u/FirefighterOwn111

So I just cleared Sophstar using the continues on intermediate and I'm working towards a 1cc; I'm asking about terminology here, and sure it can be whatever you feel like maybe, but if I 1cc the game unlocking the TLB, does it count as a 1cc even if he destroys me? Like you see these things Sophstar 1CC Intermediate, or clear or TLB or ALL etc.

Can I say I've 1CCd the game without beating that thing at the end?

PS: yeah I know I can say it, what I mean is, will I invite the wrath of the shmup higher powers who have laid down the objective truth on these matters...

I can't quite review the game, but it took me significant effort to beat the game on intermediate just using the provided continues and I can see a path forward to the 1cc. But the TLB question is something I want relatively settled before I flip if I get to him and he kills me.

So I just cleared Sophstar using the continues on intermediate and I'm working towards a 1cc; I'm asking about terminology here, and sure it can be whatever you feel like maybe, but if I 1cc the game unlocking the TLB, does it count as a 1cc even if he destroys me? Like you see these things Sophstar 1CC Intermediate, or clear or TLB or ALL etc.

Can I say I've 1CCd the game without beating that thing at the end?

PS: yeah I know I can say it, what I mean is, will I invite the wrath of the shmup higher powers who have laid down the objective truth on these matters...

SOR4, sorry to omit that in title. I've beaten every stage of mania plus individually except stage 12, and this game has annoyed me for years because I'm pretty good at the game but just always off from beating this mode. I think if I could go into stage 12 with a couple of extra lives I could beat it, but my approach to the game is all over the place.

I feel tempted all the time to just dragon roll and uppercut my way using iframes to wave through enemies, but eventually I'm gonna take that hit and the run is over. What stages do I need to be not losing a life on, and how cagey should I be with specials? Use stars on bosses? etc.

Am I ever going to be sitting pretty with a stock of lives towards the end of the game?

My spacing and general fundamentals are decent, not great but enough to play the game and hold my own in tough sections but again, the dragon roll stuff is just almost so tempting all the time in this game. Any thoughts on getting to the next level here?

SOR4, sorry to omit that in title. I've beaten every stage of mania plus individually except stage 12, and this game has annoyed me for years because I'm pretty good at the game but just always off from beating this mode. I think if I could go into stage 12 with a couple of extra lives I could beat it, but my approach to the game is all over the place.

I feel tempted all the time to just dragon roll and uppercut my way using iframes to wave through enemies, but eventually I'm gonna take that hit and the run is over. What stages do I need to be not losing a life on, and how cagey should I be with specials? Use stars on bosses? etc.

Am I ever going to be sitting pretty with a stock of lives towards the end of the game?

My spacing and general fundamentals are decent, not great but enough to play the game and hold my own in tough sections but again, the dragon roll stuff is just almost so tempting all the time in this game. Any thoughts on getting to the next level here?

So I got the Final vendetta 1cc last night, which is almost by default since you can only 1cc the game as far as I know, but still the game makes you work hard for it; I had to get strats for some bosses. I was actually getting really annoyed with the game and feeling regret for committing to clearing it, then I just started playing a run and it clicked. I just destroyed the entire game, figuring out the hard kick as a form of crowd control and knowing the extra life positions gave me confidence. I simply played much better. From struggling with levels to annihilating the game (on hard mind you not ultra) just with a quick respite. I am unsure if the extra lives are necessary as I finished with some to spare, and know this change was made to the game, but it was still difficult as the journey to understanding how to play is still important. You can get annihilated in one level if you just try to play and see what happens without practice.

I got a nice feeling of achievement on completion, but afterwards going to sleep I felt pretty rotten. This is a combination of other stuff too, so I can’t put it down to the game, but you need to take care of yourself food and in terms of what you put in your body, wise on long sessions. You need to be wise.

Otherwise you get this rat-loopy feeling afterward and the game is hyper projecting images in your head via the Tetris effect which I find unpleasant. Of all things this feels the most psychedelic about the experience of grinding a difficult game but can be positive and negative depending on how you look at it.

So how was Final Vendetta to clear? Difficult, and would be more so without some skills in other beat em ups, and confusing due to the segmented versions of moves. Each element of the game comes together but it takes a long time to get into the flow of it. You have to learn the weaknesses of each enemy which is easy enough, and more importantly you have to remember said weakness which is difficult. There’s only a few enemy types to deal with but the temptation is you start trying to do certain advanced things and just forget the fundamentals. The game can be cleared with an awareness of enemy behaviour and good spacing alone. It’s vital to learn how to come down towards enemies diagonally or vertically rather than approaching them head on. Blocking at least on hard is not something I ever did, and the button feels redundant, there is an attack move for every situation in the game that is more optimal.

It’s faster than SOR4 with a lot less of the fat. Is it better? I’d need a clear on mania to know. SOR4s mania plus mode sickened me on that game… I’m stuck on the final stage of that game but I think I would feel nausea just thinking about getting to there again. You can have an equally good time in Final Vendetta in LESS time than it takes to warm to SOR4. It doesn’t have you grind out a completely new moveset for the characters and make you have to lab test as much of the combat, but it feels almost as deep.

So I got the Final vendetta 1cc last night, which is almost by default since you can only 1cc the game as far as I know, but still the game makes you work hard for it; I had to get strats for some bosses. I was actually getting really annoyed with the game and feeling regret for committing to clearing it, then I just started playing a run and it clicked. I just destroyed the entire game, figuring out the hard kick as a form of crowd control and knowing the extra life positions gave me confidence. I simply played much better. From struggling with levels to annihilating the game (on hard mind you not ultra) just with a quick respite. I am unsure if the extra lives are necessary as I finished with some to spare, and know this change was made to the game, but it was still difficult as the journey to understanding how to play is still important. You can get annihilated in one level if you just try to play and see what happens without practice.

I got a nice feeling of achievement on completion, but afterwards going to sleep I felt pretty rotten. This is a combination of other stuff too, so I can’t put it down to the game, but you need to take care of yourself food and in terms of what you put in your body, wise on long sessions. You need to be wise.

Otherwise you get this rat-loopy feeling afterward and the game is hyper projecting images in your head via the Tetris effect which I find unpleasant. Of all things this feels the most psychedelic about the experience of grinding a difficult game but can be positive and negative depending on how you look at it.

So how was Final Vendetta to clear? Difficult, and would be more so without some skills in other beat em ups, and confusing due to the segmented versions of moves. Each element of the game comes together but it takes a long time to get into the flow of it. You have to learn the weaknesses of each enemy which is easy enough, and more importantly you have to remember said weakness which is difficult. There’s only a few enemy types to deal with but the temptation is you start trying to do certain advanced things and just forget the fundamentals. The game can be cleared with an awareness of enemy behaviour and good spacing alone. It’s vital to learn how to come down towards enemies diagonally or vertically rather than approaching them head on. Blocking at least on hard is not something I ever did, and the button feels redundant, there is an attack move for every situation in the game that is more optimal.

It’s faster than SOR4 with a lot less of the fat. Is it better? I’d need a clear on mania to know. SOR4s mania plus mode sickened me on that game… I’m stuck on the final stage of that game but I think I would feel nausea just thinking about getting to there again. You can have an equally good time in Final Vendetta in LESS time than it takes to warm to SOR4. It doesn’t have you grind out a completely new moveset for the characters and make you have to lab test as much of the combat, but it feels almost as deep.

This is a question about Sophstar, so I'm running through to about the end of stage 5 on intermediate, and then I run out of credits, in terms of pushing for a 1cc, why would I switch to easy mode? Or in shmup games in general, what will I be learning from the patterns on easy vs intermediate, and then am I to assume that all sort of official 1ccs are on harder difficulties?

Okay I get this isn't the most popular game and I'm not here to dunk on it, but I'm genuinely puzzled by this game. I originally played the game and it felt completely different, grave moved a lot slower, now when I turn it on he's flying around the levels. How has the game been rebalanced to cope with this.

Enemies have attacks that are just irrelevant because of your speed now.

And other issues:

What difficulty do I play on? Easy and normal are a cakewalk, but hard is tougher, and it's as if some people think you should first play through on normal to power up your character.

If the game is meant to be an easy thing a Japanese man can play after a few beers after work, why is it so long? Unlike Gungrave PS2, like it would make sense to play all difficulties if you could beat the game quicker ala the original.

The fact the speed has been upped makes chaining a level more trivial, but at the same time if all I have to do is keep shooting stuff, then the breakdown usually comes only due to missing some box or making a wrong turn in a level with almost no exploration. The lack of exploration is fine, but it's that when trying to chain your almost playing a different game than the normal game.

So many attacks that when you use them slow the pace down, yet it also feels like your supposed to sleepily hold shoot for each level.

The opening tutorial doesn't do a great deal of showing you WHY you should be doing anything, and the opening difficulties don't show you why anything is necessary either.

There's just no sense of direction in what you are supposed to do, and yes... I guess you can go for your own challenges like getting a high rank, but it feels like the game is playable as something you can turn your brain off to play, but also wants to be this tough arcade experience and the two don't seem to mesh for me.

And this isn't meant to just be a negative review, genuinely I'd like advice on how to get into and understand this game properly, the problems I've mentioned can be a perception issue on my part.

Marks praise of the game put it on my radar but it's not really the same game now.