Someone complained last time that "General Gradius thread" is not fancy enough, so here we have something more lyrical for the R-Type thread - conversations about epigones or other things Irem are very welcome, too, of course!
Since I just cleared Final, thus concluding my journey with the series, I start with my impressions on that one. It's mostly going to contain critique, but there are some redeeming features here and there, too:
- I did thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere. It unfortunately oftentimes celebrates itself at the expense of the gameplay/stage design (entirely unlike Delta which combines both), but it is magnificent nonetheless. My favourite is the patched-up Dobkeratops in the laboratory which you can glimpse right when the stage starts - this once so intimidating foe is merely on life support now, a shadow of itself. It punctuates indeed the finality of the series quite nicely to finish off a Frankenstein's monster of a Bydo.
- My biggest complaint on the other hand is the shifting and turning of the screen. It's sometimes needlessly complicated to find out where exactly you are relative to everything else, and it feels cheap that you have to memorize awkward scrolling and tilting instead of threatening enemies and environmental hazards. The fifth boss is a perfect example of this - it's bad enough that the whole stage is build around the gimmick that the space warps around you (which, as described above, is sacrificing gameplay in favour of an aesthetically profound idea), but against bending and reflecting laser beams and a boss that pulls you forward it can get extremely annoying. The regular final stage has a circle that mostly consists of indestructible creatures, and there are only two enemies in this huge structure that shoot at you. This is not how you invoke unease in face of bio-horror, that's a vexing prank.
- At least they had the decency to keep Delta's "touching-terrain-is-harmless" doctrine, although I can't even begin to imagine how aggravating the game would be otherwise. Still, credit is where credit is due. Two lives without any extends and continuously manageable checkpoints are also fine with me, especially since Final doesn't loop.
- The crippling slowdowns (particularly in stage 3) and the stretches where nothing happens at all (which makes the charge shot pretty useful, I guess) are another obvious issue. Delta has some slowdowns as well to be fair, but you're always doing something, and the action never completely comes to a halt. Most of Final is just boring.
- I will concede that stage 6 is good. It's not even close to the best the series has to offer (like R-Type II's 2-6
), yet still stunningly close to a hermetically designed Irem stage. Hiding below the rock before the long hallway to fend off enemies from both sides warmed my heart. The hallway itself is also pretty engaging, requiring some force pod management, charge shots and what have you. Exciting!- Scoring in Final is a true nightmare. There's a reason why you won't find a board here. Way too many ships, stage variants, an extra stage for one specific ship, five difficulty levels, who's going to keep track of all that? Besides: who would want to milk bosses that are unduly tedious as is for four or five minutes? And, worst of all, do some dedicated checkpoint milking? The thought alone! It's such a shame since they also kept Delta's system where you gain points for damaging enemies with the pod.
- The huge ship roster also comes with huge imbalances. I just played through the game with the good ol' Arrow Head, but I saw a video where someone used the Leo ship and obliterated the fifth boss with one charge shot. Instead of cramming some 100 ships in the game it would've been so much better to focus on a handful, just like in Delta, again.
- I want to give some bonus points for the inclusion of Image Fight's laser beam robots in stage 5. More Image Fight in your game is always commendable!
Overall, I'd place it on the bottom of my personal R-Type favourite list. Probably behind Super and in front of Leo which I don't like much at all since it doesn't even play like an Irem game even though it's fine on its own (better than Final to be objective). Any strong opinions from you guys? Does anyone prefer Final over some of the other main R-Types? And am I the only one that loves II the most?
I concede that there's nothing wrong with more options eo ipso even though it muddles some of the more agonal aspects about the game. I don't see why you have to spend so much time just to unlock the ships, however, I would've wished it was more achievement-based. 
