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Here, as nobody has posted it yet, is my understanding of Akai Katana's Arcade mode scoring. I'm talking Arcade mode in the port, but I assume this the same as the original arcade PCB (but not the home PCB edition).

So, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it works like this:

1) Shoot with either normal shot ('A shot' = concentrated shot; 'C shot' = full-auto) to destroy enemies and create the 'E' energy power-up. Those power ups fill your 'Ninja Meter'.

NOTE: It appears that as the game progresses, some enemies yield more 'E' power ups if you use C shot, while some yield more if you use A shot, a la Deathsmiles 'shot specifity'. Can anybody confirm this?

• Shoot anywhere with A shot to pull in the 'E's to your option. If you keep it held down, they will gather around your option. As bullets from enemies pass through the 'E's gathered around your option, those 'E's increase in size, meaning they'll contribute more to your Ninja cage when you pull them in. Releasing A takes the 'E's to your ship, ultimately adding them to your Ninja Gauge. Point blank bigger enemies with your option to get more 'E's. This is especially important with bosses.

• Hit whatever button you have set to do the job to enter Ninja Mode, where shooting things with A shot turns bullets (and especially lasers) into gold nuggets, which come in three sizes; small, medium and large. Gold gathers around your ship as you stay in Ninja mode. Is it correct that the more that gathers, the more large gold forms from the smaller pieces?.

• At this point a chain starts; albeit a very generous chain that is hard to drop. Coming out of Ninja Mode cashes in the gold (for your end of level bonus) and the chain (which gives you an immediate and massive score boast). Am I right that the gold only adds to your score after the level is done?

• When your Ninja Gauge empties, you will auto cash in your coins with no penalty. Or you can cash in your coins at any time by exiting Ninja Mode before the gauge empties. However, if you have a really full Ninja Gauge, you can find a situation where gold you have orbiting your ship times out while you still have some juice in the gauge. You can see this will happen because your coins turn red. Cash them in quick, or risk loosing them!

• Popping mid-bosses and bosses with Ninja Mode A shot at the points they change form or die seems to be the main way to score here.

So, some questions (some new ones and repeats of those in the copy above):

1) Sometimes I get gold from enemies when I'm not in Ninja Mode or expecting it; just a small amount.
2) How does the chain in Ninja Mode work? I've seen some people in demo videos swapping between C and A shot quite a lot in Ninja Mode.
3) How does cashing in the gold work – does it only add to your score at the end of level bonus stage (so only the Ninja Mode hit combo adds to your score immediately as you exit Ninja Mode)?
4) Are larger gold pieces formed by small pieces gathering together around your ship?
5) How does the interplay between enemy bullets and your ship/orbiting gold work when you are in Ninja Mode?
6) Do some enemies yield more 'E's with A shot, and some with C shot?

From what I understand so far :

1 - I think this has to do with lasers. On stage 4 if you shoot the large submarines in normal mode their lasers turn into gold with you can collect or hold onto your option. It might also be to do with the timing of coming out of Ninja mode as gold is released. Also see answer 4.

2 - Using C shot in ninja mode causes more bullets to be released when you kill an enemy. It's good to do this at the start of stage 1 as there aren't too many bullets around. In ninja mode shoot the small tanks with C to increase the bullets - reflect them towards a larger enemy and kill with A to turn the bullets into gold. Doing this will increase the counter quicker.

3 - I'm guessing each gold piece has a value depending on size x the hit counter. This is added to your score during the stage. At the end of the stage it adds the total gold as a bonus? Don't know...

4 & 5 - Gold increases in size when it rolls over bullets and enemies. You can also do this when in normal mode and you have gold circling your option. Place the option within a cluster of bullets and the gold will increase in size, just like the E's

6 - The trains at the start of stage 2 seem to give more energy using C rather than A - but it might just be proximity. The closer you are to an enemy when you kill it with C the more E's you will get. This is leading to a lot of early deaths running head long into popcorn enemies...

Quick addendum: holding onto energy balls for too long without collecting them will, as in the case of gold, cause them to vanish.

Thanks guys. Hopefully we can piece enough together here to create a decent ST for Akai Katana arcade.

Dan76 - your tips have helped me reach 77 million in Arcade mode, but I do have one more question. What should I be attempting to do with the bullets I reflect?

Basically what you'd be doing in Progear, if I understand it right: bump 'em close to an enemy, and kill that enemy (with the laser, right?) to cancel them into items.

That makes sense. I'll give that a go tonight.

While I'm at it I have a query of my own...in Arcade mode I'm definitely missing something when it comes to getting enemies to leave behind energy balls, especially with the "C" shot - sometimes they give up a bunch, other times I'll destroy a huge horde of popcorn and get absolutely nothing from them, and I have no idea what makes the difference. Baddies definitely give up a lot more in "Zetsu" mode, but if anyone knows what I'm doing wrong in Arcade I'd be grateful to know.

Perhaps it's proximity? the closer I get, the more 'E' orbs I get. I think...

4 & 5 - gold increases in size with time, unlike energy which only increases when hovering.

Having enemy bullets on top of the enemies when you kill them generates bigger E's in the same way you generate more gold items in ninja mode by killing stuff when theres bullets on them. Killing them with your option rather than the main fire seems to help too. If a bunch of small enemies arrive on screen don't kill them ASAP. Wait for the ones at the back to fire over the ones at the front then get shooting them.

3) How does cashing in the gold work – does it only add to your score at the end of level bonus stage (so only the Ninja Mode hit combo adds to your score immediately as you exit Ninja Mode)?
3 - I'm guessing each gold piece has a value depending on size x the hit counter. This is added to your score during the stage. At the end of the stage it adds the total gold as a bonus? Don't know...

The hit counter is the number of golds you have around you at the time - each size has a different value - I forget exactly but just say 1000pts for small, 5000 for mid size and 10K for biggest. So if you have a counter of 200 this means that you've 200 items rotating and the max score you can get from them is 200 x 10K if you've let them expand to the biggest size.

During a stage you'll rarely get the 100% max value for all golds as you'll still be killing stuff which will be adding small and mid size pieces all the time. Theres never a time where you want to lose max size items through timing them out as by the time more items have increased your energy will be ever decreasing losing you future scoring potential. If your on your last life and have a huge energy bar cancel ninja mode as soon as your 1st batch of golds turn red, fill up some E's and start over again.

All golds gained when killing a boss / a bosses form is automatically given as 10K x the number of bullets on screen

Also, think of the items as having a life bar - the less life they have the quicker they grow but the faster they'll die. They'll grow way faster being hit by lasers that just by a couple of small regular bullets.

I realised yesterday that there's no doubt that it's the proximity of your option (as opposed to your ship) to the enemy that dictates the number of Es you get.

And bullets passing over the E's certainly increase the size (and thus contribution to the Ninja Gauge) of the Es. I thought this only happened when you had Es gathered around your option, but I didn't realise 05pro's point that enemies bullets on top of the enemie you kill helps. Good stuff.



Really? I thought that both E's and Gold increased in size/value when gathered around the option touched by enemie bullets.

I think it's certainly the case that Gold increases in size/value in the way I just mentioned if it's Gold havested when not in Ninja mode (those rare times with laser-based enemies such as those giant torpedoes in level 4.

EDIT: Finally, thanks 05pro for that info on the hit x Gold system. Great stuff...

People bother hovering gold? (My mistake, I was only on about the orbiting gold increasing with time)

I've tried to at times, but I never know what I'm doing in day-to-day life, so it might not be wise!

Whats the arcade button layout of this game ? I currently have

A=Shot
B=Bomb
C=Full Auto
D=Ninja Mode

Is this correct ?

Thanks

I've never seen the PCB running in the real world, but I have my buttons the same as you. It makes sense considering the 'classic' Cave button layout of A=shot and C=full-auto.

Also, I've only played Zetsu mode briefly, but am I right the coring is identical to Arcade mode? If so, I guess we could discuss both here and I can alter this thread's title.

Zetsu doesn't have the 256 hit cap so it changes the scoring slightly. You're still wanting to get as much large circling gold as possible each time you exit ninja mode.

Maybe the hit counter has some other function in this mode also? (As far as I know it only exists in arcade mode to let you know how many pieces you have - there's no multiplier.)

Sticking with arcade mode - the end of stage gold count up adds a fair chunk to your stage score. Is it just a count up of all the gold collected in the stage and given to you again? So in essence you get the value of each piece of gold twice?

Yeah the scoring is the same i think , Actually liking this game alot - Bosses suck a bit though

What's this!? 256 cap?




I think so. Also; am I right that it isn't effected by you dying (unlike, say, DDP)?

From what I understand once the hit counter reaches 256 it's pointless getting any more gold as you can't have any more than 256 pieces at any one time. You should let the gold you have grow large and exit ninja mode and re enter to get another 256. That's basically the whole game! Maybe this cap was put in to stop straining the PCB and bringing the game to a juddering halt.

As I previously posted though, you can continue the hit count upwards of 800+ if you keep getting 256, exiting ninja and re entering ninja quick enough for the hit counter to carry over. How this effects the score is unknown... maybe it gives you more gold at the end.

I posted this in the main thread but I should really go here:

For scoring in Arcade it's important to let all the gold you've collected form a large circle around you before coming out of ninja mode. Once you hit 256 rather than continuing on with A shot, let the enemies bullets reflect off you to make the gold large as quickly as possible. Once done exit ninja, build up the energy and repeat.

I'd also say it's better to have a large circle of gold with a lower hit count (say 150) than a 256 hit count but with most of the gold in a small circle when exiting. Also, try and reach 256 as soon as possible, otherwise gold you collected early will start to turn red and disappear before the more recent gold has had a chance of making the large circle.

To get lots of gold in one go shoot some popcorn enemies with C to make more bullets (they're pink) then switch to A. Sometimes killing a couple of enemies this way will add 100+ hit points.

Later on if you've lost a life and have a larger Energy bar you can exit ninja mode and go straight back into it continuing the hit counter. I've managed to do this three times in a row on stage 4 getting the hit counter up to 800+ (though I'm still not exactly sure what the hit counter does...).

Shooting an enemy in ninja mode that is firing red lasers will automatically turn the lasers into large gold.


Extra bit added:

This is the way to score on most bosses. Killing a boss/ending a phase with loads of red lasers firing will automatically give you a high number of large gold. If there are only regular bullets you will get small gold.

The stage 1 boss you can only do this once on because he has 1 phase.
Stage 2 has three phases so you should be able to get three lots of 256 gold.
From stage 3 onwards you can get 4 lots on each boss as all have 3 phases - plus - just before the boss a bomb carrier will turn up - shoot it, but don't pick up the bomb straight away. Wait until a ton of bullets are on screen, enter ninja mode and pick it up. All bullets will be turned into gold (small - stay in ninja until it grows large). Obviously you do this in the first phase - the most difficult thing about this is not damaging the boss to much to get energy to go back into ninja mode. It's easier if you've lost a life as the energy bar is longer and you might not need to recharge.


I'm pretty sure about most of this stuff - but feel free to correct!

How is Shin different, besides the widescreen?

And what is the other, 3rd mode? I don't read Japanese.

The 3rd mode is what im playing now , Its like arcade but on steroids and looks lush

I watched a couple of replays and as usual my game goes to crap trying to do what they do - but I'm managing to pull off one of the keys to high scoring (just haven't done it in a good run yet...)

Manually exiting ninja forces most enemy bullets on screen back away from you, then slowly forward to where you were when you exited ninja mode. Knowing when popcorn enemies are about to appear you can exit ninja, kill some popcorn with C shot, hold the green energy around your option with A and manipulate under the returning bullets to enlarge, recharge, go into ninja and kill a couple of enemies next to your returning bullets and have 200+ gold in a second or two - Jeez!

Maybe that's what everyone has been doing - I haven't - but by concentrating on this element and learning to do it you can get a lot of gold from almost any part of the game. Previously I'd just been using the reflected bullets to enlarge the green energy and getting out of the way. Duh.

If you only have a sliver of energy it can sometimes be worth while entering ninja for a couple of seconds and killing popcorn with C shot to increase the number of pink bullets just to reflect etc.

Knowing that the returning bullets close in on the point you reflected them from you can (kind of) aim them by reflecting near a target such as a turret - exit ninja, recharge, enter ninja and shoot the turret just as the bullets cross over it. Perfecting this means that lots of gold is accumulated in one go near the start of entering ninja - meaning it should all become large gold together.

Also - no-missing to stage 4 considerably increases the number of enemy bullets fired at you, therefore making the game harder but much easier to score well on. Previously I though dying and having a larger energy bar made scoring easier later in the game, but it doesn't.

EDIT: Wow, there's a secret achievement for clearing the game without switching forms - that will take some doing if it has to be a 1cc.

Any non-score-based extend in this game ?

Good point. I've not found one. Surely there's one lurking somewhere!

Pretty sure theres not

That would help though.
But since the game contains no big floating ship that absolutely needs to have its turrets and big laser cannons destroyed before the right-side popping helicopter, which himself needs to be dealt with by point blanking your option in shoot mode (not kakusei) before the actual heart of the ship is destroyed with laser (not kakusei) ; all of this w/o using bombs and w/ using only your thumb to move the stick and teeth to mash buttons...
Well, since this passage does not exist in the game, then no, there is no extends other than score based-ones

I'm playing the Xbox demo version so I don't know what mode it is (I'm assuming arcade?). I have no idea what the hell is happening in this game. I read that when you're in Ninja mode you're supposed to be able to reflect bullets but this doesn't happen. The little dude is holding the shield out but the bullets just pass right through. What am I missing here?

I've heard somewhere on this board or on youtube comments that bullets will reflect in Ninja Mode as long as you don't use the focus shot. Maybe you can't shoot at all.

You have to reflect the bullets around the place until you find them in a favorable situation, then shoot an enemy they've gathered near to cancel them into gold or items.

You can fire "regular" shots, but not the laser - if you're tap-firing or not shooting at all, you're in "defense mode" and bullets will bounce off your shield, while holding the fire button down puts you in "attack mode", where you can still get hit (though it'll just knock you back into "airplane mode" instead of killing you outright).