Shining Aquas
03-25-2010, 12:35 AM
Welcome to another exciting episode of TNA Impact.
Nah, just kidding, page-long critiques are waaaaay more interesting than actual wrestling, as this time I got to wrestle with Bridget_'s crazy curtain fire contraption for the second official Boss Battle Review.
First though, a history lesson:
Now, for those of you who don't know what danmaku means, it more or less translates into "Bullet Hell", which is a genre of shooting game that is especially popular in Japan. Generally it involves playing as a small witch/magic girl/priestess or some variation of female flying person who can shoot magic bullets; on the flip side, it can sometimes encompass playing as a small plane/jet or some variation of aircraft vehicle. The idea is to have the "1 vs 1000" scenario, where it is up to your single unit to take down hundreds and hundreds of enemy units, plus a few ridiculous boss units. Making things more dificult, it is customary for games like this to operate under the notation that your unit is made out of glass and therfore shatters if touched by even the most minute bullet (aka get hit by 1 bullet and die). Now, I know the concept seems a little unfair (and in execution, it tends to be the same way), but the game tries to balance itself out by allowing you completely free movement, in which all directions are fine and the only real limitation is your movement speed. On top of that, it is also customary that your hitbox be the size of a grape, despite how big your girl/aircraft is. Finally, danmaku comes in many difficulties (it's not always impossibly hard ya know), ranging generally from Easy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQqUk_s5UA) to Face Punching (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM&feature=related)
So, "Boss: Danmaku Rave" is pretty much just that: It's a large machine that produces bullet hell with the use of brightly colored plasma balls flailing around in various directions. I'll admit that doing this in LBP must have been insanely difficult to do, and I applaud Bridget_ for doing it so well. Everything about this stage works, the design is great (and simple too), the machines are all well built, and the level idea is top notch. The problems I had with the level was the fact that we were asked to beat it not with a small little magic girl or a jet airplane but rather a sackboy. Seems like a silly argument, but bear with me here, my reasons are rational.
How large of a hitbox does a Sackboy have? If the answer is not "a couple pixels in the center" then this level type probably won't work as well as expected. In this case, the correct answer is "Everything from just barely above the waist down". In case you haven't noticed, Sackboy's upper body is invincible. Seriously, anytime anything would hit his upper body, he proceeds to bend down and completely avoid it...unless it hits his waist/legs/feet. Using this knowledge, Bridget_ created a terribly deceptive level that appears to be about twice more difficult than it actually is...but its still ridiculously difficult.
Anyways, here's the list of actions the Danmaku Machine has to throw at you:
Danmaku First Set: Easy - This set mostly consists of randomly firing green plasma shots in all directions. Not an especially difficult pattern and a very decent way to warm up the players for later sets. Always followed up with Recharge.
Danmaku Second Set: Regular - Fires triplet sets of yellow plasma shots in all directions. Combines this firing pattern with giant white plasma shots that travel at slow speeds, creating a deviously difficult pattern. Always followed up with Recharge.
Danmaku Third Set: Hard - A vast myriad of purple and blue shots fly everywhere. Try not to die here cause getting out of the safety box is actually pretty **** tough with all the bullets flying around. Again, follows up with Recharge.
Danmaku Final Set: Lunatic - It kinda looks like a supernova. A vast array of colours and exploding patterns with hundreds of slow moving tiny bullets. Mostly, it kills you with quantity over anything else, and I overly emphasize not dying here despite the increased difficulty. Followed up with Recharge yet again.
Recharge - After the firing of any pattern, the machine drops down opening up platforms with weak points on them. Destroy all 4 patterns to destroy the current form of the boss. This needs to be done a grand total of 4 times for victory.
So the attack pattern is mind-numbling easy to understand: (Set 1 > Recharge) x N, then replace Set 1 with sets 2,3, and 4 accordingly until the boss is dead. The machine fires a set, goes into recharge mode, you hit as many weak points as you can within the time limit, then the pattern repeats until you've hit all the weak points to which the machine changes forms. Seems simple enough, but there's so many factors that stop you along the way, and you may be surprised to hear that the bullets aren't really the worst of them.
Yes, the constant threat of death does present its share of survival issues but the infinitely bigger issue I had was with the platforms used to reach the weak points. The spacing between them is just spaced far enough vertically to make the whole thing a massive pain in the ****. Yes, you can definitely go from point to point with simple jumps, but it's very easy to miss a platform just barely because apparently you didn't jump high enough, causing you to fall to the bottom and have to survive yet another full wave of bullet hell, which in the later waves is pretty much a death sentence. Also, I know Bridget_ addressed this issue a long time ago by saying the recharge time stays the same on every wave, but I swear I think the recharge time gets just barely shorter on each wave, making the jumping segments just that much more impossible. The game must be playing tricks on me. Still, even without the timing changes the platform jumping is just a little too irritating and quite expecting of you on a performance level after having to thresh your way through tightly woven bullets of death. It's in many ways like making a triathlon athlete go through the crazy swimming/cycling/running course and then forcing them to solve a college-level math problem before they cross the finish line.
Still, despite anything bad I have to say about it, the level is very very good...if you like this sort of thing. If not, I can almost guarantee you're gonna hate it by the time you reach the second wave...if you can even pass the first wave. Personally, I like the level very much even though I could never quite beat it. It actually drove me to the point of near insanity because I almost always got to the 4th wave, but due to overwhelming bullets and terribly spaced jumping platforms I could never pass that last stretch. It was all quite frustrating.
Final Score: 7.5 / 10
Well built, challenging, and very pretty to stare at, the Danmaku Rave will supply you with just about everything you want in a LittleBigPlanet level....except for actual enjoyment. That comes hard.
DEFEAT: I simply could not overcome the massive stream of bullets; Danmaku Rave was too much for me. Maybe next time.
On a side note, the games in the 2 links are Touhou 11 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_Animism) and Mushihimesama Futari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushihime-sama_Futari) respectively
Nah, just kidding, page-long critiques are waaaaay more interesting than actual wrestling, as this time I got to wrestle with Bridget_'s crazy curtain fire contraption for the second official Boss Battle Review.
First though, a history lesson:
Now, for those of you who don't know what danmaku means, it more or less translates into "Bullet Hell", which is a genre of shooting game that is especially popular in Japan. Generally it involves playing as a small witch/magic girl/priestess or some variation of female flying person who can shoot magic bullets; on the flip side, it can sometimes encompass playing as a small plane/jet or some variation of aircraft vehicle. The idea is to have the "1 vs 1000" scenario, where it is up to your single unit to take down hundreds and hundreds of enemy units, plus a few ridiculous boss units. Making things more dificult, it is customary for games like this to operate under the notation that your unit is made out of glass and therfore shatters if touched by even the most minute bullet (aka get hit by 1 bullet and die). Now, I know the concept seems a little unfair (and in execution, it tends to be the same way), but the game tries to balance itself out by allowing you completely free movement, in which all directions are fine and the only real limitation is your movement speed. On top of that, it is also customary that your hitbox be the size of a grape, despite how big your girl/aircraft is. Finally, danmaku comes in many difficulties (it's not always impossibly hard ya know), ranging generally from Easy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQqUk_s5UA) to Face Punching (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscP9QpXoFM&feature=related)
So, "Boss: Danmaku Rave" is pretty much just that: It's a large machine that produces bullet hell with the use of brightly colored plasma balls flailing around in various directions. I'll admit that doing this in LBP must have been insanely difficult to do, and I applaud Bridget_ for doing it so well. Everything about this stage works, the design is great (and simple too), the machines are all well built, and the level idea is top notch. The problems I had with the level was the fact that we were asked to beat it not with a small little magic girl or a jet airplane but rather a sackboy. Seems like a silly argument, but bear with me here, my reasons are rational.
How large of a hitbox does a Sackboy have? If the answer is not "a couple pixels in the center" then this level type probably won't work as well as expected. In this case, the correct answer is "Everything from just barely above the waist down". In case you haven't noticed, Sackboy's upper body is invincible. Seriously, anytime anything would hit his upper body, he proceeds to bend down and completely avoid it...unless it hits his waist/legs/feet. Using this knowledge, Bridget_ created a terribly deceptive level that appears to be about twice more difficult than it actually is...but its still ridiculously difficult.
Anyways, here's the list of actions the Danmaku Machine has to throw at you:
Danmaku First Set: Easy - This set mostly consists of randomly firing green plasma shots in all directions. Not an especially difficult pattern and a very decent way to warm up the players for later sets. Always followed up with Recharge.
Danmaku Second Set: Regular - Fires triplet sets of yellow plasma shots in all directions. Combines this firing pattern with giant white plasma shots that travel at slow speeds, creating a deviously difficult pattern. Always followed up with Recharge.
Danmaku Third Set: Hard - A vast myriad of purple and blue shots fly everywhere. Try not to die here cause getting out of the safety box is actually pretty **** tough with all the bullets flying around. Again, follows up with Recharge.
Danmaku Final Set: Lunatic - It kinda looks like a supernova. A vast array of colours and exploding patterns with hundreds of slow moving tiny bullets. Mostly, it kills you with quantity over anything else, and I overly emphasize not dying here despite the increased difficulty. Followed up with Recharge yet again.
Recharge - After the firing of any pattern, the machine drops down opening up platforms with weak points on them. Destroy all 4 patterns to destroy the current form of the boss. This needs to be done a grand total of 4 times for victory.
So the attack pattern is mind-numbling easy to understand: (Set 1 > Recharge) x N, then replace Set 1 with sets 2,3, and 4 accordingly until the boss is dead. The machine fires a set, goes into recharge mode, you hit as many weak points as you can within the time limit, then the pattern repeats until you've hit all the weak points to which the machine changes forms. Seems simple enough, but there's so many factors that stop you along the way, and you may be surprised to hear that the bullets aren't really the worst of them.
Yes, the constant threat of death does present its share of survival issues but the infinitely bigger issue I had was with the platforms used to reach the weak points. The spacing between them is just spaced far enough vertically to make the whole thing a massive pain in the ****. Yes, you can definitely go from point to point with simple jumps, but it's very easy to miss a platform just barely because apparently you didn't jump high enough, causing you to fall to the bottom and have to survive yet another full wave of bullet hell, which in the later waves is pretty much a death sentence. Also, I know Bridget_ addressed this issue a long time ago by saying the recharge time stays the same on every wave, but I swear I think the recharge time gets just barely shorter on each wave, making the jumping segments just that much more impossible. The game must be playing tricks on me. Still, even without the timing changes the platform jumping is just a little too irritating and quite expecting of you on a performance level after having to thresh your way through tightly woven bullets of death. It's in many ways like making a triathlon athlete go through the crazy swimming/cycling/running course and then forcing them to solve a college-level math problem before they cross the finish line.
Still, despite anything bad I have to say about it, the level is very very good...if you like this sort of thing. If not, I can almost guarantee you're gonna hate it by the time you reach the second wave...if you can even pass the first wave. Personally, I like the level very much even though I could never quite beat it. It actually drove me to the point of near insanity because I almost always got to the 4th wave, but due to overwhelming bullets and terribly spaced jumping platforms I could never pass that last stretch. It was all quite frustrating.
Final Score: 7.5 / 10
Well built, challenging, and very pretty to stare at, the Danmaku Rave will supply you with just about everything you want in a LittleBigPlanet level....except for actual enjoyment. That comes hard.
DEFEAT: I simply could not overcome the massive stream of bullets; Danmaku Rave was too much for me. Maybe next time.
On a side note, the games in the 2 links are Touhou 11 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_Animism) and Mushihimesama Futari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushihime-sama_Futari) respectively