Espgaluda II : #3

Current High Score: 114.264.449 - Stage 5 - Ageha
Kakusei Overmode Survival: End of Stage 3 (past midboss)

Didn't play yesterday, and so I played today and managed to break 110 million, bringing me close. Take note that I didn't just get that in a single play. I played dozens of credits, and some of them are pitiful, ending sometimes at stage 1 even. I hate it when players make you think that they got that amazing score with just one try, or that they only play a given shooter like 3 times, and after that, they retire with that score that is much higher that you can ever wish to reach. Didn't the world record holder of Ikaruga say he practiced for over 80 hours on Stage 3 alone?

Sure, it could have been the first run for the day, but still, come on. Nobody's perfect. My scores range from 6 mill to 70 mill, and then that personal record comes in out of the blue, and I can't explain how it happened. Still pitiful when compared to the Japanese, but hey, if I kept with that attitude, I would have given up a long time ago. Everybody has a different style regardless. While there are people who enjoy meticulously working at it, I like to keep it fun. It keeps me sane.

I always get to stage 5 with just 1 life left, and I am desperately fighting for my life while the bullets fill the screen. That's what I love about shooters. Intense emotions of horror, dread, while feeling a sweeping exhilaration from the thrill of surviving--all within 20-30 minutes of play (actually, it isn't as stressful as you'd think). I'm getting the hang of the stage 4 boss, and his patterns don't look so intimidating anymore, but I still get my ass whooped if I'm not careful.

I'm rambling again.

Espgaluda II : #2

New High Score: 114.264.449 - Stage 5 - Ageha

A week ago, I broke the 100 million mark--a whopping 20 million point increase over my last score--but had been putting off on posting it here. I'm proud of every new benchmark I make in this game, since it is one of the few that I play without relying on replays (I did study the superplay videos for the first two stages to get a gist of scoring, though. Even then, I still for the life of me cannot get those two extends in the first stage like that guy does. So crazy!)

A couple of weeks ago, making it to stage 5 felt so impossible to me. Now, I've managed to make it there a couple of times. Even though I haven't been consistent all of the time, I've been able to break through that wall. I love how progress can feel so elusive until you realize it's been happening all along.

I still don't know how to get that secret extend, either.

Ketsui is beckoning to me...

Blink (by Malcom Gladwell)

You ever wonder how those skilled players can just pick up a shooter they have never played, and on their first or second try, get really far--even beat the game in some cases when the game is considered easy? Is it a gift, a blessing from the gods, or did Mercury himself lend the player his speedy reflexes? I think it's more than just talent. Experience has a lot to do with it, as it enables the player to unconsciously identify the familiarity of openings in a bullet pattern--all in a split second--based on an accumulation of bullet patterns experienced in the past.

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, revolves around that idea. While it has nothing to do with shooters, I thought this book was interesting because a lot of times whenever I am forced to do something without having any time to think beforehand, I usually make a decision that is more brilliant than if I had given myself plenty of time to think about it. For shooters, it is the equivalent of getting in the zone, suddenly doing so well, it surprises you, or getting very far with a new shooter on your first try...and then attempting it again and scratching your head when you can't figure out how you got as far as you did before.

I thought this was a fascinating read, and was one of those books that I actually had no trouble plowing through when I first picked it up. It did make me think about things more, though, as ironic as that sounds, but at least it provides an explanation for the unexplainable feats we do from time to time.

Espgaluda : #3

New High Score: 24.571.780 - Stage 5-2 - Ageha

I think I got this score a little over a month ago, as I've been procrastinating with posting it here. It's a nice 1 million increase over the last one, even though I remember ending it during one of Jakou's final forms.

I keep choking in this game, though. I can do so well in parts that are a whole lot more difficult than the places where I die. There are also moments where I'll be on a roll, and after noticing that I am doing really well, I fold under the pressure and begin my back-to-back deaths. I mean, what the hell, it's like I'm making the game harder than it really is. No pressure.

Let's have some fun.

Thinking Too Much

I was just gazing at my how long each of my posts were below and came to the realization that I really do think a lot. Probably too much. Wow, just wow. I try to make sure I put down every single kind of thought I might have about a particular topic, and I end up with volumes of rambling. Really tells you something, doesn't it.

Yeah, that instead of thinking so much, I should be playing some more!

Watching Superplays

I used to think that shooters (at least the ones with scoring systems) had to be played properly. This means that if there was a scoring system, then I had to utilize it and was bound to play that way only. Screw survival or having fun. My sole objective for all games was to score as high as I could, right from the beginning. Taking time to figure things out on my own would be a waste of my time.

So it was natural for me to have this urge to watch superplays before even seriously attempting a game. Here was a replay put together by someone who had godly-superior skills than I did (and most likely held a world record for the game), who broke the game down while bringing every difficult aspect of it down to its knees. It is breathtaking to watch, and there is satisfaction to be had watching somebody obliterate a boss which has always obliterated me, all without taking a scratch or even letting loose a bomb.

Naturally, I'd pick up strategies from watching these videos. Hell, it would then seem like everything they did in the game was right. Eventually, I would try to play exactly like they did, because I didn't want to spend hours figuring things out for myself when I had the solution right there in front of me. It was satisfying to watch my scores dramatically increase because of this.

After a while, I got bored of playing the way someone else played. It didn't even feel like my own game anymore. It was somebody else's. So was this all there was to shooters? Tracing someone else's route, as though you were copying another artist's work? I lost a lot of interest in the genre thinking that way.

It took some time, but I eventually got over it. During events like STGT'07, I took on games I was unfamiliar with and played them without knowing about any strategies beforehand. Screw trying to be good at the start, I played for survival. When I played enough to the point where I got bored of surviving, I would then look for other incentives, like scoring. And then, the game just got way more fun that way. I didn't feel a strong urge to watch superplays anymore, because I didn't care about being better than other players. I just cared about whether or not I enjoyed this game, since that's the reason why we play games, because they're fun, and because they consistently bring us a feeling we enjoy.

So nowadays, I don't give a shit. Well, I still do, but I was nowhere near as strung-up as I was before. I can totally understand how important studying replays are to someone competitive, or for someone looking to maximize their potential with a game they love--I can see myself doing that eventually for my favorite game, but why spoil the fun so early when you can spread the enjoyment for much longer?

Espgaluda II (Cave/AMI, 2005)

It's been three years since Ageha and Tateha took to the skies and singlehandedly toppled the forces of Shinra, a powerful kingdom led by their very own creator, Jakou. Little did they know that the legacy of Jakou still loomed in the shadows and another country would eagerly take his place in hopes to continue where his experiments with the powerful Galuda left off.

And so the kingdom of Soma would rise, utilizing the Spirit Engine to once again attempt to release the full power of the Galuda. With technology more refined than their predecessors, Soma would follow in the footsteps of Shinra and invade its neighboring countries, holding them at their mercy with its superior military strength.

The forces of Soma have also created another Galuda, just like Ageha and Tateha, but unbeknownst to their knowledge, this third Galuda has long since defected, and is now joining the ranks of a tiny, but immensely powerful resistance against the kingdom of Soma...which is all that stands between Soma and the rest of the world.

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Espgaluda II is the first game made by Cave that is a direct sequel (excluding the Dodonpachi series). From the looks of it, there is absolutely no chance this game will be ported to a console, and will remain as an arcade game in Japan...until it gets emulated on MAME--which most likely will not happen in at least several years (the first one isn't even available on MAME yet either). But who knows? Maybe it might come out sooner than expected or may even end up on XBOX Live Arcade or something.

So I fired up Galuda 2 in the cabinet last week just to test it out. At first, I was like, okay, just a couple of credits...I just want to hear the music, see what it's like, and then go back to Ketsui. Little did I know I ended up getting hooked. I've been playing it almost everyday since it's been inside the cab. The game was pretty addicting. It's one of those games where the better you get at it, the more fun you end up having with it. It is a really complex game that is fun in a different, more slower way compared to other intense shooters like Mushihime-sama or Ketsui.

I know, after I was gushing over Ketsui in my previous posts, I go on ahead and spend time on Galuda 2, and to add insult to injury, I still haven't beat the first game either, even though I've come really close to.

Just like in icycalm's review, Galuda II is such an improvement over the first one in almost every way, it makes the original feel boring. Although I have to point out that I enjoyed the music from the original more. The sequel's music, while also great, isn't as memorable as the first one--I mean, in a couple of the stages, it relies on referencing the original's tracks by playing remixed versions of them. Plus, I don't like the music for the fourth stage.

While overall, I think the artwork (new artist and all) is better than the original, I miss how the last game's artwork looked. While it wasn't great, and at times it even looked horribly generic, at least it felt like a dark anime at times. For the new one, it looks somewhat fruity and feels like a children's storybook lifted from Reading Rainbow. But to be fair, I love the character designs for the enemy bosses. Maybe my reaction is mostly directed at how elfish and Peter Pan-like the main characters look compared to the first game. The graphics are a totally different matter, though. The game itself looks absolutely gorgeous.

I am currently sitting at 80 million ending at the boss of Stage 4 using Ageha. I don't have any set goals, outside of enjoying the game through scoring with its new Kakusei Zesshikai mode and making it as far as I can. It is a lot of fun dancing around 500's while bullets chase you. I plan to play it for a few more weeks before diving back to Ketsui.