Black Label mechanics

[DaringSpino34]

Black Label version of this game has a lot of features that some of them I don't understand. Anyone has full detail of the mechanics for Black Label? (Ship type, style, route, boss, etc.)

[Luffy III]

Okay, I know some parts with Black Label:

Differences with 1.5 and Black Label:

-1 Loop game only
-Game introduces a feature called the RED Gauge where it can be filled by holding down the shot and auto fire button simultaneously.
-Option to have Auto Bomb On or Off. Having it off will allow you to use hypers in place of bombs. Filling the hyper gauge, will add 1 bomb. In order to increase your maximum bomb stock, you must have a MAXIMUM bomb stock otherwise it just adds one to the current one. No addition of your maximum bomb stock by 1 for each time you lose a ship. If Auto Bomb is on, getting hit will fire a weak bomb, breaking your chain and draining the RED Gauge to 0.
-Ships remain the same but the play style will determine the difficulty. Bomb style allows you to use hypers and bombs, slow charge rate of the RED Gauge can either go through the Omote or Ura mid bosses, Power style allows you to switch from Normal or Boost and can determine the rate of the pace on the RED gauge filled. All mid bosses will be Ura. Strong style is the one you should pay attention to because it enters the loop 2 style!
-You will fight a special TLB when playing Strong style but its a nightmare called Zatsuza and requires 100% perfection such as no deaths, finish off bosses with a full red gauge.
-Defeating bosses with a full RED gauge will drop big stars for extra points, where as less than that will only drop small stars.
-Your hit chain will not break unless you lose a life when you are in the hyper system or when you have the hyper enabled and you don't shoot anything.
-Hypers will give you a brief invincibility. Be warned.
-Bee locations are the same but with a few differences. Gold bees cancel all bullets with small stars, Green fills the hyper gauge and does nothing but when shining, it cancels all bullets and drops large stars. Based on the RED gauge, you can refill an entire hyper gauge if you are lucky.
-You can cancel your hypers manually in any tight situation.

Hope this helps!

[DaringSpino34]

I have played Black Label for a few days and have some more interesting things:
_When you enable Autobomb ON it's extremely easy to 1cc the game (I got 1cc like the second try lol)
_Taisabachi is super duper easy to meet for some reasons (remember the time that I have to play like hell in 1.5 just to go to Omote loop and meet Taisabachi)
_When you are in Hyper and use a bomb your Hyper wont' break, but it will reduce the amount of hyper time faster
_Hyper duration in boss fights (not midbosses) have shorter durations
_Autobomb when used will not temporarily max out the red gauge
_In Bomb Style when you enter Ura route the bosses and midbosses will generally be faster when you use Hyper (They still have normal speed when you use Hyper in Omote route)
_When you finish stage 1-5 in Omote route and defeat both Taisabachi and Hibachi, you will not get your lifes/bombs counted as bonus points. But if you finish stage 1-5 and defeat the final bosses, you will get your lifes/bombs counted. (Tested on Novice mode and pretty sure it works on Normal mode too)
_It's super easy to get your chain break when enable Autobomb.
_When bosses performing same patterns multiple times, the patterns will start to get more vicious.(More bullets, much less space to dodge, etc)
_You can use hyper to save your chain if activated during a bomb sequence.
_Bombing/hyper cancelling during boss warnings will not affect either the Red gauge or your chain
_Using shots only will reduce Red gauge much faster than laser only.
_When you activate your Hyper, you can collect bee items much easier.
_There are no safespots in Novice mode
_Aside from no safespots and less bullets, Novice mode is exactly the same as the Normal mode.(Unlike 1.5 in Novice mode the gameplay changes significantly)
_For some reasons the positions of the Tiger Lilys in stage 5 in Omote and Ura route are different (haven't tested on Normal mode)
_When in Red mode you dont' need to use both Shot and Laser to cancel a enemy's bullet, you can just shoot or laser and it will still cancel it's bullets.
_Laser in Black Label behaves differently than ver 1.5
_Cancelling midboss/ boss bullet via Hyper shots will not reward you with stars.
_If you use a bomb just before your Hyper is going to end, it will cut your RED gauge to half, so be wary of using a bomb if you want to finish off a boss fight with full RED gauge (Shooty for example)
_Is the requirement to meet Hibachi when enable autobomb the same as when you disable autobomb?

[Luffy III]

There is also another TLB if you play strong style, but it requires 100% perfection. No continues, finish off all bosses with a full RED gauge, defeat Taisbachi without dying. It is one boss you CANNOT verse in training mode. Zatsuza. Like Hibachi except tons of bullets, lasers and 4 large lasers. The rage mode in the 2nd phase is the ultimate test.

Yeah, I see many players use a bomb pursuit hyper where you can deal damage with the bomb and with the invincibility time, you can charge a portion of the hyper gauge until it wears off. The hyper will keep the chain running as well.

Power style will allow you to verse all the mid bosses from the original Dodonpachi game regardless of whether you have collected all the bees in stage 1 and 2, the destruction of the first tank before it runs over the silo, etc. The stage 3 mid boss is a nightmare because of the bullet density and if the player doesn't have a hyper (MAXIMUM) on standby, then practically you are likely to lose a life there.

[DaringSpino34]

Power Style in Black Label is a very fun style to play because it can charge hyper extremely fast, especially when Red mode is active. The bullet cancelling ability of the hyper shot is now also a lot better than the original Ver 1.5. And the Boost can raise your Red gauge as fast as Strong Style, very useful for scoring. But there are a few problems for it like:
_Now cancelling bullets using Boost mode will no longer charge your hyper
_You can only have 1 hyper slot, unlike Bomb and Strong style. So you can't spam Hyper in some situations
_The number of Tiger Lilies in Stage 5 has increased compared to Bomb style
_It's super hard to kill Hibachi in Power style.
_When the Hyper rank is high the hyper shot in Boost mode will reduce the green shots like Ver 1.5, which can cause some problems when trying to get stars from cancelling bullets.
P/s: About Stage 3 midboss, I don't really think it's a big problem. There are 2 bees during the midboss fight, and they can fully charge your Hyper easily if you know when to grab them. Also if you are lasering then you won't die by touching the laser balls the midboss shoots. Also Zatsuza is notoriously hard for the requirements to get to him and the additional laser/bullets he has (more suicide bullets/some big lasers etc). While everyone says that the requirement to meet Hibachi is the same as Zatsuza expect the EX Stage, I think it's not true. Because if you lose a life during five stages you can still meet Hibachi, While Zatsuza requires you to NOT die a single time until Taisabachi is defeated.

[Rodin]

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41097&start=28
Community-sourced X360 Inserts - DoDonpachi - Daifukkatsu
https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41097

[Rodin]

Seems to be a good guide for all modes. Only BL Arrange is missing, cause its fpr the 360 version which did not include black label arrange in the west.

[Rodin]

You're welcome. Just found it and thought it may help you guys, too. Didn't try it yet myself.

[Rodin]

It explains the scoring system of Ketsui which is basicly the one, BL Arange is made of.
Helps a lot.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ketsui/
Ketsui

[Daikatan]

in usual 1.5, hyper is just when gauge is filled. but somehow its different in ketsuipachi. how?

[DaringSpino34]

In Ketsuipachi, when you use a hyper, a bomb item in your bomb stock is depleted. When the hyper gauge is filled it will create a bomb item for you, which you can use as a bomb or a hyper.

[Daikatan]

oh, thanks

(i wonder if all of that was written in japanese x360 release booklet)

[DaringSpino34]

dunno :((, I don't know how to read Japanese, most of the mechanics are discovered by players themselves actually.