I think all us shmupers need to get our haircut like yours, that way we'll be able to identify fellow shmupers when we're out and about... peak style sense goes hand in hand with shmup skills.
The thumbnail game is getting stronger and stronger. 😌🔥 My personal goal is 1cc on normal mode in any Cave shmup, being still a novice-baby (though with a couple 2 stages clears and succes in maniac mode in Mushi). My personal favourite at the moment is Dodonpachi Resurrection (Daifukkatsu). Btw I loved all the background song choices! Thanks, Hazy ❤
Hey, try showing a Cave novice mode to normies and see if they think it's for babies 😌 Daifukkatsu is fire, just keep going! And thanks for the kind comments as always ❤️🔥
Hope you enjoy the Taito stuff! Metal Black is a peerless narrative and aesthetic experience (and a surprisingly easy clear once you understand your shot's protective capabilities), while Darius Gaiden and G-Darius are both capstone achievements which add some tasteful mechanical hooks to the series' arguably staid foundations. All the best with your exploration in 2024!
Thank you! I've been enjoying trying out the games in the Darius Cozmic Collection, really loving the aesthetics in Gaiden. The visuals in Metal Black are very interesting as well, looking forward to seeing how it plays.
damnnnnnnnn you're out here serving LOOKS on the thumbnail ‼‼‼ you know, i'm kind of fascinated by the fact you got into shmups and bullet hell specifically through dodonpachi of all things, because usually, at least nowadays, it doesn't happen like that! most people delve into bullet hell through playing touhou since that's easily the most popular franchise and is all over the place, but it doesn't seem you've ever played any of them. are you interested in playing a touhou game this year, perhaps as part of your goal to touch on indie shmups since the franchise is indie too? they're very different to the way arcade shooters are - they're a LOT more bullet dense, but the bullets themselves are a LOT slower, making it focus a lot more on slow micrododging and pattern reading than fast twitch reflex stuff cave shooters usually ask of you, and it also places a far bigger focus on character designs, plots and worldbuilding than most shmups out there. if you decide to give them a shot, i can recommend playing touhou 8, because i feel it's very beginner friendly and, personally, i feel it's the best game in the franchise (having been into touhou for over a decade and over half my life now) wishing you all the best, and happy new year!
That's really interesting to hear how getting into shmups/bullet hell through games like Dodonpachi is unusual nowadays. For me, it was a consequence of going back to explore some older consoles like PS1 and looking at hidden gems lists. Those usually included at least some shmups, so I ended up playing games like Gradius Gaiden, R-Type Delta and eventually DDP (the PS1 port). You're right, I haven't played any Touhou games, though I am of course aware of them. It's just that, as I say in the video, there's been so much to explore in the arcade classics alone that I haven't gotten around to trying out Touhou. The series definitely fits the indie/doujin bill, so I'll add Touhou 8 to my growing list of shmups to check out. Thanks for the rec! Thumbnails are for breaking gamer stereotypes and having fun 😉
My goal for this year is 1cc Batsugun. I get to level 3 boss and just loss it. I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and I'm thoroughly enjoying your content. Please keep up the hard work! Your design tastes are exceptional, and it makes me curious if you have any other creative endeavors besides UA-cam videos.
Best of luck with Batsugun, stage 3 seems to be a common roadblock in many shmups! And thanks for the kind words, appreciate it a lot. I do have some other creative stuff going on too, maybe I'll talk about it at some point :)
Awesome to hear you are interested in trying out some indie shmups this year. As a developer I am always glad to hear about more people giving them a go and I am addicted to indie games personally - I would say it's tough to compete with the arcade developers of yesteryear but you might find the games feel more personal, in a sense. Knowing how good you are at these games you might find indie shmups a bit too easy on anything but the highest difficulty though (if the game has such a thing.)
I know what you mean about games feeling more personal, as I've strongly preferred indie over big budget games for many years. Finding out about arcade shmups has just kept me busy and content for a good long while. I don't really mind having games with easier level of challenge. Daioujous and Gareggas are fun to showcase in videos, but they can sometimes get exhaustive to play... Sense of fun and meaning can be created in many ways and difficulty is just one of them. Is Operation STEEL your game? I'll add it to my wishlist.
Thank you for your videos! I met you since I was looking for some videos for DDP Daioujou beginners to have fun with it on my switch, and I became a fan in a few hours. Thanks for being so nice, interesting and beginner friendly :)
Just wanna say thank you for making these videos! I’m going around thanking all the shmup content creators I love. We need you!! Really looking forward to continuing to follow your journey. I have 1 simple goal for 2024: finally commit to 1 shmup and do my first 1cc. (Currently leaning toward Batsugun Special since I can no-miss everything except bosses 4/5.)
Happy New Year Hazy, that's a great list of goals for 2024! I'm definitely feeling the full extent of the "Cave effect" you described and am more compelled to play the rest of their library than to explore shmups from other developers at this point. Hishouzame isn't too bad difficulty-wise but it's pretty much all memorization which isn't my favourite part of shmups. I agree that it's good to branch out and try different styles though.
I'm almost envious of how much Cave you have to explore, enjoy it and take your time! And yeah, I think the guys at Toaplan have said that they were making memorizer shmups before there was a even term for it. That's not something I care that much for, either, and I don't really expect to love or clear Hishouzame. But sometimes the things we don't like can help us understand the things we do like.
Happy New Year. Thanks for uploading, looking forward to seeing more videos from you. ❤ My new years goal regarding shmups / danmaku is just to play more overall! I only just got properly into them, and I've quite a backlog to sift through... I bought ZeroRanger, have been poking at Ikaruga every now and then, and my friend Viper gifted me Eschatos. I have a couple of others floating around too and I'd like to sink my teeth into Dodonpachi Daioujou soon. Funnily enough, all of this came about from realising that my personal game dev project is starting to grow to be even more shmup adjacent, so I should probably understand them more. I already love what I've played so far, so I think I'm on the right path. I hope your 2024 is fruitful and you meet all of your goals!
Nice, sounds like you have a bunch of cool (and pretty different) games to explore. ZeroRanger is just an awe-inspiring work of art. Also, wishing you the best with your dev project!
Happy new year and thank you for your thoughtful and engaging insights! My goal is to 1cc DDP DOJ BL (PS4) w my new arcade stick (Hori-real-arcade-pro-4-kai-ps4). I've been playing shmups for 1 year and have yet to get my first 1cc. I can already tell the stick is improving my micro dodging skills so I'm feeling confident in my ability to reach my goal.
Thank you and best of luck with your first clear! DOJ is pretty tough even in Black Label, but it teaches tons of useful tech that you can use in other shmups. Having an input method that feels comfortable is a huge help too.
It was interesting hearing you 2024 goals. I've deleted many of the channels I subscribed to, but you're one of the few I've kept. As I've said before, you are an asset to the shmup community. Always a pleasure seeing your videos. Even if you lose interest in the genre (hopefully not) don't delete your channel. it is such a joy watching you. Just some friendly advice. Maybe pace yourself with releasing videos so that you don't get burned out. Anyway, may you and the shmup community here be blessed with health and prosperity in the New Year. 😃
Thanks, appreciate the comment and advice! I had a lot of free time when I started this channel, but the situation is changing now and I'm figuring out how to balance UA-cam, work and everything else. So we'll see how much I'll be able to do. Making a conscious effort to avoid burn out is a real good thing to keep in mind.
Setting a very achievable goal for myself...i'd like to hit the 200k points milestone in Xevious, which I enjoy immensely and highly recommend to any shmup fan (I'm not super into old school shmups but this one really clicked with me, and it's fun to see its influence on CAVE shmups with the air/ground distinction and some of the most intense bullet patterns of 1982), and perhaps achieve a lunatic 1cc in Touhou 8, or perhaps another one in the series. I haven't been very serious about shmup improvement anymore ever since I hit my peak after 1CCing Touhou 6 on lunatic so I can't give myself a goal like 1CCing a CAVE game, even just with a first loop...by the way, learning that you started your shmup journey in 2022 makes me realize how insane that improvement is, this list of clears you've gotten in so little time is genuinely astonishing...I've been playing these games for around 10 years now but I've never gotten very far because I've never been putting in that amount of effort. Your channel is really inspiring and I love your videos :)
Thanks for sharing and I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the channel! Xevious is a legendary title, cool that there's people still playing it. I actually really love Namco stuff, they had an impeccable sense of style right from their first arcade games and they kept it up well into the PS1/PS2 era. As for my list of clears, getting into Cave games took over almost all of my playtime and I can sometimes get a little obsessive when I find something new I really enjoy… So it kinda just happened as a consequence of following my interests. This year might be a bit more chill, as I'm a more interested in just taking a look at different shmup styles without necessarily trying to get good at all of them. We'll see what happnes!
My current goal is the Mushi Original 1cc - getting very close :) After that it's most likely gonna be GunVein Intense difficulty 1cc. Also got Akai Katana recently, so that might be another one to go for. Also, love your channel, don't delete it pls :D
Good luck with Mushi, those fast bullets pack a punch! I just bought Akai Katana too, looking forward to exploring it. Since you asked so nicely, I'll keep the channel going.......for now 😈
It's funny you mention Mushi. I too am working on a normal 1cc clear. i'm also getting pretty close. Just yesterday I got to the 5th stage mid-boss on a credit. That's the best I've done so far. Then after, I need to get to Ketsui , then the new DoDoPachi M2 port. Man, lots of games to do. The journey is fun though.
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to more content from you. I love your channel! My first 1cc of the year (and ever lol) was Blue Revolver’s normal mode. I want to get at least a 1-all on a Cave title, right now I’m too hooked on DOJ BL, but that seems impossible for me right now. Maybe I’ll try muchi or galuda 1 at some point. Best wishes!
Thanks platqr and huuuge congrats on your first 1CC! I just bought Blue Revolver in the Steam sale, looking forward to checking it out. Dodonpachi Resurrection 1.5 with Strong Style is one of the easier Cave 1-alls if you need a motivation booster at some point :) but really, just follow your interests and eventually results will follow. You're porbably improving just by tackling DOJ, even if it seems very hard for now. I'm rooting for you!
Happy new year ! Armed Police Batrider and Battle Bakraid are really accessible in normal mode, same for Shippu Mahou Daisakusen if you go for the first loop clear. Darius series is also somehow accessible if you just care about clearing the easy routes and use autofire, I find it easier to get into than Gradius or other old memorizer imo. It's always nice to explore new devs and styles of shmups (especialy if you're relatively new to the genre) looking forward to see how you will do with your goals ;)
Thanks for the suggestions! I've been exploring the Darius Cozmic Collection since getting it in the Steam winter sale and I've enjoyed it quite a bit ^__^ Except for Darius 2, that's a mean one, ha. I'm also kinda torn on rapidfire use in Gaiden. With rapid it's too easy, but without it I find it very hard to recover after dying... I've been experimenting with different rapid speeds, but haven't quite found the balance yet. Luckily the game is still very interesting and enjoyable regardless!
Yeah Darius II has a mean difficulty curve, for that one I recommend playing the easy version as it was the intended difficulty balance. For Darius Gaiden I think it really depends on what type of experience you're looking for as the meta is fundamentaly different with rapid, both survival and scoring. Even without rapid I'd say the difficulty for basic 1CC is rather average for an arcade shmup if you take a route like ABDHLQV or ABEINSY and don't die with bombs @@hazylevels
Happy to hear Hishouzame mentioned! It's one of my favorite games of all time, Toaplan at their absolute best. Everything is meticulously arranged, the loops are short, and the BGM will get stuck in your head. It's not everyone's cup of tea (slow, shot limit, etc.), but it's so foundational to the genre that I think everyone should give it at least a bit of their time. May I also suggest giving NMK's Thunder Dragon 2 a shot? If you liked Dangun Feveron, you will probably like TD2. Super frantic action with a Manabu Namiki soundtrack, what's not to love?!
A Manabu Namiki soundtrack you say 😌😌😌 I'll keep TD2 in mind! I have to admit I don't expect to love Hishouzame, but I'm interested to have a deeper look at what is (as you said) considered to be a foundational work. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Great video! I hope you enjoy Blue Revolver, it's my favorite shmup by far. I can't 1cc it, but it's so fun to play. It's the best feeling shmup to me :) Be sure to experiment with customizing the OST in the options, after you're familiar with the default sound track : ) BR has great alternative songs.
Thanks for watching! I've done a couple of runs of BR and they left a very positive impression, so I'm looking forward to putting more time into it. And I love when games have alternate soundtracks.
Happy new year and good luck with your goals for this 2024, my goal for this year is to clear the omote loop in Ketsui. Once I achieve it I will try other pending games like progear and some of raizing.
Wow, best of luck with Omote, thats a very cool goal! Of all the Cave games I've 1-alled, Ketsui is only second to Saidaioujou in difficulty, so I can only imagine what an undertaking the second loop is.
That's an insanely inpressive list of 1cc's in a relatively short period of time you got there 😮 I just got into shmups last year. I've been experimenting with all the different type of stuff you mentioned and others, I really enjoy seeing the different styles of games and aesthetics. I've gotten some clears without credit feeding but nothing on one credit. Maybe this year I will buckle down and go for it, I dunno I'm just going to try to have fun playing these great games.
Having fun is honestly the best possible goal to have 🙃 I think what happened with me is that I just really enjoyed playing danmaku games, which means I put a lot of time into them, which in turn lead to those clears. It may well be that this year I won't get as many "cool" 1CC's because I'm a little more interested in just taking a look at different shmup styles (and not necessarily getting good at all of them).
Yeah, I should make a concentrated effort to learn the controls. Hopefully it'll click, as I want to enjoy the nice visuals and stage design that the game seems to have. Btw, huge congrats on clearing Pink Sweets and with it all of Cave! That's an enormous achievement.
Happy new year to you too hun 😊 My shmup based aims are to finally finish GG aleste 3 on aleste collection (and play more Compile shmups in general). But a big one is to try and understand raizing shmups better. I have kingdom grand prix on saturn and garegga on ps4 and quite frankly they're probably 2 of my least played shmups. I see sparks of genius in both but need to push on into their features.
I haven't played Kingdom Grand Prix yet, but it definitely took me a while to get into Garegga. The game feels very weird at first and there's lots of hidden things you just need to know to get the most out of it. I recommend returning to it once in a while and looking up some of the esoteric stuff. Eventually it'll click 😉 good luck with your clears!
@hazylevels well garegga is certainly an accomplished work regardless of my personal opinions on it. Grand Prix though? I personally don't like it (at least the saturn version I have). 😅
I wanna clear Mushi 1.5 maniac and blue revolver at some point, I also want to delve into tecnosoft shmups since the Megadrive is my favorite 16 bit machine and I love the heavy metal aesthetic and vibes their games have
Guwange happened to be my first danmaku clear a few months ago and I just kept falling in love with it, hugely recommended 🔥🙏 Radiant Silvergun is also top-tier, overwhelming on a first visit but the bosses are phenomenal
Wow, Guwange as a first danmaku clear, that's impressive! I'm sure it'll eventually click for me, just need to get used to the controls. Radiant Silvergun is also on my List, looks very intriguing ✨
@@hazylevels oh certainly, the movement has a much different flow compared to other shmups, which makes it very unique even today but it also has a learning curve to it...I think it was trying this one first that made it easier for me to get attached to 😂
Progear is the game that made me love horizontal shmups. Love the art, music and score system. My goal is 1cc a Psykyo game. With enough pratice i can 1cc any Cave game, but Psykyo is a different beast.
I'm just getting started with the shmup journey with some novice modes cleared and Deathsmiles for an easy arcade clear. Some goals then: 1) Mushihimesama 1.0 Original 2) Mushihimesama Futari BL 3) Armed Police Batrider (Normal mode) 4) DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu 1.5 5) DoDonPachi 6) G-Darius 7) Crimzon Clover arcade original 8) Dodonpachi Daioujou BL
Nice, that's quite an all-stars list of shmups. Daifukkatsu 1.5 is probably the next step up in difficulty after Deathsmiles if you're still choosing what to play next. Good luck with your shmup journey!
My shmup goals for 2024 is to clear some easier shmups. My list consists of: Batsugun Special Version (1-loop) Deathsmiles Mega Black Label Dodonpachi Arrange Fantasy Zone Besides that I will try to clear more arcade games so I can get my 1cc video counter up to around 130 clears. I'm currently at 115 1 credit clears on my UA-cam. I particularly look forward to see you play some Darius Games. Happy New YEar
Please do a review and run video of Ketsui. I recently bought it and I’m enjoying it a lot. Especially the different soundtracks in the M2 ShotTriggers version. Edit: as for goals, I would like to 1cc a Cave game for the first time this year. I recently bought EsPrade, Dodonpachi Daioujou, and Ketsui Deathiny from M2 ShotTriggers and would like to 1cc one of these.
Ketsui review is something I want to do at some point, but probably not right away, as I want to understand scoring better before talking about it. But doing a commentary of a survival run is very doable, so I'll keep it in mind! And good luck with your Cave 1cc goal, those are some tough titles but very rewarding too!
My goals for this year are: 1. DOJ Black Label Clear with both A and B type ships and learn to chain the first two stages 2. Darius Gaiden 1cc 3. One more cave clear…Ketsui or Esp Ra. De. most likely
@@hazylevels been binging on your videos dude. Learning a few things from you. Getting a little better at DOJ. Definitely following. Live long and prosper buddy.
batrider really isn't much harder than garegga if you play solo shorty, strawman or carpet dangun is toaplan but actually good you shouldn't have much trouble with 1 round mode if you can no miss
The trouble with no missing is doing it consistently, so I'd need to tighten up my play and strats to get to Hibachi with enough resources more than once in a while... Let's see what happens!
This is interesting because I'm the opposite of you: I've cleared Fire Shark and Slap Fight/Special by Toaplan, R-Type first loop, and other tough horizontals like Eliminate Down. But Cave and bullet hell are my weakness. I've only cleared Deathsmiles. So my goal is definitely to get some 1-ALLs. I'm looking at Futari, Mushi, and the original DDP in particular.
Yeah, it's been very interesting to learn how different the shmup sub-genres can be despite their superficial similarities. In some ways, getting better at danmaku has even me worse at something like the Gradius series, which I used to enjoy in the past. For example, I try to micrododge way too much when that usually isn't the best option in shmups with bigger hitboxes... Good luck with your Cave endeavors!
4:31 It’s uncanny how the exact same thing applies to me lol
It's really hard to go back, isn't it...
I think all us shmupers need to get our haircut like yours, that way we'll be able to identify fellow shmupers when we're out and about... peak style sense goes hand in hand with shmup skills.
I agree this should be *the* goal for the larger shmup community..!
The thumbnail game is getting stronger and stronger. 😌🔥 My personal goal is 1cc on normal mode in any Cave shmup, being still a novice-baby (though with a couple 2 stages clears and succes in maniac mode in Mushi). My personal favourite at the moment is Dodonpachi Resurrection (Daifukkatsu). Btw I loved all the background song choices! Thanks, Hazy ❤
Hey, try showing a Cave novice mode to normies and see if they think it's for babies 😌 Daifukkatsu is fire, just keep going! And thanks for the kind comments as always ❤️🔥
I've been loving your videos after discovering you this week! Keep it up please!🐝💛
Thank you, that's awesome to hear! Working on some new stuff right now 😎
Hope you enjoy the Taito stuff! Metal Black is a peerless narrative and aesthetic experience (and a surprisingly easy clear once you understand your shot's protective capabilities), while Darius Gaiden and G-Darius are both capstone achievements which add some tasteful mechanical hooks to the series' arguably staid foundations. All the best with your exploration in 2024!
Thank you! I've been enjoying trying out the games in the Darius Cozmic Collection, really loving the aesthetics in Gaiden. The visuals in Metal Black are very interesting as well, looking forward to seeing how it plays.
@@hazylevels I can't recommend Metal Black enough. Fantastic game and a lot of fun.
world’s first content creator to have heard of both cave and jenny hval 😭💕
I feel seen 🥲💖
damnnnnnnnn you're out here serving LOOKS on the thumbnail ‼‼‼
you know, i'm kind of fascinated by the fact you got into shmups and bullet hell specifically through dodonpachi of all things, because usually, at least nowadays, it doesn't happen like that! most people delve into bullet hell through playing touhou since that's easily the most popular franchise and is all over the place, but it doesn't seem you've ever played any of them. are you interested in playing a touhou game this year, perhaps as part of your goal to touch on indie shmups since the franchise is indie too? they're very different to the way arcade shooters are - they're a LOT more bullet dense, but the bullets themselves are a LOT slower, making it focus a lot more on slow micrododging and pattern reading than fast twitch reflex stuff cave shooters usually ask of you, and it also places a far bigger focus on character designs, plots and worldbuilding than most shmups out there. if you decide to give them a shot, i can recommend playing touhou 8, because i feel it's very beginner friendly and, personally, i feel it's the best game in the franchise (having been into touhou for over a decade and over half my life now)
wishing you all the best, and happy new year!
That's really interesting to hear how getting into shmups/bullet hell through games like Dodonpachi is unusual nowadays. For me, it was a consequence of going back to explore some older consoles like PS1 and looking at hidden gems lists. Those usually included at least some shmups, so I ended up playing games like Gradius Gaiden, R-Type Delta and eventually DDP (the PS1 port).
You're right, I haven't played any Touhou games, though I am of course aware of them. It's just that, as I say in the video, there's been so much to explore in the arcade classics alone that I haven't gotten around to trying out Touhou. The series definitely fits the indie/doujin bill, so I'll add Touhou 8 to my growing list of shmups to check out. Thanks for the rec!
Thumbnails are for breaking gamer stereotypes and having fun 😉
My goal for this year is 1cc Batsugun. I get to level 3 boss and just loss it. I discovered your channel a few weeks ago and I'm thoroughly enjoying your content. Please keep up the hard work! Your design tastes are exceptional, and it makes me curious if you have any other creative endeavors besides UA-cam videos.
Best of luck with Batsugun, stage 3 seems to be a common roadblock in many shmups! And thanks for the kind words, appreciate it a lot. I do have some other creative stuff going on too, maybe I'll talk about it at some point :)
Awesome to hear you are interested in trying out some indie shmups this year. As a developer I am always glad to hear about more people giving them a go and I am addicted to indie games personally - I would say it's tough to compete with the arcade developers of yesteryear but you might find the games feel more personal, in a sense.
Knowing how good you are at these games you might find indie shmups a bit too easy on anything but the highest difficulty though (if the game has such a thing.)
I know what you mean about games feeling more personal, as I've strongly preferred indie over big budget games for many years. Finding out about arcade shmups has just kept me busy and content for a good long while.
I don't really mind having games with easier level of challenge. Daioujous and Gareggas are fun to showcase in videos, but they can sometimes get exhaustive to play... Sense of fun and meaning can be created in many ways and difficulty is just one of them.
Is Operation STEEL your game? I'll add it to my wishlist.
@@hazylevels Thanks, yes that's my game. It's not a traditional arcade shmup though so might be an acquired taste :D
Thank you for your videos!
I met you since I was looking for some videos for DDP Daioujou beginners to have fun with it on my switch, and I became a fan in a few hours. Thanks for being so nice, interesting and beginner friendly :)
Thank you! One of the reasons I started this channel was to make this difficult genre a bit more accessible, so I'm very glad to hear all of that :)
Just wanna say thank you for making these videos! I’m going around thanking all the shmup content creators I love. We need you!! Really looking forward to continuing to follow your journey. I have 1 simple goal for 2024: finally commit to 1 shmup and do my first 1cc. (Currently leaning toward Batsugun Special since I can no-miss everything except bosses 4/5.)
Thank you, I really appreciate that! Good luck on your clear, sounds like you've really put your practice in.
Cool video. Hope you get to achieve your goals this year. Good luck have fun! 👍
Happy New Year Hazy, that's a great list of goals for 2024!
I'm definitely feeling the full extent of the "Cave effect" you described and am more compelled to play the rest of their library than to explore shmups from other developers at this point.
Hishouzame isn't too bad difficulty-wise but it's pretty much all memorization which isn't my favourite part of shmups. I agree that it's good to branch out and try different styles though.
I'm almost envious of how much Cave you have to explore, enjoy it and take your time! And yeah, I think the guys at Toaplan have said that they were making memorizer shmups before there was a even term for it. That's not something I care that much for, either, and I don't really expect to love or clear Hishouzame. But sometimes the things we don't like can help us understand the things we do like.
Happy New Year.
Thanks for uploading, looking forward to seeing more videos from you. ❤
My new years goal regarding shmups / danmaku is just to play more overall!
I only just got properly into them, and I've quite a backlog to sift through... I bought ZeroRanger, have been poking at Ikaruga every now and then, and my friend Viper gifted me Eschatos. I have a couple of others floating around too and I'd like to sink my teeth into Dodonpachi Daioujou soon.
Funnily enough, all of this came about from realising that my personal game dev project is starting to grow to be even more shmup adjacent, so I should probably understand them more.
I already love what I've played so far, so I think I'm on the right path.
I hope your 2024 is fruitful and you meet all of your goals!
Nice, sounds like you have a bunch of cool (and pretty different) games to explore. ZeroRanger is just an awe-inspiring work of art. Also, wishing you the best with your dev project!
Looking forward to seeing your replays. Your channel is awesome.
Much appreciated, thanks!
Happy new year and thank you for your thoughtful and engaging insights! My goal is to 1cc DDP DOJ BL (PS4) w my new arcade stick (Hori-real-arcade-pro-4-kai-ps4). I've been playing shmups for 1 year and have yet to get my first 1cc. I can already tell the stick is improving my micro dodging skills so I'm feeling confident in my ability to reach my goal.
Thank you and best of luck with your first clear! DOJ is pretty tough even in Black Label, but it teaches tons of useful tech that you can use in other shmups. Having an input method that feels comfortable is a huge help too.
It was interesting hearing you 2024 goals. I've deleted many of the channels I subscribed to, but you're one of the few I've kept. As I've said before, you are an asset to the shmup community. Always a pleasure seeing your videos. Even if you lose interest in the genre (hopefully not) don't delete your channel. it is such a joy watching you. Just some friendly advice. Maybe pace yourself with releasing videos so that you don't get burned out. Anyway, may you and the shmup community here be blessed with health and prosperity in the New Year. 😃
Thanks, appreciate the comment and advice! I had a lot of free time when I started this channel, but the situation is changing now and I'm figuring out how to balance UA-cam, work and everything else. So we'll see how much I'll be able to do. Making a conscious effort to avoid burn out is a real good thing to keep in mind.
Setting a very achievable goal for myself...i'd like to hit the 200k points milestone in Xevious, which I enjoy immensely and highly recommend to any shmup fan (I'm not super into old school shmups but this one really clicked with me, and it's fun to see its influence on CAVE shmups with the air/ground distinction and some of the most intense bullet patterns of 1982), and perhaps achieve a lunatic 1cc in Touhou 8, or perhaps another one in the series. I haven't been very serious about shmup improvement anymore ever since I hit my peak after 1CCing Touhou 6 on lunatic so I can't give myself a goal like 1CCing a CAVE game, even just with a first loop...by the way, learning that you started your shmup journey in 2022 makes me realize how insane that improvement is, this list of clears you've gotten in so little time is genuinely astonishing...I've been playing these games for around 10 years now but I've never gotten very far because I've never been putting in that amount of effort. Your channel is really inspiring and I love your videos :)
Thanks for sharing and I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the channel! Xevious is a legendary title, cool that there's people still playing it. I actually really love Namco stuff, they had an impeccable sense of style right from their first arcade games and they kept it up well into the PS1/PS2 era.
As for my list of clears, getting into Cave games took over almost all of my playtime and I can sometimes get a little obsessive when I find something new I really enjoy… So it kinda just happened as a consequence of following my interests. This year might be a bit more chill, as I'm a more interested in just taking a look at different shmup styles without necessarily trying to get good at all of them. We'll see what happnes!
Looking forward to your content
Thanks, I've got things cooking ✨
My current goal is the Mushi Original 1cc - getting very close :) After that it's most likely gonna be GunVein Intense difficulty 1cc. Also got Akai Katana recently, so that might be another one to go for.
Also, love your channel, don't delete it pls :D
Good luck with Mushi, those fast bullets pack a punch! I just bought Akai Katana too, looking forward to exploring it.
Since you asked so nicely, I'll keep the channel going.......for now 😈
It's funny you mention Mushi. I too am working on a normal 1cc clear. i'm also getting pretty close. Just yesterday I got to the 5th stage mid-boss on a credit. That's the best I've done so far. Then after, I need to get to Ketsui , then the new DoDoPachi M2 port. Man, lots of games to do. The journey is fun though.
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to more content from you. I love your channel! My first 1cc of the year (and ever lol) was Blue Revolver’s normal mode. I want to get at least a 1-all on a Cave title, right now I’m too hooked on DOJ BL, but that seems impossible for me right now. Maybe I’ll try muchi or galuda 1 at some point. Best wishes!
Thanks platqr and huuuge congrats on your first 1CC! I just bought Blue Revolver in the Steam sale, looking forward to checking it out.
Dodonpachi Resurrection 1.5 with Strong Style is one of the easier Cave 1-alls if you need a motivation booster at some point :) but really, just follow your interests and eventually results will follow. You're porbably improving just by tackling DOJ, even if it seems very hard for now. I'm rooting for you!
Happy new year ! Armed Police Batrider and Battle Bakraid are really accessible in normal mode, same for Shippu Mahou Daisakusen if you go for the first loop clear. Darius series is also somehow accessible if you just care about clearing the easy routes and use autofire, I find it easier to get into than Gradius or other old memorizer imo. It's always nice to explore new devs and styles of shmups (especialy if you're relatively new to the genre) looking forward to see how you will do with your goals ;)
Thanks for the suggestions! I've been exploring the Darius Cozmic Collection since getting it in the Steam winter sale and I've enjoyed it quite a bit ^__^ Except for Darius 2, that's a mean one, ha. I'm also kinda torn on rapidfire use in Gaiden. With rapid it's too easy, but without it I find it very hard to recover after dying... I've been experimenting with different rapid speeds, but haven't quite found the balance yet. Luckily the game is still very interesting and enjoyable regardless!
Yeah Darius II has a mean difficulty curve, for that one I recommend playing the easy version as it was the intended difficulty balance. For Darius Gaiden I think it really depends on what type of experience you're looking for as the meta is fundamentaly different with rapid, both survival and scoring. Even without rapid I'd say the difficulty for basic 1CC is rather average for an arcade shmup if you take a route like ABDHLQV or ABEINSY and don't die with bombs @@hazylevels
Thanks for the advice! I'll keep on playing with this in mind. @@Prickly_Angler
Happy to hear Hishouzame mentioned! It's one of my favorite games of all time, Toaplan at their absolute best. Everything is meticulously arranged, the loops are short, and the BGM will get stuck in your head. It's not everyone's cup of tea (slow, shot limit, etc.), but it's so foundational to the genre that I think everyone should give it at least a bit of their time.
May I also suggest giving NMK's Thunder Dragon 2 a shot? If you liked Dangun Feveron, you will probably like TD2. Super frantic action with a Manabu Namiki soundtrack, what's not to love?!
A Manabu Namiki soundtrack you say 😌😌😌 I'll keep TD2 in mind! I have to admit I don't expect to love Hishouzame, but I'm interested to have a deeper look at what is (as you said) considered to be a foundational work. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Great video! I hope you enjoy Blue Revolver, it's my favorite shmup by far. I can't 1cc it, but it's so fun to play. It's the best feeling shmup to me :) Be sure to experiment with customizing the OST in the options, after you're familiar with the default sound track : ) BR has great alternative songs.
Thanks for watching! I've done a couple of runs of BR and they left a very positive impression, so I'm looking forward to putting more time into it. And I love when games have alternate soundtracks.
Happy new year and good luck with your goals for this 2024, my goal for this year is to clear the omote loop in Ketsui. Once I achieve it I will try other pending games like progear and some of raizing.
Wow, best of luck with Omote, thats a very cool goal! Of all the Cave games I've 1-alled, Ketsui is only second to Saidaioujou in difficulty, so I can only imagine what an undertaking the second loop is.
That's an insanely inpressive list of 1cc's in a relatively short period of time you got there 😮
I just got into shmups last year. I've been experimenting with all the different type of stuff you mentioned and others, I really enjoy seeing the different styles of games and aesthetics.
I've gotten some clears without credit feeding but nothing on one credit. Maybe this year I will buckle down and go for it, I dunno I'm just going to try to have fun playing these great games.
Having fun is honestly the best possible goal to have 🙃 I think what happened with me is that I just really enjoyed playing danmaku games, which means I put a lot of time into them, which in turn lead to those clears. It may well be that this year I won't get as many "cool" 1CC's because I'm a little more interested in just taking a look at different shmup styles (and not necessarily getting good at all of them).
Give Guwange a few days, I felt the same way you do but fell in love with it (even as one of my last Cave clears).
Yeah, I should make a concentrated effort to learn the controls. Hopefully it'll click, as I want to enjoy the nice visuals and stage design that the game seems to have.
Btw, huge congrats on clearing Pink Sweets and with it all of Cave! That's an enormous achievement.
I need to commit to a game this year. I'm jumping around too much and not improving at any of them. Great vid!
Thanks and good luck with finding The One ✨
Happy new year to you too hun 😊
My shmup based aims are to finally finish GG aleste 3 on aleste collection (and play more Compile shmups in general). But a big one is to try and understand raizing shmups better. I have kingdom grand prix on saturn and garegga on ps4 and quite frankly they're probably 2 of my least played shmups. I see sparks of genius in both but need to push on into their features.
I haven't played Kingdom Grand Prix yet, but it definitely took me a while to get into Garegga. The game feels very weird at first and there's lots of hidden things you just need to know to get the most out of it. I recommend returning to it once in a while and looking up some of the esoteric stuff. Eventually it'll click 😉 good luck with your clears!
@hazylevels well garegga is certainly an accomplished work regardless of my personal opinions on it. Grand Prix though? I personally don't like it (at least the saturn version I have). 😅
I wanna clear Mushi 1.5 maniac and blue revolver at some point, I also want to delve into tecnosoft shmups since the Megadrive is my favorite 16 bit machine and I love the heavy metal aesthetic and vibes their games have
Nice, I have Blue Revolver on my list too!
Guwange happened to be my first danmaku clear a few months ago and I just kept falling in love with it, hugely recommended 🔥🙏
Radiant Silvergun is also top-tier, overwhelming on a first visit but the bosses are phenomenal
Wow, Guwange as a first danmaku clear, that's impressive! I'm sure it'll eventually click for me, just need to get used to the controls. Radiant Silvergun is also on my List, looks very intriguing ✨
@@hazylevels oh certainly, the movement has a much different flow compared to other shmups, which makes it very unique even today but it also has a learning curve to it...I think it was trying this one first that made it easier for me to get attached to 😂
@@reynKaiser haha, that may well be true! "In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few."
Blue Revolver is so much fun. Have a great 2024!
Thanks, have a great year too!
Progear is the game that made me love horizontal shmups. Love the art, music and score system.
My goal is 1cc a Psykyo game. With enough pratice i can 1cc any Cave game, but Psykyo is a different beast.
Good luck with Psikyo! Fast bullets are something I really struggle with, but I want to try their games at some point.
I'm just getting started with the shmup journey with some novice modes cleared and Deathsmiles for an easy arcade clear.
Some goals then:
1) Mushihimesama 1.0 Original
2) Mushihimesama Futari BL
3) Armed Police Batrider (Normal mode)
4) DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu 1.5
5) DoDonPachi
6) G-Darius
7) Crimzon Clover arcade original
8) Dodonpachi Daioujou BL
Nice, that's quite an all-stars list of shmups. Daifukkatsu 1.5 is probably the next step up in difficulty after Deathsmiles if you're still choosing what to play next. Good luck with your shmup journey!
Keeper o Shmuping. I find it rather difficult to switch from vertikal to horizontal games. Good luck.
My shmup goals for 2024 is to clear some easier shmups. My list consists of:
Batsugun Special Version (1-loop)
Deathsmiles Mega Black Label
Dodonpachi Arrange
Fantasy Zone
Besides that I will try to clear more arcade games so I can get my 1cc video counter up to around 130 clears. I'm currently at 115 1 credit clears on my UA-cam.
I particularly look forward to see you play some Darius Games. Happy New YEar
Wow, that's quite an achievement to have so many clears. Good luck with shmupping! Darius content is approaching fast 🐠
Please do a review and run video of Ketsui. I recently bought it and I’m enjoying it a lot. Especially the different soundtracks in the M2 ShotTriggers version.
Edit: as for goals, I would like to 1cc a Cave game for the first time this year. I recently bought EsPrade, Dodonpachi Daioujou, and Ketsui Deathiny from M2 ShotTriggers and would like to 1cc one of these.
Ketsui review is something I want to do at some point, but probably not right away, as I want to understand scoring better before talking about it. But doing a commentary of a survival run is very doable, so I'll keep it in mind! And good luck with your Cave 1cc goal, those are some tough titles but very rewarding too!
no concrete goals for 2024. just playing.
My goals for this year are:
1. DOJ Black Label Clear with both A and B type ships and learn to chain the first two stages
2. Darius Gaiden 1cc
3. One more cave clear…Ketsui or Esp Ra. De. most likely
Nice, all of those are great games! And chaining in DOJ is super satisfying once you learn how to do it.
You look like a Romulan from Star Trek
And I'm loving it 🖖😎🖖
@@hazylevels been binging on your videos dude. Learning a few things from you. Getting a little better at DOJ. Definitely following. Live long and prosper buddy.
That's great to hear, DOJ is tough but can be learned. Thanks and good luck!
batrider really isn't much harder than garegga if you play solo shorty, strawman or carpet
dangun is toaplan but actually good
you shouldn't have much trouble with 1 round mode if you can no miss
The trouble with no missing is doing it consistently, so I'd need to tighten up my play and strats to get to Hibachi with enough resources more than once in a while... Let's see what happens!
This is interesting because I'm the opposite of you: I've cleared Fire Shark and Slap Fight/Special by Toaplan, R-Type first loop, and other tough horizontals like Eliminate Down. But Cave and bullet hell are my weakness. I've only cleared Deathsmiles. So my goal is definitely to get some 1-ALLs. I'm looking at Futari, Mushi, and the original DDP in particular.
Yeah, it's been very interesting to learn how different the shmup sub-genres can be despite their superficial similarities. In some ways, getting better at danmaku has even me worse at something like the Gradius series, which I used to enjoy in the past. For example, I try to micrododge way too much when that usually isn't the best option in shmups with bigger hitboxes... Good luck with your Cave endeavors!