficulty setting cut out (on the Vs. CPU
mode), inane dialogue ("I'll never be beaten by the likes of you!" --
said by EVERY character), and really, really horrendous dubbing. (The
same cropping happened also on the English version of Magical Drop 2 -
plus that a WHOLE GAME MODE was cut out (Hirameki), and the voices
were not dubbed over but replaced by a single generic sound set. Anime
hackjob dubs have NOTHING on this. (editorial OFF)

(Note that I'm not talking about the additional difficultly level of the Japanese version, though. Japanese normal is harder than US normal.)

[BulletMagnet]

I've gotten up to the Tower (though I haven't topped him yet) and beaten the Black Pierrot on the JP Saturn version of the game, having left everything on default settings, though I'm not sure whether the Saturn's defaults are the same as those of the arcade version...I'm not a very skilled puzzle player (though MD3 is arguably my favorite of the genre), so somehow I'd guess that I'm not playing at the same difficulty you are.

[JJG]

My Japanese Saturn's in the mail, as soon as I receive it I will 1cc the hell out of this game. This is my favorite puzzle game of all time and I never get bored of it, my second favorite being tetris attack.

[raiden]

I'm playing a MVS cart on a US motherboard with default settings... is this easier than playing the same cart on a JP motherboard?

depends. The jp version has a hard difficulty mode not present in western versions. Easy and normal mode are comparable. I remember modding my MVS motherboard with an Unibios chip just to unlock that hard difficulty setting - but I´ve never 1cc-ed the game either. Never met a human opponent I couldn´t beat, but hard mode single player kicks my ass.

[Danny]

I've 1CC'd the mother when I was in pratice. I even beat Black Perriot who's a complete mother to defeat since his drop placing skills are just beyound human. I've also 1CC'd the PSX version as well on Arcade diff' and again beaten Black Perriot and unlocked him although I only had to get to him to unlock him I felt I might as well push the boat out just in case.

(I think that BP is just legendary when it comes to hardness, I mean in most games they require to beat the person but in MD3deluxe on the PSX you just have to get to the guy he's that tough lol.)

Oh yeah and for you info you should check out the PAL version of MD3 deluxe on the PSX since it is in fact the Japanese version translated in to English as well as other Europian languages. This means you get all the story and all the extra gameplay modes etc.

[iatneH]

OK, I guess with all the comments on how evil the last stage is, chances are I haven't cleared the game. I'm pretty sure I've reached Tower though... but is that the wimpy last stage? I thought I've beaten Empress before too...

[BulletMagnet]

Empress, IIRC, isn't a boss, though she's usually one of the later characters you face. I'm not sure if Tower's the last stage or not...

[Davey]

I haven't played any of the console ports, so I can't comment about their difficulty.

Easy and normal mode are comparable.

They're sorta close, but you can tell a difference. On normal, I've never beat Empress on the first shot in the Japanese version, but she's not all that tough in the European version (which is the MAME default). And when I face Black Pierrot in the European version, I can almost keep up with the number of drops, but his pattern just kills me (in the Japanese version, he completely smokes me). I probably average 100,000 points more per game in the European version, too.

I'm leaving hard mode alone for now...

(I think that BP is just legendary when it comes to hardness, I mean in most games they require to beat the person but in MD3deluxe on the PSX you just have to get to the guy he's that tough lol.)

Is it the same condition as the arcade, earn 150,000 points by the end of stage 10 and use no continues? I find it's hard not to have that many points by then, unless I specifically try not to.

On a side note, MARP has a replay with 1,855,396 points. How in the hell is this possible? I wish I could get it to work.

I'm not sure if Tower's the last stage or not...

Nope, Fortune is the final boss. She's easier than Tower though, but that could just be because I usually have to continue when I face Tower, which lowers the difficulty.

[Danny]

(I think that BP is just legendary when it comes to hardness, I mean in most games they require to beat the person but in MD3deluxe on the PSX you just have to get to the guy he's that tough lol.)

Is it the same condition as the arcade, earn 150,000 points by the end of stage 10 and use no continues? I find it's hard not to have that many points by then, unless I specifically try not to.

Yeah I know how to get to him but in the console versions to unlock the characters so they become playable without cheating you have to beat them but since the game treats BP like some kind of freaky "bonus stage" you will unlock him anyway since you have technicly past his stage.

Oh yeah and the PSX PAL port of Magical Drop 3+ is in fact Magical Drop 3 Wonderful which also comes with a free copy of Magical Drop 1+... which is nice!

EDIT: Oh and since we are on the topic of MD, my favourate character is Death heh.

EDIT 2: Oh and to get massive scores in this game beat people in less than 10 seconds! (and yes it is possable...)

[JJG]

My favorite character is Strength and beating people in 10 seconds is no problem as you said.

[iatneH]

OK, so this means I suck at this game, as usual for most other games.

[JJG]

Like any other game it takes a lot of practice but I do think that some people are better at certain types of games than others. I'm not really great at fighters or racing games but I don't like them any less. I'm good at Magical Drop but I suck at the original Tetris or Columns, you have to find what you're good at and go with that. As far as puzzle games go though I definitely think some people are just better at seeing matches, as well as not panicking.

[Davey]

Yeah I know how to get to him but in the console versions to unlock the characters so they become playable without cheating you have to beat them but since the game treats BP like some kind of freaky "bonus stage" you will unlock him anyway since you have technicly past his stage.

Ah, I misunderstood you then. In the arcade version, BP isn't unlockable at all, you can only play against him.

My favorite character is Strength and beating people in 10 seconds is no problem as you said.

Yeah you can't go wrong with Strength.

[JJG]

I beat every character without any incident until I get to black pierrot. Black pierrot is rediculous, he throws everything on the left and right sides at the same time at crazy speeds. I'm thinking maybe if I slow myself down as far as how fast I beat the other characters he might be a little more managable when I get to him (haven't tested this theory).

[Davey]

Never met a human opponent I couldn´t beat, but hard mode single player kicks my ass.

I tried hard mode today out of curiosity, and it gets ridiculous pretty fast. I can't get past stage 4 on my first credit.

I recorded myself playing so I could see what the computer was doing (since I'm too focused on what I'm doing to pay attention to them while I'm playing). The CPU's character can move all the way across the field in a single frame. Is this even possible for human players, given ideal conditions (running on real hardware, perfect joystick, godlike reflexes)? If not, I don't see how anybody could 1CC it.

[BulletMagnet]

The CPU's character can move all the way across the field in a single frame.

Forgive me if I recall incorrectly, but doesn't the game give you the ability to move "through the wall," as in, if you're up against the right wall and move right again, you'll come out on the left side? Maybe that's what it did...?

[Davey]

You can do that in Puzzle mode, but not Vs. mode (kinda dumb, I really wish you could). In any case, I just used that as an extreme example: the CPU could skip around from any point to any point in a single frame. Granted, I'm playing on an emulator and I'm not the world's fastest human, but I've never been able to move over more than one column at a time (let alone, like, 7).

[JJG]

I've been playing the Saturn version but I'm gonna pick up the MVS copy from the post office today, I'll see what differences I find.

[undamned]

Rise from your grave!

Does anybody know if there are notable differences between the SS & PS versions? I'd like to pick this game up, but was debating which one to search out. Most of my puzzle games are import PS1, so I was kinda hoping to keep everything on the same system...
-ud

[neorichieb1971]

I just recently picked up MD3 on MVS. I'll give it a whirl on my days off. Don't expect much from me though I'm pretty lame at these games. Its interesting what you guys are trying to do though lol.

[StarCreator]

I wasn't aware there was a PS1 version. I've only played the MVS and Saturn versions (which are so different that I can't even consider them the same game).

If there's one game that can get me back into PCB collecting, it would be this (or Pork)...

[BulletMagnet]

Does anybody know if there are notable differences between the SS & PS versions?

I know there's a different intro movie, and I think there are a few minor graphical differences...if memory serves, though, there are two or three different versions on the PS1 (the Saturn port was reprinted, but not changed at all IIRC), which have different extras (one of them includes the original Magical Drop). GaijinPunch could probably give you more details, he briefly mentions a bit of this on his site.

[GaijinPunch]

Rise from your grave!

Does anybody know if there are notable differences between the SS & PS versions? I'd like to pick this game up, but was debating which one to search out. Most of my puzzle games are import PS1, so I was kinda hoping to keep everything on the same system...
-ud

Well 1, the titles are different. PS: Yokubari Daigou and SS: Toratate Tokudaigou. If you find Recap's "differences in ports" thread (it sis somewhere on the interwebs I'm sure) he talks about both of these.

[undamned]

Rise from your grave!

Does anybody know if there are notable differences between the SS & PS versions? I'd like to pick this game up, but was debating which one to search out. Most of my puzzle games are import PS1, so I was kinda hoping to keep everything on the same system...
-ud

Well 1, the titles are different. PS: Yokubari Daigou and SS: Toratate Tokudaigou. If you find Recap's "differences in ports" thread (it sis somewhere on the interwebs I'm sure) he talks about both of these.

Hmm, maybe my google-fu is weak, but all I could find was about the SS port:

Magical Drop III. Another MVS port. Lots of changes: missing animations, cosmetic changes, secrets, difficulty levels and game modes. I suppose the "Toretate Zoukangou!" subtitle was advising us this was an "alternate version".

-ud

[GaijinPunch]

Nope, that's the one (and yeah, I screwed the title). I guess he doesn't mention about the PS port. Mine is available for sheckles if you want to try it out.

[Acid King]

So what are the substantive differences in the characters? I feel like I'm missing something here but I don't really notice a difference between them. I gave Strength a try in Challenge mode and got further than I'd ever had before, but I don't really get why. I've just been trying to 1cc Survival on Normal and lkewise, don't really notice a difference in the characters.

[StarCreator]

I don't know about survival mode, but it makes a big difference in versus/story - the character you choose determines what kind of drop pattern the opponent receives when you start doing chains. It makes it so the only way to get a fair fight is to mirror match =/

[genecyst]

i've 1cc the european arcade version and the ss arcade version... to be honest in normal setting i can't see many big differences.