Experiences with Progear - tougher than people say

[Skykid]

EDIT: This thread is regarding the JP version of the game only.

This little hori bastard is a bit of an odd sheep in the Cave catalogue. I've been playing it on and off for a while now - I probably should've dedicated more time to it in consecutive play, but I've decided contrary to popular belief that this is one tough game regardless!

I've made progress for sure - I nearly make it to Volvox very regularly now on a credit, but 1cc-ing this is taking longer than I thought it would.

Does anyone else find it's odd roaming bullet patterns can catch you out no matter how many times you've played the game, and stages 4 and 5 are particularly tough to learn?

I'm interested in other people's feelings about this game, lmk![/b]

[jonny5]

definitely a tough one.....if you play for score.....if you just panic bomb all the time its not too tough....

but ya....scoring is tricky.....the timing anyways

whats even more frustrating is watching SFKhoa walk through the first and second loop up to 2-4 pretty much on command....and im struggling just to score properly on the first 3 stages....games that involve timing and patience, like waiting for the right time to trigger cancels are not my forte......i just want to shoot stuff and dodge shit......timing stuff fucks me up everytime...i stop paying as much attention to the patterns and more attention to the enemy placements

i kind of miss this PCB tbh....i will probably pick it up in the future.....mame in the cab will suffice for the meantime.....

[Jockel]

This game was hard for me once i started playing for score, but i can't play on survival -.-

[Udderdude]

Playing it for score seems to involve a lot of waiting for enemies and bullets to overlap, then blowing them up. Not very fun to me IMO, but I guess some people enjoy it.

Watching a superplay of it was pretty interesting. I skipped the boss fights though .. seriously, most boring boss fights in any CAVE game ever.

[Skykid]

I think that's exactly my problem, I'm playing the game for score quite a bit - at least I've programmed myself that way now, and it's much more risky.

If I try and play for just survival, I almost can't help myself at the scoring opportunities, even on the stage 4 boss - must be mad.

I don't agree with the boss fights being boring at all if you're playing them though - the aforementioned stage 4 is a heart in mouth fight all the way.

[jonny5]

i find it almost impossible to not play for score.....i cant help it....

even when i make a conscious effort to play for survival and bomb occasionally, i almost always end up getting to a scoring section and go for it......

this goes for most games.....especially ketsui and futari.....i cant help myself....

[Skykid]

Well, just had another crack at it and made it to the last stage with three lives. made it to Volvox with 0 in stock.

Even though I made some stupid errors (like not bombing) I think I need to practice the last stage.

I'm playing the JP version exclusively btw.

[jonny5]

i believe the only difference other than language and some sound bites in game is the us version defaults to an easier difficulty...just turn it up

not sure tho....i play the japanese version i mame and i only owned the japanese PCB

[Skykid]

i believe the only difference other than language and some sound bites in game is the us version defaults to an easier difficulty...just turn it up

not sure tho....i play the japanese version i mame and i only owned the japanese PCB

There's definitely some difference, but it's very tough to put your finger on. I only played the US ver in the arcade and although it's very similar I think enemies might die slightly faster, or there are slightly less bullets.

Can't really say for sure, but I can feel the difference when playing.

[TLB]

i find it almost impossible to not play for score.....i cant help it....

even when i make a conscious effort to play for survival and bomb occasionally, i almost always end up getting to a scoring section and go for it......

this goes for most games.....especially ketsui and futari.....i cant help myself.... :wink:

I know exactly what you mean >.>

[Ruldra]

Playing this game for score is a lot of fun. You always get a little tense when you're intentionally letting the screen fill up with bullets, and converting everything to diamonds is very satisfying. A perfect match in risk vs. reward.

When you're playing, you learn which spots in the game are good for converting and which ones are too risky to try. But as your confidence and skill grows, you start finding new spots to convert gems and do it more efficiently. It all reflects on your score later and you get a big sense of improvement.

However, if you really want to score big, then you'll have to rely on the no miss/no bomb bonus, which gives you so much points you don't even need to convert bullets anymore. But no miss/no bomb is a very frustrating concept, especially on a bullet-hell game, and it ruined the game for me.

i believe the only difference other than language and some sound bites in game is the us version defaults to an easier difficulty...just turn it up

Yes. The dafault difficulty on the US version is 2, on the japanese one is 4.

[jonny5]

i believe the only difference other than language and some sound bites in game is the us version defaults to an easier difficulty...just turn it up

not sure tho....i play the japanese version i mame and i only owned the japanese PCB

There's definitely some difference, but it's very tough to put your finger on. I only played the US ver in the arcade and although it's very similar I think enemies might die slightly faster, or there are slightly less bullets.

Can't really say for sure, but I can feel the difference when playing.

thats the easier difficulty setting....change the US to 4 like the japanese version and its the same....just no voices in game and the intro where you take off is a bit different

[Taylor]

There are still differences even with the difficulty settings changed, I’m pretty sure that just affects the starting rank, whereas there are changes to some of the patterns – Stage 2 spam pattern, Stage 3 “backburst” pattern and Stage 4 spam pattern are the most noticeable (and only?) ones.

I think if you if you jack up the rank on the first level (so the yellow planes at the end have no gaps in the stream), they’re both exactly the same except for the patterns mentioned above. And I've played them both probably a bit too much.

Even if you don't jack the rank up it's debateable which is harder, because you meta dodge most patterns, so more bullets simply means more points. When I was playing them both alternately I always got earlier extends in the JP version.

I think this game is great to play for score until you realise how important it is to No Miss and No Bomb, which turns it into a frustrating, horrible experience.

[indstr]

Progear is the only game where playing for score helps me survive longer --- two reasons -- 1) Because once you build up your gem gauge to diamonds, the radius that the bullets chain together when they explode is larger, meaning it is beneficial to your survival to clear the screen of bullets with diamond.
2) I can usually score enough to get the second extend in this game, which helps me survive a bit longer too

Although sometimes I just leave my gem gauge on diamonds and then hold down the button to auto-aim at the enemies for survival, this works particularly well on stage 4, since it is scrolling vertically, you can "catch" all the diamonds and don't even have to vacuum them up.

[Taylor]

I think when playing survival you'll still alternate between Rings and Diamonds. For score implies you're going for the various milking and streaming tricks which are, well, tricky.

[Skykid]

Man, I just want to 1cc the damn thing.

Stage 5 is fucking horrible, especially at the beginning.

[SFKhoa]

Man, I just want to 1cc the damn thing.

Stage 5 is fucking horrible, especially at the beginning.

I can attest to that. I still haven't found an effective method to breeze through the beginning (I end up dying once at the very beginning because of the wave of large ships). Then again, I get so many extends to compensate for it that it isn't as much of a big deal, but it takes a huge hit on my jewel count.

It really sucks losing like 40,000 medals upon death on stage 5.

[indstr]

I think when playing survival you'll still alternate between Rings and Diamonds. For score implies you're going for the various milking and streaming tricks which are, well, tricky.

And since I suck I don't even touch those kinds of things ...

[freddiebamboo]

Man, I just want to 1cc the damn thing.

Stage 5 is fucking horrible, especially at the beginning.

The namakoteam site has a truck load of replays and guides from the Progear week during STGT that should help you out Skykid.

http://www.thestudio-uk.com/namakoteam/ ... topic=70.0

The resource thread there also has a ton of vids and ICR's stage 1 guide.

http://www.thestudio-uk.com/namakoteam/ ... topic=65.0

[evil_ash_xero]

EDIT: This thread is regarding the JP version of the game only.

This little hori bastard is a bit of an odd sheep in the Cave catalogue. I've been playing it on and off for a while now - I probably should've dedicated more time to it in consecutive play, but I've decided contrary to popular belief that this is one tough game regardless!

I've made progress for sure - I nearly make it to Volvox very regularly now on a credit, but 1cc-ing this is taking longer than I thought it would.

Does anyone else find it's odd roaming bullet patterns can catch you out no matter how many times you've played the game, and stages 4 and 5 are particularly tough to learn?

I'm interested in other people's feelings about this game, lmk![/b]

No doubt this is not an easy game, by any means, but after getting used to it, I am actually better at this than say Guwange or ESP Ra.De..

However, at around stage 5, the game is sorta like "f**k you". I find it SOOOO hard to survive without bombing constantly.

Good game, but tough.

s/m

[professor ganson]

I'm not sure I fully understand the emphasis here on playing for score vs. survival. Your chances of survival are way better if you are effective at bullet cancelling, which will give you a good score. There is, I suppose, a fair amount of risk-taking involved in getting the rings that allow for maximum gem collecting, but those risks are very often going to pay off survival-wise with subsequent bullet clearing.

[jonny5]

so you are enjoying the PCB i take it

im so glad it went to you.....i had said to myself when i got it that if i did decide to sell it i wanted it to go to you.....

[FIL]

I thought I was starting to get the hang of Progear until I got to stage 4 and it ground my nuts into the dirt.

[ArrogantBastard]

When I was going for 2-ALL, I could no miss, no bomb the first loop 4 times out of every 5 runs. By the time I ALL'd the game, I was already no missing up to the beginning of 2-4 and I died once there, and once on 2-5 mid-level and pretty much wasted away my lives on the final boss and the final form, too. It was a total bombfest at the end because I had zero lives remaining and I desperately wanted that ALL in the end. I couldn't believe it when I got to the credits roll and I was in shock that I had actually cleared 2 loops with two bombs remaining on my last life.

In short, yes, it is a hard game. Really hard game when going for score, but no more difficult than Ketsui or DDP: DOJ.

[Frederik]

I'm not sure I fully understand the emphasis here on playing for score vs. survival. Your chances of survival are way better if you are effective at bullet cancelling, which will give you a good score. There is, I suppose, a fair amount of risk-taking involved in getting the rings that allow for maximum gem collecting, but those risks are very often going to pay off survival-wise with subsequent bullet clearing.

I completely agree. If you ignore scoring in Progear you´re basically ignoring the main concept of this game (unlike in, say, DDP or Mushihimesama, at least from my point of view). Turning bullets into diamonds just feels so RIGHT. It´s a shame I dislike almost everything else about this game, but the scoring system is very addicting.

[SFKhoa]

Having that 2x bonus makes me not ever want to bomb in Progear ever again.

[jonny5]

I'm not sure I fully understand the emphasis here on playing for score vs. survival. Your chances of survival are way better if you are effective at bullet cancelling, which will give you a good score. There is, I suppose, a fair amount of risk-taking involved in getting the rings that allow for maximum gem collecting, but those risks are very often going to pay off survival-wise with subsequent bullet clearing.

I completely agree. If you ignore scoring in Progear you´re basically ignoring the main concept of this game (unlike in, say, DDP or Mushihimesama, at least from my point of view). Turning bullets into diamonds just feels so RIGHT. It´s a shame I dislike almost everything else about this game, but the scoring system is very addicting.

the main difference between playing for score and survival is if im playing for score i really let clouds build up before canceling and take way more risks....and i dont bomb at all.....for survival i dont take nearly as many risks and i bomb when necessary

put it this way...i can make it to like the 4th stage if im bombing......im lucky to make it to the 3rd playng for score

[professor ganson]

so you are enjoying the PCB i take it

im so glad it went to you.....i had said to myself when i got it that if i did decide to sell it i wanted it to go to you.....

When I first started getting PCBs, Progear was the holy grail. So, yeah, I'm super happy to have this. I'd be even more happy if I could find some time to play it. I think I've played 4 credits so far.

[jonny5]

honestly i dont know how you play it on a supergun

with that fan it would drive me up the wall.....even in a cab it drowned out my pc fans....and they are quite loud

amazing game tho....hopefully you will get some time over the holidays for some more serious play

[captpain]

I think I could 1cc Progear if I really gave it the ol' college try, but it's just never drawn me in quite enough. Maybe someday... it's certainly pretty enough to stare at for all that time!