Parodius: Da!, Gokujou, Sexy, Jikkyou Oshaberi (New thread)

[Shepardus]

Parodius Da! (Arcade, MAME)
Shepardus - 770,500 - 1-10 - Octopus



First time making it past stage 8! Also managed to no-miss the stage 5 boss which is rare for me. Died twice on stage 6, once on stage 8, then twice on stage 10 (suicide bullets...).

[KoopaTGR]

Gokujou Parodius AC
KoopaTGR - 1,054,800 - Special - Koitsu

[Mero]

Omake 1 (Jikkyou Oshaberi)

Mero - 6,698,200 - Win Bee

[KoopaTGR]

Sexy Parodius
KoopaTGR - 1,195,800 - SS - Mambo

Icarus' score should say SS as he did not complete the special stage. saucy and Jaimers' scores should say ALL+ as they completed it.

I think completing the missions and no-missing has quite a noticeable increase in rank. Reached the crystal maze part of the special stage BTW.

[Shepardus]

Parodius Da! (Arcade, MAME)
Shepardus - 917,300 - 2-1 - Octopus



Video

[KoopaTGR]

Holy shit, great work!
Why do you use the Octopus and not Twinbee?

[Shepardus]

I've added a link to the video in my post if you want to check that out.

Holy shit, great work!
Why do you use the Octopus and not Twinbee?

Thanks! Nice progress with Sexy Parodius too, completing all the missions is no mean feat! Gokujou Parodius too, that game's brutal. It's the only Parodius I've set up any savestates for and stages 3-5 still wreck me.

Well done with the Omake 1 score, Mero, I'll have to put some more time into that myself!

I prefer Octopus over Twinbee mainly for the option movement style - being able to leave your options trailing behind you while sitting still gives greater flexibility than the Twinbee style which requires active movement to take advantage of the options. Having one more option is also nice. I also find the ripple laser useful for taking out enemies that are slightly above or below your y-position since it spreads out a little, and the fact that it allows two projectiles per option, as opposed to one projectile per option per direction with Twinbee's 3-way shot, makes it a bit better for taking out beefy targets (though Twinbee compensates for this with its rocket punch) and is less likely to leave gaps between shots. Twinbee has its own advantages, including a shield that protects from all directions, so I'd like to spend some more time with the other characters now that I've gotten a 1-ALL out of the way.

[KoopaTGR]

With Gokujou there are certain spots that I don't expect myself to get through without dying or using a special bell such as:

- all of Stage 3
- some of Stage 4 (birds from behind, falling exclamation marks, boss at high rank)
- the part of Stage 6 where all the yellow bunnies spawn and shoot tons of bullets

In my 1CC run I died twice on Stage 3 and no missed up to the special stage, and made great use of the special bells.
I have to pray that I get lucky on Stage 6 as the boss and entire last stage is a nightmare with a weak ship, let alone one speedup.

There are many safespots and tricks you can use:

Stage 3 boss: Use this as a guide.
Stage 4, first bird wall: Stay in the centre and take out the birds. Not sure about the other bird walls.
Moai battleship: when it moves up and down, stay in the bottom-left corner. At the boss, move up or down gradually as it spits Moais, then when it shoots the long Moai stay at the very top or bottom of the screen (depending on what direction it moves)
Stage 5: sometimes you can stay at the bottom-left of the screen near the end of the first waves. Just avoid the caution signs and don't try to chain bells.
Stage 6 boss first attack: stay above the boss, near the top-right of the screen. Don't forget to move away!
Final stage: when you see the dancer's upper body, move to the top-left and you don't have to dodge anymore. Watch out for the penguins at the end!

Watch this replay to see them in action.

Just giving you some advice.

[Shepardus]

What mode did you use, auto, semi-auto, or manual? Recently I've switched from auto to manual for the sake of holding on to special bells for parts like the bird walls.

[KoopaTGR]

I use auto for both games. Although you can't save special powers the lack of checkpoints really makes up for it.
I would only use manual if I wanted to take on Gokujou's special stage or maximise score (in Sexy you get 2 speed ups in Auto on the special stage.)

[Shepardus]

Discovered the magic of homing shots.

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius ~forever with me~ difficulty 7 (PSP - emulated in PPSSPP v1.2.1)
Shepardus - 2,701,200 - 2-1 - Rupa

Goddamn disco ball gets me every time. I'm sure I could have nabbed the top spot if I hadn't died a careless death in the middle of 2-1.

Note: I set wait to 0 for this run (the setting might be exclusive to the PSP version). Makes the game more bearable to me since I don't have to worry about the game suddenly speeding up and sending me careening into a wall. Some stuff is faster than it would be otherwise but I don't find that to be much of an issue. I'm not sure how close the PSP version's slowdown is to the PSX and Saturn versions anyway.

[KoopaTGR]

Jikkyou Oshaberi level 4 PSP
KoopaTGR - 3,364,100 - 2-5 - Ran

[Shepardus]

Parodius Da! (Arcade, MAME)
Shepardus - 952,700 - 2-1 - TwinBee



Twitch highlight

YouTube video

[Mero]

Oops

[KoopaTGR]

But now there are two KoopaTGRs. Keep the one that is in third place.

[Mero]

Oops

[Shepardus]

Parodius Da! (Arcade, MAME)
Shepardus - 999,800 - 2-1 - Vic Viper



So close to 1 million, yet so far...

[Perikles]

Sexy Paro in the house!



Perikles - 2,898,100 - ALL* - Mambo

Video


I knew I would lose one life somewhere, too bad I lost two. Will definitely come back at a later opportunity with a better score!

If someone could tell me now how on earth to get consistent at Goku Paro's Special Stage I'd be a happy man...

[Perikles]

Parodius Da! - Super Famicom



Perikles - 2,792,600 - 3-6 - TwinBee


Finally got a new CRT a while ago after my old one was irrevocably compromised. My first instinct was to revisit old favourites, of course, starting with the amazing SFC Parodius Da! Never did I imagine what would await me in the second and, indeed, third loop.

While the port is obviously much easier than the devious arcade game, the second loop is still harder than almost everything in the 16-bit realm, definitely harder than everything I've managed to beat so far (I'm going to guess that the second loop of Pop'n TwinBee and Detana!! TwinBee is tougher), most arcade games pale by comparison as well. You have to deal with a ton of suicide bullets and generally very inclement enemies without much slowdown that is ubiquitous in the arcade original. Stage 2-6 is a veritable wall, it is the one stage that is harder than the arcade equivalent by dint of having no slowdown yet just as many bullets and roulette capsules. I lost several lives here and had to get a few propitious bells in order to succeed.

I was sure the game would end after that, but just like the Famicom port, this one, too, has a third loop. That one adds delayed suicide bullets which are extremely fast, making the game excruciatingly tough. Some enemies may not spew out suicide bullets at first only to surprise the player with the delayed one later. Bosses are also just as hard as the arcade loop 2 counterparts, only by using green bells and having enough lives in stock (so that I would get a bell after a few attempts) did I manage to beat them. 3-6 is absurdly hard, of course.

Needless to say, I am delighted! It's incredible what the magicians at Konami were able to create in this era, I am absolutely sure it is no fortunate coincidence that the subsequent loops are as great as they are. Checkpoint recoveries are demanding but always possible, the accompanying rank decrease helps for trickier boss fights in particular. I can also say for certain that dying in succession drops the rank even further which is an outstanding achievement for a 16-bit conversion. Superb porting effort.

[Mero]

Sounds completely brutal

[Shepardus]

Sounds like you're ready to 2-ALL the arcade version!

[Perikles]

I keep checking this thread hoping for a Da 2-ALL

Sounds like you're ready to 2-ALL the arcade version!

Parodius Da! 2-ALL plz

Alright, folks, I'll bite. Don't get your hopes up just yet, it's definitely going to be a longer project and I might give up entirely, but for some inexplicable reason I'm rather interested now. Unlike the Detana 2-ALL which is simply impossible and some other stuff that aggravates me to no end (Argus! Also the Special Stage in Gokujou Parodius, unfortunately ), this is for the most parts pretty interesting, although insanely hard. I hope Mero doesn't mind when I'm expounding a bit here on my thoughts, I'd rather have it here for all eternity instead of disseminating it somewhere in the general chat where it will inevitably become marshy in two days. I've worked myself through the second loop via savestates, here's my general plan of action/point of departure:


The Premise

- While I really like the Octopus who is about as good as TwinBee for the first loop, there's no way around the latter for the second loop if you want to approach it as efficiently as possible. This has to do with the rocket punch, the reliability of your shots and the shield.

The rocket punch is not terribly important in the first loop since you're usually not in a rush to take out beefier enemies. However, with all the suicide bullets (see next point), you want to make quick work out of everything that can fill the screen with even more foes. The biggest damage output from the Octopus stems from its missiles, meaning that you have to get uncomfortably close in order to position the options before you can hit your target. TwinBee can just destroy those threats from afar, and quicker.

In a similar manner, being able to shoot at an angle without having to position your options prior can come in handy in trickier sections (especially stage 3). TwinBee can take out turrets and other pests en passant or with economical movement, a luxury that the Octopus does not have. You can't control as much space as easily, that's a comparatively minor disadvantage, though.

TwinBee's shield will make some sections a lot easier than they otherwise would be. The biggest advantage is that you're essentially invincible for a second or so after activating it, even when you're in the midst of a bullet storm. You can even fly through terrain or other dangerous objects such as the spikes of that godawful porcupine fish. You also don't have to wait for it to come to you, it materializes immediately. Octopus' shield is much more resilient and has clearly the upper edge in some cases, the versatility of TwinBee's force field nonetheless wins out in the end as far as I'm concerned.


- There are three factors that make the second loop such a ridiculous challenge: added enemy belligerence, suicide bullets, boss behaviour.

The first one is fairly self-explanatory. Turret enemies of all sorts will simply shoot non-stop and you have to mislead them so that you can take them out somewhat safely. Flying enemies will always shoot at you several times before they leave the screen, including one last time before they go off-screen, a few of them can even fire after leaving the screen (such as the cupido pigs in stage 4). Taking everything out as soon as possible is logically a high priority, but there are also the...

...suicide bullets to watch out for. Regular enemies will usually retaliate with one suicide bullet right away and another delayed one. The latter is the real danger since it is so easy to forget about a deceased enemy under the relentless pressure. You can't suppress these bullets as far as I can tell, it is possible to get point-blanked if you're not careful.

Most bosses work fundamentally the same, albeit much harder, some absolutely require bells, though, they are completely impossible without them - and I mean that literally. This means you have to craft a route during the entire first loop around that (see more under "The Challenges").


The Stages or Changes in the Second Loop

- 2-1: not too bad if you can arrive with one capsule in reserve. "Not too bad" in this context means "still harder than 98% of what you could be playing instead", but it's not nearly as bad as what you will face later. The boss is the biggest threat in the stage since his accompanying penguins fire so much. You probably want to activate two speed-ups in this stage already, although it might be possible with just one.

- 2-2: still quite feasible. You have to be mindful of the penguins that appear during the dancer section, the delayed suicide bullets can surprise an unaware player. Likewise, the boss can be a real jerk, you can manipulate it into doing what you want most of them time, however.

- 2-3: this is where the game becomes extremely hard. If you don't use TwinBee you're going to find that the goblets and their constant supply of pests/suicide bullets will murder you in a snap, the rocket punch will be invaluable here. It also helps that you can kill the penguins blocking the pillars much more easily with the three-way than with any other method. The final stretch before the boss and the boss itself require two bells at the right time, everything else is completely unrealistic. This has consequences for the entire run prior to this section (see more under "The Challenges").

- 2-4: the hardest stage in the game, it's insane. You have to deal with a ton of suicide bullets while being restricted by ample terrain, making it incredibly difficult to evade all of it. You also probably will have activated a third speed-up by now (it doesn't matter difficulty-wise anymore) which is rather problematic in this stage. You need to be constantly on the move and have to exert some incredibly risky stunts in order to destroy some enemy hatches that will otherwise murder you, requiring some perfectly planned shield activations manoeuvres and stunning improvisational dodging. You also need yet another perfectly timed bell for the boss...

- 2-5: There aren't too many changes in this stage compared to others, but those few can make a huge difference. The trickiest part in the actual stage is the section when you're underneath the giant moai ship, before it comes down. You have to take out the hatches while dodging the suicide bullets of the incoming moai ships while also fending off the regular enemies that will spawn from the hatches. You can probably devise a good route for that, I think. The boss requires three speed-ups, dodging the, uh, missiles with two is impossible. It's also necessary to hit these prior to moving upwards/downwards as the three-way alone is sometimes not enough to take the first one out. You will have to squeeze between the last two missiles which is quite tight.

- 2-6: another insanely brutal stage. Just like 2-4, you have to manage tons of suicide bullets in a confined area, and you also have to worry about roulette capsules everywhere. You could theoretically use bells throughout the entire stage, but that would require inhumane precision and calmness amidst the storm of projectiles. You're most likely better off learning where the roulette capsules are so that you can activate shields at the right moment. The pachinko core is surprisingly tricky, its simple pattern ain't so simple with delayed suicide bullets on top of everything else. You could time this guy out, but then you have no slowdown at all, making it a hazardous enterprise.

- 2-7: the stage is fairly similar to the first loop version, all things considered. Quite a bit harder, but not fundamentally different. You have to properly herd the scions of the boss on the other hand, and you need to have the utmost prudence when she dies because all on-screen enemies will immediately turn into suicide bullets and the slowdown subsides, too. A shield in stock is highly recommended for that sort of farewell.

- 2-8: also quite similar to its first loop equivalent. It's still a very rough stage, but it pales compared to 2-3, 2-4 and 2-6. Ideally you want to have a shield in stock for the opening gambit of the porcupine fish, it's possible without one, fortunately.

- 2-9: definitely the easiest stage in the second half of the loop, it's about as demanding as 2-1 or 2-2.

- 2-10: you'd think this would fall into a similar category, yet it assuredly does not. The delayed suicide bullets from the ducker penguins are deadly for they can completely mess up your routing, not quite sure how to reliably counter that yet. The final boss is still strong.


The Challenges

- As I've alluded to earlier, there are a couple of instances where you need either a green or a red bell. While the maze section in stage 3 is theoretically possible without a bell, the third and fourth boss are not. This is a promise. For maximum scoring purposes, a red bell is ideal, for survival, a green bell. The problem is that in order to get a bell at the right moment, you need to be at the right point in the power-up cycle. If you kill enemies that drop power-ups in a slightly "wrong" order, you might kill the two chickens before the fourth boss and only receive regular capsules. In other words: you have to keep track of the exact amount of capsule-dropping enemies you kill from 1-1 all the way to the 2-4 boss or you're working towards a game over.

- Dying in loop 2 is obviously a game over in any case. Best just sacrifice all but one on the final boss. This can also be used to manipulate the power-up order, I found some decent routes without activating any capsules.

- No amount of practice will prepare you against delayed suicide bullets, you have to be able to dodge them on the spot.

- 2-4 in particular is so unbelievably hard it's almost funny. Especially since you have to juggle the right bell colour in a matter of mere seconds, once the boss starts to drop enemies from the ceiling you're dead.

- It's not nearly as pronounced as it is in Gradius III AC, but sudden abatements in the slowdown department can also happen here, namely during the aforementioned 2-6 boss fight. Don't stop firing to catch an irrelevant bell unless you know exactly what is coming at you, it's a guaranteed death sentence otherwise.


Conclusion

- This would be the apt title for anyone daring enough to tackle the second loop.

[Shepardus]

Alright, folks, I'll bite.

I knew you'd return someday. <3

My thoughts echo yours: My savestates only go up to 2-3 so far, but I imagine 2-3, 2-4, 2-6, and maybe 2-10 would be the hardest stages. I personally like Vic Viper in the first loop (Double is surprisingly good since unlike in Gradius the upper and forward shots are independent in their projectile limits, and the missiles' ability to travel along the ground is very useful in places like stage , but I agree that TwinBee is your best bet for the second loop. Octopus and Vic Viper's lack of a force field shield is a major disadvantage in dealing with the delayed suicide bullets, and as you said TwinBee's 3-way shot and rocket punch are really useful. Octopus in particular is the only character without any way to reliably carve the upwards shortcut in the second half of stage 3, which I imagine makes that already-difficult stage even harder. I originally set up some savestates with Vic Viper but switched to TwinBee for the shield.

You're right that the suicide bullets have no sealing range. I've tested and found that delayed suicide bullets can spawn right on top of you, killing you instantly. You have to be aware of and plan around where each enemy was killed, which can be difficult with the enemies moving so quickly at high rank.

While rank management is critical for a 1-ALL, it's decidedly less effective when going for a 2-ALL. Even at minimum rank enemy attacks and movements will still be quite intense and you'll still have to deal with suicide bullets (the rank threshold for suicide bullets in the first loop becomes the threshold for delayed suicide bullets in the second loop). The bullets are a lot slower at low rank, but it's kind of a moot point because other than through credit-feeding, you'll never be at truly low rank during the second loop, because the only way to lower rank is through dying and you have a limited amount of lives. Checkpoint-milking the final boss in the first loop lowers rank significantly (about half the difference between minimum and maximum rank if you sacrifice all your extra lives), making the 2-1 opening much easier (but still not easy) due to the reduced bullet speed. Before long, however, rank will once again return to hellish levels. You can try to avoid the second and third speed ups and limit shield usage to delay the onset of delayed suicide bullets (which could make 2-3 and 2-4 easier to manage), but that is a challenge in itself. The 2-ALLs I've seen have taken the second speedup by 2-2 or even the middle of 2-1, and the third speedup by the end of 2-3. Once you've grabbed those speedups, rank will rise really quickly (especially if paired with a shield, which you'll probably be relying on in the second loop) so you'll reach maximum rank in one or two stages, three at most, after which you can forget about anything related to rank because there's nothing you can do about it.

[Shepardus]

Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius ~forever with me~ difficulty 4, PSP (PPSSPP v1.4)
Shepardus - 4,054,200 - 3-1 - Rupa

Decided to play a credit of this game since I hadn't done so in quite a while, and did much better than I thought I would. First loop and a half went very smoothly with only a couple deaths here and there. Things started falling apart in the second half of the second loop due to fatigue and I decided to end the credit after finishing the second loop due to lack of time.

Like my previous difficulty 7 run, I had wait set to 0 for this.

[Perikles]

Gokujou Parodius - Arcade



Perikles - 1,265,600 - ALL - Koitsu

Video


Should be stage over score for this one to be quite honest.

[Mero]

Great scores lads. Will definitely check out that video, I've seen the Gokujo special stage before so I know how brutal it is.

[Perikles]

The Parodius show must go on, I've spent a bit of time today with analyzing the power-up sequence in Parodius Da! for second loop purposes - hope you don't mind me posting it here again, Mero.

The cycle works as follows: Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Bell -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Red Capsule -> Bell -> Red Capsule -> Blue Capsule

In a more legible form: 4 Red Capsules -> Bell -> 5 Red Capsules -> Bell -> Red Capsule -> Blue Capsule


After that, it starts anew. There are a few things to watch out for, one of them being a major bastard move:

- It's obviously really hard to keep track of what you killed first when you wipe out a few enemy formations simultaneously. If a bell and two red capsules spawn at about the same time you better know where you were in the cycle beforehand. The blue capsules are very helpful to get back into the rhythm if you ever lose count.

- The sequence is unaffected by dying or looping. It never resets, always stays the same.

- At first I was wondering why sometimes, I counted five or six red capsules before a bell spawned even though it should've been four or five, respectively. Well, that's because enemies who drop roulette capsules don't count at all, they always drop their "boon" and are not part of the cycle. Fortunately, there aren't too many of these around (outside of the pachinko stage, that is), it's nonetheless incredibly confusing while you're playing.


The bell sequence works in a similar manner. The colour scheme is blue -> white -> green -> red. Just like with the power-up cycle, the game remembers which colour you've selected last when juggling a bell. Enemies will always drop a yellow bell at first, but if you properly prepared another bell prior you can get a green or a red bell almost right away when you need it.


Since the only parts in the game that necessitate a bell are towards the beginning of the second loop, you only have to remember a handful of roulette capsule enemies. When in doubt in the first two stages you can always look out for a blue capsule as written above. You would be wise to juggle a bell in the beginning of stage 3 in a manner that you can get either a green bell for the maze section or - if you feel particularly daring - a red bell for the boss. I don't think you can take out the third boss with a green bell, the invincibility doesn't last long enough.

You can eliminate the fourth boss quite comfortably with either, however. And, on a more humorous note, you can even kill it without any bell at all. I will say that you might be able to turn this flailing into something more substantial if you arrive at the boss with a shield selected on the power-up selection bar. Since it dies in two cycles if you pummel it you could activate the force field for some invincibility during the second, more dangerous enemy deluge. You really should try to get a bell, though - a force field would also help with getting a green bell in case it takes you a bit longer to acquire the desired colour. Too bad 2-4 is the hardest stage in the game... I don't think there is any way to defeat the 2-3 boss without bells on the other hand, it seems to be virtually impossible or at least so close to it that your chances will be precisely 0%.

[Perikles]

A bit more strategizing for today:

After playing around a bit I have to say that your point in the power-up cycle is probably not terribly important in stage 2-3. Since you have to wait for six red penguin turrets at the worst you can always make something work by dint of their quantity in the maze section. A force field in reserve would be of great help if you have no idea where you currently are in the cycle, you also definitely have to prepare a bell prior so that you can grab yourself a green one with minimum effort.

The real problem is stage 2-4. You want to be at the bold point in the sequence when the stage starts (RC = Red Capsule; B = Bell; BC = Blue Capsule):

RC RC RC RC B RC RC RC RC RC B RC BC

If your first enemy wave drops a bell and then goes on like this, the second-to-last enemy in the stage will drop a bell if you didn't miss any of them in the actual stage. This is the ideal enemy to get a bell from since it gives you the optimum amount of time to grab yourself the bell you want (I would recommend a green bell since it's much more convenient). In my savestates so far I'm one step ahead, meaning that I get the bell from the last possible enemy. Both these outcomes are fine, but if you are further ahead or behind the schedule, there's no way to enter the boss fight with a green bell although you could theoretically store a red bell in advance, of course (which is extremely unlikely). Perhaps I should invest some time into fighting that boss without any bell and just a force field in reserve, if I could get consistent at it I could skip this absurdly convoluted process of keeping track of the bell cycle for 13 stages (including four suicides on the final boss in the first loop) altogether.

[Perikles]

Parodius Da! (Arcade)



Perikles - 1,579,000 - 2-2 - TwinBee


Sort of an opening gambit, I suppose. Dropped one bell in the pachinko stage (which got awkwardly stuck in the ground ), managed to keep the chain otherwise and suicided all four surplus lives on the final boss. Almost got killed in 2-1 regardless and managed to fly into one of the feathers from the 2-2 boss which had already passed me. Looks like YOU NEED SOME PRACTICE, Perikles.

On a more positive note, I developed a route for the stretch from 1-1 to 1-5 which I really like for convenient power-up cycle purposes and bell spawns. It's not quite optimal (I would have to keep the hatches in 1-5 alive for that), but it works consistently. I also decided to activate not only a second, but also a third speed-up in 1-8, have to see if I stick to that. I also got a blue bell before the ascent in 1-8 which wasn't originally planned, the opportunity was too good to let it fly by, though. Might actually be a great idea to incorporate this into the route.

If someone's interested in the video, say so. I'd probably leave it as unlisted, but who knows when (if, I tell ya, if!) the actual 2-ALL is ever in reach.

[Shepardus]

Damn, and I thought I might be able to beat your score if I managed to checkpoint-milk with enough lives!

I think getting a third speedup in 1-8 is a good idea if you've no-missed up to that point. It definitely makes the boss on that stage more comfortable, it makes little difference in stage 9, and it's not too hard to control in stage 10 as long as you've got slowdown on your side (which is pretty much whenever you're firing). It does double the rate of rank increase, but if you've no-missed up to that point you're going to hit max rank soon anyway. On the other hand, if you've died previously and are just going for a 1-ALL, I would avoid the third speedup since then you can delay the onset of suicide bullets.