Mushihimesama Series Article on HardcoreGaming101.net

[Masamune_Shadow]

Hey everyone, I'm Masamune_Shadow, and I recently wrote way to many words on every game and nearly every variant of the Mushihimesama series (Missed out on the original 2006 BLUE Label).
The article is now live and can be found here:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/mushih ... mesama.htm

I'm not active on the forums, but like you all, I enjoy shmups, preferably the CAVE ones.
I saw a posting on their site that said they wanted someone to do some articles for the CAVE games, and I felt confident that I would do them justice. That said, this was my first time writing for anything other than school, so any feedback you have would be much appreciated!
I also wrote an Ibara/Pink Sweets article for them as well, though that isn't live yet.

I'm currently in the process of writing a DonPachi Series retrospective in the same style as my Mushihimesama one. I plan for it to be finished by the end of February.
So any feedback you have for my writing would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again for doing all that you guys do, as without it, this article would be nowhere close to as good as it is, if existing at all. So again, a heartfelt Thank You to you all.

[hail good sir]

I only read page 1 because it's late but it was surprisingly in depth so good work. The only two nitpicks I can even come up with are that the Arrange mode on the 360 HD release is slightly tweaked from the PS2 version, the 360 version auto bomb uses your entire bomb stock in one hit, the counter resets at each stage boss and then the counter you earn on the boss carries over to the next stage, and skyrocketing is back, although it's a little more linear. Point blanking is still very important though since there's a limited number of places to try and skyrocket. I don't know how technical you wanted to get though so just figured I'd throw it out there. The other one (super minor) was that at the part where it was talking about omote/ura loops, it kind of read to me like it was saying that dodonpachi has the split 2nd loops and that's only true in DFK/Resurrection. I'll read futari tomorrow though.

Oh yeah and there's some slowdown differences too in the two arrange modes, I'd say they are significant, but it's hard to know what was intended and what is just the PS2 version sucking in that regard.

[KAI]

Looking forward to reading that Ibara/PS article.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The "gems" are actually supposed to be pieces of amber I think. Everyone calls them gems I think though...

It's worth mentioning that the Arrange Mode in Mushi may use Maniac bullet patterns, but you are guaranteed to face the true final boss that normally only appears on Ultra, so it's an easier game mode to see Aki's TLB form.

Interestingly, [Reco Abnormal's] pods act very similar to how they did in Ketsui, another Cave shmup.

Not really... in Ketsui, your lock-ons are determined by whether or not you hit with the middle beam. Reco Abnormal on the other hand can plink away with the weak laser all she wants; if she doesn't get the beetles near the enemy, they will never latch on, and you have to be quite close to get a lock-on. Reco in Black Label is more like Ketsui; her laser mode has her beetles shooting blue lasers that, when they hit, score a lock-on so you can lock-on from a much more forgiving distance (they go fullscreen, and you can angle them, making it even more broken than Ketsui).

I'm not sure Palm Normal was technically nerfed from 1.0 to 1.5 (he seems to do the same damage in 1.01), it's just that everyone else relative to him got noticeably stronger. He's still better damagewise in 1.5, if only because bombs in general got a big damage boost.

This is all nitpickystuff of course; it's a really good article for anyone who doesn't know about the series.

[Softdrink 117]

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and depth of what you've written here, good work! I'm interested to see what you've come up with for Ibara and Pink Sweets; to be perfectly honest I was actually hoping to work on that one myself sometime, but it seems you beat me to the punch.

The only thing I could really suggest is taking a closer look at your sentence structure. There were a few sentences which jumped out at me as being really awkwardly phrased, such as this one:

Earlier, it was stated, that in Original mode, there will be times where hundreds of enemy bullets may be on screen at once; in Maniac mode, there will usually always be hundreds of enemy bullets on screen, and at times, more than one thousand. (It's called Maniac mode for a reason now).

It's really not a big deal, and to be totally honest I tend to be more picky than most about that kind of thing. But, if you're aiming for the best possible result it might be worth keeping in mind.

[AntiFritz]

Looking forward to reading that Ibara/PS article.

I was always surprised mmp had one but not ibara/ps...

[nesrulz]

Nice.
Thx.

[colour_thief]

I don't have time to write your article for you, but your section on Mushihimetama needed more research. It has several false statements, and it completely overlooks significant scoring/gameplay elements. It gives me the impression you have not played the game for more than a few credits.

Not trying to be mean, but the site is not called casualgaming101... I expected better.

Rest of the article looked fine as far as I could tell!

[Despatche]

please do not write for hg101. it is a horrible site owned and operated by people who refuse to do even the most basic research. the place and many of its writers are pretty much ign quality, except they're supposed to be "hardcore" and write about games people still don't care about, so they get read i guess. any attempts to "help" them will be in vain, as any amount of good will only reinforce the awful. the whole place, good info and all, just needs to be wiped off of every single computer, full stop.

they really are casualgaming101, all other meanings of "casual" be damned here.

[mosey]

The writer's guide on HG101 implies that a variety of authors are welcome to write for the site, in accord with its ideals. If some writers are more didactic than others what does complaining prove except that whom teaches, matters.

Let me instruct you to take a hot bath and listen to the dual soundtrack of 'Nier Gestalt & Nier Replicant'. Aahh...

[Skykid]

Mushihime-sama BUG PANIC, Cave's first iOS game, couldn't meet these standards, failing to be technically impressive, or fun. The controls are dodgy, often missing or dropping movement inputs. The game is boring and repetitive, and gives player very little incentive to continue. But there isn't anything technically broken with it, so it's not a bad game.

I had a good lol at that. I do love manic contradictory statements.

I appreciate your work (although HG101, meh) but if you're going to be critical remember to stick to your guns. Wishy Washiness is just plain frustrating, and in this case, sounds totally stupid.

[moh]

listen to the dual soundtrack of 'Nier Gestalt & Nier Replicant'. Aahh...

Actually just got my copy in the mail yesterday. The soundtrack is a masterpiece, I've never had anything so beautiful ever grace my ears. Overall, its okay. 4/10

[BIL]

The soundtrack is a masterpiece, I've never had anything so beautiful ever grace my ears. Overall, its okay. 4/10

Sweet, thanks for the review Dolphin-san! Imma order it right n- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS MANIC CONTRADICTORY BULLSHIT

[Masamune_Shadow]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I’m glad you guys liked it, and thanks for bringing your complaints with the article to light, as I’ll do my best to fix those issues in my upcoming pieces. I took the time to respond to everyone in a big post for some reason, so here you go:

The only two nitpicks I can even come up with are that the Arrange mode on the 360 HD release is slightly tweaked from the PS2 version, the 360 version auto bomb uses your entire bomb stock in one hit, the counter resets at each stage boss and then the counter you earn on the boss carries over to the next stage, and skyrocketing is back, although it's a little more linear. Point blanking is still very important though since there's a limited number of places to try and skyrocket. I don't know how technical you wanted to get though so just figured I'd throw it out there.

Hmm, I'm going to trust that you're info is correct, but for some reason I didn't know that about the Mushihimesama HD 360 Arrange mode. I'll have to be more thorough in my research next time.
As for how technical, I honestly don't really know off-hand, I wrote with a gut feeling of what was and wasn't "necessary". An example of the unnecessary was that Reco is nopan

The other one (super minor) was that at the part where it was talking about omote/ura loops, it kind of read to me like it was saying that dodonpachi has the split 2nd loops and that's only true in DFK/Resurrection. I'll read futari tomorrow though.

Yeah, now that you mentioned it there are really only Omote/Ura loops in Ketsui and DFK. I still consider all 2-loops to be Ura for some reason though.

Oh yeah and there's some slowdown differences too in the two arrange modes, I'd say they are significant, but it's hard to know what was intended and what is just the PS2 version sucking in that regard.

The PS2 Version was what I call "Create-your-own Slowdown!" Things moving too fast for you? Just fire the W-Shot and BAM, Slow-mo!

The "gems" are actually supposed to be pieces of amber I think. Everyone calls them gems I think though...

You are correct in that the "gems" are officially known as "Amber", but I felt that it would make more sense to the reader if I called them gems.

It's worth mentioning that the Arrange Mode in Mushi may use Maniac bullet patterns, but you are guaranteed to face the true final boss that normally only appears on Ultra, so it's an easier game mode to see Aki's TLB form.

Really? I didn't know that. If there's ever a revision to the article, I'll try to slip that in; it's good information!

Interestingly, [Reco Abnormal's] pods act very similar to how they did in Ketsui, another Cave shmup.

Not really... in Ketsui, your lock-ons are determined by whether or not you hit with the middle beam. Reco Abnormal on the other hand can plink away with the weak laser all she wants; if she doesn't get the beetles near the enemy, they will never latch on, and you have to be quite close to get a lock-on. Reco in Black Label is more like Ketsui; her laser mode has her beetles shooting blue lasers that, when they hit, score a lock-on so you can lock-on from a much more forgiving distance (they go fullscreen, and you can angle them, making it even more broken than Ketsui).

Again, what you're saying is true, but I made that comparison because like in Ketsui, once the pods are locked on, they'll stay locked on until you release the laser, so you can go crazy with the dodges and still do damage to the boss. Perhaps I should have have been more specific, I'll keep this in mind for further comparisons.

This is all nitpickystuff of course; it's a really good article for anyone who doesn't know about the series.

Thanks! I had a few goals with this article, one was to have people want to play it! Another goal was to hopefully have anyone who read it be able to go into the game and know how the systems and how they work, speeding up the learning process.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and depth of what you've written here, good work! I'm interested to see what you've come up with for Ibara and Pink Sweets; to be perfectly honest I was actually hoping to work on that one myself sometime, but it seems you beat me to the punch.

Aw man, You probably would have been better at it than me, it was really out of my element being a Yagawa game. But I did my best and feel that it's the same level of quality as the Mushi-article.

The only thing I could really suggest is taking a closer look at your sentence structure. There were a few sentences which jumped out at me as being really awkwardly phrased, such as this one:

Earlier, it was stated, that in Original mode, there will be times where hundreds of enemy bullets may be on screen at once; in Maniac mode, there will usually always be hundreds of enemy bullets on screen, and at times, more than one thousand. (It's called Maniac mode for a reason now).

It's really not a big deal, and to be totally honest I tend to be more picky than most about that kind of thing. But, if you're aiming for the best possible result it might be worth keeping in mind.

Ok, will do. Yeah, that sentence is pretty jank. Semi-colons are great, but they can't save a badly written sentence. You wouldn't believe how often you write something, only to find out it doesn't flow right. Rewriting it would be optimal, but for some reason, more often than not, the entire paragraph ends up re-written ><

I don't have time to write your article for you, but your section on Mushihimetama needed more research. It has several false statements, and it completely overlooks significant scoring/gameplay elements. It gives me the impression you have not played the game for more than a few credits.
Rest of the article looked fine as far as I could tell!

Hmm, I see where you’re coming from, and I agree that Mushihimetama would have benefited from more research and hands-on time with the game, no question. However, I’m not sure what significant scoring/gameplay elements I missed out on, nor do I know of any false statements. I want you to know that I certainly didn’t mean to write or include anything of the sort. To the best of my knowledge, everything I wrote on Mushihimetama was correct.
That said, thank you for taking the time to read the article, and your feedback.

Mushihime-sama BUG PANIC, Cave's first iOS game, couldn't meet these standards, failing to be technically impressive, or fun. The controls are dodgy, often missing or dropping movement inputs. The game is boring and repetitive, and gives player very little incentive to continue. But there isn't anything technically broken with it, so it's not a bad game.

I had a good lol at that. I do love manic contradictory statements.

Ah! Damn that wasn't bad until the end! I should have revisited that statement. What I meant by "broken" was in terms of "it doesn't crash, music doesn't cut out, it's playable..." but I don't think that is what's conveyed...And I shouldn’t have put that “it’s not a bad game” line in as-is...

I appreciate your work…but if you're going to be critical remember to stick to your guns. Wishy Washiness is just plain frustrating, and in this case, sounds totally stupid.

This just makes me want to fix that fucking sentence even harder haha. Thanks for your feedback, I'll try to refrain from being wishy-washy in future works.

[Skykid]

I appreciate your work…but if you're going to be critical remember to stick to your guns. Wishy Washiness is just plain frustrating, and in this case, sounds totally stupid.

This just makes me want to fix that fucking sentence even harder haha. Thanks for your feedback, I'll try to refrain from being wishy-washy in future works.

For what it's worth, I agree with your appraisal of it. Ergo, it's not a good game.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The sad part is that it's the controls that make it feel horrible. The gameplay itself is actually pretty fun when you understand what's going on but it's buried under those iffy controls (the non-stop score attack modes are pretty addictive); if it got a console or PC release playable as a twinstick (move + slowmove button, aim + throw button) it'd be a million times better. Playing with the iOS controls feels really slippery. I don't remember what movement setting I used, but the default one sucks, there's an alternate one in there that's a bit better (it centers the stick anywhere you touch your left thumb, so you can lift and tap to recenter, more controlled movement that way). It's just not as fun as it ought to be because it's on a touchscreen.

[AntiFritz]

I just noticed that the ibara/ps article had been uploaded. I haven't read the ibara part because I have no knowledge of the game but just read the pink sweets page and found a few inaccuracies.

You say at least twice in the article that the game is impossible to 1cc without infinite lives/multiply mode. This is false, there are a number of people that have beaten the game in japan using low rank play. For example as displayed in this video http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6764710

You also mention that the rank is reset when you die, afaik it does not. The reason people suicide is because the rank increases at a lower rate with less lives in stock.


Someone else more knowledgeable about the game can probably elaborate on this or correct me if I'm wrong. Just letting you know in case no one else noticed.

[Masamune_Shadow]

I just noticed that the ibara/ps article had been uploaded. I haven't read the ibara part because I have no knowledge of the game but just read the pink sweets page and found a few inaccuracies.

You say at least twice in the article that the game is impossible to 1cc without infinite lives/multiply mode. This is false, there are a number of people that have beaten the game in japan using low rank play. For example as displayed in this video http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6764710

You also mention that the rank is reset when you die, afaik it does not. The reason people suicide is because the rank increases at a lower rate with less lives in stock.


Someone else more knowledgeable about the game can probably elaborate on this or correct me if I'm wrong. Just letting you know in case no one else noticed.

I wasn't aware of that, I'll try to get it updated.
Can you tell me where exactly i said that rank is reset in Pink Sweets? It's faster than having me scour the damn thing trying to find it. You are correct that it is not, and I don't recall saying that death resets the rank (in that game), because again, it doesn't. Although I'm unsure if that is the case in all modes (1.01/ arrange), DDP's got my focus now, so some of the intricacies escape me atm.

And I was going to make a post about it when it was "publicly" featured (shows up in the articles section).

[AntiFritz]

There is no way to lower Rank in Pink Sweets. Rank can be reset by dying, but due to the complete lack of score-based extends, that is not a viable option.

This part, under the "The Beast Called Rank 2: Rank Hardest" heading.

I wasn't aware it wasn't publicly featured. I noticed a post on my facebook wall from french shmup.com page linking it.

[Masamune_Shadow]

Yeah, the site's a little weird in that things will be "up" and "posted" but not "live", so that things like this can be found and fixed. Sadly, most of them don't know too much about Cave games (hence the writing for them), so stuff can slip through pretty easily. Thanks for the heads-up though, as all I want is the best-quality article for it.

Edit:
Oh man, did I really name it something so silly? I just hope people get the Die-Hard II: Die Harder reference

Edit 2:
Oh god that was terrible, I can't believe I didn't catch that. Thanks again!

[CStarFlare]

The Ibara page is much more concise than the Pink Sweets page. The Special Version paragraph is a good example - it's a mildly long sentence in Ibara, an eight line paragraph in Pink Sweets.

The explanation of bullet/enemy types is awkward. There is an overabundance of the word "type" in this paragraph. Just boil it down: your shield blocks some bullets, your shot destroys some, the Rose Cracker destroys all. Flying enemies drop items in a pattern, ground enemies drop roses that give points.

This is nitpicky, but the note about there being seven stages felt thrown in at the end of the scoring section. It probably belongs with the gameplay overview.

I wonder if version comments - the 3 life score attack mode, different extend rates, no shot types, different rank behavior? - would be better described in their own little paragraph rather than confusing the gameplay section. Pink Sweets' revision history is interesting, but for clarity it'd probably be easier to pick a standard version of the game to cover, then give the exceptions their turn in the spotlight.

Other thoughts...

The second loop is also accessible in the standard arcade mode by no missing (no deaths) the first loop.

I have never heard this claim and am not sure how you'd even verify it. Even if it is true, this probably doesn't bear mentioning - it's literally impossible for this to be relevant to anyone who's not looking for Pink Sweets trivia. It's a strange contrast to the claims of the game being literally impossible to 1cc (much less no miss).

Are there versions of Pink Sweets where dying resets the rank? That seems oddly generous... at least in the port, I know that dying reduces rank slightly, but doesn't reset it by any means. I've read that letting an extend item drop will reduce rank as well, though I don't know if that's actually confirmed. I guess I could test it.

I feel like the impact of the rose cracker on rank is overstated as well. At least in the port, you can see the rank meter increase, but it's not "do this once and rank will fuck you up" territory like the article implies. I was disappointed not to see any mention of Recca as the prototype for the Rose Cracker.

It's worth noting that your Rose Hips block any bullet that your Rose Cracker can, which can be great for defense.

Doing so with the Rose Cracker will not only increase the multiplier, which caps out at x64, but also create Rose point medals worth 1,000 points (the Hado-cannon can create 2,000 or even 3,000 point medals). The medals generated by the Rose Cracker or Hado-cannon are affected by the multiplier, making them the most lucrative way to score points in this mode. Although this mode is centered around the use of the Rose Cracker, it does take a tiny bit longer to charge up than in the Arcade mode.

Scoring in Pink Sweets Arrange mode is quite different than its original arcade version. Players no longer gain points by just attacking enemies and bosses, instead only receiving points when something is destroyed. The key to scoring in Arrange mode is the multiplier in the top left corner of the screen, under the Hado-cannon counter. The multiplier will increase (x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, x32, with the highest being x64) when the player destroys an enemy, or enemy bullets with the Rose Cracker. Destroying them with the shot will not increase the multiplier, but still add 500 points times the current multiplier to the player’s score.

I'm 100% sure that the multiplier does not apply to medals collected in Arrange mode (I'm trying to imagine my score if you could milk 2,000/3,000 medals from bosses with the multiplier active... each hadou would pay for itself with points!). They DO apply to roses that ground enemies drop (only dropped by certain enemies, and only if killed with the rose cracker) and anything destructible. The multiplier increases when you destroy an enemy or missile with the rose cracker/hadou (destructible bullets, like the ones the stage 1 midboss shoots, do not increase the multiplier). The points that are given differs by enemy/bullet - the bullets that don't increase the multiplier give 10 points (x multiplier), and some enemies are worth up to 10k. Bosses are 100k, I think. The multiplier timer is paused by dying or using the Rose Cracker, and resets and slowly decreases when you ready a hadou.

[Masamune_Shadow]

*snipped*

First, thanks for reading the article, and second, thanks for giving me feedback, it really helps, now...

A few of the issues (such as the dying resets rank, and impossible to 1cc) have been altered or removed, although I'm not sure if it's been updated on the site.

About the bullet paragrah: no i must be technical *stares stoically into the distance, clutching my precious types to my chest*

I wrote the article with the assumption that players might run into Pink Sweets "in the wild", and if so, that they don't freak out if a mode doesn't work exactly how I explained it. "The Standard" version of the game is the 3rd revision, which contains the birds, multiply mode, and infinite life score attack. Additionally in the link section of the Arcade PS article, I have a link that properly tells them what's special about each revision.

I confirmed that the 2nd loop is NOT accessible to no missing the first loop, Tested in MAME with invincibility cheat, with the third revision. The line stating this has been removed (don't remember where I saw it though)

Going back over the article, I agree that the statements about the Rose Cracker were a little overstated, but it's still not a great idea due to it increasing the rank. I have toned it down so that it flows better with the rest of the article.

Oh! You're right, Reccas/PS bomb systems are the same. I never made that connection. I wasn't sure if I could find a spot for that, but I did. Thanks for pointing that out.

I clarifed the arrange mode multiplier confusion, it should be correct now.

[Vetus]

please do not write for hg101. it is a horrible site owned and operated by people who refuse to do even the most basic research. the place and many of its writers are pretty much ign quality, except they're supposed to be "hardcore" and write about games people still don't care about, so they get read i guess. any attempts to "help" them will be in vain, as any amount of good will only reinforce the awful. the whole place, good info and all, just needs to be wiped off of every single computer, full stop.

they really are casualgaming101, all other meanings of "casual" be damned here.

More like SocialJusticeGaming101.

[KAI]

Super Nova: She...

Nova is a dude.

[KennyMan666]

The character descriptions in the Ibara article are worded pretty oddly. While it's not technically wrong that the Rose sisters are Teresa's guardians, you just say "Referred to as “Mother" by her 5 guardians"... which they do since they are her daughters, something you seem to be going out of your way to avoid mentioning.

[Terramax]

The article was a good read.

And I still appear to be the only one who enjoys the PS2 port more than the 360, if only because the arrange mode is better for my noob arse. Dirty ol' me. Oh, and I also enjoyed 'Bug Panic!'...

[S_Fang]

the main shmup entries in the series are some of the best bullet hell games out there, with a difficulty and learning curves that don't instantly destroy the player (Ultra modes withstanding). With a region-free port of Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 on the Xbox 360, and the very well done Bug Princess ports on iOS, the Mushihime-sama series may be Cave's most accessible shmups for Western audiences.

If you are able to find some remaining copies in an import shop online, a well you had an X360(NTSC-J) and/or iOS device to play with them, otherwise you have to play half-assed versions on MAME or its spin-offs on Android (Bug Panic and Duel), which isn't a great way to start.

Regarding the bleak future, they release the F2P game "Bug Princess Duel" the previous year (4 months ago), which isn't that great. But, with a little more of meditation, making an online game about a CAVE's shooter and choosing Mushihimesama (with the name Bug Princess) among the others surely means that isa really good product to export in the west.
If CAVE is able to play those cards right, perhaps the rest of the series could be ported on Android, if not for PC being much easier to find a shmup's niche there than on Consoles in full generational shift. Because no one coerce CAVE to not porting its games, in addition to make new ones (only with the help of 3rd party developers, though).

Also, I got the hussle to add a request for a PC port on GOG's wishlist, in case someone want to be helpful with CAVE:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mushi ... g_princess
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/mushi ... princess_2

Beside, nice job with the article.

[Yukemi-ZWY]

If you are able to find some remaining copies in an import shop online, a well you had an X360(NTSC-J) and/or iOS device to play with them, otherwise you have to play half-assed versions on MAME or its spin-offs on Android (Bug Panic and Duel), which isn't a great way to start.

Don't know what you're talking about, I don't see any issues with them using most MAME versions. Its a far better introduction to STGs than iOS games at least...

[S_Fang]

If you are able to find some remaining copies in an import shop online, a well you had an X360(NTSC-J) and/or iOS device to play with them, otherwise you have to play half-assed versions on MAME or its spin-offs on Android (Bug Panic and Duel), which isn't a great way to start.

Don't know what you're talking about, I don't see any issues with them using most MAME versions. Its a far better introduction to STGs than iOS games at least...

I'm just being picky about emulation, as I am not a fan of graphical glitches and stuff like that, especially if they make the game hard to play. Too bad those games for iOS have more modes available (excluding the one you have to pay) and english language (not that is a problem, as the game hasn't a big number of text).
Again, just being a picky prick about it.

P.S. They emulate both fine, but the stuttering audioclips are really annoying and I really hope the reason behind is my slow computer.

EDIT: when I used save/load state, the game became awful and unplayable, which is a shame if you want to practice on level and bosses in all the modes available (especially the damn ULTRA).