Pink Sweets ~ Ibara Sorekara

[EOJ]

The second loop is more or less the same, except the rank starts out a bit higher (though you can control it by dying a lot), many of the bosses and midbosses shoot out blue suicide bullets when they bomb or die, and the last boss goes pretty crazy. He does a wild bombing attack that fills the screen with dense blue suicide bullets. It's pretty awesome, and I've never seen it on the first loop's end boss.

[jpj]

ah right, cool.  i thought it would be like harder mode, but obviously not.

okay, i will start playing it this week  you reckon shasta is easier than lace to trigger it?

[EOJ]

Yes, much easier, though it takes a good deal of practice to get consistent. This last time I triggered it right after the ST3 midboss, just like in Galford's vid.
I've tried again with Lace a bunch of times, but haven't been able to do it again. I think I just got lucky a few times.
I'm going to try with Midi&Meidi and Kasumi next.

[Plasmo]

@EOJ
Harder Mode and Score Attack ALL's are waiting for you. At least on the latter one it'll be a fair battle without any bugs/cheap tricks.

[EOJ]

bugs/cheap tricks.

LOL. Give it a rest please.

[Plasmo]

Well, it doesn't get better the longer you wait or what did you expect?!

[EOJ]

?

Sorry, I don't know what your post is supposed to mean.

I was referring to your repeated reference to "bugs" or "cheap tricks" in PS. There aren't any bugs or cheap tricks on my PCB. In addition, I play on all defaults, so any mode is a "fair battle".

[elf]

?

Sorry, I don't know what your post is supposed to mean.

I was referring to your repeated reference to "bugs" or "cheap tricks" in PS. There aren't any bugs or cheap tricks on my PCB. In addition, I play on all defaults, so any mode is a "fair battle".

I think his point is that the real challenge comes from scoring, without using the infinite lives trick
and you're propably going to have more trouble on score attack or harder mode, then.
Maybe he is still pissed about your 2-ALL, which is so rdicilously easily achieved, compared to how long he worked for his 8,8 score.

Would be interesting to see, if you can handle score attack, too

[EOJ]

I haven't played Score attack much, but plan to soon.

The infinite lives is a feature of the game. If you don't use it, you're just making things harder for yourself. ALL of the WR scores use it. So stop insinuating scores done without it are somehow better than those that use it, please. I'm the only guy outside of Japan who's been able to trigger the infinite lives on default settings, so it's pretty damn hard to do anyway.

A 2-ALL is ridiculously easy? If it's so easy, why hasn't Plasmo or anyone else here done it? It's far from easy, especially since the rank starts off higher than in the Normal game.

[Plasmo]

Well it's actually not really possible if you don't have a stick with autofire. I tried pressing B manually as fast as I can during stage 1 and the rank wasn't noticeably higher once I entered stage 2. Maybe if you keep hammering the B button during stage 1 AND 2 you get infinite lives on stage 5 and that's MUCH harder than getting it on stage 3.
It kinda reminds of Mushihimesama, where for example maco got an excellent score (over 800mill) but compared to the WR scores it's very poor. If he would have done the exact same movements with manipulated autofire his score would probably be around 2bill, but he hasn't got the hardware and so it's not possible for him.

I'm not saying triggering infinite lives is easy! I actually don't know how difficult it really is (though I don't think it's harder than reaching stage 6 without "feature", just a guess of course!). It's really nice to see a western player finally getting infinite lives and achieving some respectable scores in Pink Sweets (would love to see a replay btw!). The only thing I'm saying is that I don't like this feature at all and that I was not playing under the same conditions. Then again, you're right that it's my fault, because I was playing it the "hard way", it probably never was intended to. The only mode I played/was able to play the "right" way was Score Attack after all.:/

I didn't want to offend you or anything, good luck on your Harder Mode/Score Attack ALL, I'll keep my mouth shut from now on.

[elf]

A 2-ALL is ridiculously easy? If it's so easy, why hasn't Plasmo or anyone else here done it? It's far from easy, especially since the rank starts off higher than in the Normal game.

I didnt know about further details of the mode, just played it a couple of times, which was enough for me.
And sure, you're the only one ever having triggered the infinite lives there (which i dont say was easy), but right from this moment on, you can call it an ALL already.
If this game would have infinite loops, you could theoretically Loop it up to insanity, just score is interesting, then.

Maybe this game is split up in 2 parts.
The first one, and already a hard challenge, is to unlock the infinite lives, and once triggered, the actual scoring, the second part, begins.
So it doesnt really matter at all, if you ALL'd it, or not.
It's just, "Have you triggered the inf.-lives trick, or havent you"? If you have not, you propably cant enjoy and explore all the scoring secrets and parts, and have to play very very careful.
And if you have, you're a lucky man.

[EOJ]

Well it's actually not really possible if you don't have a stick with autofire. I tried pressing B manually as fast as I can during stage 1 and the rank wasn't noticeably higher once I entered stage 2. Maybe if you keep hammering the B button during stage 1 AND 2 you get infinite lives on stage 5 and that's MUCH harder than getting it on stage 3.

It's definitely possible with Shasta. There's a vid of a JP guy doing it with Midi&Meidi as well. I'm going to try doing it soon to see how early I can trigger it. It may be possible by the beginning of stage 4 if you bomb a lot on the ST2 boss. Otherwise I think I could do it by the start of stage 5 or end of stage 4. And if you manually tap B rapidly, it does raise rank. DEL noticed this as well.

It kinda reminds of Mushihimesama, where for example maco got an excellent score (over 800mill) but compared to the WR scores it's very poor. If he would have done the exact same movements with manipulated autofire his score would probably be around 2bill, but he hasn't got the hardware and so it's not possible for him.

I don't see the analogy here. Maco got a clear in Mushi just like the other guys with the fancy rapid fire. The rapid fire in PS doesn't automatically grant you a higher score than those who don't use it, and neither does the infinite lives - my scores are 50% or less of the WRs! You absolutely cannot die much during the levels if you want to get an optimal score in the game, so the infinite lives only helps in certain spots. If you die every ten seconds, your score won't be good at all.

I actually don't know how difficult it really is (though I don't think it's harder than reaching stage 6 without "feature", just a guess of course!).

It's pretty hard. It took me months of practice and training to do it. I'd say I could probably get to stage 6 without the infinite lives if I put a similar amount of effort in, as I regularly get by the stage 5 boss without dying now. Of course, if you keep the rank low and don't medal, then getting to stage 6 is probably easier than triggering the infinite lives (it's also pretty boring, so I don't think I'll be trying that any time soon).

The only thing I'm saying is that I don't like this feature at all.

Well, that's understandable. This feature is necessary in Extended mode, however, as it's IMPOSSIBLE to 2-ALL the game without it.

When you trigger the infinite lives, it really does feel like a 1CC. A great feeling of accomplishment. After that, you relax a little, and enjoy an extended score attack until the end of the game, and that's where the game's real challenge comes. Figuring out how to control the rank at the right spots (sometimes you want to lower it, other times you want to jack it up as high as possible, like right before the ST6 boss), the best pattern through the levels, how to milk the most points off the midbosses and bosses, avoid losing your medal chain, etc. That's what the game is all about.

[jpj]

haven't we debated this enough on shmups already?  

i'm still gagging for a pink sweets 15+ mill ALL video to reveal itself  

eoj, do you reckon it's worth firing an email to the guys at gamebox?  if that was where galford recorded his replays, maybe one of his friends there has a copy...?

[EOJ]

Yeah, it's worth a try I guess, but I doubt you'll get anything.

~15mil isn't hard to imagine, it's just a full medalling run, full Special power up, without dying in the stages. I got nearly 11mil and made a ton of screwups, losing my chain a bunch of times. ~20mil is the real mystery. Like how you get 3.7mil by the end of stage 2, and 6mil by the end of stage 3.

[jpj]

are you sure 6 mill at the end of stage 3 is possible!?  on galford's page, he had a pic of his score table, and one of his scores was 6.2 and died on stage 5 (still pretty impressive for shasta)

[EOJ]

Yeah, in YOS.K's 20mil run he said he got 6mil at the end of stage 3, and 9mil at the end of stage 4. You have to keep on a similar pace to reach 19.8 mil like Galford did.

As for Galford's 6mil stage 5 score, that could be explained by one of 2 things: 1)it wasn't him, it was another player (he plays at an arcade after all, he doesn't own the PCB), or 2) he messed up the infinite lives and just screwed around for a bit.

[jpj]

it's my fault, i probably wasn't too clear.  obviously there is a fair amount of difference in scoring between the ships, so a 15 mill with midi&meidi is damn impressive.  i can believe 6 mill with lace because her shot gets so much more tick points.  shasta though, i'm really not that confident on.  i believe galford can score 6-7 mill with shasta by the end of stage 5.  but as he is so good at score attack mode, he might know tricks that YOS.K doesn't.  galford can do 9 mill with lace on stage 6 *against the clock*, and with medals starting out at 100 pts.  so he can probably do 9 mill or even higher without those restrictions even with a lesser ship.  and the 6 mill stage 5 is definitely his, as the intended dvd listed the contents as: bug-assisted 1-ALL, score attack 8.8 mill ALL, and death (ie failing to induce infinite lives).  if he cocked it up at stage 3, why piss about until stage 5 to finish the credit?  while he does the auto-B, that kinda says to me that he doesn't actually induce the infinite lives until stage 5.  possibly dropping the extra extends to lower rank* in the earlier levels, and finally picking up the requisite 1-ups during the fifth stage

(pink sweets score thread gets fucked up again )

edit:*

[jpj]

Yeah, in YOS.K's 20mil run he said he got 6mil at the end of stage 3, and 9mil at the end of stage 4.

i just realised, if YOS.K reckons he had 9 mill at the end of stage 4, and the score attack record with lace is now over 10 million, surely 20+ million is possible with lace by the end of stage 6.  ie that record is beatable (and by quite a bit)

[EOJ]

Sorry, I have to disagree on some things.

1)I can't see why Galford wouldn't trigger the infinite lives by the end of stage 3. Everyone does who uses rapid B, it's silly not to because you can just die a few times on the stage 3 boss to keep the rank manageable for stage 4 (though who knows, maybe he keeps the rank high throughout the game for the extra points - that would make more sense actually). He even released a harder mode vid showing how he gets the infinite lives in stage 3.
2)9 mil in Stage 6 in an actual run is probably not possible, especially with Shasta. You enter with a much higher rank than in Score attack mode. Galford never used Shasta on score attack mode, as he said she couldn't compete with Lace (or even Kasumi). Even if he did get 9mil here and 6 mil by the end of stage 5, that would leave an unexplained 4-5 mil on stage 7. YOS.K got 3mil here with Lace, and I doubt there's much more to be had on the stage than that (I struggle to get past 1mil on the stage!), especially with Shasta. You can get over 600K on the ST7 midboss with Lace, but only about half of that with Shasta, for example.
3)On his webpage, he doesn't list the "death" run on the DVD contents. But maybe he did record a failed infinite lives run. There's still zero proof that it's the 6mil stage 5 run on that screenshot. Like I said, could have just as likely been another player at the arcade.

i just realised, if YOS.K reckons he had 9 mill at the end of stage 4, and the score attack record with lace is now over 10 million, surely 20+ million is possible with lace by the end of stage 6.  ie that record is beatable (and by quite a bit)

Sorry, you're ignoring the rank factor again. YOS.K must have the rank jacked through the roof by the time he gets to stage 6. So it makes little sense to compare Score Attack scores to his stage 6 score.

I don't doubt that YOS.K's score is theoretically beatable though.

[jpj]

ah yes, i read it wrong.  one of the contents is a clip showing the bug, my mistake.  i have to admit, i thought you would be able to get more decent scores from stage 7 though.  especially that last screen-filling pattern.  and take into account that shasta's bomb is vertical, so you can aim it away from the boss, to milk the battle more effectively than a lace player could.  you could be right on stage 6.  but i gather what you're saying is that YOS.K/galford will be dying a lot on stage 6.  but if you're dying a lot, i can't see how you could still score so highly throughout a whole run...

[EOJ]

Well a high scoring stage 6 is still a mystery to all of us here, so who knows! I've played it at a high rank a few times, and it's pretty nasty - many fast waves of enemies cannot even be fully destroyed due to their added hit points. I do think they would have to die at least a few times in the stage, but if they keep their medal chain and don't lose the Special power up for too long, they could still get 6+mil here. A lot also depends on the luck you get with the midboss patterns and especially the boss's lightening attack. I wonder if they don't die repeatedly on the second midboss in order to try and lower the rank for the snakes/trains section?

As for stage 7, bombing that last crazy pattern on the boss gives you a few 100K with Shasta - but again, it seems to depend on luck somewhat. Sometimes I get the pattern 3-4 times, others just once. I still struggle to see how YOS.K got 3mil here, and who knows how much Galford got here.

Actually the only guy here who might be able to shed some light on some of this is Kaneda, as he saw a guy get a 16+ (or 18?)mil score at Hey Arcade w/ Lace. I don't know what (if anything) he actually remembers about the run, though.

[jpj]

i agree with you that it makes a lot more sense that galford triggered it in stage 3.  but i'm wondering, isn't it possible to suicide loads of times then on the stage 5 boss to make the stage 6 rank more manageable?  (you're thinking the same, i see!)

anyways - interesting chats as always  i'm actually gonna have a cigarette and boot this bad boy up.  haven't played in ages, so should be fun  

[EOJ]

I've tried the mass suicide on various bosses in a few of my infinite lives runs. It does make the rank more manageable, but it's still pretty nasty, particularly if you've maintained your medal chain throughout. When you reach a certain level of rank, it's impossible to significantly lower it, no matter how many times you suicide (this is according to Arcadia magazine, and I can confirm it with my own tests).

Also, if you spend a lot of time suiciding on a boss, you waste time you could spend milking it, costing you a lot of points.

[EOJ]

Two new scores:

NORMAL MODE - LACE
EOJ - 10,938,200 - ALL - Type A

NORMAL MODE - KASUMI
EOJ - 9,555,440 - ALL - Type A



I'm quite proud of that Kasumi score. That was not easy.

Not sure how I messed up my initials in the first score, somehow I entered CAJ instead of EOJ. I guess I wasn't paying attention.

I've been trying to clear it with M&M, but having little luck so far.

[jpj]

how do you select slim shady?

nice stuff Mr. CAJ 

[KOMA]

I'm shocked with the faculty you have to clear all those Yagawa game"easily" EOJ(PS,MMP,IBL) 

[EOJ]

MISSION COMPLETE.

Normal Mode - Midi & Meidi
EOJ - 9,109,380 - ALL - Type A