March 2019 Shmup Club - Crimzon Clover

[MetalFRO]

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.

[coin_tengoku]

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.

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.  


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[MetalFRO]

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

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. 

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.

[zoydo]

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

[MetalFRO]

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.

[coin_tengoku]

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

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. 

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.

MetalFro,

What’s the deadline for score submission?

[MetalFRO]

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.

[MetalFRO]

@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.

[coin_tengoku]

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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[zoydo]

@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.^^

[MetalFRO]

@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!

[coin_tengoku]

@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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[coin_tengoku]

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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[zoydo]

@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. 

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.

[Mark_MSX]

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!