Roll Call: Ibara PS2

[Takumaji]

If you play the game like the other CAVE titles and try to get through with NO MISS, guns blazing, and collecting everything on screen, then the game will destroy you.

Yeah.

I tried to play it that way, needless to say it didn't work out.

I'm working on implementing strategic suicide into my game at the moment, I also find the bullet-cancelling quite useful.... and I've yet to find my fave weapon combo, so far I like Rockets + 3/5 (?) way a lot.

The rank system gives me a hard time tho... is there another way of lowering your rank, for ex. by not picking up certain scoring/powerup items?

 

[Valgar]

Yeah.

I tried to play it that way, needless to say it didn't work out.

I'm working on implementing strategic suicide into my game at the moment, I also find the bullet-cancelling quite useful.... and I've yet to find my fave weapon combo, so far I like Rockets + 3/5 (?) way a lot.

The rank system gives me a hard time tho... is there another way of lowering your rank, for ex. by not picking up certain scoring/powerup items?

You should check out the ST Ibara threads over at shmups but off the top of my head.

1. Just shooting will cause rank to slowly rise. Only fire when neccesary.
2. The stronger the weapon is, the higher rank is increased by it.

* Machine Gun
* Homing [weak, but rapid and seeking]
* Five Way [higher in power due to five shots, great at point blank(?)]
* Rocket [piercing]
* Gatling [faster Machine Gun, think Juno in Einhander]
* Burner [slower to fire, high powered]
* Napalm [slow firing, explosive missile, high power, residual damage]

3. Not picking up powerups or missing high medals (guess on that last one).

 

[Kiel]

3. Not picking up powerups or missing high medals (guess on that last one).

No need to guess, that is correct. There is a part in stage 5 where you can get an almost endless stream of medals and if you dont collect them and let them go off screen you can watch the enemy shots slow down quite a lot.

 

[Takumaji]

Ibara's ranking system reminds me of some Psikyo games like Strikers 1945 II, pick up more than three powerups and watch the number of bullets increase...

Firing Hadou cannon (that's the name of the vapor trail rocket, right?) lets your rank go up quite quickly... it's also a boss killer, but since it has a negative impact on my score, I try to avoid the Hadou if possible.

The only thing I have gripes with is that strategic suicide thing. Since you get an extra ship for every 1 mill. points, sac'ing a ship essentially becomes a smart bomb option that also keeps your rank down, but the damage it dishes out against bosses does not seem to be that huge... well, depends on how many small or completed bombs you have of course.

 

[slerch666]

Not sure if anyone else here is interested or cares, but Cave has some very nice Ibara figures they are selling. Only 3 are available so far (the first was only available with the OST, this one is Teresa Rose).

Play-Asia seems to be selling them for a fair price, considering they run roughly 2100 Yen on Cave's official site. PA is selling them for $24.50 each.

Here's links to those that are available with release dates (they say March):
Meidi
Midi

and those without release dates (and they aren't listed in more than a picture on one of Cave's other sites):
Kasumi
Shasta
Lace

I made 2 preorders, one for the 2 that are to be available this month, and an order for those that have no release dates set.

 

[Takumaji]

I find the OST not very impressive so far. The level 1 track reminds me of a tune I heard in another shmup... can't put my finger on it, could be wrong here... the constant switching between Ibara, Raiden III and Homura finally takes its toll it seems... ..maybe it's a track from Garegga.

Ah well, the red vaportrail rocket isn't so bad for scoring after all, if you crack some of the larger ground installations with it, you will be rewarded with lots of winged medals... there still is the rank problem, tho. Examples would be the big hangars in stage 1 on the right about halfway through the level.

What's more, some weapons give you more bonus medals when killing certain enemies, 5-way seems to be quite useful here, but I'm not sure about that.

Bosses from level 3 onwards are extremly difficult, tho... I'm really tempted to watch some of those perfect runs to learn a thing or two about them, but then again, I noticed a decent skill increase when playing the game at the mo, so I'll probably give it some more time.

heh, and I've read the Ibara thread over at shmups.com... really amazing, some of those Japanese super freaks actually managed to beat Ibara on the very first try on release day, I mean... how robot-ish is that... true mad skillz at work.

 

[roker]

it's weird playing arrange then arcade

concepts are different

in the original, you want to keep rank down

in the arrange mode, you want it to increase fast so you can cancel out the waves of bullets and score some points

I'm still working on the whole "aura flash" thing

 

[ray_7]

Hmm still haven't got mu question answered, how do you do the hadou cannon thingy?

Are there any other special moves?

 

[roker]

Hmm still haven't got mu question answered, how do you do the hadou cannon thingy?

Are there any other special moves?

hold the bomb button down

then release it at the appropriate time

 

[Vincere]

MM, I'm quite satisfied, reached stage 4 in 1cc for the first time yesterday. I beat my score with another try and now around 3,5M points.

 

[jpj]

other than bombs, is there another way to bullet-cancel?

 

[Takumaji]

other than bombs, is there another way to bullet-cancel?

You can cancel bullets with:

- Aura Flash

This happens when you pick up an extra weapon for your pods or a powerup. Your ship will be surrounded by a red flash for a short while that cancels bullets and also does some damage. Some bullets will turn into rose medals when cancelled with the Aura Flash, so this is a nice scoring addition. Note that you won't get a Flash for every small powerup icon (you need three of them for a full powerup, and only then your ship will flash), or weapons you already have.

- Normal bomb

Bullets turn into blue and golden medals, also does good damage against any sort of enemy ship, including bosses.

- Hadou Gun/Cannon

Hold down bomb button to activate a vapor trail missle, release button to let it go. The missile will leave a red trail behind which lingers on screen for a while and cancels bullets and kills enemies. It's also very effective against bosses but should be used wisely, bosses die quicker with it, but you will get way less points.

 

[sokolean]

about arrange mode...

What the heck are you guys talking about? What's the problem with beating the game in Arcade mode if you have an infinite amount of continues?

Anyway, the real reason why I'm posting here is because I'm a bit confused about the Arrange Mode.

Is there a way to start with more than 2 ships and no continues? It seems a bit hard to complete 6 stages with 2 ships

And what does the bar in the top right corner stand for? It sometimes fills up but what's it do exactly???

Some help would be truly appreciated.

 

[Vincere]

What the heck are you guys talking about? What's the problem with beating the game in Arcade mode if you have an infinite amount of continues?

Anyway, the real reason why I'm posting here is because I'm a bit confused about the Arrange Mode.

Is there a way to start with more than 2 ships and no continues? It seems a bit hard to complete 6 stages with 2 ships

And what does the bar in the top right corner stand for? It sometimes fills up but what's it do exactly???

Some help would be truly appreciated.

mmm I'm usually kind with newbies but your definitely too ignorant to be forgiven.

-> there are tons of topics about that so read the thread in its whole BEFORE asking more than stupid questions. How the fuck can someone post such nonsense?

 

[ray_7]

Took one n00b to ruin a great thread about a great game...

 

[Takumaji]

What the heck are you guys talking about? What's the problem with beating the game in Arcade mode if you have an infinite amount of continues?

The idea is to beat a game, not to weasle your way through it by feeding it with credits like a monkey.

Try it with a bit of challenge for a change, eh.

 

[Kiel]

I heart you guys.

 

[roker]

What the heck are you guys talking about? What's the problem with beating the game in Arcade mode if you have an infinite amount of continues?

Anyway, the real reason why I'm posting here is because I'm a bit confused about the Arrange Mode.

Is there a way to start with more than 2 ships and no continues? It seems a bit hard to complete 6 stages with 2 ships

And what does the bar in the top right corner stand for? It sometimes fills up but what's it do exactly???

Some help would be truly appreciated.

you know

if you set a goal for every time you play

beating the game won't seem that far to reach

might take a while though

personally I don't plan on finishing the game until I have the whole "aura flash" thing down (might take a while and few vids to get it all down)

 

[sokolean]

again...

Sorry if I sounded rude but after reading through every post I still don't get it.
There are guys saying that the game is impossible to beat and that some Japanese gaming-freaks beat it in one try!?! WTF?!? I beat it in 20 minutes (first try).

Anyway, back to my first question. Is it possible to play Arrange mode with more than 2 ships? In games like Gradius you're being rewarded with additional ships/continues after a certain amount of playtime...

Hope I can get a more polite answer this time, don't know why you guys react so rude. I'm not so different from you. I've played well over 30 shmups in my life so don't turn into dissing, arrogant smart-asses on me again. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that...

 

[roker]

Sorry if I sounded rude but after reading through every post I still don't get it.
There are guys saying that the game is impossible to beat and that some Japanese gaming-freaks beat it in one try!?! WTF?!? I beat it in 20 minutes (first try).

Anyway, back to my first question. Is it possible to play Arrange mode with more than 2 ships? In games like Gradius you're being rewarded with additional ships/continues after a certain amount of playtime...

Hope I can get a more polite answer this time, don't know why you guys react so rude. I'm not so different from you. I've played well over 30 shmups in my life so don't turn into dissing, arrogant smart-asses on me again. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that...

either you're a fake account or you don't know the concept of 1CC

ask verbatum for more info

 

[Takumaji]

Hope I can get a more polite answer this time, don't know why you guys react so rude. I'm not so different from you. I've played well over 30 shmups in my life so don't turn into dissing, arrogant smart-asses on me again. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that...

Polite? Tsk.

Fact: It was you who crashed into a perfectly fine thread with a bunch of dumb questions.

Polite people say hello first and usually don't ridicule others in their very first post, you know.

Now be nice, I really can't stomach another loud-mouthed n00b today.

 

[Valgar]

It is impossible NOT to beat it on your first try with infinite credits.

 

[Mr.Nemoperson]

K I feel bad for the noob

1CC= 1 Credit Clear. As in you dont continue. 3 lives then game over. Dont press start. Then after you are able to beat the game with only three lives. Work on beating your highest score.

 

[jpj]

sokolean is funny.

 

[slerch666]

The idea is to beat a game, not to weasle your way through it by feeding it with credits like a monkey.

Try it with a bit of challenge for a change, eh.

I find that I suck pretty badly at most games, so being given the option of being a quarter dumper has its appeals from time to time. I do like the challenge, but sometimes you just wanna play the game (or any shooter) to just play.

I understand the 1cc, but doesn't mean I'll ever actually ATTAIN it.