My 2022-2023 in STG

With 2023 coming to a close, I wanted to give an update on how my STG journey has been going. I’ll also try to touch on some other aspects of the genre that have been receiving discussion as of late.

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It’s been a while since I updated this blog, as it was an incredibly 2023! I finished my Ph.D., moved off campus, and finally started my career.

Of course, I was able to find time to pursue my hobbies throughout this, and even started a small Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@1regretbeetle975.

As you can probably tell, my game time has heavily involved the STG genre (and to be more specific, games developed by CAVE). To this end, I’d like to spend this post going over some of my thoughts and observations on STG over the past few years. I’ll break the post down into sections to make it easier to parse, so feel free to engage with or disregard the topics as it interests you.

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The 1CC List for 2022 - 2023

Years of the Manic Shooter

My clears for the year are listed below in chronological order, followed by some general thoughts about the games and their difficulties. I’ll also embed a video of the clear with some commentary from the youtube channel. Note that these are (with few exceptions) survival 1-CCs/1-ALLs for Arcade difficulties (no NOVICE or EASY modes). The intention with setting this goal was to prepare for attempting game clears during visits to local or japanese game centers. There is little scoring (or otherwise skilled play) on display, so it’s probably best to take these as examples of pure survival clears.

ESPGALUDA - May 28th, 2022 - AGEHA 26,987,380

Difficulty - EASY

Espgaluda is a follow-up to Esp. Ra De. that was released in arcades in 2003, and was later ported to the PS2. It’s a notable departure from its predecessor in a lot of ways, pivoting to a fantasy/steam-punk setting with vibrant colors and magical effects.

In another departure from Esp. Ra De., Espgaluda is a much more accessible game in both its overall difficulty as well as its gameplay mechanics. For example, the addition of “kakusei” mode allows one to expend resources to slow down bullet patterns, making them easier to dodge. I honestly think it’s an incredibly cool mechanic, as it allows players to pick and choose which bullet patterns to spend resources on to make more manageable. And on the other side of the coin, experienced players can use kakusei mode to engage with the scoring system of the game, or challenge themselves by attempting to complete the game in “kakusei overmode”, which makes the bullets speed-up rather than slow-down if you run out of resources. It’s plain to see that this mechanic can be engaging for all players, which is why I regard it so highly.

Taken together, I think this game is a great entry point for newer players into the genre, with the caveat that you would have to play it in MAME or otherwise have access to the JP PS2 port. I liked the game so much that I picked it up myself (for those curious, you can run it on any softmodded PS2, and Brooks also offers a PS2 controller adapter for xinput controllers).

Despite clearing it early in the year, it’s remained one of my favorites. I would rate the game as “EASY” compared to the rest of the titles listed here- but please note that it is purely a relative scale, and it needs to be said that this genre is HARD in general (more on that later).

BLUE REVOLVER Hyper Mode - Sept 3rd, 2022 - Val/Follow/Laser 49,968,370

Difficulty - EASY/MEDIUM

Blue Revolver is a an indie bullet hell that was developed by Stellar Circle and released in 2016. If you’ve engaged with the community in any way, you probably have heard of this game before. It is usually one of the first to be recommended to newcomers, due to its accessibility (Steam) and general high quality.

Funnily enough, I had heard of this game while it was in development since I followed the artist (woof) on Twitter. At the time I wasn’t interested in the genre, so it’s an interesting feeling coming back to the game and recognizing it.

The game is incredibly high quality in every aspect. The game design, sound track, graphics, etc. are some of the best you can get in the genre. The game is also feature complete, with a replay system, extensive practice modes, difficulty options, etc. For some strange reason, this is still not the norm for STG releases today, so this is truly a great accomplishment and a huge strength of Blue Revolver.

I greatly enjoyed my time with this game, and the Hyper mode has some teeth. Even using the strongest ship type (Val/Follow), it was a challenge getting through the long Stage 5 and the final boss. The scoring system is also incredibly interesting, awarding “BREAK” rewards for executing certain directives at various points in the game (i.e. breaking boss parts in a certain order, etc.)

I would say that this clear was on the borderline of EASY and MEDIUM (again, relative to the others on this list), owed solely to the fact that you get a lot of extends in normal play, and Bombs are not lost upon death. This allows you to bomb-spam through a lot of challenging patterns, which reduces the difficulty considerably.

At some point I want to reivist this game to play Parallel mode (the highest difficulty setting) and see the awesome TLB that exists in the game. The novice mode is also a great choice for newer player, as it’s close enough to Hyper that it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap when transitioning between the two.

DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu 1.5 - Sept 4th, 2022 - B-Strong 1,347,869,840

Difficulty - VERY EASY

DoDonPachi DFK (or “Resurrection” in the West), is the 5th installment in CAVE’s flagship series, releasing in arcades in 2008.

Not really much to say here, as I know barely anything about this game. Getting this clear is owed entirely to the “Strong style” which gives you an abusable autobomb that let’s you sail through to the end. For that reason, I’d say that getting a basic 1-ALL of this game is very easy, although this is probably not the way you want to play anyway. I’d like to spend more time with the game in the future, and it’s one of the more accessible CAVE titles due to its Steam port.

Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 Original - Sept 9th, 2022 - Abnormal Palm 140,070,182

Difficulty - MEDIUM

Mushihimesama Futari released in arcades in 2006 and is the sequel to CAVE’s acclaimed Mushimesama. In addition to more bug-fantasy goodness, the game also adds Palm as a new character to join Reco. The game plays heavily like Stage 5 of its predecessor, featuring many dense patterns and enemies which award big juicy cancels.

The game is unrivaled from a presentation and design standpoint. I also really enjoy the variety in stages, with Futari’s Stage 5 definitely a contender for the best stage in an STG of all time. The placement of enemies, bullet patterns, frantic pace, and music are simply sublime.

From a difficulty standpoint, I feel that this game can be a fair challenge, especially if you play Reco. Palm Abnormal is the easiest to clear the game with due to his overpowered laser which speedkills bosses and allows you to skip difficult patterns. One thing I will say is that the difficulty can feel a bit unbalanced, due to the fact that the hidden extend occurs in stage 5- which is also where you’ll get the second score extend if you aren’t an experiened player. It’s a bit jarring to go up two lives in the last 5 minutes of the game, when you’re otherwise straddling the line and fighting for your life up until that point. The second half of Stage 3 is also surprisingly difficult, especially considering that Stage 4 feels notably easier than this part.

Overall, Futari is very enjoyable and is in dire need of another port. Hopefully Livewire can make something happen soon?

ESP Ra.De. - Sept 16th, 2022 - Yusuke 15,284,340

Difficulty - HARD

Released in 1998, ESP Ra.De. is CAVE’s first entry in the “ESP” series, and (allegedly) one of the first danmaku to feature playable “human” characters rather than ships. It received a port by M2 Shottriggers to the PS4 and Switch.

ESP Ra.De. is certainly the hardest game on this list that I managed to clear, taking in excess of 60 hours of practice. I’d also venture to say that it is my favorite STG of all time, at the risk of sounding a bit pedestrian. The noir/sci-fi setting of the game and Junya Inoue’s illustrations do the heavy lifting here, but it’s also no slouch in the gameplay department with interesting mechanics like the special shot, barrier shot, and barrier recharge. You’ll have to get pretty decent at applying all of these techniques to clear the game.

Yusuke is the easiest character to 1CC with due to his incredibly strong main shot, his high movement speed, and the ability to shoot special shot and main shot at the same time (which comes in handy during a few boss fights). JB 5th is also a reasonable choice, whereas Irori does the least damage which makes her better for scoring.

Most of my practice here came down to routing Stages 4 and 5, and practicing the boss fights against Pleides (stg 4 boss), Ares (stg 5b boss), and Garra (final boss, not tlb). Save stages are really useful towards this end, so it’s really nice that the M2 port has these available. Timing a bomb recharge in Stage 5 also helps to make some sections easier, especially the part with the yellow tanks halfway through.

The game is tough but fair. I’m working towards an Irori clear of Arcade Plus, but it hasn’t come home quite yet (her damage is so pitiful!). Hope to spend even more time with it this coming year.

Mushihimesama CAVE Matsuri 1.5 - Oct 23rd, 2022 - S-Power 28,334,882

Difficulty - EASY

Mushihimesama 1.5 is a special release of the original game that was packaged into the Steam version. It is overall easier than 1.0 original and removes the “super shot” mechanic entirely.

I cleared 1.0 Original in 2021, so it isn’t listed here, but my opinion remains largely unchanged after revisiting the game to clear 1.5: it’s superb! There’s a reason why Mushi is one of the most recommended games for newer players: it offers a complete and accessible package that prominently exemplifies the best parts of the genre.

The various difficulty modes and choice of Original or Maniac also ensures that everyone can find something that they like or are comfortable with. Arcade difficulty Original mode offers a decent challenge, bu tit’s definitely far from the hardest game on this list. With a decent route for Stages 3 and 5, I honestly believe anyone can clear this game given that they put in the effort.

It’s hard to argue against the opinion that it is the quintissential gateway STG.

Deathsmiles (Rank 3, no EX) - Dec 15th, 2022 - Ranun 175,123,428

Difficulty - EASY

Deathsmiles is a horizontal bullet hell developed by CAVE and released in arcades in 2007. It’s one of their most popular titles, which makes a lot of sense after playing it a bunch: it’s fantastic!

With a Halloween-themed world, a banging soundtrack, and gothic-lolita protagonists, the presentation really oozes style and flair. In addition to this, the presence of multiple difficulty levels for each stage makes later parts of the game accessible to players of any skil level. There is definitely an appreciation for Deathsmiles that seems to extend beyond the niche STG community to the wider gaming audience.

I personally liked the game so much that I also played it for score, which is something that I have rarely done so far. The score on display in the replay isn’t great by any means, but I’m pretty proud of it from the perspective that a survival run through the same stages would be about half of my point total. If I had successfully executed all the tricks in the run, the total score would have easily been over 200 million.

If you haven’t already guessed, Deathsmiles’ difficulty is the lowest of all games on this list, and for that reason I listed it as “EASY” here. In the original arcade version, you can only choose two stages with “Level 1” before being forced to the next difficulty level, but this restriction is relaxed in the Steam port. A full Level 1 run of Deathsmiles is completely doable even for a complete novice, and as a result the game is also an easy recommendation for those looking to explore the genre and can get down with its specific style.

DoDonPachi 1-ALL - Dec 18th 2022 - A/L - 23,989,640

Difficulty - MEDIUM

DoDonPachi really needs no introduction, so I’ll move directly to some of my thoughts.

I approached the game already aware of its status as a stone cold classic, so in a way it really had some large shoes to fill. After getting to know the game a bit getting the basic 1-ALL, I can definitely say that it lived up to those expectations.

The game’s bullet patterns are fast and unrelenting, which was a pretty notable contrast from the prior games on this list. In a way, it felt as if I was challenging the “next level” of what the genre had to offer. The only respite comes from the copious amount of bombs that the game provides over its short runtime, which allows you to bomb spam many of the difficult sections, such as the “hall of hell” in Stage 5 or the honeycomb section in Stage 6. Combined with a few tricks like the Stage 4 Boss glitch and the Stage 5 Boss safe spots, the 1-ALL comes within reach for mere mortals like me.

It becomes immediately apparent that a no-miss, no-bomb run of the first loop is much more difficult than a survival 1-ALL (and let’s not talk about the 2-ALL). In this sense, DoDonPachi manages to offer a variety of different challenges with their own respective difficulties despite its intimidating visage. The most important thing is that the game is deep enough to support and enrich dedicated players, while also being approachable to others who have some general interest. There’s a long competitive history for DoDonPachi, one which involves secretive JP arcades and an only recently revealed score glitch. This only helps augment DoDonPachi’s status as one of the greats of the STG genre.

Akai Katana Origin - Dec 22nd 2022 - Type 3 - 23,989,640

Difficulty - EASY/MEDIUM

Akai Katana was released in arcades in 2010 and has since received many console ports, most recently arriving on the latest generation of consoles courtesy of City Connection. It’s a horizontal bullet hell with some bizarre story about a sword and flying samurai that can summon battleships out of portals. Wild stuff.

There’s a few modes that the port has to offer, with the most popular being the “Shin” or “Slash” mode. Despite this, I sat down with the game’s “Origin” mode, which is from my understanding a port of the original arcade mode with higher resolution assets. I wanted to get a feel for how the game originally played in arcades. The bottom line: it’s woefully broken.

So what’s the problem? There’s a pretty abusable “Energy Recharge” glitch that allows you to quickly refill your spirit meter, which is a resource that you can consume to become invulnerable. Mastering this glitch allows you to spend a tremendous amount of time in this mode, and skip basically all of the hard patterns in the game. Type 3 is especially good at this glitch, and has a very strong focus shot in spirit mode to boot. I’ve listed this as an EASY/MEDIUM difficulty, as you do have to learn how to execute the glitch effectively, but that’s probably where most of the challenge for this game lies.

The end product is not a very satisfying clear, which is likely why many players prefer Akai Katana Shin. I’d like to get more into that mode someday, but decided to move on ofr the time being.

DoDonPachi DaiOujOu Black Label - Jan 2nd 2023 - B/S - 59,103,430

Difficulty - HARD

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou was released in arcades in 2002. Rather than beat a dead horse singing its praises, I’ll just mention that I’m really excited for the M2 Shottriggers port that is supposed to come later this year. I started playing the game in preparation for this release, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

I’ve always struggled with consistency, but DOJ takes it to a whole new level with its difficult bosses, hyper rank, and power recovery (for B-S), which complicates the ease of applying a consistent approach/route. I had to watch lots of replays with B-S and then modify them to account for my skill level, which includes many more deaths and mistakes. Some strategies only work at near full power and that can take a while when you’re using SHOTIA.

I tried using EXY for a while which really helped make stages 1-3 consistent, but my routing is not good enough in Stage 5 to make it through with only two bombs per life. Hope to be able to get up to that level before the M2 port comes out, and I want to eventually be able to clear with EXY as well.

This is the second game that I’ll call “HARD” from this list, mostly for the above reasons. It’s a step up from DoDonPachi for sure, and felt like a really natural progression of the formula going from one to the other. Overall I’m really enjoying my time with it, and can see myself dedicating a lot of time to this game moving forward.

Pink Sweets (Infinite Lives Glitch) - Jan 10th 2023 - Shasta/C

Difficulty - HARD

Released in the arcades in 2005, Pink Sweets is an STG programmed by Shinobu Yagawa and developed by CAVE. It’s incredibly difficult and I’m experiencing some cognitive dissonance when trying to call it “enjoyable”. I’ll settle on “different,” for lack of a better word, when compared to the other games on this list.

There is a wealth of mechanics that the game offers, which has probably contributed to its lively scoring scene. However, the game is a nightmare from a survival standpoint, coming in at a 45 minute runtime and 7 stages (the last few being quite difficult). Thankfully, there is a glitch in the game to trigger infinite lives, which makes this much more manageable.

But wait, the infinite lives glitch itself isn’t a walk in the park to activate. You essentially need to collect 5+1 lives to trigger it, which means no-missing up to this point. This involves a pretty strict route involving lots of boss milking and some luck. The video does a pretty good job of showing what triggering the glitch involves. I didn’t realize the extent of the challenge until I tried to do it myself: it took a few days to be able to put the pieces together.

I should feel happy to have triggered the glitch, but I proceeded to die 50+ times trying to get through the rest of the game, which accentuated the gap between my current skill level and what is necessary to reaching the end playing legitimately. For all these reasons, I’m comfortable ranking this game as “HARD” relative to the others on this list as well.

While I’m not really tempted to look back when moving on from this one, I can appreciate the time I spent with it and begrugingly admit that I have learned a bit more about boss milking and routing from this exercise.

Caladrius Blaze (PC) - March 28th 2023 - Layis/Custom

Difficulty - EASY

Caladrius Blaze is one of the more infamous games on this list, largely due to its front-facing “SHAME BREAK” mechanic. It’s also a shmup you’ll see often in more general gaming media for the this reason, although they’ll insist that it’s because the game is developed by MOSS (of Raiden fame). I will say (with my tongue only slightly in my cheek) that there is more to Caladrius Blaze under its scantily clad trappings, although it’s hard to wholeheartedly defend a game that is so on-the-nose.

That being said, Caladrius Blaze has a lot of unique things going for it. For one, there is a metric ton of shot types in the game, with each character having a unique loadout of three different types of “magic” shot in addition to the normal rapid fire shot. And speaking of characters, there are 10 total to choose from (counting DLC from prior releases). That’s 30 different shot patterns in the game! What’s more, a “custom” loadout option is also available so that you can put together the best magic from every character to completely blast through each stage. There are also a bunch of different modes and other included content in the PC/Switch/PS4 release, but I won’t get into it here. Just rest assured that there is a lot of game included here. I mostly focused on Evolution mode in my time with the game, which has an additional stage when compared to the Arcade.

For this clear, I used a custom layout that was completely broken. I chose Layis as my character due to her shot being very strong (probably OP) compared to most of the case. I then took the two best bullet canceling magic shots in the game: Sophia’s force field and Kai’s tornado. Lastly, I kept Layis’ offense magic, which is an incredibly strong point blank spear attack. I quickly found an exploit that allowed me to “rapid fire” the spear attack by cancelling its recovery animation with Sophia’s barrier magic. This absolutely melts all of the bosses in the game, and created a really fun dynamic where I would try to burst down bosses before running out of magic and becoming vulnerable. You can see some of this strategy in the replay.

I think the strengths of Caladrius Blaze are really highlighted in my above experience; there are so many different ways to play, and the amount of content it offers really provides something for anyone. I highly recommend it if you can get past the ecchi aesthetic. I know that this is a tall ask for some, but I pushed through it myself and came out of it feeling like the experience was worth the weird looks I got from my partner while playing.

Mushihimesama 1.0 Maniac - April 5th 2023 - W-power

Difficulty - EASY/MEDIUM

Not much more to say about Musihimesama here, other than that I found Maniac a much easier clear than Original. I think this is in-part due to the fact that I have gotten better at the genre over time (Original having been my first Arcade clear, and this one coming much later), but I also think that Maniac mode in general has more “danmaku-like” characteristics and required less routing overall. I think it took me 3-4 hours of practice total to clear this mode, which is 10x less than what it took to get me through Original. YMMV.

DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label (EX FAIL) - May 11th 2023 - B-Bomb

Difficulty - MEDIUM/HARD

I was originally pretty disappointed with DDP DFK’s 1.5 mode, so it was a really pleasant surprise to see how much I vibed with BL. The game gets a lot of things right that I really enjoy about the genre, such as its really tight movement, badass soundtrack, and high bullet density paired with really potent survivability options (if you pick bomb style). Despite having bullet cancelling hypers that share your bomb stock, which sounds incredibly strong on paper, I still struggled to clear the game (and I technically still have not done so, given accidentally triggering the EX boss). Stage 5 still feels like quite the challenge, with the laser wheels feeling just as mystifying as the day I first started practicing. I had a ton of fun during my time with this mode, though, and it’s hard to replicate the sense of adrenaline you get from activating a hyper at just the right moment - I compare it to experiencing a “warp drive” as it’s depicted in the movies, where your vision starts to stretch and you experience the Doppler effect ringing in your ears.

All in all, I’m happy to have gotten this “clear”, and I’d definitely recommend BL to anyone who might have bounced off of 1.5.

Muchi Muchi Pork 1.01 - May 31st 2023 - Rafute

Difficulty - MEDIUM

Released in 2007, Muchi Muchi Pork is another game headed by Shinobu Yagawa on behalf of CAVE. Coming out after Pink Sweets, Muchi Muchi Pork feels much more “normalized” to the danmaku genre, with a slow movement focused shot known as the “Lard Beam”, a reasonable 5 stage length, and a very light and non-front facing rank system. The game still has the hallmark medal-based scoring system, though, and scoring-based extends which really help to retain some of the Yagawa charm. Since the scoring is tied so heavily with survival, and you can get 10+ extends throughout the course of a run if you play correctly, the game is a very common/popular candidate for going for the 2-ALL (at least, if you’re playing the Xbox360 version).

Once you “get” the scoring system and the little subtleties involved with building lard meter, Muchi Muchi Pork is a very satisfying game to play. Being able to generate the large 10000 medals all over the screen and slurp them up is really a rush, especially in the later stages when the bullet/enemy density gets incredibly busy. It’s also great in the sense that recovery is almost always possible, given the way score extends work. You can find yourself on the back foot, then suddenly scoring well and building back up your stock of lives. In this sense, I never feel like giving up or falling into restart syndrome when playing MMP, which I definitely cannot say for some of the more punishing games in the genre.

I chose Rafute for this run given her incredibly strong bomb and tracking lard shot. I think she’s the strongest of the three characters, and also has the highest movement speed. I think she fares the best against some of the meaner bosses in the game (looking at you, stupid Stage 4 tank boss!), but any character should be viable for a simple survival run.

If you like what you see here, I would encourage you to give Muchi Muchi Pork a shot! The Xenia emulation for this game is solid, and getting access to the updated mode made my experience much more enjoyable, as it reworks the 2nd loop requirements and also makes building lard easier. This game comes highly recommended from me.

November 26th, 2023 by 1regretbeetle