What a jackass! (or: non-boss enemies that ruin your day)

[gsl]

You've all ran into them before--the enemy that single-handedly screws up a good run, killing you out of nowhere or making you switch to straight-up survival playing and miss out on scoring opportunities.  Talk about them here.

I'm trying for a clear on Futari Original 1.5 before Deathsmiles arrives in the States and takes up all my time, and stage 3 has been a bugger.  The mid boss is surprisingly the easiest part of the whole shebang, and I'm really having a tough time being consistent on the stage boss.  What really fouls me up, though, are those goddamned preying mantis enemies scattered throughout the stage.  They move quickly across the screen, shoot a couple wide lines of purple bullets, and then start spraying large spreads of pink bullets.  There's just something about the speed and placement of the bullet patterns that really screws up the rest of the enemy flow.  The woodlice and ant-like critters that pop out around the same time, they're not so bad, because if you're paying attention to the counters and trying to max out on large gems, you get a decent enough amount of slowdown that you can easily dodge most of the stuff.  Not the mantises, for me at least.  Plus, they take so many shots to kill that I try and take them out as soon as they show up, which means less concentration on producing gems and thus, less slowdown, and then the whole thing just goes to hell.

[EOJ]

Let me guess, Abnormal Palm? Use Normal Reco and your Stage 3 problems will go away.  

As for the topic, I hate the small blue and orange helicopters in Stage 5 Ketsui that shoot the blue angled missiles at you.

[gsl]

Oh, the copies of the Panzer Jaeger and Tiger Schwert?  I've never gotten that far myself, but have watched people play the stage, and ran into them on Extra Mode on Ketsui DS.  I was always struck by how many shots it took to kill those ships, relative to their size.  The second loop especially looks like they really suck.

And actually, I -am- using Normal Reco.

[EOJ]

And actually, I -am- using Normal Reco.

Oh, sorry! I've just never found stage 3 to be troublesome with her. Memorize the enemy locations, and get to them before they appear. You can clear away a lot of the annoying buggers this way, freeing up the screen and lessening the bullet load. Also, her wide shot can cause helpful slowdown in the stage if you hold it down during the tricky parts.

[Shalashaska]

Mushihimesama - Those green beetle things in stage 4 that end up coming two at a time, side by side. There's two of them right before the mid-boss.

Mushi Futari - The big dragons that show up after the mid-boss.

Ketsui - Those big helicopters in stage 4 and the super-fuck-you version in stage 5.

[ookitarepanda]

Divebombers in stage 4 of ESPGaluda II. Fuck those guys. Especially at the end of the level...

[dmauro]

The guys in the first stage of ESPGaluda II that you have to crack open to get the most bullets out of. So annoying when you have to keep starting over because they die instead of breaking open or you think you've shot enough to break them open but you didn't because you started shooting when they were still in their invincibility frames. >___<

[Monouchi]

Mushihimesama Futari, those big butterflies that comes swooping over the screen in stage 4, sometimes the bullets go so slow and sometimes the bullets move like wildfire. 

[Van_Artic]

Espgaluda II, those large ships on the end of stage 3, no matter what i do, i lose a life or i'm forced to guard barrier, losing the extra life at the end

Futari, God mode, the damn round bugs during stage 3, the patterns are so small, even if you kill them as soon as possible, some bullets will spawn anyway, then i have to bomb away and lose my multiplier; it doesn't matter if i'm using Reco or Palm, it's the same result

[Jockel]

Every enemy in Ketsui, when you're trying to play for score 

[emphatic]

I mostly blame myself when I'm failing. I'm so easily distracted I've started playing with the game sound off and loud music blaring to shield my ears from sudden distractions. This would of course not be optimal for Futari, but for Ketsui I find it's helping lots. Especially for level 3 where there's some tiny vocal sample hidden in the BGM. 

[dimmu--borgir]

The Laser towers on stage 5 in Much Muchi Pork. Not really hard to avoid or destroy but they nail me anyway.

[Dale]

Mushihimesama - Those green beetle things in stage 4 that end up coming two at a time, side by side. There's two of them right before the mid-boss.

Yes, they mess me up when I'm playing for score, I always touch them. I also hate the larger flying bugs that stay to the sides and have a mid-sized enemies health in that same stage..

I also hate the jets that curl in stage 3 in Ketsui. In Espgaluda2 I hate the little tanks doing low bow shots while your fighting the closest thing to a mini boss in stage5.