Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu BLACK LABEL [Cave 2010, PCB]

[EOJ]

So you mean that hypers actually get stocked ala DOJ? (Random question: does DFK share the same button for hyper and bombs? or are they separate?). I think I welcome this change.

No, bombs just act as hypers. Press bomb, you trigger a hyper and your bomb stock goes down by one. You don't actually have any bombs. That's not how DOJ worked.

DFK has a separate button for hypers (button 4, or D). This triggers hypers when your hyper meter fills to the max. Perhaps when your hyper meter fills it is stored as an extra bomb, which can be used as a hyper (Adverse hinted at this)?  Only with autobomb off of course.

[adverse]

Random notes:

• Star items seem to be the main source of points
• Carry chain all the way to the end and just shooting the boss/collecting star medals gives a big score boost
• Power mode seems to default to ura boss route
• Yellow bees cancel bullets around you ->stars
• Stage 3 ura mid is crazy with a full RED meter, just columns of bullets and lasers flying at you in concentric circles
• Hypers seem to be cancellable?? I saw one guy drop a coin in on bomb and cancel/start 3 times in a row, which of course raised his hyper rank

[croikle]

This has yet to be the revision with most modifications to the original game yet in a CAVE game, with that and the RED meter.

Ibara Kuro Black Label seems comparable to this, with a new scoring system and so on.

This sounds pretty cool. Thanks for your news, adverse!

[MX7]

Soundtrack is gdlk this time.  Crunchy electro sounds (almost like Kitsune stuff if people know what that is).

Sounds awesome   

[brentsg]

Adverse, they got the kit poster of DFKBL up someplace where you can snap a cellphone pic?

[zlk]

I played a few games today and credit fed once to the end of the 1st loop.  I have no idea what I am doing, but this game seems much harder than DFK.  The hit box seems smaller in the BL version but the bullet patterns of the 1st loop of BL look like those of the 2nd loop of DFK.  I will post more when I get more time playing the game. 

[EOJ]

Sounds like you were playing Strong style. Stick with bomb style unless you want to get mauled.

Also, there's probably no second loop in this one. There's three different difficulty modes based on the style you choose instead, just like the Mushi games.

[brentsg]

So strong is hard now?  haha

I didn't credit feed but I did get mauled.  I played a quick credit on each mode, and I'd agree that the hitbox definitely seems a touch smaller.  I squeezed thru a few spots that had me thinking I was dead.

The game seems harder for sure.  I like the soundtrack!

[PROMETHEUS]

Also, there's probably no second loop in this one. There's three different difficulty modes based on the style you choose instead, just like the Mushi games.

That's awesome ! Nothing better could have happened to DFK. This could potentially turn it into a really great game just like futari.

[brentsg]

Ah, clever thing they did there with the autobomb. If you turn autobomb OFF, whenever you press the bomb button it triggers a hyper instead. So basically you have no traditional bombs at all when you turn autobomb off. If you have autobomb ON, it just acts as an autobomb, and you don't get these extra, stored hypers. Of course you manually trigger bombs as usual with autobomb on as well.

I was hoping they'd do something like this. They're rewarding the scorers with autobomb off (I'm sure those extra hypers will come in handy), while still helping out the scrubs with autobomb on.

I'm not sure where you saw this but it is not true.

Autobomb OFF Behavior:

Bomb Mode: 
-The bottom left indicator that normally shows your bomb stock flashes between B and H.  So now it represents a "B/H" item which is used for either a bomb or a hyper
-Recharging the hyper meter to full adds 1 to the B/H stock, while resetting the hyper meter to zero to begin charging again

Power Mode:
-The bottom left indicator again toggles between the two shot modes as [NORMAL]  [BOOST]
-Underneath the shot mode indicator, the word "MAXIMUM' will scroll through the area underneath the [NORMAL]  [BOOST] text, to indicate that you have a hyper available to use.  The MAXIMUM text is blue.
-Recharging your hyper meter adds 1 to your "H" item, even though it is not explicitly shown on the screen
-Note:  It appears that you can effectively have a total of 2 hypers stored in this mode.  One being displayed as the scrolling "MAXIMUM" at bottom left, and 1 on your full hyper meter.
-Once the "MAXIMUM" text begins to scroll bottom left, your hyper meter will zero and recharge once.  It will then remain full until a hyper is used.

Strong Mode (see bomb mode):
-The bottom left indicator that normally shows your bomb stock flashes between B and H.  So now it represents a "B/H" item which is used for either a bomb or a hyper
-Recharging the hyper meter to full adds 1 to the B/H stock, while resetting the hyper meter to zero to begin charging again

Autobomb ON Behavior:

All Modes: 
-The bottom-left indicator is simply a "B" and functions only as a bomb
-The hyper meter will fill and will not reset to zero or add any "stock" of hypers

[EOJ]

Ah, clever thing they did there with the autobomb. If you turn autobomb OFF, whenever you press the bomb button it triggers a hyper instead. So basically you have no traditional bombs at all when you turn autobomb off. If you have autobomb ON, it just acts as an autobomb, and you don't get these extra, stored hypers. Of course you manually trigger bombs as usual with autobomb on as well.

I was hoping they'd do something like this. They're rewarding the scorers with autobomb off (I'm sure those extra hypers will come in handy), while still helping out the scrubs with autobomb on.

I'm not sure where you saw this but it is not true.

The official Cave page for the game, of course.

Autobomb OFF Behavior:

Bomb Mode: 
-The bottom left item that normally shows your bomb store actually toggles between B and H.  So now it's a "B/H" item and can be used for a bomb or a hyper.
-Recharging the hyper meter to full adds 1 to the B/H stock, while resetting the hyper meter to zero to begin charging again

Ah, so you can still use bombs. Didn't see that part on the page.

How exactly do you toggle between B/H?

[brentsg]

You don't need to toggle.  Your bomb button still releases bombs, the hyper button still does hypers.  It's just that the stock is shared, and the icon flashes back and forth between B and H. 

I will re-read and see if I can clarify later when my wife isn't bugging me.

[EOJ]

Ah, gotcha. If you don't have hypers stored, you fire a bomb. If you do have hypers, you fire a hyper. Then it is like DOJ! The Cave page isn't clear on this point, sorry for the confusion guys.

Various other info about the game I've found on this Japanese blog:

CHANGES FROM LOCATION TEST VERSION:
-Difficulty was significantly reduced
-The bees are yellow when they appear
-Number of small rotating cannons in the middle of stage 5 has been decreased. About 1/2 the amount of DFK 1.5's stage 5.
-You can't increase the hyper gauge unless you're in Reddo mode.
-In bomb style, the bullet patterns are the same as DFK 1.5's first loop. Enter reddo mode and they speed up a lot.
-In Strong style, the enemies were weakened.

Another advantage of autobomb OFF is you can enter reddo mode and continuously have a hyper firing.

[brentsg]

Ah, gotcha. If you don't have hypers stored, you fire a bomb. If you do have hypers, you fire a hyper. Then it is like DOJ! The Cave page isn't clear on this point, sorry for the confusion guys.

I still don't think that's quite right, so my explanation sucks.  Will revise later after the family goes to bed.

The key is that the B/H items are absolutely a shared resource.  There is no bomb or hyper, just a B/H..  If that makes sense.  You are never out of either as long as you have 1 of these in your stock.

[EOJ]

So press the hyper button, you release a hyper, and a bomb is taken off your stock, but if you press bomb, you release a bomb?

[brentsg]

yup

I saw the main flaw in my text above... I had said that the item "toggles" at the bottom left.  In reality the indicator flashes betweeen B and H.  I've done numerous edits trying to clarify the system.

If I get ambitious I may make some videos of the attract mode and also some basic operation.  I don't have anything but a video cam so it'll be tricky.

[brentsg]

CHANGES FROM LOCATION TEST VERSION:
-You can't increase the hyper gauge unless you're in Reddo mode.

Realizing that they are Japanese masters and I'm a Western scrub, I do not think this is correct.  I need some additional credits later but I believe hyper recharges without reddo mode, unless I do not understand the mode.

How do they define "being in reddo mode"?
-simply pressing A+C?
-Exceeding one of the tick marks on the red meter?
-Maxing the red meter?

I would define it as simply pressing A+C, but I clearly had ONLY A or ONLY C pressed and my hyper was charging for sure.  Maybe it's got something to do with the tick marks.

[adverse]

LOL @ Brent having this game already.

Kaneda and I are gonna see what people are doing with it today, should be fun!  Will report back.

[brentsg]

LOL @ Brent having this game already.

[zlk]

People have my permission to laugh at me for having the game as well.   

We don't want Brent feeling bad.   

[adverse]

Anyone got a credit roll yet?

[EOJ]

It's probably like Mushi where you need to beat the TLB to see the credit roll. Maybe it's only in Strong style, and you have to no miss to get there?

Then again maybe the game loops after all.  

[zlk]

Bomb style is much easier than both power and strong styles.  I can get to stage 5 after a few games.  Sometimes it seems like my hyper is over really quickly and I have no idea why.  The boss battles seem to take forever.  I had one midboss time out on me and I don't recall that happening in regular dfk.  Some of the places where killing an enemy in dfk would also remove all the bullets are modified where only some of the bullets disappear.   I still have no idea how to score highly in this game.   

[adverse]

Notes from the field:
bees in white give big stars big points
strong 1up seems to have conditions.  Full red/hyper?

[adverse]

Bomb style is much easier than both power and strong styles.  I can get to stage 5 after a few games.  Sometimes it seems like my hyper is over really quickly and I have no idea why.  The boss battles seem to take forever.  I had one midboss time out on me and I don't recall that happening in regular dfk.  Some of the places where killing an enemy in dfk would also remove all the bullets are modified where only some of the bullets disappear.   I still have no idea how to score highly in this game.   

use red shot:
hold laser and shot

[moozooh]

zlk, can you credit-feed past the stage 5 boss to see if it has a TLB there?

[zlk]

The game just ends after the stage 5 boss if you credit feed.

[adverse]

Did this today.  I have auto-bomb off for Power mode, which allows you to score high really quick, since your chain doesn't cut out if you die.  I believe it is only when you auto-bomb that your chain cuts.  Will put up a score thread when I have free time.

This game is really, really fun.  I was chatting up the Ebi-sen owner and he said a lot of people were comparing it to Mushi Futari in several aspects.

・Selectable difficulty with different rules: Original=Bomb, Maniac=Power, God=Strong
・Every stage plays out very similar to Futari's stage 5, blow shit up, grab the point items, hit the yellow bees (lampposts) to cancel all bullets on screen etc.

BL gets really tough when you've got the RED meter cranked up.  Strong is already crazy hard from the outset, stage 2 and 3 bosses are just murderous (although they may be the exact bosses from second loop 1.5). 

You have four modes of movement in Power:

Normal
Normal RED
Boost
Boost RED

The RED shots being slower than the ordinary shots.  Using all of these speeds will probably be essential to maxing out points to be gained in the stages.

Loving this game.

[adverse]

Changes listed up at the blog that wrote about the loc test version:

http://nicolai.blog22.fc2.com/

Random: at least in Power mode, picking up bombs seems to give a multiplier held at the bottom of the screen next to the BOOST indicator.  I only ever got it up to x2, during stage 3, but I believe it will go up as you pick up more bombs.  Probably a bomb bonus applied when beating the bosses.

[hermosaguy]

So far I'm having a fun time with it!  Power seems to be harder, but the fact you can bank hypers makes up for it.  I really enjoy the music in the 3rd and 5th stage, not so much the 4th though.  Vocals are kind of meh.  I also notice if you trigger the old ddp mid level bosses and die, when you continue and make it to the next one they show up as opposed to the dfk mid level bosses.