Back in the pilot seat for a quick clear of Darius's V route! In this run, I hold off on powering up until after Keen Bayonet purely because I got super tilted on the run before this and figured I probably wasn't going to get to wave anyway, so I may as well make the fifth boss a bit less miserable so I could at least keep more ARM going into the final stages. Then Zone V proceeded to absolutely kick the shit out of me. I lost my shield entirely during Strong Shell's opening volley, which made for a super exciting end to this otherwise unremarkable run.
The more I play Darius, the more I feel like it's a game that's made interesting because of all its flaws. The shot limit and wide playfield hyperexaggerate the territory control elements, for example, and the power up system has way more depth than you'd expect on first blush due to the cost of increasing shot levels (ie, by making the last zone harder in exchange for not losing my shit over Keen Bayonet's unkillably vast health pool).
Thank God I destroyed all enemies and war is over.
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