Bernard Doria

I played Ketsui in Dave_K.'s house last Saturday. And I was rather pleased with my results. I have reached stage 5 with a score of 47,637,572. Now I'll discuss my motivation for playing Ketsui, my preparation for last Saturday's gaming session, my evaluation of my performance in that session, and my next steps towards completing the game.

I still want to clear the first round, because I want to finish what I started. I'm still hooked on Ketsui, because I get so excited to get through so many difficult bullet barrages unscathed. But I don't own the game, I can't afford the game, and I won't be able to play it again until mid-August. This ought to de-motivate many players. Why not me? I guess it's because I committed so much time into preparing for the game, and the game rewarded me so well for preparing. It took me hours to improve my bomb distribution and to learn from Imakichi's replay. And the game repays me with a peek into some of stage 5. I think that if I refine my bomb distribution further and study the videos and strategy guides more, I will clear the first round. It's not a lost cause! So I'm still committed to clear the first round of Ketsui.

Now, how did I prepare for last Saturday's meeting? First, I've been asking more experienced Ketsui players to improve my bomb distribution. The version that I started using for the meeting was this:

• http://shmups.com/beepreying/bbs/ketsuiBombDistribution_rev3.xls
• http://shmups.com/beepreying/bbs/ketsuiBombDistribution_rev3.txt

And second, in order to reach the 45-million-point mark for earning another 1up, I also asked the experts to suggest a score breakdown by stage. The one I used was this:

• End of stage 1: 10 million points
• End of stage 2: 16 million points
• End of stage 3: 28 million points
• End of stage 4: 36 million points

And then I hoped to reach 45 million points somewhere in stage 5. After studying Imakicki's replay, I decided that I should score well through most of the stage 1 trip and, in stages 2, 3, and 4, from the beginning of the stage to the mid-boss. In all other places, I focused more on survival.

But how was I supposed to score well? I found that scoring well in Ketsui was most similar to scoring well in Giga Wing 2. For each use of the reflect barrier in Giga Wing 2, you had to start reflecting somewhere to herd bullets in certain directions, make a path in order to reflect bullets, and end somewhere to begin collecting the medals. Let's call this the start-move-end paradigm of scoring. In Ketsui, I think you have to start somewhere such that the multiplier timer starts with a 5 chip (or box or cube), make a path in order to keep the timer alive, and stop shooting after the timer expires so you don't trigger just 1 chips. I used Imakichi's replay to figure out a couple of these starting positions and their respective paths (but not the ending positions—I didn't have the time to study that). This way, at least I know where to trigger the 5 chips most easily.

Now, how effective was my preparation? It was rather good—at least I cleared stage 4 as expected. I reallocated a couple of bombs, though. Basically, I reserved more of them for the large enemies in the stage trip, the mid-bosses, and the bosses. This reallocation of bombs worked well. My scoring ethic helped, too. I ended up receiving the 2nd score-based 1up at the end of the small helicopter rush in stage 5, which was earlier than I thought. And I didn't score well when I planned to either, so I guess I can focus some more on survival, now.

What wasn't effective was credit-feeding the game. I died so many times in stage 5, that I forgot where I died at all. So I learned barely anything. Maybe someone should observe or videotape my play.

Anyway, what do I want to do next? I have three things that come to mind. First, I want to know every start-move-end section throughout the game. This will help me memorize enemy locations and destroy the larger enemies quicker. Second, I still want to improve my bomb distribution. And third, I want to learn how to destroy the 1up carrier in stage 3 more easily, because I keep dying and buzzing too many bullets there. I'll think of more as I study.

By the way, I don't expect to clear Ketsui in the next shmupmeet. I'll probably be more busy with Mushihimesama's Ultra mode.

Over the past few weeks, my routine for playing a credit of DoDonPachi was to note the places in which I died and rework my bomb distribution. But a few days ago, I decided to break this routine and battle Hibachi, the final boss. Battling it made me realize that I'm going to need plenty of bombs to destroy it. And tonight, I figured that I should determine the minimum number of bombs I need to destroy Hibachi, so I can distribute the rest of my available bombs throughout the rest of the game (in which the enemies don't have anti-bomb barriers!).

So far, how many bombs can I allocate before Hibachi? It's thirteen. We can allocate at most thirty-six bombs against Hibachi. That's because the other fourteen bombs come from bomb item carriers. And if I collect their bomb items, my bomb stock would overflow. So I would end up wasting a bomb. To avoid wasting bombs like this, I should use a bomb before I collect another one from a bomb item carrier. But I prefer to collect a surplus bomb item anyway in Area 1-2, because nothing troubles me in the first two stages. So I'm left with thirteen bombs.

Of course, I'm uncomfortable with having only thirteen bombs. So I want to reduce my bomb usage against Hibachi as much as I can. I would start by doing this. Once I'm satisfied with the reduction, then I would reallocate the bombs to throughout the rest of the game. And once I'm dissatisfied with the bomb distribution, then I would return to battling Hibachi to further reduce my bomb usage. I keep repeating this process until I can beat the game.

Basically, I'm facing the reality that Hibachi has a stupid anti-bomb barrier, and that I'll need plenty of bombs to wipe out its bullets. I hope that my new strategy, which is created around this insight about Hibachi, will save me time in the long run.

I already discussed about my first experiences with Ketsui. But I also played other games that I haven't played before: dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU and Shikigami no Shiro II. I also experienced playing DoDonPachi on a real PCB. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to play ESPGALUDA. Dave K. had DAI-OU-JOU and ESPGALUDA sharing the PS2, so we could only play either of them. And I wanted to play DAI-OU-JOU more than ESPGALUDA anyway, so I never asked to switch the games. Anyway, let's discuss some games.

dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU. I had a little strategy going into this game. To reduce rank, I decided to avoid hyper items in the first two stages and to bomb each boss at least once. In the third stage, I also planned not to collect a hyper item, but I kept running out of bombs with the B-Exy, so I collected them to be used for emergency evasion. Then in the fourth stage, I used the hyper item whenever I could in order to destroy enemies quickly. That way, the enemies wouldn't shoot many bullets, even though they would be fast. The best this plan allowed me to do was to reach the 1up cannon in stage 4.

Certainly, this game is tough! I had trouble memorizing where certain large enemies appear, because the game never allowed me to recollect my thoughts. And because the B-Exy carries so few bombs, I couldn't just steamroll through the game with bombs. (I tried the B-Shotia once, but she couldn't destroy a thing!)

I still like Ketsui more, though, because I enjoyed barely surviving through so many difficult patterns. With DAI-OU-JOU, I couldn't get away with improvising in the third stage, so I kept getting cornered with barely any hope of escaping. Maybe DAI-OU-JOU had faster bullets even when the rank was low...

Shikigami no Shiro II. This game didn't excite me at all. The bullets are very slow, so I felt that anyone could dodge these bullets. And whenever I ran into a bullet or obstacle or something, I simply felt stupid (this pattern killed me when 95% of the shooting game player population can dodge it?). I felt that I needed to play for a high score right away if I wanted to get myself excited. But I'm busy playing other games. Maybe some other time...

DoDonPachi. I couldn't believe it—the game on Dave K.'s PCB slowed down more than it did on my slow 900 MHz computer! That's all I took away from my one credit with DoDonPachi on a real PCB and a real arcade cabinet. But it was an enlightening credit!

Oh, and I think I can get used to using the Japanese joysticks (I forgot the brand name that Dave K. used on each cabinet). I still think they're a little loose, because I felt that my dodges were less precise than they were when I was using a keyboard. But I can shift direction quicker with the joysticks than on a keyboard. Maybe that's more important, because I got away with so many imprecise dodges. So I liked using the Japanese joysticks.

Overall, I stayed in the shmupmeet for about 8 hours. I wanted to stay for longer, but I didn't want to feel lonely when all the guests left. And besides, my right hand was sore, since I wanted to cram in as much play time as I could with the games that I never played before. But all in all, I had tons of fun, and I hope we could organize another shmupmeet soon. (Actually, we kicked around the idea of holding another shmupmeet a few weeks after Mushihime's PS2 release.)

Finally, I would like to thank Dave K. for making this shmupmeet possible. Dave, I appreciated the opportunity to play all these new and awesome games. And I guess I have someone local to consult when I start working with real arcade game hardware. :)

I played a few hours of Ketsui in the Bay Area shmupmeet, and I have lots to discuss. First, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the bomb distribution that I brought to the meet, and second, I will give my impressions about the game. Overall, I had fun with the game—I nearly made it to stage 5—but I'll stick to mastering DoDonPachi.

Did the bomb distribution work?

Dave K. wasn't kidding when he said that Ketsui is difficult. My bomb distribution alleviated the difficulty only a little. On my first few tries, I lost all of my lives in stage 2 or stage 3. Obviously, I thought that I won't able to clear the game that afternoon, so I calculated the number of bombs available to me in the first three stages (it was 14). A few more tries later, I did clear it, so I calculated this number for the first four stages (it was 18). I knew where to place 14 of them, but I didn't know where to place the other 4. So I simply used them for emergency evasion.

But Ketsui gave me barely any time to stop and think. I never stopped to figure out how many surplus bombs I had in any given moment, and usually, it killed me. For example, when I was battling the second form of the mid-boss in stage 4, I had three bombs. I was scared of this enemy's bullet barrages, but I never planned to use a bomb here, so I tried to dodge. And then I ran into a bullet somewhere. There went three surplus bombs.

Ultimately, I learned that a bomb distribution is effective only if you set reasonable goals. Clearing the first round wasn't reasonable. But clearing stage 4 was—I almost cleared it! But I didn't know what to do with the four surplus bombs, so I didn't maximize the effectiveness of the bomb distribution tool. Next time, I should ask for a bomb distribution for clearing the intermediate stages. I need to take those baby steps.

(Also, it helps to have more than one afternoon, but I was somewhat surprised at what I accomplished that afternoon anyway.)

Do I want to give up DoDonPachi for this?

Okay, so I reached the third form of the boss in stage 4, but was it fun getting there? Indeed, it was, but I barely know how to describe it—maybe it was exhilarating to make so many successful cutbacks (the technique used to dodge aimed bullets around the lower corners of the screen).

But the one thing that bothered me was that I felt I needed to point-blank large enemies just to survive. I think this is how the lock-on mechanism works: the closer you are to the enemy, the faster the options lock onto it. I prefer to keep my distance from enemies, especially because they fire as soon as they appear on screen, and I didn't even know what they fire. So my options took forever to fully lock-on to an enemy. And the enemies lingered on the screen forever. I couldn't stand that! So yeah, Dave K. wasn't kidding again when he said that this game rewards you for playing aggressively. But it rewards more than just a couple of points; it can reward in quicker destruction.

So do I want to switch to Ketsui? Not yet, but I will consider it. I think there are many more ways to beat the Ketsui records than to beat the DoDonPachi, and that motivates me to switch. But right now, I don't have a record-setting video, and the game isn't playable on any emulator, so I don't have any good resources to master the game. They might appear in a couple of years, though. So if these resources appear and my progress has peaked with DoDonPachi, I would switch to Ketsui. But for now, I'll stick with DoDonPachi.

I experienced more in the shmupmeet than just playing Ketsui, but I'll discuss the experience later.

I added six more places to the bomb distribution list for DoDonPachi:

Area 1-4, the second white tank. Below this tank are two bee medals, but their skeletons don't appear until they reach the middle of the screen. So by the time I get to the middle in order to reveal these bee medals, I have all sorts of bullets coming at me. And I've died enough times here.

Area 1-5, the boss's napalm balls. Here's what I used to do: when the boss fires two large napalm balls in quick succession, I'm usually stuck near the smaller napalm balls. That is, I can't really zip from one side of the screen to the other while I'm firing my laser. So I try to squeeze myself between the second large ball and the small balls. Usually, I die. In my last game, I realized that I can actually let go of my laser and use my extra speed to dodge the large balls—stupid me. But let's be safe for now.

(Yes, I know that I can hover above the stinger to avoid the napalm balls easily. But I have trouble getting to the stinger and getting out of it once the boss swoops down the screen.)

Area 1-6, the column of three honeycomb nests. This section appears before the blue hovercraft expressway that I've discussed last time. The real problem is the bees that fire long waves of green star bullets. You can't run to the corner to dodge them, because the bullet wave is so long (obviously). So I think the best thing to do is to stay in the center and make lots of cut-backs. But I think I've died twice out of three times here, which is too much.

Area 1-6, the six blue tanks and the red DonPachi reject. Do you remember that red fighter from DonPachi that fires very fast wedge bullets? Well, after the second one in DoDonPachi, we see a couple of blue tanks on the left side. Since I am so busy destroying the red fighter, I allow these blue tanks to fire whatever they want. And I get trapped by their bullets afterwards.

Area 1-6, the blue spread shot. It's kind of like what the fourth boss fires, only the bullets are small round blue ones and large round blue ones. I hate tight, long spread patterns...

So in summary, I have five bombs planned for Area 1-3, four for 1-4, seven for 1-5, and five for 1-6. In all, I plan to use twenty-one bombs in the first round and another twenty-one in second round. That adds up to forty-two bombs. I have seven bombs left, then.

I'm running out of bombs already...

_____

Oh yeah, my best performance so far is reaching Area 1-6 with 28,443,010 points. You can see how well I've been performing in this still cryptic spreadsheet:

http://shmups.com/beepreying/DoDonPachi_deathsAndBombsByBER.xls