ST: Senko no Ronde Rev. X/Wartech: Senko no Ronde

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dai jou bu
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ST: Senko no Ronde Rev. X/Wartech: Senko no Ronde

Post by dai jou bu »

It's pretty nice of G.Rev to explain the game mechanics to you through their website, but unless you're determined to try to understand how to play the game translated in your native language through Bablefish or are fluent enough in Japanese to read it on your own, OR you have no idea how to play this game properly even though you have the English version in your hands because you somehow don't have a physical copy of the game's manual, you can opt to look at this little strategy guide I made as an alternative. Since G.Rev did a good job explaining the game in both pictures and words, I'm going to steal some of ther images since I'm too lazy to meticulously try to acquire screenshots through an inferior capture device and then gradually go insane by attempting to label the important stuff on the screen in my own style through Photoshop.

So without further ado, here's the ST.

The Game Screen
G.Rev cleverly took enough aspects from one of Sega's best titles and made it different enough to be considered a completely different game. The game I refer to is Virtual On, and before I go into detailed comparison between the two, let me show you the game screen G.Rev put on their How to Play section of their website first and explain what those numbers mean:


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That's sure a lot of numbers on that screen. Here's what they mean:




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1- Armor Gauge (aka- Lifebar)
This is your lifebar. Every time you get hit by something your opponent threw at you, the blue bar will begin to shorten in the direction towards the center of the screen. When the bar empties, it will flash "Vanish!" inside it, meaning that you need to take one more hit before losing the round.


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2- Charge Gauge
This gauge allows you to perform you character's more unique attacks. By default, the meter slowly fills itself automatically. Although the size of the bar remians the same for all characters, the vertical markers for each character will differ in size, meaning that some characters are able to unleash their special moves at a fraction of the cost other characters would spend on.

Because the Charge Gauge plays an important role in this game, more information will be explained about it later.


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3- Number of Rounds Won
Each dark circle represents a round, and each one filled in with a color signifies a round won for that player. The maximum number of rounds necessary to win a match is capped to 5.


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4- Time Counter
Amount of time remaining for the round. If both players are still standing when the timer reaches zero, the player with the most life remaining will be awarded the round point. If both players have the same amount of life when the countdown timer reaches zero, they will both recieve a round point, and if you're playing a match against the AI in story mode or score attack, this counts as a loss for you.

When the Time Counter hits twenty seconds, the entire background will start flashing red.


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5- B.O.S.S. Stock
Each B icon represents the number of times you can go into your character's B.O.S.S. mode. This is set to 2 per match, and I don't think there's any way to change the setting for this for a versus match.


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6- Overdrive Gauge
This changes colors at random intervals.

Green- Overdrive is on standby.
Not blinking or Gray- Overdrive mode is permanently disabled.
Blue- Overdrive Mode is activated.
Red- Overdrive Mode is temporarily disabled. (usually occurs when your opponent enters B.O.S.S. mode)

More will be explained about what Overdrive does later.



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7- Character Status Display
You cannot move into these areas no matter how hard you try. Mostly for show as it displays what commands you're pressing as well as what character you're using and the player's Gamertag right below it. You can complately eliminate these backgrounds in the game options, but it's not recommended because you'll be wondering why you can't go beyond where the B.O.S.S. icons are.

The next three parts of the screen, because they're so close to each other, will be displayed all in one screenshot I stole from G.Rev's website:


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8- Rounder
That's you! And your opponent! One thing that is not mentioned on G.Rev's site though is that the left player's bullets and explosions will always have a green-blue hue while the right player's bullets and explosions will have an orange hue to them.

9- Sub Weapon Gauge
The innermost ring surrounding your Rounder displays the ammunition of your sub weapon as well as its name.

10- Main Weapon Gauge
The outermost ring surrounding your Rounder displays the ammunition of your main weapon as well as its name.




Game Controls
Okay, now that you've seen the screen, here's what the buttons do on an Xbox 360 controller.

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Main Weapon (aka-M or Main)
Like the name says, this is going to be the button you're going to be pressing most of the time during a match.

Sub Weapon(aka-S or Sub)
Also self-explanatory. This the other button you'll be pressing often, but not as much as the other I just mentioned.

Barrage (aka- M+S)
The 360 version maps this command to a seperate button, but before this, you had to activate it by pressing both the Main Weapon and Sub Weapon buttons simultaneously. Doing this generates a third unique attack. You'll also need press the Barrage button (or Main and Sub Weapon buttons simultaneously) last in a command string to initate your character's other special moves.

Dash
The 360 version mapped this command to a seperate button. While holding the directional pad or analog stick in any given direction and then pressing this button, your character will start moving faster in that direction. This is an integral part of the game, (just like it was in Virtual On) meaning that there's going to be some detailed explanations about this feature later in this post.

Barrier
Also mapped to a seperate button for the 360 version. When holding this button down, your character will move even slower than their normal speed and generate a force field in front of them. Note that your character doesn't have to be facing the direction of the projectile that's going to slam right into them in order for the Barrier to work; it just has to be on =\. Your character's Main Weapon and/or Sub Weapon may have different properties to them when the Barrier is on as well.

Act Old/Act New(aka- A)
Senko no Ronde originally had the Barrier and the Dash commands mapped onto one button, which was simply dubbed A. So technically, you can play the game with three buttons. In the inital release of Senko no Ronde, the rules for using the Barrier and Dash were these (Act Old):
Scott Tsai's FAQ at GameFAQs wrote: A(Dash) while the stick is neutral activates your Barrier. Using the Dash button in conjunction with a direction moves you in that direction;
When New Ver. was released in arcades, there was another method to use the Act button, which I prefer(Act New):
- When A is first pressed, regardless if you were moving or not, your barrier will turn on.
- If you immediately release the button, your character will dash in the direction you were moving to.

You will need to manually remap your controller/arcade stick to use these commands if you want to do it the arcade way ;).

B.O.S.S (aka- A+M+S)
Your character's Rounder transforms into their boss mode. Traditionally, you had to press the A, Main Weapon, and Sub Weapon buttons simultaneously to activate it, but the 360 version allows this command to be mapped to a single button. Activating this transforms your chracter into a huge and slow machine that bears firepower similar to those of shmup bosses. More will be explained on this aspect later.

Overdrive
Makes your Rounder enter Overdrive mode.


Weapon System
Senko no Ronde is a fighting game that was heavily inspired by Virtual On. The first thing that Senko no Ronde borrows is the weapon system. You have a limited duration in which any of your weapons can fire continuously.

However, unlike Virtual On, Senko no Ronde gives you a hard time trying to figure out how much ammunition you have left:

- You can't clearly tell how much you've used because the ring turns gray (usually for the Main Weapon). In this case, you have to stop firing that weapon to notice how much of the ring is filled counter-clockwise (with 12 o'clock always at whatever direction the front of your Rounder is facing) with red.



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- If the entire ring is completely red, the name of that weapon will be replaced by the word "RELOAD," and you cannot use that weapon until the ring is completely green and the weapon name returns.
- Dashing makes your weapon rings spin all over the place in a stylish way in order to reorient itself when you're done doing it.

Also like in Virtual On, the properties of your weapons may or may not change when you dash and/or activate your Barrier.

Another thing to note about the weapons is that certain ones will immediately reload itself when you're not using it while others (usually the Sub Weapon) require you to completely empty it before the weapon can reload, and some will completely empty even though you didn't launch your entire salvo!

Facing Your Opponent
Your Rounder will always try to face your opponent. The only times you will lose track of facing (or won't turn at all to) your opponent is when:

- you fire a weapon
- you dash
- your Rounder is stunned by getting hit enough times
- you activate your Barrier. Your Rounder will try to face the direction you want to move to, but it won't turn too far away from where your opponent is.



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Dashing
G.Rev literally stole all of the dashing mechanics that were found in Virtual On. The system works like this:

- Press Dash (or A) and a specific direction to dash there.
- To turn, move the character in the direction you want to turn to
- To stop your dash, press the Dash button (or A) again. Doing this will also immediately reorient your Rounder to face your opponent.
- (slightly different from Virtual On) To instantaneously change the vector of your dash (called a Watari Dash in Virtual On), press another direction and then press Dash(or A) to move there.

You can also fire your weapons while dashing. Like in Virtual On, however, this comes at a price. After you fire one of your weapons while dashing,

- You cannot turn until your dash ends.
- You cannot instantaneously dash in another direction until the dash ends.
- You cannot fire another weapon until your dash ends.
- You are unable to do anything for a split second after your dash ends. This also applies if you let your dash run its full course without interrupting it.

Also like in Virtual On, if your weapon only fires in the direction that the front of your Rounder faces, it will try to turn to your opponent while firing simultaneously (or if you're lucky, your Rounder will turn first towards the direction of your opponent before they fire their weapon). Make sure to be in a position where it won't waste your entire salvo before your Rounder actually faces your opponent.

Dash Cancel
Okay, I lied about not being able to do anything after you fire a weapon while dashing. There is a way to stop your dash trajectory after performing this action by pressing A immediately afterwards. If performed successfuly, your Rounder will stop their dash and will be able to perform another action immediately afterwards.

Be warned though that certain weapons used will prevent you from dash cancelling immediately after the attack, while others won't even allow you to dash cancel at all.



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Weapon System- Close Combat (aka- CC)
Your Rounder can also perform melee attacks in this game, and the concept was also borrowed from Virtual On. However, don't fool yourself into thinking that your Barrier works at defending against them; unlike Virtual On, there's no way to "block" their attacks other than getting out of the way.

To get into CC range, you must move your Rounder close enough to your opponent so that your weapon gauge disappears. The first one to go is always the Main Weapon.

Main Weapon
- Pressing the Main Weapon when your Main Weapon Gauge disappears initiates a Chase CC. What this means is that your Rounder will dash a certain distance up to your opponent before your Rounder strikes with their melee attack. You can interrupt this by pressing the Main Weapon button repeatedly, which will then start your Rounder's attack animation.
- Your Rounder will always need a minimum "Chase CC Time" before they'll start swinging, so make sure not to use this attack when you're very close to your opponent.
- The Main Weapon Melee attacks consists of three swings for most Rounders. You can interchange one of the swings after the first with the Sub Weapon.
- If you think you'll get hit by your opponent before you land the first swing or of you think you can't cover the distance between you and your opponent, you can interrupt the Chase CC by pressing the Dash(or A) button to cancel and dash in a different direction. However, unlike Virtual On, your Rounder will pause to stop the animation before they are able to do anything else.
- Like in Virtual On you can perform the Chase CC while you're dashing to your opponent (if you're in range, of course). Your character will immediately stop their dash and then begin their Chase CC.

Sub Weapon Melee
The Sub Weapon Melee attack is one powerful strike. This attack doesn't initiate a CC Chase like the Main Weapon does, but the trade-off is that these attacks come out faster.

Be careful of what character you're using as each Sub Weapon melee attack is completely different: some will use it defensively by spinning in place while others will try use it offensively by drop kicking their opponent and fly off in the other direction until their attack animation finishes.



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The Charge Gauge
The Charge Gauge, as mentioned before, is pretty important in Senko no Ronde. It provides energy for a few things:

- Your Barrier eats up small amounts of the Charge Gauge for every hit taken from a projectile in exchange for reduced damage taken as well as not getting stunned from them
- Your Barrage attacks and special moves will eat up the equivalent of one bar on the Charge Gauge.
- Your B.O.S.S. form slowly drains this meter when activated
- At certain situations, you can manually activate your Antifield at the cost of 50% of a full Charge Gauge

The Charge Gauge, by default, replenishes slowly. To speed it up, you need to:

- Deal damage to your opponent
- Recieve damage from your opponent
- Destroy your opponent's B.O.S.S. form
- Enter Overdrive
- Your Armor Gauge is empty and the word "Vanish!!" is flashing in it

Other than using your special abilities to drain your Charge Gauge, you can also lose a huge chunk of your reserves if you take considerable damage from your opponent, which usually comes from melee attacks, so be careful if you ever get that close.

Your Charge Gauge reserves carry over to the next round as well.



Special Attacks
Each character also can use special moves, the easiest one being the Barrage attack. One thing that'll probably throw you off about the special moves in this game is how to execute them. Let's take a look at Mika's movelist for example:

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If you've played a lot of fighting games before, you're probably thinking right now, "Wait a second. Is this assuming I'm facing right? What if my opponent is at the top of the screen and I'm at the bottom? When it says 'left-right-right+M+S,' does it mean I need to first move 'away' from my opponent and then move 'toward' them twice and then press 'M+S?'"

Aside from the 360 (har har!) directional rotations you need to input, it's not really that daunting to perform any of these moves, especially if you're familiar with Psychic Force; yes, G.Rev stole this system from Taito's game, but that's okay since G.Rev was once part of Taito's arcade division anyway.

Let's look at the the one move I mentioned earlier:

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Now, if we use the numberpad on any keyboard and imagine it as a directional pad, here are all of the possibilites of executing that move:

- 4, 6, 6, M+S
- 6, 4, 4, M+S
- 8, 2, 2, M+S
- 2, 8, 8, M+S
- 9, 1, 1, M+S
- 1, 9, 9, M+S
- 7, 3, 3, M+S
- 3, 7, 7, M+S

All of these commands listed are correct for Mika to perform this special move. Unlike traditional fighting games, it doesn't matter what direction your character is facing your opponent. As long as you input a direction and then tap twice in the exact opposite direction and then press M+S, the move will execute.

... well, okay, this specific move will execute if Mika's Main Weapon is completely full and his Sub Weapon isn't reloading. That's another caveat to look out for: most motion-specific special moves require at least one of the weapons to be completely full and if you execute the special move while it's still reloading, your character will perform their Barrage attack instead, since Barrage attacks don't care that the specific weapon it uses is reloading; it'll still drain that weapon completely though.



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The Antifield
Certain projectiles will cause your opponent to stand still so they can take hits from the rest of your attacks. However, each character can only take a certain amount of hits before they're automatically knocked back and generate an Antifield. What the Antifield does in this case is generate a small shockwave that will destroy any bullets around it, and if the attacking Rounder is too close, they'll be pushed back to the edge of the Antifield as well as interrupting whatever they were doing in the process. Immediately after the Antifield is dispensed, the Rounder that generated it will be invincible and can move around freely for a few seconds, which is not unlike Virtual On.

There are two instances where you can activate your Antifield manually by pressing A+M+S:

- Your opponent has activated their B.O.S.S. mode
- You have no more B.O.S.S. stock

An Antifield activated manually has the same properties as one that was activated when you were hit enough times from your opponent. However, you are still in control of your actions when it activates, meaning you have about as much invincibility time as you do just after releasing your Mosquito ability in Mars Matrix (which is not very long). Remember to use this ability wisely, as it does eat up the equivalent of 50% of a full Charge Gauge.



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Overdrive
Going into Overdrive is a risky maneuver, and you can only use it once per round. You can use this ability anytime the Overdrive gauge is flashing green. Upon activating it, an Antifield disperses throughout the entire screen and the following attributes are applied to your Rounder:

- Charge Gauge recovery increases
- Damage inflicted is reduced
- Damage recieved is increased
- Your Armor Gauge slowly empties

Your Overdrive stops temporarily when your opponent enters B.O.S.S. mode (as indicated by the color change from blue to red color in the Overdrive gauge) and will reactivate once you survive it. You can manually deactivate overdrive mode by going into your B.O.S.S. form, and Overdrive mode automatically deactivates when you enter Armor Vanish regardless of whether you used it or not.

You can activate your Overdrive mode at anytime you can manually activate an Antifield.



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Armor Vanish
When your Armor Gauge is completely gone, the last hit that emptied it (or if the Overdrive drained all of your armor) will have your Rounder knockback and generate an Antifield as though they were hit too many times. However, after the Antifield is released, your Rounder's core is exposed, (aka- your hitbox) and your Charge Guage regenerates as though you were in Overdrive. If you're hit one more time at this point, you lose the round.



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Booster of Over-armed Shell System (aka-A+M+S)
As the acronym implies, your Rounder will attach to some huge add-ons and will have the firepower and mobility of a shmup boss. There's a few incentives to go into B.O.S.S. mode:

- You can enter it at anytime, even as you're getting pummeled by your opponent
- Deal as much damage as you can to your opponent
- Recover any lost life
- Force your opponent into draining their Charge Gauge by using their Antifield
- Pause the countdown timer for the round



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When you enter B.O.S.S. mode, you will get an additional lifebar that will take the damage, and the amount of B.O.S.S. life you get is proportional to how many bars are full in your Charge Gauge, rounded down (ie- 4 bars full, 5th one half-full, so the half-filled bar will automatically empty upon activation).

While B.O.S.S. mode is on, your Charge Gauge will slowly start to tick away, and you can go all out with your firepower because all of your attacks do nothing to help increase the rate in which the Charge Gauge disappears. When it's almost gone, you'll hear a warning sound going off, and the amount of life you recover is based on how large your Charge Gauge was before activation and the amount of damage you took from your opponent in this mode (less damage = better).

Your opponent also has incentive to destroy your B.O.S.S. form, since other than preventing you from recovering life, they'll also max out their Charge Gauge if they destroy it. They can also blow up destructible parts of your B.O.S.S. form to stun you and immediately fill up one bar on their Charge Gauge as well. Not only that, your Charge Gauge will completely empty if your B.O.S.S. form is destroyed, meaning you'll be at the mercy of your opponent's B.O.S.S. form!



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If you activate B.O.S.S. mode when you are in Armor Vanish, you will go into your Final B.O.S.S. form. The rules are the same for activating Final B.O.S.S. except that you will NOT recover any life even if your opponent survives it and you take no damage. However, you will get to use your character-specific Final B.O.S.S. move as a perk. For most characters, activating the Final B.O.S.S. attack requires you to do this:

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Two other bonuses of entering Final B.O.S.S. mode is that you take less damage than usual and your charge guage empties at a slower rate.

However, if your opponent destroys this form, you'll go down in a spectacular explosion. Also, you can only activate Final B.O.S.S. once in a round, so pray that you'll be able to finish the job once it's activated.

As mentioned before, you start each match with two B.O.S.S. in stock. If you lose a round in a versus match against a human player, you get an additional B.O.S.S. added to your stock to use in the next round.
Last edited by dai jou bu on Sun May 06, 2007 1:40 am, edited 12 times in total.
Bleeders
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Post by Bleeders »

Excellent ST dai!

Thanks. :D
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Cacophanus
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Post by Cacophanus »

Yeah, thanks. Really helpful stuff there. Got a question though, the different end of game bosses what triggers them?
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

I have no exact idea. Play-Asia was selling an "artbook" for this game which was actually an all-encompassing guide for it. Mentions the story paths as well, but it's all in Japanese. It'd help if I knew the lanuage. =\
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

There was a patch that was released sometime last week. From what I've seen so far, it:

- fixes the Rounder explosions since they looked incomplete compared to the NAOMI version as it only displayed the smoke and not the bright cloud/flash that comes before it. Now if they only fixed the sound effects to give it more impact like it does in the arcade version...

- Added a new marker in training mode that shows you where Sakurako's Sagittarius missles will land (if you're training against her, that is) and where Lili will appear when she teleports.

- Fixed Lili's sub melee attack (I think, I was able to land it a lot more than usual prior to the update) and she now maintains her main weapon charge level when she's stunned by an attack and only resets when she's knocked back.

- Sakurako's sub weapon (mines) doesn't eat up so much of the opponent's charge gauge anymore.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From G.Rev's site babelfished and paraphrased into my own words, they mentioned this in the patch notes:

- Patch will fix current networking problems people keep mentioning about for the past month or so.

- Rules for gaining additional B.O.S.S. stock and lives in score attack have been changed.

- Due to the game rebalances, the score attack rankings have been reset.

- Added more information to the matchmaking sessions.

- Random game rebalancing, some of them I already mentioned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit 9-26-06 (yes, it's pretty late, but I've been getting somewhat busy)

Might as well call this the Lili patch, as she seems to have another upgrade or two other than what I just mentioned earlier:

- If you mapped another button as a secondary Main weapon to press or left the default configuration alone, Lili can now perform all of her special moves (including her teleport!) while she's charging her main weapon. The charge will pause if you perform the 360+MS move, and the charge will stop altogether when doing anything else.

- Lili can now teleport at anytime when she's armed with her machine gun thing (664+MS or 446+MS).

These two updates alone make her pretty good at close combat now and makes her very unpredicatable in the hands of a skilled player.

Also, you can't exploit the blind side of Mika's B.O.S.S. form anymore (that's at the upper-right or bottom-right corners of the screen) because you will now take damage just by touching the rear end of his craft. Not only that, he can move higher (or lower) and will punish you severely for trying to exploit the old weakness he had by sandwiching you in that corner you decided to hide to.
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

Okay, I give up trying to complete this guide (edit: not really).

There are a total of two videos (all downloadable) divided into two parts each that you watch in order to figure out how to play this game. Although the text explanations are in Japanese, they give you enough information on the screen to figure out what's going on, plus you can read my guide above if you're not too sure what they're trying to say.


Game guide:

Part 1

Part 2


Character movelists, speed, and B.O.S.S. information:

Part 1

Part 2


Miscellaneous Information/Guide Errata

Vector Dashing Theory

The vector dashing theories in Virtual On also apply to some of the Rounders in this game as well. Ignore the part at the end where it says dashing away from your opponent is bad because dash speed is the same in this game regardless of what direction you're going in.

Senko no Ronde SP Arcade Stick Configuration

If you're super hardcore and want to use an arcade stick (which I wholeheartedly recommend without a shadow of a doubt; a DoA4 stick will do nicely as you can set it up like in the arcade), here's how the game is set up for Senko no Ronde SP, where button C is the Barrage button and OD is the Overdrive button:

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I will be referring to this layout for the rest of the guide.

CC Continued

- Certain melee attacks will negate any projectile thrown at your Rounder. Missles (not homing lasers) tend to bypass Sub Weapon melee attacks, however.

- You cannot stop a Chase CC once you come into contact with your opponent by pressing A; you must either start the melee attacks or wait for your Chase CC to run its course.

You can go to 4:12 of this video for detailed examples of the following:

- If both Rounders perform a Chase CC, they will automatically knockback at the point of contact and receive no damage.

- If a Rounder's melee weapon connects with their opponent's, both Rounders will also knockback and receive no damage.

The Last 20 Seconds of a Round

Remember how I said that in the last twenty seconds of a round the entire background starts flashing? Other than warning you that you're running out of time, your Armor Gauge also slowly begins to empty as though you were in Overdrive, minus the benefits of it. If you activate Overdrive while this is happening, you'll double the rate in which your Armor Gauge empties.

Also, if the time runs out in the final round and both players have the same amount of life remaining, an additional twenty seconds will be granted in order to determine a winner. If both players still have the same amount of life remaining after this time, the match ends in a draw.

For an example of this, jump to 00:23 of this video.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's some advanced techniques you can try try out. Some of them are mentioned in those video guides:

Your hitbox size varies on what you're currently doing and what's going to hit you

Your hitbox (the area that determines if an attack will register a hit or not) for projectiles is the largest when your Barrier is on and smallest when you're in Armor Vanish, meaning that projectiles will register hits upon contact with any part of your Barrier or only in direct contact with your Rounder's core.

Because of this rule, Act Old is ideally the way to go if you want to map your buttons to the original arcade configuration since Act New, no matter how fast you press and depress it, will activate the Barrier first before you initiate the dash. However, this is only ideal if you're not going to be using Manual Aim, which is explained at the bottom of this page.

Your hitbox from attacks that involve direct physical contact is determined by your Rounder's size, regardless of whether or not you're in Armor Vanish. This is important since touching almost any part of your opponent's B.O.S.S. form is considered a hit. The same goes for melee attacks.

Jump to 02:15 of this video for an example.

The Shmup (STG) Rule

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With the exception of a few attacks, any projectiles that leave the screen's view are permanently removed from the playing field. This also includes deployable turrets from your character's Rounder such as Lili's Twin Tail. So if the camera zooms in and out really fast, a lot of bullets will just magically disappear (or your turrets will fire offscreen, but the game will not acknowledge that ordinance's existence on the playing field) to the frustration of the player who was relying on them to hit their opponent.

Stun Recovery (a.k.a- Large Down Setup)

Certain projectiles will automatically cause your Rounder to be stunned, even if that hit was your first one. If you want to be really technical, G.Rev has implemented two types of stuns in this game:
ForteMP3 wrote: Small Down-Take too much damage, and your mech will be forced into a Small Down state. In this state, you are immobile, and vulnerable to further damage. Avoid at all costs.

Medium Down-Certain attacks force you into a Medium Down, which is like a Small Down except it lasts longer. This usually occurs from melee attacks.
However, like in other fighting games, Senko no Ronde gives you an opportunity to break out of this by causing your Rounder to knockback and generate an Antifield faster than normal (G.Rev calls this knockback process a Large Down). To attempt this, you have to keep pressing as many buttons on your directional pad (or shake that analog stick in every direction) as quickly as possible. This technique only works if the hitstun was caused by projectiles, however.

For an example of this, go to 04:20 for this video.

Tech Recovery (a.k.a.- Large Down Cancel)

Also like in other fighting games, you can attempt to recover from your "fall" faster. If you don't come into contact with the arena's wall (the white circle preventing you from moving any farther in that direction) after you knockback, you can press A twice in order to stop the Antifield from automatically activating. There's two reasons for you to want to do this:

- Prevent your opponent from gaining an opportunity to place themselves in another advantageous position while you're going through your knockback cycle.
- To refill a small portion of your Charge Gauge. Apparently, all of that energy gets absorbed into your Rounder in order to generate the Antifield, but shouldn't it fill up 50% instead of around 10-15% if you hold it all in?

There is a tradeoff for performing a tech recovery, however- you have close to to zero invincibility time after your Rounder "gets up," so you better be sure that there's nothing coming your way when you perform this technique.

For an example of this, jump to 00:42 of this video.

Invincibility when doing special moves

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Certain special moves will grant you temporary invincibility to any attack thrown at you. The invincibility window will vary depending on the special move used.

Grazing

Grazing, as defined by Immaterial and Missing Power's game system, is immunity to almost all projectile attacks during certain actions; in that game, it was achieved primarily by dashing. However, you are still vulnerable to melee attacks while grazing. G.Rev probably never played that game before and they most likely based part of it off of Pyschic Force, but the concept is very similar in Senko no Ronde.

There are three instances where you are considered grazing:

Image

The first instance where you enter a "graze" state is the first few frames at start of your dash. There's no room for error in doing this, and this time frame only allows anything that's just about to hit you in 0.00098274658912 seconds right before it begins.

The second instance where you are in a graze state is when a Watari Dash is performed. The rules are the same as though you were starting a regular dash- you can only graze the first few projectiles that are just about to hit you before the Watari Dash executes.

The third instance where your Rounder enters a graze state is when you perform a Chase CC:

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However, you must take into consideration that your Rounder is vulnerable when they stop to pull out their weapon.

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Once the weapon is drawn out, you are for the most part in a graze state once your Rounder starts charging towards their opponent. This is similar to a direct dash towards your opponent in Psychic Force, (called a Quick Dash in that game) except the difference is a Chase CC in this game negates just about any type of projectile thrown at you.

Attack Cancel

Also found in Virtual On, this feature allows your Rounder to stop their attack animation (if possible) by dashing. Simply dash while your Rounder is attacking and off they go. If your Rounder wasted a bar of their Charge Gauge while initiating their startup animation for their special move and you canceled it, that's all your fault.

Note that this ability only applies to projectile-based attacks. 05:10 of this video has some examples of this technique.

Reload Cancel

This is something not found in Virtual On. Instead of waiting for your Main Weapon to go through its reload cycle after you've spent its entire salvo, you can opt to dash instead. When you do this, your Main Weapon automatically reloads and you can even fire it while you're still dashing. This is how Karel is able to fire very quickly even though his Main Weapon has a long reload cycle when he's not using his sub ability.

05:27 of this video shows the technique to you in good detail.

Quick Turn

This is also sort of something new to Senko no Ronde that was not found in Virtual On. Here's how it works: first initiate a dash. Then, immediately Watari dash while sliding your thumb/fingers on one of the attack buttons. What you'll notice is that your Rounder will fire in the same direction it was originally dashing but will continue moving in the new dash trajectory.

Jump to 04:43 of this video for an example.

Manual Aim

Since the Japanese have no official term for it, this is what the technique is going to be called. You'll notice that sometimes you wish your Main Weapon could just aim at a slightly different angle so you can time the projectile to hit at the precise moment their Rounder dashes over there. However, using your Barrier alters the properties of the weapon, so you'll just have to deal with it.

Not! There's a way around this. However, it only works consistently if you manually mapped the Barrier button somewhere or you're using Act (NEW). Here's how you perform Manual Aim:

- Press Main Weapon button
- Immediately move in the direction you wish to shoot your projectile while simultaneously holding A (you did remember to set it to Barrier or Act (NEW), right?)

WARNING: LETTING GO OF THE ACT BUTTON AFTER YOU DO THIS MAY SEND YOU OFF IN A DASH TRAJECTORY.
WARNING 2: ONLY CERTAIN ATTACKS ARE VALID CANDIDATES FOR MANUAL AIM

And that's it! Manual Aim can also be applied to certain special moves. For a video example of what I was just talking about, jump to 05:48.


That's about it with this part of the guide so far. However, I'm still not done yet!
crespowu
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Post by crespowu »

Xbox is too expensive ,I can't afford it. :(
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Erinu
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Post by Erinu »

crespowu wrote:Xbox is too expensive ,I can't afford it. :(
Get a job you lazy bum.
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

Okay, GameFAQs' character limit is very limiting, so it's time for me to take matters into my own hands!

G.Rev just made some major game rebalancing. Here's what I've interpreted so far:
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Mika

Both Cartridges

- Attack power of Diffusion Shot and 360 special move increased
- Interval when using Sub Weapon while dashing is reduced (No idea what this means)
- Increased hit points for laser attack of B.O.S.S. mode (what?)
- Armor of Final B.O.S.S. mode reduced
- Armor of B.O.S.S. option units increased

Cartridge A

- Homing Missile Salvo increased to 4 sets of two missiles instead of three (Barrier Mode is still three sets of 2 missiles though? I'm not too sure about this one either)

Cartridge B
- Increased ammunitiion of Homing Missiles to six sets of 2 missiles before reloading
- Improved tracking properties Homing Missiles when fired with Barrier activated, but bullets move slower.
- Sub Weapon reaload time increased.

Image
Changpo

Both Cartridges
- Sweet Roll invincibility time decreased for normal and dashing forms
- Sub Weapon tracking power decreased, although B cartridge is still the same
- Armor of Strap Missiles decreased
- Final B.O.S.S. movement in any direction decreased

Cartridge A
- Homing power of Sub Weapon decreased
- Damage from bullets fired during normal Sweet Roll decreased
- Damage from bullets fired during a Sweet Roll when dashing decreased.

Cartridge B
- Projectile speed of Sub Weapon when fired in Barrier Mode increased
- Homing power of Sub Weapon when dashing decreased

Image
Cuilan

Both Cartridges
- Increased attack power of all Special Moves.
- Projectiles and explosion sizes increased for B.O.S.S. mode
- Increased maximum movement range in B.O.S.S. mode

Cartridge A
- Number of attack sets (amount of shots fired before reloading) for Main Weapon when in Barrier Mode increased
- Until you release the Sub Weapon button (I think) when fired normally, it will continue a little bit further before exploding.
- Coverage for Main Weapon in B.O.S.S. mode increased

Cartridge B
- Main Weapon sets increased
- Tail Bomb explosion time increased
- Dynamic Speed modifcation of Rat's Tail Special Move changed.
- Ring Cutter attack time changed
- Durability (Invincibility Time) of Ring Cutter decreased
- Bullet speed of Main Weapon when fired normally (without dashing or activating your Barrier) increased

Image
Fabian

Both Cartridges
- Blitz Lance distance increased
- Lance invincibility time of Blitz Arrow increased
- Hitbox of Sub Weapon CC reduced when opponent is in hitstun (small Down, Large Down; dunno what they mean by approach attacks though; although another change not to far down from here might explain it)

Cartridge A
- Freeze times (drift speed; I'm assuming it's this) for everything VERY SLIGHTY reduced
- Damage from coming into contact with lance during Blitz Arrow special move increased

Cartridge B
- Reload time of Sub Weapon decreased from 320 frames (A little over five seconds) to 270 frames (4.5 seconds)
- Dash speed increased even more
- Damage inflicted by Sub CC approach attack decreased (especially by Large Downs?)
- Attack power of normal and dash versions of Blitz Arrow increased
- Sets from Top Spin Fire special move increased from 8 to 10 (he's going to be firing more bullets from this special move, I guess)

Image
Lili
- Twin Tails that are firing have more armor than those that are not firing
- If the Twin Tails self-destruct, reload time increases (?)
- Sub Weapon reload time increased by 30 frames (0.5 seconds)
- Anti-homing properties when Lili teleports has changed. No idea what the heck they're talking about
- Charge Gauge recovery for opponents who destroy Lili's destructible parts during her B.O.S.S. mode decreased, and regenerated part can take even more damage than before (?)
- B.O.S.S. anti-bullet and laser modes have more substance (?)

Image
Sakurako

Both Cartridges

- Movement range of S approach attack reduced (?)
- Main Weapon dash variation SLIGHTLY increased
- Duration of Tractor Mines after deployed on playing field decreased, even moreso for the A Cartridge
- Armor for wing part of B.O.S.S. mode reduced. Charge Gauge recovery from its destruction increased
- Armor for artillery side of B.O.S.S. mode increased. Charge Gauge recovery from its destruction decreased


Cartridge A
- Armor for Tractor Mines increased to the Armor of her B Cartridge variant
- Saggittarius Missiles now take much longer to fall and explode onto the playing field after they've successfully launched
- Charge Gauge reduction from Main Weapon CC attacks increased

Cartridge B
- Saggittarius Missiles fall onto the playing field a little bit faster than before

Image
Ernula

Both Cartridges
- Armor of parts deployed for her Consonance Unit special move increased
- Opponent's Charge Gauge recovery from destruction of her Consonance Units reduced
- Sub Weapon reload time reduced
- If the opponent is hit with the Sub Weapon with the Consonance Units deployed, the weapon's duration is increased (?)
- Charge Gauge damge from Sub Weapon decreased

Cartridge A
- Sub Weapon damage significantly increased if Consonance Units are deployed
- Charge Gauge damage from an approach Sub Weapon CC (I'm guessing you use your Sub Weapon CC to damage them even further after they're stunned from your Ensemble Lasers) reduced

Cartridge B
- Sub Weapon damage normal and Barrier Modes increased
- Damage from all Ensemble Laser attacks increased if Consonance Units are deployed

Image
Karel

Both Cartridges
- Default Armor Gauge increased
- Invincibility time for his Fissure (Barrage Attack) special move decreased
- Damage inflicted from initial projectiles deployed during Cluster Bomb (back+down+forward+MS) special move decreased.

Cartridge B

- Projectile damage from Fissue decreased
- Freeze time reduced after firing off a Cluster Bomb
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yeah, that's a lot of changes. I probably should be playing this a lot right now, but I don't seem to have the time to really play it at the moment. :(

Feel free to clarify anything that doesn't make any sense here either. I won't bite you. :D
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