The "what Cave game(s) are you playing right now?" thread

[MikeNeko]

First, hi there everyone, first time user, long time reader (i saw Zatsuza thanks to you )

I am maso, in that i love cave shmups but am no good at them AT ALL (the only game i was remotely good at was Esp Ra De and i lost it all after a year of not playing it).

At the moment, i am playing DDP DFK on the 360 to relax (i have great fun with Blue/Strong) and ... i am ashamed... some more shoddy version of daioujou which i am dissecting to finaly know how CAVE do their great shmups (so now i know their bullets structure, how they check them against the player position, why some collide and others not etc, really instructive) To me, that too is playing~

I do have the Daioujou 360 game though, so i feel a little better about doing that.

[Rads]

Hi all.

I was a member here before - Rad, but i re-registered today as my old membership was cleansed (my bad, too much time away) .

I am not playing anything atm but Fujita sent me one of their "brand new" Deathsmiles this morning w. EMS, so i am documenting on the game while i eagerly wait hehe.

I found the game system very well explained on another forum by EOJ i think, and i also study some videos.

From what i read DS is one of the easier Cave titles? I am curious because my other title is Ibara - horrible difficulty for a returning player of stg's (well Raiden 2 but still); wish i would of chosed galuda1 or Esprade as they had the same price tag and i understand they are more "friendly" to newcomers; i apologize in advance if this is not the thread for questions, but i did not want to overpost on my 1st visit in a long time, as i already posted a question in the HW page.

[bitkid]

Just got my 2nd Cave port for the 360...Espgaluda 2. This game is freaking crazy. Now I really know what people mean by the visuals just being nuts. The game is damn pretty. I wasn't a huge fan of the visuals for Espgaluda 1 but this game is just breathtaking.

[EOJ]

I've been trying to narrow down what game or two I'll focus on for the near future, but it's pretty hard because they're all so fun. Anyway, the past few days I've been playing:

SDOJ - X360 - Ver 1.5 - A-Shot
Espgaluda 2 - X360 - 360 Mode - Ageha
Futari BL - X360 - 360 God Mode - Reco
Pink Sweets - X360 - Ver 1.01 - Lace

I also played through DS II X-Mode once today.

[Stompp]

Been grinding DFK 1.0 for some months now but I just can't seem to get passed the laser rings    Still slowly advancing. Was stuck on the fourth stage for a loooong while.

[Monouchi]

Taking a pause from cave games trying to 1cc some other games.
...though Im so stuck at watching Pink Sweets runs on youtube. The game looks like so much fun.

[EOJ]

I played Futari 1.01 Maniac mode tonight. Got to Stage 5 with 100mil. I forgot how good that game is. Sometimes I like it even more than 1.5.

[Monouchi]

Nice. I have to try out 1.01 some day. Got it on the shelf.

I just dropped Guwange into a cab to get that 1cc, got to the last level on second credit....but I got to get some strategy for the squeeze.
And I always missed that big last energy drop from the spider.

[pmp]

Taking a pause from cave games trying to 1cc some other games.
...though Im so stuck at watching Pink Sweets runs on youtube. The game looks like so much fun.

Pink Sweets Arrange is excellent, definitely check it out.

[Monouchi]

Got that 1cc in Guwange.
After some practice in how to get that full life in stage 6 its quite doable, also to save bombs for the last stretch really helps.

Digged a little into the scoring system, great fun to get that gold rain but I didnt stay long as scoring isnt needed for any extends.

Guwange is amazing, especially after you learn the small extra tricks in controlling your spirit.
I def want to return to this game later on to do a better run and also incorporate more scoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP45TJKDd9c

[pestro87]

Futari BL - X360 - 360 God Mode - Reco

Oh nice! How's it going so far? God Mode is such a fantastic game.

I'm currently working on it as well, trying to push my score further. RL's been incredibly busy for me this year but it's finally started to slow down so I've been trying to derust and get back into it. My plan was to focus on God Mode for the rest of the year and then move on to Deathsmiles MBL lvl 999 next year. But we'll see how it goes, it depends a bit on how far I manage to push the score in God Mode this year, still feels like I have a lot of work left.

[EOJ]

Futari BL - X360 - 360 God Mode - Reco

Oh nice! How's it going so far? God Mode is such a fantastic game.

I'm currently working on it as well, trying to push my score further. RL's been incredibly busy for me this year but it's finally started to slow down so I've been trying to derust and get back into it. My plan was to focus on God Mode for the rest of the year and then move on to Deathsmiles MBL lvl 999 next year. But we'll see how it goes, it depends a bit on how far I manage to push the score in God Mode this year, still feels like I have a lot of work left.

I got 2.25bil up to stage 4 yesterday.  Not very good, but, baby steps. I have to relearn the whole game, which honestly has been a lot of fun. However, I was never really good at the game and never had good stage 4 or 5 patterns, but I've been practicing Stage 4 a lot over the past week and can get 700mil there fairly consistently.

I'm thinking of buying one of those MFBL "Another Version" kits because it seems God Mode is unchanged there, and it's a lot cheaper than the actual JP PCB. Plus I don't really play the Original or Maniac modes in the game.

[pestro87]

Nice! Sounds like you're making good progress! I remember that stage 5 took a bit of practise in the beginning due to all of the lanterns. Larsa obviously took a bunch of practise as well. Buying an Another Ver sounds like a great idea given the current PCB market. I have both actually but if I were to get a Futari BL PCB today I'd probably go with Another Ver as well. There are a few differences between the port and the PCB which may take a bit of time to get used to in the beginning. The differences are more noticeable the more you push your score though. I wrote down a summary of the changes on a youtube comment before (think it was on my 5.82 bil run on youtube).

Best of luck and keep up the good work!

[EOJ]

Thanks. I bought the original Japanese kit on release back in December 2007 and played it extensively (I got my 855mil Maniac Reco score on that). I sold it after I bought the port because the port felt close enough to me (there are minor differences, but it's a very accurate port overall). But I'd like to give it a go again.

I lost $1000 selling my MFBL kit (bought it for $2250, sold for $1250 a few years later). It had the sticker on the box and was mint.  It also had an MMB- serial, which many of the early kits had.

[EOJ]

I got 3.01bil in MFBL God Mode today. Pretty good run until I got to Stage 5 and suddenly realized I hadn't played it (in God Mode) since about 2011. Deaths left and right, game over at the midboss. I need to practice that in training mode for awhile.

I'm still playing 1.01 Maniac every day or two, as I really love it. I owned a 1.0 PCB kit soon after it released back in 2006, so it has a lot of nostalgia for me, even though it's not exactly the same on the X360 version. I've never 1CC'd it (PCB or X360 Maniac), though I have gotten close (Stage 5 Boss). It's on the list of games I'd like to 1CC before I die.

[pestro87]

Good stuff breaking 3bil! Yeah Stage 5 took a bit of practise in the beginning I remember. Especially because of the suicide bullets from the lanterns. 3 bil by the time you reached the midboss means that it should be possible to get quite a bit more. Very nice!

[Monouchi]

Nice going EOJ.
I love God mode but have only played it casually and reached 3rd stage.
Going to pick it up again after some more 1ccs in other games.

[EOJ]

After a lot of playing around with different Cave games over the past month I've settled on three games to focus on for scoring for the near future. Here are my targets:

Espgaluda 2 with Ageha - X360 (might get a PCB soon). Target: 500+mil ALL (this will take me awhile!)
SDOJ Arcade mode with Type A-Shot - X360. Target: 15+mil ALL
MFBL God Mode with Reco - X360 (should get my PCB tomorrow). Target: 5+bil ALL (this will also take me awhile!)

Anyone else working on any scoring targets?

I ended stage 2 with 1.59bil today in MFBL God, which (I think) is my best ever. Still need to work on consistent stage 3-5 patterns though, so I have a long way to go.

I didn't think I'd ever bother with scoring again, but I've rediscovered how fun it is. Even though I don't have much time to play anymore, I am still making progress with a credit or two every day or two.  And training mode sessions on the X360 are a great time-saver for fine-tuning scoring routes.

[Monouchi]

Respect for going for score in Espgaluda 2.
I 1ccd it and think it is quite a long struggling game especially if I would include scoring.

I remember standing behind a salaryman at HEY that looked like he lived in Zesshikai....

One pcb is up on YJ:
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q187758107

[EOJ]

I decided to practice stage 1 on Espgaluda 2 last night with the X360's training mode and after an hour I got 45mil. In my old 1CC on the X360 (383mil with Ageha) I got 27mil on stage 1, so this is an improvement! Training mode is a godsend for this game.

Now to practice stage 2 (and learn some good scoring patterns). I remember when I had the PCB in 2006/2007 and it was incredibly hard to learn good scoring patterns (this was years before the X360 port came out, and there were few online resources for strategies). My best score back then was 363mil (without a clear).

[pestro87]

Awesome goals, EOJ! Sounds like you're doing really great in God Mode so far! Glad to hear! I look forward to following your progress!

Also, I feel like I'm in a similar boat - I don't have much free time at all (I try to play whenever I can, sometimes it's every other day of the week and other weeks I don't get to play at all lol - my past week was the latter unfortunately...) but working on your score is just so much fun. I'm currently trying to push my score further in God Mode as well. With my current routes 6.2 or 6.3bil should be doable if the stars align (current PB is 6bil) but I'm also working on reaching Spiritual Larsa on a scoring run (I've reached her before on runs where I ignore scoring). Biggest obstacle is of course Larsa for that - I have an ok route on her I feel but I need to polish up a few things in order to reduce the amount of mandatory bombs that I need to drop on her. For starters I need to stop doing the macro dodge on phase 3 since it's RNG whether or no she starts by shooting upwards or downwards. It's really scary to properly dodge that pattern so need to work on it in order to build up better consistency. Second thing I need to work on is the last pattern on phase 1. I make too large movements which causes the laser to miss Larsa on certain spots which forces me to drop a bomb on the later part of that pattern. I need to stick more to the center of the screen and make smaller movements.

The second obstacle for reaching Spiritual Larsa is of course overall consistency with my scoring route. This has gotten better and better lately, just need to keep working on a lot details I think.

Other than that I re-watched NAK's Stunfest runs and discovered a lot of small details that I hadn't noticed before. Definitely want to look into that as soon as I get a chance.

[EOJ]

Thanks, and good luck to you in your scoring goals as well! I'm taking a break from God mode and mainly focusing on Espgaluda 2 for the time being. Actually the scoring systems in the two games are similar in some fundamental ways, and the skills required to be good in one are applicable to the other. I imagine you could do very well in E2.

[Monouchi]

I just saw your first stage run in Kuro (That was you playing, right?)
That was mind boggling, now I want to find the pcb even more.

Im still stuck with Pink Sweets. Playing with Shasta (Start)-spread special power up is the most fun thing ive done in a shmup for a long time.
I have to make it my goal to 1cc PS without the infinite lives trick.

[EOJ]

No, that wasn't me. I think it was TGA-RET. I never had a chance to record any of my Kuro plays. I could get near 20mil on Stage 1 on a good day, though.

I'll always have a soft spot for the game, but it's actually not among my favorites when it comes to scoring. The scoring system is very frustrating and a lot of luck is involved to get a high scoring run. That is why I ultimately abandoned the game, though I am still proud of my 114mil score as not many people have gotten over 100mil in the game. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the few guys who got over 200mil, as that is beyond my skills (and patience).

I played it in Mame the other day and it's actually quite playable. Not perfect, but a lot of the slowdown is in there -- it's better than some of the ports!

[Monouchi]

Yes, I am also a bit torn about the scoring mechanic.
I like the XTC counter going up and so on...but scraping bullets gets tedious and slow after a while.

[EOJ]

Current goal that has taken precedence over my previous goals:

Muchi Muchi Pork (PCB) - 200+mil with Rafute.

I can (just barely) see how to get there, but putting it all together in one run is proving difficult. Current high score is 163mil (without a clear, and with a chain break and many other big mistakes), so I will try to keep inching toward my goal throughout the year. Realistically, I probably won't reach 200mil, but I'll try to get as close as I can.

After this I'll try to get new scores with Ikuo and Momo again.

[Kaneda]

Awesome, good luck! 200m with Rafute is a great goal. She's too hard for me, so I don't think I could ever score that high.

If you want a checkpoint along the way, my high score with her on 1.0 (360) from some years ago is 181 million.

[EOJ]

Rafute plays so distinctly from the other two. You have to really approach the game differently, which I'm enjoying exploring. I've learned how to position her bomb a bit better so it does minimal damage to the bosses. For example, I can get off one round of bomb-boss milking on the final phase (blue bullet spam) of the stage 1 boss with her, if I stay in the right or left bottom corner and don't move (but if I move, it tends to kill the boss). I can get nearly 20 mil on Stage 1 now.

181mil is really great, especially in the port that is missing a lot of slowdown (making it harder)! 

[Plasmo]

200mil Rafute is a very steep goal! Good luck on this one:

[EOJ]

Thanks! But it's a long ways off from the 233mil WR (which is a complete puzzle to me).