My scores (v0.22d):
Normal - Francette - Lv. 3 - 104 Million
Normal - Lise - Lv. 4 - 96 Million
I'm no longer at the office so I can't retrieve the exact numbers and replay data. That, and I tend to bomb/counter-bomb too much in Level 3--it's really advised to just turn off the particle effects.
To clarify the new v0.22d mechanics (esp. for newbies to the game):
The green bubbles now add to a Counter meter right below the lifebar. In addition, the meter can be filled by killing enemies, and more rapidly by using the beam instead of the regular shot. In addition, getting closer to enemies when attacking increases the Counter meter much faster in this way--you can get to 5K in a matter of minutes if you pointblank with the beam.
Once the counter reaches 5000 or higher, you can enter the game's version of Kakusei mode by pressing the Counter button, at which point the Counter meter will begin to drain rapidly. During Counter mode, enemies fire a lot more bullets--especially the bosses--and your firepower also gets stronger with lots of neat alpha blending effects, causing the entire screen to slow down. However, destroying enemies in Counter mode cancels out their bullets and turns them into silver Jewels, which add to the Jewel counter at the lower right. So it's in your best interest to milk enemies by waiting until they have fired enough bullets, then killing them quickly before you get walled to death.
As in the older versions the Jewel counter decreases during a miniboss or boss fight, so it will be in your best interest to finish things quickly. On the other hand, boss battles are the most profitable moments for activating Counter, assuming you do it at the right time (since Countering at the worst possible moment can lead to a painful and unavoidable death--usually happens during the boss of Level 2 when I get cocky and think I can harvest a truckload of gems right when he uses his heavy barrage patterns). Right before a boss loses a lifebar or dies altogether, hit Counter to dramatically increase their bullet output and then kill them immediately before you run out of breathing space.
To exit Counter mode, either wait for the Counter meter to run out completely, or use a bomb. As far as I know, there's no direct penalty in-game for bombing aside from losing prime opportunities to score big points, so feel free to unload especially if you're in the middle of a boss fight and Counter mode is about to get you outright killed.
However, waiting for the meter to run out also has its benefits--if it runs out naturally, the player character will emit an expanding shockwave that can instantly wipe out any and all popcorn enemies on the screen, as well as cancel every bullet that comes into contact with it into silver jewels. Additionally, enemies will be unable to fire at you for a full second after Counter mode ends.
Now, the character changes:
It seems Francette is still the optimum choice for scoring big in the right hands, as her speed and strong frontal firepower enable you to charge up Counter much more quickly and milk shots more efficiently in Counter mode (due to faster kills even with burst firing--her shot and laser become beasts when you go into Counter, so you can wait until the screen is filled with bullets, aim, tap shot a few times and you're good to go). The problem is that when the screen gets filled up fast, it becomes hard to move around with her speed becoming more of a threat than an asset. But I can pretty much beat my regular Lise score in Stage 1 by about 10 mil using her.
Lise is now the more newbie-friendly of the two to use since you can sit in one spot safely while letting her normal spread shot do all the dirty work . This is very effective in Counter mode wherein your shots are powered up, and quite useful in crowded sections (e.g. Level 3 when the giant pink orbs and winged enemies pop out all at once and you're out of room to maneuver--you can easily rack up around 30-50 mil here and possibly more just by sitting in one place and letting your option's spread take care of the baddies).
Regarding the decision to go the route of Galuda, I feel TRIS-GRAM did this to balance out the gameplay and make it more consistent. Having two characters with distinctively different methods of scoring in v0.21 felt really awkward (somewhat of a forced overdesign, actually--you can almost tell which games TRIS-GRAM loved too much). Now the gem-based scoring is pretty much on even ground without having to differentiate between gaining score via charged point-blank lock shotting (Lise) or letting enemies go into overdrive before killing them with lock-on (Francette).
Though I have to agree---I do miss Francette's lock-on beams of total annihilation and eternal suffering.
