Xbox 360: Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 (November 2009)

[chempop]

Abnormal Palm definitely has a disadvantage halfway through stage 3... but taking down bosses faster is what we moderate players care about

For anyone else struggling to 1CC, try playing Arcade mode. The sprites are a little jaggy, but this actually makes the bullets and enemies appear more distinguished from the background. I had started playing on Xbox mode but when I switched to Arcade I improved. I don't know if there are any other differences between the two modes...

[Schrodinger's cat]

Holy shit... I don't know how they fit so much fun into a single game. I've been playing mostly Original and Maniac on 1.5 and BL, and I've must have put around 15-20 hours into the game over the past 2 days already.

My practice strategy is to start off with Ultra, get used to the bullets (and get killed countless times), and then start playing other modes. I've only made it up to stage 2 in Ultra, but EVERYTHING else becomes much easier by comparison once you start playing it. I got up to Larsa with abonormal Palm on my very first credit in Original (definitely not focusing on score), and I also no missed Ultra Novice mode after doing this.

The scoring is soooo much better than what the first Mushi had. Maniac and Original feel worlds apart scoring-wise, but I think that both of them are more fun to score in than a lot of other shooters that I've played. My only gripe is all of that upper left hand corner staring I find myself doing. Maybe adding some easy to read gauge around the player (like in Espgaluda) would have helped with this.

As for bugs, the stuttering only happens once at a time at seemingly random points when it occurs for me. I've yet to die from it, but I had it happen once during a boss and it threw me off slightly. This is with the game installed on my HDD running off of a Jasper 360. The boss music volume bug is fairly annoying and happens quite a bit as well. These aren't game-breaking for me (yet) but I hope there's a fix soon.

This game is totally an unending supply of awesome. I mean there are all of these fun modes and I haven't really started playing arrange and 1.01 yet

[Necronopticous]

Does anybody here like 1.5 more than Black Label?

Just curious.

I like Version 1.5 Maniac better than any mode in Black Label, personally. God Mode is really close, though.

[evil_ash_xero]

Does anybody here like 1.5 more than Black Label?

Just curious.

I like Version 1.5 Maniac better than any mode in Black Label, personally. God Mode is really close, though.

I prefer 1.5, but I like BL too.

[Special World]

Does anybody here like 1.5 more than Black Label?

Just curious.

I haven't learned the scoring subtleties of BL yet. Is the general consensus that it is the better of the two?

Well I certainly think so. Manic + God are a HUGE improvement. And original is slightly improved.

[emphatic]

Spent most of the day with sven666 and SinHo playing Arrange, and my god it's a lot of fun. Once you've learned how to build up to Fever mode, and that the bombs GIVES YOU GEMS (not the auto-ones) it's a riot. I will no doubt put more time into these modes as I like them more than anything else.

[Skykid]

Does anybody here like 1.5 more than Black Label?

Just curious.

I like Version 1.5 Maniac better than any mode in Black Label, personally. God Mode is really close, though.

I prefer 1.5, but I like BL too.

As I said, can't comment - however I've been on Maniac 1.5 all day and man, is it FUN!

[Jeneki]

My only gripe is all of that upper left hand corner staring I find myself doing. Maybe adding some easy to read gauge around the player (like in Espgaluda) would have helped with this.

Every time you collect gems, there will be a color-coded number that appears right next to your character for a split second. It's hard to notice if you're not specifically looking for it though; I won't blame anyone for not noticing it.

[lawnspic]

Can someone tell me exactly where the hit box is for each of the characters, Thanks

[SFKhoa]

Very center of the hitbox display. 2x4 for Original. 2x2 for Maniac/Ultra.

[Zero Gunner]

I'm sure this has been discussed much, but can I get BL just by logging into US Live? How much does it cost?

Yes you can - 1200 MSP.

I tried downloading this today and got a "Content not available" message. However it was not region specific like if you try dling the No More Heroes trailer from outside Japan. How do I get this to DL properly? Any thoughts?

[Solarus]

I'm sure this has been discussed much, but can I get BL just by logging into US Live? How much does it cost?

Yes you can - 1200 MSP.

I tried downloading this today and got a "Content not available" message. However it was not region specific like if you try dling the No More Heroes trailer from outside Japan. How do I get this to DL properly? Any thoughts?

If you tried to access it in game by trying to enter the BL menu, it won't work. You need to manually go to the LIVE store. it's on the US live. Go under Add-On content and it's the most recently added item. It's labelled some random engrish "Mushihimesama-Hutari-Black-Lavel" or something like that.

[EPS21]

Very center of the hitbox display. 2x4 for Original. 2x2 for Maniac/Ultra.

Wow I wasn't aware the hitbox is slightly different in original. are those 4 pixels in the 2x4 up/down or left/right?

[SFKhoa]

Very center of the hitbox display. 2x4 for Original. 2x2 for Maniac/Ultra.

Wow I wasn't aware the hitbox is slightly different in original. are those 4 pixels in the 2x4 up/down or left/right?

up/down.

[sven666]

did some heavy playtesting of this yesterday and it really is a fantastic port.

novice mode is ridiculously easy and obviously only included for absolute beginners of the genre (it is impossible not to 1CC the game in this mode even on the highest difficulty setting).

did like arrange mode, great scoring fun with multipliers and gems absoluteley pouring out all the time, was a little put of by the low difficulty here as well tho, made it to the last boss a few times on ultra in spite of me never having played before nor knew anything of the playsystem.

hires gfx look gorgeous and the options really makes this port excel above the rest, an option to turn off the voices? - fuck yeah!!

10/10 - an absolute must-buy for everyone with the console.

[Herr Schatten]

10/10 - an absolute must-buy for everyone with the console.

I bought it even though I don't have the console (yet).

[adversity1]

did some heavy playtesting of this yesterday and it really is a fantastic port.

With the ridiculous slowdown on BL Original, you should be able to destroy your previous score.

[sven666]

did some heavy playtesting of this yesterday and it really is a fantastic port.

With the ridiculous slowdown on BL Original, you should be able to destroy your previous score.

really, its that bad?

did not have access to BL yesterday unfortunatley, will have to give it another go sometime then..

[Krondelo]

10/10 - an absolute must-buy for everyone with the console.

I bought it even though I don't have the console (yet).

I'm buying this game! Sucks though because I'm going out of town so I have to wait to order it until I'm almost home, I don't want it sitting around while I'm gone.

[emphatic]

Yesterday when playing this at a friends house in his high res cabinet, I noticed some graphical glitches for the first time, on the level 2 boss. Big purple crap. At the time, his console was set to display a 16:9 resolution (even though the cab is 4:3). Once we switched to 4:3, all of those glitches went away. Perhaps the screen ratio somehow is a factor to consider with some of the glitches/bugs in the game?

[bcass]

Yesterday when playing this at a friends house in his high res cabinet, I noticed some graphical glitches for the first time, on the level 2 boss. Big purple crap. At the time, his console was set to display a 16:9 resolution (even though the cab is 4:3). Once we switched to 4:3, all of those glitches went away. Perhaps the screen ratio somehow is a factor to consider with some of the glitches/bugs in the game?

I'm running in 16:9 on an SDTV (CRT) via RGB Scart. I've been playing since not long after release, and I've not seen a single graphical glitch (not including the BL stutter).

[dmauro]

Yesterday when playing this at a friends house in his high res cabinet, I noticed some graphical glitches for the first time, on the level 2 boss. Big purple crap. At the time, his console was set to display a 16:9 resolution (even though the cab is 4:3). Once we switched to 4:3, all of those glitches went away. Perhaps the screen ratio somehow is a factor to consider with some of the glitches/bugs in the game?

Presumably the console has to work harder to display higher resolutions which will probably contribute to things like that. That's why I'm hoping my console will last longer since I just use 480p.

[SFKhoa]

With the ridiculous slowdown on BL Original, you should be able to destroy your previous score.

Based on this quote, I assume the slowdown is way less accurate on the port?

[agustusx]

Big purple crap. At the time, his console was set to display a 16:9 resolution (even though the cab is 4:3). Once we switched to 4:3, all of those glitches went away.

Presumably the console has to work harder to display higher resolutions which will probably contribute to things like that. That's why I'm hoping my console will last longer since I just use 480p.

I'm thinking with all the scaling/aspect ratio options if you pick something really funky it may go crazy on occasion. My uneducated guess is the closer to squarish pixels the better.

Anyone actually use all the extra displays? Do those cause additional graphical glitches?

[adversity1]

With the ridiculous slowdown on BL Original, you should be able to destroy your previous score.

Based on this quote, I assume the slowdown is way less accurate on the port?

It is completely different, particularly the stage 3 boss, which is designed to kill your overall counter on the PCB. If you have a counter of 50k plus going into that fight it is quite fast and I never got it down very well. 360 version is a lackadaisical romp through some bullet fields. I always come out of it with a high chain.

Personally I prefer the 360 version since the arcade boss just felt way too random, but others may disagree.

[Inkvisitor]

I just got my copy in the mail. Sent from Play-Asia 091125. Arrived 091214. Just mentioning it to people who are still climbing the walls. I guess shipping from hongkong to sweden can take time. Other stuff have arrived a lot quicker.

It was a while since i played mushi on my PS2 but running this on HDMI I can already tell it looks a lot more crisp. Looking forward to playing some more

[Schrodinger's cat]

Yeah, even compared to 1.5 original BL stage 3 gets really easy towards the end. In 1.5 those annoying ladybugs and rolling things would always seem to get me from the side when I'm trying to dodge the bullets fired from the larger enemies towards the end, but in BL... not so much.

[evil_ash_xero]

Yeah, even compared to 1.5 original BL stage 3 gets really easy towards the end. In 1.5 those annoying ladybugs and rolling things would always seem to get me from the side when I'm trying to dodge the bullets fired from the larger enemies towards the end, but in BL... not so much.

That's the reason I like 1.5 better than BL. BL slows down boss bullet patterns and does a few other things to make the game easier. I just think it's softening up the game a little bit too much.

[Skykid]

Yeah, even compared to 1.5 original BL stage 3 gets really easy towards the end. In 1.5 those annoying ladybugs and rolling things would always seem to get me from the side when I'm trying to dodge the bullets fired from the larger enemies towards the end, but in BL... not so much.

That's the reason I like 1.5 better than BL. BL slows down boss bullet patterns and does a few other things to make the game easier. I just think it's softening up the game a little bit too much.

Guys, I think you're getting it wrong - the BL DLC on the port is actually quite different from the PCB original, there's too much slowdown and it's making the game even easier than it should be. Basically, BL DLC and BL PCB will treat you differently, and it's not quite fair to compare scores between the two versions because of this.

I know Necro is considering truncating the high score thread even further to reflect the differences, but we're all waiting to hear more info from people who have spent a lot of time with the BL PCB.

[emphatic]

Yeah, even compared to 1.5 original BL stage 3 gets really easy towards the end. In 1.5 those annoying ladybugs and rolling things would always seem to get me from the side when I'm trying to dodge the bullets fired from the larger enemies towards the end, but in BL... not so much.

That's the reason I like 1.5 better than BL. BL slows down boss bullet patterns and does a few other things to make the game easier. I just think it's softening up the game a little bit too much.

Guys, I think you're getting it wrong - the BL DLC on the port is actually quite different from the PCB original, there's too much slowdown and it's making the game even easier than it should be. Basically, BL DLC and BL PCB will treat you differently, and it's not quite fair to compare scores between the two versions because of this.

I know Necro is considering truncating the high score thread even further to reflect the differences, but we're all waiting to hear more info from people who have spent a lot of time with the BL PCB.

The PCB slowdowns on Boss 3 (Original mode) actually makes stuff harder sometimes IMHO. At least I always blame it when I die (which is basically each encounter).

But I think that BL (360) must be a bit easier than the PCB overall, as I got the 1CC of BL Maniac on my first credit in that mode.