Xbox 360: Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 (November 2009)

[Krondelo]

Sorry guys, for the life of me I can't figure out what STG stands for?

ShooTing Game... and yes it's absolutely retarded.

Sounds better than SG or SHG or SOG or basically any other abbreviation possible.

Oh haha, of course I assumed each letter meant something but I guess I was wrong. Ok thanks for showing me the retarted light.

[skink]

Sorry guys, for the life of me I can't figure out what STG stands for?

ShooTing Game... and yes it's absolutely retarded.

at least it's not as bad as "shmup". talk about retarded. I cringe every time I use it, but nobody knows STG and everyone else thinks shooting games are shit like halo.

[honorless]

It would be pretty fucked up if 1.01 isn't made available to non-first print owners at all. I'm hoping it's just a timed exclusive.

Also, do you guys think this game has brought some new gamers into the genre?

A few, yes. There would be more importers; I saw many people express interest on, for instance, Siliconera, when the game turned out to be region free. But:

a.) Nobody in the good old USA realizes that the rest of the world has been subsidizing their low game prices for a while. The idea that $70+ is typical for Japan (and then you have to find an importer) is foreign to them.
b.) "Shooters (and platformers) should be budget price or cheap on download services because they're so short", or something. That tired old excuse we're all used to hearing by now.

[Schrodinger's cat]

at least it's not as bad as "shmup". talk about retarded. I cringe every time I use it, but nobody knows STG and everyone else thinks shooting games are shit like halo.

Yeah, "shmup" really sounds like a term a Jewish grandmother would insult you with. Perhaps coining a new name for the genre would be worth creating a new topic for. To most people I talk to about these games, I really can't use "shmup" or "STG" without having to add "y'know, those top down 2D shooters" for clarification.

Back on topic though... it's strange but after having installed BL, I haven't gotten the low music volume bug to occur even once. I guess they traded one bug for another it seems.

b.) "Shooters (and platformers) should be budget price or cheap on download services because they're so short", or something. That tired old excuse we're all used to hearing by now.

I hate hearing this argument all the time. It's like people forget what "replay value" means when a game isn't artificially bloated to be 20 hours long.

[SFKhoa]

Sorry guys, for the life of me I can't figure out what STG stands for?

Sexually Transmitted Games.

[Special World]

Gamers these days want their games to be really long movies with an interactive portion to transition them from one plot point to the next.

ED: Also calling them scrolling shooters or space shooters tends to work.

[QuickMan]

Sorry guys, for the life of me I can't figure out what STG stands for?

ShooTing Game... and yes it's absolutely retarded.

at least it's not as bad as "shmup". talk about retarded. I cringe every time I use it, but nobody knows STG and everyone else thinks shooting games are shit like halo.

Haha. It's so funny that you guys mention this today because last night, I said "shmup" in my head and thought okay, thats enough of that word.

EDIT: Getting back to Mushi, I almost 1cc'd Nov Ultra but got the boss down to half life and then died

I notice that sometimes if I get hit the game will just make me throw out a bomb and I won't die. Is this only if I have a certain supply of bombs because I think Ive gotten hit and died but still had bombs?

[Special World]

For a quickman you're not very quick -_-

You definitely had no bombs when you died in novice mode.

[Krondelo]

Haha. It's so funny that you guys mention this today because last night, I said "shmup" in my head and thought okay, thats enough of that word.

EDIT: Getting back to Mushi, I almost 1cc'd Nov Ultra but got the boss down to half life and then died

I notice that sometimes if I get hit the game will just make me throw out a bomb and I won't die. Is this only if I have a certain supply of bombs because I think Ive gotten hit and died but still had bombs?[/quote]

When you guys say Shmup I hope you aren't saying it like it reads. That would sound retarted. I pronounce it "Shootemup".... but anyway about your question..noob lol.

When you play on Novice there is a feature called autobomb. Its basically saving your ass if you have any bombs this will happen. Come on man I know this and I don't even have the game yet.

[honorless]

For a quickman you're not very quick -_-

Give him a break. This information was left out of the OP in favor of picspam of the Cave Online LE and other collectibles that can't be obtained outside of Japan sans proxy.

Though QuickMan, you may want to go a few pages back and look for the other thread. Before it deteriorated into the shipping update ever, it had some useful information that you might want to know if you're completely unfamiliar with Futari and/or shooting games in general.

Edit: Actually, forget that. Check adverse's NeoGAF thread for a succinct discussion of the modes, with videos.

[moozooh]

ShooTing Game... and yes it's absolutely retarded.

It's not retarded. This abbreviation is originating from Japanese (which as you know has syllable-based writing system for loanwords), and they tend to have had three-letter acronyms for various game genres for a particular reason that I don't know.

[Elixir]

For a quickman you're not very quick -_-

Give him a break. This information was left out of the OP in favor of picspam of the Cave Online LE and other collectibles that can't be obtained outside of Japan sans proxy.

Although the OP is incomplete, I have already mentioned that anyone can contribute if they like. Nobody has. Adding trivial stuff like "you autobomb when you play novice modes" and other really specific stuff is obviously not there.

[honorless]

Although the OP is incomplete, I have already mentioned that anyone can contribute if they like.

I missed that. Let's fix that second part, then.

Feel free to change anything, obviously...especially formatting.

*** MODES ***

This is basic information intended to get first-time players up and running. For more detailed analysis, please see EOJ's posts about Futari and Black Label, and nZero's post on Arrange.

---

Ver 1.5
Original
Often considered the easiest mode of ver 1.5 to clear, Original features fewer bullets/less dense bullet patterns that move quickly. Bullet speed and density increases with the overall counter.

Scoring involves switching from shot to laser at the appropriate time to generate large gold gems, and collecting them as quickly as possible.
Use shot when the overall counter is green. The hundreds digit will range from 0-4.
Use laser when the overall counter is blue.The hundreds digit will range from 5-9.

Maniac
Denser, slower bullet patterns than Original.

Scoring involves chaining small enemies with shot to raise the meter, and collecting the gold gems they drop to increase the multiplier. When the multiplier is large and there are many bullets on screen, let the meter drain to zero and kill something with laser to "cash in" on the multiplier. Repeat as necessary.

Ultra
For experts, or those willing to endure many peaceful deaths. Selecting Ultra brings up a red warning screen; choose the option on the right to proceed.
1CCing the first stage takes perseverance. 1CCing the entire game allows you to fight the true last boss...

Scoring is similar to Original. The overall counter changes color every 2000.

---

Ver 1.01
Contains the same three modes as ver 1.5, with different bullet and enemy patterns. All modes are more difficult, and the characters play differently.

Scoring methods are similar to ver 1.5, but in Ultra the overall counter changes color every 500. (Other differences???)

WTF, I didn't get a DLC card but I want to play 1.01! What can I do?
As of December 2009, Cave has announced no plans to make ver 1.01 available outside of the DLC card. Your only option is to buy the card from someone.

---

Novice
Contains the same three modes as ver 1.5 (and 1.01) with simpler, slower bullet patterns.
All modes feature auto-bomb: if you have bombs in stock, you will use a bomb instead of dying. In addition, players receive one extra bomb from each bomb carrier.

Scoring methods are unaltered.

I can't find Novice Mode!
It's under the Arrange option in the menu.

---

Arrange
In the Arrange modes, both characters are on-screen and switchable on the fly. The main character fires while the "ghost" acts as a shield, slowing bullets with shot and reflecting them with laser.
The counter on the lower right determines how much area the shield character covers. It rises when bullets are being slowed, and drops when bullets are reflected.
Using the laser while both bottom counters are at 9999 will activate Fever, which increases player firepower and yields large gems from all reflected bullets.
Like Novice, Arrange mode has auto-bomb for all difficulties. Invoking the auto-bomb LOWERS all counters. (Bombing manually turns all on-screen bullets into gems.)

Scoring involves getting into Fever as quickly and as often as possible. Scoring methods are the same across all modes.

*** END ***

(Yeah, I know. No Black Label. It's late and I'm tired from Christmas At The Mother-In-Law's. Maybe later today, if nobody else does.)

[EOJ]

Ver 1.01
Scoring methods are unaltered.

Wrong.

[emphatic]

Arrange
In the Arrange modes, both characters are on-screen and switchable on the fly. The secondary character acts as a shield, slowing bullets to a crawl when you use shot and reflecting them with laser. Reflecting bullets only yields gems for you to collect; it does not damage enemies.
The counter on the lower right determines how much area the shield character covers. It rises when bullets are being slowed, and drops when bullets are reflected. The counter on the upper right rises when gems are collected from enemies.
When both counters hit 9999, you enter Fever, where firepower is increased and all reflected bullets yield large gems.
Arrange mode, like Novice, has auto-bomb for all difficulties.

Scoring involves getting into Fever as quickly and as often as possible. Scoring methods are the same across all modes.

*** END ***

(Yeah, I know. No Black Label. It's late and I'm tired from Christmas At The Mother-In-Law's. Maybe later today, if nobody else does.)

Also, the auto-bomb lowers your counter(s). Manual bombing on the other hand gives you gems for all the enemy bullets on screen.

[honorless]

Wrong.

I'm surprised that this is the only error noted so far.

You (or anyone else) feel like enlightening me? I haven't gotten the chance to play anything but portables lately, much less muck around with 1.01.

info

Added, thank you.

Not addressed to emphatic, but I'm mildly vexed that the Arrange section is so much longer than any other. Re-writes that trim it down would be appreciated.

[sjewkestheloon]

Played my first few credits today and found it most enjoyable. Original doesn't seem to be hugely punishing yet (only played for a very short time though) but Maniac handed my arse to me quite quickly. The less said about Ultra the better!

Played an obligatory credit on Novice Original for the comedy 1CC and to piss off the moaners in the thread.

Will be putting the code in for 1.01 later and giving arrange mode a blast, but I expect to be putting most of my time into 1.5 Original to pick up some of the intricacies. Really torn about Black Label but think I might leave it until a patch is released as I don't want any pauses.

[CptRansom]

Arrange
Both characters are on-screen and switchable. The secondary character acts as a shield capable of both slowing and reflecting bullets. The counter on the lower right determines how much area the shield character covers. It rises when bullets are being slowed and drops when bullets are reflected. Fever is activated when both characters' counters are at 9999 and laser is used; firepower is increased and all reflected bullets yield large gems. Arrange mode has auto-bomb for all difficulties. Manually bombing turns all on-screen bullets into gold gems; invoking the auto-bomb LOWERS all counters.

Scoring involves getting into Fever as quickly and as often as possible. Scoring methods are the same across all modes.



I tried.

[emphatic]

Arrange Mode

Also, in this mode you'll notice (if you look closely) that there's now a new "aura" surrounding your characters (both are inside it) that marks when the enemy bullets get affected. You can use this visual aid to see when bullets you don't want to reflect are out of your way, or when bullets you want to reflect are in range. This aura is purple/blue, sorta like lens flare and very transparent. It turns white while bullets are scraping it.

[Krondelo]

I noticed you wrote. 1CCing Stage 1 is difficult for Ultra and to face the true last boss. You mean 1CC all the stages right?

[honorless]

I tried.

It helped.

I noticed you wrote. 1CCing Stage 1 is difficult for Ultra and to face the true last boss.

Not trying to be a dick, but I can't figure out what you mean by that last part. It isn't a comprehensible sentence.
I did mean that you have to make it through all stages to reach the TLB, and have rewritten that bit. So hopefully it's clearer. Was that the issue?

words

Obviously Elixir can decide; it's his thread, but I'm loath to add all that extra text to Arrange mode. The blue proximity aura thing seems pretty obvious, no?

[Krondelo]

Its okay man, I did write that sentence quite strangely didn't I? Yes, that is what I meant.

[Lynx Winters]

I thought the autobomb was pretty obvious after about a minute of play but here we are.

[sjewkestheloon]

Hot damn 1.01 is nasty. The bullets are faster and the patterns more dense from the start. Definately going to be having a play around with this when I get a bit better with 1.5 Original.

May be a stupid question but what are the specific differences between Arcade and Xbox 360? Is it just that in 360 mode the sprites are higher res? Arcade just looks a bit jaggy in comparison on my initial cursory plays.

Also 1.5 Original is the very first in depth scoring system in a shmup that I have enjoyed. I don't feel like I'm jumping through hoops like in other games and I can tell just by feel whether my run is a good scoring one.

[Lok]

There are some slight differences in slowdown with Arcade & 360 mode but it's apparently really minuscule. Other than that, just a higher res art for 360 mode.

And I was a bit confused as to why I wasn't sucking up the ground gems in 1.01 till I realized that wasn't a perk until 1.5.

[Special World]

How do you suck up ground gems?

[Lok]

In 1.01, as far as I can tell, you don't suck them up. Gotta manually go over them. In 1.5, you suck them up by using your Laser.

[Ben]

In 1.01, as far as I can tell, you don't suck them up. Gotta manually go over them. In 1.5, you suck them up by using your Laser.

Aha, after I read the post asking if there was anything more to add I was just coming in here to note down this fact! oh well
Another thing I've noticed in 1.01 however is that the bullets all seem to have either a very slight trail sort of effect, or they mildly pulse as they fly along. I'm not quite sure which it is as I haven't put a whole lot of time into 1.01, but there is something subtly different about the look of the bullets.

[yyr]

I played some more Arrange today... and now I'm positive that the scoring system is NOT exactly the same across all three modes. It's really interesting to watch some of the top players' runs and see the differences.

For example: you will notice that using the laser on mid-bosses and bosses gives you points according to the "total counter" (i use the 1.5 terms here). Killing normal enemies with the laser (not shot) gives you points according to the "stage counter," which also decreases with each killed enemy (like how in Espgaluda, you lose additional green gems in Kakusei when enemies are killed). Thing is, the "stage counter" seems to decrease MUCH more quickly in Maniac when enemies are killed than it does in Original.

I feel like this can't be the only difference.

[Zweihander]

Yeah, "shmup" really sounds like a term a Jewish grandmother would insult you with.

Truer words have never been spoken on this forum.