PROMETHEUS wrote:That sounds ok to me. When I had played 150 hours I was barely starting to play A-L and to learn chains. Probably I was learning the Stage 2 chain. I probably died in stage 3 pretty often as well and I remember my high score was 72M when I had played 200 hours. So you're doing quite well since you're not even practicing with save states.
Dodonpachi is a hard game that takes serious skill after all. That also means these times can be reduced a lot if you are good at another danmaku game before starting to play it :p
Anyway, Stage 4 can be bitchy in some places if you aren't doing exactly what you should AND trying to chain. I realized quite late I had a very risky path at the second white tank that comes out of a building in my chain and died there 1/3 of the time. A very simple modification (moving downward a little more) turned it into 95% success. The worst stage for that kind of shit is stage 6 : better know your way f00kin precisely there.
Well, that makes me feel better at least. As well as re-reading through this thread. My lack of progress over the last week or two is kind of disparaging, but I've made LOTS of progress in the past month and half or two. Once I can semi-consistantly make it to stage 6 on one credit with no bombs I will be VERY happy. I won't worry about chaining stage 6 for a LONG time, but surviving it is actually easier than stage 5 =P The stage 6 boss isn't too bad either aside from his last pattern, which fucks me up in a big way.
I have greater difficulty with stage 3 than stage 4 (even when trying to chain stage 4, which I rarely succeed at, but can do in theory). And it's not just at any single trouble spot in 3 either, I die all over the place, seems very VERY random. Which is part of the frustration; as its not a special difficult spot that's killing me, just random stupidity on my part. Maybe I'm just too complacent during stage 3, where at stage 4 I start really paying attention, trying to chain, and perhaps the enhanced focus just makes it feel easier. I dunno.
I've also improved greatly at stage 5, but there's still one part at the VERY END of the really difficult part that I end up getting trapped (unless I luck dodge through somehow). It's right at/before the second blue turret dies. For some reason that last bit just seems much MUCH more thickly filled with bullets. That or I'm doing something wrong. Maybe after work I'll use Wolfmame at home to record an INP and you can laugh at me and/or give me tips =P