r/ElectricUnderground

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 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.

I've noticed that the highest rated games these days tend to work best when you know less about them.

Story-based games: avoid discussion about the plot before finishing the game, or you risk spoilers and having the game ruined.

Exploration games: avoid details regarding the game world, or else the joy of discovery is ruined.

Challenge-based games: the more you know how to play a game, the less meaningfully challenging content there is to enjoy. Nintendo has been the king of this over the years, often forcing players to unlock truly challenging content by first playing through the easy stuff first. Skilled players are punished with chorelike busywork, while less skilled players have more meaningful content. This problem has only gotten worse over the years, with the Mario games getting so easy that there's barely anything to challenge legacy players anymore.

I don't think this means that all modern games are bad or any such hot take like that. But I do notice that my immediate course of action whenever a modern game piques my interest is to simply reduce my knowledge of it to maximize enjoyment. I shut out discussion, avoid looking at gameplay or even trailers, and even take a break from games of the same style in order to not get burnt out. I think a prime example of this is Breath of the Wild, which is filled with an incredible sense of wonder until you discover that most secrets in the game simply lead to the same shrine reward. I'm sure there are later examples as well.

And then, of course, you have games like Outer Wilds which are so focused on their adventure puzzles that its fans outright refuse to speak about it with anyone who hasn't played the game. If they did, after all, the game's sense of discovery would be absolutely ruined. There's no unlearning these puzzles once it's done.

Finally, I find it really interesting that we are comfortable with the idea of these great games being better the less we know, but the opposite is so hard for people to accept.

i think there's a hypocrisy in that we don't seem to be comfortable with games requiring a certain level of external knowledge to truly appreciate. Some of the best games can only truly shine once you've put in the work to understand other works of art first. Arcade shmups are a great example, with so many of them getting better the more you understand their close relatives. Battle Garegga makes a little more sense now that I understand Blue Revolver. The genre as a whole didn't really click until I played ZeroRanger.

This makes intuitive sense, I think. Yet, I often hear people actively recoil at the idea that a game doesn't teach you every single mechanic and strategy from the get-go.

This reaction is normal among the general audience in any artistic medium, but it's so indicative of the gaming community's immaturity that many "expert" reviewers tend to exhibit this behavior as well.

This is my way of saying that the best games often take a while to understand. Keep playing them, discussing them, and recommending them. Because the general gaming public certainly won't.

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.

https://reddit.com/link/1vioot1/video/p1j07a5dj3ih1/player