Save states are amazing for this, so be sure to abuse those. When routing try to get good and reliable routes, where you are sure to be able to transition smoothly onto the next section. Going for score is way harder than taking the survival route, and if you try to go for score in that stage, you'll definitely understand. When you do that you get a ton of popcorn enemies + 1 tank + 1 helicopter, which get followed by the second most difficult section in the level.

For instance in stage 1 of Ketsui the toughest part is just after beating the mid boss early. My tips, besides just playing, are focusing on routing and the learning of enemy patterns. There are plenty of other difficult series, like R-Type or Darius but the ones I've talked about are the ones that to me stand out the most and/or have actually played. It's already super difficult on easy, imagine how difficult it can get with the added suicide bullets and harder enemy patterns. Most of their games are considered some of the hardest in shmup history.įinally I'll have to say Ikaruga. Really fast bullets, complex attack patterns that rely on reaction speed, and a lot of different types of bullets and attacks. Other really tough shmups are Raizing's, such as Armed Police Batrider, Dimahoo or Battle Garegga. As all Cave shmups the difficulty ramps up quickly, so sooner or later you'll be dodging a lot of uber fast bullets at the same time or dying trying (mostly this). Not only that but on foot gameplay + loads of bullets make most stages brutal.Īnother Cave shmup I have a rough time with is Dangun Feveron, but that one is mostly due to the speed of the gameplay, making precise movement hard as fuck, which is pretty crucial when avoiding some enemy patterns. When it comes to Cave shmups Guwange is one of the hardest since the difficult I spikes from level 2 and keeps increasing to the point of having 5 bosses in a row in the last level, each being more and more difficult than the other. I'd check it out if I were you tho, since it's actually a really fun game and that last level is one of the best levels I've played in gaming history. The stages in order from easiest to hardest imo are 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 5, 4, 8, 9. Then you get a boss rush, and finally you get the last level, which has a highspeed section, 2 super hard bosses and one terrifyingly difficult precise movement section. The worst of all is that generally all levels except the first 2 are rough as nails, especially the bosses.

I had an extremely rough time beating it on very easy, imagine how it has to be in normal.

Pretty brutal stuff.ġcc Gradius Gaiden is also extremely rough, especially because dying a single time in the whole run generally means ruining it, since you start from a checkpoint with no firepower. I was trying to go for score and can say that the first level already feels as hard as the last one in Mushihimesama (if playing for survival). I've been getting into it these days and your pathing needs to really be on point, even in the first level lmao. Batsugun is the first shmup I've 1cc'd and wow, it was such a great place to start, I'm surprised that I didn't see anybody recommending it to new players.

I love the style of its gameplay, and I see why it's so highly regarded, but damn, it's remarkably unforgiving even in a genre characterized by that.įor that matter, does anybody have any recommendations for other accessible 1cc goals? I know I just need to put in the hundreds of hours of practice, but it's still nice to have some goals that feel within reach. Of all the Cave games I've played, it doesn't feel like any of them come close to Ketsui in terms of their default difficulty. By comparison, Ketsui brings me to my knees-many of its regular enemies, let alone its sub-bosses, give me more trouble than some of Mushi's actual bosses. As a new player, I'm interested in how everyone compares the 'normal' difficulty levels of some of the most popular games.įor instance, after a few dozen hours of practice playing bullet hells, I can come pretty close to 1cc'ing Mushihimesama normal, and I managed DOJ's first loop with two continues. So it seems most of the notoriously difficult games attain that degree of difficulty only at higher levels of play-either on the second loop, or in ultra mode, etc.

Gradius gaiden 1cc