Ikaruga

[KSubzero1000]

I bought Ikaruga on the PS4 this afternoon and got S+ on my second and third go.

Heeey, and you broke my highscore! Congrats!

[Stanshall]

What's your cat called?

edit: Now that's a fun game to watch! Especially when you're chaining and doing everything properly.

My cat's called Cub, but that obviously morphs into many variants. Cheers for checking it out. In true Shmups thread fashion, I've got to say that I also fucked up several sections which would have got me 107 chain which is my goal. Even though I blame the cat, I actually fucked the S++ run way before I got there. I got my old PS4 pad out of the drawer (rather than the PS4 Pro pad I'd been using recently) and it's got a shiny shitty greasy horrible disgusting glossy D-pad, so I taught myself a lesson there, too.

Heeey, and you broke my highscore! Congrats!

Thanks. We're S+ bros, let's leave it at that. I can get on with my life again now, and back to Groove Coaster and Ketsui Deathtiny.

[hazeredmist]

My heart’s beating like a fucked clock

Stan congrats you crazy man mental

S++ remembers you

[KSubzero1000]

I can get on with my life again now, and back to Groove Coaster and Ketsui Deathtiny.

Ha, even you don't believe that! That S++ is going to continue to torment you until you have it. Don't play responsible adult with me now.

Also, did you really smash your pad or was it some poetic license again? I can't tell any more.

[Stanshall]

Thanks, Haze.

It's largely been quite satisfying and fun, even though I never quite reached my goal. I think I probably could get there but I've concluded that my current strats are very close but not good enough for S++. That's the God's honest truth. I thought I had it but I actually don't. I'd need to go back to the drawing board and do better at the sections I find really hard at the end of the stage and the thought of that doesn't bring me any excitement, only dread at the time and frustration I'd have to go through. That's the main reason I'm walking away, to be completely honest.

I don't enjoy it as much as Groove Coaster or Ketsui or pretty much anything else I've enjoyed playing recently, and yet...I keep coming back to it. I watch my Futari God Mode vid occasionally and it makes me feel happy, that was tough but so much fun. The DOJ full chain was frustrating at times but always satisfying and I find that video really cool to watch, too! Maybe in time, I'll come to enjoy hitting this milestone but I am definitely done with it now. I'm uninstalling from the PS4 and accepting my limits, i.e. as the undisputed forum champion of Ikaruga chapter one.

[Stanshall]

Ha, even you don't believe that! That S++ is going to continue to torment you until you have it. Don't play responsible adult with me now.

You're absolutely right, I don't really believe it but I literally have to keep walking in the other direction now. It's not doing me any good and I don't have the determination or skill to go back and develop better strats. I'm an Ikaruga S+ guy. And yeah, I did whack my pad on the floor. I fixed it, just pressed the shell back on but that's really stupid and a sign that enough is really enough now.

It may well be 'the one that got away' but as a keen fisherman, I've had plenty of them

[Stanshall]

I woke up and did the threading the needle first go, and got 3.39m.

Better boss strat and I would have got it. Today is the day.

[Stanshall]

Literally just headbutted the wall of my house down.

Spoiler: show

with joy

[KSubzero1000]

enough is really enough now.

Today is the day.

Kind of a mixed message here, Dr. Jekyll.

Obsessively grind towards a new highscore > Uninstall game> Post a fancy buddhist novella reestablishing life priorities and celebrating newfound maturity > Reinstall game 5mins later > Repeat ad nauseam. Endless fun!

Kind of dropped off shmups at the moment, but I'll take another look at Ikaruga as soon as I'm done turbo-sliding around my virtual happy place.

[Stanshall]

Only Ikaruga brings out that dubious new age self-talk in me. Fake it til you make it. Might be the quotes at the start of the stages, coupled with my ego and nervous system trying to circumvent their own mortality. If you stare at the abyss long enough, you know how it goes...

[Stanshall]

THE KING IS DEAD.

LONG LIVE THE KING.

[KSubzero1000]

Just watched the replay. Amazing stuff!

(He even micro-taps through the side strings at the start to maximize absorption gains, the absolute legend.)

Do you know if the boss choke ruined an even higher score, or is it purely a matter of "max chain + absorption bonus"? I'm not really up-to-date with the intricacies of this game's scoring system any more. In a conventional shmup you would have some sort of end stage bonus based on the amount of remaining lives and bombs, but I'm not sure about this one.

Only Ikaruga brings out that dubious new age self-talk in me.

I am now picturing all the quack self-help writers / fortune-tellers / orb people as secret Ikaruga fanatics whose entire professional inspiration stems from the vicious cycle of clairvoyant self-loathing this game apparently inspires. There might be a lucrative career change in it for you if you play your tarot cards right. Two birds with one broken DualShock fragment, Mr. Unpaid Overtime.

[Stanshall]

Do you know if the boss choke ruined an even higher score, or is it purely a matter of "max chain + absorption bonus"? I'm not really up-to-date with the intricacies of this game's scoring system any more.

I'd say 30k for the three seconds I lost but that's it. The scoring for shooting and absorbing is minimal. I knew I had it at that point so just head down and 70s remaining is still rapid. 73s would have been nice but the death is good to bring me back down to Earth so I don't get silly ideas of playing stage two, or something. I will literally never play this game again.

I remember when going for S Rank that I would sometimes wake up and have my best runs first thing in the morning, like my brain would process the routes and muscle memory in my sleep or something and I did dream about it again last night, which I haven't done since that first mad push way back when. Sure enough, I woke up and the first three quarters of the stage felt totally baked in so I just thought I'm going to thread those motherfucking motherfuckers. I can't tell you how much I was buzzing when I fired that first set of missiles on the boss and looked at the timer and my score, and I had ages to play with. Almost impossible to fuck it up at that point, even though I did my utmost!

Aaahhhhhhh. It's like a terrible weight has lifted. I'm off for a walk.

[KSubzero1000]

I'd say 30k for the three seconds I lost but that's it. The scoring for shooting and absorbing is minimal.

Cool, cool. So it's a really different scoring system from basically everything else out there.

Gotta say man, that run looks great. I'm totally out of the zone right now, but this gave me the perfect motivation to go back to it when I have the time. I can't seem to get away from these games without something pulling me back in!

Spoiler: show

You should totally play Chapter 2 now that you're warmed up. You know it, I know it.

[hazeredmist]

Congratulations! An absolutely immense achievement.

Now delete the game from all your systems and never touch it again. You’ve won

[Stanshall]

Thanks, mate. I will do, and this time I mean it!

I'm totally out of the zone right now, but this gave me the perfect motivation to go back to it when I have the time. I can't seem to get away from these games without something pulling me back in!

For a genre that all seems so superficially very similar, it's incredibly rich and diverse. I've not been playing much myself recently and I've been really enjoying some totally different stuff but the M2 Ketsui and Garegga have been so great with the PS4 D-pad that I couldn't resist giving Ikaruga a crack with it.

Not sure exactly which shmup I'll play next but Ketsui is most appealing at this moment. Back to Groove Coaster and Tokyo Mirage Sessions in the meantime!

[Stanshall]

Haha, thanks. I feel like I am one inch taller and slimmer for the day.

I will print this thread off for my eulogy for one of my brothers to read. They can show the S++ footage as the casket goes behind the curtain. Wait, I feel like I made this exact same joke several pages earlier...Ha, that will get a laugh at the funeral. This bit will be too meta to get a laugh. *chuckle* Why are you all laughing? I'm dead! *laughter*

I've just downloaded Sine Mora Ex again. A real glutton for punishment, me.

[KSubzero1000]

Absolutely no offense or disrespect intended towards anybody, but I can't help but be a tad disappointed to see how smoothly this thread transitioned from celebrating Stan's amazing new score to celebrating chucking the entire game out of the window.

Stan's compulsive relationship with this game is obviously well-documented and I can totally understand him wanting to move onto something else after reaching that specific milestone. 100%. But at least some of us agree that this is an incredibly well-designed marvel of a game with an enormous amount of untouched quality content / potential enjoyment left in store, and it seems a bit weird to me to treat it as some sort of nuisance to be crossed off the bucket list and thrown onto the compost pile with jubilation. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But these (admittedly widespread) conveyor belt consumption norms tend to rub me the wrong way.


Just my two cents. I'm gonna assume I'm the one who's out of step with everybody on this one. Love all around.

[Stanshall]

First of all, I will have to take full responsibility for any of the above, but I'm sure it's just a running joke rather than a genuine celebration of tossing this amazing game into the dustbin. It's all been 100% prompted by me over the weeks and months, and I think anyone else is just playing along.

I think you possibly are reading a little more into it than intended, but I appreciate that I can certainly play the 'laughs' a little straight at times so, again, I'll hold my hands up to that. I know that you have legitimate broader concerns about the disposable perception of the medium so I totally understand why this got your radar beeping!

Real talk, I am going to put the game aside for now, but that's no reflection on its merits rather than it causing a very particular itch in my brain which I find compelling to a fault. It feels satisfying now but...Ehh, I'm not going to repeat all that again, you've already neatly addressed it. For me, this arbitrary goal is the end of playing for chains, though I am still interested in simply trying to clear it at some point in the future. I am totally aware that I've only experienced a fraction of what it has to offer, and that the game has much more brilliance to show but if it never happens, I can now genuinely happily live with that!

[KSubzero1000]

I know that you have broader concerns about the disposable perception of the medium so I understand why this got your radar beeping!

Yeah. That's all there is, really. Bit difficult to discern what is and isn't serious in writing and my brain is just a bit over-zealous today.

Real talk, I am going to put the game aside for now, but that's no reflection on its merits rather than it causes a very particular itch in my brain which I find compelling to a fault. [..] I am still interested in simply trying to clear it at some point in the future. I am aware that I've only experienced a fraction of what it has to offer, but if it never happens, I can now happily live with that.

Of course man, I completely understand. It's important to know where to draw the line for your own sanity. Congrats again on the sheer dedication and willpower you've displayed and I'm definitely looking forward to your future progress with Ketsui & Co!


PS: And if it makes you feel any better, I threw it on for a quick session earlier and got absolutely nothing done. This is gonna be an absolute pain for me to get back into that groove, that much is certain.