DARIUS BURST CHRONICLE SAVIOURS (STEAM/PS4/Vita)

[Squire Grooktook]

More enemies = more destruction = more visceral and exciting for the player.

Yeah, the game is really over the top with enemy waves. It reminds me the "vitriol" (as BIL put it) with which Recca furiously throws zakos you. Also gives the game a nice bit of variety, between "normal" shooting, and blazing rampages while you try to keep your beam meter up.

Man I fuckin' hate the missions that force you to use Genesis as a preset. Really seems like the worst ship in the game. Boginzu was a total bitch, took tons of plays to clear before I figured out you can just point blank Stare right in the eyeballs.

It's actually one of my favorite ships. I like the dynamic of maneuvering your options to either avoid taking damage, or protect yourself. Creates a lot of unique movements and decisions. Tricky though.

[ACSeraph]

It's actually one of my favorite ships. I like the dynamic of maneuvering your options to either avoid taking damage, or protect yourself. Creates a lot of unique movements and decisions. Tricky though.

I definitely get what you're saying here, but I guess my issue is you don't really gain anything for all that extra work you are putting in. You would think that properly managing your options all the way to the beam duel would reward you with a higher damage output than most other ships but it really doesn't.

Gonna have to go with Next as my favorite ship, though I also like the "pure" play style of Second and Origin. I think Legend is probably more effective than Next if you have really thoroughly routed everything, but I like that the beam speed of Next allows you to react and improvise in the moment.

[Sparrow]

Massive enemy waves are like school of fishes which is amazing to see.
But but you forgot about something, guys. There are few enemy types look like they aren't based on fish species or marine creatures after all.

Ships with turrets on bottom parts with a frontal hull shield only appears in asteroid and mechanical zones
Two pairs usually appear that charging red lasers and the other type shoots four yellow bullets.

Armored Core head enemies are based on Hermit crabs. But why it is shaped like a robot head?

About the parts being destroyed to reduce bullet patterns... In that case, what about the fins of Lightning series and Jaw series?
They don't have their own unique bullet patterns so what does it serve for? Just extra part that worth for pts?
What about the legs of Claw series?

[Despatche]

A few bosses are like that, most aren't. Even the original King Fossil back in 1987 had parts that are just there for points, top and bottom fins.

[Zaarock]

Formula is probably my favorite ship. You can keep the yellow shot power for bullet cancels and it's still very good damage. Fastest move speed and apparently faster burst gauge recovery (I wish this was elaborated somewhere though) And it's very strong in CS mode. Looks like most of the ACEX Fixed Burst WRs are with Formula rather than NEXT/Legend as well. It's also easier to delay boss kills as you can simply sit outside of shot range.

Having a lot of trouble finding that infamous 24 zone mission, looks like it's a hidden unlock somehow. Supposed to be at the very end of the game. Maybe a large area of smaller nodes needs to be cleared or there's some weird requirement like buying all ships or clearing enough missions. Double Claw does seem exclusive to that mission.

edit: I have 185 missions open which would leave just one, so yeah must be a special unlock

[Shepardus]

Can you counterburst on the lasers Great Thing's dolphins fire, or does it just look and sound that way? I have little trouble pulling off counterbursts on most bosses now, but I found Great Thing for the first time in a Chronicle mission and I couldn't pull off a counterburst on those dolphins.

[ATTRACTS]

Massive enemy waves are like school of fishes which is amazing to see.
But but you forgot about something, guys. There are few enemy types look like they aren't based on fish species or marine creatures after all.

Armored Core head enemies are based on Hermit crabs. But why it is shaped like a robot head?

The series has always been about mechanical fish armies, not organic ones and the fish thing has never been written in stone. Every game has non fish enemies and levels thrown in the mix. It's not something "they forgot".

[Sparrow]

Ah I see, guys.
I'm still new to Darius series. But I hope they redesign on Orca and Humpback Whale in the future. Megalodon. When?

[antares]

So what's the verdict on the Vita version? I don't own a PC nor a PS4, should I get the Vita version? Or wait another year until I may finally buy a new computer?

[Steelix100]

Nothing makes you feel cooler than being a flying death machine.

Flashbacks to Gaiden where when you had a fully powered ship + autofire anything that even dared stand in front of your ship was instantly raped and obliterated, and it was awesome.
But when you died and fell back a bunch of shot levels, you were no longer OP, and it was not awesome D:

[ATTRACTS]

So what's the verdict on the Vita version? I don't own a PC nor a PS4, should I get the Vita version? Or wait another year until I may finally buy a new computer?

Vita is ok but the other two in my opinion are the way to go. Drawbacks for the Vita would be a REALLY small playing area in AC mode and from what I've read (not experienced myself), a handful of freezes/crashes in CS mode. Great for portable gaming but I think you'd have more of an experience on PC/PS4 once you can get it set up.

[Magma Dragoon]

Hm, where does the game store the save files?

[beatsgo]

Hm, where does the game store the save files?

AC is cloud
dunno about CS

[jandrogo]

Anybody with ps4 and PSTV/Vita Tv and both games can comment on differences between the versions?
Side to side pics with the same setup would be amazing!

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Can you counterburst on the lasers Great Thing's dolphins fire, or does it just look and sound that way? I have little trouble pulling off counterbursts on most bosses now, but I found Great Thing for the first time in a Chronicle mission and I couldn't pull off a counterburst on those dolphins.

This is definitely possible.

[ACSeraph]

Can you counterburst on the lasers Great Thing's dolphins fire, or does it just look and sound that way? I have little trouble pulling off counterbursts on most bosses now, but I found Great Thing for the first time in a Chronicle mission and I couldn't pull off a counterburst on those dolphins.

This is definitely possible.

Seconded, I've seen Japanese players do it at the arcade. Timing is really strict though.

[To Far Away Times]

Been cruising through EX Mode for the most part and I just got to Dual Spin. What is this I don't even understand this beatdown.

[Sparrow]

Huh, how do you dodge in this bullet pattern of Great Thing's charging Burst? Look like I can't find a safe area there.
I went to Darius wiki but it didn't list how many bosses there in total (Regular and recolor ones).

I found a new enemy in lightspeed warp tunnels I never seen it like this before. What kind of that marine creature is based on?
Its head can take so much more damage yet its body could be destroyed easily if attacked directly.

[AxelMill]

Can you counterburst on the lasers Great Thing's dolphins fire, or does it just look and sound that way? I have little trouble pulling off counterbursts on most bosses now, but I found Great Thing for the first time in a Chronicle mission and I couldn't pull off a counterburst on those dolphins.

I do it all the time, if I have enough shield to survive those accursed purple lasers when they spawn.
Don't worry if you can't counter them, as GT is off-screen for more than 3/4 of your Burst gauge.

Man, CS mode has some really weird difficulty spikes. I completed a 7 zone fixed equipment stage with Great Thing at the end with no shield and no lives left. I don't even know how I survived the upper and lower parts of its body, but I did, apparently.
Anyway, after that incredibly hard (for me) stage, all I get is three 4 zone-long stages with Gaiden, Next and Second. Even the levels after these ones are really easy compared to that one.
Then, Azure Nightmare happened. Oh my God I love it. It's the closest thing to the Embryon I'll get in this game, so of course it's amazing, in my opinion.

Huh, how do you dodge in this bullet pattern of Great Thing's charging Burst?

Before or during he fires it?
If you mean before, move forward in a horizontal line when he fires the orange lasers, move back and forth for the purple ones.
As with all shmups, watching a superplay (or any decent video) is really useful.

[Shepardus]

Do the green "wave" bullets cancel out anything like the yellow laser shots cancel out the yellow needle shots and the regular orange bullets cancel out similar bullets?

Also, is there any way to replay the "warning" missions after you've cleared them? I just came across an 18-zone warning mission with the Gaiden ship and Darius Gaiden music all the way through. It starts you off with a lot of firepower but no shield and only one extra life, but it gives a ton of shield powerups throughout the stages so it was mostly smooth sailing. I didn't clear it, though, because I took a ton of damage on Twin Claw and died to Great Thing on what I think was the last zone. It was pretty fun, though, so I don't mind failing to clear that much because that means I'll get to play it again later. (And what makes these warning zones appear in the first place? Are they random? Do they appear at specific moments?)

[Oniros]

One thing that bugs me from the PC port is that the arcade game (I've only played AC, not AC EX) still looks much better IMO. I think we're stuck with lower res assets because of the Vita version dragging everything down. Why wouldn't the devs give us resolution options for the game?

[StarCreator]

One thing that bugs me from the PC port is that the arcade game (I've only played AC, not AC EX) still looks much better IMO. I think we're stuck with lower res assets because of the Vita version dragging everything down. Why wouldn't the devs give us resolution options for the game?

trap15 would be the best person to speak of this, but I don't see any evidence that any assets were scaled down for this port.

The PC port is capable of much higher resolution than the arcade version; each screen in AC ran at 768p.

[AxelMill]

Do the green "wave" bullets cancel out anything like the yellow laser shots cancel out the yellow needle shots and the regular orange bullets cancel out similar bullets?

Nope. Pretty useless bullets, actually.
I prefer missiles, when possible, but my OCD keeps me from not collecting colored orbs.

Also, is there any way to replay the "warning" missions after you've cleared them? I just came across an 18-zone warning mission with the Gaiden ship and Darius Gaiden music all the way through. It starts you off with a lot of firepower but no shield and only one extra life, but it gives a ton of shield powerups throughout the stages so it was mostly smooth sailing. I didn't clear it, though, because I took a ton of damage on Twin Claw and died to Great Thing on what I think was the last zone. It was pretty fun, though, so I don't mind failing to clear that much because that means I'll get to play it again later. (And what makes these warning zones appear in the first place? Are they random? Do they appear at specific moments?)

You just need to select a mission and press a certain button. Can't tell you which one, as I'm not home as of now.
After all, it'd be pretty stupid if a game of a genre which is 95% based on score wouldn't let you replay the harder stages.

[Steelix100]

Do the green "wave" bullets cancel out anything like the yellow laser shots cancel out the yellow needle shots and the regular orange bullets cancel out similar bullets?

Nope. Pretty useless bullets, actually.
I prefer missiles, when possible, but my OCD keeps me from not collecting colored orbs.

As far as I can tell, the laser is the strongest shot type for most ships, but if you're staying really far back the wave is usually stronger due to the much higher fire rate.

Also, it's fun to take on Great Thing with missiles, cancel out so many of its shots.

In the PSP version, I think the strongest shot type was only available in Burst mode, where basically mashing R to switch weapon (Burst mode only feature) would give you a much stronger weapon.
I miss Burst Mode ):
Although the Burst auto-recharge missions are a nice nod to it I guess

[Shepardus]

You just need to select a mission and press a certain button. Can't tell you which one, as I'm not home as of now.
After all, it'd be pretty stupid if a game of a genre which is 95% based on score wouldn't let you replay the harder stages.

If you find the button let me know, I haven't been able to find it myself (I'm on PC playing on a keyboard). I managed to clear the 18-zone mission I was talking about - Great Thing nearly killed me even though I went into it with over 60 shield, but I just scraped by with 2 shield left. Pretty fun mission, probably because the Gaiden ship is fun.

[AxelMill]

You just need to select a mission and press a certain button. Can't tell you which one, as I'm not home as of now.
After all, it'd be pretty stupid if a game of a genre which is 95% based on score wouldn't let you replay the harder stages.

If you find the button let me know, I haven't been able to find it myself (I'm on PC playing on a keyboard). I managed to clear the 18-zone mission I was talking about - Great Thing nearly killed me even though I went into it with over 60 shield, but I just scraped by with 2 shield left. Pretty fun mission, probably because the Gaiden ship is fun.

It's Tab, weirdly enough. It shows you on the bottom left corner of the screen, if available.

Although the Burst auto-recharge missions are a nice nod to it I guess

Not really a nod, as vanilla Burst also had similar missions.
Yeah, Burst mode was cool. A hidden 10th ship with fixed Burst-only and change projectile type mapped to detach Burst button would've been appreciated.

[Sparrow]

Huh, how do you dodge in this bullet pattern of Great Thing's charging Burst?

Before or during he fires it?
If you mean before, move forward in a horizontal line when he fires the orange lasers, move back and forth for the purple ones.
As with all shmups, watching a superplay (or any decent video) is really useful.

Both. Yeah watching videos should be good however when I skips to the boss stage, it tend to get freeze or get lost in connection. So I prefer How to dodge bosses videos. But they only have the whole zones in every single video mostly.

[trap15]

One thing that bugs me from the PC port is that the arcade game (I've only played AC, not AC EX) still looks much better IMO. I think we're stuck with lower res assets because of the Vita version dragging everything down. Why wouldn't the devs give us resolution options for the game?

I don't know why you think this, the AC/ACEX is the exact same as what's in the PC version.

[qmish]

It's not dragged down, it's how it originally was.

While those factory-alike level parts and others, which debuted in DBAC, are higher in quality; there are those like underwater city, which still using assests from psp.

Usual enemies also may would have been redone more, especially those ships with cannons.

[Klatrymadon]

Finally downloading it! Haven't been this excited about a game in years. Will be glad to spot some of you on the Steam leaderboards and have some scores to chase.