Mushihimesama Futari Black Label God Mode

[The Boston Crab]

This is the peak of gaming for me. There is no visual, mechanical or auditory thrill that can compare to the massive bullet cancels in this game. When I play this game, I feel like time stands still and I become completely absorbed by the colours, the patterns, the music, the precise dodging, the daredevil lunges and the glowing, tumbling, dizzying gems cascading down the screen. This is the game I got a 360 for earlier in the year. This is the game I imported and waited two months for it to arrive. This is the game I've waited for my entire life.


I haven't felt such intense joy from a game since I was a kid. There's a moment about 1:20 into this clip where I cash out a max score combo and when I cancel the full screen of bullets, for only a few frames the overlapping 30000s flash a burnt orange and there's nothing else like that in the world. I've been writing a long post about Cave games and bullet hell and trying to put it into words but it's all here, the greatest game I've ever played.


https://youtu.be/tmgKLQnEBwk


Can anyone see what I love about these games?

[madhair60]

Basically this innit?

[The Boston Crab]

No, this is just stage one.

I guess I would be interested if anyone on here said hey I really really love this game, check this cool bit out. Hey, look at this fuckin amazing bit from Spyro or whatever. Look, this mad combo is why I love Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast. Check out this awesome lap on Stunt Car Racer. See this beast speedrun on Mario Sunshine. Look how fast the fuckin numbers go up on some RPG you never played.

If it comes across as 'hey look how good I am at some tit shooter' then all I can say is I'd love to see other people here post some cool shit too.


Mostly it's just me wanting to express some excitement and enthusiasm and love for one of the best games ever made.

[madhair60]

Is it memorisation? At the start of the clip you're so close to the top of the screen where the enemies spawn. Is that crucial to scoring? You've got to do it quickly?

[The Boston Crab]

It's familiarity with the stage but it's such a chaotic game that I don't have a hard route memorised or anything, like with Dodonpachi DaiOuJou where you are basically positioning yourself in the right place at the right time to maintain your chain. It's partly about knowing roughly where enemies are coming from, though, but it's very flexible in terms of routes.

As for why I'm at the top of the screen, you'll see that I try to do that a lot. In Futari if you point blank enemies, they shed more of those gems when they die so that boosts your score and the score counter. If you can point blank before they're yet on the screen, they shed gems without taking damage so you can basically squeeze more out of them before they blow up.

For some medium/big enemies, you want to kill them as fast as possible because once they start spewing bullets, you're fucked. If you can point blank them as well, it's win win. And then there are other massive enemies that you want to kill as late as possible (mid boss and others, anything that fires impossible looking patterns) when the screen is full of bullets, and then every bullet gets cancelled and multiplied by your score combo.

There's plenty going on but it's also just an amazing game to dodge and blow stuff up and look at the colours and chaos. Music is also God tier for me. Total rush. Very different to most shmup stuff in tone and aesthetic.

[madhair60]

I've never really been a "high score" chap but I do love the systems at work there, it seems complex but nobody has ever actually explained it to me succinctly before, so cheers. I enjoy shmups on the "yay I didn't die!" level but not so much chains, multipliers, etc. I just like the journey.

Really enjoyed one I played recently called Zangeki Warp, but that's not this.

[bgmnts]

Can you play a few stages of this whilst on a psychedelic and get back to us?

[popcorn]

I can complete any computer game on max difficulty.

[Famous Mortimer]

It's a skill I admire without wishing to repeat. Since I 1000/1000 scored on "Tomb Raider: Legend" (the time-trial bits were ace) I've never felt the desire to get that good at a game again. But I think it's cool to look at.

[Space ghost]

I'd be more inclined to care if it was Mushihimesama Futanari Black Label God Mode

[The Boston Crab]

I've never really been a "high score" chap but I do love the systems at work there, it seems complex but nobody has ever actually explained it to me succinctly before, so cheers. I enjoy shmups on the "yay I didn't die!" level but not so much chains, multipliers, etc. I just like the journey.

Really enjoyed one I played recently called Zangeki Warp, but that's not this.

No worries. I read it back and thought fuck me that's some meaningless bollocks so I'm glad it gave you an idea of the different dynamics. In terms of the journey and spectacle though, I've got to say that's what I really loved about Futari in the first place. Original Mode is just great fun, music, colours, patterns, accessibility. If you do have a chance, I'd recommend it as one of the best in that respect.

As an easier one to get into, I'd really recommend Mushihimesama HD, the first Mushi game, which is also on Steam and probably easier to emulate than Futari if you've got a decent enough PC. It's a bit easier, a bit more straightforward in terms of scoring and has some really fun Novice modes including Novice Ultra which is like the patterns of the hardest difficulty but a lot slower and with the bullets thinned out considerably. It's a great taste of the spectacular feel without the instant deaths. A proper good journey and the music is even better than Futari.

Cheers all for the comments, just wanted to show off a damn cool game

[The Boston Crab]

Can you play a few stages of this whilst on a psychedelic and get back to us?

I had one tinnie and analized my high score by almost double. Might be something in this. I also turned down the backlight on my telly so the colours pop a bit more. Felt trippyyyy.

madhair, I went all out on the point blanking as best as I can and cancelling as late as possible to squeeze more points out and it made a pretty big difference. Also did the massive bullet cancel on the midboss which sprays the most bullets of anything in the stage, and my score jumped by about 100m, nearly as much as my previous best score for the whole stage. It shows how much strategy comes into the scoring stuff. The bullet cancel after the midboss shows what a piss take the hitbox is. I must have survived by a pixel or two. I love this dumb stuff.

https://youtu.be/vhZZuIvKITk

[The Boston Crab]

Edited vid address.

[madhair60]

See now this is one of my faves being played at its highest difficulty and it just doesn't compare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uugDRyZy-9A

[madhair60]

Also it turns out I have Mushihimesama Futari Black Label on MAME.

[madhair60]

Lasted about twenty seconds.

[The Boston Crab]

Sorry for slow reply, been a full on day.

See now this is one of my faves being played at its highest difficulty and it just doesn't compare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uugDRyZy-9A

I gave this a good go after your recommendation a while back and I enjoyed it, but I probably come out more Darius than Gradius, I reckon. Darius 2 and Gaiden are two of my favourites now, and I also really like G-Darius which I'm sure you also recommended to me. I'll be honest, I find these games harder than Cave bullet hell even though they're obviously not as intense. They're a lot less forgiving, I'd say. I am also a simple sod and I buzz off the flashing lights and gems and medals that Cave games shower you with like so much glittering bukkake.

Can I recommend just playing Original Mode of Futari BL rather than God Mode in the first instance? First twenty times I played it, I died almost immediately and I was already familiar with the stage and enemies and stuff. Definitely one you need to get a feel for and Original Mode will be a great entry point for that.

[The Boston Crab]

Bunked off work ill today and effectively took a massive shit on my previous strats. Maximum bullet cancel on the midboss, big cancel on the end boss. Way more consistent but with a pretty neat dodge through the wall on the midboss and decent recovery from one of the dragons just after where I didn't kill the bugger by accident so had to dodge all its patterns until I could work my way to safety.

https://youtu.be/r-iKj3LKKXA

Big improvement on my previous HS.

[The Boston Crab]

OK, this is my limit for stage one, this is the best I can play without pushing my luck too far and relying on flukes. The cancels in the first half and the midboss are pretty much pixel perfect and while I played a little bit safer in the second half of the stage, I'm happy with the strats and the end result. It's double what Jaimers got on this stage so I'm going to bank that and get stuck into the next one.

https://youtu.be/FLukhOxX2M8

The great thing about this game is that while I found grinding Ikaruga and DOJ absolutely exhausting, this is more and more fun the more I play.

I watch this back and I don't feel like it's me.

[The Boston Crab]

Been on my hols and not played for a couple of weeks. Literally can't believe this was me. What a game. I never fly so high.

[Twed]

I hate the way the bullets have dark edges making them not blend in to anything they're projected on top of. That's not how light works and it makes it look like something made in Shockwave Flash.

I'd probably like the game and most of the visuals though.

[The Boston Crab]

That's to help with visibility. I do get it. Takes a while to see past only the pink dots in Cave games. Also, it's to help you focus on the bullet hitbox.

[Twed]

Ah, I can see that, makes sense.

I think this is the kind of game I am naturally good at, but rarely play for some reason.

[The Boston Crab]

Probably nothing as intense, all-consuming or overwhelming as Cave games to me. Maybe competitive SF4 against someone of the above similar level but even then, not really the same challenge. There's virtually no chance of succeeding or surviving in a Cave game unless you are on the level but when you do, it's like nothing else.


Incredibly wank comment.

[Twed]

I have to play Ikaruga soon to remind me why I ever even liked games.

[The Boston Crab]

That's an interesting choice. It was pretty much the first shmup I ever really really tried to learn to play (well, one stage at least) but it's a strange beast. When I'd barely played anything else in the genre, I thought it was amazing and it completely consumed me. I put about twenty hours into chapter one in some misguided quest to get S Rank. I inadvertently entered a kind of race to S Rank by introducing another dude to it and he improved so quickly. I hadn't felt anxiety or tension like that from any other game. Completely devoured me. When I got it though, I can't tell you how great that relief and euphoria was.

https://youtu.be/Do3SKRpcqmA

I watch that now and it looks so quaint next to the Cave bullet curtains and spiralling overlapping patterns but there is something beautiful about the austerity and rigidity of Ikaruga. And while it has a completely different chaining system to Dodonpachi Daioujou, it was learning Ikaruga which gave me the confidence that I could break it down into little sections and which eventually led to full chaining stage one. There's zero luck here like in that Futari run, just a plan gradually refined and eventually executed after I don't know how many attempts. While I was trying to do it, I got those old Ikaruga feelings, no excitement as such, just pure adrenaline and almost unbearable tension. Hanging onto that chain as it looked to fizzle out every couple of seconds, delaying kills, unlocking bees and setting off hypers at the very last moment. It's nothing like fun but it does feel very much like your heart will burst, which is something.

https://youtu.be/DLofNBww9ZY

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Rough English translation: Shooty Dodgy Purple Spunkbubble Black Label

[DocDaneeka]

Nob off all the bullets and just play Super Hexagon instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sz0mI_6tLQ

I do like a high score based game, learning all the tricks, constantly restarting when you fuck up etc.

Never really got on with shooters though, I prefer Tetris or old arcade platformers when I want something twitchy.

[The Boston Crab]

Haven't played this in about a month but put it on this evening after a few runs of ESP Ra.De. Died almost immediately but decided to just go fuckin ham point blanking as much as I could and pulled off some massive bullet cancels. I guess it took the pressure off knowing I'd already 'fucked it'. Absolutely battered the boss with a big score multiplier going on and got my PB by about 40m.


I spent about a month trying to even approach 250m and with my best consistent strats I topped out at 249m or something so 288m out of nowhere is pretty satisfying, especially with the comedy death. I am the absolute worst for hammering restart if something isn't going almost perfectly in a run which ends up stressing me the fuck out. Maybe this is the new me, just play the fuckin credit. That said, I did suicide immediately at the start of stage two so I wouldn't forget to record the replay.

https://youtu.be/SdGvRc6kUC8

[Dewt]

Nob off all the bullets and just play Super Hexagon instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sz0mI_6tLQ

I do like a high score based game, learning all the tricks, constantly restarting when you fuck up etc.

Never really got on with shooters though, I prefer Tetris or old arcade platformers when I want something twitchy.

The thing that this has over most of the Japanese bullet hell games is that you can RESTART A GAME WITHOUT IT TAKING 45 SECONDS