January 2019 Shmup Club - Lightening Force aka Thunder Force IV

[Golem]

Lightning Force?

LightEning Force. It's a crucial distinction. :b

Nice intro video for TF4! I didn't know that the extra ship thing was from the Saturn version. (And shamefully, I've only played TF3 a handful of times.)

I'll have to keep those Twitter handles in mind! #rfgshmupclub gets the job done for a hash tag, I think.

As for the game itself, it seems like a lot of things kill me by hopping onscreen and instantly darting for me. And for how fast and zany enemies are, very few go down in one hit--I think the silver guys on Strite just before the midboss do, not sure what else. It's an unusual balance that gives me the impression I'm piloting a glass spacecraft rather than one of plastic and metal, since it always shatters quickly and violently.

Also note that Strite has a freeway hidden at the very bottom of the underwater portion just before the extend icon. Good stuff!!

[douglie007]

I'll keep joining and one day maybe can beat one of these games...

[MetalFRO]

Lightning Force?

LightEning Force. It's a crucial distinction. :b

Nice intro video for TF4! I didn't know that the extra ship thing was from the Saturn version. (And shamefully, I've only played TF3 a handful of times.)

I'll have to keep those Twitter handles in mind! #rfgshmupclub gets the job done for a hash tag, I think.

As for the game itself, it seems like a lot of things kill me by hopping onscreen and instantly darting for me. And for how fast and zany enemies are, very few go down in one hit--I think the silver guys on Strite just before the midboss do, not sure what else. It's an unusual balance that gives me the impression I'm piloting a glass spacecraft rather than one of plastic and metal, since it always shatters quickly and violently.

Also note that Strite has a freeway hidden at the very bottom of the underwater portion just before the extend icon. Good stuff!!

Thanks for the tip about the hidden freeway - it's been so many years since I first discovered that secret, I forgot about it! 

I'll keep joining and one day maybe can beat one of these games...

I would recommend playing Lightening Force on Easy, which you can do by holding down A, B & C and pressing Start during the attract mode, and then selecting the Easy difficulty. No shame in that, because it's still pretty challenging, and the game will definitely still put up a fight, but at least you're not punishing yourself as much. You can do it!

[douglie007]

Lol on easy I couldnt beat one boss.  On easy with the weapons code,i beat one stage, and got to the boss of the next.  What is the best order to play the stages?

[Crabmaster2000]

I played a lot of this a few months back and got to stage 8 a few times, but was never able to get passed that one. I used a bunch of codes this time to see what lay beyond and I can confidently say I'll never finish this one legitimately. The amount of time it would take me to learn patterns and have a good run to beat those final 2 stages is more than I want to invest. Pretty fun shooter though. Some of the music feels very out of place for the stage it is set in, but then you get to something like stage 8 and you just need to crank up your speakers to 11. The credit music was pretty awesome as well!

Lol on easy I couldnt beat one boss.  On easy with the weapons code,i beat one stage, and got to the boss of the next.  What is the best order to play the stages?

I find stages 3 and 4 to be the easiest ones for me to finish with one life and they bosses seem a lot more manageable than in 1 and 2.

Here's my leaderboard post, keep in mind I used cheats to achieve this:

[img width=640 height=480]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7850/39682093713_7d00538805_z.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Lol on easy I couldnt beat one boss.  On easy with the weapons code,i beat one stage, and got to the boss of the next.  What is the best order to play the stages?

Strite is a relatively easy stage to navigate, once you know when to expect the giant blue snake thing, but the boss can be a pain to deal with. Daser is probably the most challenging overall stage, and the boss is definitely tough, and probably the hardest of the first 4 bosses. Ruin can be challenging, but manageable, and the boss is medium hard, I would say. Air Raid is a reasonably challenging stage, but the boss is a total pushover. Each stage has at least 1 opportunity (sometimes 2) to obtain a Claw, every stage has a chance to earn the Blade weapon, and at least 3 stages have an extra life in them somewhere, minus Ruin (at least I've never found one). The only stage in the initial set to have the mighty Hunter weapon is Ruin, so it can be advantageous to go that route early, once you learn enemy placement and attack patterns, because it can get you out of hot water, or help ward off stuff. The thing to remember is that Hunter is great for its hunting/seeking ability, but is weaker than most of the other weapons, offsetting its usefulness somewhat. Also, I think I mentioned this before, but definitely play on Easy difficulty to start with; you'll have a lot less to deal with, especially with some of the bosses.

I played a lot of this a few months back and got to stage 8 a few times, but was never able to get passed that one. I used a bunch of codes this time to see what lay beyond and I can confidently say I'll never finish this one legitimately. The amount of time it would take me to learn patterns and have a good run to beat those final 2 stages is more than I want to invest. Pretty fun shooter though. Some of the music feels very out of place for the stage it is set in, but then you get to something like stage 8 and you just need to crank up your speakers to 11. The credit music was pretty awesome as well!

Lol on easy I couldnt beat one boss.  On easy with the weapons code,i beat one stage, and got to the boss of the next.  What is the best order to play the stages?

I find stages 3 and 4 to be the easiest ones for me to finish with one life and they bosses seem a lot more manageable than in 1 and 2.

Here's my leaderboard post, keep in mind I used cheats to achieve this:

[img width=640 height=480]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7850/39682093713_7d00538805_z.jpg[/img]

Which difficulty did you play on, and which cheats did you use? Obviously your score would be null with cheats. I'd be curious as to where you top out sans cheats.

I've been live streaming Lightening Force, so here are a few of my attempts. I commentate a bit here and there, and offer some strategic tips along the way. Keep in mind, this is my favorite shmup of all time, and I'm struggling in these videos, so you guys aren't alone. Even with my love for the game, and past experience with it, having been away from it for a while, it doesn't come completely naturally picking it back up again.

[Crabmaster2000]

I used the 99 lives code as well as the weapons refill probably around a dozen times or so. I'll try and do a clean run before the end of the month and see if I can't make it back to at least the 8th stage again and post up that score.

[MetalFRO]

I used the 99 lives code as well as the weapons refill probably around a dozen times or so. I'll try and do a clean run before the end of the month and see if I can't make it back to at least the 8th stage again and post up that score.

Sounds good! I need to start posting some of my better scores. Maybe if I can do well at lunch today and make it to 8, I'll post a snap of my best scores so far.

[MetalFRO]

Scores so far on the Switch version of Lightening Force:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/cGqVKBA.jpg[/img]

My top score is 1,469,600 at this point. How is everyone else doing? I want to say my top score was done on Easy difficulty, but I'm playing on Normal at this point, trying to get to where I can clear the game on Normal, and then either move on to Thunder Force IV on Normal, or maybe Lightening Force on Hard.

[MetalFRO]

Managed to get to Stage 9, and get a decent amount into it, even reaching the mid boss. With that, I reached my highest score yet, on Normal, at 1,816,190 points:

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/A01kVX0.jpg[/img]

How is everyone else's progress so far?

[Addicted]

I cleared on Easy and now I'm working on Normal. I've been playing Ketsui and it's put me in the point-blank mindset which kills me on LF/TF IV.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/WtkxzjI.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/d3NpoHI.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Congrats on the Easy mode clear! Normal is definitely a step up, but I think you're up to the challenge

[Addicted]

I made it to the end of stage 3 and lost to the boss on Normal. This game gives up its secrets slowly like Dark Souls.

[Addicted]

I made it to the end of Stage 5 on normal. In retrospect, I should have used the sword against the boss.

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/nvqfFug.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Latest score on Lightening Force, Normal difficulty. I reached Stage 9, but didn't quite make the boss.
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/m04KGSD.jpg[/img]

Closing in on the 1CC!