GD: Shienryu

[mjclark]

Ha ha-I've been playing Shienryu on the Saturn, a lovely experience .
Every so often I get red letter "P"s displayed in a row underneath my ship stock icons at the top left hand corner of the screen. What do these letters indicate?
Go on,I'm fascinated...

[lgb]

Powerups collected.

[mjclark]

Hmm...but the "P"s at the top of the screen only appear if I pick up a flashing purple powerup (not the standard red ones) and then I get two of them!
In the highscores section here someone suggesterd that once you've seen a certain number of powerups then the purple one appears and gives you armor/max power.Can anyone confirm this,indeed does anyone know
Also I can't find a "save/load" option in the game even though the gamedata is stored in the saturn's memory.This means the highscore is reset to zero everytime i play the game afresh...grrr! I wonder if there's a save option on the Double Shienryu PS2 version.
I've searched for a Shienryu Walkthrough but just can't find one anywhere...
...help!

[Rupert H]

I wonder if there's a save option on the Double Shienryu PS2 version.

No, none there either I'm afraid.

[mjclark]

Hmmm....just had a look at the "Strategy" thread and there's certainly not much information on this game-maybe those red "P"s beneath the ship stock represent armor points (oh dear,I'm just making this up now ) or perhaps checkpoint markers (cos when those red "P"s were showing I didn't go back to the start of the section when I died but instead just picked up where I left off).
This is certainly worth investigating a bit further though-I can't find a proper Shienryu walkthrough anywhere so maybe this is good research material!
If anyone else has some Shienryu input please post

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Hmmm....just had a look at the "Strategy" thread and there's certainly not much information on this game-maybe those red "P"s beneath the ship stock represent armor points (oh dear,I'm just making this up now ) or perhaps checkpoint markers (cos when those red "P"s were showing I didn't go back to the start of the section when I died but instead just picked up where I left off).
This is certainly worth investigating a bit further though-I can't find a proper Shienryu walkthrough anywhere so maybe this is good research material!
If anyone else has some Shienryu input please post

Your suggestion would also apply to the Daioh PCB as well...both Daioh and Shienryu have the same be killed in certain parts of a given stage and start back at a certain point. Now if you're at an end-stage boss, you can continue where you left off provided that you're playing a two player game session. Otherwise, you'd have to start back a bit if you were playing a one-player session of either Daioh or Shienryu. The CPU of Daioh and Shienryu is pretty straight forward about starting back a bit if you mess up. Could be if you pick up an extend or 1up icon, then you can re-spawn where you last died at. Those special power-up icon that you mention of gives the player maxed-out power (upon pick up of colored weaponry icon) and a shield (in the Daioh PCB) + plus upon death, one re-spawn at same location of death. Die again after such a respawn, and the CPU moves you back a bit.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mjclark]

Great!Things are getting a little clearer now-I'm settling in for some Shienryu action this evening so I'll let you know if anything else bizarre comes to light...

[lgb]

Hmm...but the "P"s at the top of the screen only appear if I pick up a flashing purple powerup (not the standard red ones) and then I get two of them!

The amount of powerups needed is supposed to vary between power level. I think. It worked that way in Daioh. I thought it would apply the same here. Didn't seem too much different when I played gekioh. Except for the medals, of course.

[mjclark]

Yes-on stages 1 and 2 the flashing blue/red powerup seems to appear after 6 normal red powerups and gives 2 red "P"s which seem to give one armor point and one checkpoint, but at stage 3 the flashing blue/red powerup only yields one red "P"-how many powerups needed to get it and what it means in practice are still a mystery (at least to me)
Ha ha-if only they'd taught us this at school...

[Dave_K.]

Where is the original strategy guide for Shienryu? Anyone know the basics?

When/why do the red flags get dropped by certain enemy?

When/why do the blue flags get dropped by certain enemy?

It there any kind of rank control (bombs/lives in stock, or weapon usage which effect rank)?

How are people milking bosses?

[Ed Oscuro]

all I know about tha flags is that if you can shoot an enemy so it ejects a flag over land that's best (in the first stage there's a lot of cliffs and open space, so some flags won't find land to touch down on)

[Dave_K.]

Thanks Ed. I'm a bit surprised there is not more detailed info on this game considering its popular saturn and psx release. Maybe its just too hard for most people they loose interest? In my small amount of time, it seems bomb stock has the biggest effect on rank, with ship stock probably being next? The purple P icons and the 1up icons only seem to come out under certain conditions (if you had just died prior, or if you are fully powered, etc).

Controlling rank seems to be my biggest problem, where I can't get much past level 5. And I can't see where switching to any other weapon other than lightning is going to make killing things any faster.

[Mills]

Game regulates bigtime at stage 1-4 when you have max firepower.

[Dave_K.]

Well it does look like bomb stock is the primary (maybe only) influence for rank in the first 3 stages. I no missed up to stage 3 boss, with 4 extra ships in stock (got a 1up in stage 2?) and proceeded to slow down the 1-3 boss bullet patterns to beginner by unloading my remaining 2 bombs.

Game regulates bigtime at stage 1-4 when you have max firepower.

Yep, thanks Mills. Going into stage 4 with no bombs left, max fire+speed, and 4 ships in stock, the enemy was moving and firing at a more rapid rate than I'd expect. I lost my first life about half way through, but didn't see any noticeable rank decrease when I came back at mid firepower and 3 bomb default.

I lost two more lives stupidly at the end just before the 1-4 boss, and then a another one to a mis-timed dodge (but gained one life back at the extend). Going into stage 5 with no bombs and about 2 lives, mid-fire, the rank seemed tamed.

About half way though stage 5, the lightning gun was just not killing the larger enemy soon enough. I guess there is where I'm supposed to switch, but I don't know which weapon is best. I wish there was a replay/superplay available.

[BulletMagnet]

To the best of my knowledge the vulcan has the highest raw power, the lightning is the best in terms of homing properties, and the missiles are somewhere in between, but that overview is quite likely in need of correction.

[DEL]

I've been trying Shienryu (STV cart) out in the last couple of days.
I'm very much a beginner at this game, but what I can say for sure is that Stage 7 & 8 must be done with the Red firepower.
Blue laser on all stages before that, but you certainly can take Red spread for the Bosses if you wish. You'll get quicker kills and require less bombs.
Its a classic 'distance' based game (obviously a homage to Truxton), so point squeezing is less important than sheer distance. Rank is also less important (in my view). I'm choosing to go as far as possible on my first life and just accept the high rank. After all, you have several speedups to get you out of trouble. The only place where full speedup is bad for your health is the Last Boss.

Questions:-
* Are the collectable 1ups random in their appearance? (Apart from the set one that appears from destruction of the tentacle enemy on ST6 that is).
* Does collecting all the red and blue flags on each stage do anything?
At one point I thought it triggered the appearance of a 1up early in the following stage, but Im doubting this now. I've had random appearances of 1ups at the end of stage 1, beginning of stage 3 and even on stage 8.
* Any replays around

[heisenbergman]

bumping this since I don't think the original question of how the "P" works was really answered.

Any idea of how the power-ups work in this game? Sometimes when I pickup a "P", the "P" icon appears on the upper-left corner. Sometimes it disappears.

Also, what does the "S" pickup item do?

Thanks!

[Despatche]

Weapon power levels have differing amounts of powerups required. Ps in the upper-left simply count how many you have in a given power level. If I remember right, Daioh requires 1/2/3 powerups for its power levels, and I think this does too.

Similarly, S icons still speed up the ship. As far as systems go, I think the only change is the addition of medals, unless the wackiness involving the extend powerups was changed too.

[heisenbergman]

Thanks Despatche. I haven't fully grasped how the power-ups work yet, but I'll be playing the game more to observe how they work keeping what you've said in mind.

[EmperorIng]

Another bump!

I've been able to get the 1UP item to appear once from an item carrier in stage 5; it's an understatement to say that it comes in handy there.

However, it feels random (again, only had it happen once), and I am unsure as to the specifications to triggering it.

I feel the same way about the super-P powerup. It feels like it appears mroe often after a death. Also to note, other posts on this forum mention how much rank increases when you pick it up, and how much it decreases if you ignore it and let it float offscreen. I am not sure if I notice a difference, so I'd like to hear input on that as well.