I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[Seahawk]

3 million on 1943.



Finally clearing the game with that 3 in the millions digit was a magical moment, it was like climbing over a wall in my mind.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Congrats Seahawk! you sure are capable of enduring some soul crushing failures before finally nailing it!

[Seahawk]

Thanks .

soul crushing failures

The score progression was almost comical >.>;. I stopped posting in the high score thread after the second time.


EDIT ------
Add on a 2 loop clear of Gradius Gaiden on hardest. Today was a good day for shmups .

I'm disappointed I couldn't get farther =(....

[KAI]

1-ALLed Daifukkatsu 1.5 strong after 2 credits. I'm still not liking it.

[Giest118]

1-ALLed Daifukkatsu 1.5 strong after 2 credits. I'm still not liking it.

Daifukkatsu is a very hard game to like. If you manage to get to a point of enough understanding of how it even works, it ends up being a good deal of fun.

It doesn't really have a whole lot of worth for survival play though, unless you go for a 2-all.

[KAI]

I only played this thing twice, just gimme some time and you'll see real scores.

[Deca]

It's not much, but after an evening of working on PCB Lunatic I decided to play one credit of Extra and cleared it

[Volteccer_Jack]

Finally cleared Batsugun! Now I can go back to playing it's better, cooler, bro Special Version.


That CONGULATULATIONS!! makes it all worth while.

First 1CC of a shmup hard enough to make me feel accomplished, and I mostly did it to shut someone up. There's probably some deep shiz there, but I'm too happy to care for at least the next hour or so.

PS--Why is the second boss harder than 90% of the rest of the game? I dun get it.

[Arvandor]

PS--Why is the second boss harder than 90% of the rest of the game? I dun get it.

What always gets me is how many fourth or fifth stages are harder than the fifth or sixth stages in a lot of games. Mars Matrix, Ikaruga, Dodonpachi, Triggerheart Exelica, Under Defeat, just off the top of my head.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

I read somewhere a programmer at Cave said the most difficult part of making a game is the final balancing which is where the rising difficulty would be completed. So it sounds like companies just don't always get that part perfect. It has never bothered me.

[XoPachi]

How long does this all take you people? I've been playing DaiOuJou for 9 months and still get a game over at the level 3 boss. Well I gave up a month ago, but still. 8 months and no progress. You guys seem to just kill these games in a few weeks based on this and the 1CC thread.

[hail good sir]

went

[XoPachi]

...I've been playing hardcore for 8 months. At least 16 hours to it each week. ;-;
I tried using save states at tricky parts. I honestly just think some people aren't meant to be good at these games. I wouldn't be stuck at stage three if that wasn't the case.

[NTSC-J]

Why is the second boss harder than 90% of the rest of the game? I dun get it.

There's an old phrase in Japanese gaming: "２面のボスがやたら強い" which means basically that if you can clear the second boss, you're pretty good.

It originated in the early 90s when players started noticing that (especially amongst Capcom beat-em-ups) the second boss would be suddenly much harder than anything leading up to it (or maybe even after it). Game makers found that if they let players play up to that point it would be enough time for them to get a feel for the game and get into it, but raising the difficulty for the second boss would get them excited to keep playing (since they felt that they had already gotten pretty far) and would feed in more credits. Ending their credit much earlier than that and they may feel ripped off.

[hail good sir]

and

[XoPachi]

The game is fairly short so I just devote a good chunk of time between work and school to it. I like it a lot, but it's been frustrating me lately. So I just gave up and left the 1CC's to more capable players.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

...I've been playing hardcore for 8 months. At least 16 hours to it each week. ;-;
I tried using save states at tricky parts. I honestly just think some people aren't meant to be good at these games. I wouldn't be stuck at stage three if that wasn't the case.

Once you clear a couple of them the clears start to come more quickly because your shooting game skills in general are better. The first 1CC on a Cave game will probably take you the longest time unless you are playing a particularly easy clear like Deathsmiles. But I've never spent 7-8 months on a clear. But I've also been playing arcade games since 1980. You might want to try an easier one first like Espgaluda or Progear (Japan version). Also I have had different results from hail good sir. The more I play per day the faster I get better, by a mile.

[XoPachi]

But that's such a pansy move. And it won't matter anyway. The game is still hard with patterns I can't quite grasp. Playing an easier game with scrub patterns will only teach you the scrub patterns of that game. I've already 1CC'd ESPGaluda...twice. Nothing changed.

And you think PROGEAR is easy? Man, I really am in the wrong genre. I have a harder time with that than DOJ. But Progear's bullets are tougher to see in some levels. Being severely colorblind doesn't help.

[Hagane]

Sounds like you need to strengthen your basics. Read some of the guides on the strategy forum on how to approach different kinds of patterns, how to look at the screen, identifying where you have problems and why, etc. And yeah use and abuse savestates for practice. Do saves at the spots that give you trouble and practice them. It will speed up your progress a lot.

While some people have talent for these games (like some of the guys at the Touhou is Harder team who can tear games apart in a week with no prior experience with them), you can be an average guy like me and do decently at your favorite games.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30458

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

I don't think it's easy but the Japan version is under par for Cave clear difficulty. I don't think clearing Progear or Espgaluda or maybe the first Dodonpachi is a pansy move but if you went to Deathsmiles and thought that clear was impressive then that would be a pansy move. Anyway the thing is certain clears help your overall skill a lot and it looks like DOJ is not a good one for you to be on. Maybe Espgaluda doesn't fall in that category very well but for me Progear and DDP absolutely did. Galuda didn't hurt.

[XoPachi]

I read the strategies a while ago. Nothing helped. Save abuse didn't either. I think 8 months, Hell, ONE month would be more than enough time to beat this. At least the first loop. And again, I do think there are multiple degrees of talent involved. 1 week? No prior experience? Yeah, natural talent or they're lying. If you have none then you're SOL.

I have a save the beginning of stage 5 for example. I still die at the part immediately after Raiko. This has not changed since the save was made sometime in July. Don't even get me started on Hibachi. I don't understand how people beat her on one life. It's impossible, but people manage it! HOW!?

I can't clear DDP either. I get to the stage 3 boss and start dying unless I bomb which I don't like doing because pros rarely do it. And after that, it's bomb spam, die a fuck ton, quit. Same pattern every play.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Being severely colorblind doesn't help.

DaiOuJou is pretty brutal as it is, honestly. If you're colourblind, I imagine the generally muted colour scheme all around won't make it any easier for you. I honestly haven't found a ship I really like in DOJ; none of the shot types seem to click, so I've only made it to stage 5 like once using B-S (and a whole lotta bombing).

If you're colourblind, Mushi Futari might be a better shmup to learn as under the advanced graphics options you can actually shift the colors in game - if you want green bullets you can do that (it shifts all the colors, so the rest of the graphics are a bit messed up, but as long as you can see the bullets). I think there's also high contrast & monochrome options in there, although I haven't played with that menu too much.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

There is natural talent involved more than a lot of people admit, you are correct. But at the same time a lot of people get astronomically better at shooting games with practice and one of the cool things about them is watching that happen so we want to encourage that in other people. Anyway, if you would have told me 2 years ago that in a couple of years I would have cleared a mode in every Cave game I would have said that is absurd but here I am.

[XoPachi]

No, my colorblindness doesn't at all hurt me in DOJ. Bullets are clear and large with plenty of dark/contrasting backgrounds big bullets that don't fucking flash and aren't light as Hell. Progear's bullets are not only extremely fast, but light in color on light backgrounds and many flash. I suck at Bug Princess 2. I'm...tolerable at the original. I only get game overs on boss 4, but better than Futari. Futari has a lot of effects and flickering colors at once that disorient me so that might be a problem too. 6-9

[NTSC-J]

I read the strategies a while ago. Nothing helped. Save abuse didn't either. I think 8 months, Hell, ONE month would be more than enough time to beat this. At least the first loop. And again, I do think there are multiple degrees of talent involved. 1 week? No prior experience? Yeah, natural talent or they're lying. If you have none then you're SOL.

I have a save the beginning of stage 5 for example. I still die at the part immediately after Raiko. This has not changed since the save was made sometime in July. Don't even get me started on Hibachi. I don't understand how people beat her on one life. It's impossible, but people manage it! HOW!?

They practice, pay attention to where they made mistakes and come up with strategies to insure those mistakes don't happen again. If every time you play you die in a different spot, you're not paying attention. Maybe this style of game isn't for you, but I think it's more likely your approach.

I can't clear DDP either. I get to the stage 3 boss and start dying unless I bomb which I don't like doing because pros rarely do it.

I suggest you swallow your pride and start chucking bombs. The pros don't do it because they're pros and have figured out ways to succeed without using bombs in DDP, but you aren't there yet. Try playing a run where you don't bomb at all, then note where you died and use bombs in each of those places for your next runs. Eventually you'll no longer need them. And if you keep dying in new spots every time, you're still not paying attention.

[hail good sir]

sick

[KAI]

Learn from your mistakes, 1st and best advice.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I can't believe it's the first time I've managed to get the St4 1up in DOJ. I swear it's the hardest midstage extend for me to get in any Cave game I've played.

[XoPachi]

How am I gonna learn to dodge bullets...if I'm clearing them? That seems to hinder or defeat the practicing process to me. That's why I stopped bombing. It just seems like it takes way from learning patterns. And it wouldn't be a very fulfilling run to me if I just nuked everything.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You're not gonna be able to learn every single pattern reliably unless you seriously plan on perfecting the game. There are some patterns that you'll find you can do 40% of the time or so, but it's just easier on a serious run to bomb that pattern and not risk it; there's no shame in that, it's what bombs are for.