Bemani games are boring to write about, that’s why I don’t.

I improved a lot in Beatmania, I can clear most of the songs on level 8 and a few on level 9, with Quasar being the hardest I guess. iidx is just perfect for a short abstinence from shooters or just to relax a few mins on a busy day. I don’t get so obsessed with them and I feel no pressure. That’s probably because I’m not hunting down these AAA ranks and my gaming niveau is quite low compared to others. Nevertheless, I miss something that only shmups can give me. It’s the theoretical approach, it’s the thinking about the game when you’re not playing it, working out good scoring routes, reading strategy guides. Shmups have (at least for me) much more to offer. That doesn’t mean that Bemani games are less entertaining, they’re just less interesting in general. Does that even make sense?! I’ll keep playing them, that’s for sure, but I’m afraid I’ll never play these games on a high level. Maybe this is actually a good thing, time for gaming is becoming more and more scarce for me…

Or maybe it’s just because I LOVE SHMUPS!

Bemani games are boring to write about, that’s why I don’t.

BATRIDER

I finally got around to aim for my Summer Goal, namely clearing Advance mode with a team instead of the plain Strawman approach. The first day (yesterday) was a disaster, I wasn’t even able to clear stage 2… I figured out that it was probably because I tried every difficult milking strategy right from the start. Today I got the basics down again, and I’m refining my strategies for the first 5 stages (6 if you count colosseum). On my best run, I got to the first ninja on the highway with a score of 7mill, that’s only 1,5mill shy off the 17mill replay from superplay.co.uk. Enough for a D or E score I think.

Stage 1: I usually get around 1mill, If I learn some advanced milking techniques and try to destroy his backpack, I can get around 1,4mill. Right now I couldn’t care less, too much effort for such a small increase – not worth it YET.
Sky High Stage: Since I’m playing the Korean B version, I have some problems destroying the blue ships to activate Bashinet. I’m just not having enough firepower. I really need a special power up there, maybe not that good for rank management, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m not milking Boredom, but I try to milk the small missiles during Bashinet’s first form, which actually is quite easy once you have some sort of routine.
Sewer Stage: The level itself is pretty much straightforward. I have to work on destroying more of the big enemies with aura, could be worth it. The boss is much more interesting though, milking Deviate is essentially important and can give you up to 800k alone! However, you have to use a Batrider ship and one mistake can cost you Black Heart. I’m concentrating on getting all the secret bosses first, but sooner or later I definitely have to come back to milking this boss.
Airport Stage: Not much to say here. Milking Bazzcok isn’t as hard as I thought and I’m getting better at shooting Gob Robo’s balls (!) for the 10 extra medals. Timing is everything.
Colosseum: Bashinet2′s first form is a complete bitch and imo has the hardest attack patterns right after Envy of course. Breaking my medalchain here is very likely, I’ll work on that.

The Highway Stage itself still is a mess. I don’t know if I should destroy the hovercraft or get the extend and I’m messing up the end quite often. Haven’t thought about the bossrush yet.