STGT 2010 - Cyvern and Xexex thoughts

[Matsunaga]

I hated Cyvern, I don't think I've ever been more pissed while playing anything. There are good things about it, I liked the scoring system, the graphics are nice, my problem with it was your dragon is too damn slow. I like Xexex, it's strange and unique, and not as hard as I thought it would be. Hopefully next week is something I'm familiar with.

[BulletMagnet]

I liked the scoring system, the graphics are nice, my problem with it was your dragon is too damn slow.

Ditto for me - laser-breathing dragons are a childhood fantasy fulfillment of mine, but shmups which consistently make me feel like I move too slowly to stand a chance simply drive me up a wall (I'm just waiting for a Raiden to be picked for a later week ). Xexex is intriguing from an outward design perspective, but not exactly an ideal choice for a score-based competition.

[third_strike]

XeXeX is ugly just like my right egg.

[lgb]

Xexex is intriguing from an outward design perspective, but not exactly an ideal choice for a score-based competition.

I completely disagree; it's not particularly difficult and the only real milking is stage 2 boss to my knowledge, it's perfect for a score-based competition

[dpful]

Cyvern: fuck yeah, flute solos and dragon screams, who could want more? Coincidentally, The colors, music, and gameplay rule. VERY solid pick for competition.

Xexex: it's called honor, guys. Another EXCELLENT pick for competition for weeding out the ones who want to play a "game" from the ones who want to fly a spaceship. And for weeding out the ones who want control from the ones who want to hit the battlefield. "Waaaaah I didn't get a 1 up!" Well I don't even know where all the secrets are, and i risk my life trying for one ups, and get speed ups. That makes the game better, not worse. If I loose my lives on the first level, I don't reset, I try to beat the game with one life. May e hope for a 1 up.

[dpful]

Xexex complainers, I hope metal black comes into the comp somehow. It'd teach you a lesson. (I'd compete with metal black)

Lower quartile rules!

[Shuurin]

Cyvern: At first I thought the game was utter trash and ugly to boot. It did grow on me a bit by the end of the week where I may go back someday to at least 1 loop it. Still hate how slow the dragon moved, the second stage boss, the Battle Garegga hard to see bullets, and popcorn mobs that take two hits to kill.

Xexex: I like R-type and Gradius/Parodius style games so of course I like this game as well despite its flaws. Totally agree stage 3/5 don't mesh well with the rest of the stages in terms of difficulty and make or break your run. The random extends need to go (neither R-type or Gradius has this style, Konami was totally off their rocker when deciding on this). Supposedly the PSP Xexex port retooled the AI on the Flint to where its far more aggressive and not just wandering about at times. The enemies that go off screen only to return at your backside and can fire at you while off screen is some nonsense. What would have fixed that is a weapon upgrade that could hit forwards and backwards, sucks having to have flint hang behind you so often.

Can't wait to see what week 3 holds.

[mesh control]

Is it me, or does the PSP port have less slowdown?

[Battletoad]

they find the cheap crap factor (which helps them), then they call the game cheap because they then refuse to seriously play the game without finding one which means they hate the game because it's random, or something; but this totally sounds (il)logical

How does it help me if most of the time no extra lives are given? Score based extends are something I expect from a shooter as they push the motivation. I just hate most games that don´t have extends. It´s completely logical that you want to earn your extra lives and not get them by luck. And yeah I play the game quite seriously and wouldn´t bother if stage 3 and 5 wouldn´t be so out of place difficultywise and offer cheap deaths from enemies shooting from outside the screen etc. There are flaws in this game and you might just accept that they´re being criticized.

[Aquas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ1FGQ1X54Y

I made a little Xexex comedy video ^_^

[clp]

Xexex is intriguing from an outward design perspective, but not exactly an ideal choice for a score-based competition.

I completely disagree; it's not particularly difficult and the only real milking is stage 2 boss to my knowledge, it's perfect for a score-based competition

It has RANDOM extends ffs! i got to my score for example not getting one some ppl have reported getting 2 in stage 1 alone , these ppl have a much greater chance of getting further so again how is this a good game for stgt?

[third_strike]

Any game with 2 loop is bad to stgt.

[lgb]

then why do we want dodonpachi so bad

[TLB]

then why do we want dodonpachi so bad

That's all you can come up with? I've maybe seen one person even mention dodonpachi in any STGT thread this year. Get a grip.

[clp]

then why do we want dodonpachi so bad

First ive heard of it .

[DEL]

lgb wrote;

then why do I want dodonpachi so bad

fixed

[third_strike]

[TrevHead (TVR)]

lgb wrote;

then why do I want dodonpachi so bad

fixed

Ive done with DDP for the moment as ive spent the last couple of months playinging it. What i feel is the best part of this tourney is having to play games you normally wouldnt play and been plesently suprised. Ofc not everyone like the same thing but due to the variation there should be atleast acouple of games that each person will like.

[Bananamatic]

DDP's scoring would be awful for STGT

[mesh control]

Week one should have been Dimahoo.

[Kiken]

Cyvern: Didn't really care for it.

Xexex: Refuses to run. I'm constantly given a "There are missing ROM or CHD files." (yes, I D/Led both xexex and xexexj)

[Bananamatic]

Week one should have been Dimahoo.

As much as I would love it...the scoring is awful unless you memorize all the items and whatnot.

Some of the highscores are complete fluke runs where you magically pick up 10 sets without any effort.

Random extends or random scoring?

[Ed Oscuro]

Kiken: That is a PEBCAC error for Xexex, I'm afraid.

Cyvern: The second boss gave me lots of trouble and used to scare me a bit...until I practiced it a bit for a game session, now I can finish it pretty easily. It felt floaty and stuff but now it's fine. The whole game's feeling improved for me. I may even be able to beat the third stage boss with some regularity soon (if I keep at the game).

Xexex: Gradius syndrome isn't too bad but the main problems are the Flint, when it doesn't work the way you want it do (worst sound ever = borrowed R-Type noise when you try to launch it far and haven't charged it far, woops), though it doesn't cause me too many problems. Occasionally it just sits there instead of chasing enemies but usually it's good.

The big problems with Xexex are no team secret and have been mentioned already...1up randomness means the playing field isn't even from game to game. I wasted a whole day a while back trying to leave stage one with an extra oneup...and subsequently fucked with my ability to play the later stages right, whoops! Also, some deaths just seem to come out of nowhere, randomly. Also, one of my least-favorite Gradius features is here - pick up all items for extra points means you don't have as big an incentive to stick to a good weapon, and accidentally picking up power ups can fuck over your game. Seriously, Konami was so dumb about powerups for years and years (I guess still are, and like Galaxies / Generation this game doesn't even have a ? item to remove all your powerups, sadly).

But if you concentrate on just playing carefully the stages are mostly pretty nice and fun.

[moozooh]

Cyvern was a surprisingly good game, a good choice for STGT as well. I didn't spend a lot of time with it, otherwise 1-ALL would have been a possibility for me, but I'm mildly satisfied with my score.

Xexex is rather boring and has a lot of stuff that is plain annoying. Everything up to stage 5 is really, really easy to no-miss if you bother learning where to deploy the Flint (and how to use it offensively in general), because it deals by far the greatest continuous damage in the game and shields you from enemy generators completely, while letting you autofire at a greater rate. Bosses die to it like complete pussies as well (I no-missed stage 3 boss on my first attempt by deploying the Flint onto the dragon's head, and it didn't even shoot me once). Homing and round lasers are the only weapons worth considering, the rest either has very specific use or is useless altogether. Didn't like it at all that more than two speedups mean meeting the nearest wall while dodging a lone bullet.

The game seems close to Darius Gaiden in terms of difficulty, but without all the things that made DG actually cool. Disappointed to hear such a poor soundtrack from Konami, they know better than that.

XeXeX is ugly just like my right egg.

LOL

[VgameT]

Cyvern pretty much drove me nuts. I hated stage 1 and 2 for about 80% of the week until Zerst told me how to handle the bosses and I figured out what to do more or less. Now that I know what I'm doing I...still pretty much hate playing them, oops. Stage 3 and 4 are actually pretty fun, and the bossfights in those stages are good, but I just feel like Cyvern has this huge hurdle to overcome before you can actually get to the good parts. I liked the general idea for the medal system, and managing powerups and your banish meter was pretty cool, but overall the game just pissed me off. By the time I actually figured out what the hell I was doing the week was basically over, and I can't say I want to go back and play it more after that.

Xexex is cute, and I'm glad it's so straightforward scoring-wise, but it also kind of pisses me off. It's really easy, but I still find myself dying all the time. Oops, a guy spawned on top of your head, or he flew in from the left and killed you before you knew what was going on, or you exploded before your brain even recognized there was a bullet fired (lol hi dragonboss), or you crashed into that stupid-ass rock in stage 3 before the background faded in, etc etc. This is all really avoidable but it's annoying every time it happens anyways. Just like in Cyvern, I'm so over playing stage 1 and 2 over and over again just to die stupidly a couple times on stage 3 and have to restart. Random extends are annoying, but what's more annoying is when you fly somewhere you didn't know had a hidden powerup, and then you collect it and it's a damn speedup, and now you're basically fucked. At least Gradius made you push a button to activate speedups; in this game it's just like "Surprise! Now you can't control your movement!" and then you lose all your powerups. The straightforwardness is good, though. In Cyvern you can drop your medal chain and then die in the same place as your last run but with a million less points; in this game if you make it further than you ever have your score is probably going to reflect that, and it feels good.

Basically there are parts in both games where I have a good time and am glad I'm playing them, but there are also a lot of parts where I say cusses at my monitor, and I think the ratio of the two is not ideal.

[lgb]

yes I do want dodonpachi thank you very much what the hell are you going to do about it

[clp]

Cyvern pretty much drove me nuts. I hated stage 1 and 2 for about 80% of the week until Zerst told me how to handle the bosses and I figured out what to do more or less. Now that I know what I'm doing I...still pretty much hate playing them, oops. Stage 3 and 4 are actually pretty fun, and the bossfights in those stages are good, but I just feel like Cyvern has this huge hurdle to overcome before you can actually get to the good parts. I liked the general idea for the medal system, and managing powerups and your banish meter was pretty cool, but overall the game just pissed me off. By the time I actually figured out what the hell I was doing the week was basically over, and I can't say I want to go back and play it more after that.

Xexex is cute, and I'm glad it's so straightforward scoring-wise, but it also kind of pisses me off. It's really easy, but I still find myself dying all the time. Oops, a guy spawned on top of your head, or he flew in from the left and killed you before you knew what was going on, or you exploded before your brain even recognized there was a bullet fired (lol hi dragonboss), or you crashed into that stupid-ass rock in stage 3 before the background faded in, etc etc. This is all really avoidable but it's annoying every time it happens anyways. Just like in Cyvern, I'm so over playing stage 1 and 2 over and over again just to die stupidly a couple times on stage 3 and have to restart. Random extends are annoying, but what's more annoying is when you fly somewhere you didn't know had a hidden powerup, and then you collect it and it's a damn speedup, and now you're basically fucked. At least Gradius made you push a button to activate speedups; in this game it's just like "Surprise! Now you can't control your movement!" and then you lose all your powerups. The straightforwardness is good, though. In Cyvern you can drop your medal chain and then die in the same place as your last run but with a million less points; in this game if you make it further than you ever have your score is probably going to reflect that, and it feels good.

Basically there are parts in both games where I have a good time and am glad I'm playing them, but there are also a lot of parts where I say cusses at my monitor, and I think the ratio of the two is not ideal.

wtf.

[VgameT]

I disliked both games more than I liked them

or was there something in particular you were wondering about

[Zetzumarshen]

I love Cyvern, and overplayed the game.

Xexex seems hate me, and will try anything to make myself loath the game.

[Kiken]

Let us compare and contrast.

Here is an example of an unhelpful response:

Kiken: That is a PEBCAC error for Xexex, I'm afraid.

And here, we have an example of a helpful response:

I bet you have a rom that doesn't have the xexexj.nv in it

Quite a stunning difference.

Xexex: One part Gradius.. one part R-Type... one part Mode 7 tech display. The stages have a rapid increase in annoyance (fairly nasty rank rise).. but it was interesting to see level designs that later went into better games.