You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2020.
Sometimes it’s good to remember about your run-throughs in shmups that aren’t your hi-scores, or aren’t even runs where you reach a new stage. But are still exciting and different in their own way. This post is just about one of those runs.
I reach stage 13 with this score but I certainly wasn’t expecting to get this far. Like the Gradius games, dying in Twinbee is hard to recover from. If it’s a hectic part of the game, it’s very easy to die again quickly, and then again and again to game over. Especially during bosses. I don’t recall how I lost every of my 3 lives before my last in this run. However, two of those were solid recoveries to getting powered up again. Luckily, where I died was not during hectic parts, aside from a life I lost shortly before a boss battle. Boss battles are kind of interesting because you only need to get about 2 or 3 shots once the boss reveals it’s core to kill it. Even when it seems dire and you’re surrounded by popcorn or bullets, getting those few shots right before death to kill the boss is awesome.
On my 2nd recovery, I was crushed by the spinning metallic clubs. This section only consists of the clubs, a few ground enemies and clouds. It’s really not a bad place to suicide if you need to get your arms back. (Out of context, that sentence is awesome.) There I couldn’t power up from the clouds but soon after the metallic clubs dissipated, I picked up the spread power up, then there was a bunch of clouds with bells and I upgraded to options. There’s a long period in this run where I’m just trying to get my powers back, thus missing a lot of potential 10K bells. But you really have to ignore the bells sometimes because this game’s rank turns into bullet hell! Which becomes the most exciting part of the game, where minute dodging is used a lot more often. Most of the game is spent just sweeping the screen and making sure all the enemies are shot down, as to not linger on the screen and get a cheap kill on you. But that simple act is just so much fun, especially when fully powered up and the game throws tons of enemies and bells at you.
Anyhow, the run ends when there is an unprecedented amount of ground enemies in stage 13 and I am not prepared to act fast enough. There is a star that clears the screen of bullets and air enemies and I go for it and get shot down for my efforts. The best thing to do is to stay at a mid-upper range of the screen and just spam the ground for enemies when you know they’re coming. I didn’t know they were there. But I’ll remember next time, and I’ll practice, to get past stage 13, and my current hi-score of 2.2 some million. I genuinely want to see what else this game offers beyond stage 13.
One of my favorite things about playing STGs as a hobby has to be finding that game that I love to play. Everyone has different picks and tastes and you can never seem to please someone with a direct recommendation. For me it’s a curious search and a fun one. When I’m not invested in a shmup that is so awesome I want to keep replaying it over and over: I’m playing all kinds of shmups just for a credit or two for the simple enjoyment of casual play. Some games when I finish I thought it was fun, but sometimes it feels like it’s the same old, “Oh, I needed to know what to do at that part” to progress which can be discouraging. I feel that other factors step in when I really like a game. The music, the sound effects, graphics and animations have to create the right synergy. With Twinbee, I love how simple and classic it is for a STG. The enemies are often peculiar objects: lightbulbs, forks, bent spoons that explode into a magical dust when they meet my green energy blasts. The way the game handles music is also interesting, it changes depending on what power-ups you have. Other STGs have done this before, Star Force is an example. I like that game too, but I haven’t invested any serious time in it… it’s even more simple, it’s before MY time, in fact. 1985 (I was born in 1986.)
Tangent:
Sometimes I like to think about a type of media in terms of my birthdate, I don’t think I’m the only one who does this! Like, I think sometimes, is it just a funny coincidence that I like or love games like Commando, Son Son, Twinbee, Gradius, Salamander, Flying Shark, all games made right around 1986. Perhaps I just like them because this time was a brilliant era for the birth of video games and STG in general! It’s funny to think about video gaming still being in its infancy in the grand scheme of things. And to think, some day, we will all be the Cranky Kong’s preaching to our grand kids what a REAL “game” was. I don’t think the future is that bleak for the “core” game experience to be out there. Probably everything will be digital and accessible… I digress.
Finding a game you love is a joy in any matter. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what the reasons are. Except that you play it and you don’t want to stop. I think I like Twinbee because when the game doesn’t have tricky parts, it’s just fun to shoot stuff and collect bells. Which is probably half of the game as far as I’ve made it.
…Or maybe it’s because I have a hard-on for Konami shmups in general. Some of you know that I am in fact a Gradius nut, but certainly not the nuttiest of them all. *cough*TVIks*cough*
Aquas’ Room
3:58 pm
Mar. 02,2020(Wed)
Now Loading…
Good Taste Grocery, as oppossed to Shitty Taste Grocery
Having not been dedicating time to any lengthier games lately, with the exception of Ys II Complete: I decided to resume my file in Shenmue II. From about 4 months ago, I beat the first Shenmue. It took me an extra long time to complete it, as I had abandoned my file in the game for a couple years. For some reason I don’t feel very compelled to restart the game after it’s been so long. Besides, not much goes on in Shenmue –you just talk to people if you ever need to know what to do. So resuming was not that difficult, the same could be said with my file in Shenmue II.
I resumed, having just secured the Come Over Guest House as a place to stay in the game. At first, you sleep in an open room near the dock, where a bum also stays. Now, I’m sleeping in a different place but I don’t have to pay rent to the Guest House! I really liked the first Shenmue so at first coming back to Shenmue II, I was wondering just how it was going to unfold and suck me in like Shenmue 1 did.
I was a tiny bit discouraged that the only way to make money, for a time, was to run the Lucky Hit stands near the guest house. But as I progressed through the game and reached the 2nd disc, I’ve found numerous ways to 
make money. There are multiple Lucky Hit stands you can run, and their boards change each day. I’ve since became a Lucky Hit fan. If you’re wondering what Lucky Hit is, it’s basically like Plinko from The Price is Right. But it’s the badass, eastern version of it. It’s now fun to analyze the different board tine arrangements and even better, gamble on them.
The crate moving job at the pier is the easiest money in the game to make. It just takes 2-3 hours game time, and about 8 minutes real time to make $60. I recently found the high stakes Roll it On Top dice tables and was able to double my $200 to $400 in a single dice roll. I was willing to shut off the DreamCast if I lost all my money in that single roll, but basically I now have as much money as I need in the game only some of the way through the second disc (of four total.)
There are also slot machines and a different kind of dice game, and selling figurines as well to make money. I haven’t tried the slots much and I didn’t understand the other dice game that well.Things about gaining money said: I’m now going to spend money freely and it’ll be nice not having to work any jobs anymore.
I’ve been enjoying the new characters, story progression and Shenmue II experience in general. When a cut scene is happening I get excited for what’s going to happen… I almost feel like I’m back in 2001, playing the game for the first time. When games with cut scenes, outstanding graphics, good story and full voice acting was still a new thing. The game is pretty amazing though, it’s just like Shenmue I, but a bit more expansive. There are at least 5 more town areas than you could explore in the first game. It’s kind of a big world in Hong Kong, compared to Ryo’s town in japan but as you play you get familiar with the areas.
I am still amazed at the sheer number of faces there are in the Shenmue games. You do eventually see some of the same ones, but every one nearly has the same amount of impeccable detail. The detail that makes you want to zoom in on them and watch their mo-cap sequence. On graphics… I think Shenmue 1 had this too, but you can have NPCs show you wh
ere you need to go, as Ryo automatically follows behind. I like this because while you follow you can just admire the scenery and familiarize yourself with the area a bit. It’s a great way to show off the game without having to deal with the sometimes tedious movement mechanic. The amount of detail is great, reflected right onto every faces wrinkle and tines on the Lucky Hit boards. I sometimes just look at the boards as I’m running around doing stuff. I look for new ones, check the stakes, possibly try them if they look interesting. I don’t even have to go to another screen to check the boards on the overworld. A “next-gen” moment if you will, of the gaming past.
Sometime’s it’s a hassle to run from area to area to get somewhere, because of 30 second loading screens. A feature I do like to save time is that the game gives you warp points from the place you sleep to a couple different places the morning after sleeping. Including the spot that you were at if you stayed out to 11:00 pm. Still, you do a good amount of running around, so sometimes it’s like, ‘oh I might as well gamble or play a game or talk to people since they’re already here.
I won’t spoil what happens in the story, but if you’ve played Shenmue 1 and not the 2nd, it’s starting to get as epic as you may imagine. The end of the first disc was a refreshing moment of change in the game. You know, I like when a developer makes the disc change a big deal. It’s like, “this crazy shit just went down! Now YOU have to get UP and change the disc, sucker.” Haha. The classic is after Aeris’ death in FFVII, of course. (true spoilers.) Also, just a note on the music, it’s as good, if not better than the first Shenmue’s. Sets the atmosphere almost profoundly for each area. Simple but very telling songs.
The only bad thing is that since I’m playing a pirated version of the game, the PAL version fixed to play on an NTSC console, specifically, is that I don’t get voices for non-cut-scene dialogue. There IS a version that has all the voices, but they are downsampled and in shitty quality. But I think I’ll just play through this time with the 
cut-scene-only version. If I ever play the game again in the future, hopefully it will be a full voiced, legitimate version. It does have voice for Ryo’s monologue and special parts, but not for random NPC talk. It kind of sucks because the voice acting in the Shenmue games is, if not fair quality, hilariously executed otherwise. Who knows, maybe I’ll switch in the low quality voice version for the hell of it one of these days. Save files work inbetween the versions which is nice.
Ah, DreamCast, you easily pirate-able machine.
Shenmue II never came out on the Dreamcast for the states. It came on the X-Box. However, it did for PAL and J region for the DC. So this version I’m playing is just a hack for NTSC. It doesn’t have the NPC voices because the discs are larger than the standard 800MB. I can play the full version only if I acquire special 800MB+ CD-Rs (or actually bought an Xbox and the game >_>) so there you have it.
Ryo, I found out you were downloading DreamCast games… for free.
I was going to tell you.
…What burning program should I use?
Uhh…
Dan Haigh
Ghegs
[DRZ] OTL-TIW
sikraiken
Alice
victoly
plasm0
Aquas
Raydere
szycag
BDA
bloocloud
Kollision