spatular

played some espgaluda 2 last weekend, trying a different character - the flamethrower one, because it seems like they'll be better later on in the game but struggling to get used to the movement speed, keep dying and not making it very far into the game at all - not really getting into it. shame as i've always really liked the game when i've played it in the past with the narrow shot character. so went back to ketsui, practicing stages 3/4 with the idea of doing some more scoring. my plan for stage 4 is extremely basic - trying to stay higher up the screen -> closer to enemies -> higher number chips. this is, as you'd expect, getting me killed a lot - but did get a new high score eventually also tried that sisters royale game a bit, i want to like it because of the shikigami no shiro similarities but it's a bit dull (probably using the first characters special weapon all the time is what makes it boring - i should try some of the others) on normal mode until these bullets that have really hard to read curved motion take all my lives. need to try the other modes. the characters have similar special weapons to the ones in shiki, but my favorite one (flappy sword) doesn't seem to be there, there is a spiny sword one but it's not the same.

^ thanks! it's been a while since i've played the 360 version of ketsui but i seem to remember it being pretty good tbh, think Arika helped out on it. m2 one is better though yeah. @Stanshall Congrats on the S++ really impressive stuff! and thanks for the info about the boss side pods. enjoy ketsui and dangun they're great ports. i'm rubbish at dangun it's so fast. there's quite a few people in here now, it's nice to see friends leaderboards more populated if anyone want's to add me: psn: spatular-- (with 2 minuses at the end) xbox: spatular switch: SW-2637-0297-9499

that was awesome, nice one! would you have got the s++ without the death at the end? what's the deal with shooting the side pod things on the boss - do they give extra points or help kill the boss faster or something? (sorry for all the questions) yeah switch pro controller d-pad is pretty bad, shame as the rest of it is great.

Thanks! i'm sure you'd do it with much better score/chaining! got that new alfa system game because shikigami no shiro 2 is ace, so maybe try that, or maybe some espgaluda 2 - previous best there is the start of stage 6 so will see how that goes

It’s not showing up as on sale but season 3/4 pack is a tenner on steam now, which is the cheapest I’ve seen it. So I got it.

^ i think i might have a t-shirt with that on it? been continuing to play a load of dodonpachi dai ou jou black label on the 360, got to the last boss a few times which is loads better than i've done previously. think my old best was half way through stage 4, never had the second score extend before, but that was the white label version and black label is supposed to be easier. didn't think i would have enough bombs to finish it as you don't get many with the expert ships so gave the B-Shot ship a go and did terribly, never really got to use all the extra bombs. anyway went back to B-Exy the last few nights and just got the 1cc (well 1-all) rubbish score 16m less than a previous one (edit - think Stanshall can get probably more points from just the first stage!) but my scoring on any dodonpachi is pretty random as i don't really like/care about enemy chaining scoring systems. it's another one that i never thought would be possible despite playing the game a lot in the past on ps2 mainly, but no where near the time i've spent on ketsui. i've barely played anything other than shmups since esp ra.de arrived so i guess that's having some payoff! although i'm a bit worried i might have had some strange settings enabled or something as the the high score table says stage 6 which is odd as there is no stage 6, guess it just means 1-all.

yeah people swap them out for better parts - usually sanwa or seimitsu parts - and some sticks do come with these installed already. and more specifically for shmups - seimitsu sticks are supposed to be better - because you don't need to move the stick as much to hit a switch so you start moving quicker. not sure it makes as much of a difference for the buttons? (i don't use sticks, got one and modded it and stuff but never got on with it. it has a cool green ball top though so that's good) i'm still playing DOJ, it's great fun, still thinking i should swap to a ship with more bombs, did try a non expert ship but it seems pretty underpowered, the expert ones make the game more fun imo.

i'd give it a try if/when it gets cheaper. played the old phone version a bit and it seemed pretty fun, not sure how this one compares to the phone one, and there's a version on steam too (edit - too slow as above!), steam one has 58 songs, switch has 100 apparently. https://store.steampowered.com/app/744060/Groove_Coaster/

If you like Deus ex I'd recommend the dishonoured games and the recent prey.

checkpoints that put you back to before where you died and take away all your power ups. It’s like the game saying see this bit you couldn’t do, try it again, but this time we’ve made it much harder. Not fun at all imo. So stuff like r-type.

do you know if it can be set it to arrows only? (as in no X/O/A/B etc.)

^ yeah i went from playing beat saber on psvr to rift too and similarly struggled a bit at first with the shape of the controllers, but got used to it pretty quickly - you can get grips which make the controllers more like the moves - not tried them so don't know if they're any good mind. the rumble is better on psvr too. but the rift has the massive advantage of custom songs. i didn't notice much difference in visuals going to an original rift, think i prefered the psvr there because of the lack of god rays.

^ i think it's more complicated and harder to get into than beat saber and pistol whip (and probably not as good either), and like most rhythm games it gets better the harder the difficulty level. i'd agree the first two difficulty levels are a bit boring but then there's a bit of a step up to the next one, i've not played it that much but just about enough to play on the 3rd difficulty level which is much better and quite fun. so yeah i haven't played it enough to make a proper judgment, would say it's not as good as beat saber (but then what is?), but if you're prepared to put some time into it there is some fun to be had.

the 8bitdo m30 and recent saturn usb pads are switch compatible and have great d-pads but yeah no good for handheld mode. i've been playing doj a bit and really enjoying it, have played it a lot before on ps2, but not much on the 360, so it's nice to go back to it. always been pretty rubbish at it, it's relentless but i love it. i'm playing the black label version as i think it's supposed to be easier? i used to always play the green expert ship but was thinking i need to switch to one with more bombs but looking at some replays pretty much everyone seems to use the red expert ship so maybe i need to switch to that instead. i need to practice stages 3 and 4 but the stage select on the 360 version is a bit rubbish and no help at all unless i'm missing something - you start non-powered-up and seemingly on low rank. no easy way to play the ps2 version without it looking rubbish so maybe i'll look at setting up mame. saw a video where the player doesn't pick the bombs up straight away, waits to use a bomb before picking the new one up or you'd waste it - pretty simple but it blew my mind - i'd never thought of doing this before.

^ you can’t rapid fire so I guess that person is really fast on the trigger or it’s a mod or something. had a go on the new level, seems pretty fun