GD: Saturn Game Tengoku strategies?...

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dave4shmups
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GD: Saturn Game Tengoku strategies?...

Post by dave4shmups »

I've only had this game for a short time, and while it's fun, it's also kickin' my butt big time! So I'd love to hear any strategies anyone has for doing well at this shmup. There is a FAQ on Gamefaqs for this game, but it's mostly worthless.

I do have some strategy questions. First off, when you pick up your set of two "helpers", so to speak, is it better to get at least one that matches your character, or should they both be different? Finally, how long does it take to fully power up, or does it depend on the character you select?


<changed RQ to GD -inc.>
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Randorama
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Re: RQ: Saturn Game Tengoku strategies?...

Post by Randorama »

General consideration: you're supposed to use the auto-fire, it's not cheating, so don't worry :wink:

Beside that, you really have to use the Z-Dyne or the Plus alpha plane (the adul girl, not the flying kid, Momoko). Other ships are too difficult to use, frankly. The main trick is learning when to charge.Most of the time, if you have a charge to bhe shot on an enemy and then shoot with auto-fire, you will destroy it very quickly. If you want more specific tecniques, please let me know...one thing:ignoring scoring at the advanced level makes things much easier. In case: when you take aubergines (eggplants?The bonus vegetables), you trigger a chain: as long as you keep (2 seconds delay max) taking aubergines, the chain will go on and, once you get 7k and 10k-worth aubergines, the next ones will be worth 46,530 points (the big ones). This is excellent if you can build up the chain and then trigger the exploding aubergines, you will get 6 big aubergines which will be worth 46,530 points each!

Hope it helps :?
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Post by BulletMagnet »

I always wondered why the heck the developers just kind of decided to make the big veggies worth exactly 46,530 points...why not just a nice round 45,000 or something? That just always bugged me for some reason...though a lot of other shmups have oddball individual scoring numbers for different things.

As for your questions, Dave, just grab whichever "helpers" serve your purpose best: if you want more forward-firing power grab the "main guy" plane, if you want a homing shot then use the girl in the pink dress, and so on. I forget offhand exactly how many powerups it takes to reach full power...I think it's around 8.
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Post by dave4shmups »

Thanks guys!

I personally like the pig the best; his weapon just rocks for taking out ANY kind of enemies.

I do have some questions about the menu's in this game, which are all Japanese-where the heck is the screen where you can toggle game options, like difficulty and lives??
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CIT
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Post by CIT »

Is anybody still playing this?

I played it yesterday, and I gotta say the rank in this game is crazy. If I no-miss stages 1-3 the bullets in stage 4 get so fast I can hardly see them anymore.

What's the best way to control rank if going for the 1cc? Will simply ignoring the bonus eggplants work?

Also, in stage 5 there's a section right after the Pac Man board where this 8-Bit spaceship fly in from all sides, and they're nearly impossible to destroy. Any good strategy for that area?
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Post by Randorama »

CIT wrote: What's the best way to control rank if going for the 1cc? Will simply ignoring the bonus eggplants work?
Rank should be based on survival time. From what I can remember, dying right after the extend calms down the rank a lot.

Also, in stage 5 there's a section right after the Pac Man board where this 8-Bit spaceship fly in from all sides, and they're nearly impossible to destroy. Any good strategy for that area?
Bomb. Actually, bombing is quite useful in some points for scoring purposes. The part you mention involves some complex tecniques. In a nutshell: if one triggers a chain and by bombing one also triggers aubergines, there is the possibility to get the maxed out value for all of the aubergines.

For instance: one triggers a series of aubergines, reaches the 7k value and then bombs destroying 20 enemies worth an aubergine or more.
All destroyed enemies, since the destruction occurs during a chain (the 7k aubergine), will release the 46,650 points aubergines. So, one will have ~922k on screen, also increasing the chances to keep the chain going (i.e. by taking the 20 aubergines).

A place where to do that is the meteors before the third boss, one triggers a chain and then bombs, it is possible to do about 2M if I remember well. I don't really know how to keep the chain going on the section you mention, sorry, but as long as you manage to drop 3 well-paced bombs, it should be easy to handle it.
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Post by CIT »

Thanks for the tips. Today I tried triggering the 48k eggplants in the meteor field, and it's really easy actualy, once you understand what you need to do. When do you get the extend? 5 mio, I presume? Cuz so far my top score is 4,9 and I haven't gotten an extend yet. -_____-

This game has a lot more depth than people give it credit for, I think.
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Post by Randorama »

Uh? The extend is at 2M, you should check your settings.

The game engine is actually pretty refined, but it has one basic flaw: only Zetto Dyne and the Plus Alpha ship are good to use, other characters are a goddamn pain. Well, stage design is a bit lull in places, but good nonetheless In general, chains (i.e. triggering the 46,650 aubergines) revolve around doing three things:

1) Simple chain, i.e. destroy stuff, collect aubergines and keep destroying enemies (autofire is a good help, also charge shots);

2) Chain with extra exploding aubergine, i.e. start a chain and then destroy an enemy which will release the said exploding aubergine, for 6x46,650 (or more than one enemy);

3) Chain with bombing, i.e. the one illustrated in the other message;

Other scoring tecniques are present, but I can't recall how they work :?

At any case, many chains are not exactly easy to pull off, last stage is a perfect example. Also, there is tech suicide to replenish the bombs, but I don't really know where and how. In short, I don't know much about the game...
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CIT
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Post by CIT »

Yesterday I got this close to the 1CC. I tried to push the score, and it worked very well. Stage 2 has a lot of great 48k opportunities, but they're quite hard to pull off. Stage 3 is much easier for scoring. I noticed I got the extend at 2 mio, I think it just hadn't occured to me because there's no extend jingle in the game.

BTW, wasn't there a HS thread for this? Where'd it go?
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Post by Randorama »

There is a loop, in case you wonder (you didn't? Ehrm...). You just need to destroy the "the end" logo after the credits and you will do another six rounds at the same difficulty. Hence, the easiest loop ever.

At any case, the score thread seems to have disappeared, or we're both having eyesight problems :?
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Post by 99pence »

The Saturn Arrange doesn't loop though does it. With the bonus of playing that awesome Dragon Quest level.
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Post by Fu »

I don't know if I need to open a new thread for my question, but I would like to know how to enable autofire with MAME. I have the Mame 114 version and the only thing that I manage to do is to enable autofire on 1st button, so I can use charge shot...
(I want to put it on my 3rd button)
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Post by Dave_K. »

Randorama wrote:There is a loop, in case you wonder (you didn't? Ehrm...). You just need to destroy the "the end" logo after the credits and you will do another six rounds at the same difficulty. Hence, the easiest loop ever.
WTF? Is this the US region setting (or Saturn version?) that has same difficulty for the 2nd loop? From credit feeding to the 2nd loop on the JPN region PCB, it has twice as many bullets, twice as fast, along with aimed suicide bullets if you destroy anything!
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