∀kashicverse -Malicious Wake

[BPzeBanshee]

Yeah, I spotted that when I watched it after seeing his post in the youtube shmup thread.

Seems scoring (or possibly the 'rate') is key here. I know that in stage select NOT doing anything with the first phase resulted in no omake for me, but then again not having done the previous stages prior to that segment (or at the very least the stage-length rate) could be making the difference too.

[LtC]

How I do it (in Stage Select anyway):
- on the first phase (orange background), cycle the boss through all of its patterns at least once
- on the second phase (hexagon background), destroy at least *5* of the legs

Triggers it every time. If I do anything less (ie. miss a cycle on first phase or only destroy 4 legs) it fails.

Have you been able to trigger it with only destroying 5 legs? I had a run where I destroyed only 5 legs and had 6XX million score with 6XX rate and it didn't trigger. I didn't touch the first form on that run.

[Observer]

I don't know what kind of black magic/conditions are required (and the devs refuse to tell anything other than "requirements were tightened from previous versions") but it seems that you have to destroy the six legs, and you have to do it fast, having not died before and with a high rate. The legs seem to be key here, much like how in Crimzon Clover or Hellsinker blowing up certain boss parts triggers additional, incredibly brutal patterns.

[Rex Cavalier]

but it seems that you have to destroy the six legs, and you have to do it fast, having not died before and with a high rate.

I think destroying all/most of legs is already confirmed, i have reached it with deaths before so it's out of question as well. I just did a few test runs in boss practice mode, you start with 800 rate and single death drops to 400, form don't appears at 400, so it's indeed might be rate condition and it's somewhere between 400 and 800, and also it's not the question of killing it fast as well, i think i got through phase 2 full pattern at least two times for a test and still got it.
Edit: according to LtC vid, 6XX worked as well, somebody try getting there with 5XX.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'll do a stage-length run and keep an eye on my rate when I verse the boss and see what I have to do to trigger it.

EDIT:
Okay, I think I got it. I did a bit of stage-length, full-length and boss-only runs to muck around with the rate and see what happened. I found that while <400 didn't trigger it as it's already been said doesn't trigger it, but if you can kill the boss and get a rate of above 450 whilst having destroyed at least 5 of the legs you will trigger it. 6, or indeed all of the legs, to be safe. If you can actually get a rate of 400 before the boss on a full run then you can easily get the remaining 50 from cycling the first phase patterns, which is handy. I've actually had less than 450 (like 430 or something) when I'm on its second phase, and the process of killing it with 5+ arms destroyed brought the rate over 450 and triggered the Omake.

So it seems to be to me anyway: get a rate of at least 450 on death of the boss and destroy at least 5 arms. What do you guys think?

[LtC]

Like I said with 5 legs destroyed and 600+ rate I did not get the omake boss to appear. I know this because I checked the replay right after that and was really confused. That's the only time ever I missed it. The conditions might be different for Akashic difficulty though. That happened right after I updated to 1.01. There's nothing about it on patch notes, although it's supposed to be a secret I guess so they might leave that info out on purpose.

[SuperSoaker360]

Aaaaaaaaa, nearly had ∀nother difficulty 1CC'd. My mind tensed up and instead of hitting the delay field button, I hit the shield button by accident during the final and:




Oh well, I would have still had to do Stage 6 which is a mixed bag for me. What do I do when the Stage 6 boss activates Prognosis anyway? All the colours invert and I start taking damage and I just panic bomb through it.

[BPzeBanshee]

Like I said with 5 legs destroyed and 600+ rate I did not get the omake boss to appear. I know this because I checked the replay right after that and was really confused. That's the only time ever I missed it. The conditions might be different for Akashic difficulty though. That happened right after I updated to 1.01. There's nothing about it on patch notes, although it's supposed to be a secret I guess so they might leave that info out on purpose.

Damnit I thought I had it this time. I don't suppose you're able to upload that replay to YouTube?

I did a full run on Akashic which does prove you right on that theory being off. I got far less than 400 even on the boss death on this full-length run and yet I triggered it. See here:


I got about 170ish rate on Stage 1, got to something like 250 on Stage 2 and got 300 by the boss death by cycling through the first phase patterns with the Eliminator, cyling another pattern after that, and blowing up most of the arms. Can't remember the exact figures though.

Honestly your runs LtC seem to contradict every method I use successfully to get it to appear, so at this rate unless we can meet on IRC/MSN/something and figure this out live per say I'm inclined to just say I have no fucking clue.

Oh well, I would have still had to do Stage 6 which is a mixed bag for me. What do I do when the Stage 6 boss activates Prognosis anyway? All the colours invert and I start taking damage and I just panic bomb through it.

I thought you were supposed to counter it with the same thing?

[Rex Cavalier]

Huh, seems like rate is out of question then... *shrug*

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm sure it's gotta be related somehow, but I'm not sure exactly anymore. At the very least we can agree on it being 5 arms - whenever this hidden requirement that may be rate-related has been fufilled, a minimum of 5 arms always does the trick even on Akashic difficulty.

[LtC]

Did few tests on practice mode (adept):
-At 800 rate, anything under 5 legs destroyed, omake boss triggers
-Does not matter which legs are destroyed
-You don't have to do anything on the first form
-At 1 death, 400 rate 5 legs, omake boss does not trigger
-At 0 death, 50~ rate 5 legs, omake boss does not trigger
On full run:
-At 0 death. 38X rate from stage 1, 139,7 rate from stage 2 which is >500 overall with 5 legs destroyed, omake boss triggered

I suppose 500 rate overall from st1+st2 with at least 5 legs destroyed.

Aaaaaaaaa, nearly had ∀nother difficulty 1CC'd. My mind tensed up and instead of hitting the delay field button, I hit the shield button by accident during the final and:

http://i.imgur.com/xuiekKU.jpg

Oh well, I would have still had to do Stage 6 which is a mixed bag for me. What do I do when the Stage 6 boss activates Prognosis anyway? All the colours invert and I start taking damage and I just panic bomb through it.

Ouch, that must hurt. Stage 6 is piss easy. If the boss activates Prognosis it will go invincible and your shield will start taking damage (from what I remember you can still stay in wing mode if you want). Only way to cancel it is to cast Prognosis yourself to nullify the boss' prognosis.

[BPzeBanshee]

That'd almost make sense, except above 450 in practice mode triggers it in any difficulty, and I triggered it with far less than that in Akashic. That picture above is my allplay and as you can see I had 319 rate by the boss' death and I still triggered it. Confusing shit.

[Rex Cavalier]

Also, we should get a highscore thread up sometime.

Done http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 99#p870699

[Cadrin]

SOUNDTRACK PLZ

Some kind person (Dragon33222) uploaded it on YouTube less than 48 hours ago!

[z0mbie90]

Less blinky mode in setting would be nice, I only tried the trial and don't think I be playing the full version.
Gave a massive headache and made my eyes hurt.

[O. Van Bruce]

well, took me long enough to play it for the first time... just did it today, because, well... lots of things.

Now, my question is, when we will start making crazy theories about the story? or should we wait till we have a decent amount of people that have 1cc'd the game?

Less blinky mode in setting would be nice, I only tried the trial and don't think I be playing the full version.
Gave a massive headache and made my eyes hurt.

I think you can adjust the brightness of the game in the settings. just look some pages ago...

[SuperSoaker360]

Now, my question is, when we will start making crazy theories about the story?

It should probably be noted that the final attack of the boss on Stage 6 is apparently called "Malicious Wake".

I haven't the slightest clue about the story since it seems to be a mix between a virtual world (at the beginning, it states in the log that you're logging into a system) with intense psychedelic visuals. A few lolis battling each other in mechs? And when you 1CC, it looks like you're absorbing the Stage 5 boss' power before suddenly donning her princess-like attire and being informed with "PHASE SHIFTED".
Let's get the fun theory-ball rolling before the story of the game is revealed.

What is going on with the girl when you fly inside the giant ship on stage 3?

What is with the recurring symbol of orchids? (I must have skipped over your post or something but I just looked over your comparison image with the Eliminators and orchids, Cadrin. Very interesting!)

Will there be a sequel?

Edit: I take it that the recurring flowers are also orchids then? I don't know my plants but I take it that they are.

[Cadrin]

In fact, O. van Bruce, we're doing it now.

(About the comparison pic: there's also Phalenopsis, which is our eliminator. It's pink/purple, so I suppose it was meant to look a bit like this species of orchid. The left and right petal do kinda look like the huge wings/claws that Phalenopsis Ex Machina has on its sides.)

Here is something that I feel might bear some actual significance: the whole "akashic" thing. The scoreboard is called Akashic Records. Now, I'm sure you have been googling "akashic" a lot, and noticed that "Akashic Records" is a suggestion. Turns out it is a thing. When the main character gets hit with shields broken, a prompt mentions that continuing in this state will hinder the outcome of her observations. And since, according to Wikipedia, Akashic Records (Records of Akasha, where "akasha" means "sky"/"space"/"aether") are basically full of mystical, divine knowledge of everything, and are not physically existent... Maybe she is on a quest for comprehesion to another realm? As a side note: what we normally call playing is now dubbed "channeling". "Channeling" is also the term for mediums communicating with the otherwordly, which I think reinforces this theory.

There's even this little bit of animation in the Promotional Video: the camera scrolls up on the main character standing there in the dark, eyes closed, some bizarre lights to her sides. Suddenly, her red eyes open wide as something akin to the blue resonation circles appear on the irises and everything becomes blurry. Although this might be looking too deep into it.

"They [the Akashic Records] are often metaphorically described as a library; other analogies commonly found in discourse on the subject include a >>universal supercomputer<< and the >>Mind of God<<."
Supercomputer, eh?
"LOG IN"
Also the part after you "OPEN THE GATE..."

Maybe that's what lies for her within the akashicverse, inside the genocide garden, the extraordinary world.
How the orchids mix into all this, or why the flower lolis fight one another - that eludes me. Something about the reborn indiscriminate instinct / (in)discriminate killer instinct, maybe. Ideally for the purpose of this theory, this would be where the whole [Malicious Wake / Awoken Cardinal Sin / "CRAWLING IN MY SKIN" kanji from Stage 6] thing comes into play. More on that later.

[SuperSoaker360]

"CRAWLING IN MY SKIN" kanji from Stage 6

Is that what it says? That's kind of eerie.

[trap15]

Just got around to playing this earlier. Holy shit, this is brilliant. Now that I've got the hang of Method, I'll probably start using them in other STG on accident

Really great game, really glad I tried it, definitely need to get my Windows box moved over here so I can play it without 3 seconds of audio lag from VMWare

[Rex Cavalier]

One of my guesses would be that killer gets power from defeated characters, as we get doom bringer and phase shift from boss 4 and 5. Notice how boss 5(and phase shift mode after) uses some attacks very similar to boss 2 and 3, and that boss characters on stages 1, 2 and 3 are retreating, not being finished off like stage 4 or 5, probably meaning that stage 5 boss dealt with them when they escaped from player and got their abilities. That would explain why stage 3 boss attacks midboss as well.
Edit: Also extra stage boss character might have some relation to the player character, considering they have very similar abilities.
Edit mk2: Maybe she created player character in first place, or even whole dimension?(DNA themes of her final attack and such)
Edit mk3: Or she IS the dimension
Edit mk4:

"CRAWLING IN MY SKIN" kanji from Stage 6

That would further suggest that we might be indeed fighting the dimension itself as final boss

[Lord Satori]

I had a dream about the story of this game. Something about your younger sister taking possesion of your body to take out the army or something to gain power, but it backfires and you fight her as the stage 6 boss.

I'd like to think I have something there, but I'm not holding my breath.

[nasty_wolverine]

SOUNDTRACK PLZ

Some kind person (Dragon33222) uploaded it on YouTube less than 48 hours ago!

can you link coz i cant find it

[Rex Cavalier]

SOUNDTRACK PLZ

Some kind person (Dragon33222) uploaded it on YouTube less than 48 hours ago!

can you link coz i cant find it

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dragon33222

Also be careful on stage 5 boss final timeout, if you deplete the hp bar at certain time everything goes black and you can't see anything except for text at the sides and hitbox. I think it might be bug.

[CptRansom]

Finally got around to playing this.

I have no fucking clue what I'm doing (oh god those bullets are so fast and there are so many how the fuck are you supposed to dodge all of that or are you supposed to let shield eat them when do you use which method so many questions holy shit).

I feel like my brain just got scooped out and someone shit a rainbow in my empty skull.

...I need MORE.

[Lord Satori]

There are tutorials that tell you the controls for using certain methods, and it demonstrates what you're supposed to be doing before hand, so knowing japanese isn't necessary. As for the rest of the game, many of the methods cancel the bullets in a certain area or on the entire screen. Also if this is your first bullet hell, I suggest playing some of the easier ones first.

I feel like my brain just got scooped out and someone shit a rainbow in my empty skull.

This is a great quote.

[CptRansom]

There are tutorials that tell you the controls for using certain methods, and it demonstrates what you're supposed to be doing before hand, so knowing japanese isn't necessary. As for the rest of the game, many of the methods cancel the bullets in a certain area or on the entire screen.

Yeah, after I got over the initial jaw-dropping holy-fucking-shit-this-is-the-first-game-I've-ever-played-that-literally-left-me-stunned feeling, I played two more games and got some shit sorted. I can't remember the name of it, but the UP-DOWN method is extremely helpful.

Also if this is your first bullet hell, I suggest playing some of the easier ones first.

I'll get right on that.

[SuperSoaker360]

I can't remember the name of it, but the UP-DOWN method is extremely helpful.

That would be prognosis. I don't use it very much since it requires a large amount of your gauge and is more of a defensive method but your offensive methods will end up being Dread Scissors ACT1 and ACT2 (↑↑, shot button once or twice for ACT1/ACT2) and Jaunt Driver (←↓→/→↓←). J. Driver is especially useful because of its high damage and large invincibility frame. As for your defensive methods, Attractant Other (→↓↘/←↓↙) is very handy especially during portions of Stage 4. It can be used to take the heat off of you for a bit while you fire at enemies or recover your shield. The fact that your decoy also fires back bullets at the precise angle it was shot at is pretty neat, not to mention its self-destruct explosion also deals a fair amount of damage.

Once you get Doom Bringer (↓→/↓←, shot button twice), you can totally destroy the final boss without much trouble.

[CptRansom]

Yeah, I was trying to get the hang of Scissors last night, but I use so much shield trying to get up in "melee" range. =/

I need to use Jaunt more once I get the hang of it.

Thanks for the tips. =)

[BPzeBanshee]

I find with the scissors the trick is like Raiden point-blanking: get in before the enemies shoot too much. This however is contrary to score with larger enemies that cancel bullets.