1037: Mushihimesama PC \\ Trying the modes! (256m Arrange, 1.5m Normal Original S -- and others!)
1Checking out the various gameplay modes in the Steam version of Mushihimesama on PC!
My Mushihimesama playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzOSdixLXn3715PZQIIaLJw4
0:00 - start
0:56 - Options
2:49 - Novice/Original/M-Power
13:30 - Arrange
23:00 - Normal/Maniac/M-Power
27:02 - Normal/Ultra/M-Power
28:35 - Normal/Original/M
31:42 - Normal/Original/M 2
37:02 - Normal/Original/S
43:46 - wrap!
That thing where I ended fairly early on stage 3 is NOT a boss, it's just...the stage. = oo
Unlike Cave's DonPachi sci-fi shooter series, the insect-themed Mushihimesama concentrates more on loose bunches of fast-moving enemy bullets, rather than slower, tightly knit patterns--although they can still get pretty thick in, say, Mushi's Maniac mode. You can still make your ship move slower by holding the Shot button down (the arcade had Shot, Bomb, and Auto-Fire buttons), but it doesn't really seem necessary here, which my grouchy old shoulder should appreciate--for now I'm just hammering Shot repeatedly. ; )
Didn't realize until halfway through the run in Arrange mode that the Auto-Fire button doesn't shoot the lasers from your "Trace" (aka "option") side-car ships UNLESS you hold it down. Speaking of Arrange, it's probably the mode I should stick to, since it automatically uses a bomb when your princess is hit, instead of you just dying--unless you're out of bombs; and I can't seem to recognize when I'm in trouble fast enough to drop a bomb manually, so I end up getting further in Arrange than in Normal, despite Arrange's heavier enemy shot patterns--although the always-maxed firepower of Arrange probably has something to do with that, too. 'p' I like Arrange's AST, but I like Normal's OST as well, plus I keep thinking I should play Normal to GET better at manual bombing...so I'm still going back and forth on this. = P
I tried running the game in windowed mode, the default, but it doesn't seem to kick in the HD sprite work in that mode, and runs the game in a small-ish window with big side borders; you can scale it up to fill the 9:16 ratio window version at 150% zoom, but that comes out pixelated. But fortunately the game does NOT drop frames in full screen when I record it with OBS on the same PC--whereas the simpler-looking Blue Wish Desire DID; so, maybe a fairly optimized conversion here.
I wish I could stop it from asking if I want to save a replay after every run. : P The "A" confirm and "B" cancel menu functions don't correspond to your mapped Shot and Bomb buttons, so I keep having to hunt around for them on my Hori Real Arcade Pro V 2017 PS4 arcade stick (in PS3 mode; haven't tried "PS4" or "PC" modes)--which does, at least, otherwise work just fine here, as long as I remember to plug it in before running the game.
Mushihimesama is about the least flash-laden Cave shmup, so my photosensitive eyes can just about handle it, with some help from Windows' amberizing "Night Light" overlay, which my OBS recording software thankfully DOESN'T capture. : ) Still, my eyes were a bit sensitized after an hour or two of messing with it, I think next time I'll crank Night Light up from my usual 45 to a real orangerizing 65 or so.
The 960p presentation here is a huge step up over the filtered PS2 480i version. The other blurry PS2 Taito Cave port, whose name I couldn't think of in the video, is the rose-themed, weapon-complicated Ibara, my old notes on which are @ https://paleface.net/cgi-bin/db/n.pl?c=1029
Update: Aw man looks like YouTube isn't giving 1080p playback consistently on my videos unless they're at least 1080 wide as well as high. Once in a while, but not always. Sheesh!
7/24/21
#mushihimesama #shmup #shmups #bullethell #videogame #videogames #pcgame #pcgames #letsplay #steam #danmaku