I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[ZPScissors]

Batrider Advanced Course 1cc. Took me less than a week, so I think it's safe to say my shmup skill is still there.
Here's the replay too.

[ZPScissors]

Well that took way less time than I expected...

Batsugun Special 4-ALL, on my first run to even get to Loop 4 too.

Replay

[OmKol]

Recent clears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DttyBd9Cs8 - Gun.Smoke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kG0uac8BWw - Gokujou Parodius with Special stage and subtitles

[NuclearPotato]

My quest to pick up a bunch of weird, obscure quickie 1ccs continues; today it was Captain Tomaday. Tomaday feels a bit like a game that's frontloaded in difficulty, mostly because you start out without much screen coverage at all. I found myself gridlocked on the first couple stages during the first couple days of playing, only to have finally break through it last night and get all the way up to the final boss on my first run through Stage 3 on one credit. As long as you're going into that part of the game with a transformation with decent coverage, like the flowerpot, and can hold it until the final boss, the 1cc is pretty free from there.

[blazinglazers69]

Got the clear for Eliminate Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5cKEJdd3as

It's wild to me that this was made by some random mystery team and not a big name. It's so well done.

[To Far Away Times]

Nice job! Eliminate Down is one of those games that I've wanted to clear for a long time.

The first level is very impressive for the hardware.

[blazinglazers69]

Nice job! Eliminate Down is one of those games that I've wanted to clear for a long time.

The first level is very impressive for the hardware.

Thanks man. It's definitely doable for you based on your 1cc list. Other than learning the levels inside and out, the only real cheesy trick I found was for the stage 7 midboss. If you have at least one shield point you can get behind him right before he spawns and take him out from behind, but you have to cross his sprite once--hence needing one shield point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5cKEJdd3as&t=1880s

I definitely feel more comfortable with horizontal shmups than vertical stuff at this point. I feel like with most old school horis like this one it's just a matter of learning enemy placement. This clear took me about 20 hours. Every time I attempt any bullet hells I immediately feel like I don't have the skills to dodge or anticipate properly. I think next year I'm gonna really try to get a few bullet hells under my belt since that's easily where I'm the weakest as a player so far.

[Lander]

Crimzon Clover is a nice bullethell to ease in with. Coming back with more domain knowledge, Novice mode really stands out as having patterns that are fair to non-superplayers; lots of immediately-readable aimed shots, with the more demanding multilayer lattices saved for the last couple of bosses and Arcade mode.

Plenty of room to get comfortable. Being HD helps a lot with that too, I've noticed; feels really precise after hours of grinding dense SDOJ patterns at chunky arcade resolution.

[Rastan78]

Raystorm 1CC Geeeeet!!!!

With R-Gray2. Came so close to getting no miss on my first clear. No deaths up until the very final pattern of the last boss. Just missed one lock that would've been needed for the hyper for the kill. I'll happily take the 1 miss on this beastly clear lol.

Really want to do some of the cool scoring stuff on this game and told myself I'll prioritize the clear first. So it's kind of exciting to be able to open up that aspect of the game now.

Still I can't believe they give zero extends. Really!? But yeah got to be one of the most epic experiences I've had in playing shmups due to the regal majesty and punishing brutality of the game.

[Starfighter]

Espgaluda! I know it doesn't sound like much because of how beginner friendly it's regarded, but for me it really was a test. I bet it was psychological. Anyway, finally I beat another one of my earlier PS2 purchases.

[BIL]

Raystorm 1CC Geeeeet!!!!

With R-Gray2. Came so close to getting no miss on my first clear. No deaths up until the very final pattern of the last boss. Just missed one lock that would've been needed for the hyper for the kill. I'll happily take the 1 miss on this beastly clear lol.

Really want to do some of the cool scoring stuff on this game and told myself I'll prioritize the clear first. So it's kind of exciting to be able to open up that aspect of the game now.

Still I can't believe they give zero extends. Really!? But yeah got to be one of the most epic experiences I've had in playing shmups due to the regal majesty and punishing brutality of the game.

Nicely done! You nailed it, RS is so grand and uncompromising... 0% moe, 110% existential war, no plot armour.

Anyway, finally I beat another one of my earlier PS2 purchases.

Still not cleared mine, almost twenty years and counting - might as well wait on ShotTriggers now. Congrats!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Espgaluda! I know it doesn't sound like much because of how beginner friendly it's regarded

If you're a beginner at shmups you should feel proud about accomplishments that challenged you. If you found Espgaluda challenging and managed to overcome it after a lot of effort, then that's something to be proud about. It's not all about how difficult the game is from an expert standpoint; if that were the case then you'd say you're not allowed to feel good until you get a Futari Ultra or DaiOuJou 2-All clear, lol. I think it's really important that players feel comfortable playing games at a difficulty that challenges them but is still at a reasonable difficulty for their relative skill, and that they know that they shouldn't feel bad about feeling accomplished when they beat something. The difficulty of the game relative to your skill and comfort level matters as much as the absolute difficulty relative to other games does.

Also, even if Espgaluda is one of CAVE's easier games, it's still an arcade game designed to take your money if you don't play well, so it's by no means a small feat for a budding shmup player. Congrats on the clear, I know you worked hard to tackle that last attack!

[To Far Away Times]

Espgaluda is on the easier side of things as a whole, but the final boss is a huge difficulty spike. Most games don't spike nearly that hard on the final boss, so clearing it is quite a rush. Be proud.

[Starfighter]

Thanks fellas! And yeah, I feel quite a lot like a beginner. Not that I'm particularly new to the genre (I've been playing shmups for around 20 years at this point) but because I'm now going in to every title with the intention to get a 1CC. Historically I've only been about the casual fun and spending just a few hours on each title. But now I'm determined to step it up!

[copy-paster]

Raystorm 1CC Geeeeet!!!!

With R-Gray2. Came so close to getting no miss on my first clear. No deaths up until the very final pattern of the last boss. Just missed one lock that would've been needed for the hyper for the kill. I'll happily take the 1 miss on this beastly clear lol.

Welcome to the RS clearers club.

I give up trying to clear with Gray2 because of how weak the ship is. I'm starting to think no miss is not worth it given how brutal the entirety of st5 and st6 boss is, not to mention it's easy to mess up/off route when doing st7 opener strat.

[Rastan78]

Welcome to the RS clearers club.

Thanks! When I started playing it was really useful.to listen to the STG weekly episode and get you guys' experiences and knowledge with the game. The RS clearers club is bonded by our suffering lol.

I give up trying to clear with Gray2 because of how weak the ship is. I'm starting to think no miss is not worth it given how brutal the entirety of st5 and st6 boss is, not to mention it's easy to mess up/off route when doing st7 opener strat.

Yeah the Gray2 shot is so narrow and the lightning lock shot can be slow. That led to getting smashed by oncoming zako or missiles from the side so many times at first. Such a disheartening way to die.

One thing that helped me was changing my movement pattern. When I think of traditional vertical game like Raiden, just above left or right corner is sort of a safe place to be. Do a slow u shaped movment to herd enemy fire. Gradually move toward the other screen side looking for your chance to cut back and repeat.

In this game you sometimes have to do a lot shorter side to side movements and cut back quickly. Almost like a slalom move vs a wide sweeping pattern. Also the blue trailing edge of the RG2 shot (that gets wider with more power levels) actually deals some damage. So with short side to side movements you can sort of "paint" an area at the center of the screen to control zako.

Yeah stage 6 boss is totally a wall until you learn to deal with every pattern. 2 things helped a lot with that scary aimed double shot pattern. The pattern before this one is always the long vertical yellow lasers, usually dodged by sitting just inside the screen edge. The boss moves off the screen before shooting the yellow lasers. Always go to the opposite screen side than the one the boss leaves the screen from. If you sit on the same side to dodge the yellow lasers then boss movement on the next pattern (the aimed spread) will be messed up and instead of moving cleanly to the other side he just sort of sits in the middle and gives no time to dodge.

Next thing is when you lead the aimed pattern around the screen and you work your way towards the bottom corner where you would want to start micro tapping, instead hold down/diagonal to slow movement on the bottom screen edge. This is much more consistent bc of how jank micro tapping is with the inertia in this game.

Once I got those two things down, never had to worry about this pattern again.

[BIL]

I give up trying to clear with Gray2 because of how weak the ship is. I'm starting to think no miss is not worth it given how brutal the entirety of st5 and st6 boss is, not to mention it's easy to mess up/off route when doing st7 opener strat.

Yeah the Gray2 shot is so narrow and the lightning lock shot can be slow. That led to getting smashed by oncoming zako or missiles from the side so many times at first. Such a disheartening way to die.

Even as a returning noob in the early 00s, the RG02 always felt like a definitive master's ship. Incredibly cool scoring mechanic that's effectively a second game mode, and just a cool, unique weapon. AFAIK, I've never seen its lockon's "walk the dog" mechanic outside of this series. And by "dog" I mean "slashing scorching TenTrillion-volt arc that hops buildings like Bath Salts Krypto." Even the heat haze on its laser feels expensive. But in such a hard game, the RG01's beefier shot and no-fuss Max Lock are so tempting, making your 1CC even more impressive.

Post-Ray'z, I've been really impressed with the fidelity of the old NTSCJ PS1 port. I know it's always been well-regarded, but it's really one of those gold conversions where 90% of techniques translate straight to PCB (or vice versa). I'd love to see it get an encore ala G-Darius's PS1 port.

[xxx1993]

Finally 1CC’d Final Exerion on Normal!

[Angry Hina]

I finally finished TF IV. Unfortunately, it wasn't a one life clear because I played a little poorly, especially with the lava boss (lost the shield when it came into contact with the ground) and then was knocked out of the sky by a close-range attack with fireballs that was almost impossible to defend. The difficulty of the boss depends heavily on chance. When he comes so close to and breathes fire, there's almost nothing you can do. But he often behaves more tamely.

I definitely want to play a run without losing life, but some unpredictable parts can be very frustrating. And how difficult is the game really? Definitely harder than TF III on its normal difficulty level. It took me nearly 25 hours, but I also took a long break so that I had to play again and rarely played intensively. Lately it's been more of small training bites, which are of course less effective. Hishouzame recently took me a little under 20 hours. However, I practiced this quite intensively in just a few days, so I wouldn't immediately say that it is harder. Especially since it was quite similar to practice as Raiden IV, which I played before. TFIV was completely different. Learning routes was also necessary, but also how to deal with the scrolling vertical clearance, where to collect which items, when to use the Thunder Sword, where there are incalculable dangers, etc.

But it is probably of a similar level and is therefore about as difficult as a brittle and unyielding arcade game from the later eighties but also one that is still in the lower range for this genre in the arcade. (So still very high and higher than most games on consoles)

In retrospect I would call it a very good game. It has a few level design flaws, some problems with boss and mini-bosses hitboxes, milking opportunities that undermine the scoring system, possible difficulty spikes due to randomness, and a few other small issues. Nevertheless, it can be played well and smoothly and allows for a very free style of play thanks to the many weapons and the controllable ship speed. It's also beautiful, sounds good and, despite some serious slowdowns, is often wonderfully fast.

However, especially after the almost perfect and polished design of the TF III/AC, it is sometimes strangely clumsy, but that can somehow be excused once you have you are clear about the weaknesses and learned them.

Unfortunately, a death can sometimes hardly be compensated, which was what annoyed me the most at the beginning. With standard weaponry or without the sidekicks, some bosses (even mini-bosses) can hardly be dealt with or can only be dealt with in a very time-consuming manner. But if you can quickly pick up the sidekicks and shield again, you can quickly find your way back into the game, but in general TFIV has to be played almost as if you wanted to achieve a one life clear. To be honest, it wasn't much different in TFIII, but since nothing happened there at random or unavoidable, it was comparatively easy to achieve with good training.

Here is my run:
https://youtu.be/vu-7ahMtq5I

I will try a one life clear anyway

[Nahar]

I cleared Raioh on Normal. Neat little game, but could use more polish on the technical side.

[Creamy Goodness]

Got the clear of Hishouzame on the M2 port. Took a little longer than expected. I figured the game was a little on the easier, but it has its ball busting moments.

What trips me out is the game is so basic, nothing flashy about presentation, but man it is absolutely addictive. It has been a while since I played a game that was so hard to put down. I think the fact that it encourages bomb use goes a long way. Plus the game is so routable that you never feel like you are completely out of it. Just get a good rhythm of going back and forth across the screen and you pretty much got it.

[Angry Hina]

Had some no-1LC runs so far with much more points around 3.5-3.8 milions.
I switched afterwards to the US-Version of Thunder Force IV in fear of the not everytime given boss bonus (mentioned by a user) and got my 1LC. Ive read about the gargoyle boss beein easier in this version but I am not sure why. Possibly is the homing orb a bit less aggressive. But I realized, that some of the little round enemies which fly vertically up and then aim at you, are better tracked by the hunter weapon which makes them a little bit less of a threat. The section before the gargoyle is a bit harder because the tail hanging out of the ship cannot be fixed in place by shooting at it so you have to change positions which you dont have to do in the JP version (no big deal but it was a more or less stupid section in the jp version bacause you didnt had to do anything at least with the railgun). Overall I think, that these differences in the US-Version feels a tiny bit more balanced/logical.

For me, the hardest part of the game is the moment in the lava stage after you got the second shield. Whith this shield you have to stand 3 challenges in which its hard to surely avoid damage. The Lava stage mid boss, the boss afterwards and the second miniboss in the biobase stage with the projectiles and the trash falling out of the tubes after destroying all of them.

https://youtu.be/Mw3pB_x29ak

[Marc]

Hardly a 'triumoh', but I've just thrown on Deathsmiles 2 and cleared it on my first go with the rose-firing character. Really like the atmosphere of it, the haunted house level is really fun and the bullet patterns are simple enough that my buggered old eyesight can follow most of them. I skipped the optional stage so I'll go back to sort that. I'm just glad the last stage and bisd aren't a massive slog like the original.

[Marc]

Now cleared with extra stage. Mostly rank 2, though I dipped into 3 to make sure to hit the second extend. Not as anal about scoring as the original which I remember being a nightmare to figure out. I've only ever made the last boss on a few Cave games so let an old man have his fun ha.

[NuclearPotato]

I also ended up doing a clear of Deathsmiles II X with Rosa this week, all on Level 2 with no EX stage. I've been working on the arcade version for a couple weeks now, but have had bad luck with some stupid deaths on my part, so I booted up II X mode and gave Rosa a try and got a clear pretty quick. Still want to get the arcade clear before I move on from that game though.

The more interesting clear from this week is the "training" mode clear I got on Raiden DX. I've been gunning for a clear on one of the modes ever since I played it for La Calice Cup 7, so I'm pretty happy. A Novice clear would be great at some point in the future, but for now I'm going to celebrate escaping sniper tank hell successfully

[Wiggly]

Got a mushihimesama 1cc on original mode this morning. Definitely one of the best runs I've done that made it past stage 4. Managed to not lose a life until the very end of stage 4 and then i kinda just winged it during stage 5 cuz I didn't do much practice for it.

[Angry Hina]

Oh, oh, that was a hard one...

I was quite optimistic about the Thunder Force IV run now with the TF III ship (Styx). This has something to do with what my experience was like in FT AC (the slightly modified version of TF III). You could also play with both ships there, but the game was designed for Styx and its weapons and not the other way around. There the TF IV ship (Rynex) seemed a bit underpowered and its weapons were always a bit more difficult to use.

Even with a home advantage, Rynex suffers from projectiles that are often too large and often hit next to the opponents' tiny hitboxes and do no damage. Styx's powerful laser shot was supposed to help her and it did. With the laser shot, many bosses and enemies in the first half of the game were much easier to defeat, although not all of them. But above all, the otherwise very tough and dangerous fight against the desert boss became much easier and, above all, shorter.

But now that Rynex receives the super weapon Thunder Sword from the middle of the game on, Styx comes away empty-handed. At first it didn't seem too bad to me because the laser was so strong and accurate. But the Thunder Sword makes some particularly hard parts of the game quite easy (easier). The small flies, whose carcasses fall to the ground and want to smash you against the cave ceiling with a blast of air, the tricky level 8 insect boss were easier to control with the short burst of fire from the Thundersword and the second mini-boss in level 8 in particular was a little safer to handle.

But what was even more noticeable was the lack of the Rynex missile weapon "Free Way", with which you could protect yourself flexibly and powerfully in all directions with a fairly wide spread. The powerful "Blade" weapon that Rynex gets instead of the laser also covered a comparatively wide area with projectiles. Styx's wave weapon would be comparable, but even the smallest enemies in FT IV have more life points than in FT III, which is why this weapon, with its rather low damage, became practically useless. This meant that the level 9 boss in particular, and to a lesser extent the one from level 10, became much more difficult.

Due to the pronounced random behavior of some bosses, mini-bosses and enemies, playing with Styx often became a test of patience. Ultimately, you also need a bit of luck to ensure that the bosses in particular don't act too dangerously. I found that quite demotivating.

It now took me around 20 additional hours to complete the run. A simple 1cc run actually wouldn't have been too difficult, but I wanted to keep the level. Towards the end I was also thought about to stick with a 1cc versus a one life clear (1LC). I also had to learn the game and the enemy behavior even better and in the end it wasn't just luck but also my cleanest, most error-free run that I've played so far.

https://youtu.be/fKjTZ8EZ7iw​

If I had known it would be this hard again, I probably would have left it ^^

[xxx1993]

https://imgur.com/a/aGF0V0C

I finally 1LC’d Otomedius Excellent as Aoba Anoa!

[XoPachi]

Blind play clear in Universe.



Some cheeky traps in this one.

[Steven]

I cleared a Final game for this year on the final day of the year: R-Type Final 2 no miss with R-9A. Somehow I had never done this before with only the R-9A, so it was nice to finally do it with a starter ship instead of something more powerful.