Started up Lightening Force Thunder Force IV. Starting stage: 4 (Daser). Bullshit deaths partway through. Restart.

Starting stage order: 3 (Air Raid) -> 1 (Strite) -> 4 (Daser) -> 2 (Ruins); I wanted to do something different and go into stages 1 and 4 (both of which only have Blade and Rail Gun) with a Free Way. I wore out my shield from stage 3 within the same stage, leaving me shieldless for all of stage 1. Died on Gargoylediver with Blade equipped, but oh well, Blade is kinda crap for having ALL OF ITS HITSPARKS RED (as opposed to blue for non-damaging shots and red for damagin) anyway. Stage 4 is once again me getting and losing my shield within the same stage.

For some unexplained reason, I had quite a bit of trouble with Stage 5 and the lasers that, while sudden, never really gave me much trouble. Stage 6 was where it all went downhill, up to the boss and its dividing large bullets.

As the Hotel Mario version of Mario would put it: “It’s been one of those days.”
====
On another and less related note, I’ve been taming the Wave Rider 02R and 03 in RayCrisis. Somehow, I score higher with these ships. Even though WR03′s scoring is DoDonPachi comboing meets RayForce lock-ons and requiring, and I can barely hit 100 combo (which is pretty low considering it only nets x100 multiplier and I’d need 156 more hits to achieve max multiplier) I manage 2.9 million. WR02R enabled me to get a little over 3, despite, again, taking more lock-ons (a lot less than 03, but still double that of 01R) for x256. “02″-style thunder lasers remain superior to “01″-style laser missiles in my book, even if it’s harder to get Hyper Laser with them.

Something I neglected to bring up in my last entry: RayCrisis‘s Special Mode. This is such a silly mode. Instead of starting at 50% encroachment and minimal firepower, you start at 0% and firepower maxed out. Items are now these purple things that reduce encroachment, blue things that are 1-ups and appear frequently (thus allowing you to amass 9 lives easily), and these rare green things that double your score. Encroachment is even sillier: it fluctuates wildly; it could be <10%, then spike to 100% in about thirty seconds, and believe me, it’s gonna cross itno the 90% range A LOT. (“Encroachment over 90%! Encroachment over 90%! Encroachment over 100%!”) And at 100%, instead of a bad ending, you just get a score drain; of course, this means that in order to prevent exploitation of this (through dying before the point decrease takes place), you can only rank in if you clear the game.

Speaking of clearing, thanks to the plethora of 1-ups that puts Thunder Force III to shame, it’s quite easy to 1CC the game, up to and including the TLB, somewhat like Mushihime-sama‘s Arrange Mode (Bombs = extra lives!), only the TLB is actually managable, unlike the Cave bullet mania found in Mushi’s TLB. As I finished off Infinity, I couldn’t help but feel empty inside, having bullshitted my way up to a boss that, in Original Mode, is never seen by anyone except the best players. Only, this is a legal form of bullshitting, not creditfeeding.

I don’t think I’ll be playing Special Mode seriously anymore.