Strikers 1945 III / Strikers 1999

[RNGmaster]

Necronopticous - I think I'll take a break before trying to push the score up, haha. Any bomb removed from that run in itself would add a lot of risk, and that was already by far my most consistent run in this game. As for the 2-8 boss, I found a fairly reliable strategy for killing it with two bombs (based on the idea that since you get 2 bombs in the stage, the game would be clearable even entering the stage with no resources) you might find useful.

First form: Use a bomb immediately through the opener (you can remove the bomb if you're confident about this, but I often screw it up), then dodge the rest normally using a few lasers, and ideally this will kill it just before it uses the opener again, near the left edge of the screen.

Second form: Dodge the initial fast spray while using any laser you have left, then immediately go to the top corner above the familiars while shooting at Chaos Queen. Use your second bomb as it starts up the spray again (I find it very hard to dodge the spray going into it sideways rather than from the bottom; if you're confident you could forego the bomb and dodge this). After this, go above the familiars again and unload whatever laser you have at the boss; ideally this will kill it off just before it uses the spray a third time, but late enough that the familiars won't be a problem as the boss enters its final form. Once you're there, you're basically home free. I think the bombs are during the toughest parts of the fight, but if you're more confident about those attacks you could certainly modify the strategy a bit to do it bombless. Good luck!

Isn't there a safespot for the opener?

[Sapz]

The NMNB replay on Youtube pulls a really neat trick for the second round of the opener, but it seems incredibly difficult to get the positioning that exact plus I'm not sure if it'd work the first time around due to the boss being in a different place. I never messed with it myself.

[tinotormed]

This run, I used every single bomb I had, and it got me to 2-8 before missing. The most intense run in a shmup I've ever had, holy shit. This is the best game. The only mistake that I made in this run compared to practice was on the 2-8 boss, since I had no bombs left and wasn't quite in my right mind by that point.

I recorded a .avi of this run, so it'll be up on YouTube later today, hopefully. Now excuse me while I go and have a heart attack. Thanks a lot to Necronopticous for the constant encouragement, and Azinth for the excellent competition.

Commander, we have finally made ourselves a best pilot in the world!

Congratulations on finally beating that Chaos Queen. She's the most insane last boss to beat.

[azinth]

Congrats Sapz. A 1-miss Psikyo 2-All is awesome. I'll try my best to get the clear soon as well.

Isn't there a safespot for the opener?

Pretty sure he's talking about the boss's real first form, i.e. the red bee.

The tricky thing about that opener seems to be this one bullet in the pattern that's close to the middle stream. If you start tapping too soon, there's a good chance that bullet will hit you. If you wait till just the last split second to start tapping, like right as the stream is about to hit you, the attack is a lot more manageable. Still tricky though.

[Sapz]

Yeah, that's the form I was talking about. I started to get a little more consistent at it, but since it was what ended my 2-8 run on the previous attempt I figured it wasn't worth risking the run for. Again, thanks for the congrats, and I'm sure you can get the 2-all soon too at the pace you're working through the game.

[RNGmaster]

We're all so proud of you, Sapz. *manlytears*

I can't believe you only got this after 3 months. That's... impressive. I've been focusing on DB for 1 month, and the 1-ALL still eludes me. You're a legend.

[Necronopticous]

3 months. That's... impressive.

No joke. It took me close to a year of playing a run nearly every day to seal the 2-ALL on this beast. You've certainly got a rare knack for these shootin' games.

[Sapz]

Thanks, but bear in mind that I was playing a couple of runs a day and had savestate practice handy, which is no small advantage for a game like this. Also looking through the old thread, I notice you were going through the loop at quite a pace too until around 2-7, which of course is the most helpful point for something like savestates. Your clear was pretty much the inspiration for me thinking that this game was realistically beatable, and I think you could definitely top my score if you started using them; you're certainly doing a lot better on the medalling front, and I still didn't get the Ground Skater tech down properly.

At any rate, here's the run!

[ebarrett]

obligatory

[Necronopticous]

Just watched the run here at work. Your play style is definitely a lot more cautious than mine. Given the crazy end-game bonus, I could probably up my score a lot by following suit. A lot of the strategies I have for dealing with certain things are geared around being more interesting to do, or milking out just a few extra points here and there simply because they make the runs less monotonous--especially in the first loop. My strategy for loop 2 ground skater is kind of insane. It's sort of a wonder that it ever works out, but it's so much fun to do that it's worth it to me.

Anyway, awesome stuff man. I hope you don't stop playing, because I can see so much potential for improvement in your run, even without a ton of extra risk. I seriously think you can break 3M with some analysis, adjustment, and practice. I took a break that I never really came back from after getting the 2-ALL, but I wish I hadn't since I've lost a lot of the muscle memory I had when I was at my peak. Watching your progress really makes me want to get serious again, but I think that will depend a lot on how Shmupmame rubs me when I try it out.

[Sapz]

Yeah, it was definitely survival play once I reached the loop in that run. I've had other runs where I take far riskier approaches to a lot of situations, and while it looks better and doesn't waste bombs it's ended badly for me most of the time, haha. I agree that there's definitely room for improvement here in both loops, and I guess one of the main things is just to keep playing and build up more accuracy with medalling and consistency with the more difficult techniques (including working that Ground Skater loop tech into the run). I need to at the least take the intensity of practice down for a while, or I'll burn out for sure. Being able to ALL with some measure of consistency would be really nice, though.

Thanks again for the encouragement, hope Shmupmame works out well.

[Kishi]

Congratulations: Have a Chaos Queen.

[Sapz]

Congratulations: Have a Chaos Queen.

Whoa, cool!

So, err... what's this 'double tech bonus' thing all about? From what I've gathered it's a tech with strict timing which allows you to 'kill' a boss twice, but I haven't really got any specifics other than that it's apparently possible on Geobite and presumably not on Cross Blade.

[Plasmo]

Here's a replay of a more or less perfect first loop: http://super-play.co.uk/index.php?superplay=291

You can get Double Tech Bonus on 1-5, 1-6 and 1-7 boss (and then the loop of course).

BTW congrats to that awesome score and thanks a lot for the replay. IMO this is your best achievement in your shmupping career up to now. Very impressive feat!

[Sapz]

Wow, that's a really awesome first loop. The 1-6 and 1-7 techs don't look too bad, but the 1-5 one looks very nasty. I guess it's a pretty significant trick, given he clears the first loop with over 1.3m. I'll mess around a little with these at some point and see if I can get anywhere with them.

Thanks for the congrats, too.

[Necronopticous]

So, err... what's this 'double tech bonus' thing all about? From what I've gathered it's a tech with strict timing which allows you to 'kill' a boss twice, but I haven't really got any specifics other than that it's apparently possible on Geobite and presumably not on Cross Blade.

The double techs are more trouble than they're worth unless you've managed to milk out the rest of the possible points in your run already. They require precision down to a single frame and many times cost you even the single tech bonus if you don't nail it perfectly. I pursued the double techs for a little while and later found it to be sort of a fool's errand that wasted a lot of the time I could have spent practicing getting a better score from more "normal" means. Shadow Blinder is certainly the easiest, though. If you go for only one, that's the one to go for.

[azinth]

Azinth - 2,106,400 - 2-8 - X-36

Heartbreaking run. Well, I got a lot farther than I expected. I no-missed all the way to 2-5 where I got pointblanked by a popcorn, then started falling apart, with my last extra life lost on Cross Blade. Then I somehow got all the way to, you guessed it, Chaos Queen's opener. I only had one bomb left which I knew I needed for the second form, so I was all like 'fuck it, let's give it a shot.' Then I died.

I WILL 1cc this fucking game goddammit

[Sapz]

Azinth: GJ on breaking 2m, and keep going, man, I was in the exact same situation two days ago. You'll get the ALL soon for sure.

Necronopticous: Fair enough - I'm sure there are more lucrative, less insane improvements to be made for the time being. I also messed around with the idea of trying to make progress with other shot types for a bit:

SPZ - 1,238,700 - 2-2 - F/A-18

The best ones seemed to be either the Super Hornet or the Raptor, probably leaning towards the Raptor. The Harrier seemed great for a while until I learned you could die after hitting the bomb button, and the other two just seemed pretty awkward all around. Anyone else have thoughts on these? It's amazing how much the game changes when you can't use 'apply laser here' as an all-purpose solution, haha.

[Battletoad]

Yeah the ship selection is weird in this game. In some Psikyo games like Gunbird 2 I can hardly decide on one character because they're all awesome, but I could never really get into 1999's ships besides Harrier (and Raptor maybe). Maybe it's just the fact that X-36 is on of my top 3 shmup ships ever, so the others are destined to feel a little bit underpowered and like a letdown. I also don't like that most ships have spreadshots.

Stealth still seemed like a nice option, but point blanking in Psikyo games leeds to raging frustration sooner or later.
Additionally, these grenade whatever things are so slow that you must not shoot at the wrong time or you'll not be able to properly point blank the next enemies. I think more intuitive point blanking (Hayate was great for this) would have been cool.

[RealBout c.f.]

Wow, the amount of skill shown here is incredible. Congrats!
I will be back with a score that....puts me back into the top 10.

Has anyone of you ever seen this?
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8826/strikers.jpg

Usually, there are no instructions at the bottom, and the possibility of playing with infinite bombs or invincibility was new to me. However, I have no idea how I accessed it, it simply was the well-known maintenance code.

Concerning the other planes: one of the biggest advantages of the X-36 is the super shot which can be used to immediately apply power where necessary, furthermore you can stop holding the button as soon as the enemy is destroyed. Nearly all other ships have delayed super shots which makes them much harder to use, and this also inevitably leads to waste of super meter because you never really know when the enemy will be destroyed.
Personally, I like the selection of ships in this game, but I often feel like it has been somehow build around the X-36, for example the popcorn appearing during boss battles is much harder to cope with if you are not playing the X.

Of course, all ships have their pros and cons, but I still don't see any sense in the Super Hornet. The homing missiles are very strong when you hover over a big enemy, but other than that I don't see any particular strength.

To balance the ship selection of this game I would suggest the following:
-the bombs should be stronger to even out lacking power and to give the player room the breathe every now and then
-a super shot system that reduces waste of meter. I think the way the highly underrated Strikers 1945 Plus handles it could work as there would be ways to balance the lenght of the gauge and the number of shots that could be stocked. Just imagine a Phantom II that could use multiple super shots at once!

[azinth]

DONE.



Azinth - 2,329,300 - ALL - X-36

INP (Shmupmame 3.0b)

That was fucking awesome. Score isn't as impressive as Sapz, since I ended without any extra lives. Deaths on the very beginning of 2-1 America(lol), 2-4 Ground Skater, and Shadow Blinder. I think I wasted like 16 bombs this run. But deaths aside, I'm very, very happy with my performance overall, especially on the bosses. Cool stuff included a NMNB first loop(first time!), NMNB 2-6, and one-bomb Chaos Queen fight. Thanks Sapz for convincing me to get back into this game. If not for you I'd probably still be stuck in 1-8.

[Battletoad]

Congrats, gonna watch the replay immediately.
Now do that to Gunbird 2!

[Necronopticous]

Very impressive, man. Congrats!

[Sapz]

Awesome! Really great job. Sounds like the 2-6 and 2-8 bosses went really well, I'll watch the .inp the next time shmupmame 3.0 decides to co-operate on this computer.

[jammiejay85]

Can't seem to pass 1-4 on these Strikers games yet.



jammiejay85 - 343,000 - 1-4 - F-22 Raptor

[RNGmaster]

Psst - use X-36.

[jammiejay85]

Thanks makes a hell of a difference with that ship i still need to practice before i post another score though.

[azinth]

Hey look an improvement.



Azinth - 2,421,600 - ALL - X-36

I had a Shmupmame 2.2 replay but it desynched TT_______TT

[Necronopticous]

Awesome.

Where do you tend to lose your lives? I have actually no-missed to 2-7 multiple times but I am so unpracticed at the very last couple of stages it didn't even matter. If you could squeeze by with an extra life or two you could boost that score a hell of a lot. Never give up. Trust your instincts.

[azinth]

Thanks.

The Japan stage and 2-7 (both the stage and the boss) are probably the parts of the game that I'm the least confident with. Especially the latter; it's so damn random the whole way through and I've never been all that great at difficult bullet herding. I also tended to game-over a lot to the 2-5 and 2-6 bosses since they can be hard to recover from when you die, but I'm sort of starting to improve on them.

This run was kinda weird though since I managed to survive most of my trouble spots but died to a bunch of easy shit. My deaths were at Groundskater's easy wavy bullet pattern, the 2-5 stage portion and the 2-7 stage portion (stupid death, I wasn't even switching directions). One of these days I'll get a consistent run with a nice endbonus... hopefully.