Espgaluda II

[adversity1]

Amazing game. While I have enjoyed Death Smiles a bit more, this one is just crazy.
Best mode IMO is Black Label by far. I think I love Yagawa (if BL is his mode).

Nope, you love Ikeda.

[Special World]

I dunno what everyone's boner is for Deathsmiles :\

I was really looking forward to it because I love horror movies and stuff and it looked cool, but the scoring seems rather weak to me and the general gameplay doesn't feel as solid as Futari or ESP2 or hell a lot of other Cave games I've played. Maybe I just didn't give it enough of a chance, I dunno.

Or maybe I do know what everyone's boner is for it, I just don't want to believe it!

[-Bridget-]

Exactly how do you unlock Omake mode? Do you have to just clear one of the modes to do that or something? Hopefully not 360/arcade though, aaagh, I still cant stand those.

Totally love Black Label, and I understand most of it at this point. I can get my first extend in stage 1, though I get a little lost during the first part of stage 2 (havent come up with something for that part yet). That's the only spot I get a little stuck on though, currently, as scoring goes. Definitely harder than I'd thought it was gonna be; with so much bullet-cancelling, my original thoughts were that this mode might be a bit lower on difficulty, but fortunately this is definitely not the case.

Though, I might do a little better if I'd stop crashing into stupid things while trying to chain stuff.

I do have 2 questions though:

What exactly produces those thin bullets with the green auras? Is that part of Zesshikai Over? I admit I'm not too familiar with the uses of that particular mode yet.

And also, sitting still in Kakusei/Zesshikai brings out these.... lines.... that appear between you and enemies. What, if anything, do those do?

[BulletMagnet]

Exactly how do you unlock Omake mode?

Clear any mode, even Novice will do it.

[dmauro]

What exactly produces those thin bullets with the green auras? Is that part of Zesshikai Over? I admit I'm not too familiar with the uses of that particular mode yet.

And also, sitting still in Kakusei/Zesshikai brings out these.... lines.... that appear between you and enemies. What, if anything, do those do?

Blue bullets are suicide bullets from zetsushikai over and they cancel into gems in normal mode, it's a great way to start out the level since you should be starting with 0 gems.

The lines are just a cool effect which show the trajectory of any bullets being fired I think.

[Special World]

Yeah I have a shit time of the beginning of level 2 as well. It seems like my chain bar just won't stay going.

I guess it's just that I can't get it high enough to slow down? I dunno, but that area seems like a lost cause to me.

[Momijitsuki]

What does the chain bar do, and how does it work? I have yet to figure this out.

[CptRansom]

I have yet to figure this out.

This, but for the whole game. I can't remember the last time anything made me feel so stupid. I've read the ST thread about five times, but it's just not clicking at all. I'm starting to regret my purchase. =( Oh well, just need to keep plugging away...

[Special World]

It's not *that* complicated. The strategy thread is just a whole lot of info dumped at once.

The chaining bar in BL is for getting score multipliers. You increase it by killing enemies and bullet cancelling. I think it goes down slower if you're lasering and/or you got it really high. You multiplier keeps going as long as you dont let the bar run out.

[Gwyrgyn Blood]

Yeah I have a shit time of the beginning of level 2 as well. It seems like my chain bar just won't stay going.

I guess it's just that I can't get it high enough to slow down? I dunno, but that area seems like a lost cause to me.

My strategy is to stock up gems on the popcorn and the first big air craft guy. Then use Kakusei to pop all 3 turrets on the large boat, that gets you a high chain in a hurry. Then you finish off the boat, activate Kakusei, WAIT for the boat to finish exploding, then pop a single enemy and switch back to normal. That's the only real hard part to keep your chain going, after that there are enough mini boats around that it's hard to drop your chain at all. Haven't messed with comboing into the midboss but it's probably not that hard.

[Special World]

I figured it was probably something like that. The chain drops sooooooooo fast to the point where I call shenanigans. I need to figure out the system a little bit more to understand WHY it works like you just said but I'll get to that in due time.

[shmup-o]

I've only been playing Arcade on a non-tated 24" TV, so I *think* I'm getting it down, it's just hard trying to replicate some of the things you see in the video. I'm hoping things are easier when my scart cable gets in and I'm playing on the cab.

[NR777]

This game just rapes the shit out of me. Getting even remotely good at this is going to take some serious work.

[moozooh]

And also, sitting still in Kakusei/Zesshikai brings out these.... lines.... that appear between you and enemies. What, if anything, do those do?

If logic still serves me right, the lines show the shortest path to points of bullet generation (in other words, the spots you need to go with invincibility on to split hundreds of bullets).

[Skykid]

Bar the possibility of a noob mode, the main game is going to punish the fuck out of a lot of people here - far more than Futari.

...

This game just rapes the shit out of me. Getting even remotely good at this is going to take some serious work.

This, but for the whole game. I can't remember the last time anything made me feel so stupid. I've read the ST thread about five times, but it's just not clicking at all. I'm starting to regret my purchase. =( Oh well, just need to keep plugging away...

Told ya so.

[NR777]

Told ya so.

I've 1cc'd ESP Ra.De and come very close to clearing Futari BL Original and DDP (1st loop) but this game is just sadistic. Finally starting to get the hang of the scoring system, though.

[Trevor spencer]

I've 1cc'd ESP Ra.De .

That reminds me ill have to play this again , its buried under my bed somewhere

[professor ganson]

I can't be bothered to read up on this game, so I'm going to just dork around with Arrange. The main game is just brutal and strange.

[Special World]

I can't convince myself to care about arrange at all :\

[professor ganson]

I can't convince myself to care about arrange at all :\

I've never cared for Cave's arrange modes, but I do find this one appealing so far. Mainly because it has a pick-up-and-play character otherwise missing in this package.

[msm]

been hitting my head against a brick wall with the scoring in this for ages at ~60 million, but watched some videoes from the leaderboards and picked up some scoring tips for levels 3/4 and broke 100 million, still barely get any points on levels 1/2 though. didn't realise the high score table was split here or i'd have written down the score!

[Skykid]

Told ya so.

I've 1cc'd ESP Ra.De and come very close to clearing Futari BL Original and DDP (1st loop) but this game is just sadistic. Finally starting to get the hang of the scoring system, though.

I could be wrong, but I get the impression some of you chaps are unfamiliar with Espgaluda? I know Zesshikai is a bit of a mix up at first, but if you've got a basic understanding of the original Galuda it's not too hard to get your head around.

The farthest I got on a G2 credit was shin seseri (stg 5 boss?) but I've taken a gander at the last boss and it's just sick. I did think that the region free pleasures of Futari would lead people to feel a little frustrated with Esp2.

If it means anything don't be too down if you're struggling, it's definitely in Cave's tough category.

(Well done on the ESPrade 1cc though, I really need to dig that board back out and get that clear. )

[GaijinPunch]

I've never cared for Cave's arrange modes, but I do find this one appealing so far. Mainly because it has a pick-up-and-play character otherwise missing in this package.

ESPGaluda Arrange Mode is better than a lot of Cave's regular modes. Best arrange mode ever.

[chempop]

ESPGaluda Arrange Mode is better than a lot of Cave's regular modes. Best arrange mode ever.

So true, I'm shocked that the PS2 port isn't worth a good deal more than it tends to go for because of that. I think that if people had enough skill to play it the value would raise the Ibara/Mushi prices.

Galuda 2 Arrange is very accessible and tons of fun, but I strongly believe that it should have giving you one life to start, that way you'd have to earn the extends and boss suiciding would be much less common... just a thought. It got a little stale for me once I manually increased the rank to 8*8 but I'll be returning to it soon. I think it's cheesy as all hell that people can just into which ever rank they want by downloading a replay (i guess it is there for the same dingbats who just watch super-plays and copy other people's routines.... <damn I'm asking for it huh?>....)

As far as arcade/360 mode I'm a bit surprised that people here have got their shoelaces all tangled up over it. I have to agree with Skykid that it's as if no one played the first Galuda because it really isn't that different at all. Sure it spanks me to, but that's why I'm playing on easy with 5 lives (I can reach level 6 boss). As soon as I 1CC that mode I'll start playing with 3 lives, then on normal with 5 lives, then normal with 3 lives etc, etc. I like to gradually work my way to a reasonable goal.

Black Label I won't comment on because I only tried it a few times and haven't touched it in 2 weeks. I'm saving all Black Labels available on 360 for next year because I predict a long shmup drought.

[Special World]

When I think of ESP2 arrange I just assume there's a bunch of boss milking and having to 1CC it a ton of times to even get anywhere.

And that sounds garbage to me. Their arranges have never gripped me, though I do hear tons of good stuff about ESP1 arrange. Never really had a chance to give it a good play.

[chempop]

Oh dude, you need to play ESPG1 Arrange. I can only reach stage 4 but it is probably my favorite Cave offering.

What's nice about ESPG2 Arrange is that at the end of a long night when my eyes have bled out, I can still kick ass and feel like a god.

[sjoecool1991]

ESPGaluda 2 arrange is tons of fun, but Black Label mode just makes the game worth the purchase to me, most fun I have had in a while.

ESPGaluda 1 has my favorite arrange mode ever, with Ibara's tailing just barely behind.

[GaijinPunch]

So true, I'm shocked that the PS2 port isn't worth a good deal more than it tends to go for because of that.

It has never gone out of print, is why... or if it has, it's been very recent.

Nope, you love Ikeda.

Homo

[dmauro]

As far as arcade/360 mode I'm a bit surprised that people here have got their shoelaces all tangled up over it.

It's because in ESPG2, when you try to score lots of points you're spawning bullets instead of canceling them. BIG difference for the difficulty.

[Skykid]

(i guess it is there for the same dingbats who just watch super-plays and copy other people's routines.... <damn I'm asking for it huh?>....)

Kind of, yeah!

Watching superplays is pretty integral to learning how to properly play, score and learn some neat tricks. Serious players always take a look at replays to progress afaik.