After clearing Espgaluda, I’m in a bit of a haze wondering what game to go for next. I got a quick clear of Danmaku Unlimited 3 Easy mode on PC, which I wasn’t able to clear before but didn’t require too much practice this time. Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a game that I generally like but for some reason doesn’t pull me in to want to practice it very much, so even though I probably could have cleared it before I didn’t really want to put in practice time. Something about the game makes it feel a little unrewarding to play, and I’m not sure what it is. The lack of a robust practice mode probably contributes. I don’t really feel motivated to go for the Medium difficulty clear at all.
The three harder games I’ve been playing on and off and considering working seriously on are Dodonpachi, Mushi 1.0 Original, Mushi 1.5 Original, and DDP DFK 1.5.
Dodonpachi is definitely rewarding and the clear seems doable with practice. The main practice points are:
Mushi 1.0 Original seems hard mainly due to high bullet speed, and probably will involve a lot of practice to get used to the speed and learn how to dodge the enemy patterns without needing to react. It seems like one of those games where if you can get comfortable with the speed it shouldn’t be too hard, but getting comfortable with the speed might take a while.
Mushi 1.5 Original seems the easiest of the three, I can already make it through each stage without dying in isolation but need more reliable strategies and resource routing to make it consistent.
DFK 1.5 is generally not too bad because of the autobomb, but the laser wheel section seems really difficult and needs heavy routing+practice. It’s a hassle to use the practice modes in the Livewire PC ports so that is putting me off practicing this one more.
As of Dec 16, I have cleared all of these games. Relative difficulty (hardest→easiest):