My Quest to Become an Approved Voter - Please Help

[ADM]

Funnily enough, one of the mini-games in Triangle Service's STG Skills Test is a power-up dodging exercise.

Is this a legitimately useful program? I see it on Steam sometimes as a recommendation but I've always assumed it was shovelware.

[LordHypnos]

Funnily enough, one of the mini-games in Triangle Service's STG Skills Test is a power-up dodging exercise.

Is this a legitimately useful program? I see it on Steam sometimes as a recommendation but I've always assumed it was shovelware.

Not shovelware. I think it's actually an arcade port. I don't think it's necessarily useful in terms of improving your STG skills (best way to do that is to learn games that you find challenging), but it's pretty fun. It's a collection of mini games based around different aspects of shooters, and you get a rating at the end of it. Would probably recommend looking up a video to get a better sense.

[ADM]

Got the Space Megaforce 1CC tonight, woohoo!

Didn't think I was going to pull it out - down to my last life on stage 8 (with quite a few bombs), but somehow racked up enough over the next few levels to have 4 golden lives going into the final boss fight. I tried to kill him with normal weapons, but after he managed a hit on me about halfway through I just used a few bombs to finish him off.

Final Score: 5,170,480

[ADM]

Not sure where I'm heading from here - I could go back to Lords of Thunder, which had a neat presentation but annoying hit detection (wasn't loving this one either) - or I could do Blue Wish, but I already got a 1CC on Heaven mode a year ago (not sure which difficulty is getting the "3" rating here).

Or (probably my preferred option) - go straight to difficulty 4 with Gate of Thunder, which looks much more crisp than Lords.

[Herr Schatten]

Gate of Thunder would be a good choice. It's a splendid game that actually outclasses its obvious inspirations.

On the other hand, if you've already invested time in Lords of Thunder you might as well want to finish it and get it off your plate. With liberal use of bombs and the right armour, it's a fairly easy 1CC. If I recall correctly, the earth armour obliterates almost everything, and there's only one stage where it's necessary to use a different one. (Wind, I think. But I forgot which stage requires it.)

[ADM]

On the other hand, if you've already invested time in Lords of Thunder you might as well want to finish it and get it off your plate. With liberal use of bombs and the right armour, it's a fairly easy 1CC. If I recall correctly, the earth armour obliterates almost everything, and there's only one stage where it's necessary to use a different one. (Wind, I think. But I forgot which stage requires it.)

I think earth does the most damage and he decimates targets on the ground and ceiling, but his forward firing attack doesn't cover much area so I need to learn the levels better. Wind fires backwards, which can be super useful, but he does take a long time to finish off bosses - I really preferred him for the southwest stage, whatever it's called.

I was down to my last continue the only time I reached the final stage, and didn't get to see much of it, but it looked quite a bit more difficult than the others. I'm not sure that Lords of Thunder is easy enough to be in the same bracket as Space Megaforce - it definitely requires you to learn each stage's layout before you can get the 1CC.

[Sengoku Strider]

Lords gets all the attention, for the soundtrack and unique theme, but Gate kept me coming back longer.

[Lethe]

I'm not sure that Lords of Thunder is easy enough to be in the same bracket as Space Megaforce - it definitely requires you to learn each stage's layout before you can get the 1CC.

It's a flaw in shoving everything into one scale. It only makes sense when you're comparing games that have a similar attitude. A lot of the danmaku games at the lower end of the list can be beaten purely with resource spam... not to mention some of the later ones too. See this post and the strategy described to clear Espgaluda II. Can a game you can play so abusively really be THAT much harder than your typical console game? But if it's still a bit more demanding than the other Cave 1-ALLs, then it necessarily has to go above them, even if that results in it being higher than things which take more rote effort.

(I'm not trying to argue any specific rankings are right or wrong by saying this, it's all subjective anyway)

Since you'll be approaching Gun.Smoke soon, you've got a choice: Either play the NES/FC one now and the arcade one later, or ignore the home one now and play the arcade one later. The conversion does an acceptable job of translating the basic gameplay and has more variety, but it neuters virtually everything else, from the enemies to the bosses to the sense of claustrophobia to the checkpoints... and autofire breaks it really hard which isn't something you can do to the arcade version. It might still be worth it to play though, as a really obvious example of the difference in style between console and arcade, and how arcade-level difficulty can enhance a game.

[ADM]

Since you'll be approaching Gun.Smoke soon, you've got a choice: Either play the NES/FC one now and the arcade one later, or ignore the home one now and play the arcade one later. The conversion does an acceptable job of translating the basic gameplay and has more variety, but it neuters virtually everything else, from the enemies to the bosses to the sense of claustrophobia to the checkpoints... and autofire breaks it really hard which isn't something you can do to the arcade version. It might still be worth it to play though, as a really obvious example of the difference in style between console and arcade, and how arcade-level difficulty can enhance a game.

I have a feeling that people were voting for the arcade version, not the NES port, so I'll probably skip that one. I don't know if I'll play any NES shmups if I can help it...maybe Life Force.

[Lethe]

There's Zanac too. The original MSX version isn't bad either, so it might be worth looking up if only for curiosity's sake (don't bother playing EX though). Although if you took issue with Super Aleste being long and monotonous you probably won't get on with Zanac.

[Sengoku Strider]

Also, on the note of training, I can't recommend the ShotTriggers releases enough. They have challenge modes which break each level down into brief sections, will immediately rewind you a couple of seconds if you die, and grade you on how well you do. If you clear them you unlock a challenge to go through the whole level that way. Ketsui has the excellent Kizuna mode too - it takes your deaths in arcade mode, and makes 10 second mini challenges out of them, so you can keep practicing trouble spots until you nail them. It's the best approach to mastery I've seen in anything.

[ADM]

There's Zanac too. The original MSX version isn't bad either, so it might be worth looking up if only for curiosity's sake (don't bother playing EX though). Although if you took issue with Super Aleste being long and monotonous you probably won't get on with Zanac.

I probably wouldn't enjoy the original, but I've heard about some updated versions. Not sure which ones are worth it or what their availability is like (Zanac X Zanac and Zanac Neo).

[ADM]

Also, on the note of training, I can't recommend the ShotTriggers releases enough. They have challenge modes which break each level down into brief sections, will immediately rewind you a couple of seconds if you die, and grade you on how well you do. If you clear them you unlock a challenge to go through the whole level that way. Ketsui has the excellent Kizuna mode too - it takes your deaths in arcade mode, and makes 10 second mini challenges out of them, so you can keep practicing trouble spots until you nail them. It's the best approach to mastery I've seen in anything.

I've got EspRa.De. and the Aleste Collection for Switch, and downloaded Battle Garegga on XBOX One. I have yet to dive into the training modes on any of them, but did 1CC all 3 of the GG Alestes on normal settings. I do plan on getting Ketsui for the PS4, but it's a little annoying because I don't have any other shmups on that system.

I've seen a couple other ShotTriggers releases listed online, Sorcer Striker and Fever SOS, but do I need a Japanese PS4 account to access them?

[ADM]

Lords of Thunder 1CC complete! No deaths/continues used...I even had an elixir left from the final level - something that never happened during my practice runs.
Final score: 1,448,900

This was a unique game, but as I said earlier the hit detection felt a little janky. Also, I guess the music sounded pretty badass when the game was released, and it fits the theme, but I wasn't really a fan of the wailing guitars.

Happy to have finished it nonetheless - now back to spaceships.

[ADM]

Played through Gate of Thunder using save states tonight - looks pretty much on par with TF AC as far as difficulty. Most of the boss and miniboss patterns seemed fairly simple; the real challenge is going to be learning the stage layouts. I'm glad this one only has 3 weapons and 3 speeds to cycle through - I had a hard time keeping track in Thunder Force.

[To Far Away Times]

Played through Gate of Thunder using save states tonight - looks pretty much on par with TF AC as far as difficulty. Most of the boss and miniboss patterns seemed fairly simple; the real challenge is going to be learning the stage layouts. I'm glad this one only has 3 weapons and 3 speeds to cycle through - I had a hard time keeping track in Thunder Force.

Gate of Thunder is great game. Not super hard, but super bad ass. The drum fill on the title screen is like the best thing ever; talk about taking advantage of being on a CD.

[ADM]

Got the Gate of Thunder 1CC! Took me less time than Lords of Thunder and TF AC - not sure if I'm getting better, or if it was actually easier. Went into the final fight with only 4 lives and no weapons, which was cutting it a little close. There's an ending scene that makes it look like one of the bad guys might be the father of the main character...I don't know if that's actually the case but I couldn't find any info on it.

My final score was 1,479,000.

Now I get to choose between Axelay or my first Touhou. I am kind of in the mood for something different, but I don't know if I want to drop $15 on a doujin anime game at the moment...

[ADM]

Hmm, I don't think there's a legitimate way to get Perfect Cherry Blossom or Imperishable Night without importing discs from Japan, which isn't worth the cost to me. Mountain of Faith is on Steam so I guess I will wait for that one.

On to Axelay - I actually beat this game around the time it was released, but I really doubt I did it without continuing. I loved it at the time and it will be interesting to see how well it holds up.

[Some-Mist]

isn't it essentially just freeware at this point anyway since it is near impossible to get one of the very limited copies? or is that a really shitty way to look at it?

I just crushed through imperishable night normal for the first time a few months ago and it's super forgiving with its death/bomb window.

[ADM]

isn't it essentially just freeware at this point anyway since it is near impossible to get one of the very limited copies?

I really can't tell to be honest - if I was sure they weren't producing copies then I would be OK with downloading- but even then it sounds like it might be difficult to get it working on non-Japanese computers. Also, people on the download sites keep mentioning a possible virus and that made me nervous. Just not sure that it's worth the effort.

I did play through the demo from the official site and it was fine, but I don't think it gets to the really hard stuff.

[Lethe]

It would be a shame to miss out on the earlier ones, if only for the vibe PCB and IN have. It's very different. If you're unsure about the ones that can be bought digitally (or bought at all), I would wait for UFO, you'll get more mileage out of it than MoF.

The only one with serious compatibility problems is EoSD. There are smaller issues with subsequent games but there's a chance you won't even notice them. Everything can be solved with the vpatch + dx9 converter files found on this page.

[ADM]

I did it!!! After several days of hard work, I got the Axelay 1CC on Normal - I can't believe you guys call this an easy shmup, it's not looking good for me.

I told myself I was going to play just once before bed, and finish it out no matter how badly I was doing, but after a terrible start (where I died twice on the second level) I ended up clearing it with a whopping 5 lives remaining. I then continued into the second loop (Hard) and made it to the last stage on my first attempt!

My final score was 1,203,540.

The most difficult thing about this game was the randomness of it all. When playing Thunder Force and Gate of Thunder I could always count on bullets being in certain places at certain times, but in Axelay I never knew exactly when an enemy was going to take a shot at me or change up their pattern.

This has been my favorite game on the list so far, by a pretty good margin. Glad to see it's still as awesome as I remembered.

[ADM]

Soldier Blade has the greatest video game intro ever. Played through the majority of it with save states - most of it didn't look too bad, but the string of boss fights near the end was brutal. Recovering from hits looks to be nearly impossible in several areas. Time to start practicing.

[To Far Away Times]

Soldier Blade has the greatest video game intro ever. Played through the majority of it with save states - most of it didn't look too bad, but the string of boss fights near the end was brutal. Recovering from hits looks to be nearly impossible in several areas. Time to start practicing.

Gotta keep your power level high and use bombs wisely! Great game though, a few repetitions should see you though it without much issue.

[ADM]

Soldier Blade has the greatest video game intro ever. Played through the majority of it with save states - most of it didn't look too bad, but the string of boss fights near the end was brutal. Recovering from hits looks to be nearly impossible in several areas. Time to start practicing.

Gotta keep your power level high and use bombs wisely! Great game though, a few repetitions should see you though it without much issue.

You were right! Took a couple days off after my last post just to give my brain some rest, came back today and beat it in a few hours. Did some focused practice on the last few bosses just to be sure I could pass them without losing my power-ups, then it only took 2 real attempts to get the 1CC.

Keeping my nerves in check for the last few fights was a real challenge - knowing that one mistake could snowball into failure. During practice I had tried to beat the last boss with 6+ lives and no special attacks and still could not do it - he just goes crazy and you can't position yourself in front of him for any length of time (I'm sure a good player could but not me).

I thought this game had some pretty nice visuals and interesting levels, although the enemies could have used more animation - most of the mechs just looked like stickers sliding across the screen. The music was also very good - I prefer the chip tunes here to the guitar shredding in some of the previous games - reminded me of Mega Man 2's soundtrack.

[ADM]

I forgot to post my Soldier Blade score for posterity - 1,815,900

I noticed probably a dozen places where points could be milked, but I didn't do any of that.

Next on my list are MUSHA, Blazing Lazers, and a pile of Touhou I'm semi-avoiding. I may actually play some Touhou just for a change of scenery...the other 2 seem very similar to Soldier Blade.

[To Far Away Times]

I love Soldier Blade. I went into it completely blind and was blown away. I had no idea it was going to be that good lol. It is maybe the quintessential "PC Engine style" shmup.

Blazing Lazers is very good as well. I like it alot, but in some ways Solider Blade is almost like an unofficial sequel to it that fixes a few things. My main gripe with Blazing Lazers is the way the scrolling works, its really weird. Otherwise the rest of the game is spot on.

[ADM]

Blazing Lazers is very good as well. I like it alot, but in some ways Solider Blade is almost like an unofficial sequel to it that fixes a few things. My main gripe with Blazing Lazers is the way the scrolling works, its really weird. Otherwise the rest of the game is spot on.

Blazing Lazers is kicking my ass starting at stage 5. I think I need to use the shield for the second half of the game, but having it equipped also expands your hit box, and the last hit on the shield counts as a direct hit on your ship (knocking your weapon power level down). Am I imagining this? I hate taking unnecessary hits every time I try to move through a bullet spread.

Changing subject, but does anyone know the final verdict on Raiden Legacy for Steam or Under Defeat on PS3? I have read some mixed opinions but like to purchase actual copies when they are a reasonable price. It seems like there may be a patch to fix the Raiden issues but I'm not 100% sure.