Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu [CAVE 2008]

[EOJ]

I just got to the (Tsuujou) loop and man, it's unbelievable. My credit ended at 2-1, but I credit feed through to see all the levels. Absolutely the best bullet patterns CAVE has ever done. Really hardcore stuff. I love the three different lasers (purple, blue, and pink), and when you use a high level hyper you start getting suicide bullets right out of Futari (those small red flames). I fought the Mecha-bee boss at the end too, and that was equally awesome.

It's a shame there's no Harahara-esque mode that lets you select the Tsuujou loop from the start, though. It would be nice to practice that way!

[PROMETHEUS]

When using a hyper in power, normal increases your chain quickly while boost increases your hyper gauge. After 5 hypers in a level you can't cancel bullets anymore with a hyper (unless you die), but if you use a boost hyper during this time you usually get a lot of slowdown, and you can destroy everything faster too of course. Whenever you use a hyper on a large enemy, laser, or boss, try and hold A and move over the enemy during the start of the hyper - it will usually fill up another hyper as you do it. The hyper gauge is based on proximity and the use of the A shot. The closer you are, the faster it fills up.

Basically you have to learn how to use the hypers, start-of-hyper invincibility, and the end-of-hyper bullet cancel to your advantage, especially on bosses.

What about when not using a hyper, is there a difference between normal and boost other than firepower and speed ? Do the difference chain / hyper-filling still apply ?

I hope I get a chance to play this game again at some meet, it was fun and it would be fun to try scoring at it now that I understand the system.

[EOJ]

I think Normal gives you more hits than Boost, but I could be wrong.

Also, I was wrong about not being able to cancel bullets after 5 hypers. It seems you can cancel bullets indefinitely in a stage, but only in Boost mode. On midbosses and bosses, you can't cancel bullets after 5 hypers. I plowed through stage 5 last night in Power type, just kept using my Boost hyper over and over to wipe out all the bullets, and I got to the end boss for the first time. Wasn't too hard really. Obviously if you want to chain the whole stage you can't use this strategy, but it works for pure survival.

You can get some crazy hits on the lasers in the second half of stage 5 - i went from 0 hits to 6000 in about 3 seconds by holding my boost hyper on them for a few seconds. 

[PROMETHEUS]

if you die at a boss with level 5 hyper, does the hyper level reset to 0 so you can hyper & cancel again to survive the boss ?

[EOJ]

No, the hyper level only reduces one level if you die on a boss. So a Rank 5 hyper (the highest) reduces to Rank 4. Once you use a hyper again you're right back up to Rank 5! So you'd need to die 2 or more times on a boss to see any significant reduction in hyper rank.

[PROMETHEUS]

Same thing if you die inside the level right ? Otherwise you could just suicide before the boss to get the rank back to 0 after having abused of hypers for survival within the stage.

[EOJ]

Right, same for the levels too.

[KOMA]

WR?

[EOJ]

That's the highest score I've seen. But since he didn't get an ALL, Arcadia won't list it above the current Ura ALL score w/ C-Power (around 470bil, by ISO, iirc).

EDIT: Oh, that was done by a Chinese guy, I.O, in Shanghai. So Arcadia wouldn't list it no matter if he got the clear or not.

[droid]

Is there an option in the setting menu to turn autobomb off or reduce your bomb stock? This game looks pretty ace on youtube, would hate to see it ruined by autobomb. Can't wait to see your detailed review EOJ. If you had to give this DDP an early grade what would it rate?

Droid

[EOJ]

No, no option to turn off or reduce the autobomb. Whenever you bomb it destroys your chain, so it doesn't really matter once you play for score. If you want a slightly harder challenge, play Power type (still not too hard to get to the second loop with that, though). Personally I find Power type to be a lot more fun, as you can use more hypers.

Early review: like MrMonkeyMan, I agree this is the best (Do)donpachi ever made. Easily in my top 5 shooters of all time as well.

[PROMETHEUS]

Definitely looks like the best Dodonpachi to me too. It's definitely a lot more beautiful, sounds better, and has a much smarter and more fun scoring system.

[EOJ]

Holy shit. THERE IS ANOTHER SHOT STYLE IN THIS GAME.

AM-net just released the code to unlock "STRONG STYLE". It combines features of Bomb and Power styles. Here's what you do:

Insert a coin, hold ABD (not ABC!) on P2, then insert the following on P1:

B, C, B, A, D, down, up, A, A, D, D, C, C, B, B, left, left, A, right, left, left, left

If successful, you'll hear the announcer girl say something.

I'm off to try it out. Will post pics soon.

[KOMA]

Exellent news!Thx EOJ for this.
Just turn off the cab and i still have a 1 player panel on it!

http://up2.viploader.net/pic/src/viploader816005.jpg
2 chan pic

Ok,i open the tools box

[EOJ]

I just tried the code, and it worked. Awesome. Pretty smart of CAVE to release the code for a new style now, as it will keep the game fresh in the arcades (and pricey in the shops). Here's a pic of the new shot select screen:



Here's a pic of type-C strong. You start with 6 options that fill the screen:



Sorry for the crappy pics. There's some glare in my living room during the day. Strong style has the autobomb, in case you were wondering. Once you unlock strong style you get new strong style rankings as well. Looks like I'll have to go update the hi score thread for the game again.

[MrMonkeyMan]

Neat!

So, is it just bomb mode with SUPER POWER?  Can you cancel bullets on the higher hyper levels?  Are you slower?  Can I have my game back for a week to play around with it 

[EOJ]

I played through with A-Strong and got to stage 2-1. Here's what I've noticed:

-Both your shot and laser are a bit stronger than Boost in Power style. The laser is definitely wider, and the shot has 6 options (for each ship).
-Your hyper meter fills up about the same as Bomb Style. Maybe slower?
-Your movement speed is somewhere between Normal and Boost. Feels pretty nice.
-Once you're in a level 5+ hyper you can still cancel bullets but not as many as in a Boost mode hyper.

So it really does combine the strengths of both styles. I do think it would have been nice if they took the autobomb off this style, though, to compensate for its strength. Who knows, maybe there'll be another code released soon to unlock an "autobomb select" or "autobomb free" style.

It seems more fun than bomb style, but I still really like the quick hyper refill of Power style the most.

I wonder if the inclusion of strong style is an indication that this game won't have a Black Label. After all, in Futari BL, they combined both Normal and Abnormal shots into one, similar to Strong style. I had thought they might do this in a Daifukkatsu BL, but it's already in ver 1.5. I honestly don't see what else they could add to this game in a BL.

@MMM: sorry, as much as I'd love for you to make some strong style vids, I like the game too much to send it away.

[EOJ]

I made a short 1 min video showing Strong style. I had to hold the camera with one hand, so I couldn't do much on the screen other than hold a fire button most of the time. I just tried to show both the shot and laser for this new style type.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkBoJM9Jie4

[adverse]

Haha, that's awesome!  Looks fun!

[EOJ]

OK, I made another vid. Has some bad glare on the screen, but at least I found a way to set down the camera so I could play through the stage. Just a demo of stage 1, showing C-Strong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEqPVJ7ZZNc

[Shalashaska]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[EOJ]

One last vid, I uploaded it to the site instead of dumping it on Youtube. This time it's Type A, Strong style. I taped it in the evening, so no glare to deal with on the screen. The vid shows the second half of stage 3:

http://www.cave-stg.com/ddpdfk_ss_atype.wmv

[Monouchi]

Thanks for the vids EOJ. 
Cant wait to play this game...now with even more options..

[gsl]

Man, I wish they wouldn't have waited so long to release the definitive version of the game.  1.5 didn't come out until after I came back home; 1.0 was purty but overall pretty meh, and now it seems like the game's really hitting its stride.

[Geeb]

So there's now an EX Mode? Good grief.