More Ships, Levels, and Mystery(?) - R-Type Final 2 pt.2 (2021-05-02)
5Returning to reach the other two pairs of final stages (6.1/7.1 and 6.2/7.2) and unlock some more ships. The two new levels pose some interesting new questions about the lore.
I didn't originally understand what was going on at the end of 6.1 but I _think_ it's possible that that the level is somewhere in the territory for the Other Civilization due to the design of the stage and especially the boss. Considering you're turned into a Bydo System α at that point, I'm wondering what knowledge of and exposure to the Bydo they have at that point, since the original first encounter with the Other Civilization post the start of the entire series would have been by the Bydo reaching their homeworld in R-Type Tactics 2.
Not being transformed at the end of 7.2 is even stranger -- you're effectively fighting another Ebon Eye (aka the end of the Human campaign in R-Type Command/Tactics, where the Human fleet is unknowingly transformed into Bydo and begin their return home after a "successful" mission).
I finally unlocked the Albatross here and of course it's one of the MVPs of the series with such a strong force. Lady Love and its successor the Wave Master also shine due to their force having such a great spread when detached. It's even more clear that some of the ships got buffed when you reach ships like Happy Days whose split wave cannon seems to deal way more damage than in the first game (and if you look at the R-Manual you see an update to the Flame Wave Cannon as well).
It turns out the passwords for the two currently-available locked ships don't really have any hints available via gameplay/reading around the menus and manual, so I looked those up and it turns out that Lady Love is unlocked via "loveandpeace" (a popular phrase in Japan, and Vash's catch phrase in Trigun), whereas Strider is unlocked via "granzella" (the name of the developers and one of the factions in R-Type Tactics 2).
I think the DLC stages probably need some additional tuning. While I know they're meant to emulate the difficulty of the original versions (especially R-Type Leo being arcade-only), there already were significant changes to both levels in Final 2 likely to suit differing ships & to modernize out some of the ruder elements (R-Type III for example had machinery close in on the player at the start of the level and there's no clean way to tell where you need to be). Both stages have tweaks to the stage pacing and especially the bosses that make them both _more_ difficult than the original versions. Readability is a bit hit or miss as well, especially making the green fire more ambiguous on the moving platforms in the Leo stage - not to mention electricity on the final platforms that doesn't indicate any gameplay change to those platforms (and adds more bright visual noise when fighting the boss).
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