Xbox 360: Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu 1.5 (November 2010)

[njiska]

According to Canadapost the package is in town so it should be there when i get home. Has anyone managed to figure out anything about Ver. L yet? Like scoring of any kind, or why it's called Ver. L?

[Taylor]

It's a boss rush, the L stands for "loli rush"

(I haven't got this game yet)

[GaijinPunch]

According to Canadapost the package is in town so it should be there when i get home. Has anyone managed to figure out anything about Ver. L yet? Like scoring of any kind, or why it's called Ver. L?

L for loser?

Basic idea.
-It's forced Power Mode.
-Jack up counter by going hyper mode + normal.
-Delete bullets in hyper + boost (turns them into stars, which gives yo ass points).
-Big points awarded for getting bees in their "flipping" state... up to 50,000 applied before the multiplier.

I'm missing something on the bosses (or they don't offer a lot of points). I can get 14 gazillion or so on the first stage, but like only 1 on the boss. Only like 5-6 on subsequent bosses.

[apatia77]

My copy is still nowhere to be seen and vidoegameimports phone line seems to be dead and no response to my emails. Why me! This was my most wanted game of the year.

Great to see though that so many of you are enjoying the game.

[DragonInstall]

I don't understand how some of you say this game is easy. Going through 1 loop and 2nd loop seems impossible to me. Let alone getting the Ura loop... this is harder than Mushihime-Futari to me. Collecting those bees is annoying too.. takes me out of my comfort zone trying to grab them.

I guess thats how newb I am, but damn I find it amazing people can 1 cc all that. I just give up once I reach 2nd loop cause I just die every few seconds lol. Dont even get me started on how fucking crazy Hibachi is...

[Skykid]

I don't understand how some of you say this game is easy. Going through 1 loop and 2nd loop seems impossible to me. Let alone getting the Ura loop... this is harder than Mushihime-Futari to me. Collecting those bees is annoying too.. takes me out of my comfort zone trying to grab them.

I guess thats how newb I am, but damn I find it amazing people can 1 cc all that. I just give up once I reach 2nd loop cause I just die every few seconds lol. Dont even get me started on how fucking crazy Hibachi is...

Are you playing regular 360 mode?

You get enough autobombs with strong style to constitute about 15+ lives to get the 1cc. Should be pretty straightforward w/regards to survival.

[Taylor]

When people call the game easy it's regarding the first loop on Bomb/Strong, bomb spamming through version 1.0 and safe-spotting Hibachi, or not really understanding why you can't mash hyper each time you collect one (especially in the loop). It's like people saying Deathsmiles was easy because you can pick Rosa/Sakura, use level 1 ranks and go straight to the castle. Don't worry about it.

Even the easier loop on Strong must be up there with Futari Maniac and the Ura loop 1LC requirement is pretty hardcore when you consider the more memorization heavy parts of the game like the stage 5 lasers.

You'll just collect the bee's without thinking about it later, their positions are quite easy to remember. Providing you open up the hidden bosses (and playing at home, you can just restart if you mess it up) you'll collect more bees and can thus leave some of the tricker ones (stage 5 lasers, again) when shooting for the easier loop.

[Schrodinger's cat]

I don't understand how some of you say this game is easy. Going through 1 loop and 2nd loop seems impossible to me. Let alone getting the Ura loop... this is harder than Mushihime-Futari to me. Collecting those bees is annoying too.. takes me out of my comfort zone trying to grab them.

I guess thats how newb I am, but damn I find it amazing people can 1 cc all that. I just give up once I reach 2nd loop cause I just die every few seconds lol. Dont even get me started on how fucking crazy Hibachi is...

This is definitely Cave's easiest shooter to get a 1 loop clear on because of all of the autobombing. I would rank the difficulty of the first loop as being somewhere around Futari Maniac and Ketsui, but slightly easier.

I think the design of the game is genius because it lets you have fun playing at whatever skill level you're at. New to shooting games? Here's a crap load of lives, go wild trying to get the 1cc. If you're a veteran, trying to full chain levels and getting through the Ura loop should keep you occupied for a long time. I haven't reached it yet but from what I've seen, the 2nd loop gets to Futari Ultra levels of craziness and more than makes up for the autobombs you get. The game is really accessible, and is as hardcore or casual as you want it to be.

I find the difficulty curve through the game to be really smooth as well. It gradually gets harder without any sudden spikes or drops in difficulty.

I'm loving the game a lot. I'm finding it more fun than Galuda 2 or Ketsui right now. The arrange modes and v1.51 are great too, although I have absolutely no idea what's going on in arrange B.

[DragonInstall]

Oh I guess I assumed wrong at what 1cc meant in this game. I always assumed you had to get 2 loops in there to be considered 1cc. The stage 5 boss never really felt like a last boss so it felt incomplete to finish there.

Yeah for 1 loop the game is pretty easy with shooter style. I still think cave's easiest shooter to 1cc is DeathSmiles, followed by BL mushi.

I'm having the most fun I ever had in any cave game Ive played yet. I think its cause the whole bomb, power, shooter style and the 3 ships to toy with. Plus having loops and all the game modes really make this feel like a complete package.

[moozooh]

I guess it will be eventually compared with original DDP in terms of difficulty: comparatively easy 1st loop that at least 50 people on the scoreboards will be able to beat, and a brutal 2nd loop with 1-2 people ever having beat the TLB not using Strong style.

[DragonInstall]

Im a bit curious as to whats the point of Bomb style? Does it excel in anything that strong doesnt cover? Power has fast hyper meter building and strong is basically auto bomb style with boost mode from power.

Its funny, but I do better with Power style than Bomb style. Bomb style feels like the weakest of the 3 styles.

[moozooh]

It is the weakest. It also has lower scoring potential compared to Strong, but theoretically it's still easier to learn chains with when you're not destroying everything in your way with a slight tap.

[evil_ash_xero]

Hate to say it, but i'm seriously underwhelmed by this game. It's alright, but compared to the every other single Cave game on the 360(excluding DSII) it's weak.

Hopefully BL will save it for me.

[-Bridget-]

I don't understand how some of you say this game is easy. Going through 1 loop and 2nd loop seems impossible to me. Let alone getting the Ura loop... this is harder than Mushihime-Futari to me. Collecting those bees is annoying too.. takes me out of my comfort zone trying to grab them.

I guess thats how newb I am, but damn I find it amazing people can 1 cc all that. I just give up once I reach 2nd loop cause I just die every few seconds lol. Dont even get me started on how fucking crazy Hibachi is...

This is definitely Cave's easiest shooter to get a 1 loop clear on because of all of the autobombing. I would rank the difficulty of the first loop as being somewhere around Futari Maniac and Ketsui, but slightly easier.

I think the design of the game is genius because it lets you have fun playing at whatever skill level you're at. New to shooting games? Here's a crap load of lives, go wild trying to get the 1cc. If you're a veteran, trying to full chain levels and getting through the Ura loop should keep you occupied for a long time. I haven't reached it yet but from what I've seen, the 2nd loop gets to Futari Ultra levels of craziness and more than makes up for the autobombs you get. The game is really accessible, and is as hardcore or casual as you want it to be.

I find the difficulty curve through the game to be really smooth as well. It gradually gets harder without any sudden spikes or drops in difficulty.

I'm loving the game a lot. I'm finding it more fun than Galuda 2 or Ketsui right now. The arrange modes and v1.51 are great too, although I have absolutely no idea what's going on in arrange B.

I totally agree on the difficulty thing. The game works perfect for players of pretty much any skill level, which isnt something that can be said for most shmups.

As for Arrange B, I've posted up a few videos of it earlier in the thread (and may post more later). The idea is that, for any given stage, the more times you play that particular stage, the more insane it gets. The counters on the right side of the screen seem to affect the rank (and I think it effects rank for blue and pink bullets seperately, but I could be wrong), the bees that you grab change the screen color, and the screen color not only determines which counters are going up, but it actually changes the patterns that are being fired at you. Red screen is a billion slow bullets, with a good amount of pink, blue is not many bullets but they're going at warp speed, and green is total insanity. You can cancel pink bullets with Hyper, turning them into grey chips that you can grab for points, but blue bullets cannot be cancelled by anything. The two meters in the top left are your bomb/hyper meters; as long as one of them is filled and flashing, you can use either a bomb or a hyper, your choice. Tap the button to bomb, hold it to use a Hyper. The meters are filled by killing things and striking large targets, but can be filled even faster by grabbing the gold star icons that grounded enemies leave behind.

If you die, you lose a percentage of your overall score, and the counters on the side drop (and thus the rank). And the overall rank affects how many points you get for doing anything, such as killing foes or grabbing chips. When you first play a level, for instance, and beat the boss, it's worth hardly anything. You might get like 60 points for it. But once you're getting into the really crazy crap, that same boss might be worth 150,000, for each form. So basically, the better you are, and the more crazy crap you can handle, the higher you can score, and the more insane the game gets. Arrange B is great for anyone that thinks the other modes arent hard enough, in terms of survival.


There, hope that explanation helps somewhat. There's still a couple of small aspects of this mode that I dont understand, but for the most part that pretty much covers it. Everyone seems to love the hell outta this mode, as do I. It's brilliant, once you figure it all out.

Hate to say it, but i'm seriously underwhelmed by this game. It's alright, but compared to the every other single Cave game on the 360(excluding DSII) it's weak.

Hopefully BL will save it for me.

Wow, really? Surprising. Though, even the best of Cave games (whatever they may be) arent gonna be for everyone. Alot of people seem to rave about DOJ, but I cant stand that game most of the time myself. And while alot seem to dislike DSII, I love the heck outta it.

What are you finding disappointing about it?

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm not hot on the presentation(designs). The music isn't to my liking. I find it to be too easy.

I dunno, it's just not hitting the mark for me.

The autobomb is junk too, but even other than that, this is leaving me cold.

[Taylor]

You should play on Power.

[evil_ash_xero]

I did actually. It was different, but it still didn't do a lot for me. I dunno, i'm so in love with Galuda II, Futari, DS MBL, and Ketsui, but this one just isn't doing much for me. I like the hyper thing, but it's too easy.

Like I said, maybe BL will appeal more to me. I still find the game to have some bland designs. And I don't even want to talk about loli-bots...but I knew that going in.

[-Bridget-]

I'm not hot on the presentation(designs). The music isn't to my liking. I find it to be too easy.

I dunno, it's just not hitting the mark for me.

The autobomb is junk too, but even other than that, this is leaving me cold.

Normally I'd agree with the "too easy" bit... generally if a game is too easy for me, I lose interest fast. Which is why I dont really play the original Death Smiles very much anymore. (and I dont like auto-bomb myself either)

As was said up above though, the difficulty is all over the place with this one. If you're playing 1.5 JUST for survival, then yeah, it's gonna be easy. But try to score well, try to get to the alternate loops.... you'll find the challenge keeps going up. And if you want a survival challenge, get Arrange B up to a high level, and it will give it to you in spades.

The design and music seem fine to me. Seems like Ketsui in that aspect, your basic tanks and.... more tanks, with some of Futari's colorfullness thrown in (and yeah, I know, loli-mechs, but to be fair, the bosses are the ONLY portion of the game that contains anything whatsoever like that. The rest of it is giant war machines). I like the soundtrack, myself (not so much the arrange tracks though).

Oh well.

I've always been pretty picky about Cave's games myself as well. Dont like DOJ, dont like Galuda 2's Arcade mode (ended up totally ignoring it and playing X mode instead). Dont much like Ketsui's scoring either, ended up with X mode for that one too.

I think DFK is great, but at the same time I can totally see where some arent gonna care for it overmuch.

[DragonInstall]

I thought the loli mechs were going to bother me from vids, but in the end I find them more interesting than fighting just your typical machine boss. All the transformation going on makes the boss seem less static and more alive also. Plus its kind of interesting to see the dolls used in the previous Dodonpachi as bosses this time around.

[Taylor]

What put me off the most was that it doesn't actually feel like a DoDonPachi game. It looks like a DoDonPachi game - loli-bots aside - with its iconic ships, hidden bosses, lasers, hypers and chaining system. But I think it actually plays more like a Mushihime-Sama 3, with lots of streaming, bullet cancelling enemies and a score system more orientated around a few key points rather than having to meticulously keep your chain alive like in the other mainstays. I think one of the main reasons I love DFK, outside of having spent a large sum of money on it, is like Mushi it’s really good at making you think you’re awesome even if you’re blatantly not.

A lot of the decisions in their recent titles, though strangely not Akai-Katana unless you count “suicide instantly for points”, are aimed at encompassing as many skill levels as possible and letting people themselves decide how hard the game should be. Auto-bomb and spamming hypers will give newbies an easy clear, whereas advanced players can shoot for score or the true final boss. The biggest mistakes to this ideal are auto-bomb being mandatory and it being a two-loop game.

Black Label fixes a lot of problems there but I think it’d be wrong to say it is only improvements. I personally did not get on with the new shot type at all, it’s insanely overpowered as it cancels bullets even without using a hyper and in hyper it removes the laser/shot juggling that made hypers fun. Sure it raises the arbitrary rank bar but it drops so fast it’s not hard to ease off the gas every now and then.

[moozooh]

The biggest mistakes to this ideal are auto-bomb being mandatory and it being a two-loop game.

That's why 1.51 was made: autobomb depletes the stock completely there, and it's single-loop.

[Taylor]

Ah, that sounds good. I've not played the home port yet so these opinions are entirely on the vanilla arcade. Do you get to select what loop you play? I'm hoping BL gets something like that.

[DragonInstall]

Ah, that sounds good. I've not played the home port yet so these opinions are entirely on the vanilla arcade. Do you get to select what loop you play? I'm hoping BL gets something like that.

seems like the second loop because you vs hibachi at the end regardless of collecting bees. Actually I think you fight Ura bosses all the time and the difficulty reminds me of the 2nd loop in general.

[moozooh]

It starts off normally but evolves into second loop patterns if you aggravate rank (read: score aggressively), not completely unlike Ketsui X.

[matrigs]

bridget: do you know what the options at the beginning of arrange b (laser, hyper, bomb) do ?

as for the autobombing thing: it is kind of a nice thing for less experienced players, but i think that the way it is now it doesn't really help. as an unexperienced player you can get through the first 4 stages very fast and then you suddenly are at those revolving lasers at stage 5 at which with your skill you have no right of being. it isn't much of hassle on the xbox as you i can just hit reset and start from scratch, but i remember playing it on the arcade feeling those stares of the guys waiting for their turn when they could clearly see i will not accomplish nothing in the game but still play as long as my bomb stock doesn't deplete.

[evil_ash_xero]

How do I go about downloading 1.51? I'm not seeing any options to do so.

[Shuurin]

Sign into your jp gamertag (I wasn't able to redeem it on my na gamertag). Click the xbox button, hit left twice, click redeem code, enter in the 5x5 code on the back of the dlc card, and hit enter. Should ask you where you what storage to save the dlc to then download.

[-Bridget-]

bridget: do you know what the options at the beginning of arrange b (laser, hyper, bomb) do ?

They change the power level of the indicated item. For example, turn LASER on and you'll have something more like a boosted laser. AKA, they make the selected weapon alot stronger. There doesnt appear to be any scoring penalties for this, but the game will have icons in the bottom right corner showing which, if any, are turned on; so anyone watching the replay can easily notice if they're being used. I've had them all off for all of my playthroughs with this mode.

How do I go about downloading 1.51? I'm not seeing any options to do so.

I've been wondering this myself; I pre-ordered the game, and got the card for it with the download code. But HOW am I to go about using this? CAN I even use it? I remember there was some screwball reason why I couldnt download BL for Deathsmiles either, back when that came out. I'd really like to grab this mode though, so any help is appreciated....

What put me off the most was that it doesn't actually feel like a DoDonPachi game. It looks like a DoDonPachi game - loli-bots aside - with its iconic ships, hidden bosses, lasers, hypers and chaining system. But I think it actually plays more like a Mushihime-Sama 3, with lots of streaming, bullet cancelling enemies and a score system more orientated around a few key points rather than having to meticulously keep your chain alive like in the other mainstays. I think one of the main reasons I love DFK, outside of having spent a large sum of money on it, is like Mushi it’s really good at making you think you’re awesome even if you’re blatantly not.

A lot of the decisions in their recent titles, though strangely not Akai-Katana unless you count “suicide instantly for points”, are aimed at encompassing as many skill levels as possible and letting people themselves decide how hard the game should be. Auto-bomb and spamming hypers will give newbies an easy clear, whereas advanced players can shoot for score or the true final boss. The biggest mistakes to this ideal are auto-bomb being mandatory and it being a two-loop game.

Black Label fixes a lot of problems there but I think it’d be wrong to say it is only improvements. I personally did not get on with the new shot type at all, it’s insanely overpowered as it cancels bullets even without using a hyper and in hyper it removes the laser/shot juggling that made hypers fun. Sure it raises the arbitrary rank bar but it drops so fast it’s not hard to ease off the gas every now and then.

I can agree with alot of this. I think that's some of the reason why I like DFK so much myself; it doesnt feel like the other DDP games. I dont play the first DDP much, and I really just dont like DOJ at all (mostly due to what I consider to be the worst scoring system ever devised).

And I think the whole wide-spread difficulty thing is great. It's good for a newer player to play one of these, and be able to feel like they're accomplishing something, instead of simply being obliterated in the first stage every time. But the excellent scoring, other loops, and other modes (for the home version) make it great for those of us looking for a real challenge. Though, I also agree that the auto-bomb thing, and the 2-loop thing, are a little.... well, really obnoxious. The first loop of the game is too easy for me (survival-wise). But regardless of my skill, I cant GET to the other loops unless I grab a bazillionty HIDDEN bees. For other players this might be easy, but my memory is TERRIBLE. I do things like make a cheese sandwich and forget the cheese. Or start to make the sandwich and then forget why i'm even in the kitchen. So yeah, remembering where all the bloody stupid bees are, JUST to get to the other loops, is gonna be this massive hassle.


EDIT:

Sign into your jp gamertag (I wasn't able to redeem it on my na gamertag). Click the xbox button, hit left twice, click redeem code, enter in the 5x5 code on the back of the dlc card, and hit enter. Should ask you where you what storage to save the dlc to then download.

Bloody hell. Really? Have to go through that to use these? Ugh. Ok, a better question then: How might I go about making a JP gamertag?

I wouldnt bother normally, but this game has completely amazed me so far, and I'd love to try this other mode.

[StarCreator]

I'm sure this isn't the first time I've said it in this thread, but there's a comprehensive guide on making a Japanese gamertag in the sticky thread in Hardware. Although the current version of the guide mentions you don't have to enter a valid email address, I highly suggest linking a real address anyway as it's the only means to recover the gamertag should it be needed again.

[Van_Artic]

you gotta love Arrange B mode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii-7S7V7Ts8