R-Type Leo (JP ver.) - 2.389.770pts - ALL

I ain't a fan of R-Type games at all, but Leo is great! Very fun music, module mechanics that are both clever, snappy and easy to understand, an ideal run length with no loops, a difficulty level that's a bit hard but not sadistic nor stupid, what more do you want?

I'm pretty glad I finally got the chance to focus on it and clear it, in the context of the ongoing Calice Cup 9. While Leo is not a super duper hard game by any means, the last two stages are still fairly challenging and tight. The Japanese version we are playing and its checkpoints in particular requires genuine mastery of every section.

For the longest time, boss 5 was my roadblock, but now that I was able to sit down and get comfortable with a movement pattern on it where I mostly stay in the lower left corner of the screen to dodge the spreads, it was no longer the run-killer it used to be.

This run was not the best especially with the dumb death on stage 3, but at least I then managed to get to the final stage safely...and then that's where I lost another life in silly ways oops lol. Still, this is not a Gradius syndrome 1-life or bust game and every checkpoint can be done fairly reasonably. I kept going and faced the final boss, prompty died on it once, but then managed to defeat it!

As this is a Calice Cup run, I am thinking about scoring and whether I wanna come back to it for an improved, optimized run. Losing lives is very costly as a 1mil bonus per remaining extra life is granted at the end of the game. This ain't no Dr Toppel it seems.

I did perform the score trick on the last boss helper enemies, where you wanna weaken them but not kill them, and then rapidfire them during their laser attack for big points as you "kill" them over and over. But that alone is definitely not worth millions, and a 1-life clear is still a requirement for this score meta.

I don't think it would be too challenging to improve the score, but the possibly lessened fun due to the sword of damocles of dying anywhere ruining my chances, the already high enough Calice rank this score gives, and my pressing need to focus on Brave Blade in the last few days of Calice mean I may pass up on it.

Run for La Calice Cup 9
Played on MAME 0.264, recorded with OBS Studio
#shmup #STG