Is it me or is Original just as hard as Maniac in Futari?

[Ligersknight]

It seems that Original Mode's less dense but fast bullet patterns are just as, if not harder, to go up against as the denser but slower patterns in Maniac. Does anybody else feel this way or am I just delusional?

[Thjodbjorn]

A friend of mine swears that Maniac is harder. I am pretty bad at both, so I can't really tell.

[cools]

I'm terrible at Maniac but quite good at Original, purely for survival if that helps.

[apple arcade]

Maniac is definitely harder.

[Ligersknight]

eah I pretty bad at both also but I feel as though purely for survival, Original is on par with Maniac. There just seems to be so much slowdown, by stage 5 in original the bullet speed makes me feel like I'm playing raiden on crack. For score...im not too sure as i still cannot score competently in maniac yet haha.

[jonny5]

It's you.

[chempop]

It's you. I 1CC Original within a week of owning it, Maniac still has me stumped long over a year now.

As for Black Label, I was able to clear both modes without too much trouble, but again, Maniac was more challenging, God Mode is really where it's at IMHO.

[Damocles]

It's just you.

I damn-near killed the final boss in Original on my first credit. Not so much in Maniac.

[RNGmaster]

Not just you. I found Crimzon Clover to be just as hard on Simple as it was on Original (the game's equivalent to Original and Maniac, respectively).

[njiska]

It comes down to what you're better at dealing with; fast bullets or dense patterns. I do about as well at both for survival but score far better at original.

[dannnnn]

Not just you. I found Crimzon Clover to be just as hard on Simple as it was on Original (the game's equivalent to Original and Maniac, respectively).

Really? Am I just missing the sarcasm here or something?

I haven't played Crimzon Clover much myself, but I assumed Simple mode was the equivalent of a Novice mode, whilst Original was the 'proper' game (I haven't unlocked Unlimited mode so I've no idea of its difficulty yet). I was only playing for survival, but I 1CC'ed Simple mode on my first go where as Original seemed much harder (lots more bullets, etc).

[dunpeal2064]

I actually can see your point. It seems like in Maniac there are only so many safe spots, so it is easier to tell where I am supposed to go.

However, I cannot get past those stupid pill bugs on stage 3 on any mode without losing all of my gusto, so I'm buying Black Label tonight finally =)

[RNGmaster]

Not just you. I found Crimzon Clover to be just as hard on Simple as it was on Original (the game's equivalent to Original and Maniac, respectively).

Really? Am I just missing the sarcasm here or something?

I haven't played Crimzon Clover much myself, but I assumed Simple mode was the equivalent of a Novice mode, whilst Original was the 'proper' game (I haven't unlocked Unlimited mode so I've no idea of its difficulty yet). I was only playing for survival, but I 1CC'ed Simple mode on my first go where as Original seemed much harder (lots more bullets, etc).

Playing Simple for survival is easy, but when playing for score it becomes hard due to rank. I managed to get a 1cc on Simple much faster, but there are some parts that I really don't see how to do at max rank - contrast this with Original, where most of the content seems doable with practice.

[burgerkingdiamond]

eah I pretty bad at both also but I feel as though purely for survival, Original is on par with Maniac. There just seems to be so much slowdown, by stage 5 in original the bullet speed makes me feel like I'm playing raiden on crack. For score...im not too sure as i still cannot score competently in maniac yet haha.

I'm working on a 1cc for Original. I can make it half way through 5th level. On maniac, although I haven't given it serious time yet, I think I'm stuck at the 3rd level. I definitely think that Maniac is harder, but I agree with you that the 5th stage of original is fast, and hard. I'm nervous as hell when I play that level. I'm usually shaking a little bit after a run where I make it that far.

[Special World]

I only play Black Label these days, and I think Maniac is much harder. I recently got a 1CC on BL Original with 2 lives left (which is quite good for me) but I haven't even gotten past level 4 in maniac. I assume Original CAN get much harder, but even when I play for score it's easier for me.

Also, the second boss in maniac has an attack I just can't figure out how to avoid. He launches every fucking bullet ever, and I always have to bomb.

[burgerkingdiamond]

whats the difference between black label and 1.5? is BL on the 360 port?

[Special World]

There's a ton of differences.

- Different enemy/bullet patterns
- More gems
- Palette changes makes things look nicer (BL gems look much nicer imo)
- Enemies shed gems at close range in original mode
- Original mode has rank
- Maniac plays much better imo, your chain meter goes up as long as you're using shot on an enemy, so it's more scoring and less puzzling
- Ultra is replaced by God mode, which is somewhat easier but has the general scoring of BL Maniac mode
- Only one option for each character, but they've both been increased in power and combine the normal and abnormal types from 1.5

There's more, though I'm not sure exactly what since I only play Black Label now that I have it. It's a lot better all around, imo. It's available in the 360 version, but it's an extra $15 DLC. Totally worth it if you ask me, and it shouldn't hit your wallet too hard now that Futari has a reduced price platinum edition. You can download it with a US account, too. You'll have to search "Black Lavel," I think.

[burgerkingdiamond]

There's a ton of differences.

- Different enemy/bullet patterns
- More gems
- Palette changes makes things look nicer (BL gems look much nicer imo)
- Enemies shed gems at close range in original mode
- Original mode has rank
- Maniac plays much better imo, your chain meter goes up as long as you're using shot on an enemy, so it's more scoring and less puzzling
- Ultra is replaced by God mode, which is somewhat easier but has the general scoring of BL Maniac mode
- Only one option for each character, but they've both been increased in power and combine the normal and abnormal types from 1.5

There's more, though I'm not sure exactly what since I only play Black Label now that I have it. It's a lot better all around, imo. It's available in the 360 version, but it's an extra $15 DLC. Totally worth it if you ask me, and it shouldn't hit your wallet too hard now that Futari has a reduced price platinum edition. You can download it with a US account, too. You'll have to search "Black Lavel," I think.

sounds cool. I'll check it out.

[njiska]

sounds cool. I'll check it out.

It's definitely worth it. I love me some BL Original with it's suicidal scoring requirements.

[Anesthetize]

There's a ton of differences.

- Different enemy/bullet patterns
- More gems
- Palette changes makes things look nicer (BL gems look much nicer imo)
- Enemies shed gems at close range in original mode
- Original mode has rank
- Maniac plays much better imo, your chain meter goes up as long as you're using shot on an enemy, so it's more scoring and less puzzling
- Ultra is replaced by God mode, which is somewhat easier but has the general scoring of BL Maniac mode
- Only one option for each character, but they've both been increased in power and combine the normal and abnormal types from 1.5

There's more, though I'm not sure exactly what since I only play Black Label now that I have it. It's a lot better all around, imo. It's available in the 360 version, but it's an extra $15 DLC. Totally worth it if you ask me, and it shouldn't hit your wallet too hard now that Futari has a reduced price platinum edition. You can download it with a US account, too. You'll have to search "Black Lavel," I think.

IIRC, Black Label also has more slowdown in spots than 1.5.

I definitely prefer BL to 1.5, so I recommend trying it out as well.

[Marurun]

I noticed Original mode is almost as difficult for me as Maniac mode as well. I play for score and on Original mode I still haven't been able to 1cc the game by the time I reach stage 5(The pill bugs on stage 3 nearly murder me every play for some reason.) When I play Maniac mode though the bullet patterns are denser and there's more slow down so I can focus on the patterns better which lets me get further in some cases. I'm probably just weird.

[8 1/2]

1.5 Manic FTW. I've been able to 1CC BL Original, BL Maniac and 1.5 Original, but 1.5 Maniac is still way outside my doing without considerable practice.

[chempop]

8 1/2, we must have very simalar skills, I'm right there with you. Actually recently I've given more attention to GOD mode, but I have bumped up default lives and extend as frequent as possible, playing this way is a lot of fun because every other big score opportunity gives an extend, so even dying once or twice per stage I can still make it to the end. It's good training to play most of the game per credit, if you haven't tried it out I'd suggest doing so.

[wariomona]

I think there are a few spots where Orignal is harder than Maniac in 1.5.
For me these are:
- entire 2nd half of stage 3 including boss
- dragon miniboss you fight twice in stage 5 that fills up half the screen

But Maniac is definitely harder overall. Maniac Larsa is going to be stopping me from 1ccing it for a while...

And with scoring I'd say Maniac is much harder, because it puts more emphasis on getting certain sections of the game perfect, like boss battles.

[everlust]

It felt somewhat like this for me when i played for score in Original. Otherwise, not so much.

[dunpeal2064]

It felt somewhat like this for me when i played for score in Original. Otherwise, not so much.

I have a hard time not playing for score when I play Mushi. Is that whats stopping me from a 1cc?

Also, I finally purchased Black Label. Wow, the gems look so sweet. Playing for score, original seems harder in black label to me than in 1.5. I may be taking more risks to shed gems though.

[Schrodinger's cat]

Like some other people have mentioned, I feel like stage 3 is harder in Original than in Maniac. There's a lot more places to get whipped by unexpectedly fast bullets, especially towards the end of the level.

The spider boss' last pattern in Original always makes me a lot more nervous than in Maniac because of the bullet speed. I seem to run into slower bullets a lot while dodging the fast ones coming at me. In Maniac, the highest scoring path for that last pattern involves bombing the boss (resulting in more bullets being on the screen being canceled and more points than trying to dodge the those chain-ball things without bombing), so it is very easy by comparison.

To me, stage 4 is way harder in Maniac than in Original (even on higher ranks), and is probably the hardest part of the game outside of the 2nd half of stage 5 after the backwards scrolling part. The way the difficulty ramps up smoothly over the course of the game is part of why I like Maniac over any other mode in the game. The popcorn enemies are way more vicious and the bullet canceling enemies shoot more difficult patterns at you and seem like they take longer to kill than they did in stage 3.

Stage 5 seems like it could be harder in Original depending on how high your rank is. I worry more about popcorn enemies in Original and bullet canceling enemies in Maniac when I play that stage. I think the Original mode comparisons to Raiden games are spot-on.

[moozooh]

If you don't score high, Maniac is much harder, otherwise very similar and comes to personal preference (I have much more stupid deaths at high bullet speed rather than high density). Larsa is definitely harder, though.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Can you really play for a 1CC without at least going for a decent score? I try to score as well as I possible while at the same time going for a 1CC. My top is 175M on Original 1.5. Not that it's by any means a very good score. But I do try to get as many extends as I can get. I'm close to making it to Larsa on 1 credit. But when I do I know she's gonna wipe her ass with me. My only hope I think is to make it to her on some magical run with like 3 lives in the bank and just bomb and pray. Pathetic I know, but I'm just a normal dude who likes shmups. I have my limitations.