[Espgaluda II/エスプガルーダII] Ageha Normal Mode ALL Clear (Score: 153,329,757) [CC Commentary]

I had been hearing that unlike Espgaluda I before it, Espgaluda II Arcade is hard. Well...
Yes, this game is a BIG MEANIE! And I have 1-ALL-ed Dodonpachi!
The port that I'm playing is the new Switch port by Live Wire. It's as great as the Mushihimesama port, so no need to worry about the port's quality.
For the basics, you can shoot, bomb (guard barrier), and ascension / kakusei (for the CC commentary and description I'll refer it as kakusei). The main feature of the Galuda series is the kakusei thing and its effects are contextual. For Normal mode, the hardest one of the package, when you still have the spirit gem (Max is 500) defeating enemies will cancel THEIR bullets. Keep that in mind because it won't clear ALL bullets, only the bullets the target has shot. New to the sequel, thankfully NOT too necessary to use, is the zesshikai mode, activated by holding down the kakusei button. When a motion blur waves out, that means you're in zesshikai mode. It bears the same effect as the normal kakusei, bullet clearing and all, but the cleared bullets will get AIMED AT YOU. So using this at all is like a self-imposed ultra mode / 2nd loop. One of the reasons for survival to use it at all is for destroying popcorns it depletes no spirit gems, so on a heavy onslaught of popcorns zesshikai is ideal... when you can handle the barrage of counter bullets!
The game is great and epic! With many memorable set pieces and scrolling pr0n to boot! The enemies are also relentless, one of the reasons why the game is brutal. But compared to other CAVE games some of the reasons for its difficulty is personally, less than ideal. One, many patterns can be said not humanely possible without going kakusei, particularly on bosses. Either it's too fast or the bullets obscure each other, making things very difficult to read. Two, the guard barrier laser is quite weak, compared to ESPRa.De's and Espgaluda 1. It only functions as a pattern skipper, not a devastating attack to whittle down bosses' HP! Charging the laser finishes off the boss' HP equivalent to lazering with Ageha's focus shot. Three and the worst one, by default YOUR SPIRIT STONE GAIN IS STINGY! There is this mode called kakusei over, when you still in kakusei but doesn't have any spirit stone left. While in kakusei over, there is this kakusei over level, where you gain by filling the blue gauge up to three levels. And to beat the game the comfortable level to survive the game is at max. What's the consequence of going kakusei over max aside of dramatically boosting the spirit stone gain? Nothing. Really, nothing! Except one monster on Stage 5: True Seseri. But this video doesn't fight her in her true form because I lost a live before facing her. So why do I have to do this obscure mechanic to comfortably gain spirit stones? Was this made specifically to please arcade operators and to prevent people to figure out how to 1cc the game as long as humanely possible until people discover the kakusei over level max spirit stone boost!? CAVE, explain!
Overall this game will take no prisoners. Make a mistake and the game won't take it lightly!
#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[@wabbyleg]

Amazing commentary

[@higaide2048]

In fact is much easier to do a 1cc with Asagi than with Ageha. The first 3 stages are harder with Asagi but once you power up the last 3 stages are much easier with her. Her kakusei is so powerful that you can kill bosses very quickly and skip the most difficult patterns, included the last one of the final boss.
Tateha is the weakest character by far.