Game:

Psyvariar 2 (2003)

Duration: 0:00

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18

I kicked off last year with a pretty nice Kei score. What better way to start this one with a Yuhei score? And another community record at that!

Shortly after the Kei score from early 2024, I focused on missions and wanted to pivot to Yuhei in order to enjoy his playstyle and improved scoring potential. The system11 top score is 140mil and I felt confident it was beatable without having to score every single boss or anything like that. But still, I had to be pretty good at the TLB to stand a chance. That is a third_strike score, and if you have ever heard of him, you already know his scores are no joke!

However, it took me a long time before actually putting the work necessary in order to clear the missions and understand the TLB. I also had lots of other games to play so just like Kei, I only started doing runs again at the end of the year, unsuccessfully trying to get that score before the next year.

This grind was definitely not without its fair share of failures and pre-TLB route adjustments. The final routes are less reliable than with Kei but I was still able to string together many runs that get around 43mil before the TLB...at least if I didn't reset in the first minute of the game haha.

Most of the boss milks in the pre-TLB part are similar to what I attempted with Kei, though the stages themselves offered more opportunities for graze scoring as they should with Yuhei.

The TLB fight is pretty daunting but also quite fun and with amazing music. I went the extra mile and did not skip the first phase's second half this time. I also wrote a bunch of detailed notes on my strats here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-Dty8v9y615SvYgwCi3y5spzpwyHW8T/view

While the grind took a few weeks, it could have ended a bit earlier. My first actual TLB clear of the game    • Psy2   Yuhei 139mil   was actually on pace for a 164mil score. I could have reached the goal on my first completed try, but I decided to try my hand at a natural graze-based level-up on the blue ring spam in the middle of the second phase instead of simply bombing as planned. Fatal mistake that also cut the combo at the worst possible time for a 25 mil point loss. What a sobering lesson.

On the other hand, knowing that I could get this high was motivating, and I couldn't just beat 140 mil anymore. I wanted 160mil at least! As you can see, I ended up getting a score that even exceeded that 164 potential, so in the end it was for the better!

This specific run is also a bit of an outlier in the pre-TLB part as I was able to come in with 45 mil instead of the much more common 43. Some relatively recent score strats in stage 2 probably explain some of the difference, as that was also the second time ever I managed to get that level 288 tranformation at the end of stage 3. Not to mention no deaths whatsoever, so no combo losses or anything.

Every time I reached the TLB, I had a thought in the back of my head that goes "That's gonna be one more for the compilation" even though it hadn't even started yet! Maybe a way to calm the nerves. But this run entered TLB with above average score so better not waste it. I played normally but started to feel the pressure when phase 1 red rings didn't murder me. The most difficult parts of the TLB are the red rings in phase 1 and the multicolor spiral exits on phase 2. At least for phase 2 there's always bombs I can use. But I didn't plan any on phase 1.

Many runs die on phase 1 so anytime the combo survives it, it's a bit extra stressful. I also had nearly 18k buzz which is very close to my personal best on phase 1. Was this a sign this run was gonna be the winning one? Either way I had to not fuck up for this on phase 2.

It actually started in a rather rocky way as I accidentally contact damaged the boss during the tidal wave attack. Too greedy for buzz and I got punished with this sword of Damocles which pushed me to be more careful for all the supergrazes in the entire rest of the fight. On the other hand I was immediately able to save my first planned bomb as my neutrino gauge was somehow perfect after that attack, so that was handy.

The rest of the fight was not always going as planned, but I somehow managed to balance the spent emergency bombs with saved up bombs on planned spots. Boss health management was down to the wire with Gluon rather close to dying with some juicy patterns still left. But I was able to get a pretty great 108k combo (highest I ever had so far!), with the only small regret being not killing the boss after it spawned the last red rings (but that's extremely minor score gain)

What a game! And what a score! The sexy 170mil threshold seems so close too, and for a moment I felt tempted to keep going. But I think aiming for this threshold (or maybe even higher) would be better served with more score strats through the entire game, so maybe for another time, whenever I want to focus on this again.

Played on PCSX2 1.2.1, recorded with OBS Studio
#STG #shmup

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