DDP: is the "difficulty" setting... a setting?

[Evrain]

I was tampering with MAME today, mainly looking for a way to have a friend practice at DDP without having the perennial feeling of sucking big time (you know, when you first pick up a danmaku after years of that vague "a game with ships and bullets" and an (un)healthy dose of Raiden X in Flash) and switched the difficulty to Easy in the test menu.

Now, after a run or two in which I felt the game wasn't easier AT ALL, I am now at my third almost 1-ALL run and I'm a bit at a loss, since I hardly manage to reach st.5 boss before meeting my demise at best. Is that setting actually working, or I'm just thinking it's easier and blasting my way through it? Or I'm on a serious Cheerios overdose?

[Jockel]

It probably has something to do with rank, so don't compare the first levels, compare the last ones.
Don't expect different/easier bullet patterns, expect slower bullets and enemies that take less damage.
And because rank has to build up over the stages obviously the first stage won't be so different with different rank settings.

[ncp]

Yeah the rank is lower.

Basically makes it easier to no-miss-no-bomb.

@Jockel it's actually bullet density. Bullet speed and enemy health never change.

[Jockel]

@Jockel it's actually bullet density. Bullet speed and enemy health never change.

Ok, i never tried this, just assumed.

[esreveR]

Wait, DoDonPachi has a ranking system? I thought it was just preset by first loop/second loop stats or something. But ranking would probably make more sense, come to think of it.

[linko9]

There's certainly rank, but you I don't really notice it until the 4th stage. At some points the bullet density can be close to doubled on highest rank vs. lowest rank. That said, it's nowhere near as noticeable as in many other shmups, and I was never really sure if it existed until I'd played over 60 hours or so.

[ncp]

it's pretty obvious in the beginning of stage 5 with the turrets that shoot streams of bullets. The gap between bullets is ~50% larger after a death.

[Zetzumarshen]

Aside from rank, difficulty setting does make a difference. I usually play in default setting, but when changing it to "very hard", I find everything at stage 1 shoots more often and more likely to point blank your ship. Haven't tried at easy though.