GD: Homura

For posting and requesting strategic gameplay tips on shmups!
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agony
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GD: Homura

Post by agony »

Could anyone please explain the scoring system?
Would be nice :D



<changed RQ to GD -inc.>
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Kiken
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Post by Kiken »

Well, it was somewhat explained in the Homura thread on the main part of the forum.

The controls are by default:
X=Sword
O=Shot
Triangle=Shot
Square=Sword
R1 (Sword + Shot)=Bomb
L1 (Sword + Shot)=Bomb

On my PS2 Saturn pad it defaults to:
A=Sword
B=Shot
C=Bomb

Which actually works really well.

If you are holding down fire, and then press sword, you will not bomb. To activate the bomb, both sword and shot must be pressed simultaneously (so you would have to release shot and then press both together).

The bonus system revolves around using the sword button. You can only use the sword button when your character is surrounded by the green spinning Sanskrit (which takes 5 seconds to replenish after a use).

When you are close to an enemy and hit the sword button, your guy dashes around like mad destroying everything (Homura Mad-Dash TM). The more enemies on-screen at the moment you initiate the attack, the higher the resulting bonus multiplier will be. The multiplier slowly drops with time (one level every 10 seconds or so, not too sure, but it doesn't drop rapidly). If you initiate another sword dash though, the multiplier will instantly be changed to the result of the new dash.

In closing, it's good to try to nail a high dash near the beginning of the level and then ride the high multiplier out until you're close to the end of the level where you should try to get it back up again for the boss battle.

If you are not close to an enemy when you hit the sword button, you will perform a counter-slash, which will reflect all nearby bullets (it can actually hit bullets behind you too). The more bullets you reflect, the higher the bullet multiplier will be. Using the counter-slash will not affect the Mad-Dash multiplier.

It would appear that killing bosses quickly is a smart move, as your Mad-Dash multiplier is constantly dropping during the battle. I'm wondering if strategic aggressive bombing is a good idea here...

BTW, every time you die, you will respawn with one extra bomb (you start out with 2, so if you die, your next life will have 3 bombs... and so on).
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Post by agony »

thank you, thats really help :)
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Post by zakk »

An observation, and a question!


In boss battles, I'm wondering if it's worth investigating milking them. Some of the bullet patterns, especially the 'radiating' kind, start out very dense. It may be worth sword slashing the patterns early. I did it to the first boss' tank form, when it spews out that 'star'. One slash alone was worth 2M+ points.
The bosses time out fairly aggressively, so it may not be worth it.

Now:

What determines how many 'orbs' are around you? Notice you start with two. The number will continue to go up. I've seen at least four. It seems to be related to the meter on the upper left. The horizontal one; the circle one just appears to be a meter determining when your sword can be used again.
Also, wtf do the 'orbs' do?
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Post by Kiken »

zakk wrote:An observation, and a question!


In boss battles, I'm wondering if it's worth investigating milking them. Some of the bullet patterns, especially the 'radiating' kind, start out very dense. It may be worth sword slashing the patterns early. I did it to the first boss' tank form, when it spews out that 'star'. One slash alone was worth 2M+ points.
The bosses time out fairly aggressively, so it may not be worth it.
The timing-out factor is what leans me towards killing them quickly. I'd wager that the Mad-Dash multiplier applied to the boss parts can outweigh a series of hefty Counter-Slashes.


zakk wrote: What determines how many 'orbs' are around you? Notice you start with two. The number will continue to go up. I've seen at least four. It seems to be related to the meter on the upper left. The horizontal one; the circle one just appears to be a meter determining when your sword can be used again.
Also, wtf do the 'orbs' do?
I'm not 100% sure what triggers them, but they are somehow linked to your comboing (which the horizontal green bar is measuring). The orbs represent your current weapon level. For each additional orb, you get another stream of fire.
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Post by Kiken »

BTW, I figured I should mention the fact that your character moves faster when you aren't firing.
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Post by agony »

zakk wrote:An observation, and a question!
What determines how many 'orbs' are around you? Notice you start with two. The number will continue to go up. I've seen at least four. It seems to be related to the meter on the upper left. The horizontal one; the circle one just appears to be a meter determining when your sword can be used again.
Also, wtf do the 'orbs' do?
in the upper left is a blue bar, it gets bigger every time you collect these golden stones if the bar is full you get an extra orb and also more fire power

4 is maximum
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Post by Kiken »

Has anyone managed to figure out how to proceed down the Hard path in stage 3?

The game constantly auto-selects the Easy path for me each time. I can no-bomb the sub-boss, and have gotten to him with a score over 500 million... but I haven't been able to No-Miss to him yet (I can No-Miss the sub-boss himself, but I always do something stupid at the beginning of stage 3).
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Post by Kiken »

It appears I was wrong about the bombs.

You don't lose bombs when you die. When you respwan, you simply get an additional bomb, which is added to your current stock. Which means that you get a total of 6 bombs in the game (2 for your first life, and 1 for each of your additional lives, up to 4).
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Post by gameoverDude »

zakk wrote:An observation, and a question!


In boss battles, I'm wondering if it's worth investigating milking them. Some of the bullet patterns, especially the 'radiating' kind, start out very dense. It may be worth sword slashing the patterns early. I did it to the first boss' tank form, when it spews out that 'star'. One slash alone was worth 2M+ points.
The bosses time out fairly aggressively, so it may not be worth it.
One good time to get a lot of counter-slash points is against the 2nd stage boss' first form. Right after he shoots that annoying thin and fast pattern, he'll head up slightly north of center and start flooding the screen with a thick circular pattern that can be worth a lot. Right after you counter this pattern a 2nd time you should be ready to deplete the lifebar and go to the next form.

The stage 2 midboss has some dense attacks immediately following his "spiderweb" pattern. I'm thinking it may not be a bad idea to counter one of these before putting him down.

Counter-slash points:
(1000 * Multiplier) * (Number of Bullets Canceled)
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Post by Kiken »

Just figured I'd get these down in writing:

Flames (like from the stage 2 mid-boss) and Giga-Lasers (a bunch of enemies fire these, the long continuous laser streams) can also be countered with the counter slash.

After performing the counter slash or the Mad Dash, there's about a 1 second envelope of invinsibility.
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Post by Kiken »

Zweihander figured out how to get to the Hard path on stage 3:
Get the Mid-Boss down to less than half his life, but don't kill him (let him time-out.. he'll actually crash into the gate).

Some other quick techniques that I've learned:

If you want to move quickly while firing, slowly tap the shot button (don't rapidly tap it), you'll get quick bursts of speed with uninterupted fire (each time you tap Fire, Homura releases 3 salvos of shot).

When using th ecounter-slash, it pays to move into the bullets while using it (don't simply stand still). You cover more area. Also, if you're holding down fire while you tap the Sword button, you'll have slower movement while slashing (the slower speed caused by firing carries over), so to cover as much area as possible, stop firing when you go to slash.
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Post by Kiken »

BTW, 焔 (Homura, which is a gikun... the symbol is normaly read as Honoo) means flame or blaze. Just figured I'd mention that for the non-Japanese readers out there.
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Post by Kiken »

The multiplier from the end of stage 4 is actually carried over into stage 5 (I suppose because there are no standard enemies there, just the boss), instead of resetting back to 1 as it does in the prior levels.
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Mad-Dash dissection

Post by Zweihander »

I've deduced this much: when you do another Mad-Dash, you-- in some way or another-- add to your current multiplier.

There seems to be more to it than simply, "your next mad-dash, consisting of more enemies, is your new multiplier, regardless of your previous Mad-Dash multiplier." Quite the opposite-- It seems to, once again, add to your previous multiplier.

A nice way to take advantage of the multiplier in the first level's starting segment:

1. Kill the first wave of 6 enemies, grab coins. immediately draw enemy fire toward the lower-left corner of the screen (where the 2nd wave of six enemies, coming from the upper right, will exit the screen). Wait for it.. wait for it... SLASH when the first enemy is about to leave the screen. You should nail x12, and possibly x13 if you happen to catch the beginning of the next wave. (and possibly hit a few bullets, due to drawing their fire.)

2. When the two guys come down and shoot straight paths of green bullets, go to the left. draw the popcorn enemies' fire. after the green shots pass, rush to the right side, where a green-shooting guy will leave the screen. wait for both of them to almost leave the screen, then STRIKE. You should get up to x18 or x19, depending on your timing.

3. go back to the center screen. press fire once, get the guys crossing over at the middle only, but leave the other on-screen enemies. Then just wait it out, and-- SLASH-- should be up to x26 or so by now.

4. Shoot the several guys who come down and annoy you with bullets. Then, pull off the finisher (keep in mind this will have to last you til the end of the level) on the huge-ass group of popcorn enemies and nail a x48 or x49, depending on timing. (note: be sure to shoot down all the enemies before this huge batch of popcorn enemies, but don't hit the popcorn enemies themselves, as your multiplier is relying on their existence.)

In short, I found out the "addition to your multiplier #" by skipping the first 3 steps and going on step 4. Not only did i get a shit score prior to that, but it only gave me a x29 or x30-something.

Thus, it's dependant on your previous Mad-Dash.

I'm currently trying to figure out the "lose multiplier" scenario. I know if you slash less than the previous mad-dash combo, it drops significantly-- enough to cause incentive to restart the game if you're still on level 1. I have two theories I'm trying to narrow it down from:

1. If you slash less enemies, your multiplier is halved.

2. If you slash less enemies, you lose the difference between your current multiplier, and the # of enemies you just slashed. Ex: x48 multiplier. Slash 30 enemies at once, and your multiplier would drop by 18... in theory. I have yet to test this.

This presents my belief in a somewhat annoying flaw in the game: nocounter displaying the number of enemies you just slashed, i.e. the number you must hit next time if you wish to increase your multiplier.

Also, it's a tad annoying when you get a x48 at the start of level 1, but by the time you choose a path and encounter enemies, it's dropped to x44 or x42 or some shit. Makes me wish there was a # displayed on-screen, showing your current multiplier. (Galuda, Mushi, etc.)

Aside from the lack of number display (current multiplier, and previous slash #), I think this is an ace game, and definitely something to keep oneself busy until Ibara hits PS2 on 2-26-06. w00t!
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Post by Kiken »

Interesting theory, ZweiHander. I'm going to have to pay closer attention to that.

One thing that I accidentaly stumbled across is the ability to skip a barrier slash during the Mad-Dash. If you rapidly tap the fire button when Homura is mid-Mad-Dash he will actually skip the next barrier which will result in a lower multiplier. The trade off is that you can complete the mad-dash faster (the max number of barriers created during the Mad-Dash is 7 [the original translation for the attack being "Seven Barrier Slash"], but if there are fewer enemies than 7, Homura will be able to complete the dash in less time than normal).
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Post by Zweihander »

@ Kiken-- I tested that theory, and i think i actually skipped once (the 2nd attack i make in the first stage, which normally raises my Multiplier from x12 to x18, raised it to x17 instead). Under normal circumstances though, I guess I don't have enough madd Quake skillz to skip a barrier. ^^;; Guess that's not entirely a bad thing, then. :lol:

Also, I can confirm that 99 is the max. ammount of credits one can acquire. Not like it matters much, personally I can clear the game with 3 or so continues. :oops: (Hey, I can make it to stage 4 on one credit.... I just get brutally dismembered and/or raped shortly into the stage...)
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Post by Kiken »

Zweihander wrote:Also, I can confirm that 99 is the max. ammount of credits one can acquire. Not like it matters much, personally I can clear the game with 3 or so continues. :oops: (Hey, I can make it to stage 4 on one credit.... I just get brutally dismembered and/or raped shortly into the stage...)
So is the game letting you access stage 5 by continuing in stage 4... or is it ending after the stage 4 boss battle?

If it's ending after stage 4.. what is the "bad" ending like?

The "good" ending (other than the escape sequence) only has a single graphic for the ending as the credits begin to roll (image #53 in the gallery, the one of Homura standing on the cliff and looking at the countryside).

What part of stage 4 are you having trouble with? I'd be happy to offer any advice. I hope to have an SCC replay recorded and uploaded in the next couple of days.
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Post by Zweihander »

Kiken wrote:
So is the game letting you access stage 5 by continuing in stage 4... or is it ending after the stage 4 boss battle?

If it's ending after stage 4.. what is the "bad" ending like?

The "good" ending (other than the escape sequence) only has a single graphic for the ending as the credits begin to roll (image #53 in the gallery, the one of Homura standing on the cliff and looking at the countryside).

What part of stage 4 are you having trouble with? I'd be happy to offer any advice. I hope to have an SCC replay recorded and uploaded in the next couple of days.
Yeah, it ends after stage 4. ~_~ Pisses me off, I mean I paid $65 for the goddamn game and I can't even play it for all its worth... blargh.

Jesus H. Christ, you've never gotten the "bad" ending? T_T god damn, I suck......... :oops:

Nothing really "bad", just a sword stuck in the ground in a field.. one of the last pics in the gallery as well.

I just can't deal with... anything... in stage 4. ^^; too many enemies, too many types of enemy bullets at once for me to deal with, just too much spam in general... what's this "escape sequence" you speak of?

cinematics, in a shmup??!! Is it just something really basic in-game, like the fly-by sequences from Iky, or is it something more, like an FMV? ...though i'd hardly expect the latter, considering this is 1. by Skonec, who invest their efforts into gameplay and the occasional fly-by angle, and 2. a freakin' Type-X game. :/

Please spoil, as i'll never see it myself. :lol:

EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention... my strategy a few posts back is based on the assumption you rapid-tap during the Mad-Dash, to be able to slash again ASAP. ^^;
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Post by Ghegs »

Zweihander wrote:Jesus H. Christ, you've never gotten the "bad" ending? T_T god damn, I suck......... :oops:
Nah, it just tells us that Kiken never credit-feeds.
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Post by Kiken »

Ghegs wrote:
Zweihander wrote:Jesus H. Christ, you've never gotten the "bad" ending? T_T god damn, I suck......... :oops:
Nah, it just tells us that Kiken never credit-feeds.
That is correct. I just couldn't bring myself to credit-feed this game at all. Not to mention, I know that Skonec have a habit of including special final stage/bosses that can only be accessed if you don't continue.

And yes, Zweihander, it seems you were correct about the way that the Mad-Dash multipliers are actually chained together, so to speak.

And SAM, I checked the CD-ROM in my PC drive, there's only data for 5 stages, so I'm pretty damn sure I made it to the true final boss (the names you posted accurately describe the enemy... not to mention there are no other images in the gallery).

What has me a little baffled is how to obtain the final image (Homura chained to a wall)? It would seem that the one I'm getting (the one where he's standing on the cliff) is the "good end", and that the one with the sword in the cliff is the "bad end". I wonder if not taking all Hard paths will get the last image...
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Post by SAM »

Kiken wrote:And SAM, I checked the CD-ROM in my PC drive, there's only data for 5 stages, so I'm pretty damn sure I made it to the true final boss (the names you posted accurately describe the enemy... not to mention there are no other images in the gallery).
So it won't display ALL after even you beat the hidden boss... :? (No 2nd loop either)

Congret to your SCC. :D
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Post by Kiken »

SAM wrote: So it won't display ALL after even you beat the hidden boss... :? (No 2nd loop either)

Congret to your SCC. :D
Nope. It just says that you reached stage 5 (which is still technically true). And no, there's no second loop (Skonec don't do second loops).

Thank you.


And after thinking about it, I think I figured out how to obtain the 3rd ending (I guess the "so-so" ending): complete the game but continue in stage 5.
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Post by Nemo »

Does anyone know the pluses and minuses of the different paths in first 3 stages besides difficulty? Like do you get penalized for choosing the easy path or better scoring opportunities with the hard path?
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Post by Kiken »

Nemo wrote:Does anyone know the pluses and minuses of the different paths in first 3 stages besides difficulty? Like do you get penalized for choosing the easy path or better scoring opportunities with the hard path?
Actually, as far as stage 1 goes, the higher scores are being obtained on the Easy path (about 40 million greater than those on Hard). Stage 2 seems to be a total toss-up, however stage 3 definitely offers more enemies on Hard than on Easy, meaning higher combos.

As of yet, nobody has posted any penalties for taking Easy paths over Hard ones.

The only penalty, per se, is if you continue before beating the stage 4 boss you can not progress to stage 5.
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Post by EOJ »

...
Last edited by EOJ on Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by zakk »

twe wrote:I have no clue why you guys state the "right" paths are HARD and the "left" paths are EASY. Where does it say this in the game? In the first level, for example, the right path is simply termed the EAST path while the left path is the WEST path. There's really no reason to go down the RIGHT/EAST path in Level 1, as you get about 40-60 million more points if you go down the LEFT/WEST path.

The instruction manual does state that the paths differ SLIGHTLY in difficulty. However, it does not state this coincides with LEFT paths always being EASY and right paths always being HARD. It instead says that some paths are easier and some are harder. Based on my own play experience, I'd term the following as more difficult (in terms of amounts of enemies & bullets):

LV1: HARD=LEFT, EASY=RIGHT
LV2: Not clear on this one, they seem about the same.
LV3: HARD=RIGHT, EASY=LEFT

Anyway, I think it's much better to just call them the LEFT/RIGHT (or WEST/EAST) paths rather than EASY/HARD, as this gives a better indication of what paths the player really took.

BTW Kiken, this could be the reason why when you 1CC'd the game it did not say "ALL". Perhaps you have to go down all the more difficult paths to get this (for example, you took the Easier "RIGHT" path on your all-clear vid instead of the harder "LEFT" path on LV1).

Uhh, in the game, over the path choices, it says 'hard' and easy'.
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Post by EOJ »

zakk wrote:
Uhh, in the game, over the path choices, it says 'hard' and easy'.
Oops. I just played again and noticed it finally. I play in Yoko, so it's rather hard to see. :oops:
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Post by BulletMagnet »

Just got this today, pretty cool game. There are still a handful of things I need to figure out, but most of the essentials seem to be covered here.

I'll hafta try that "multiplier chaining" thing...sounds kind of wonky...if I read it right, is the basic idea to start off by slashing a small group, and then a slightly bigger one, and then a slightly bigger one than that, etc., to somehow "keep" a bit of the previous groups?
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Post by edo »

Hi BulletMagnet, (and other folks in general; I'm new here!).

Just to clear things up a little, whenever you perform a combo, your new multiplier is evaluated as follows: 1/2 previous multiplier (round fractions down) + number of enemies killed with combo.

So for example, you start a stage and slash a group of 12 for a x12 multiplier. A few seconds later after your sword guage has filled, you slash another smaller group of 10. Your new multiplier will most likely be x15 (your previous multiplier would have dropped to x11, halved and rounded = x5, + the x10 for the group you just killed). So it's actually possible to slash a smaller group yet still increase your multiplier.

I hope that's clear enough for you all.
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