RQ: Eden's Aegis; what's going on here?

[Obscura]

So, after downloading and playing a bit of Eden's Aegis for those times when I don't have the focus to handle DOJ, I have absolutely no clue what I should be doing to try to score. I see that chaining bar, and I assume I should chain shit, but I don't have a way to laser big enemies to keep the bar up? And what's the special weapon doing? Sometimes when I kill something with it, it bullet cancels, and sometimes it doesn't, but I have no idea why.

Could anyone who knows this game explain its systems? Thanks.

[SuperSoaker360]

I was playing this earlier today for some fun, actually.
Basically, if an enemy shoots a bunch of bullets and you destroy it using your special (you can kill an enemy with a normal shot about a quick second after your special is over and it'll still work), you'll cancel all the bullets on the screen that the enemy had shot out and turn them into item points. Timing with your special shot is useful for survival and scoring.

As for the bar, it isn't for chaining enemy kills. It stands for the time before your item-count begins decreasing.

And a miscellaneous thing: don't pause. The game is a little anal on anti-cheating so pausing or making the window inactive/sleep will disable your ability to save the replay and enter your score; it won't count as a clear of any sort.