Thunder Force IV High Scores... (New Thread)

[azmun]

I'd like to request for an update. This afternoon, got to play again and for the first time ever, I've completed a game with one life. It's a milestone for me. Since I started my run till the time I entered my initials for score entry, it took 39 minutes. The final boss battle was a freakin close one as I approached it with a red shield. I took one hit and was very vulnerable but fortunately I had hunter to take out the last remaining orbs. My new entry:

azmun - all clear - 6,246,720 - normal

[Perikles]

Normal

Perikles - ALL - 6,493,590

This felt like a liberation after the dreadful clutches of Thunder Force II. I wasn't aware that those pulsating spores in stage 9 are worth a colossal 10,000 points each, I ignored them in the past since they're docile if you don't shoot them. That's most likely my main increase in score besides a few more power-ups I found.

[Aggro Sky]

Aggro Sky
ALL
6699260
Maniac

This run is also recorded and uploaded to YouTube.

[Angry Hina]

Angry Hina - all clear - 2.873.070 - normal
https://youtu.be/vu-7ahMtq5I

Why does my score suck so hard? Does everyone milked but me? I hate the random stuff in this game (e.g. lava boss)?

[Steven]

Why does my score suck so hard? Does everyone milked but me? I hate the random stuff in this game (e.g. lava boss)?

Possible that some people are playing on Saturn, as the scoring in the Saturn version is fucked; I play the game on MD and then play it on Saturn and I end up with somewhere around a million points more on Saturn than on MD for no reason even when playing the game the same way. You also REALLY REALLY REALLY need that massive no miss bonus, as somewhere around 40% of the possible score in the game comes just from that one bonus; getting it will almost double the score you posted. Fortunately it's easy enough to no miss the game.

But yes, you can milk the stage 1 miniboss forever on MD and Saturn, although I am sure if the game counterstops or if it goes infinitely. These scores are most likely milking, probably at that specific point; the Switch and Mega Drive Mini 2 removed the infinite milking and the highest score on Switch for Rynex is 5,905,700.

[Rastan78]

Looks like there might be an infinite pattern still on the Switch. It's when you face the large stage 1 battleship again on the space stage. Normally you destroy all the rockets and then a small miniboss appears. If you leave at least one rocket the miniboss never appears. Choose a weapon that won't damage the small red missile hatches on top and you can sit in one spot and continuously milk. The score adds up very slowly similar to the stage 1 (default) milk.

So I never actually tested this for an extended time. Maybe it eventually times out or the hatches self destruct? Kind of annoying if it really works and defeats the purpose of removing points for missiles on stage 1.

Seems like there has to be a catch as this milk is just too obvious to be left in?

[Steven]

Great. This needs more testing, but scoring in this game might be broken in every release if you can milk stage 5 indefinitely. If true, this once again makes the Saturn version the definitive version of the game; if you're going to play a game with broken scoring, you might as well play the only version that has no slowdown or sprite flicker.

[Rastan78]

Yeah so I set this up this am. Weighed down the shot button and went to pick out a Xmas tree with the fam. Came back and still going strong at least a couple hours later. Yep, its an infinite. While the score accumulates slowly this could still be used to get a huge score by someone willing to just leave their system on for days.

Btw isn't the audio on the Saturn version supposed to be pretty bad?

[Steven]

That sucks. It seems like such an obvious oversight, too. I wonder if the Mega Drive Mini 2 ROM is any different, but I doubt it.

Saturn sound effects are kind of weak, but the voices are of much higher quality and the music and music channels never cut out because it's CDDA. Overall the audio is an upgrade over the MD version.

[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 in fear of the not everytime given boss bonus (mentioned in this thread) and got my 1LC. Ive read about the gargoyle boss beein easier in this version but I am not sure why. 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 ou 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 bacaus you didnt had to do anythung 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 aavoid 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.

I have in not a single moment milked anything. (killed the stage 1 boss as fast as possible for example)

Angry Hina - all clear - 6.004.940 - normal
(I will post the replay later this day)

[Angry Hina]

Here it is:
https://youtu.be/Mw3pB_x29ak