This is adorable :) You're immediately so taken aback/enthralled simultaneously with everything that's going on. I'd recommend trying out Dodonpachi(the one that's just called that). It's old and an arcade game, though, so there's not much of an option for most people outside of emulation.
Man Slowbeef, if this is your first danmaku you've ruined them for yourself by starting with Crimzon Clover, which is pretty much the ultimate culmination of the genre.
Crimzon Clover really is just an amazing game. I had stumbled upon a free Japanese demo of the original version a year or two ago and never expected to see it get an English release, let alone on as visible of a platform as Steam. It also may be the first major bullet hell to come out in years where you play as an actual ship.
I didn't know anything about Crimzon Clover prior to its Steam release but it's fucking awesome and totally worth getting for 7 dollars before the summer sale expires. It's nice how it can actually cater to either scoring or survival play - if you don't want to play for score, it's possible to keep using panic bombs to survive intense situations since one of the items you can pick up after a boss resets the bomb threshhold. The thing about Boost mode that you skipped in the tutorial is that as you shoot stuff, the Break Rate goes up and when it hits x4.0 it automatically doubles to x8.0. In Break Mode your ship becomes way more powerful but the game difficulty increases, with enemies firing faster bullets and often releasing "suicide bullets" after they're destroyed. Staying in Break Mode will keep increasing the multiplier (and difficulty) up to x16.0, which makes the game very intense. If you use a bomb, the Berak Rate goes back down to x1.0 and the difficulty decreases. So it all comes down to how confident you are that you can survive at max difficulty - when you die you feel like shit because using a bomb would have reduced the difficulty anyway. But that's the challenge! It takes some getting used to but the lock-on button is very important in gameplay. If you don't have the extra power from Break, you pretty much need lock-on shots to do more damage to bosses - as evidenced by the stage 3 midboss getting scrolled off the screen entirely before you could kill it since you weren't doing enough damage. Using the lock-on is also the key to higher scores - the more enemies you destroy with a fully charged lock-on shot activates a separate score multiplier that is added on to any other enemies you destroy for a short period of time, although each enemy you destroy adds more time to the secondary multiplier so shooting lots of weak "popcorn" enemies after the secondary multiplier activates will keep the multiplier going. I wouldn't worry about scoring too much when you're learning the game, but it's still important to get into the habit of firing regular lock-on shots to get extra damage on bosses. This is obviously pretty overwhelming to jump into but it's nice to hear you're having fun with it!
He should have started with Donpachi. That game is like the training wheels for Bullet Hell shooters and each game gets progressively harder so it's good for building experience.
You need to fire constantly as well as use lock on **constantly,** and only use bombs when you are going to die. In shmups, you play for both survival and score. Scoring usually varies between games, but in general the more enemies you kill, the higher your score...in Crimzon Clover, the closer you are to enemies gets you higher score as well,.... The more points you score, the faster you use fill up your break meter, and then when you break /double break the more firepower and score you will have. It's a high risk vs reward play style.
This was the upload that taught me what shmups were... After all this time I recently put in some real effort and just got my first 1-ALL. Probably my favourite genre now. What a half-decade, huh. Thanks, Slowbeef.
Is it weird that my favorite part of bullet hells is the noise? There's something incredibly satisfying when all those things dying at once seem to overlap each other in my eardrums.
Glad beef's loving this. Alot of people judge these games from just seeing them, and write them off as masochism, or they invalidise the whole genre with the "you can't move" statement. When you actually play you can feel why they're so good. It's non-stop intensity and a very steep and rewarding challenge.
I love how even though Slowbeef died a couple times on that one boss but he just had to go back for more XD good stuff and don't lie Slowbeef, you totally wanted to continue :b
Also you've probably figured this out by now, but most bullet hell games have at least one way to move slower, which is actually a good thing-in Crimzon Clover, it's the lock-on, which not only is good for damage but for slowing down so you can move more precisely and slip through bullet patterns.
I've decided to watch your descent into SHMUP addiction after watching you do Galshell. This is a good start. Can't wait for the Touhous. Oh boy. Also, this game is shiny. I think I'll buy it.
Woo! I just got "True Complete" on maybe my fifth novice run. I dabbled with Arcade mode and it's scary as fuck; I was looking at the stats and the first place didn't even FINISH it. Anyway, thanks for showing me this game, Slowbeef. I loved Jamestown, which is really very similar and this can be my new obsession for the week.
12:08 "I'm gonna have to play more bullet hell games" And thus began slowbeef's descent... Man this game looks awesome and really fast. The stars are a bit annoying, but they move fast enough that they're not a problem like in Exceed. The art is great too. I want to see slowbeef play more of this to find out what all the options at the start are about and how they change up the game. Also, what is it with bullet hell games and awesome music? Somehow they all manage to have great soundtracks.
Hey Slowbeef… google a game called RRootage (spelled like that with two Rs). It's a free bullet hell by Kenta Cho, and while it's not as inspired as some of the better games in the genre, it lets you practice the basics and build up your skill at your own pace. Also, it's nothing but bosses, and we know how much you love bosses.
Oh man no idea how I missed this upload! Been playing this a bit since it came out and its really damn solid! If you have any interest in trying other bullethells I've got a copy of DoDonPachi Ressurection for x360 gathering dust (its a european port of the DDP game Daifukkatsu thats region free).
This game reminds me a lot of DoDonPachi, it looks kinda neat. I hope Slowbeef tries out some other bullet hell games now that he's warmed up to the genre
Dude... came across your review randomly surfing youtube, and i'm glad I did, best shooter i played in ages!! do you have any other suggestions by chance?
Beef's reaction to this is pretty much what I would say if I were playing it. This is honestly pretty overwhelming for a person that doesn't regularly play bullet hells, Christ.
i got this game for free the other day and decided to try it, even though I NEVER play shooters (not many games to begin with, mainly rpgs/jprgs) and I actually did quite well. Went through the first stage or two without getting hit once. Then again, I read the entire tutorial, which is obviously helpful since I noticed how much it would have helped this guy to know what the deal was. It's not as hard as it looks, unless you put it on super nightmare mode i guess.
***** "Touhou is pretty much a puzzle game, once you know how to do the patterns they're all suuuper easy. " Not really. That statement might apply to one or two games in the series (Imperishable Night in particular, or if you're not playing on arcade difficulty/lunatic), but most of the series is generally well regarded among shmup fans as being RNG hell where every other pattern has some element of randomness on it and requires precise sight reading and reaction to complete. There are strategies and optimal routes for improving your odds of getting through, yes, but you're not going to 1cc the game on lunatic if you can't sight read random bullet sprays from bosses consistently. As for the "touhou is harder/easier" arguments. Touhou is easier on every setting but lunatic. I'd say Arcade original is roughly equivalent to most of the Windows Lunatic settings (and lunatic is intended to be the "arcade difficulty" for the series), though arguably a few of them might be very slightly harder. Unlimited mode in CC is most definitely harder than anything Touhou has ever cooked up, though.
Wait, you mention automatically responding to the bullets at first like they're from Ikaruga. If that means you've played Ikaruga before this - and Ikaruga is a bullet hell game, then why do you consider this your first bullet hell?
How the fuck did he play through that first level without dying once? I've never played this but I know I could never do that. Was kinda like a rollercoaster ride honestly. Dat tension.
woah what is this? bullets? woah what happened to the bullets. these stars look like bullets. when do i use the lock on? i dont know whats going on. this game is crazy. woah. Just so you know, in this video you sound like the people you retsupurae. i don't mean that as an insult or anything, just saying.
considering this was a livestream of a game hes never played before in a genre he's never played before rather than a planned let's play of a game he knows well i'd say he's kind of justified in acting like that
Shashkaboo "Bullet Hells are sister-classed as shoot-em-ups, and just because a shmup is Nintendo Hard does NOT mean it is a Bullet Hell game." -TV Tropes
all the gold stars cover up the bullets you need to dodge quick, distracting. my perspective as a bullet hell schmup beginner myself, Im personally hooked on.. Raiden IV Overkill; Ikaruga ; Darius Burst; Danmaku Unlimited 2 and a few indie 3D schmups like Astebreed.
Honestly not too bad for a first time blind play. You'll get better at the game as you learn the patterns and figure out where the safe places to move are. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the game.
As many comented before, it would be interesting to see you playing touhou. Would you try that, don`t go with 6, 8 or 11, they are probably the hardest out of them all. And, overall, the games have a very interesting story, not unlike Dark Souls, to be true. Most of it is told out of the commentaries on the spells used by the characters, in a similar way with the items in DS.
Actually, the mode he picked (Arcade Boost) has the opposite of Gradius syndrome. When you enter break mode, bullets steadily increase and increase in rank until you die or bomb, whereupon it returns to normal rank. So even though your weapons are more powerful due to being in break, the enemies get more and more aggressive until you cannot take it anymore, then it goes back to being tame. And in all the other modes you can Break whenever you want to, like Hypers in Dodonpachi DaiOuJou. There's also no weapon powerups that you have to collect, you're either in break or not.
Shukterhouse Jive For future reference, the developer of Crimzon Clover is Yotsubane, aka CLOVER-TAC, who holds world records in a few shmups and is overall a top tier player :)
alice margereta Ikaruga is a fantastic game but it's on the low end of danmaku shooters as far as difficulty goes, since you can just eat half of the bullets.
grenadier42 Ikaruga isn't as manic as for example Crimzon Clover, but the polarity mechanic makes it REALLY tough. It's overwhelming in its own way. "You can just eat half of the bullets" shows you've never played it.
I think the way the boost mode thing works is that you didn't lose any lives in the first stage so then the game decided to drill your ass in the second stage? I dunno.
![[WR] 1:39:07 - Doom Eternal 100% Ultra-Nightmare Restricted](/img/1.gif)
This is adorable :) You're immediately so taken aback/enthralled simultaneously with everything that's going on.
I'd recommend trying out Dodonpachi(the one that's just called that). It's old and an arcade game, though, so there's not much of an option for most people outside of emulation.
Slowbeef has begun his descent into danmaku. I pray for his safety.
Man Slowbeef, if this is your first danmaku you've ruined them for yourself by starting with Crimzon Clover, which is pretty much the ultimate culmination of the genre.
>Doesn't know anything about Shmups
>Beats Crimson Clovers first level, no deaths
Damn Slowbeef, Hydorah experience transferred over well.
Crimzon Clover really is just an amazing game. I had stumbled upon a free Japanese demo of the original version a year or two ago and never expected to see it get an English release, let alone on as visible of a platform as Steam.
It also may be the first major bullet hell to come out in years where you play as an actual ship.
"Alright alright. Sure. One more."
*six lives and three continues later*
I didn't know anything about Crimzon Clover prior to its Steam release but it's fucking awesome and totally worth getting for 7 dollars before the summer sale expires. It's nice how it can actually cater to either scoring or survival play - if you don't want to play for score, it's possible to keep using panic bombs to survive intense situations since one of the items you can pick up after a boss resets the bomb threshhold.
The thing about Boost mode that you skipped in the tutorial is that as you shoot stuff, the Break Rate goes up and when it hits x4.0 it automatically doubles to x8.0. In Break Mode your ship becomes way more powerful but the game difficulty increases, with enemies firing faster bullets and often releasing "suicide bullets" after they're destroyed. Staying in Break Mode will keep increasing the multiplier (and difficulty) up to x16.0, which makes the game very intense. If you use a bomb, the Berak Rate goes back down to x1.0 and the difficulty decreases. So it all comes down to how confident you are that you can survive at max difficulty - when you die you feel like shit because using a bomb would have reduced the difficulty anyway. But that's the challenge!
It takes some getting used to but the lock-on button is very important in gameplay. If you don't have the extra power from Break, you pretty much need lock-on shots to do more damage to bosses - as evidenced by the stage 3 midboss getting scrolled off the screen entirely before you could kill it since you weren't doing enough damage. Using the lock-on is also the key to higher scores - the more enemies you destroy with a fully charged lock-on shot activates a separate score multiplier that is added on to any other enemies you destroy for a short period of time, although each enemy you destroy adds more time to the secondary multiplier so shooting lots of weak "popcorn" enemies after the secondary multiplier activates will keep the multiplier going. I wouldn't worry about scoring too much when you're learning the game, but it's still important to get into the habit of firing regular lock-on shots to get extra damage on bosses.
This is obviously pretty overwhelming to jump into but it's nice to hear you're having fun with it!
Welcome to Bullet Hell, and remember: You're here forever.
He should have started with Donpachi. That game is like the training wheels for Bullet Hell shooters and each game gets progressively harder so it's good for building experience.
This game has a Novice mode, which slowbeef skipped over but shouldn't have
You need to fire constantly as well as use lock on **constantly,** and only use bombs when you are going to die.
In shmups, you play for both survival and score. Scoring usually varies between games, but in general the more enemies you kill, the higher your score...in Crimzon Clover, the closer you are to enemies gets you higher score as well,.... The more points you score, the faster you use fill up your break meter, and then when you break /double break the more firepower and score you will have. It's a high risk vs reward play style.
This was the upload that taught me what shmups were... After all this time I recently put in some real effort and just got my first 1-ALL. Probably my favourite genre now. What a half-decade, huh. Thanks, Slowbeef.
Is it weird that my favorite part of bullet hells is the noise? There's something incredibly satisfying when all those things dying at once seem to overlap each other in my eardrums.
Its the eternal joy that every single human being has:
pewpewpewpewpewpewboomboompewpewboomboom
Good sound design is a must in a shmup
Glad beef's loving this. Alot of people judge these games from just seeing them, and write them off as masochism, or they invalidise the whole genre with the "you can't move" statement. When you actually play you can feel why they're so good. It's non-stop intensity and a very steep and rewarding challenge.
Bought this game thanks to you, i love it man great game my first bullet hell too
I love how even though Slowbeef died a couple times on that one boss but he just had to go back for more XD good stuff
and don't lie Slowbeef, you totally wanted to continue :b
The only non-Touhou bullet hell game I've ever played was Jamestown, which I'd recommend.
If you want to explore more bullet hell games then CAVE is a good company to start with. The DonPachi series and Ketsui are some of my favorites.
Also you've probably figured this out by now, but most bullet hell games have at least one way to move slower, which is actually a good thing-in Crimzon Clover, it's the lock-on, which not only is good for damage but for slowing down so you can move more precisely and slip through bullet patterns.
I've decided to watch your descent into SHMUP addiction after watching you do Galshell. This is a good start.
Can't wait for the Touhous.
Oh boy. Also, this game is shiny. I think I'll buy it.
Woo! I just got "True Complete" on maybe my fifth novice run. I dabbled with Arcade mode and it's scary as fuck; I was looking at the stats and the first place didn't even FINISH it. Anyway, thanks for showing me this game, Slowbeef. I loved Jamestown, which is really very similar and this can be my new obsession for the week.
Looks like Thera turned out alright after all
I saw the thumbnail and thought it was just going to be Hydorah again.
12:08 "I'm gonna have to play more bullet hell games" And thus began slowbeef's descent...
Man this game looks awesome and really fast. The stars are a bit annoying, but they move fast enough that they're not a problem like in Exceed. The art is great too. I want to see slowbeef play more of this to find out what all the options at the start are about and how they change up the game.
Also, what is it with bullet hell games and awesome music? Somehow they all manage to have great soundtracks.
Shmups is about understanding the score system!
Hey Slowbeef… google a game called RRootage (spelled like that with two Rs). It's a free bullet hell by Kenta Cho, and while it's not as inspired as some of the better games in the genre, it lets you practice the basics and build up your skill at your own pace.
Also, it's nothing but bosses, and we know how much you love bosses.
Wow, that was an awesome first try slowbeef. I think you have the midichlorians
I hope this means Jamestown is somewhere down the road then. :)
Oh man no idea how I missed this upload! Been playing this a bit since it came out and its really damn solid! If you have any interest in trying other bullethells I've got a copy of DoDonPachi Ressurection for x360 gathering dust (its a european port of the DDP game Daifukkatsu thats region free).
Great performance the entire time
5 years later, it never gets old
This game reminds me a lot of DoDonPachi, it looks kinda neat. I hope Slowbeef tries out some other bullet hell games now that he's warmed up to the genre
Holy cow this looks like a ton of fun. Also you definitely gotta check out Touhou.
This was certainly entertaining. This is a great game too.
I picked this game up today, and I have to say it's fantastic. It's such a rush!
Dude... came across your review randomly surfing youtube, and i'm glad I did, best shooter i played in ages!! do you have any other suggestions by chance?
And now you're pretty much obligated to play a Touhou game.
omg beef this game looks amazing, i love BH
Crimson and Clover over and over
You also get to play as the mini-final boss once you unlock Type-Z ship.
I wonder if they guy who bought this saw the Super Bunnyhop video and wanted to see slowbeef play it.
I wanted to gift it to slowbeef the moment it came out but wasn't sure how to (we aren't friends on steam and I don't know his email either)
Beef's reaction to this is pretty much what I would say if I were playing it.
This is honestly pretty overwhelming for a person that doesn't regularly play bullet hells, Christ.
I'm getting better.
i got this game for free the other day and decided to try it, even though I NEVER play shooters (not many games to begin with, mainly rpgs/jprgs) and I actually did quite well. Went through the first stage or two without getting hit once. Then again, I read the entire tutorial, which is obviously helpful since I noticed how much it would have helped this guy to know what the deal was.
It's not as hard as it looks, unless you put it on super nightmare mode i guess.
I love how stage 3 is alot like Stage 4(?) of Mushihimesama.
Getting into this genre ruined my gaming life (oxymoron?). It's hard to turn back once you start. Good luck.
Wow! I want to try this.
Slowbeef's not gonna survive Touhou, is he...
Touhou's on the easier side of bullet hell. It's good, though!
Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION is harder than touhou
***** "Touhou is pretty much a puzzle game, once you know how to do the patterns they're all suuuper easy. "
Not really.
That statement might apply to one or two games in the series (Imperishable Night in particular, or if you're not playing on arcade difficulty/lunatic), but most of the series is generally well regarded among shmup fans as being RNG hell where every other pattern has some element of randomness on it and requires precise sight reading and reaction to complete. There are strategies and optimal routes for improving your odds of getting through, yes, but you're not going to 1cc the game on lunatic if you can't sight read random bullet sprays from bosses consistently.
As for the "touhou is harder/easier" arguments. Touhou is easier on every setting but lunatic. I'd say Arcade original is roughly equivalent to most of the Windows Lunatic settings (and lunatic is intended to be the "arcade difficulty" for the series), though arguably a few of them might be very slightly harder. Unlimited mode in CC is most definitely harder than anything Touhou has ever cooked up, though.
Touhou is casual as fuck in the world of bullet hell.
Shashkaboo No it's not. Watch some lunatic score/superplays. It's about as highly regarded as any Cave game.
Is there an actual limit to how many continues the player gets?
This game looks fucking incredible.
Wait, you mention automatically responding to the bullets at first like they're from Ikaruga. If that means you've played Ikaruga before this - and Ikaruga is a bullet hell game, then why do you consider this your first bullet hell?
I'm referring to 2:18 where you say "you're thinking like Ikaruga" where you can absorb some of the bullets.
How the fuck did he play through that first level without dying once? I've never played this but I know I could never do that. Was kinda like a rollercoaster ride honestly. Dat tension.
This game rules. I was actually going to suggest it to you.
I like how level 1 is a tutorial level that doesn't in any way prepare you for level 2.
Japan.
Most bullet hell games I played have been complete and utter bullshit, but this one definitely looks like a game worth playing!
Is this a hidden Hydorah level?
Jamestown is also a very good one
woah what is this? bullets? woah what happened to the bullets. these stars look like bullets. when do i use the lock on? i dont know whats going on. this game is crazy. woah.
Just so you know, in this video you sound like the people you retsupurae.
i don't mean that as an insult or anything, just saying.
considering this was a livestream of a game hes never played before in a genre he's never played before rather than a planned let's play of a game he knows well i'd say he's kind of justified in acting like that
Hifumi Yamada Did you just say Slowbeef has never played a SHMUP?
Hifumi Yamada How does a blind lets play stream make it different than a blind lets play youtube upload? and this was uploaded to youtube anyway.
Shashkaboo "Bullet Hells are sister-classed as shoot-em-ups, and just because a shmup is Nintendo Hard does NOT mean it is a Bullet Hell game." -TV Tropes
Shashkaboo he says right at the start "i've never played bullet hell"
welp buying this right the fuck now
12:12 "you mmm..."
yeh :D
Man theres more starts than bullets. It hurts my fragile eyes.....
all the gold stars cover up the bullets you need to dodge quick, distracting.
my perspective as a bullet hell schmup beginner myself, Im personally hooked on..
Raiden IV Overkill; Ikaruga ; Darius Burst; Danmaku Unlimited 2
and a few indie 3D schmups like Astebreed.
Honestly not too bad for a first time blind play. You'll get better at the game as you learn the patterns and figure out where the safe places to move are. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the game.
You should lock-on pretty much all the time.
Watching this video?... had to do it.
itsa mix of Raiden + Astebreed
are these bullets random pattern generated, or the same patterns you have to memorize?
patterns change by difficulty, like in most shmups.
burst might actually have random patterns, or it may as well have them since the difficulty is always changing on that mode.
As many comented before, it would be interesting to see you playing touhou. Would you try that, don`t go with 6, 8 or 11, they are probably the hardest out of them all. And, overall, the games have a very interesting story, not unlike Dark Souls, to be true. Most of it is told out of the commentaries on the spells used by the characters, in a similar way with the items in DS.
The arms are the weak spots as the game points out... the body, possible, but slower :)
my eyes explode
OH GOOD BREAK MODE
FUCK
WHAT
Man this game has some hella Gradius syndrome going on. Got break mode? Just dodge the bullets! Lost it? Ahahahah have fun with that son
Actually, the mode he picked (Arcade Boost) has the opposite of Gradius syndrome. When you enter break mode, bullets steadily increase and increase in rank until you die or bomb, whereupon it returns to normal rank. So even though your weapons are more powerful due to being in break, the enemies get more and more aggressive until you cannot take it anymore, then it goes back to being tame. And in all the other modes you can Break whenever you want to, like Hypers in Dodonpachi DaiOuJou. There's also no weapon powerups that you have to collect, you're either in break or not.
Oh, so they did think ahead. Good job crimzon guys!
Shukterhouse Jive For future reference, the developer of Crimzon Clover is Yotsubane, aka CLOVER-TAC, who holds world records in a few shmups and is overall a top tier player :)
Slow "Dan Mackou" Beef
Now go play some Touhou you panzy.
(ily slowbeef)
And they say Dark Souls is "Hard" ;D
I didn't know bullet hells were eye-cancer. All I know is touhou and that's more cluttered than gaudy.
"My 1st Bullet Hell Game"
haha welcome. you're fucked.
Isnt ikaruga bullet hell and no way in hell is he gonig to survivetouhou
It is, but you don't quite have to play it like one since you absorb same-colored bullets. Also touhou is easier than this.
But is ikaruga
Cause i found this to be easier than ikaruga
alice margereta
Ikaruga is a fantastic game but it's on the low end of danmaku shooters as far as difficulty goes, since you can just eat half of the bullets.
Really?
Cause thats where the difficulty comes in
I cant tell you how many time i was over whelmed by the contsant switching of colors kn ikaruga
grenadier42 Ikaruga isn't as manic as for example Crimzon Clover, but the polarity mechanic makes it REALLY tough. It's overwhelming in its own way. "You can just eat half of the bullets" shows you've never played it.
What? No power-ups and upgrades in this game? You just have a maxed-out ship from the very start? Disappointing.
I personally can not stand bullethell games. Give me Hydorah over this any day.
Jesus christ, how can anybody keep track of this shit? It just looks like a robot's puking neon all over the screen to me.
COPY OF RAIDEN
I think the way the boost mode thing works is that you didn't lose any lives in the first stage so then the game decided to drill your ass in the second stage? I dunno.
What came first, this or Jamestown? Has picking up gold things to charge an overdrive meter been around for a long time?
Hahaha, the 240p makes this video look like like a mess of colours.