Amanagi playthrough (Hell difficulty)
16Hey there! I got bored of Hellbound (and I hoped it would get a bit more views) and was looking around for some new stuff I could play. I've always liked SHMUP games, it started with the game "Axelay" on the Super Nintendo. So I downloaded some free games of that kind and well, this is one of those games.
It's very old (you can see it on the title screen, it says it was made in 2001) but still I find it very cool to play. It's not that hard actually but still there a few parts that really frustrate me. The 3rd boss is very very hard for me but I was quite lucky in this run and defeated him after a few tries only. The final boss is also a huge pain in the ass, but if you survive the first few seconds with all the little enemies that come, then it gets quite easy. I'm sorry that the final boss takes a third of this video but it's really so insane that I couldn't do much about it, I even killed him twice but then I died shortly after. So basically I've beaten him 3 times in this video :P
It's a pretty simple and basic game but I really like the weapon system in here! There are 5 different weapons (orange) and also 5 powerups (blue). You can have up to 3 weapons at the same time and also 6 more in reserve, which you can swap as much as you like. You can for example have the same weapon 3 times, making it much more powerful or you can combine them.
For the blue powerups however, you can only have 1 at a time but you can have 2 of the same which increases its duration.
You can also use a bomb to destroy your 3 current weapons, just in case you want to get new ones.
The weapons are:
GUN: a very standard weapon, you can fire small red bullets rapidly in a straight line. This weapon is very strong against enemies with a big hitbox, as it can deal huge damage but it's not very good against many little ones. Recommended against bosses.
WIDE: also fires small red bullets but they will spread out instead of flying in a straight line. Is good against groups of enemies or moving targets.
SPREAD: fires up to 3 bombs that explode in a blue explosion when hitting anything. Is pretty much good against anything, especially against guarded enemies like the 1st and 3rd boss.
LASER: fires a blue laser that pierces everything and does very high damage at higher ranks. Good against guarded enemies and bosses, but can also be used against normal enemies.
MISSILES: shoots 3 missiles in several directions that chase anything that they can find. Each rank gives you 2 more missiles. It's very good against normal enemies, especially when they come from all directions (in the 3rd stage for example). But it sucks against guarded enemies, you should take other weapons against bosses.
Powerups:
OPTION: many people know this from the Gradius games, you get a little machine that follows you and everytime you shoot, it shoots too. It can also absorb shots for you but only about 10, then it will explode. You can have 2 at the same time.
FUNNEL: it's like the option, just that it randomly flies around the screen and shoot enemies from every angle it can.
SPEED: increases your movement speed for a limited time. I don't find this very useful in Hell mode as it might make you run into things.
SMALL: makes your ship smaller, making it easier to avoid bullets.
SHIELD: gives you a blue shield that can absorb about 6 shots for you, then it's gone. Pretty good item but the bad thing is that the shield is much bigger than your ship, which means that some bullets will hit it even if your ship wouldn't get hit.