STGT '09 Psikyo Week 4, Strikers 1945 II - thoughts

[Aquas]

I think the game is pretty decent, just not my favorite. I'm still not very familiar with Psikyo games, but after this week, I feel like I know the games a bit more. Would've played more this week had I not been baked for most of it but now that that's out of the way I can soberly approach Battle Garegga (good luck!) I still have my fear of the game and shooters like it with crazy, cooky, touchy feely rank systems, though, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

[Plasmo]

I like how the loop is so impossibly difficult having super fast and super random bullets. Quite a rush!
Good week!

[spineshark]

My favorite game of the first four tournament weeks, definitely. Not nearly as good as Gunbird 2, but the lack of pickup chaining and lower first loop difficulty made it much easier to really get into for a week. (From how much of each I've played, I don't have any opinions on second loop dif-OH GOD I'M DEAD ALREADY)

Really though, I was masochistically hoping for a hori like Sol Divide or Sengoku Blade.

[Zejiro]

Easily the best game so far in this tournament. It's so good I'm going to buy it.
Pretty difficult game. I got to stage 4 pretty quickly, then I got to stage 5 every now and then, but it stopped there. Stage 5 was impossible for me to beat in just a week. The longest I lasted on the stage 5 boss was about 4 seconds, so to get a new record I had to shoot more enemies and get 2000 on the medallions - which I liked.

It's just too bad I worked 6 days this week, and two shifts were 24h shifts. I lost precious time.. a lot of it.

[Dragoforce]

Since i'm colourblind and couldn't see the when the bars changed I failed to enjoy it as much as I would have.

[sven666]

proboably the most mediocre shmup there is.

[Herr Schatten]

Easily the best game of the tournament. Especially well-suited for a one-week tournament, because zero points come from secret knowledge, and the scores directly correspond with the player's skill. The game's butt-ugly, but the gameplay is almost perfectly balanced.
Now we get the exact opposite for the next two weeks. I had really hoped that Dimahoo would be chosen, just to piss everyone off.

Btw, the gold bars are just there to distract you, seriously. Picking them up at the right time doesn't make a huge difference to your score. Also, aimlessly moving around is underrated.

[Dragoforce]

Btw, the gold bars are just there to distract you, seriously. Picking them up at the right time doesn't make a huge difference to your score.

Stop poking holes in my sorry excuses.

[Arvandor]

I loved it! Especially for a one-week competition. Easily the best game of the tourney so far.

Wasn't as difficult as most Psikyo games, and was surprisingly light on the memorization speed-patterns from bosses, even later in the game. A wonderful little skill-based and simple scoring system to pick up some extra points, without it being exponential and devestating your score for failure. And lastly, the short stages and quick ramp-up pace made playing the game over and over again relatively bearable.

[emphatic]

proboably the most mediocre shmup there is.

[Danbo]

A cool and good game after thunder dragon 2. i was pretty sure it was gonna be dragon blaze, a game that i find stupidly difficult, so i'm pleased with strikers 1945 II...

why does nobody else use the Focke-Wulf? the charge shot blocks bullets for you and the bomb is oddly forgiving for a Psikyo game.

[Doctor Fugue]

I believe I had the highest score with the P38... since I was the only one using that ship I also had the lowest.

By far the hardest game of the tournament for me.

[Ruldra]

At first I didn't like Psikyo games much but after this week I started enjoying them. The boss attack patterns seems impossible at first, but it's just a matter of sitting down and analyze each attack. Now I feel encouraged enough to attempt a Dragon Blaze 1st loop clear.

@Danbo: The Fockewulf is a great ship and I even practiced with it for a little bit; the charge shot is perfect to avoid some tough attacks. But in the end I was just doing better with the pancake. The speed, homing lasers and the lv3 charge makes the ship way too good.

[crithit5000]

I enjoy Psikyo games quite a bit, and I think Strikers 1945 II is a fine example of their work. I also enjoyed reading some of the more colorful comments from folks who hate everything Psikyo-related.

[PsikyoPshumpPshooterP]

strikers 1945 2 is my favorite shmup of all time. The level of diffuculty kicks so much ass all over the place. i love it

[Rob]

Just looked over the thread, thoughts in response to this:

People are right, this game is surprisingly easy for MAME era Psikyo. Maybe that's why it's top25 and Dragon Blaze and Gunbird 2 aren't, I don't see any other way.

The bullet patterns just have the perfect mix of simplicity/density and speed, and the difficulty increases steadily. Memorization helps, but doesn't feel as required. It's easy to jump back into after a long break, which means it's the one I go back to most often (but not that week ). The game can still be a lot of fun in the loop with max rank - try that in Gunbird 2. Very extreme, less fun. All of the planes are fun to use and it also has their best use of the charge bar attacks. I prefer being able to save up for something more useful than a standard bomb. Not practical in GB2 and not possible in DB. The difficulty isn't "much lower" than GB2 or DB, though. Not for the first round anyways. A lot of the difficulty in those disappears when you destroy enemies before they can do anything. You can't do that in Strikers II as often since the enemies can't be disposed of as easily.

[Necronopticous]

Great game. I really wish I had the time to play more than a single credit.

[Davey]

Easily the best game of the tournament. Especially well-suited for a one-week tournament, because zero points come from secret knowledge, and the scores directly correspond with the player's skill.

I think this pretty much sums it up. It's a really solid game and I enjoyed the simple mechanics.

[MX7]

I loved it. I think it might even pip 1999 as my favourite Psikyo game. The bullet patterns are just beautiful.

[clp]

its ok still dont see why people prefer it to strikers 1999 though which is way over due appearing in a stgt . This week garegga one of my favs of all time but still think just an obvious easy choice thats gonna split into elite few who have learnt the game and everyone else , dimahoo would of been a nice change . This was the best game of the tourny so far though which um isnt saying something flattering .

[unsane]

Not much to say about this, was one of my fave games pre-stgt so i was glad to play it. I didn't beat my previous record by much, but that's because its scoring system is simple and i'd played it a lot already.

Only thing is i'll never score amazingly well in this and Gunbird 2, as i don't like the gold bar mechanic. It's too tedious. When playing to maximize gold bar pts i get irritated, start to hate the game and not want to play. When i just pick up the bars without looking, the game is very enjoyable.

[captpain]

I think people confuse mediocre with solid. Apart from the graphics (and lack of scoring system, which I don't miss), every characteristic of the game is well above-average.

[Rob]

Strikers II has the best robot bosses in shooting game history and the muddy graphics are endearing.

[Matsunaga]

I agree, it's my favorite Psikyo game, partly because it beats me to death slower than the others.

[Ed Oscuro]

STGT 09 has put some games on my "keep playing this until you do good" list; this is one of them.

[bkk]

A++ week, would play again.

[MR_Soren]

Enjoyed the game a lot. Feel like I could 1CC this game someday even if my tournament results weren't too spectacular.

[RGC]

Good game, useless competitor. 7/10

[shadowbringer]

thoughts/opinions:
- ocean stage: I liked how there's one last big ship that's aligned vertically, where you can destroy its two gunner turrets before the ship itself for two additional gold bars; the enemy placement and gold bar amount is fine, imho (though I kinda don't like how, in the beginning of the stage, if you fail to fast-kill the third medium plane, it will shoot through the gold bars, delaying me.. though I liked the idea ). Nice popcorn and turret section near the stage's boss.
- railway stage: this seems like a stage that tests your ability to shoot down as many enemies you can, while still collecting gold bars at their best values. Seems as fun as frustrating. I've died sometimes on the stage boss' first form, though, because I sat above it (on one of the sides), waited for the side turrets to appear and attempted to make them aim upwards (so I could get some "free damage"), and then the boss decided to corner me while using the pattern of spiraling shots (and my Hayate ship's bomb can't save me up there )
- sky stage: my favorite stage out of the 4 first ones, it has no gold bars and fast-killing certain planes (the large ones) will make more enemies to appear, and thus, yield more points
- blimp stage: liked the enemy placement (the order of appearance of the tanks and turret at the beginning kinda gives a direction of how my ship should be moving, and the 5 groups of turrets allow you to use a charge), disliked the difficulty in getting gold bars at a good value. The most bothersome parts (aside from missing the timing of medals, in the few opportunities I can actually try to get them safely) were the blimp's second "stage" (liked the first ), the way that section's bullets (the blimp's, not the regular enemies) takes space seems generic, and the side enemies during the boss fight are more irritating than earning points through them is pleasing
- stage 5: it's from this point up to stage 7 (which is as far as I could get) that this game redeemed itself, for me, for the patience test (chinese torture?) that were the former stages (there were many times where the enemies' bullets would pass through the bars that I wanted to get, there were few times when I died because I didn't see a bullet coming *after* I've got a gold bar). Liked how you're allowed to eliminate the big tank's (on the center of the screen) helpers before handling (or using a charge) on the tank itself, and how you can prepare yourself beforehand against the small turrets (or dynamically foresee a path/manipulate their aim). From this stage to the 7th, there's no special reason/motivation to move yourself to the upper half of the screen (and the few times that you may want to do so, you don't get "punished" for this, there are very few dangers), and thus, your bomb has better chances of saving you. Finally, liked the medium planes before the boss (as these are maneuverable if done right), and both of the boss' phases (the first has stuff to blow up and gain points from, the second has patterns that don't require precise placement and/or memorization of tight dead angles)
- stage 6: again, liked how the "houses" can be manipulated and dealt with, liked to dodge through the medium planes' patterns and through the following shots from the tanks. The dam's cannons (along with the midboss) are also manageable, liked the bonus points in form of the 8 missiles that follow the dam, and the safespot after these missiles (the first time I saw it, I immediately thought of Touhou 2's Extra Stage)
- stage 7: the gold bars were more easily collectible and numerous (perhaps as a way to reward players who could reach it), I'm yet to learn how to handle the boss' attacks (the second part, the robot)

- liked the Thunder Dragon 2's bosses more, liked their patterns and scoring system more (and Varth's better than Thunder Dragon in these aspects, imho)
- the game has established boss patterns, but these aren't (apparently) in an established order; there were times when I died because I expected a different pattern than the one used by the boss (example being the ocean stage's boss' aimed salvo, same for the sky stage's double aimed-ish spread (when it has lost its side "arms"), when I'm not expecting it)

[moozooh]

proboably the most mediocre shmup there is.