Doragon is the new CAVE

[Vaxen]

I played the Graze mode, which is the hardest mode in the game, and it's pretty much CAVE-level of difficulty. It's truly amazing to see that a small independent game developper is able to get Blankfield for their soundtracks and how talented the devs are. An independent studio able to make an extremely polished game, with unique patterns, with the huge difficulty present, with stunning 2D graphics and effects, which is just like what CAVE does with their shmups, is not something you will see often. And with the release of Danmaku Unlimited 3, it really made me realize how amazing this independent studio is.

Doragon, keep doing your amazing work!

[neonxaos]

Originally posted by Achelon:

Just wish there was an option to disable autobomb (like there's an option to disable automatic trance mode / set it to manual), I really hate autobombing in shmups.

Actually you're right, that is a little weird to me as well.

[Achelon]

Originally posted by neonxaos:

Originally posted by Achelon:

Just wish there was an option to disable autobomb (like there's an option to disable automatic trance mode / set it to manual), I really hate autobombing in shmups.

Actually you're right, that is a little weird to me as well.

I mean, in Graze Mode at least they have an alright approach to autobomb in that you lose all your bomb stock (so it's still preferable to do manual bombing) but in Spirit Mode you may as well just let the autobombs do their work.

Which is also reminds me, I really wish you had the same difficulty options for Graze Mode as Spirit Mode (possibly as unlocks in case, e.g. 1cc the diff. option in Spirit Mode to unlock it for Graze Mode), I absolutely prefer Graze Mode's approach to the mechanics but there's no way I'm going to be able to comfortably play True difficulty for a long time.

Other than that the game is amazing, I love that they did away with the level up system too, for me doing a run in a shmup should feel more or less identical, not have you get some padded on buffs because you played for longer, I just wish some of the options (autobomb and Graze Mode diffs.) were available.

[neonxaos]

Originally posted by Achelon:

Originally posted by neonxaos:

Actually you're right, that is a little weird to me as well.

I mean, in Graze Mode at least they have an alright approach to autobomb in that you lose all your bomb stock (so it's still preferable to do manual bombing) but in Spirit Mode you may as well just let the autobombs do their work.

Which is also reminds me, I really wish you had the same difficulty options for Graze Mode as Spirit Mode (possibly as unlocks in case, e.g. 1cc the diff. option in Spirit Mode to unlock it for Graze Mode), I absolutely prefer Graze Mode's approach to the mechanics but there's no way I'm going to be able to comfortably play True difficulty for a long time.

Other than that the game is amazing, I love that they did away with the level up system too, for me doing a run in a shmup should feel more or less identical, not have you get some padded on buffs because you played for longer, I just wish some of the options (autobomb and Graze Mode diffs.) were available.

Yeah, I jumped into Graze Mode immediately, because the scoring mechanics seemed more liberating, but I quickly discovered that I was no match for it. I'm not sure what the thinking behind this is, but once I forced myself into Spirit Mode instead, I found that satisfying except for the bomb handholding. I assume that Tam has done this to make an absolutely brutal game at least somewhat accessible to everyone and save the hardcore mode with special rules for only the chosen few, but yes, I wish that I could play Graze mode on at least one lower difficulty setting.

I would assume that we're not the only two who feel this way, but it could be cool to know what the design philosophy is and if there's any chance of these features getting implemented.

[tricosahedron]

I'd second at least one additional lower difficulty level for Graze mode, that'd be awesome!

[doragon.sunnytam]

Hi all, because of Graze Mode's Graze High -> build Trance cycle requires a good amount of bullets to feed, the lower difficulties could end up being unsatisfying to play as the player can be starved of Trance energy to build. That said I'll take a look and see how Hard level performs after I get the controller bug patch out and see if the system can take the lower bullet count.

Also perhaps I could have worded the Spirit Mode description better, right now it suggests that it is more of a beginner mode when the higher difficulty in there still offers quite a challenge, so that will probably get updated as well. I usually play in Spirit True myself :)

[neonxaos]

Originally posted by doragon.sunnytam:

Hi all, because of Graze Mode's Graze High -> build Trance cycle requires a good amount of bullets to feed, the lower difficulties could end up being unsatisfying to play as the player can be starved of Trance energy to build. That said I'll take a look and see how Hard level performs after I get the controller bug patch out and see if the system can take the lower bullet count.

Also perhaps I could have worded the Spirit Mode description better, right now it suggests that it is more of a beginner mode when the higher difficulty in there still offers quite a challenge, so that will probably get updated as well. I usually play in Spirit True myself :)

Ah, that's why I wanted to hear what the philosophy was, that does make sense, thank you. And yes, I though that Spirit Mode was kinda the "for babies" mode due to the wording, haha. I didn't want to play the game the "wrong" way, so I jumped right into Graze and learned the true meaning of feeling very, very small. But once I started playing Spirit Mode instead, I found that it actually suited me really well, as I'm obviously not ready for the more advanced mode at all.

What about the auto bomb thing, would you consider adding a toggle for manual bombs only, or is it also locked for specific gameplay reasons?

[Achelon]

Originally posted by doragon.sunnytam:

Hi all, because of Graze Mode's Graze High -> build Trance cycle requires a good amount of bullets to feed, the lower difficulties could end up being unsatisfying to play as the player can be starved of Trance energy to build. That said I'll take a look and see how Hard level performs after I get the controller bug patch out and see if the system can take the lower bullet count.

Also perhaps I could have worded the Spirit Mode description better, right now it suggests that it is more of a beginner mode when the higher difficulty in there still offers quite a challenge, so that will probably get updated as well. I usually play in Spirit True myself :)

I guess maybe it'd be possible to make the meter a little more lenient on Hard mode (that is, the Graze High would trigger with fewer bullets on Hard than on True), but I dunno, at least good to know that there was some sound reasoning behind the True only diff. for the mode.

[doragon.sunnytam]

Originally posted by neonxaos:

What about the auto bomb thing, would you consider adding a toggle for manual bombs only, or is it also locked for specific gameplay reasons?

I'll look into this. It shouldn't cause too much issue as it'll be up to the player to choose this and it doesn't lower the baseline difficulty for a particular mode.

[neonxaos]

Originally posted by doragon.sunnytam:

Originally posted by neonxaos:

What about the auto bomb thing, would you consider adding a toggle for manual bombs only, or is it also locked for specific gameplay reasons?

I'll look into this. It shouldn't cause too much issue as it'll be up to the player to choose this and it doesn't lower the baseline difficulty for a particular mode.

Outstanding, thank you. I guess it will technically just raise the difficulty for those who choose to disable autobombs, but I think that there are quite a few people out there who prefer the freedom.

[neonxaos]

Originally posted by Achelon:

Just wish there was an option to disable autobomb (like there's an option to disable automatic trance mode / set it to manual), I really hate autobombing in shmups.

Option is there now :)

[Achelon]

Originally posted by neonxaos:

Originally posted by Achelon:

Just wish there was an option to disable autobomb (like there's an option to disable automatic trance mode / set it to manual), I really hate autobombing in shmups.

Option is there now :)

Was hoping a little for an autobomb toggle for Spirit Mode too though, but he probably avoided that due to UI constraints since Spirit already had an extra tab there for the toggleable Trance and Graze mode didn't, but oh well, I'll take it.