Darius Gaiden dilema

[FER]

Been looking at many videos of Darius Gaiden beaten in 1cc and such, but every single of those videos uses the super autofire.

Am I the only one that feel that is lame? how can someone be proud of beating the game when you use something that turns folding fans into a joke?

[louisg]

The trouble with DG is that, without autofire, the default fire rate is much too slow to do much of anything; bosses can take several minutes to beat without it. I think it's lame too, but it does make the game playable.

[GaijinPunch]

Agreed w/ louisg. I was punching myself in the balls trying to figure out how the fuck to get anywhere, until I watched a video, and saw it used auto-fire. Apparently they deemed it necessary enough to put the feature as a setting in Extra Version.

[ncp]

Well, the thing is, the game SEEMS to be designed around manual rapidfiring: the default fire rate is too slow, while auto-rapidfire can just get insanely fast on high settings. With quick fingers you can maintain a faster rate of fire but you'll have a broken right hand by the time you clear the game...

It's certainly doable but it will be considerably more difficult and frustrating...

Apparently they deemed it necessary enough to put the feature as a setting in Extra Version.

Extra version was not made by Taito (I don't think it was at least), so I don't think this is necessarily true...
edit: Doing some research on this, looks like I'm probably wrong about this. I guess the word "hack" threw me off? >_>

[louisg]

With quick fingers you can maintain a faster rate of fire but you'll have a broken right hand by the time you clear the game...

The Saturn one at least has two buttons, so with overhand grip it's not too hard to alternate and fire fast.. it makes for a fun button-mashy experience, but also makes it a bit tougher to dodge things =)

[MathU]

I agree, autofire is lame, especially in a game like Darius Gaiden. You reserve zero bragging rights when you beat that with autofire. It makes a tremendous difference. I'm proud of my autofire-less ABEHLRW single credit clear.

One thing I like about Darius Gaiden is the pressure you feel jamming that fire button during safe points in boss fights. Really gets the adrenaline going. I mash the button when I feel safe, and keep it held down when I'm dodging tough stuff. You completely miss out on this experience when you use autofire.

[lgb]

edit: Doing some research on this, looks like I'm probably wrong about this. I guess the word "hack" threw me off? >_>

It's official. Could be developed by something else, but Taito likes doing Extra Versions.

[ncp]

I do realize it is called an official hack but I can't seem to find any info on it. Anyone know who made it (if not Taito), and if it was ever in any arcades? Or if Taito were even the ones to dub it "official"?

[FER]

Problem is manual autofire is way too fast, should be something inbetween both speeds.
At least doing it manually makes me feel less lame, and I pretty much resort to use it on bosses (stages get easy once the wave shot gets strong)

I dont get why it can be frustrating, shmups are supposed to requiere skill, and seeing folding fan getting tackled out of screen tells me something is not working right. Plus, pretty much on every path you can get at least two extra lives.

Anyway, its interesting to hear why the super autofire is used.

[gameoverDude]

I've done ABEHLQV for 8,000,000+ without autofire, but that's using an arcade stick. Regarding the Saturn DG, I would not try non-autofire using a pad.

If you are close enough and place your ship so that missiles are going right into the boss' weakpoint, the boss practically gets raped if you use heavy autofire. It seems almost unfair. I think the missiles do more damage than the shot/laser/wave portion of your fire.

[GaijinPunch]

I've not played much of the series, but I dont' think the first two bosses should take as long as they do w/o the auto fire. Something just doesn't feel right... at all.

[MathU]

You can actually make the first boss go down very quickly if you exploit the rank system: Powering your shot up to the yellow laser gives it a lot more health. And which second boss are you referring to? The same applies to all the bosses really. Their health increases substantially (and attack patterns change) for every next stage of firepower you have. I like fighting them all max-powered though. Makes them all the funner, though I agree the first couple bosses can get a little repetitive after a while.

Edit: This is 100% wrong and I was only parroting a dumb rumor some other person spread around like this.

[FER]

I tought bosses had maxed health if you faced them with your weapons maxed for its category (maxed shot boosts boss while lvl1 laser doesnt), I never figured this rank system.

And which second boss are you referring to?

I think he was refeering to ancient dozer, seeing he has two phases. King Fossil doesnt take nearly as long.

[twalden]

I dont get why it can be frustrating, shmups are supposed to requiere skill.

I have developed rheumatoid arthritis the over the past few years. Call me a pussy if you want, but autofire is the only way I can play games which require you to jam on the fire button repeatedly like Darius Gaiden.

[FER]

Or you could resort to the normal autofire?

[twalden]

I play the PCB with an autofire circuit I built. It's not as fast of a fire rate as I've seen in some videos, but it works. Also, the last few bosses are easier if you don't power all the way up and stay 2 or 3 levels down from max.

[Smraedis]

And if this is aimed at me, then I use the autofire because my fingers just are not great.. I've already had RSI in the past due to work, and I don't want to damage my fingers any worse.

The standard autofire is too slow, and Darius Gaiden Extra fixed that.

[dpful]

w/o outofire, you get to stay on the bosses for a little longer and groove to the rad new wave music.

[ZOM]

Call me lame, but In mameplus I use a fire rate just a few notches higher than DG's default.
That being said, I still haven't managed to 1CC this game.

[lgb]

I tought bosses had maxed health if you faced them with your weapons maxed for its category (maxed shot boosts boss while lvl1 laser doesnt), I never figured this rank system.

Nope, it's the actual weapon. The fun part is that the first level of each weapon tends to be slightly weaker than the last level of the previous.

[FER]

Just slightly? looks like alot more.

[Twiddle]

I don't think skill involves getting carpel tunnel syndrome, feel free to (fail to) prove me wrong though

[FER]

Least thing I want is to bring hate

[Icarus]

Darius Gaiden is one of those rare games where autofire assistance is a big advantage and can make the game a lot easier. In many cases, however, having hardware autofire does very little save enable you to maneuver well without destroying controllers and fingers in the process.

Autofire may remove the (occasionally fun) button-mashing aspect from the game, but you still need skill to play and score well.

[louisg]

I don't think skill involves getting carpel tunnel syndrome, feel free to (fail to) prove me wrong though

Getting carpel tunnel increases the rank of the game

[FER]

Darius Gaiden is one of those rare games where autofire assistance is a big advantage and can make the game a lot easier. In many cases, however, having hardware autofire does very little save enable you to maneuver well without destroying controllers and fingers in the process.

Autofire may remove the (occasionally fun) button-mashing aspect from the game, but you still need skill to play and score well.

Do you mean the default autofire or the super autofire?

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Harder routes are still challenging even with autofire.

[yojo!]

I increase the difficulty setting to" hardest" when playing Darius Gaiden with autofire to counterbalance.

[lgb]

Just slightly? looks like alot more.

Well, either way the first level of each weapon tends to be weaker than the last level of the previous. And since leveling up can increase rank, you might be better off without, especially if you do decide to refrain from autofire.

[Andi]

Or you could resort to the normal autofire?

This is the voice of reason in this thread. The Saturn has a default auto-fire which makes the game more friendly, without breaking it completely. All this hyper auto-fire BS has got to go.