Noticed that too on my last play, considering it recharges it seems like it's meant to be used as a scoring tool. Is there a particular trick to that ship? (Never played Akai Katana so I wouldn't know if it has to do with any of those game mechanics) For anyone else on the fence, it's worth it just for that different 5A level.
Man, that easy mode is really easy. I can easily get through all five levels without even getting hit once. In fact, that mode I wouldn't even call it a bullet hell. DDPR even on novice setting is much much harder. If it were me I would call the easy level "toddler", the normal levels 1A-5A "easy", 2B-5B "normal", C-D probably "hard", and E "hell". The colors are pretty, they gotta tighten the controls on the ipad. I would figure iphone players would have an advantage due to the controls. And I don't quite understand it, but the framerate seems Better on my iphone4 than my new ipad. Really weird, it is always the other way around. Most be because of the borders and upscaling. Anyone notice the same thing? And is this buttery smooth on the iphone 5? I notice on both my iphone 4 and new ipad, that after you kill an end boss and get all the coins up, the framerate goes way down almost to a studder. For some reason get it even more on my new ipad than my iphone 4. Even the bullets seem Smoother framerate wise on my iphone 4 vs new ipad. First time I have ever seen this happen. Weird. How is it on iphone 5? Have to say the colors show up much better on My new ipad, really pretty.
Hmm...I haven't played Akai Katana either. My only recommendations are - (1) strategic bombing, (2) strategic suicide to increase bomb meter, (3) the little homing shot on the Orchid appears to prevent the chain meter from decaying.
Can't seem to install this on my Ipod Touch 5th gen, says it requires a digital compass. Hope this gets fixed.
Sounds like one of those workarounds for Apple not allowing specific compatible device listing (like games with bogus camera requirements). Anyway, it doesn't list any iPod models at all in the compatibility portion of the app description, but you would certainly think the 5th gen would be one of their main target devices since its optimized for the resolution.
All Cave games are fairly simple to get through, it's the scoring mechanics that make the gameplay hard and addictive. For instance, yes DDPM is easy to get through, especially on the upper tier levels, but once you start playing for high scores (the closer to enemies you are, the bigger stars you earn = higher score), it gets difficult, even on normal A levels, and especially on the lower c, d, e levels. Keeping your ship in the top 1/3 of the screen as much as you can is quite the rush. Even on easy mode, keeping your ship as close to enemies as you can while tring to play for a high score can get difficult... Then add in memorizing when blue enemies (which you can fly through) and green enemies (which you can to fly through) all come onto the screen, keeping your chain up as much as possible, when to bomb, when to strategically die, ect, and you've got yourself a typical Cave experience... Even if it's slightly simplified, Cave's all over this system. I love it. TL;DR-all Cave games are fairly simple until you play for score and become addicted trying to find and perfect the optimal run.
Synth Synth - A few pages back you wrote: "...as well as different ways of playing with each of the ships..." What did you mean by this? I'm on the fence to buy and wondering if there is less variety here than in DDPR that I already have. The choices of ship styles before play and the in-play button system mix things up in DDPR. How does it work here?
I don't know about more variety than DDPR... especially considering the iPhone mode included in Resurrection, and how the bombs and lasers effect gameplay differently... but the ships in Maximum are more comparable to Danmaku Unlimited's ship selection - with Cave's DP chaining thrown into the mix... Like Royce said, the Laser allows you to strategically place yourself in position to carry on chains longer by not destroying ships - but it also builds it's combo slower. The Spread Shot can destroy large groups of enemies fairly quickly, but builds it's combo meter at about the same speed as the laser and carrying on chains is pretty difficult. Lock-on builds it's combo insanely quick, but you'll be clearing out enemies left and right without even thinking about it and, like the Spread Shot, that makes it pretty difficult to string together a long chain. Orchid, er, bomb ship, has lower firepower, but is pretty much a spam bomber - so using bombs to keep up your chain and raise your combo is required to score big with it. Variable type... I dunno much about this one except that you can stop moving and turn your spread shot into a laser (but this is touchy, you basically have to move and then take your finger off the screen to keep the laser going). But all of them have different shot powers and bomb raise rates (don't quote me on this one, as I'm just guessing, but it seems like some build up bombs quicker than others), and like Danmaku Unlimited, it really depends on your style of play, but also like a Cave game... and chances are there's a ship that seems like the best high-score ship, but that will suffer in the later levels while a harder to master ship will suffer in the beginning levels but completely wipe out that high-scoring ship in the later levels... good thing is that you have 15 separate stage leaderboards and can quit and switch ships then get back to the level you're on. =oP **I don't claim to be an expert, so if anyone wants to correct me, please do, I won't take offense. =o/
Yeah..wish Apple lets devs have a different way to filter out which devices to all games to install on. No reason iPod touch 5 can't run this... But anyways..the game is pretty fun so far. It feels like to me this game is a mash up of the hand selected levels from their previous games. I noticed a few sections of stages I've played felt familiar...and sounds like others noticed the same thing too. I've only tried the normal difficulty and feels like most of my deaths were due to carelessness. ;-) I like the clean, crisp art style. And without the different shots (at least for the ship I tried), I feel like I can really just focus on dodging. Based on my initial experience so far, this may end up being my favorite Cave's vertical shmup (partly cause it feels like to me as the "best of" collection somewhat).. Here's hoping Cave finds a way to allow it to install on the iPod touch 5 so I can take extended bathroom breaks at work. ;-P
simple fix for ipods touch. open ipa file whit winrar and extract the info.plist located in app folder. now use plist editor for windows and change the string digital compass true to false.save changes. now open ipa file and drag the new file to the app folder. enjoy it!
So here's what I've noticed to date. Combo meter increases when you destroy an enemy; in the case of strong enemies, some shot types will increase your combo meter as long as you keep part of your shot focused constantly on the target. Type-A (Blissful Death's Type-A) only builds combo meter when you're hitting enemies with its central beam, and as SV said it's quite slow. The spread shot is nice for clearing the screen, but this can be quite difficult to combo with. Delta Sword (Resurrection's Type-A) has an entire laser for a weapon; the combo meter builds about as fast as Type-A. The advantage of the laser is that you can strategically plan your movement to prevent the combo meter from decaying. The downside is actually that it's too strong at times and you can kill some enemies too quickly. Tiger Schwert (Ketsui) has a nice weak spread shot that becomes a fairly strong homing weapon when locked on. To lock onto enemies just hit them with the central beam. Its central beam increases combo meter fairly quickly, but only traverses half the screen so keeping your meter up can be risky business against strong enemies and bosses. Orchid (Akai Katana) has a weak central shot and an even weaker homing shot. None of its regular attacks increase your combo meter. However, as previously mentioned the small homing shot appears to keep the meter from decaying, and on top of this your bomb charges super fast. Uoratou (Dangun Feveron/Uo Poko) has a fantastic spread shot that changes to a laser when you are stationary. Unfortunately, only the laser will increase combo meter, and it does so at a rate similar to the Delta Sword. The Orchid can get some crazy high scores on stages 4 and 5 because of its rapid bomb charge, and in fact I don't think the other ships can keep up. I haven't had much success with it on Stages 1 through 3 because it has no laser; instead I've been using the Tiger Schwert. But that said I haven't been able to reach the D- and E- difficulties yet. Looks like I'll just be a sad casual non-Japanese player forever ;(
Thanks for the tip. It failed installing...but I got it at least to start trying. I'll try again later.
The only thing I don't like about this game is the fact that it encourages strategic suicide for scoring purposes. That always feels wrong. I'm sure it won't be changed, and it doesn't stop this from being one of the best shmups designed for touch screen that I've ever played, but it still bothers me.
so cave finally made f restart button, great! maybe they will add it to their other games where it's actually would be useful.
Well, maximum has 5 different ship types, resurrection only 3. And the ship styles in maximum seem more varied. One of them is a cartoon cat, that some may or may not like, but this ship has a totally different style making the game seem more like a cartoon. Some may not know it, but if you release your finger from the cartoon cat, it shoots a concentrated beam as well. 2 of the 5 ships, you have to unlock, I personally like the laser one the best. DDPR ships seem kind of similar to me. If you liked DDPR, give this game a try for sure. It plays totally different and is fun in its own right. Plus if you like a lot of different ships, this one has it.
Yeah, I usually have a rule when I play shmups, always start from the first stage, and only play one continue max. That makes most shmups impossible for me to solve quickly. DDPR on the hard setting, by the third stage gets hard as hell, you just keep dying left and right. This game, has its own difficulty implementation via the abc settings, so it is different, at first I was asking myself, where is the difficulty settings, but after figuring out this abc method, it makes more sense. Usually I like as close to a hell bullet setting as I can get, but some days, it is more pleasant to play a game more on a normal setting and try to finish the game til the end. While I will never play the easy setting in maximum ever again, the regular levels and upper levels are fun and challenging. I like how the bullet patterns are not as stressful as DDPR, that's why sometimes I prefer playing Bug Princess 2 over DDPR due to the less frantic bullet patterns. I never really play any games for score like I know that you or other gamecenter players like to do. With over 700 games on my new ipad, I rarely get the focus to spend more than 15 minutes on one game before going to the next. It is rare when I ever play a game for one hour straight, more likely that I will play 30 different games in one hour. I think I have video game ADD. But DDPM is great fun, I like the game, it is more relaxful to me than DDPR, and I really like how it has beautiful colors like Phoenix hd, and vector graphics like Space Invaders Infinity Gear, and the psychedellic graphics like Danmaku unlimited. I always impressed how fast you can finish games, but one good thing about cave games, you can always replay them, and they are always fun.
Yeah, maximum sure does play well on the iphone 4. I guess since it was designed for windows phones, it ports over perfectly for it. In fact, I am a little baffled why the game runners smoother on my iphone 4 than my new ipad. DDPR especially the HD version just stutters on the iphone 4. But it plays great on my new ipad. I wonder how maximum plays on the iphone 5 and ipad 4. Wonder if the a6 will make a difference in this game.
