Where the Darius Love at?

[Sinful]

Yesturday I've been messing just a bit with Metal Black, the supposed Darius III at one point in development. Gonna toss this into the Darius fray too as a spinoff a la Salamander to Gradius. Noticed a few more simularities to Darius in this game that Darius Wikia missed; Stage 1 does not only have Yamato, it also has his Darius II stage. Just look at the buildings. In stage II I noticed them pink bullets that spin from Darius II that I think where destroyable in that game? Just not this one, which is used by the mid boss & some other enemies... and I think some enemy pattern & style fit the bill too?... That's it. Haven't seen stage 3 yet. Also starting with default difficulty .>_>;; Gots to make this game last if it's only 6 stages long. >_< (How can something that was supposed to be Darius have so few stages? Maybe they extra graphical work needed & new technology was what held this team back & also been what made them scrap the Darius idea? Not until Darius Gaiden did they have a good enough handle on it to make so many levels with this style... still wish Metal Black has at least one more stage). ... Also, this game seems much more fun now that I'm a Darius fan now. (Aparently being a Saturn fan wasn't enough at the start?).

Darius II progress? Well, I somehow made it past Yamato once no death & without a shield, which went against my plans of full shield to go with the mid screen default fast auto fire point blank spamming. For some reason he was tripping out moving about back & forth quickly instead of using them pink balls in his last form? Then he went to the other side of the screen and back to the middle until he finally used them. I made a miricle dodge somehow, and while I prepared to dodge another one he got ready, he went down?! I was like "No freakin way?!" Course I totally blew the next stage ASAP even though I was fully powered up. >_< After two more tries (even with some shield), I couldn't seal another win. Right here I decided these last few stages will take some serious time, might as well warm up by trying all other paths up to stage 5 at least. This way I have some variety to help with the restart syndrome. My total Darius II time in MAME for all version except US (which is at 1 hour) is basically 30 hours... not sure if this is normal? But I'm getting my money's worth out of this game at least (money I paid for my PC & videocard, that is ).

Stage 2 is way unbalanced though, much too hard so early in the game with so few powerups, but I've mostly got it down.

That's because stage C is way too hard for a 2nd stage. While stage B is like one of the easiest in the game. I finally put a ton of time in stage C while trying out all othe paths and this stage pisses me off like no other (no other stage at all upsets me). And when I try to get this stage down to a science, aka. kill midboss before his spin attack or right after without taking a hit or all to my shield, I fail even more. And that just almost made me swear off this game, peroid. Cause you know, people say it "so easy." Then I though maybe the guys that say it's easiest use an insanely high auto fire rate? Yeah, it helps, but still no where near stage B enough. Unless the Saturn version can reach higher levels of auto fire then MAME in the same way Darius Gaiden Extra version can? Either way, not going the insane auto fire route. I'm just going back to winging this level & just dodging & pretending the mid boss ain't there. Don't care if he goes down or not. At least I mostly beat it this way. It's just not a down pat solution, and prevents me from daydreaming (which is what kills me usually) like I could since almost the start with stage B. ... What's that? State save? If I have to do that to get the level down pat, it still don't mean it's the easiest. And "no" to that too.

And you beat Gaiden too now. You sure kicking fish butt and taking down no names with these here Darius games... Man, this game sure seems like the pinnicle of the series to me. And so amazingly pretty & in an Arcade style sort of way (my fave style )... do you think it's da best? Or you eyeing G Darius instead? ... wish the MAME version of that game had samples to fix the music too. I mean, Extra version of G Darius is only playable via MAME or PCB, after all. Guess this is where it sucks there ain't enough Darius fans (is it easy to make it work with samples?)... at least I found all the soundtracks for dl I could find for Darius & Taito. Could just play that...

hexidecimal digits

This is how you know someone is really into a game. And yes, I've messed around with hex for my fave game too once until I pratically figured it almost all out. So you've gone this far? You must really love this game. Guess it's your fave in the series? How you rank the rest?

And how the heck did you notice that "1C is a tad slower?! I only used bullet distance to come to that conclusion (which matched perfectly when I paused game. ie. the lenght of both life & level hud boxes combined). That, and the bullet sound pacing sounded about right too? This one of those things where it's "I've played this game enough to know this sort of stuff in my sleep, Sinful. So, please. Know who you're talking too. >_<" Or you just compare a video or something?


EDIT - wow, stage "C" is really kicking my butt. When I started today, lost 3x in a row. My win/loss situation never got better. Plus I lost 3x in row again at some point. I'm actually getting worse instead of better now! Really thought it was getting odd that ACSeraph was still complaining about stage 2 time & time again. Yet here I'm bitching about it, and even louder. *sigh* I just want to see more of the lower path stages (something like no miss until stage 5 or 6?) before I shift my focus again toward all the middle stages & forever say goodbye to stage "C" until I've 1cc'ed every other routes first. "Screw this stage, I'm going home." ... K, I'm think I need to sleep this mess of day off now. And cry myself to sleep.

EDIT: k, so shit didn't hit the fan here. Or I got here just in time? "Don't misunderstand that South Park reference. It's toward the game." Other then that, I had a really good sleep. Time to take that evil lower path Darius II route all over again with my newly aquired "well rested" powers.

[ACSeraph]

You know that part in the stage where there's 4 cannons arranged vertically between sets of those wiggly blue blocks? The extra ship icon is tucked away under the bottom set of blue blocks. It can seem dangerous to get but remember that your ship can fly right through the blocks without being harmed.

You would never think you could fly through those... How did anyone even discover that was possible? Who gets that far and then tries to suicide into a jello block...?

Thanks for the info on the extend, with that I'm pretty much guaranteed to clear every time. REally need to find a list of all the extend locations in the game though. It'll be helpful as I try to tackle other courses.

Woah, you can just pass through those jello blocks? Insane! That makes that level 5x easier.

AC, your clear mirrors mine in many ways, esp. bomb-spamming Neon Light Illusion and Risk Storage. You know how it goes. Hawks gotta fly, and fish gotta die.

Haha yeah I think that's gotta be the most efficient way to do it. Neon is a beast for such an early boss. Really gotta figure out a more effective strategy for him.

Yesturday I've been messing just a bit with Metal Black, the supposed Darius III at one point in development... Gots to make this game last if it's only 6 stages long. >_< (How can something that was supposed to be Darius have so few stages?...

Best to think of Metal Black as its own thing. Given its rather insane difficulty I appreciate that it's not any longer than it is. Also it may not give you stage options like Darius, but it's not really a fair comparison imo. Metal Black's stages really artistically outshine anything I've seen in the Darius series. It's like they put 26 stages worth of effort into those 6 stages, and as a result youll never find a more beautiful shmup.

Darius II progress?... And when I try to get this stage down to a science, aka. kill midboss before his spin attack or right after without taking a hit or all to my shield, I fail even more. And that just almost made me swear off this game, peroid. Cause you know, people say it "so easy." Then I though maybe the guys that say it's easiest use an insanely high auto fire rate? Yeah, it helps, but still no where near stage B enough. Unless the Saturn version can reach higher levels of auto fire then MAME in the same way Darius Gaiden Extra version can?

I've never heard anyone call Darius II easy, you'd have to be on crack to think it was. As for autofire, theres apparently a code that allows you to double the on screen shot limit in the Saturn version. I haven't tried it, but my guess is it makes things a lot easier. As for autofire, the Saturn version has 1/30 which no human could pull off, but the default shot limit is so small that 1/30 actually makes the game significantly harder, since you can't fire a constant stream of shots that way.

Don't get me wrong about my complaints about stage 2, both of them are beatable and I've beaten both. But they are very unbalanced and I think most people would give up on the game after seeing them. Cool as it is Darius II has some serious design flaws. Balance is one, and the impossible recovery is an even more significant flaw. The impossible recovery almost makes a good argument for DII being a quarter muncher, were it not for the fact that the game is possible to 1cc despite being rather unfair.

And you beat Gaiden too now. You sure kicking fish butt and taking down no names with these here Darius games... Man, this game sure seems like the pinnicle of the series to me. And so amazingly pretty & in an Arcade style sort of way (my fave style )... do you think it's da best? Or you eyeing G Darius instead?

Yep, after practicing DII Gaiden really isn't so hard. You'll probably tear through it when you get around to it. Not saying its easy mind you, especially outside of the easy course, but it's no DII for sure.

As for my favorite of the ones I've played, I guess I'm partial to the actual multi-screen arcade games. I actually really love burst and its the only one I've had a substantial amount of time with at the arcade so I'll go with that as my fav for now, but I really really loved what little I saw of Darius 1 too. Visually though Gaiden is my favorite by far.

As for G, I bought the PS1 version the same day I bought Gaiden, but Gaiden appealed to me more so I've actually only played through a couple credits of G. Now that I got my first clear in Gaiden though I may move onto G for a bit, because it definitely looks like an interesting game. I'll probly start it tonight.

[MathU]

The best thing about Darius II is how it taunts you with the abundant supply of extra ships.

How you rank the rest?

I definitely think Gaiden is the sharpest game in the series and as far as I'm concerned one of best games Taito has ever made among their huge library of games. G-Darius is probably the next-best Darius after it, but I think it's a real step down from Gaiden in a lot of ways. After G-Darius, I dunno, it's hard to decide and there are so many “ports”/remixes of Darius I and II that I don't have a ton of experience with. If we're just talking arcade games probably Darius after it. Darius II does have a lot of bells and whistles but I really dislike its mean power-up system and there's also the fact that it only has three different final bosses.

And how the heck did you notice that "1C is a tad slower?!

Frame counting between shots. I wanted to make sure I was playing on the same rate as the original once, but then I realized there actually isn't an equivalent setting. 1C is close enough.

You would never think you could fly through those... How did anyone even discover that was possible? Who gets that far and then tries to suicide into a jello block...?

Hah, it took me long after I'd beaten the game on multiple routes to realize it but I think it happened while I was trying to figure out the best way to get a lot of points from those falling spheres in Zone X one time.

REally need to find a list of all the extend locations in the game though. It'll be helpful as I try to tackle other courses.

I can just tell you if you're interested in a particular zone. You can also find them all collected in this set of Darius Gaiden clears, but you'll have to navigate to and sit through the zone in question. In case it's not clear, the extra ship icons are always found in the 3rd and 6th stages of the game.

[ACSeraph]

The best thing about Darius II is how it taunts you with the abundant supply of extra ships.

lmao! Right? That's gotta be some of the most epic trolling in the entire genre.

[Sinful]

K, made it to stage 6 on the lower route. Good enough, I say. So I'm gonna take a break from touching the jinxed stage "C" for a bit now. Made it to Leadain no death, and was shocked at the mad slowdown fully powered up (this normal PCB emulation?) and thought for sure I'd beat him np?! But alas, the slowdown threw me completely off as to when he was gonna throw his arms, and never seen it coming. Used the rest of my lives to finish him off and take a peak of what the next level looks like? Now I'm gonna go back to doing the same for the middle courses, then finally & slowly start making my choice on my final route?

I played this game a ton today. Gonna take a break with some Metal Black & some other Darius games for the rest of the evening... and some net browsing maybe too? ... On Darius of course.

As for my favorite of the ones I've played, I guess I'm partial to the actual multi-screen arcade games. I actually really love burst and its the only one I've had a substantial amount of time with at the arcade so I'll go with that as my fav for now, but I really really loved what little I saw of Darius 1 too. Visually though Gaiden is my favorite by far.

As for G, I bought the PS1 version the same day I bought Gaiden, but Gaiden appealed to me more so I've actually only played through a couple credits of G. Now that I got my first clear in Gaiden though I may move onto G for a bit, because it definitely looks like an interesting game. I'll probly start it tonight.

You had to go there and say Burst Arcade, the one Darius I can't touch. >_<

Once you get some more G Darius playtime. Write down what you think of it so far as you go along.

The best thing about Darius II is how it taunts you with the abundant supply of extra ships.

Yeah, but I still use 'em for extra practice and pray that maybe, just maybe I can pull a miricle and actually make a recovery to some extent? But I just noticed a first. When I got to stage 6 just a bit ago and got that special orb that gives you more levels for all weapons. I noticed this time it gave me the forward angled lazers instead of just up & down. Course I still think the game could of done much better then that. >_<

I definitely think Gaiden is the sharpest game in the series and as far as I'm concerned one of best games Taito has ever made among their huge library of games. G-Darius is probably the next-best Darius after it, but I think it's a real step down from Gaiden in a lot of ways. After G-Darius, I dunno, it's hard to decide and there are so many “ports”/remixes of Darius I and II that I don't have a ton of experience with. If we're just talking arcade games probably Darius after it. Darius II does have a lot of bells and whistles but I really dislike its mean power-up system and there's also the fact that it only has three different final bosses.

Interesting that you mention G Darius falls pretty far off from Gaiden. And Gaiden one of the sharpest Taito made games. Sure looks that way from what Taito games I tried (mostly STGs so far).

And yes, I've had this hunch that Darius II may not surpass Darius 1 from the start? Darius 1 also seems more spontanious too as to where you are on the screen affects where enemies enter & such, then Darius II from what I seen so far? Plus, there's just that vibe & feeling it gives off. Like it really hit on something special (& not just the atmosphere, but gameplay too) and Darius II went too far away from it, but I don't see it pulling something too special to replace it like Gaiden did. But this is a very early opinion, and I've had my mind pull a 180 all the time the more I play a game to know to always keep an open mind at all times.

I can just tell you if you're interested in a particular zone. You can also find them all collected in this set of Darius Gaiden clears, but you'll have to navigate to and sit through the zone in question. In case it's not clear, the extra ship icons are always found in the 3rd and 6th stages of the game.

Oh cool! MathU in action at Darius Gaiden! ... Only I can't watch these yet. Gots to exhaust this game quite a bit for myself before I even decide to take a peak. Figuring it out for yourself is a major part of the fun in gaming. ... So just another tease for now...

[ACSeraph]

Played a bit of G Darius during my lunch break and tried out the lower path for the hell of it. My god Queen Fossil is final boss epic! What the hell kinda game has something that extreme for stage 2!? I can't even imagine what the later stages have in store. That said after all the Gaiden lately G does't feel too tight to me. Also haven't figured out how to counter laser yet, but it seems important. Guess I'll have plenty of time to play it more tonight.

/goes to look for a system guide

[Sinful]

K, time to ask/talk some technical stuff;

- what's up with the shield in all games? ie. how many hits can each level take for each game?
- also in Version 2 of G Darius, Gold shield supposedly saves you from background damage. But do you bounce off them dangerously a la Darius 1 too? And other Darius games do it?
- I'm really not noticing what "adaptive difficulty" setting does in the dip switches for Darius II? Guessing raises difficulty as you play & do better/not die, but haven't noticed anything yet. Really need to try it for the last two levels to maybe notice something?
- Anyone know the difference between Darius II ver. 1, 2, & 3? Only noticed a difference from 1. The powerups don't fly up & off the screen first, but go down instead first. Ver. 2 & 3 may just have a score abuse/major bug fix a la Gradius II PCB? What about other Darius Arcade games? (non-extra versions/major revision differences. It may be too much to ask? As I want something more detailed the what wikia has)
- anyone know anything of rank for other Darius games besides Gaiden?
- anything else you can add, go for it!

Playepic!

Yes, that's actually the keyword I notice pop up quite a few times while playing this game for just a bit. It really seems to do a good job at making this word pop in your mind from time to time, by suprisingly making very good use of the 3D? Something I wasn't expectying at all. (Too bad it wasn't on a Saturn hardware or something else, so it could also combine polygons with awesome & non-pixelated 2D scaling backgrounds a la Tera Driver too. So graphics would of held up much better) Music still sounds epic & fits the game very well too. So yes, presentation really took me by surprise as to what they could do with 3D.

Gameplay not as tight, due to higher complexity, so it's obviously much harder to balance the game more properly. And them Lazers make any hard part a breeze. Not to mention extra firepower of all kinds from captured enemies too.

Lazer stuff. Hold the non-auto shot shot button to charge lazer when you've captured an enemy. Tap the hell out of this button during boss duels. The faster you tap, the better chance at you winning. If you press the capture button while you have an enemy, you set off whats seems to be a pretty weak bomb (forget it's range? Only use it to quickly get rid of enemy and crab another. ie. mid boss instead)? It also seemed that a mid boss absorbed may cause a bigger lazer? So maybe also more powerfull & longer lasting too if true?... Also, seems holding auto shot during duel beams works too?! So... that's pretty weird & kinda takes the feeling of you participating & really sweating it out...


Also, just noticed yesturday that the auto rate in the PS1 version is pretty freakin fast (like at least 3 delay, maybe?). So it may be more balanced without it?... May just play original Arcade release style and just tap without any auto available? (AC only version 2 has a very fast auto installed too. But game is hard to balance this, unlike PS1 version) Or at least no higher then 5 delay/10Hz. Wonder if anybody plays this without autofire? EDIT - just playing PS1 version right now & was really bummed out it had no auto fire adjust. As it seemed you really had to tap the hell out of it for a decent auto fire rate? But at one point I did something different thanks to one special game and found out this game has "Burst Auto Frre!!" It was really hard to notice & still is, so thank you Metal Black! Plus, oh yeah, I'm for sure playing it this way only now. (Plus things are already making more sense right off the bat). EDIT 2 - very hard to notice it when start out at level 1 weapons power. Made me go "What? It don't work anymore?!"

[EmperorIng]

I was practicing new routes in Gaiden last night, and was (for the first time) consciously trying not to tear off every boss piece I shot.

I got royally wrecked when I reached Titanic Lance though. I think I was too ambitious going after the big bad half-way boss himself, but I thought with my super skills and a fully powered-up ship I would be able to manage. NOPE. I lost all my lives in nearly a minute.

How the heck do you deal with that thing?

If I would have survived, I might have been able to seriously practice against Crusty Hammer, who is probably one of the meanest sumbitches in the entire game.

@sinful:
In G-Darius, you can use enemies as a smart bomb, which as you've noticed, aren't terribly strong. But you can use them to weaken a midboss and get a far better capture.

In boss duels, the size of your laser is entirely determined by how fast you tap the shot button during laser duels.

Also, I don't notice any difference between G-Darius PS1's autofire and the arcade port on Taito Legends 2 for the PS2 (which is generally considered to be an accurate arcade rendition of the game). The game is plenty challenging - there's no need to add extra difficulty!

[Sinful]

Also, I don't notice any difference between G-Darius PS1's autofire and the arcade port on Taito Legends 2 for the PS2 (which is generally considered to be an accurate arcade rendition of the game). The game is plenty challenging - there's no need to add extra difficulty!

No? But I really love "Arcade style" challenge/difficulty. Maybe for the home PS1 port they added the faster auto fire rate to better "console-ize" the difficutly? And even going as far as adding a beginner mode for all levels, and not just first 3 like the arcade Version 2. And for Version 2 to have that Arcade style difficulty maintained with the better autofire rate (& always a lazer ready after death thingy, which also seems like a massive help), they adjusted for it by making the game harder. ... Burst fire rate still seems pretty good from the little I tried anyways too (and it don't tire you out). But yeah, this is not set in stone for me yet, just messing around (why I want to hear from others), though I aim to try for it at least and see how it goes? Can't see any harm, & only extra replay value for which I have lots of time for so far? Though higher difficutly levels may make me cave in for sure if difficulty rises too much for my meager skills? Plus I really am one for playing something as originally intended, well, I try anyways. And the original Arcade game did not have auto fire from what I see... must... appease... strong OCD gaming behaviours, and... punish myself with extra Darius pain. Darius pain is goood... except that jinxed stage C.

EmperorIng, you beat G Darius yet? And did you also yet mention how you rank the Darius games so far? Do you like 1 or 2 better? At least include the first 4 major Arcade releases. So, I want to hear about who wins you're love more between Gaiden & G Darius too, and why? Write a book, write a book. (There just ain't enough Darius stuff to read about on the net. And I need my fix >_<)

[ACSeraph]

The autofire issue in Gaiden is very specific in that the original version already features autofire (though slow-ish) that the game appears to be built around. G is a different case and features a high autofire rate by default in it's ports. When I played the arcade version in Tokyo it also featured autofire at the same rate as the home port. It was clearly intended to be used. Don't get too caught up in the anti-autofire thing. For most games, especially ones that totally lack autofire it is legit and should be used. The Gaiden argument is somewhat more complex only because it has autofire by default. No autofire whatsoever is dumb, so go ahead and use it. The fast autofire doesn't tear through the bosses in G Darius in nearly the same way it does in Gaiden anyhow.

[MathU]

- what's up with the shield in all games? ie. how many hits can each level take for each game?
- anyone know anything of rank for other Darius games besides Gaiden?

The amount of shield hits you can stock together depends on the game. In the original Darius there's no limit I believe on how much you can keep stocking shield hits but in Gaiden for instance the max amount of hits you can stock is 3 for green level, 4 for silver, and 5 for gold.

I'm fairly certain that Gaiden is the only game in the series with adaptive difficulty.

In boss duels, the size of your laser is entirely determined by how fast you tap the shot button during laser duels

It's determined by the type of captured enemy you use up to fire your own beam (those stage minibosses making one level higher than the others) and how many beams you absorb/reflect during the duration.

When I played the arcade version in Tokyo it also featured autofire at the same rate as the home port.

The arcade version of G-Darius actually doesn't have any autofire features (unless that 2nd version Sinful is talking about does) so that was probably some sort of external hack. Regardless, yeah your weapons are pretty underpowered in G-Darius to the extent that the bosses are almost always ended with a beam battle if you know what you're doing (even doing all the damage). Autofire just helps you clear enemy waves a fair bit along with removing the ability to fail a beam battle.

I kind of wrote off playing G-Darius without autofire originally but it may not really be so bad after all. It’s kind of like Cho Ren Sha 68K in that pressing the button once shoots a few times so it doesn’t really require that much effort to achieve a steady stream.

[Sinful]

No autofire whatsoever is dumb, so go ahead and use it.

Burst Auto Fire is Auto Fire. Just another form of it. You press and hold the fire button and for like a second or so you get a pretty high fire rate, though after like a second, it slows down pretty quickly to a very slow auto fire rate. So before that happens, you quickly let go and quickly again press & hold for like a second or so, rinse, repeat. And you have what seems like a pretty constant stream of a prety fast rate of fire without bashing the hell out of a button (powering up seemed to increase burst length time?). So technically G Darius already has auto fire and most likely also balanced around it too (unless they changed auto fire rate during the last minute or so?). Otherwise why go through the programing trouble of including this type of auto fire and not the other? Or at least increase burst fire rate?

And like I've said, once this Darius trip ends, I'm gonna suffer major widthdrawel. So doing things like this (& disabling continues) is all part of making a good thing last longer. Once I'm really into a game (which is rare to begin with. Another reason I treasure these moments), I care for nothing else. So why rush it? ... Crap, your an English Teacher?! I'm probably driving you nuts with my writing and brackets all over the place.

*snip*

So that's why in Darius 1 the shields sometimes seemed to last for like ever sometimes?! Never would of guessed it. Thanks. Plus for clearing that G Darius mid boss makes beams more powerful bit, as I thought it seemed that way?

Yeah, that's mostly what I'm noticing, in G Darius clearing waves enemies is not as easy with just the standard burst auto fire & without the higher rate PS1 auto fire. And yes, bosses lasting forever was one thing that drove me away from G Darius awile back before someone on a forum told me to "use the beam, Luke!" So nothing changes for them either or.

[EmperorIng]

The Darius series is nice though, especially in its later installments, by increasing replay by offering so many different routes and stages (and bosses) to play with.

That's why, in answer to your ranking of the Darius games, I'd put it at something like:

Darius Gaiden
G-Darius
Darius II, sort-of tied with, but not really
Darius

My thoughts on the first two Darius games flip flop - I like overall the variety of Darius II, and the polish it has over Darius. However, the unforgiving cruelty of Darius II makes it hard to dismiss Darius' more rudimentary but playable game journey. It's a close ranking, but as I said before, I have a love-hate relationship with the game. G-Darius is exceedingly good, very much an 'epic' game. The same can be said of its predecessor, Darius Gaiden.

I like Darius Gaiden a bit more because of the cleaner 2D visuals, and simpler, easier-to-grasp game mechanics. G-Darius' dynamic capture system makes for fun and varied play sessions, but it's easier to jump in to Darius Gaiden with its no-nonsense fish-shooting. There is also nostalgia involved, being that DG is one of the first three games I bought for my Saturn roughly three years ago, my first-ever shmup, and consequently the game that hooked me to the genre.

I haven't cleared G-Darius yet, not by a long shot. It's a game I find a lot more demanding in terms of managing survival, though I have yet to master using capture balls as bombs and beams during the stages (I err on the side of hoarding). It has the unfortunate tendency of polygon shooters of being hard to see things on-screen, but that's a minor problem (as compared to something like RayStorm or RayCrisis) - the art-direction in G-Darius is as good as any other mainstay of that era, except perhaps bar Einhander.

[Sinful]

K, I may stick with beating Yamato in the upper most Earth stage, or the other if i really run into a brick wall ahead? As yesturday when I got to him, I managed to replicate that thing where is wastes time pacing back and forth quite a bit buying me some very good time point blanking from the middle of the screen. Just got to figure out best opertunity to pass him after when he does his pink balls trick so I don't get cornered to the very left for another pink ball attack.

Though I found Leadain in a non underwater stage is also full with slowdown help. But his stage I've tried seem tricker? I've really got the upmost Earth path down pat (ie. I can kill the mid boss before he even attacks or pretty close to it).

EDIT #2; Made it no miss past Yamato (shield took 1 hit on him though). And even reached last stage 7/W with 2 lives left. Had to beat stage 6 Grand Octopuss with level 1 weapons, but only died only on him due to a very silly mistake. So yep. Grand Octopuss is just a baby puppy & I can sense this 1cc is now very near.

If I beat Earth on the upmost path, I may go down a path? That seemed much easier then staying up?... didn't have much time playing yesturday as i was on a 2 hour bus to sisters then back. And on the way back someone yapped my brains out instead of letting me play my Darius games on my PSP. >_< (Also have Genesis & PCE emulators on it)

*Snip*

Seems everyone ranks Gaiden & G Darius above the first two? Yeah, strong love hate with Darius 2 I can see. >_< But I really must love it very much too cause I can't seem to move on to anything else!

The 3D is the one flaw that I can really point out it G Darius too. And I too have time with spoting things as easy & judging 3D STGs. Especially the older lower resolution kind (ie. upcaled G Darius twice in ePSXe already, and it does seem to make things easier? But I'm mostly one for trying to get thing as they were on original release day. So I'm purist or whatever the word is? And I won't be doing much of this, though I also like to mess around with things this and other things too, so not totally off limits). It's complexity should be fine as long as the game is well balanced enough & fun. And I don't like my games to be too refined either (kiinda like how spontanious on the spot guitar solo's are best). As the other way around to an extent and sometimes even a lot more can be a very good thing too (ie. original 3 month dev time AC Salamander comes to mind & a perfect example as it has this unbelieveable charm even thought very rushed. But, the latest revision or "special verison replication hack" with it's cetain welcome bug fixes & Gradius powerupbar is prefered).

Hey, so wait, you only beat Darius 1 out of the Arcade games? Maybe Gaiden too?




EDIT - @ ACSeraph; I'm a totall idiot for not realizing this much sooner, as a Sega Saturn fan. ACSeraph! When playing any Saturn game, hold A+B+C and then press "Start." This brings you back to the title screen instantly. (On the PCE & PCE CD, hold Start & press select, only it totally soft resets the system instead of the more convenient title screen). This should for sure solve you Darius II issue. Have fun!

[Kollision]

the reason why it's so hard to rank the Darius games is because each chapter is awesomely unique / uniquely awesome
that's not the case with the rest of the most famous old school shmup franchises

of course this is coming from a diehard Darius II fan but whatever

[EmperorIng]

the reason why it's so hard to rank the Darius games is because each chapter is awesomely unique / uniquely awesome
that's not the case with the rest of the most famous old school shmup franchises

of course this is coming from a diehard Darius II fan but whatever

The few, the proud, the strange.

Each game is very unique, that's for sure.

@Sinful:
I've beaten all the games, of course, but I've only 1CC'd Darius and Darius Gaiden. I get up to about Grand Octopus on any route on Darius II when I finally give up the ghost.

I find the Yamato stages slightly easier than the Leadain stages; likewise, Yamato is an easier boss than Leadain (with its flying whip-dick attack).

[Sinful]

the reason why it's so hard to rank the Darius games is because each chapter is awesomely unique / uniquely awesome
that's not the case with the rest of the most famous old school shmup franchises

of course this is coming from a diehard Darius II fan but whatever

Good, Kollision is still around. Thought all these massive posts scared him off? ... But "Oh noes! I might of scared ACSeraph off with horrible writing skills?!"

I knew Darius II is your fave, is the vibe I got from you. And wasn't it Sagia/Darius II for Sega Genesis that was your introduction to the series as well? It's really hard to go against first love too... especially in combination with another powerful ally called nostalgia. But this is easily my most played Darius so far by leaps and bounds, so if it weren't really good, I don't think my obsession for 1cc'ing would of been this strong? It may even leap to #1 for all I know? Stuff like this happens to me all the time. Plus, really surprises me how much punishment I'm letting this game deal to me?

But for real, you can't list them in order? Thought you just needed to 1cc at least G Darius first?... But come on, put an effort for the ones you've played now. Just wing something? Doesn't have to mean it's set in stone? Opinions change all the time.

the reason why it's so hard to rank the Darius games is because each chapter is awesomely unique / uniquely awesome
that's not the case with the rest of the most famous old school shmup franchises

of course this is coming from a diehard Darius II fan but whatever

The few, the proud, the strange.

Each game is very unique, that's for sure.

@Sinful:
I've beaten all the games, of course, but I've only 1CC'd Darius and Darius Gaiden. I get up to about Grand Octopus on any route on Darius II when I finally give up the ghost.

I find the Yamato stages slightly easier than the Leadain stages; likewise, Yamato is an easier boss than Leadain (with its flying whip-dick attack).

lol @ whip dick. Cause that's exactly how I see it too. A pack of balls whipping a dick. And really, what's with Japanese dev's & all these phalic references in their shmups? You see the bomb animation in Darius II before it goes off? It's blinking at you. And what about when it goes off as you set it up for the first boss' second time return and it blows up twice per screen all the way across to the left? Yep, someone is gratifying themselves all over and toward you. ... So glad I could share these disturbing images for those who haven't yet realized these yet.

And don't say Yamato is easier! Kollision may get upset? As he gave up an him and took the Leadain route ... I can help you, Kollision! Darius pain showed me the way.


GRAND OCTOPUS 101

And EmperorIng, I'll give you the tactic on Grand Octopus, since you've clearly hit a wall, ASAP! (Kollision once suggested he can't be beat none powered up. That's why I'm so impressed I basically came so close in that formby taking one hit). K, second thing I figured out was his first form. Start by some simple dodges in front of him, but remember you can go to the other side of him too so he don't pin you down as much + give you lots more breathing room for dodging. But careful when you come over him again to his front, one of his claws may be too high? So time it when it's not there.

His second form I found by fluke too by just messing around (had no powerups, so why not?). Before he's about to toss his octopuses or maybe even during this phase? Hang around pretty close to him and at the top or near top of the screen (your missiles should hit him), and when they come, just dodge down & under them, avoiding even some of their fire and watch as they magically get lead off the top of the screen! But remember to very quickly come back to first position undernearth them before they go away to start the process over again. This kind of timing may panic you a bit as it's kinda tight or so it seems? Only meet him in Arcade like 5x total (first time I was like "yep, this be some serious brick wall." >_< Why I had to think totally outside the box for my next tries). .. Leave continues on (unlike me "... need.. more... Darius pain!.." ) and practice without firing. Now go make this game your bitch!

[Kollision]

And don't say Yamato is easier! Kollision may get upset? As he gave up an him and took the Leadain route ... I can help you, Kollision! Darius pain showed me the way.

Yeah, I did mention that, didn't I?
It's been a while since I gave it a go, but I'd still prefer to fight Leadain. It's a much less claustrophobic and more manageable fight. Yamato is on steroids at times, he leaves me with a dumb look in my face when he's jumping around while the music is fading, as if he was celebrating victory...

On another note, last night I was MAME-practicing Neon Light Illusion with two distinct firepower levels. It will be interesting to go back to the PS1 version, which I have already nicknamed a "big practice mode" due to the massive slowdown that never subsides. Honestly, this port seems to run in permanent slowdown

[EmperorIng]

It's the first form of Grand Octopus that really gets me. I never tried going behind him. I'll have to try it out. Thanks for the info.

The real problem is actually surviving without dying up to that point. The Mars stages always rip me to shreds, especially with those laser satellites that fire non-stop. Those always kill me.

[Sinful]

Yeah, I did mention that, didn't I?
It's been a while since I gave it a go, but I'd still prefer to fight Leadain. It's a much less claustrophobic and more manageable fight. Yamato is on steroids at times, he leaves me with a dumb look in my face when he's jumping around while the music is fading, as if he was celebrating victory...

Yeah, Leadain is more stable in coming with consistent wins. But it's more skill based and leaves me on edge always, lol (constant slowdown helps a ton, though. But is this normal? Saturn version & Taito Collectuion have it too?). Plus he lasts for freakin' ever! Yamato is extremely unpredictable. I may have more trouble finding a stable method for him yet? But when the stars align in your fave, you've got him by the balls (full shield due to easy level helps too when otherwise). If I can only figure out how to always get him to move the same every time or limit it to a few. This game's random factor really makes this boss a pain.

On another note, last night I was MAME-practicing Neon Light Illusion with two distinct firepower levels. It will be interesting to go back to the PS1 version, which I have already nicknamed a "big practice mode" due to the massive slowdown that never subsides. Honestly, this port seems to run in permanent slowdown

The reason the PS1 has a very though time handling games like this, Terra Driver and Thunder Force V is because I think the PS1 has to convert them to into a pretty high polygon count for a flat scaleable 2D plane + add enough textures so it don't look to pixelated. If the polygon count ain't to high, then you'll see them warp like crazy since both Saturn and PS1 lacked this one geomarty feature thingy (ie. why when you see one long rectangle corridoor in a PS1/Saturn game, is actually composed of many polygons instead of just one giant rectangle. The fewer the ploy's, the more warping you'd see + system having toruble figuring out which poly in front of which with other ploygons around. The N64 didn't have this issue, as consoles afterwards. And the Saturn was a tad better with less warping due to square polygons instead of triangle of the PS1 and every other conosle). The Saturn doesn't have to use 3D for this as it has dedicated 2D background layers that could scale things mode 7 style and what not. Why it was a 2D powerhouse. So when people go "It don't make sense that ThunderForce V fares better on a 2D system then PS1 3D system?" Well, look at them backgrounds in ThunderForce V, they mostly 2D. lol. ... Know Last Bronze for Saturn? Those 3D backgrouhnds sure look nice, eh? Well, they all 2D for the most part (except like a tiny fence in one level, or an object placement). How about that open Sonic world in Sonic Jam that streaches as far as the eye can see? Yep, possible thanks to the floor being mode 7 type background plane, and only the water is 3D on top of the 2D mode 7 floor. Saturn was more special & flexible then folks give credit. Sad it never got pushed further then like 2 years. The 3rd year was kinda rushed (on top of being very complex to program). Would of loved to of seen what could of been done with it if it lasted entire PS1 era? Anywho, SSF Saturn emulator has ability to turn on/off background layers and sprite/polygons layer. Use this to see what I said in action. Some Genesis emulators, SNES, and other have this ability too. Look for em. Or ask me for their names. As they reveal a ton of info on how games pulled certain stuff off (thus make your blog more accurate ).

Recall you also saying Darius 2 PCE has some background flicker. It's not background flicker, but sprite. PCE used spites a lot to help create parallax scrolling, since PCE can only display 1 background layer, which can also be split into many different sections each scrolling at varying speeds a la both Air Zonk & Coryoon stage 1 (+ the rest). Darius 2 just adds a srpite to match the speed of one of these scrolling sections to make it seem like it's part of that background & that background is overlapping another, but it's not. It's only the sprite overlapping a different scroll speed section of the same background... er. you follow this too? (Genny 2 total background layers and SNES 4 with strings attached. ie. depends on 1 of 7 video modes & they all have their ups & downs. Yet going by the games you'd think Genny could do more? All Genny does is overlap back and forth between it's only two layers a lot. Even sometimes using sprites too a la part of tail fin of plane in Guile's stage in SF2 CE). There's another neat trick PCE uses for parallax, but see for youself. I just love it when these system like PCE & Genny use all these neat tricks to overcome their limitations. .. Sorry for going kinda off topic, folks.

[ProcoTaito]

I'm just sitting here reading all this stuff. It's nice to see that a lot of people seem to like the Darius series. You guys make me happy just talking about it.

[ACSeraph]

But "Oh noes! I might of scared ACSeraph off with horrible writing skills?!"

Nah I'm still around, just haven't been online much because I've been pretty sick. I'll be heading down to Tokyo tomorrow to catch a flight back to the US for the holidays. I'll have some time to kill so I will probly head down to Taito Hey for some extreme Darius arcade action. Unfortunately I didn't make enough time to practice DII, so while I intend to give that wonderful setup of theirs a whirl I expect it to end badly. May try to squeeze out a Gaiden PCB clear too, and spend more time with Darius 1.

[Kollision]

Yeah, Leadain is more stable in coming with consistent wins. But it's more skill based and leaves me on edge always, lol (constant slowdown helps a ton, though. But is this normal? Saturn version & Taito Collectuion have it too?). Plus he lasts for freakin' ever!

Interesting. I never MAMEd Darius II.
And I don't recall occurrences of slowdown in either Saturn or PS2 ports.

[Sinful]

Something tells me I should of stayed with easy difficulty until 1cc'ed. For all paths! Cause man, I've hit a burn out phase, as interest to keep playing dropped a lot (I'm over the 50 hour mark). Even though I'm so close, I bet I'm still so far away? This game's restart syndrome is too insane to start with normal difficulty at my current skill level it seems? (Though I'm perfectly fine with Gradius III AC on normal, strange? It's restarts don't bother as much either...) And it's not helped by the fact that I've gone an entire stage 6 without that extra power orb several times already. Making proper practice for whats ahead kinda impossible... this game's random factor ain't helping either, as it's adding so much more to the tiral and error learning porcess ("Hey what the heck?! That turtle is now point blanking me?!!! Nooo! He never done this on this path the millions of times I've played this before?!... Well, there goes my shield. Hope Yamato is feeling generous this round? >_<). Now add in stupid deaths, like hitting a wall, every now and then, and...

Even on easy Darius II is still harder then part one, so it's still a proper sequal on easy. And I'll be surprised if the other following Darius games on normal difficulty can even beat Darius II's easy difficulty. So yeah, I'm very certain now that if I'd of stayed with easy for all paths 1cc'ed, then moved to normal & eventually higher, I would of got way more replay & fun out of this game in the long run, is my point. Really upsets me cause I had a hunch that this would be the best way to get the most out of this game? (Mostly due to harsh restart syndrome) Instead of just wanting to 1cc one path already just so I can move on & never return to Darius II again. Sad but true. Oh well, lesson learned.

Interesting. I never MAMEd Darius II.
And I don't recall occurrences of slowdown in either Saturn or PS2 ports.

This would suck if in the Arcades Darius II had no slowdown at all. Anyone have a Darius II PCB with an answer to this question? Hmm, maybe I can find a YouTube vid... nope, didn't find anything (and man, if playing this game in MAME, turn down the volume of them two sound channels that are clearly way too loud. Think this was extra loud BASS for the seat you sit on so that it would vibrate? So sound emulation is accurate if that's the case... I set the volume on these two channels down by 75%. Seems about right?).

[ACSeraph]

I was able to hit up Taito Hey for about 2 hours before my flight yesterday. Really loved that giant Darius 2 machine, even if I only made it to level 5. Got to spend some time with Darius EX too, I really love that game. Also got my Gaiden PCB 1cc while I was at it. Here are some pics of the Darius Love at Taito Hey Akihabara...

[Kollision]

I'm speechless!!!!

[Aleksei]

Epic, I would love one of those stamped coins.

[caincan]

what's this, auto translation misses it..



http://www.amazon.co.jp/WARNING-%E3%83% ... d_sim_b_23

[ACSeraph]

Looks like some kinda gag comic

[Kaleb Parham]

First time playing Darius was G Darius on Taito Legends 2. I also played Darius Gaiden. I heard it's a bad port. If that's the case, Darius Gaiden must be freakin amazing man, because I play the crap out of both games. I almost 1cc Darius Gaiden on the hardest difficulty twice, but the finall bosses always get to me.
And G Darius, though harder, is great fun too.
I've been hooked Darius ever since. Even looking for the older ones.