Dodonpachi Saidaioujou exA Label mode [basics, scoring techniques, etc]

[EOJ]

With this game out now I've watched some high level gameplay videos and here is what I can discern from them thus far. Just a basic list for now. I also mention similarities and differences with SDOJ (original PCB), DOJ X-Mode, DFK 1.5, DFK 1.51, DFK BL, and Ibara Kuro. Any corrections are of course welcome.

BASICS AND DIFFERENCES (COMPARED TO SDOJ):
-Bomb and Hyper are now on separate buttons (like DFK 1.5/BL).
-No autobomb (it is selectable on/off in SDOJ).
-Dress selection has no effect on gameplay, it's just for show.
-Grazing bullets causes them to glow and adds to your hyper meter at a rapid pace.
-Larger enemies and parts of bosses now have visible life bars (this was adopted from the Arrange Mode in the X360 port of SDOJ).
-Ranks maxes out at 100 (increased from 50 in SDOJ).
-Hit count maxes at 99,999 (no change from SDOJ here).
-No penalty for death on the hit counter (it doesn't reduce at all, even if you die in Hyper mode! This is unlike both DFK 1.5 and DFK BL. In SDOJ a death in normal mode caused a 30% reduction in your hit count, whereas in hyper mode it reset your hit count to 0).
-Your hit count slowly reduces when your chaining gauge is empty in both normal and hyper mode (in SDOJ this caused a 30% hit reduction in normal mode, whereas in hyper mode your hit count would reset to 0 if the chaining gauge emptied out).
-Bombing does not affect your hit count (in SDOJ this caused a 30% reduction).

BOMB ITEMS, BOMB STOCK AND BOMBING:
-There are more bomb items in each stage, compared to the original SDOJ.
-Bombs are not connected to life stock, so if you die, you do not lose any bombs. You do gain one bomb whenever you die (like Ibara Kuro).
-Collecting a bomb item cancels bullets and produces star items (like in DFK BL).
-Bombing in the stages or on bosses produces large star items, and can be used for score gains (like DFK 1.51). There is no reduction in your hit count after bombing (unlike SDOJ, DFK 1.5 and DFK BL).
-Bombing reduces the rank by 5 each time (bombing to reduce rank harkens back to Ibara Kuro, then DFK 1.5 (reduces hyper rank) and DFK BL (reduces reddo gauge to empty)).

BEE ITEMS, STAR ITEMS AND HYPERING:
-Collecting a Bee item cancels bullets and produces large star items (like in DFK BL).
-Bee items now increase your hyper meter by 1 (in SDOJ, they added a partial amount to your hyper meter).
-Hyper shot cancels bullets (like DOJ X-Mode, DFK BL and DFK 1.5) and adds hits to your hit counter at a rapid rate (like DOJ X-Mode and DFK 1.5, but unlike DFK BL).
-Hyper-cancelled bullets produce star items, and turn into blue pointed suicide bullets that aim at you, but don't seem to cross over and hit you as long as you keep your hyper shot going and move left or right if things get hairy at high rank (like DFK BL Strong style, but easier).
-Star items are worth points tied to your multiplier/+value (like DFK BL), thus being in hyper-shot mode as much as possible in the stages is ideal for scoring (like DOJ X-Mode).
-Small stars from zako enemies no longer appear (unlike SDOJ).
-You can 'leech' large star items from some enemies, like in Futari Black Label.

BOSS MILKING:
-Bosses can be milked to a minimal degree, unlike vanilla SDOJ.
-Boss milking involves grazing with little to no shooting during the grazing (like Ibara Kuro) to refill your hyper meter. Then a well-placed bomb to milk points from cancelled bullets (similar to DFK 1.51, though in that game you bomb boss lasers for points, rather than cancel bullets for points). Try and end the boss fight with a high hyper count to start the next stage.
-Hyper-shot on bosses does not produce star items for points (like DFK BL).

***TITLE SCREEN INPUT COMMANDS FOR VARIOUS FEATURES****

Someone on Twitter posted the Japanese commands for choosing different things in the modes: https://twitter.com/nyarise/status/1333697986895908864

Here's my translation (input the commands at the title screen of each mode).

If you press B:

ORIGINAL
Overflow OFF > ON

EXA LABEL
Changes BD > DB

ARRANGE
Changes BD > DB

INBACHI
Changes to EXA label Inbachi

If you press C:
Turns Gadgets off in all modes.

If you press D:
It moves the screen up (in TATE/vertical orientation) and puts the gadgets at the bottom of the screen.

If the joystick is in neutral position:
ORIGINAL and INBACHI start with the original soundtrack, whereas EXA Label and ARRANGE start with the new soundtrack.

If you press RIGHT:
You change to the new soundtrack in ORIGINAL and INBACHI.

If you press LEFT:
You change to the original soundtrack in EXA Label and ARRANGE.

[EOJ]

I don't know how reliable this info is, but this Twitter user says they saw someone bomb with rank at 0 and it changed the rank to 7 (normally, bombing REDUCES rank by 5):

https://twitter.com/kirinipapa/status/1335603928537296896

Can anyone test it and confirm?

[EOJ]

Added the following:

-Your hit count slowly reduces when your chaining gauge is empty in both normal and hyper mode (in SDOJ this caused a 30% hit reduction in normal mode, whereas in hyper mode your chain would reset to 0 if the chaining gauge emptied out).

It seems nothing cuts your hit count completely, and nothing even reduces it by a significant amount (dying does nothing, bombing does nothing, empty chaining gauge -- even in hyper mode -- only slowly reduces the hit count).

[EOJ]

I watched a video of Daioujou X-Mode (X360 arrange mode) today, and then it hit me. That's what this game reminds me the most of in the in-stage scoring/gameplay (more than DFK 1.5 or DFK BL).

Here's a comparison video I made showing EXA Label ST5 vs X-Mode ST5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIwvwl8AGFs

These two game modes share three fundamental things in their gameplay/scoring systems in the stages: hyper-shot cancels bullets, hyper-shot cancelled bullets add hits to your counter, and the multiplier is active during hypers. So in both games you should be in hyper mode, cancelling bullets with your shot, in the stages from start to finish as much as possible.

I quite like X-mode btw and prefer it to DOJ WL or BL (then again, I really don't like either of those games).