Ketsui : #13

Current High Score: 91.947.608 - Stage 5 - Panzer Jager

After about twenty credits (which included two credit-feeding clears), I managed to pull another 91 million score, but it was still not high enough to surpass my personal best. I'm hitting a wall with this game.

Again, I managed to make it to Stage 4 with one life--and to top that off, survived through most of that bullet-ridden stage without any bombs in stock. I even destroyed the first nightmare (pictured here) and managed to get 5-Chips off him. There are tanks that roll out on the bottom of the screen, and they can be used to set the 5-Chip counter right before he's about to die. His two angry brothers got revenge on me though, as one of them trapped me in the corner and killed me with that blue spread shot. I have no idea how to score against those particular nightmares, but someday I'll figure it out, or I'll check out the superplay for once.

From Stages 1-3, I was calm and precise enough to survive, but right before I died, I was beginning to fall apart. I was getting the shakes since I was feeling really excited and then my hands started to get cold. When this happens, I'll do stupid things like tap-dodge right into a bullet I was able to dodge a million times before. I lost two lives in between my first death and the 4th boss. Two stupid deaths. What a waste of life. But oh well, shit happens.

Ketsui : #12

Current High Score: 91.947.608 - Stage 5 - Panzer Jager

**Picture above is a beautiful screen shot sven666 took of Ketsui crashing during the first stage.

I made it to the last boss last night. I had one life left with 4 bombs, and I thought I could take him--but instead, I foolishly crashed into a bullet and died. I fell over and screamed obscenities to myself for a couple minutes.

I was kicking so much ass in the beginning. I 1-lifed towards the end of the fourth stage before choking hard with three stupid deaths. I then made it to the last stage with three lives left and missed the special extend too. My new roommate, who was just moving in that evening, came out to check out what I was screaming about. He was into rhythm games so he could relate to my experience.

For the past week, I have been taking a short break from shooters because I was starting to get tired of them and felt like playing something slower or just doing something else entirely. So I read through an unfinished book I once wrote in High School and started taking up the guitar (an old classical acoustic that was sitting in my garage).

So last night was the first time I played in a while. It took several pathetic runs before I suddenly managed to pull a good one. Even though I made it to the last boss, my score was still lower than my highest score (91--almost, though), which kind of sucks because I realized that even if I did beat the last boss, my score would probably be below 100 million, which sucks because everyone who has finished the 1st loop on the Ketsui High Score Thread (on the Shmups! Board) has scores over 100 million, so naturally, I'd expect my score to at least be higher than that.

Oh well. My Stage 4 and 5 scores are sloppy, being bomb and death-ridden as hell anyway, so that's where the problem is.

FIGHT LIKE A ROBOT

Ketsui #11

Current High Score: 91.947.608 - Stage 5 - Panzer Jager

The war against EVAC Industry continues. After plugging away at this game on a daily basis ever since I hit that last high score, I still haven't even come near it. I am starting to get a little burned out, but the game still remains fun whenever I come back after a period of time.

Whenever I'm on a roll, I feel almost invincible...until I get that first death. And then all of that energy is lost from that one single death. Dying early between the first and second stage is even worse. The emotions start to kick in, and I immediately feel like I want to restart whenever that happens.

That's when I have to start killing emotions and push through, because that's all I can do if I hope to gain anything more from that run. Can't let stupid deaths like that get in the way of my enjoyment. Self-defeating emotions like that have no role in shooting games. As that one game Berzerk once said: Fight like a robot.

Pictured above is my first high score I took a picture of back in November. 28 million on Stage 4 and 6.7 million on Stage 2! I'm glad I've come a long way since then. ; )

Dodonpachi DOJ: #2

New High Score: 54.810.500 - Stage 5 - Type A - Exy

This was a lucky run. I somehow managed to grow some balls and gave DOJ what it wanted and pulled off some high chains on the first level. I broke 10 million on the first stage, which is definitely a personal best, and I got the extend. Usually, I finish Stage 1 with just 5-6 million, and then I'd get the extend towards the end of Stage 2. I notice when you chain well right off the bat, it is then so much easier to score higher after that. I guess there is a "no shit" attached to that.

For Stage 3-4, it was a survival fest. I have no idea how I managed to get past Stage 4 and its boss, since I never practice Stage 4. I honestly believe that the fourth stage is much easier than the third, because I absolutely hate those propeller ships from Stage 3 that fill the screen with bullets, forcing me into a corner so I can disgrace myself with a panic bomb.

Dodonpachi DOJ: #1

New High Score: 31.484.490 - Stage 4 - Type A - Exy

Since I have both Ketsui and DOJ hooked up at the same time in my cab, I've been putting in a few runs in between sessions with Ketsui. What I do is credit-feed through Ketsui to practice the later stages until I "beat it", and as the credits role, I'll switch to DOJ and play one run. That way, I don't have to waste time sitting there waiting for Ketsui to be ready again since you can't skip the ending. Or, if I get tired of Ketsui, I'll play DOJ. And vice-versa.

So out of the blue one day, I manage to break 31 million, which is my highest score yet...and it isn't much at all, given a respectable Japanese score is over 1 billion points.

Scoring well in DOJ is so reliant on chaining, that merely surviving is not enough. You could pull the craziest dodging to keep yourself alive for two loops, yet you can never leave an impression on DOJ unless you can chain properly. It's like confidence and women. Sure, you can work hard to impress her with a nice car, a nice job, getting skilled and knowledgeable in everything women are into, but if you're either insecure or lack the confidence to take the initiative, you could be pulling rabbits out of hats or hoisting elephants on your shoulders, and she won't even give you a second glance.

Same goes for DOJ. If you can't chain worth shit, your score isn't going to get anywhere. That's basically where I am with this game. I've been playing on and off for a couple years, and while my dodging has improved tremendously over the years, I still cannot consistently chain the beginning of the first stage. It's like, "LOOK, DOJ! I can make it past two bullet-ridden stages without losing any lives AND I've used all my Hypers! I've even used them on the bosses. Plus, I got to Stage 4! Aren't you proud of me?!"

"Oh, that's nice. What's your highest chain?"

"Um, 503."

"No score for you!" (Throws its head back and laughs, walking away.)

It is frustrating, and I hate it. But somehow, I just keep crawling back to the game because I can't get enough of this punishment. I have such a masochistic relationship with this game, and yet, I love it, even when it kicks my ass 100% of the time.

Need some room to breathe...

Ketsui #10

New High Score: 91.947.608 - Stage 5 - Panzer Jager

I still have the shakes from this run, and as I am typing this, I'm taking deep breaths while listening to some trance so I can calm down. My god, I thought I was going to beat it tonight. So close. I was just a couple enemies away from reaching the last boss. I let those bombs fly, panic bombing whenever I got cornered or when it was clear I could not weave past a pattern. Can't let myself die until I use up all those bombs. I sometimes do better when I know I don't have any bombs left, though.

I didn't play yesterday, so the initial runs were crap. I know why. Whenever I try to make things perfect in the first two levels I ALWAYS die. ALWAYS. So I tried something different. Fuck trying to be perfect at scoring. Worry about that after you complete the first loop. It's okay to score in places where you're confident you won't die, but when it comes to the point where you're putting your life on the line for 500K points, forget it. Bomb. The game actually rewards no-missing a stage a lot in its end-of-stage bonus--a single death can costs millions, while having a lot of lives stacked will grant you a large enough bonus that it will make up for shitty scoring (at least for my standards). So fuck pride. Pride only hurts.

So with that in mind, I managed to 1-life up towards the middle of the fourth stage on two subsequent runs, grabbing every extend, and then making it to stage 5. On the 91 mill run, I finally managed to get that 1-up in stage 5 for the first time. Don't know how I managed that so abruptly, but I just made sure that Panzer Jager went down before I did, without using any bombs (I didn't have any when I took him on anyway).

I have to figure out a way to make it to the last boss with at least 3 bombs, and I can take him. Tomorrow will only tell.

Dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU (Cave/AMI, 2002)

Death is a natural part of life. Just as there is birth, there is also death waiting at the very end of the bargain. Nothing lasts forever, and everything comes to an end. It is the way nature works. Why not accept the idea and embrace it? Because once we have accepted death as a natural part of life, then we have also made amends with another natural part of life as well: with living.

The subtitle of Cave's third sequel to their flagship DoDonPachi series reads "Dai-Ou-Jou", which translates to "die a natural death" or "peaceful death". I see it this way: DDP-DOJ is a game that is so hard, that you better get used to the idea of dying if you want to enjoy it. The rule can be applied to every other shooter, but DOJ embraces this idea with its title, along with its beautifully poetic poster art, which stands with me as one of the greatest videogame covers ever made.

Contrary to what I mentioned about its difficulty, the game itself isn't that impossibly hard; it is playing it the way it wants you to play it (for score), which makes it incredibly difficult, and that is through its chaining system while dealing with its rank. That, in addition to filling the entire screen with bullets the moment you enter Stage 1, a more difficult second loop, and a true last boss with bullet patterns that will wring out the acid from your stomach.

A lot of people point out that this game is evil for many reasons. One reason is the rank system. Whenever you're surviving and scoring well at the same time, it will "reward" you with a special power-up known as a "Hyper", which you can activate by pressing the bomb button.

Collecting and utilizing these Hypers will grant your ship some extreme firepower that could rival the power of the Sun, causing you to rip through enemies while blowing your chain counter through the roof. While using a Hyper during a boss, though, the bullets speed up, increasing your chances of death. So doing this while facing a boss can be an insane decision akin to suicide, but the rewards for scoring will be immense. Plus, it provides for an exhilarating experience for dodging bullets.

As though that weren't enough, each time you use a Hyper, the entire game gets incrementally harder, or ranks up, and bullets will travel faster, but it will all cancel out when you die or use a bomb, making the game manageable until you start kicking ass again.

But this is just the beginning. I haven't even gotten started on the chaining. Chaining is the root of its scoring system.

So even after you begin to make dramatic improvements at DOJ, it still feels as though the game remains a step ahead of you at all times, and you don't feel like you can handle the game until you've spent some serious time with it. Thinking about it this way, I could devote my entire life mastering DOJ. I've played it on and off for years since I got the PS2 port, and I still cannot chain the first section of Stage 1 consistently. Maybe my brain isn't wired to intuitively chain enemies or something, but all I know is, if I wanted to, I would have to spend a lot of time getting the hang of it before I got anywhere.

But that isn't why I play DOJ (yet, at least). I love playing it just to see how far I can make it or to see if I can finally nail a chain for a stage. It's not a game I'd like to exclusively devote to, but it is great to play in small doses especially after playing Ketsui, since it deals a lot of punishing frustration, but I always come back to it. I keep my expectations low when I approach DOJ, because I really do believe it takes a masochistic streak to come back to it everyday to get your ass handed to you (but then again, don't all shooters do that?). Despite that, I love the way the game feels. The Type-A ship (paired with Exy) is neither too fast nor too slow for me, and switching from rapid C shot to button A laser feels so satisfyingly responsive, that I can only blame myself if I break a chain or die that peaceful death.

Sometimes I wonder about how popular the DOJ PCB would have been if Arika never ported it to the PS2. Would it have surpassed the ludicrous price of a Ketsui kit or even the relatively insane price of a bare Guwange box (which went for hundreds a while back)? I own both the port and the PCB, so I can attest that I love the game, despite not being good at it at all, but I do wonder.