Відео

@@DeputyStagg Thanks man! Sometimes it's not that deep, but I find that focusing on the right things helps a lot. I still have a lot to learn though.

@@genejas Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate it.

You have to play through the entire visual novel to unlock all the stages first, unfortunately.

@letsblocking the visual novel is actually pretty fun definitely trains your brain

So there’s your main shot, your special shot, and your shield charge shot thing? I’m using 3 buttons wanna make sure I’m not missing something

The Stage 3 boss right now is kicking my ass. Your stage 4 boss here was amazing. Nice dodging dude.

The end of this is so intimidating. Idk if I can do it but it sure is a cool game.

@@TheHiddenFortress81 Thanks! I know you can do it if you put in the time. Dodging in this game feels a little strange and sometimes inconstant so playing safe is encouraged. There's a trick to stabilize your hitbox that MarkMSX/Electric Underground explains in their clear. I remember setting up both a regular shot and an auto-shot button and that may be the reason why. Enjoy the journey!

@@mr2nut123 Congrats, that is great to hear!

@@adenozin Thanks for your comment, enjoy the game! It's one of a kind.

@@chasepalumbo2929 Thank you, that is great to hear. Good luck with your clear, you got this!

@@averagehalopcgamer9008 Thanks

@@VinuShmup Merci ! Je pense que j'ai fait plus de Cave verticaux que toi pour l'instant donc ça me prend moins de temps, il y a quand même pas mal de fondamentaux qui sont réapplicables entre Ketsui, Esprade et DOJ. Ketsui et Crimzon Clover Arcade sont un cran au-dessus niveau difficulté mais comme tu as 1-ALL DOJ je pense que tu devrais être prêt. La partie difficile du jeu dure plus longtemps dans ces deux jeux donc c'est plus difficile d'être consistant. On sent surtout la diff au moment de grinder les runs en fait, donc si tu es patient ça devrait passer avec quelques mois de dose. CC et Ketsui (1-ALL) ont à peu près le même niveau de difficulté je crois. Ketsui est plus court, donc peut-être un peu moins frustrant quand on foire un run.

@@Shmuptopia Thanks Dace! Yeah I've also noticed the Arranges (excluding EX) were a bit too straightforward in terms of mechanics imo. They're fun and approachable for beginners which is great, but they also feel a bit shallow somehow. The main game(s) are pretty much the opposite and can feel overwhelming when everything clicks.

​@@letsblockingI enjoyed listening to this one again today. I was wondering if there are particular situations where you'd use a laser bomb as opposed to a regular one. I just remembered this game has that and I still haven't used the L bomb before!

@@Shmuptopia Thanks Dace! From my understanding it's basically offense vs defense. Bombs clear all the bullets on screen but deal low damage. Lazers only clear the bullets in your path but deal massive damage. It doesn't look like there's a difference in invincibility frames but I'm not 100% sure. Lazer bombs are great on bosses.

@@jujukenobi7801 Merci Juju ! At this point I don't know yet. I'm planning to start playing Espgaluda sometime in September but before that, I'm not sure.

Thank you! I agree that WL feels more distinct and BL is more like the standard Cave -which I tend to enjoy a lot at this point, so it all makes sense. That could also be the reason why Japanese players tend to favour White Label. It definitely feels like a purer experience but it was a bit unpenetrable for me when starting out.

@@letsblocking I think one of the reason why WL is "more popular" in Japan is that the game is much more available, both in game centers and in home releases (emulation being less of a thing there). From what it looks most of the best players have gravitated towards both versions at some point of their career

Thanks! Yeah I ended up practicing stage 5 a lot, so I was not too worried about the second part of the stage. As long as I make it past the bee hives I'm usually ok. You also get a lot of hypers so it's easier than it looks. Now, I'm not exactly sure where to go with this game at this point. White Label? Arrange EX? Learn a bit of scoring or improve survival rate? It's a bit overwhelming but cool at the same time.

@@letsblocking White Label 2-All with full chains 😺 jokes aside, I'm usually a survival oriented player, but chaining in this game feels super fun once you start to piece together some of the routes. So the magic for me is trying to find a sweet spot between chaining and clean survival. If you want to do a "Hazy Challenge", try getting 100mil with A-Exy! It should feel a little different from Type-B and you'll start to engage more with stage design.

@@hazylevels Thanks, I might go for something like that!

Thanks Alvin!

Thank you! The video you're referring to is probably the Kemonomichi battle between SPS and Fufufu. Their level is beyond insane, and being able to perform at such a high level live with the pressure of a crowd is crazy. I agree that the game does look better on CRT from what I've seen but I also play on a HD screen at the moment (thankfully not too large and I can rotate it so it's not too bad). I'm not exactly sure what visual settings I'm using because it's all in Japanese, but I always turn off any sort of motion smoothing or filter because they sometimes introduce additional input lag in some games. I don't know if it's the case on the M2 ports but it's an old habit of mine. In fact there is also an option to reduce input lag here to make the port on par with the arcade version, which I would recommend turning on if you haven't already. I know that's not exactly what you're asking about though.

@@letsblocking Yes, it was indeed the match between Fufufu and SPS. That video made me realize how genius the Hyper mechanic is in this game and how proper Hyper management affects the next stage as well, not just the current one. I fiddled around with some of the smoothing and scanline options, but it was a bit questionable if the end result was better than just the default graphics. Do you know which option allows you to match the input lag of the arcade version? That would certainly be useful.

@@Bluesine_R Sure, you have to go to "Option setting", then "System settings", and it's the first option at the top out of the three available on that screen. It roughly translates to "input delay reduction" and you want it to be ON. I can't remember for sure but I think it's off by default?

@@letsblocking Alright, thanks!

Thanks for your kind comment! I definitely know what you mean, it's actually really hard to learn from superplayer runs because they know all the scoring tricks inside out and are usually not playing for survival. Ketsui is still my favourite shmup and I don't anticipate this will change. I hope you're enjoying your time with it!

Thank you! It's a bit steeper than DOJ Black Label but I'm sure you can do it. Congrats on clearing DDP and DOJ. It may take some time to adjust to the unconventional style of patterns Ketsui throws at you. Remember to enjoy the journey!

Thanks brother! Not much in terms of strats here I'm afraid, just brute force and bombs 😂

@@letsblocking nah dude, there's some great survival stuff here! Currently studying your stage 3 midboss 🤓

@@scowsh Ok my bad, I got confused and thought this was about my DDP clear 😂 Yeah I studied Ketsui quite a bit, stages 3/4/5 are very route heavy and some patterns are pretty unique. I think the stage 3 boss is a key moment, as well as the mid-boss. If you can find a solid strat for those it will take you far!

Thank you! I think you're right, the stages are indeed harder than the bosses, which should make C-S the better choice. I want to go back and try it again now.

Thank you my friend! I agree 100%.

Merci Hilight, good luck ! C'est un bon jeu pour se lancer dans les danmaku, c'est cool qu'il te plaise.

Merci pour ton message Vinu ! Oui je préfère aussi l'équilibrage de DOJ à ce niveau, il est quasiment meilleur en tous points mais DDP reste plus accessible donc ils se complètent au final. J'avais regardé les tricks pour les boss à un moment, mais au final soit je n'en avais pas vraiment besoin (stage 3), soit ça me faisait perdre encore plus souvent (stage 5). J'ai pas mal galéré sur le boss du stage 5 peut-être en partie à cause de ça, et comme j'y ai joué sur Mister je n'avais pas de save states pour me perfectionner sur les boss. Quelqu'un a créé un mod avec stage select, ce qui est déjà très cool ! Pour le dernier boss le dernier pattern est vraiment chaud, mais hormis celui-là c'est plutôt gérable je trouve. Celui de DOJ est pas trop dur non plus. J'ai encore en tête les dernier boss d'Esprade ou Crimzon Clover qui m'ont filé des cauchemars 😂

Thank you! It sounds like the combination of using Type-B, the additional Saturn stage and reduced slowdown would make the game more challenging indeed. I played the game on Mister, which based on what I've heard is thankfully close to the Arcade version. I only got into shmups in the past couple of years, and danmaku was the style that initially caught my eye so I can definitely see how influential it was. It feels quite relevant even today. I agree with you that it gave the overall genre more staying power, players like me who discover the genre via danmaku are likely to try other types of shmups as well. I get that it's not everyone's cup of tea though, and that's fine.

@@letsblocking I totally agree! Yeah I don't know if Type-B adds to the difficulty, but you got me to doubt my ship/config choice now lol. Might experiment!

@@michielkroder4031 It probably comes down to preference but Type-C with its wide shot felt really strong to me. It helps a lot in sections like the stage 5 "hall of hell". I haven't tried Type-B though so I can't really tell you the differences. It's always worth experimenting for sure!

@@letsblocking Yeah, you never know. Maybe C-shot will carry me to the 1CC all of a sudden! :D

Thanks! It is indeed quite approachable, much easier than CC Arcade difficulty for instance. It feels a bit more flexible than later bullet hell games, in that 1-ALL survival is not too intimidating but you could go for more hardcore goals like a 2-ALL or learning how to chain the stages. Pretty cool.

Thanks for the kind comments! Yeah that feels like the worst part of the game to die, because everything up until that point is rather easy. I would say bomb away if you're getting frustrated or stressed out. You can probably still clear regardless even after losing a life there but the mental damage really sucks. Make sure you always get the second score extend because that's a game changer since you get so many bombs per life. It sounds like you've already put in the work and just need a few runs that go your way. Panic/reactive bombing is hard to do in this game so it's okay to use them preemptively. Good luck with the clear!

Yeah the needles also still get me a lot. It helps for me to fly up the screen a lot to stay ahead of them and use (wide) shot to take a lot of those ships out aggressively. And focus on destroying the bigger ships when they are around, since that cancels the needles and allows me to sweep the screen of the smaller ships with more freedom of movement. The large red ship at the end of the stage is also a problem because of all the turrets there that prevent me from tap dodging, so getting through that unscathed is tough for me as well.

Thank you! I agree that a good port of this game is well overdue. Interestingly enough, "learning" the second half of the game (even though my routing still needs a lot of work) also made it easier to get the clear, since losing resources does not translate into instant restarts. I hope you get to play this at some point. Stages 4 and 5 are really fun to play.

Thanks, I'll check it out! I've seen some crazy suicide strats but I'm not exactly sure how they work.

It's so good! <3

I would focus on learning a scoring route for the first two stages then, they aren't too difficult to manage and it will make your runs more enjoyable. Anything after stage 2 feels a bit tricky to score.

Thanks! Good luck for the Omote entry, that's a huge step up compared to a regular 1-ALL. Yeah I love this game too, there is something very special about it and I'm planning to get back to it someday because I've yet to find a game I enjoy more. I don't feel ready for Omote yet though.

Thank you!

Thanks! I just saw your run and it looked quite clean. If anything it sounds like you spent more time than me figuring out the patterns whereas I relied a bit more on experience built through previous game clears. Clearing Ketsui early on is very impressive! Thanks for the stage 4 mid-boss tip, I have a hard time keeping track of the spheres on the sides so I usually also bomb there. This game is so good!

Thank you!

Thank you! I haven't played DU3 yet. Crimzon Clover Arcade difficulty is pretty hard. Have you gone through the Novice and Arrange modes yet?

Nope. Chipping away on Arcade only.

Merci ! Oui je suis vraiment tombé amoureux du jeu, l'expérience a quelque chose de transcendant que je ne retrouve pas vraiment dans d'autres jeux jusqu'ici. Tout ce qu'il propose est intéressant. Tu as raison de monter en difficulté de manière graduelle, c'est parfois épuisant de se frotter constamment à des jeux au-dessus de son niveau actuel. J'aimerais bien faire Garegga en 2024 également mais j'ai l'impression qu'il est encore plus exigeant...

@@letsblocking Oui je vois exactement ce que tu veux dire! Je viens de check sur la tierlist Japonaise en effet Battle Garegga est encore plus haut 😅 (même si je sais pas s'ils prennent en compte une run "low rank"), on verra du coup lol, peut être plus Ikaruga ou DOJ Black label alors ^^.

Thank you, it means a lot coming from you! I watched your amazing 2-ALL runs a few weeks ago. I don't know if I can make it there someday, we'll see.

Thank you! I remember when my kids were newborns and it was quite difficult to get any sort of "hardcore" gaming going on. It gets easier when they grow up. I would say go for anything you feel like playing at the moment and focus on enjoyment. Even SF6 can become stressful if you take it too seriously.

It sounds like we had the exact same experience with this game. I remember watching your clear and it gave me some inspiration when I felt frustrated.

Thank you! I remember telling MarkMSX from the Electric Underground last year that I had yet to find a shmup that hit the same notes as CC, despite playing other masterpieces. He suggested I start playing Ketsui because it feels a bit similar, and I can confirm that he was completely right. You will feel right at home in terms of movement and pacing, like it feels just right somehow. I think you'd enjoy it a lot. The main reasons why I think Ketsui might be a little better than CC for me are the shorter length (20 mins vs 30) and the music might be a bit more to my taste. But they're both legendary titles for me and CC is a much better entry point into the genre. In terms of difficulty, you can definitely grab the 1-all in a reasonable amount of time since you've cleared CC which is probably more challenging IMO. The 2nd loops are pretty insane though, I definitely don't feel ready to even try to tackle the easier one. Maybe I'll try to get a 1-all with the other ship or move on to a different title for now, I'm not really sure yet.

@@letsblocking​​⁠That’s great to hear that Ketsui feels like Crimzon Clover. I may end up playing this sooner than later, then. The game being a shorter length always helps, too. Sometimes Crimzon Clover feels more like an endurance test, especially when training Stage 5. I think the second loop requirements in Ketsui involve not bombing at all, right

@@wooien To unlock the easier version of the loop (Omote), you need to finish the game without making more than 6 mistakes (which includes both bombing or losing lives). The more difficult version (Ura) requires a no miss no bomb if the first loop. There's also a score requirement on top of that for both I believe. Honestly, even just unlocking the Omote loop sounds daunting for me at this point, it's a huge step up from getting the 1-all.

Thanks Dace, I appreciate it! Unfortunately I don't see it coming to Switch at the moment, it seems like their focus is on building hype through combined PS4/Switch releases moins forward (which makes sense from a marketing standpoint but is a little unfortunate). It has a lot of cool unique patterns that I really like and I could see myself playing this for a very long time.

Thanks!

<3

Thank you! I agree, and generally speaking I have rarely ever been able to have what I'd describe as a "perfect" run as a 1-all or 1cc. I had a couple of those in Ketsui and I just mentally crumbled once I started making mistakes. The end of stage 5 is usually difficult for me so I'm happy with how this turned out in the end. I've been trying to take care of my health a bit more so I really appreciate your comment. I'm doing much better now but I had a scary experience. I hope you're doing well too, I think I read somewhere that you were slowing down due to a hand issue. We're junkies but health should definitely take priority over games, hope you recover soon! Btw I really want to watch your DOJ videos but I also know that I shouldn't because it will make me want to try the game so much. I look forward to them once I do decide to get started though!

@@letsblocking Yeah, I don't think I've ever had a "perfect" run either. I've done a couple of no miss clears, but even then there is still always something to be unsatisfied about (the human mind is a weird thing). Better to just let go of perfectionism and enjoy the moment of being immersed in action. Happy to hear you're much better now! And yes, I've been having some hand issues because of computer work, so I've been limiting my gaming time, too. Thankfully it's not as bad as it was, and I've been able to satisfy my curiosity about the new Daioujou port :). but I'm going to take a break now from both shmups and making videos so that I can recover completely. No worries about the DOJ content! As you said in your commentary, it would probably be too much right after Ketsui. The game will be there for you when the moment is right.

@@hazylevels Enjoy your downtime, I wish you a speedy recovery!

Thank you! Yeah that has been my exact same experience with SF6 and Ketsui, I was obsessed with SF6 for months and had to dedicated more time to Ketsui to get that final push. CC Arcade is a big one, I love that game so much. I wouldn't be playing shmups if I hadn't randomly stumbled upon it. I probably played it too early in my journey but that clear was really hard for me, I still consider it the most difficult I've done. Ketsui is comparable but a little more forgiving IMO.

Thanks for your kind words! I have not played the MD/Genesis version unfortunately but I might take a look at it in the future.

Thanks for your comment! Yeah, I agree on everything. It's a bit of a shame because the game is creative and looks so cool, but it's just a tad bit too strict for me. Sorcer Striker is more lenient (probably too much for experienced players tbh) and it's good to play games like these once in a while. Congrats on beating Mahou btw, it is no joke. You have a lot of impressive clears under your belt already!

@@letsblocking Thanks! It kinda happened by accident that I got into shmups through the more challenging ones (like DDP) and they've been my main games for the past year and a half or so. Not that all games need to be difficult or that difficulty is always a good thing... See the case of Mahou vs Sorcer Striker :)

Merci Vinu c'est sympa, j'espère que tu vas bien ! De mon côté je suis un peu retombé dans Street depuis 3 mois mais je compte me remettre progressivement aux shmups au fil du temps. 😁

@@letsblocking Ca va nickel merci, j'ai aussi fait une pause Shmup pendant 3 mois! Oui j'ai vu que tu étais reparti sur du 3.3 ^^. Tu sais déjà quel jeu tu vas tenter? Dodonpachi? (j'aimerais vraiment faire le 1-ALL avant la fin de l'année perso)

@@VinuShmup Je suis surtout sur SF6 en fait 😄 Ça fait longtemps que j'ai pas touché à DDP, celui qui me fait de l'œil c'est Ketsui mais il est pas fastoche...

​@@letsblocking SF6 m'attirait bien perso, surtout Kimberley qui a l'air super sympa à jouer mais j'ai pas sauté le pas car j'ai peur de rester bloquer dans la boucles street pendant des mois voir plus après haha. Arcade pour Ketsui? Le mode Deathtiny est pas mal comme entre 2 la prochaine fois que je relance le jeu je me fixerai ça comme objectif de 1CC pour commencer ^^.

@@VinuShmup C'est effectivement ce qui m'arrive sur SF6. 😅 Oui mode Arcade pour Ketsui, j'ai joué un peu au mode Deathtiny qui est très fun et facile sauf si on score comme un malade.