I have been obsessed with DDP Daioujou lately…
YESSSSSS! 1cc’d normal mode and I didn’t have to fight Envy! Now I might give it a spin and make absolutely sure I can 1cc it consistently, then its on to advanced mode.
Ironically, that’s the very order I played them in. Harley’s about bitch-made, but the extra HP does come in handy sometimes. I’m glad sayuri’s sword charges as quick as it does, but I cannot wait to get enough points to charge up her extra abilites. I can forsee her becoming a favorite and soon. I’m with you on Einhander. One of square’s biggest mistakes was in not making a sequal to that one. Right now I hope they don’t. If they screw it up, I might have to be committed to stop myself from doing something I will regret, like dressing ugly kids up as the enemies and unloading on them with gatling gun.
…That might just work out. These brats around here can use an armor-piercing azz-whuppin.
LOL. I figured as much from your Avatar. I admit it. I would rock one of those bees as an earring. 
See? Told ya. :tup:
-Starhammer-
lol cool avatar! Yeah I played Dai Ou Jou a couple days ago and it was pretty fun. Stage 2 boss didn’t rape me nearly as hard as it used to having come back to the game a year later. Game is still hard as balls though
Checking 1ups 101 free games I came across this.
[media=youtube]lf5NaSPODtg[/media]
I’ll probably download it this week cause I think of the few I own I played Gradius V the most.
Strania - Latest XBLA Shmup - Get SHOT!
Edit: It’s dope so far. It has on and offline co-op too! The game looks like it’s stuck between being way better than everything on the indie channel and just barely fitting in with the XBLA big boys. I think I will buy it. I do have one criticism and that’s how you fire your weapons. I find it strange that they don’t allow you to fire each weapon independently and use the third button to rotate between your load out.
Still, this is fast and furious and there are several weapon types and should hold us over till big bad Radiant Silvergun comes around. Strike that. This game is pretty awesome in it’s own right.
Edit 2: The trial is two levels. If you can’t decide after that if you want to purchase this awesome game for $10 you fucking suck bison balls! I’m a little smitten by this game. It’s so hype to me. I love shmups with different weapons and SWORDS. This game is more like Einhander and Radiant Silvergun making a baby with this one mecha shmup game from the arcades a long time ago… Cybattler?
WEAPONS
(every gun has a level 2 except the Handgun, Normal, and Sword)
SWORD - It’s a sword. Tapping the shot button makes you swing it but holding makes you fire your other weapon. Sometimes it comes out an anyway when you are close. A really cool weapon that’s not too overpowered and great to have. Also if you have two swords equipped at once you get a three hit combo with the slow third attack being a big projectile that does a lot of damage but the rate of fire is low.
NORMAL - Starting pea shooter
HANDGUN - I’ve only seen this in training and it sucks?
VULCAN - Machine gun with a slight spread
MISSILE - Homing shot. Curves well.
ROCKET - Fires a shot that explodes big. Explosion goes through walls. Seems dangerous.
REFLECT - Fires two diagonal machine gun bullets that bounce off walls (from front left and right)
SIDE - Shoot from left and right sides.
LASER - Big bright forward firing laser.
DIRECTIONAL - Classic move one way and fire the other gun.
BOMB - Drop turds/bombs backwards. Was great to have on the second boss since he goes behind you. Also seems the most rare. I say if you get it, keep it.
So far I find the sword, vulcan, reflect, and rocket to be the most useful. Like they are always good to have. The sword especially because of it’s high damage and wide swing.
Edit 4: Played some online co-op. As soon as we both said “ready” the game began and it was like the guy was right there with me. I saw lag like maybe once and that was after we beat the stage and we were doing our ‘victory maneuvers’. We had a limited number of continues. I think 3 each (game uses a lives for health system).
Edit 5: [spoilers= “Secret Achievements”]
Cleaning Up Space Debris - 20G
Cleared Mission 4 without releasing the booster.
Straightism - 20G
Armed all weapon slots with lasers.
Fireworks Craftsman - 20G
Armed all weapon slots with Lv.2 rockets.
Why’d You Go? - 20G
Hit the cancel button within 5 seconds of the start of the credits.
Three Sword Style - 20G
Armed all weapon slots with swords.
[/spoilers]
Also if you missed out on buying 4000 points for $39.99 yesterday there’s still hope. A 3rd party on Buy.com is selling ten 400 point cards for $39.99 (that totals of course to 4000 points). http://www.buy.com/prod/xbox-live-marketplace-400-points-card-10-pack-works-with-both-xbox/q/loc/108/220693806.html
Like what I’ve played of Strania so far. I’ve been sticking with Vulcan/Rocket/Sword combo so far. I have to remember when the protecting ship fires its lasers in Stage 3. My online rankings refuse to update though, although it claims its been updated.
Curse you lucky folks and your ability to play Strania right now 
good lookin on the update FurryCurry! Downloading right now :lovin:
DSiWare Shmup!
Ignoring the post up of how having combos in a shmup as something new to the genre (guy making the post must have only played three shmups in his life and one of them couldn’t have been Ikaruga) this game looks pretty cool.
The Strania game looks pretty interesting, I will have to give the trial a twirl.
Espgaluda II Black Label Platinum edition gets released this month as well as Bullet Soul(region free by the way), anyone know if Espgaluda will follow trend like mushihimesama Futari and be region free for the platinum edition?
Trying to beat Strania. Game kicks it up a few notches level 3 onward. My weapon strats so far:
Level 1: Well since you start at the bare bones it doesn’t matter till the boss fight. I go in with Vulcan 2, Laser, and Rocket. The Laser and Rocket will molest the mess out of the boss. I need to remember to use my super power (forgot the name of it) when I fight him for the easy points I think.
Level 2: I pick up the Rocket on the left and replace my Laser with Side. When I get to the mech that comes in from the right with a sword I replace Side with Sword to make it easier to kill the ‘mini boss’ laser spewing block just a screen ahead (sword can hit multiple weak points at once while keeping out of the range of the laser). Rocket 2 and Vulcan 2 seem to be enough to take care of the boss but not necessarily the fastest method. Still need to experiment.
Level 3: There is so much shit going on… I’m thinking that replacing the Rocket 2 with the first missile that comes up is a good idea. I figure with the Laser and Vulcan 2 (or possibly a Reflect) I can take care of the boss. Last time I fought the boss I used the Rocket 2 and Laser and that went alright.
Level 4: Damn this stage and it’s wide playing field. The hard part is working through the station area. I honestly will have to play this again a lot to really get a good path and thus, find out which weapons I want. I saw the Bomb once before and that would help a little with fighting the boss. I really put a hurting on the boss with Dual Lasers (there is one or two before you enter the station area) but it still felt unsatisfactory. Tried a Laser and Rocket too but I don’t recall if it was better or worse. Requires further tweaking.
Level 5: Crazy level. There is a Bomb early on and I HIGHLY suggest picking that up and keeping it. You’ll have to deal with enemies behind you and the boss’s weak point will be positioned behind you too. Laser works fine throughout the level and I’m still deciding between either the Side or Reflect as the better weapon for dealing with the last couple of Big Ass Enemy Weak Points that you have to destroy.
Level 6: ???
Level 7: ???
Favorite set-up: Vulcan 2, Laser, ???
Soundtracks for this, Eschatos, and Senko De Ronde Duo are coming out early May!
http://www.squareenixmusic.com/musicnews2.php?subaction=showfull&id=1301792001&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&
Let me preface this post by saying that Strania has to be XBLA game of the year, by any objective standard. Unless something truly amazing comes out in the latter half of the year, this game is the year’s must-buy. At 800 MSP, it’s a steal. The fact that there’s comprehensive DLC coming as well has me totally hyped.
To take out the block mid-sized enemy, I use Rocket 2 and Vulcan 2. Laser would work well too. If you don’t deal enough damage before the screen starts scrolling past it, use your Side on it.
BTW, to get an A and above on this level you have to catch most of the little hopping enemies that come down. Reflect really helps with this.
Missile in general I wound up finding near useless. Yes Missile 2 has the good homing property, but the damage is not amazing and they’re nearly useless against bosses. Rocket 2 + Reflect rips up the boss, give that a try.
Well congrats for getting past this boss in the first place. It’s intelligent and a very tough fight at first. This is definitely a “must-practice” in Training Mode.
For weapons I recommend:
Vulcan x 2
Rocket x 2
Side
You can hit him in all of his states with this, and take him out relatively quickly. Laser also works well. Any other weapon sets take way too long and put you at serious risk for losing a bunch of lives.
I still don’t have a stable strategy on this stage’s boss. I tend to lose 1 or 2 lives here.
Level 6 boss is craaaazy. So goddamn awesome and hard at the same time. I finally managed to beat him today and get the clear, but I probably practiced the fight 30 times in Practice Mode.
For me, it’s definitely what I wrote above:
Vulcan x 2
Rocket x 2
Side
Ultimately sticking with the same weapons will not help you earn points, since scoring in Strania is based on constantly picking up new weapons/leveling up the weapon you’re using. But since a Normal clear was my first priority, I stuck with the three above and managed to eak out the victory.
Hard Mode next…? :wasted:
^^^ Well Bangai-O still has to come out 
And I am sadden by the lack of mid-bosses in this game. And it would be nice if we had english translations for when the weapon level up icons pop up. I don’t know what that ish means G.Rev!
The DLC is honestly nutty. Assuming it’s less than the original price we are like getting an entirely new game. Simply nuts. I really do feel bad for my PS3 peeps. It’s like for every shmup you guys get we get like 7. Some on disc, some on XBLA, and the rest on the XBLIG. Microsoft should encourage shmup development on Windows Phone.
ESCHATOS Soundtrack Preview! [media=youtube]VKTuD6OiTTE[/media] Game is officially coming out 4/7 so um, NEXT WEEK! (I still won’t be getting it for awhile yet. Maybe May.)
Yeah stage 6 was kind of crazy. Those damn spark bullet patterns is what gets me the most honestly. And what they do to you right after you beat him is kind of mean. But I’m glad I have it beat.
Now to do it all on one continue (I really hate grabbing the wrong weapon as that shit just gets me killed ya know?).
After all this Batrider business I have been cruising through Garegga and Bakraid. I prefer Garegga more, gameplay-wise. Bakraid actually kinda feels like Dimahoo, its “mushy”.
I thought “hey, if I fell in love with Batrider, maybe I should go back to shooters I didn’t like before and see how they hold up”.
Darius Gaiden- I thought it would be fair to give this game, nay, the Darius series itself another chance. Yeah, this game destroyed me on my first couple runs.
Progear- Still hate it.
Guwange- Used to dislike it, but after putting in some time to learn it I am getting a lot more out of it. Fun game.
Robo Aleste- Still hate it, despite the similarities to MUSHA. It just…isn’t MUSHA.
If Hydorah wasn’t a Gradius ‘clone’ I’d be interested in it.
^I remember all of those haha. I’ll need to see if they are still in my collection. I never really liked MUSHA.
[media=youtube]F2xEFzVjXZY"[/media]
Welp, should have my copy of Eschatos on the way, and I finally ordered Bullet Soul from Play-Asia, so that should be here within the next week or so as well. Can’t wait, both games look good.