1418: Gunbird 2 PC \\ Normal playthrough! Score Attack w/ all chars! Some Marion & Tavia 2P-in-1P!
0Playing the Steam / PC version of Gunbird 2--a game I loved briefly and hotly back on DC--after all these years because I noticed in watching the promo video of the Steam version that the flashing effects on bullet hits were remarkably mild for a shmup. I think they did something to them!
My Gunbird 2 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzMBW2yeMjgK30O0UkYiwgtj
0:00 - start
3:40 - Normal Marion playthrough
25:20 - Marion Score Attack
29:45 - Marion & Tavia 2P-in-1P
35:05 - Alucard Score Attack
39:39 - Valpiro Score Attack
43:32 - Tavia Score Attack
46:27 - Hei-Cob Score Attack
51:22 - Aine Score Attack
55:25 - Hei-Cob Score Attack again (high)
56:11 - the mysterious bonus gem head!
1:02:17 - Baby Marion playthrough
OH! I was talking about a 1cc playthrough from Jaimers, but apparently I hadn't even looked closely at it, because that was a play-through of Gunbird (1), not this game, Gunbird 2. Sheesh. (It's here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHnsv2qpU1E if you still want to see--but watch out for flashy hit FX!)
This Steam version is from City Connection; the flashing in Steam intro videos for their other shmups is harsh, unlike this game's video, so whatever this reduced flash effect is, it doesn't appear to be something they've put in their other conversions--but I haven't bought those so I can't say for sure.
Unlike what I can see from YouTube videos of the arcade and Dreamcast versions of Gunbird 2, in which big things getting hit flash bright, solid white and/or red, the hit flashes in this Steam version are sort of muted transparencies, so it isn't nearly as bad on my eyeballs and I think I can play it without excessive risk of migraine. Coool! = D
I love the atmosphere of this game, it's so adorable, with personality and outstanding sprite animation; and I guess it's the right balance of action for me: not nearly as bullet-hellish as Cave shooters but still very active and creative in the threats it comes up with from enemy shots.
The evil boss & her two goons are "based on the villanous [sic] Doronbo Gang from the Time Bokan/Yatterman series as well as sharing the same voice actors," according to https://capcom.fandom.com/wiki/Gunbird_2 .
That Wiki gets this wrong: it says the DC version had another exclusive playable character, "Aine from Psikyo's Samurai Aces series." But Aine IS in this version & the arcade version: in the arcade version, according to GameFAQs: "To play as Aine, the warrior-archer, press DOWN while highlighting the Random box on the character-select screen. Aine is only available if enabled in the game's maintenance mode."
This Steam version doesn't have "maintenance mode," but you get Aine if you press down while highlighting the "?" at the right end of the character row on the character select screen.
The close range attack seems really powerful, more so than the charge-attack, and quicker to get off in a pinch; on the other hand, in the past I've tended to get myself shot point-blank when I try to use it too much. Charge shots & the close-range attack both use some of the meter in the lower left, which builds as you shoot enemies with regular shots.
Regular mode defaults to only 2 continues, but you can crank it to 99 or even Unlimited in Options.
Score Attack mode has no continues & fixed difficulty--that's how you get in the online score rankings. There's a 2P-in-1P mode that alternates lives between two selected characters; each combination of characters have unique dialogues at story points in the game, and this mode lets you see those dialogues even if you're playing by yourself.
Almost 1cc'd Baby (1) difficulty! Not sure I love the default "Normal" (5) difficulty; killer fast bullet patterns start in about stage 3 or 4. Heck even on Baby there's that one boss w/ insta-kill lasers, got me twice! Then I went too hard for a suckerbait power vs the final boss... (Did not expect that funky sprite!)
Maybe one thing I'll do is work on 1cc-ing difficulties starting from Baby. ^ _^
You can turn off the default bilinear filtering. Some controls and graphics settings are set with a separate setting.exe, which is not so handy, & kind of confusing when remapping buttons, but gets the job done eventually.
No save states, no training mode, yar. There's no Quit option; apparently that was patched into the earlier ports, before GB2 came out--so they forgot it again then on GB2? = P ^ _^ (I alt+enter to window it, then click the X close button.)
Control felt responsive--once I turned Vsync off in setting.exe. Was noticeably sludgy when on; I played all the way through with it on but yeah much better off.
It's the version of Gunbird 2 I can play thanks to the unannounced flash reduction!
5/28/23
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