RF Generation Message Board

Get ready for insane bullet hell action, with the March selection for the RF Generation Shmup Club! We'll be taking a look at our very first "danmaku" game, otherwise known as the "bullet hell" variety of shoot-em-ups. Often considered to be the hardest segment of shooting games out there, danmaku shmups were initially kicked off with the final Toaplan title, Batsugun, and popularized by now-legendary Japanese developers, CAVE. With many indie developers having been influenced by Japan's masters of bullet hell style, it was only a matter of time before we began to see independent games take on the CAVE juggernaut with new takes on the formulas laid out by DoDonPachi, Ketsui, and Mushihimesama. Enter indie developer Yotsubane, and their highly lauded title, Crimzon Clover.

Initially released in 2011 on PC, the game later received a version for the NESiCAxLive arcade platform just 2 years later. The game saw a worldwide release on Steam and GOG toward the end of 2014, with the updated PC version having been re-titled Crimzon Clover: World Ignition. Taking a page from not only the CAVE school of design, but also calling upon earlier titles with lock-on mechanics, such as RayForce or Soukyugurentai Otokuyo, aka Terra Diver, the game employs a lock-on system, where you can create a field around your ship, and target enemies that come into proximity with you. This factors into the scoring multiplier system, and is a key mechanic in the game. The other key mechanic is the "Break" system. As you play the game, the Break gauge fills up. When activated via a bomb, your ship has temporary invincibility, your firepower is increased, and your score multiplier is higher. It also means your Break meter will fill back up faster, giving you the ability to stack up for a Double Break. It all adds up to an interesting scoring system, and game mechanics that give this vertical scrolling shooter a unique flair. Come join us in March, as we set the world ablaze!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
lordb0rb4
zoydo
Dingo
Square_Air
Normatron
coin_tengoku
Mark_MSX

High Scores:
1. Notice - Original: zoydo - 509,699,519,050 points
2. Novice - Boost: zoydo - 1,970,069,510 points
3. Arcade - Original: Mark_MSX - 353,099,482,030 points
4. Arcade - Boost: zoydo - 573,137,000 points
5. Arcade - Unlimited: zoydo - 27,237,332,790 points
6. Arcade - Time Attack: zoydo - 35,349,150 points

I've been slacking off the past months but i'm all in for this one!

Welcome aboard!

Hi, i'd like to join too. :)

Glad to have you, thanks for joining in!

If everything goes well with my setup, I plan on trying to start streaming this game, as early as tomorrow, so be watching for some live streams of Crimzon Clover over the course of the next month!

Count me in as well. I was interested in the last few games, but was a little too preoccupied to satisfyingly participate. I'm glad that there's such a good game selection on the same month as my return.

Welcome aboard, sir!

Put me down for this one. I already have a few hours practice so lets see. I haven't passed Stage 2 Boss on Arcade. I've been able to get to stage 4 boss on Novice once but died swiftly.

I haven't played too much Crimzon Clover before, just a few hours to take a look at the game and do some credit feed-runs in novice mode. So i didn't play for scores or clears before, just very casual.
Two weeks ago i started to play some Novice mode to get back into the game and to get used to the mechanics.

This weekend i started to play Arcade mode. Stage 3 Boss was end of the line. In Unlimited i barely made it to Stage 2. But i could finish the Time Attack with a C+ rank and without dying (Midboss and Boss defeated).

Boost
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7839/33393589138_132d3f5b4a_m.jpg[/img]

Original
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7808/33393589868_8c3b42f6c3_m.jpg[/img]

Time Attack
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7832/32327459397_de8bba93b4_m.jpg[/img]

Unlimited
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7867/32327460727_f15a36bdb0_m.jpg[/img]

I also managed to improve my Score on Boost/Novice.
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7901/33393588338_130fa2e6ba_m.jpg[/img]

Welcome aboard, Dingo!

Zoydo - wow, awesome participation already! I've only tried Original/Novice mode so far, but I'm really enjoying it. Here's one of my early high scores - it's not my highest score so far, but it's the one I got a photo of:
[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/ZDERXkSl.jpg[/img]

Also, I streamed the game over the weekend, and managed to capture what I thought was some pretty decent footage of a newbie playing the game. Ignore the title that I'm playing Zanac - I forgot to change it before I started the stream :slick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qhYWcSrHZw

Im going to try my hand in this one and to ask a question, how do you get your video to show up on the page?

My first real run and I dont think I did that bad, but I cant get to the 2nd boss without getting shot down

Welcome aboard, Normatron, glad to have you along!


You have to have a YT link that has the "watch?v=" portion in it. Put it between two and tags, and change it from "https" to "http" so it will display.

I streamed the game again last night, and managed to pull this off...
[img width=700 height=933]https://i.imgur.com/RTsRhuz.jpg[/img]

I'm playing on Novice, in Original mode, which is where I've been spending my time. I will stay in that mode most likely until I can get a 1CC of the game. I think I'm close, as I managed to reach Stage 5 last night, and I got reasonably far. If I can continue to tighten my approach, and avoid needless deaths in Stage 4, in a couple spots where it can be easy to get boxed in by enemy bullet spam, I think I can probably get the clear. Then I'll probably move on to Arcade mode, which apparently is a lot less forgiving than the Novice/Original mode. The key to scoring big in this game is using and abusing the "Break" system. going into "Break" mode, and especially a "Double Break" at mid-bosses and end bosses, will earn you a TON of stars, and accumulating those en masse leads to giant bonuses at the end of each stage. Just by way of example, I can get to the boss in Stage 1 with just over 1 billion points, and if I can collect between 30K & 35K stars between the level and boss (a Double Break on the boss ups your number considerably), you can bump that up at stage end to over 20 billion. Later levels with mid-bosses to milk stars from will yield even more stars, if you can Break or Double Break effectively during those encounters.

There's also a score multiplier system that I haven't worked out yet. Bananamatic of the shmups forum did a brief strategy guide for the game a few years ago:
https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=51292

It doesn't explicitly say how to increase the multiplier, but definitely points out that point-blanking enemies will help you fill up the Break gauge faster. Also, using the lock-on is a must for large enemies and bosses, to increase break. Also, I noticed while playing that holding down the lock-on button attracts the stars to you, so as I've been playing, I hold down on that constantly, and then only let up briefly to fire the lock-on weapon, and hold down again immediately, so ensure that all stars go directly to your ship, rather than just falling down off screen.

thank you^^


i think you can raise the multiplier by doing lock on-kills, but i'm not sure about the details


nice progress, you already made it! :)
maybe a few tries on the last boss and you got it. The Type-III is a good choice for this, it's really quick and has a high damage output.

I did some progress too. I could finally reach stage 4 in Arcade-Original.

[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7819/47301498621_acdb5b19b4_m.jpg[/img]

I could also improve my score in Novice-Original and Unlimited.

[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7865/33403894228_04a9b74328_m.jpg[/img]
[img width=240 height=150]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7815/47301503921_b3804e2138_m.jpg[/img]

Nice scores, zoydo! I managed to blast past my previous score, and tentative goal of 180 billion on stream last night, and earned over 246 billion!
[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/WXO5ngDl.jpg[/img]

I got close to taking out the Stage 5 boss, except that it begins to rush you, and he rammed right into me. But I think I'm making really good progress, and feel like a 1CC is obtainable in Novice/Original. Hoping to knock that out soon, so I can give Arcade mode a try, and see just how punishing it is, by comparison.

I’m in. I will make a few runs and post a score pic. I have this on steam and play it frequently. Only gripe I have about this game is the built in screen shaking.  Hands down one of my favorite soundtracks in all shmups that I have played.  I would be happy to represent the low scoring population of members in this forum.:facepalm:

Who knows, maybe my participation will encourage others to get involved with the monthly plays. I’m in the group that loves shmups and not always the best at them.  ;D


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Welcome aboard the play-through, and welcome to RF Generation!


I hope so, too! I consider myself average at best, and very much a student of the genre, rather than a master or expert. That's part of the reason for the play-throughs and the podcast. I've always been a fan of the genre, but haven't explored nearly as many of the games as I've collected, so it's time to start actually putting serious time into these things, and see what I can accomplish. And yes, hopefully more people like us who aren't spectacular at these games will come on board, and begin to explore the genre more.

Haven't played as much as i wished last weekend, but at least i could achieve my goal, to get a medal in every slot:

[img width=320 height=200]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7894/40380637713_529989d4e3_n.jpg[/img]

Also tried to beat my Novice/Original score today, but failed. This was the first time i went for the star-bonuses instead of the 1ups. I feel like the 1ups give you more bonus-points at the end of the game, for each life left (25.000.000.000 in Original and 30.000.000 in Boost). But i'm not quite sure how this works.

Did another try (Novice/Original) a few days ago, and made it no miss to the final boss. But then i screwed it by loosing 3 lives and missed my score pretty close.


I recorded some of my replays and uploaded them:

Novice/Original (Z): https://youtu.be/mCjMWiUMfgQ

Novice/Boost (III): https://youtu.be/sPizIseVj1o

Time Attack (Z): https://youtu.be/Y1Q7eUTG65w

Awesome work, zoydo! I'll have to scope your replays later on, so I can get a little bit of an edge in my own play, and see how you're routing the levels. I think I have a reasonable handle on where to go, and how to generally get through the levels, but my execution is sometimes lacking. The initial Stage 5 boss gives me trouble because he bum rushes you, but that's just a matter of learning where he moves and how far/fast, so I can time the dodges more effectively. But that final boss might be a little trickier, unless I can get some well timed Breaks or Double Breaks in there.

MetalFro,

What’s the deadline for score submission?

Just post them through the end of the month, whenever you have a score you want to share. And I would encourage you to share as you progress, like I do, because then we can all root each other on, and encourage one another to keep getting better.

Speaking of scores, I forgot to post this a couple days ago, but I did this over the weekend:
[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/hAnRHldl.jpg[/img]

I'm now reaching the Stage 5 endboss, and have triggered the actual final boss a couple times. Now I just need to get a good strategy for beating it. I think I might watch zoydo's play-through over my lunch break, to see if I can glean some strategy.

@zoydo - I watched your Novice/Original run, and I see you weren't very aggressive with your lock-on weapon. Is there a reason for that? My understanding is, the lock-on yields more stars, and whenever you can use it to help deal damage to bosses to whittle down their health faster, that seems like it would be a good strategy. Just wanting to get your perspective on that. Good run, though, and I think I will have to start going for extra lives, instead of extra stars, because the extends would actually help me more, in terms of clearing the game. Plus that extra life bonus at the end is insane.

Okay so after about two hours of juggling play time this is what I’ve got for Novice
[img width=700 height=933]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190314/6bb38074d25357301fbbf3dc681ec263.jpg[/img]

And this is what I’ve got for Arcade run so far.
[img width=700 height=933]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190314/ae2d83d258693eb195158f44c0241739.jpg[/img]

I’m gonna keep trying. I’m finding myself focusing on score more than survival. I have the DLC that unlocks superplays and I’m trying to mimic the runs but it’s really really tough to hang with that caliber of player.


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@MetalFro: thanks. Thats exactly what i thought when i rewatched the replays after i uploaded them. I still play very defensively. I guess i tried to pointblank the bigger enemies with the shot, while locking on them, because this would raise the gauge and give me more points. But i guess you get more points/stars by releasing the lock on and kill them with the missiles. In the boss fights i tried to avoid the lock-on missiles because they do huge damage, especially while breaking. So i try to use break and double break with focus shot and being as close as possible to he boss but without releasing the missiles, because i think the longer he lives, the longer i can get points in double break. But i still don't know if thats the best thing to do. It's hard to watch your points during the game, because everything's so goddamn fast!
I'm still experimenting on that...

Anyway, the reviews are from nearly two weeks ago and i tried to change my playstyle in the meantime. I'm being more aggressive now, i try to do more lock-ons during stage, and i try to finish the bosses and midbosses with full lock-on missiles now. But until know it didn't help me too much in beating my score from the replay. Maybe i start another try later, this evening.

@coin_tengoku: good job! progress in Novice comes pretty fast, keep it up. :) Go for the 1Ups.^^

@coin_tengoku - looks like you're starting off well! Keep it up, and I'll be curious to hear how much progress you make over the next week.

I managed to reach the TLB (common shmup scene term "True Last Boss") last night, and nearly downed its first form, but burned through all my lives in quick succession. I think I'm close to the 1CC in Novice/Original mode, so I'm hoping over the next 2-3 days to finally get that knocked out. I can see the end, I just need to finish the race!

@MetalFro and @zoydo

Thanks for the encouragement.  Hate to break the bad news to you but there are 2 forms for the TLB’s too in this game if you didn't already know. True doujin style!!  I love this game. On the super play arcade orig the player gets 300+ billion on just the first level. I’ll attach a commentary pdf for you guys to see what he strives for. Point blanking and using the break and double break as much as possible is crucial for maximum point accumulation.


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Okay so I had a remarkable breakthrough this morning. I finally figured out that it is extremely important to always use break and double break when there is a green x9 or x12 etc that is displayed underneath the break meters. You increase the x by locking into multiple enemies and unleashing over and over. Then you score big puntos!!!  Just thought I would lay this out there for point chasers.


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@coin-tengoku: thanks for the guide, this was really helpful!
I read a few guides before and those kinda helped me too, but i found them a little confusing. This one's very detailed and understandable.

Most time i still try to focus more on surviving as long as possible than on scoring, but i became quite interested in the scoring mechanics in the last few days and tried a few things out, because it makes the novice-modes even more fun.

So today i was finally able to beat my score for Novice-Original. Not totally happy with it because i screwed Stage 3 and missed the no miss - Bonus. I also did some stupid mistakes such as picking the star bonus instead of the 1Up one time, or picking up the gauge bonus instead of the star bonus after a midboss. Also i died 2 times in the last boss battle and used the Bomb a few times. So i could have earned some good bonus score. But maybe this is the price i had to pay for the more aggressive playstyle.^^
At least there's much room for improvement here, which keeps me busy.  :laugh:

In Arcade-Original i still struggle and focus on surviving. There's simply too much i still need to concentrate on, so most of the time i'm not able to watch multiplier or break rate. But still i could get a bit of a feeling on how to score a little better, even without watching this stuff and at least i was able to beat my Stage 1 - Score.

Novice-Original
[img width=500 height=313]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7818/46657644994_9a594f8005.jpg[/img]

Arcade - Original - Stage 1
[img width=500 height=313]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7871/47380713611_dea1673d76.jpg[/img]

I will upload the replay of my Novice - run tomorrow.

What's up my dudes? :-D Just got my 2-All in ZeroRanger and I'm ready to play some Crimson Clover! I'll play both novice and arcade, as those seem like the two most popular modes. This should be a ton of fun!

What’s up @Mark_MSX. I just got through reading your post on electricunderground and I like some of the points you make about dev guides. It took me several days to figure out how to score points in crimzon. I actually ended up using a super play guide. I posted it this week on this thread. Feel free to check it out. Thanks for all you and MetalFRO and Addicted have done for shmup podcasts.  I really enjoy them.


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Welcome aboard, dude!

@coin_tengoku - thanks so much for the kind words! Glad you're enjoying the podcast, and know that your contributions for this month will definitely be included in the next episode :D

Also, this happened last night...
[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/2IiJZhvl.jpg[/img]

I managed to clear Novice/Original with 328+ billion points! Not the best high score, and I was down to my last life, but I still managed to pull it off. Very pleased with the result, all the same!

@Mark_MSX: Hi Mark^^


Wow! Great job, congrats on that! I played Zero Ranger a few weeks ago in Jan/Feb, but 1-4 was as far as i could get. I credit-feeded the rest of the game to see as much as possible and it has a lot to offer to the player. I didn't get the true ending, because i failed at the hidden final mission (or whatever you wanna call it) and had to start all over. I think it's pretty tough, but it's a brilliant game and can be really rewarding (and surprising) too. :)

I also wanna pick up coin tengokus words. I just listened to the Ketsui DeathTiny Episode of your podcast and really liked it, i'll listen to some other episodes soon.
It's always informative for me as a newer player to listen to STG-themed podcasts and learn about tricks and strategies. You guys (including MetalFro and Addicted) are doing an awesome job with this!


As i said i uploaded a replay of my yesterdays run, if someone wants to watch.

https://youtu.be/ncBcL0wTWro

Tips and advice appreciated. :)

Hey guys new tip I learned from watching some videos. If you have the type Z ship you can put a type 1 skin on it by holding the break button while selecting the Z ship.


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That's an interesting little trick! I'll have to mess with that, and give it a try :D

@zoydo - One thing I would say is to remind you that your ship will attract stars while you have the lock-on button held down. I noticed during this last run you posted (awesome job, by the way!), that there were a lot of instances where you had the lock-on disengaged, and were mowing down enemies with the wide shot, but were letting a lot of stars pass you by. If you occasionally trigger the lock-on for a brief moment, you can take in more stars, and just engage that every so often, so you're not losing as many of them.

@MetalFRO

I got to watch your stream from 17 hours ago and started laughing so hard when you said “man...IIINnntense”.
Congrats on the clear bro!!


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LOL, thanks!

I’m pretty happy so far. I think I’ve really got a good grasp on scoring system. Just need some tweaking. I have learned that you need to break then lock onto at least a large amount of popcorn, destroy those and then score points. Then lock onto more...destroy and double break and keep that multiplier counter going. Some runs I have seen show that you can get over 100 billion in the first level in novice mode if you strategize the breaks. Level three is where it gets tough as nails for me. But here is where I’m at.
[img width=700 height=933]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190316/674b6f985965f01828f1188b6f09162e.jpg[/img]



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Thank you for reminding me, you're totally right! I often lose stars, were it would be easy to collect them while holding the lock on - button. Sometimes i'm just to focused on dodging, or distracted by all the things going on, so i miss the obvious...
But i tried working on that and also on optimising my scoring a little bit.


Here's my update from last weekend:

I finally beat my Arcade/Original score yesterday. I didn't beat the Stage 3 Boss, like last time, but i could improve my scoring a little bit.

[img width=500 height=313]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4823/47351861542_4d9b3be161.jpg[/img]

I also played some Time Attack yesterday, did beat my former scores and got a B-Rank.

[img width=500 height=313]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4820/32462678347_7e184fdfdd.jpg[/img]


On friday i played some Boost and could beat both my Novice and Arcade scores.

[img width=500 height=313]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7832/47351857442_8bdc25a3b4.jpg[/img]
[img width=500 height=313]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7876/47351854582_95b90d9573.jpg[/img]

Whoah! Congrats @zoydo. Your putting up some tough scores bro.


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Crimzon Clover made the top 5 best shmup list of all time...here is the posted final results of that poll from shmups.system11 forums.

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64197

@coin_tengoku: thanks! You're doing some good progress too! I really like how you and MetalFRO got into learning the scoring mechanics from the very beginning. Maybe i was focusing a little too much on surviving and on playing all the modes with all of the ships.


I came across the list too and was glad too see Zero Ranger on it already!
CC's spot on top of this list is also well-deserved. I'd consider it as one of my Top 5 stg's i played, as well (maybe even Top 3).


I had a really nice run yesterday and managed to achieve my goal to break the 200,000,000,000 - mark

[img width=313 height=500]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7891/32487872097_c436818d5a.jpg[/img]

I saw that about CC in the top 5. I'm a little conflicted about that. I feel like it's a bit too new of a game to hold that spot, but at the same time, it's been out for 8 years, so it may well have earned its spot. I'm really enjoying the game, but I'm not familiar enough with the other top 5 entries to be as objective about it. Having said that, it's quite an achievement, and something we'll definitely need to bring up on the podcast.

I've been struggling with Arcade difficulty, but have managed to eek out a little progress. I'm able to reach Stage 3, on a good run, though last night I was having trouble sometimes even getting to the boss in Stage 2, because I'm not yet consistently routing that level. Despite that, I managed to get reasonably far in 3 last night a couple times, and hit my highest score in Arcade/Original so far:

[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/s3cWrEal.jpg[/img]

I'd really like to see the end of Stage 3, though I'm a little afraid of what the boss is going to throw at me. I struggled the most with the Stage 3 boss in Novice, so I'm not sure what awaits me when I finally get there in Arcade.

@MetalFro: nice, congrats for passing the 100,000,000,000 pts.! :)

I feel al little bit stuck at the moment. I couldn't beat the Stage 3 - Boss for a few days now.
Yesterday i was really close, but failed again. At least i did some slight progress with my scoring.

[img width=400 height=640]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7815/47408506732_057b35b860_z.jpg[/img]

Here's my Arcade Original Score, barely got through the 3rd boss. That fight is brutal.
[img width=497 height=663]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/480860828795535364/559260990806687744/0324190023.jpg?width=497&height=663[/img]

[img width=700 height=933]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190326/1cf50c7383f57f0aad1879b31c1403e1.jpg[/img]

Getting toward the end of the month. I haven’t made much progress but I’ve had a lot of fun. Here is my best score for novice.


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That's a pretty good score! I'm still chipping away at Arcade/Original, but haven't managed to progress much. I did finally make it past the robo-snakes in Stage 3 last night, but only barely. I always bite it right around there. Hopefully, as I stream the game through the rest of the week, I can maybe get to the boss in that level, at least.

@Mark_MSX: Nice one! You got a really nice break rate max.I still need to work on mine and also on keeping up my multiplier ongoing.

@coin_tengoku: Good job, you almost made it! Just a few more tries.


Gave the Type-I another try today.

Here's my score update:

[img width=400 height=640]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7823/47472969601_54f263e7bb_z.jpg[/img]

Couldn't even make it to the Stage 3 Boss today.

@MetalFRO

Yeah arcade mode is insane! It really amps up on stage three and I am pretty sure the game requires memorization at this point. What a game though! Congrats to everyone that got an all clear this month.


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I managed to reach the Stage 3 boss last night in Arcade/Original, but wow, I lasted all of 10-15 seconds. Once it shoots out the lasers, and ALSO throws globs of punk bullets at you, I was sunk. If I can tighten my strats on Stage 2, to get through more consistently, improve my Break timing, to better milk stars, for extra lives, and then route better through Stage 3, I think I might be able to get through that Stage 3 boss. But I'm not sure I'll be able to accomplish all of that before the end of the month.

I have hit a wall with Stage 3. I managed to get this score last night, but I've stopped making progress:

[img width=480 height=640]https://i.imgur.com/Ne9On30l.jpg[/img]

So I asked for some videos with some good CC runs, and Mark_MSX graciously linked me to this bad boy from Jaimers91:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c38pCoud9yE

I'm not confident I'll be able to replicate most of this, but his Stage 1 sequence looks doable, so I might focus on that, and see if I can do that to at least boost my score to a better place, and then concentrate on better routing in Stage 3, based on what he's doing in the video.

I also watched a few replays for strategic purposes and came across this run by Jaimers. I could learn a lot from this and tried to imitate some things too. It's still quite hard to do the right things with the correct timing. But it helped me to get a certain flow and to boost my score in Stage 1 and in parts of Stage 2. But by the beginning of Stage 3 it's still pure survival and dodging for me.

Jaimers got twice as much points in Stage 1, than i have at the end of Stage 3. That's brutal! :D

Haven't played since monday, hope i can do some final runs this weekend.

I streamed the game earlier today, and explored Boost Mode, Ultimate Mode, and also Time Attack. I managed to eek out a clear on Novice in Boost Mode:

[img width=700 height=933]https://i.imgur.com/F9Yu6ju.jpg[/img]

I felt pretty good about that, given that it was only my second try in that mode on Novice, but as much as I’ve been playing it this month, it makes sense that I would have the level layouts and enemy placement pretty well committed to memory, and just had to compensate for the difference in bullet patters, and especially bullet speed. This is a mode that I think definitely warrants some serious play time, and something I’ll have to explore later on my own.

@MetalFRO: very nice score and also a nice boost count for Stage 3!

I played some runs in Time Attack just for fun today, but couldn't achieve anything. :D

As is scrolled through my former posts today, i realized, that some pics are missing. That was not on purpose, i must have deleted them, when i updated my score-albums. I use Flickr to post images and im still not too familiar with it. Sorry for that, i'll try to avoid this next time.

So that's it, march is over (at least for me). I had lots of fun playing this awesome game with you guys and i'm looking forward to next month and Einhänder! :)

Hi everyone!

Ya this shmup club was a ton of fun! I definitely felt motivated to improve my score from my previous dabbling with the game. I do have a replay of my final posted score of the run. For fun I'll go ahead and render it to video for you all to check out if anyone is interested.

Overall I think this game is absolutely fantastic and I do plan on playing it more in the future to get a decent scoring clear of arcade original. :-D

Also...
I really feel the need to use this cat emoji.
 alfador

[img width=639 height=400]https://i.imgur.com/tMe0hjp.png[/img]

Arcade Original - Type Z
Square_Air - 344,330,077,890 - Stage 5

I didn't end up playing much of this, but at least I increased my PB a bit.

I also feel the need to use the cat.
 alfador

Great stuff, everyone! I still need to post a couple scores, because Imgur is being picky about how frequently it will let me upload images. I have at least one Ultimate score to post, and I'd like to post my best Time Attack score, from a couple days ago. I'll be putting most of my thoughts into the podcast, but do want to say that this is an excellent game. Despite my own frustrations with it, due to my average skill level, I am starting to see why it's so well liked, and why it hit the #5 spot on the shmups forum's top 25 2018 list. Definitely one I'll have to go back to!

Here some final thoughts:

What i really like about Crimzon Clover is how it seems to borrow elements from other shmups and combines them in a way that works out very well and makes absolute sense. As you play through the game you can spot quite a few things that seem familiar. Never too obvious, but in a way that pays homage to the genre (and some of its classics) in general.

Another thing that's really cool is, that you can always track your progress in the game by just taking a look at the medals and trophies you earn for the different modes and ships. It's also very comfortable to catalogue your scores, as the game shows you every information you need on the game over/score - screen (such as Ship, Stage Progress, Score, Stars, Break Rate, Boost Count, etc.). It even gives you all these informations in the replay-menu and in the online-leaderboards as well.

It's balanced very well and the multiple game-modes and difficulties make it challenging for everyone from beginner to pro. (The Time Attack Mode is perfect if you're busy and just want to play 5 minutes in between and also for caravan-like competitions)

Crimzon Clover just got everything one could possibly ask for, it looks nice and the soundtrack is awesome. It's still unbelievable to me, that this game was created by a single person!

Just updated the high score listings on the first post - thanks everyone for participating, and we hope to see you here for future shmup selections!