Game:

Chaos Field (2004)

Duration: 23:45

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4

While Ifumi is my Chaos Field main and I set myself to play as her for Shmup Slam, I felt a sense of curiosity with regards to Jinn and his...unusual set of weapons, and I did a few runs to try and nab a "quick" 1CC with him, using the knowledge I've already accumulated through the previous Ifumi scoring runs.

For those who don't know, the character balance in Chaos Field is like this : Hal is the easy to use character with good survival potential and pretty decent scoring capabilities (especially on the last boss); Ifumi is trickier to use but if the WR scores are anything to go by, somehow her scoring potential is way ahead of the others; Jinn...well he is the worst at everything lmao. He seems like a character made for experts in its design, but unlike Ifumi he really lacks the actual payoff that goes with it.

Jinn's ship is supposedly an earlier prototype in-universe and it really shows. While his main shot can be quite strong (especially coming from Ifumi's relatively weaker shot) at the cost of destroying the game's audio landscape, everything else is gimmicky, niche, or simply not as reliable as the other characters' equivalent weapons.

The sword is good but it has a slightly longer cooldown than the others, which sometimes costs me lives as I unsuccessfully try to activate field switches or special weapons during said cooldown to save myself and I take a bullet in the face instead.

The Wing Layer deploys a bunch of bat modules on the playfield but their exact position is randomized for some goddamn reason lmao. Very unreliable for scoring and survival but somehow it's the main tool you'll have to bear with for building combos. Dunno what Milestone was smoking on that one. A huuuge issue it has as well is the very short duration in comparison with other characters' Wing Layers. You thus end up burning through your Meta stock way too fast in some situations, and keeping a longer combo through a boss can be a big pain.

The Lock-on laser itself is decent and actually really shines against some bosses such as 2-3 or 4-3 as it hits a bunch of turrets really nicely, but the blind-spot ahead of it and the general range makes it very hit-or-miss.

Still, there's kind of an appeal to using those wonky tools to overcome the odds and see what his meta could be like. Playing as the underdog, so to say. I tried to score a lil' bit and boost my combo, but the chains are definitely not as solid as my Ifumi combos since I didn't really practice anything, and also because said tools are just inherently more restrictive.

While the early game was solid enough that I could even afford to SD in 3-1 for gauge recharge right before the secret extend (and I didn't even attempt to get the 1-2 secret 1UP either), I took a bunch of frustrating hits in the late game. It was down to 1 life against 5-3 and since I did die against it a few times before, I wasn't fully confident I could clear this time.

Still, I managed to keep my cool and not fuck up for this. I also took a page from Kanzaki Shintarou's run ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MppVvK5HJJM ) on the second phase where he puts himself at the top right of the screen when the purple bullets + orange attack starts, and for me that ended up being more reliable then starting it at the bottom, as my sword can cancel bullets the whole rotation, and I am in a decent spot for the green spiral attack.

I could have maybe gotten a higher combo at the end and beaten the 70mil threshold, but the Wing Layer not getting them juicy bullet cancels at the source is just Jinn things.

Well, now I gotta go back to Ifumi haha. Not sure I'll try Jinn more, but it was not a bad experience trying to clear with him. Quite frustrating given the ALLmosts but it was also fun to explore Chaos Field and play it differently. The gimmicky nature of the weapons give them some sort of charm I guess. Still, I'd not recommend you try this at home unless you already have enough experience with the game hahaha

Played on Dolphin (GC version), recorded with OBS Studio
#shmup #STG #ChaosField

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