STGT'12 Week 4: ESPGaluda

[EPS21]

EPS21 - 31,460,660 - ALL - Ageha - PCB

Something for now, wish I could 1LC this silly game

[CulDad78]

Not trolling.

Can you explain why it's silly?

I keep seeing comments about it being silly or stupid, but nothing more than the generic comment. Please elaborate? I'm having a blast with it and unless you (or anyone else) sinks a fair amount of time into it, it certainly isn't easy the first go.

And even with that, most guys calling it stupid / easy, are posting scores in the 25-35 mil range, which means there is a ton of room for scoring improvement. This is a scoring competition after all.

[AmidstStorm]

AmidstStorm - 11,701,770 - Stage 5 - Ageha - MAME64 0.145

Cant post a pic at the mo, but will later if needed. Hardly record breaking.

[TodayIsForgotten]

TodayIsForgotten - 17,441,570 - Stage 5-2 - Ageha - Mame

[Deca]

Not trolling.
Can you explain why it's silly?

Vague scoring system, questionable difficulty curve and pacing. Also there is way too much random stuff in this game as far as how patterns are aimed and which attacks bosses and midbosses select. You can get completely screwed out of bomb bonus by getting walled on the final bosses second to last attack.

It's not a terrible game its just...strange. It feels like Cave wasn't 100% confident developing it.

[CRI]

CRI - 36,355,570 - ALL - Ageha - PS2
(Lx1/6)



didn't had the time for practise mode this week so this was just a quick clear with the stats i know.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Vague scoring system

I don't even know what this is supposed to mean; how scoring works is known and clearly defined. Build up the gold counter and keep it there, cancel a lot of bullets in a row when possible. Max out overlimit to increase gem gain.

Stage 1's probably got the most complicated scoring because to get the most gold possible and get the counter up to 1000 in a hurry you have to just barely get get enough to reach 100, then cancel up to 200 and so on to get increasingly higher values of gold per-ingot in order to build up the counter quickly, but it's not that hard to understand. It is however tricky to do, but you can still get a counter value of 600 or so with a bit of effort by the end of stage 1 and that won't hurt your score potential too much I think.

questionable difficulty curve and pacing

Can't really argue pacing as that's a matter of opinion, but the difficulty's fairly reasonable in increasing gradually, albeit I'll grant it's not like some of Cave's games where the last few levels are a large length/difficulty jump. 5-2's stage segment might be a bit on the easy side for what you'd expect from a final level, but it's really more of a scoring segment and callback to Esp.Ra.De.

You can get completely screwed out of bomb bonus by getting walled on the final bosses second to last attack.

lol

[Bananamatic]

Bananamatic - 31,755,470 - ALL - dude - mame

3 miss, 2 on stage 4 within 15 seconds, one on final boss
no scoring whatsoever

[Deca]

I don't even know what this is supposed to mean; how scoring works is known and clearly defined. Build up the gold counter and keep it there, cancel a lot of bullets in a row when possible. Max out overlimit to increase gem gain.

Stage 1's probably got the most complicated scoring because to get the most gold possible and get the counter up to 1000 in a hurry you have to just barely get get enough to reach 100, then cancel up to 200 and so on to get increasingly higher values of gold per-ingot in order to build up the counter quickly, but it's not that hard to understand. It is however tricky to do, but you can still get a counter value of 600 or so with a bit of effort by the end of stage 1 and that won't hurt your score potential too much I think.

It's very well defined and uncomplicated to understand, it's just kind of open ended in practice and lends itself to not really knowing what you should be doing. Obviously it tightens up at top level optimized play, as any game will, but I would never want to be tasked with having to figure out how to optimize on my own. A lot of this is personal preference, but I feel like it sticks out among Cave games that tend to do a better job of defining what exactly you need to do in order to score well.

Can't really argue pacing as that's a matter of opinion, but the difficulty's fairly reasonable in increasing gradually, albeit I'll grant it's not like some of Cave's games where the last few levels are a large length/difficulty jump. 5-2's stage segment might be a bit on the easy side for what you'd expect from a final level, but it's really more of a scoring segment and callback to Esp.Ra.De.

There's no justifying the absurd leap in difficulty on the final boss. Once you've practiced it so that you know what's coming and understand how to approach the patterns it doesn't seem that bad, but really the difficulty spikes drastically right at the end of the final stage.

lol

A video of someone no bombing doesn't change the fact that attacks are random. Unbalanced difficulty between runs due to a RNG is just a bizarre design choice. I've had runs against the final attack where half the streams from the gems were shooting off screen away from me the entire time and I barely had to move.

Like I said, the game isn't terrible, but I can easily justify someone calling it silly.

[RNGmaster]

A video of someone no bombing doesn't change the fact that attacks are random. Unbalanced difficulty between runs due to a RNG is just a bizarre design choice. I've had runs against the final attack where half the streams from the gems were shooting off screen away from me the entire time and I barely had to move.

Like I said, the game isn't terrible, but I can easily justify someone calling it silly.

The final attack is not random, there are maybe 3 versions of it. The second-to-last, though, is pure luck that you won't get fucked. In that case it's actually MORE lucrative to suicide right before you kill the last attack so you can replenish your bomb bar and get a cancel with your 250 gems.

[Gus]

Attacks having slightly different versions selected at random is pretty much just usual Cave, BTW. Definitely not something exclusive to this game.

Though I'm still not a big fan as scoring doesn't seem to have much depth compared to Cave's other games and thus scoring comes down a bunch of finicky as hell optimizations.

[Aleanil]

Aleanil - 3,701,390 - 2 - Ageha - PS2

Really wish I had more than an hour to play this week because ESPGaluda deserves way more of my attention than that. That's reflected in my terrible score though.

[Deca]

Attacks having slightly different versions selected at random is pretty much just usual Cave, BTW.

There are several sections where it randomly chooses between completely different attacks. St4 boss second attack is the first thing that comes to mind. After he moves you up and around between his two sections it selects one of two attacks at random. One of them is very easy and seems to be more common (destructable turrets coming up behind you) but the other is just some quick spread shots that take a lot more effort to avoid.

It is possible that the attack selected has something to do with overdrive level and/or gold counter or something, but the consensus seems to be that it is completely random.

[Erppo]

The second-to-last, though, is pure luck that you won't get fucked.

Look where the bullets will go and move out of the way. I have no idea where these complaints are coming from. The only luck dependent thing in the game is the attack the second midboss will use as one of them is worth less than the others. Other than that it's just normal dodging.

Also the final boss follows the normal pattern of the game by being easier than pretty much any other Cave final boss. People blow it out of proportions too for some reason and I really don't know why.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

One of them is very easy and seems to be more common (destructable turrets coming up behind you) but the other is just some quick spread shots that take a lot more effort to avoid.

Honestly, I find the spread shots a lot easier for some reason as the gaps are pretty huge (I sometimes smack into one of the circular pods, derp). Either way they're both not too tough to learn, and don't affect score as the big kakusei cancel isn't affected by which is chosen, but rather cancelling the guaranteed large line of bullets fired downward as the train starts to move from the top of the screen to the bottom, as seen here.

[Smraedis]

Smraedis - 35,530,880 - ALL - Ageha - PS2


No photo of my tv this time as I've got the capture set up, aiming to upload my best run (if I do as well as I'm aiming for)

[CulDad78]

The only randomness i've encountered is determined by:

-How quickly (or slowly) you kill a boss (or parts of it) (meaning, if you play as Tateha, boss fights can be longer and you will see additional patterns, etc).

Or

-What mode you are in when the next pattern is released. The patterns can be different in overdrive. And are definitely different if a pattern is released in overdrive and you switch back to normal. For sure on first 2 mids and ends. Not sure about stage 3 and beyond as I haven't faced them in overdrive.

-Taking out parts / projectiles released by bosses. If you take out the spinning small turrets on stage 4 boss, the pattern feels totally different, but it isn't, you've just eliminated some potential bullets. Same with the hands on first midboss, etc.

Dunno, I guess my point was - i'm enjoying the hell out of this game. Its one thing to clear a game and have a massive (in the lead, or very close) and to say, "meh, i'm bored."

It's another thing to say, "this game is stupid easy / silly" and then post a score 40% behind the top score. That to me, is silly.

[RNGmaster]

RNGmaster - 40,466,220 - ALL - Ageha - Shmupmame 2.2
Replay and nvram. Would have made 50m but I got overconfident in Stage 3, did a cancel I don't normally do, and fucked up getting the extend. Got hit and lost my over bonus, meaning I got less gems for the entire rest of the game and couldn't do a lot of my paths. Final boss was also stupid - I actually got hit on the last pattern rather than suiciding and couldn't get its lifebar to deplete enough upon respawning.

Still, it's a start, I guess.

e:
Erppo, I know that the attack is technically possible even if you get both thick waves converging on you but I'm sorry I don't have your godly dodging skills.

[Kiken]

Kiken - 49,513,640 - All - Ageha - PS2

Finished with 5 out of 6 life units remaining... had I No Missed this run, I would have finally broken 50 million.



*Edited to add photo verification.

[Gmintyfresh]

Gmintyfresh - 12262400 - 4 - Tateha - Shmupmame 3

[drunkninja24]

drunkninja - 17,640,030 - Stage 5-2 Boss - Ageha - MAME

Literally about 2 pixels away from beating the final boss but improvement for sure.

[CHI]

CHI - 16,561,250 - 5-1 Boss - Ageha - shmupmame



I can't seem to improve any more on this game

[Aettaa]

Aettaa - 31,521,020 - ALL - Ageha - MAME

I keep dying when I shouldn't be dying.

[Iori Branford]

Iori Branford - 11,876,520 - 4 - Tateha - MAME .145

[Psikyo_Ball]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/0013b.png/


Psikyo_ball - 22,203,600 - 5-2 - Tateha - Mame

Im not good in futanari games

[zakk]

Zakk - 30810090 - 5-2 - MAME

[CulDad78]

culdad78 - 13,342,280 - Stage 5 (boss) - Ageha - PCB



Stage 5 boss is giving me fits right now. Still hoping for an ALL, the 2nd extend would help...need to improve score on stage 5...a lot. It's ugly.

[ED-057]

ED-057 - 11,848,520 - 4 - Ageha - MAME

Stage 4 boss is nuts. Also, I suck at scoring as usual.

[Acid King]

Acid King - 18,802,580 - 5-1 - Ageha - Shmupmame v3.0

[Nifty]

DavidThink - 24,665,360 - 5-2 - Ageha - MAME Plus!

I'm not having a good week. I can't focus, I always get hit unexpectedly and now my nerves are shot. I wish this stupid cold would go away