Notoriously uneven shooters

[KindGrind]

After months of sitting on my shelf, I picked up ESPgaluda again and breezed through it on my very first credit, that is, until I got disemboweled at the last boss. I remembered why I had left it on the shelf precisely when I saw the gems aligning on the left and right on the screen, with the boss having only 1/4 HP left. I'm sure you know the feeling.

I mean, I love the game, I really do, but that boss is a bit too much. The game's very fun until then... Why couldn't they just make it a bit easier? It would *fit* better with the rest of the game. I feel pretty much exactly the same about RSG's last boss. Getting there's tougher than in Galuda and takes more memorization/practice, but I feel the final fight's too tough compared to the rest of the game. Question is...

Any other games made you feel that way? Where the tlb's poses too little of a challenge or too much of one compared to the rest of the game?

[captpain]

I think Gradius is like this. The bosses are usually pretty easy compared to the stages.

[ForceDevice]

Shienryu did this to me, if I remember correctly. For a while it got me thinking "easy 1CC yay" until the latter levels anally raped me. I did get used to them later though.

[CStarFlare]

Maybe I'm odd, but I can usually get through Galuda's boss with one life. Two max, unless I'm having a really bad day.

That's after a continue though, since I have yet to make it past the first 5-2 boss without losing it.

EDIT: Maybe it's because I never got into the habit of using Kakusei or my barrier during boss fights.

[Mortificator]

X Multiply had the difficulty you'd expect from an Irem checkpoint game, but stayed fun and freaky... until the last stage. It's got these pustules that, unless you destroy them right after appearing, will continuously spit out unkillable enemies that can't be blocked by your tentacles.

After spending a good chunk of time trying to complete it, I thought I'd turn on invincibility to see how far I had to travel. The stage went on... and on... and on......... and finally ended with a multi-form boss. I quietly exited the emulator, stood up, and walked away.

Months later I would give it another try, and after lots of save state practice, clear it legit, but damn. I might hate it even more than stage 5 of R-Type II.

[wiNteR]

Any other games made you feel that way? Where the tlb's poses too little of a challenge or too much of one compared to the rest of the game?

Gradius V has an uneven difficulty spike around the end of stage-6 and then going into stage-7. Similarly Gigawing has extremely easy first four levels and then a spike at stage-5 followed by one at stage-7.

I remembered why I had left it on the shelf precisely when I saw the gems aligning on the left and right on the screen, with the boss having only 1/4 HP left. I'm sure you know the feeling.

The last boss is harder than rest of the game but still the game is on the easier side. You should just do some practice on stage select and you will be surprised how easy the game is. I practiced stage-4, 5-1 and 5-2 bosses this way and my first credit after that was a clear.

If you are having trouble on the last form of 5-2 boss here are few tricks that might help you:
1- Do not hesitate to use up your slowdown mode to 0 gems.
2- Whenever you are in trouble, with the gems becoming difficult to dodge, don't hesitate to use your barrier. Just move to the far right or left of the screen when you do so.

If you follow this you should be able to take down the last form with one life max. Actually, I think the first form of 5-2 boss is a little harder to get consistent at compared to next two. However, nothing that some tries on stage select won't solve.

[John845]

I can breeze through the first couple levels of Gradius V. But by the time I reach the end of the meteor level its death for certain. The green liquid stage is such a headache, its almost impossible for me to dodge all that green shit falling everywhere. The beginning of the final stage is incredibly hard since its so fast paced and I usually always die and lose all 4 of my options. Then I rage quit.

[320x240]

The last boss of Rapid Hero...

[emphatic]

I have a theory about the last boss in ESPGALUDA being much harder then "the rest of the game". It's not if you REALLY play for score. Taking all the risks involved in getting above 40 million in this game is really a challenge. If I would play this only to clear it, I guess I would each time I play. But playing it for score really is a whole other game.

Emph

[Gwyrgyn Blood]

If you are having trouble on the last form of 5-2 boss here are few tricks that might help you:
1- Do not hesitate to use up your slowdown mode to 0 gems.
2- Whenever you are in trouble, with the gems becoming difficult to dodge, don't hesitate to use your barrier. Just move to the far right or left of the screen when you do so.

You don't do any damage in Kakusei mode during this form so just use your gems to make hard dodges through lines of bullets.

The other obvious trick is that shortly into the fight, the pattern moves so that there is a huge area on the lower left where nothing is really happening, so just slowly dodge in that direction and you'll get a decent chunk of time to deal damage.

[wiNteR]

I never noticed it . If you are correct then I reckon my first point will be invalid.

I have a theory about the last boss in ESPGALUDA being much harder then "the rest of the game". It's not if you REALLY play for score. Taking all the risks involved in getting above 40 million in this game is really a challenge. If I would play this only to clear it, I guess I would each time I play. But playing it for score really is a whole other game.

I was playing for score and I got a ~25M. I think if you play first time with only a basic understanding of system this is the ballpark figure you end up with.

[emphatic]

It's much more fun when you try and max out your score. First try to get 3+ million for level 1.

Emph