RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

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nZero
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RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

Post by nZero »

What were the exact levels needed to get each stage variation? I remember there was a good ST on the old board, but it hasn't been reposted.
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icepick
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Post by icepick »

I love this game. If the ST doesn't get posted, I'll do my best to contribute that which I discover!

All I'm thinking for now is that 353 is the special number for area 6, but area 3-a in buzz mode is more than a handful for me, at this point. I'm on buzz overload. :oops:
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deadninja
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Post by deadninja »

I've got a copy of the guide thing that Saurian posted on the old board, however I wasn't able to piece together the exact levels from that. I zipped it and stuck it here.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/a/jason_garrard/psy2.zip

Hope that's useful.
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Saurian
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Post by Saurian »

Terminologies -

Buzz:
The action of a shot ("cartridge") passing through your mecha's Buzz Field. The field is the orb around you, that's the range you have to catch shots so take time to learn it and the size/position of the hitpoint. The hitpoint is only a few pixels dead centre of the orb. Each time a shot or object passes through the field it counts as 1 buzz. The key to Psyvariar is to learn how to interact with the shots and surf them rather than avoiding - you have to un-learn a lot from playing past games. Buzzing shots increases the Neutrino gauge explained next:

Neutrino:
This is key to the core gameplay of Psyvariar, the Psyvariar 2 gauge is more precise than the previous games and is variable in fill rate. You Buzz shots to fill this gauge, when the gauge fills it resets to 0 and a shield will be activated - Learn how long this shield lasts. It will pulse from the hitpoint, fill the buzz field, then reduce to nothing - it's dead when it reduces to your hitpoint. You can activate a shield before the last one finishes - this is a shield chain and it should be just about constant when you get into it. The rate the gauge fills is down to the Neutrino colour, red is least active while blue is most active - the higher the rate the more levels you gain.

Rolling: (2 types)
Rolling increases the rate that Buzz occurres. Instead of triggering a Buzz when the object leaves the field, when rolling you get a Buzz everytime something enters or leaves the field. Rolling is triggered by opposing movements on the stick, up/down, left/right or any of the diagonals. To trigger 1 Roll the motion is just 2 positions up/down for example. The 2 types of rolling affect your movement and are both very useful. Soft Rolling: This is when you trigger the rolling action quickly then hold the stick in any direction, the rolling will only stop if the stick is returned to neutral so you can move freely still. Hard Rolling: Is an art and something you REALLY need to get down to get good at Psyvariar, you keep the opposing movements going while moving - this increases your speed and the jittery moth-like movement is better for catching shots within your field. There is a small buffer between the opposing movements so it's actually possible to spin on the spot, I cant stress to you how much of a difference spinning on the spot makes and would recommend you get a DC arcade stick for the best tool for the job. I can use up/down or left/right to spin on the exact spot now using my stick without any effort, it's very difficult on a pad.

Bodily crush:
This is where attacking power comes from - during a shield if you ram into an object it will be destroyed or in the case of bosses very heavily damaged. This is the best way to kill enemies during the stages, you need to create a routine where you sweep across and ram things as you buzz but not sacrificing buzz by destroying things too early. If the technique you use to ram enemies makes you miss a little buzz - change it or dont use it! The shield has a simple attack property - it's initial pulse is VERY powerful then the power weakens to near nothing as the shield dies. There is a tactic needed where you buzz the origin of huge attacks - as the entire thing is hitting you, you level up and survive:
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Point Blank Buzz:
This is a major gameplay change over Psyvariar Revision - now you get a massive Neutrino boost if you Buzz an attack at point blank. The Neutrino gauge doesnt even have to be near maxed - it can be done nearly anywhere. The first good place to do it is stage 0 boss, you see the red orbs it fires? On green or blue Neutrino you can roll in the boss' face at point blank and level up multiple times as the shots all hit you at once. The rule of point blank is that if done right you get a shield as soon as the shots contact your field so you are in no risk or death.

Cartridge Break:
This is where if you run over a shot "Cartridge" it's destroyed, during the game I make sure I avoid it to maximise buzz, but there is somewhere you NEED it! So keep it in mind.

Stage Difficulty Gates:
Area 1, Area 2 and Area 3 are split into 3 difficulties. The better you do through the earlier Area the more Buzz will be made available for you in the next, after a couple day's worth of play Easy and Normal become distant memories:

-------------NOR----HARD
AREA-1 ↑ LV24 ↑ LV35
AREA-2 ↑ LV48 ↑ LV64
AREA-3 ↑ LV88 ↑ LV120

Transformations - your ship will evolve at these levels:

LV28 → LV118 → LV288 → LV348

The way you get Area 6 is to make sure you get the Final Transformation by the end of Area 5, you can only transform once per Area so even if you are levelled past 2 transformations you take them one at a time.

When I play I Transform at:
Area 0 - LV52
Area 1 - no transformation
Area 2 - LV 180ish
Area 3 - LV 300ish
Area 4 - LV 400ish
(so I've already evolved far enough for Area 6 by the end of Area 4)
Area 5 - no transformation, already have access to Area 6.

For a visual example of the techniques I have gameplay videos hosted on - http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platf ... Psyvariar2

Thank you for reading.


Saur
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Strider77
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Post by Strider77 »

I just got this game and I'm shocked... :shock: I had no idea it would work this way. I suck but I kinda "get" it and it's like crack. Ugh I need to go to bed but I wanna keep trying it out. Watching vids helped alot... and reading here. I think it clicks now.
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
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Kaiser
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Post by Kaiser »

Strifer77 just practice sooner or later you will get into last level :) i've been playing this game for 7 months and finally finished :)
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Dann
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Post by Dann »

are there any specific things i should keep in mind when going for level 6 with the shooting type? so far my strategy has been to play on very hard and try to kill everything and occasionally buzz if it's convenient.
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DrTrouserPlank
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

Post by DrTrouserPlank »

I have a real issue with this game which is that you can't tell where the "kill-zone" is on your character, consequently you can spin through a lot of bullets completely at random and not get hit, but of course eventually you will die.

I've seen videos of people playing but there is categorically no way they can be spinning through the swarms of bullets and actually be able to be actively avoiding being hit on whatever part of your character kills you. You spin and move way too fast and the bullet clouds are just too dense to be able to navigate like this. It just seems like it's blind luck.

Is it literally spin and hope, or just not spin at all if you want to navigate the bullets consciously?
To go "full-Plank" - colloquial - To experience disproportionate levels of frustration as a result of resistance to completing a task. Those who go "full-Plank" very rarely recover.
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Some-Mist
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

Post by Some-Mist »

when your shield goes up (when your bar at the top fills up and resets) you have a couple of seconds if that in which bullets can pass through your hitbox without killing you. After your shield goes down your hitbox is back until you can achieve a full bar again to regenerate your shield. different color bullets speed up or slow down that shield bar.

the goal is to constantly have a shield up, as in continually scraping and having a new shield up before your original one deactivates. the concept is pretty difficult to get down (took me a couple of weeks to finally unlock the true final boss). The shooting style is much easier to do it with than the scraping style, but you still have to be aggressive with your scraping regardless of which style you choose.

game is easily one of my top 5 shmups and I actually bought myself an arcade stick for my dreamcast specifically for this game :]
enjoy!
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DrTrouserPlank
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

Post by DrTrouserPlank »

Some-Mist wrote:when your shield goes up (when your bar at the top fills up and resets) you have a couple of seconds if that in which bullets can pass through your hitbox without killing you. After your shield goes down your hitbox is back until you can achieve a full bar again to regenerate your shield. different color bullets speed up or slow down that shield bar.

the goal is to constantly have a shield up, as in continually scraping and having a new shield up before your original one deactivates. the concept is pretty difficult to get down (took me a couple of weeks to finally unlock the true final boss). The shooting style is much easier to do it with than the scraping style, but you still have to be aggressive with your scraping regardless of which style you choose.

game is easily one of my top 5 shmups and I actually bought myself an arcade stick for my dreamcast specifically for this game :]
enjoy!
Thanks for the reply. The videos I've seen make a lot more sense now, as does how you get through some of the bullet patterns.

What actually is the different between the shooting and buzzing style?

Edit: Nevermind that last question, I just read the guide that was linked which explained it.
To go "full-Plank" - colloquial - To experience disproportionate levels of frustration as a result of resistance to completing a task. Those who go "full-Plank" very rarely recover.
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qmish
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Re: RQ: Psyvariar 2 (Easy/Normal/Hard)

Post by qmish »

Something is wrong. I was lvl 66 and lvl 69 and still got "normal" stage 2 despite being higher than lvl 64.
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