STGT'12 Week 1 & 2 discussion (Strikers '99 & V-V)

[RNGmaster]

Is there a preferred weapon for general use on V-V? Or do you have to keep switching?

Missile is the best all-around. Shot for the stage 5 boss, and Search for Stage 2.

[FIL]

Wow, search really makes a mockery of the stage 2 boss.

How many times can you safely power up, 2? I'm assuming 3 is max.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Power up so you have 4 options. Once you get 4 options, once more power up pushes you to max and ups the rank quite a bit. You could also just stay at default power, but I think only 2 options is a bit too weak...

[RNGmaster]

Bring your own music, I used VVVVVV.

I see what you did there.

I just realized I can run this at the same time as Spotify, holy shit. I know dark ambient/glitch might not be everyone's taste (or anyone's :V) but I would highly recommend the albums Oppidan and void(); by Access to Arasaka. I discovered them recently and I'm really liking their style. It's a lot like the Metroid Prime soundtrack in a way, actually.

[njiska]

Strikers 1999 was a great game with a simple, yet enjoyable scoring system, solid controls and an extremely rewarding Technical Bonus system. The same cannot be saide for V-V.

I can see shades of greatness here, but V-V is definitely not a shmup for me. The stage design and enemies are good, but it plays way too much like a Konami shmup for me to enjoy. Namely that the base speed of the ship is beyond useless (dead children handle better) and that if you die once it feels like you're basically fucked because you'll be under power for what lies ahead. It's a game that encourages restarting after every little fuck up and I hate that.

[noiseredux]

I think I'll enjoy V-V more than Strikers 1999. Mostly because I don't find V-V punch-you-in-the-crotch difficult. I wish I could find mp3's of the arcade soundtrack though so I could listen to it while playing. The lack of audio is kind of weird.

[Eno]

Strikers 1999 was a great game with a simple, yet enjoyable scoring system, solid controls and an extremely rewarding Technical Bonus system. The same cannot be saide for V-V.

I can see shades of greatness here, but V-V is definitely not a shmup for me. The stage design and enemies are good, but it plays way too much like a Konami shmup for me to enjoy. Namely that the base speed of the ship is beyond useless (dead children handle better) and that if you die once it feels like you're basically fucked because you'll be under power for what lies ahead. It's a game that encourages restarting after every little fuck up and I hate that.

QFT.
Disappointing that this is always how Toaplan feel to me: looks great, sounds great, but never hits the sweet spot gameplaywise(not to say they aren't pretty solid in that aspect too though)

[Ruldra]

I wish I could find mp3's of the arcade soundtrack though so I could listen to it while playing. The lack of audio is kind of weird.

Download ThunderMame+ and the game's sound samples to play it with sound.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 21#p657121

[Op Intensify]

Or you could just download a recent standard version of MAME? Batsugun/V-V/FixEight have all been fully functional for quite some time now.

[gs68]

just pull a ProM and savestate practice like nobody's business

[trap15]

Pull a Prom? Everyone should be practicing like that, it's literally the fastest and easiest way to get better. You think sikraiken got so good by just playing single credits over and over?

[Erppo]

It's a game that encourages restarting after every little fuck up and I hate that.

Except that the game gives you plenty of power ups so you get plenty of shields and therefore plenty of room for fuck ups without any penalty. It's true that the game is harsh on actually dying, but to die you need to screw up really majorly.

[blackoak]

I actually find V-V pretty forgiving, of the checkpoint shmups I've played. You start with a single powerup you can use for speed, and your focused laser is pretty useful. You just have to play more aggressively until you can get reequipped, but its nowhere near the level of precision required for some of the Gradius recovery patterns.

[1up]

I never played V-V before and I expect to dive in tonight. Quick tips/help for starting out would be appreciated. I'm going for survival here so please keep the scoring tips to a minimum.

[gs68]

Stage 3 has a nice headbangin' soundtrack for longhairs.

[trap15]

Stage 2's song is better than stage 3's. Listen to it in the sound-test if you don't believe me

[KAI]

The YM2151 Sound Chip. It has so much history in it.

[1up]

I never played V-V before and I expect to dive in tonight. Quick tips/help for starting out would be appreciated. I'm going for survival here so please keep the scoring tips to a minimum.

Seems like Seeker is the best option for a beginner like me.

[gs68]

Search for general purpose "fire and focus on dodging if it becomes a higher priority than aiming", Shot for bosses.

[FIL]

Search also seems quite effective for scoring if you're a low tier scrub like me. The few extra points you get are obviously peanuts to people looping the game though.

[RNGmaster]

Search is honestly useless. Missile has full screen cover at 2 powerups, I don't see why you'd sacrifice power for that.

[Op Intensify]

I don't know how widely known this trick is.

Stop moving and firing when Missile is equipped, and all the options will snap together right under you. Good for focusing on a single target.

[Zengeku3]

Welp. Tried out V-V just now. I've only got to the Stage 4 boss but that's gonna have to do since this game sucks imo.

The stages feel like they're deliberately trying to waste the players time by being hopelessly prolonged. They feel like they are never ending and stretched out to make sure that you fuck up somewhere or fall asleep on your keyboard and fly into stuff.

The bosses. Take forever to kill and while not being that interesting. I don't care if the game get's really amazing after Stage 4 since if that's the case then have your bloody game start there. Stage 4 boss does give me some Touhou vibes though and since any of those are infinitely better games (even though multiplying 0 with infinity doesn't make much sense to me but whatever) I'll just go play those.

PS: I love you Bananamatic. Your reaction pic basically sums up my thoughts very well.

[Paradigm]

Touhou fags, everywhere.

[Zengeku3]

I don't see what's wrong with being into Touhou. Does it make me an ignorant retard who can't appreciate great games or what are you trying to say?

[Paradigm]

Does it make me an ignorant retard who can't appreciate great games

Not neccessarily, but it did in your case and has in many others.

I'll take the part of the Touhou fanbase who only care about the characters and shit over the people who can't accept an STG any other way than the Touhou way because that's all they know.

[Zengeku3]

Does it make me an ignorant retard who can't appreciate great games

Not neccessarily, but it did in your case and has in many others.

I'll take the part of the Touhou fanbase who only care about the characters and shit over the people who can't accept an STG any other way than the Touhou way because that's all they know.

Have you considered the option that the Touhou Way is all we've ever wanted? That's not the case for me but I could totally understand why some people would feel that way. They are interested in shmups because of what Touhou has showed them. So obviously if you show them a completely different shmup that offers none of those gameplay elements, they wouldn't be interested.

I am very picky with my shmups and only like a handful of them: certain Touhou games, certain Cave games, certain other shmups here and there. This is not because I'm ignorant but because there are only so many shmups that actually deliver that experience that I enjoy.

STG is a very broad genre with a lot of different styles of gameplay. You can't just label people as ignorant just because they don't appreciate all kinds of STG.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The bosses. Take forever to kill and while not being that interesting.

Actually, the stage 5 boss is pretty unique, you get punished for shooting its sidepods. Bosses also die pretty quickly if you've got Missiles + 4 options firing, knocks out plenty in a hurry, although I have a suspicion rank also affects boss/enemy health.

I'm not that fond of dying once and losing all your firepower. In V-V if you die in the middle of a stage it's rather a handicap as having spread to take out the large waves of popcorn is pretty handy, so it can be tricky to recover (less tricky if you die at a boss as the focused shot is sufficient for bosses). Maybe I'm spoiled by stuff like Akai Katana where there's no powerups or power loss on death, or Gradius V where you can nab your four options on a death and regain a decent amount of spread.

Why does the rank jump up so much just from getting Max power? Max power isn't that much stronger and it seems like it's just punishing people who don't know about staying away from maxed out power.

[Bananamatic]

Not neccessarily, but it did in your case and has in many others.

I'll take the part of the Touhou fanbase who only care about the characters and shit over the people who can't accept an STG any other way than the Touhou way because that's all they know.

you don't even play STG you sperglord

[Paradigm]

I wouldn't be here if I didn't, dipshit.

Sorry if I struck a nerve.