DoDonPachi Daioujou Black Label 1-ALL with commentary (B-Exy & B-Shotia)

Double DOJ trouble today! This time we take a look at two DoDonpachi Daioujou Black Label runs side by side: one with B-Exy and the other with B-Shotia. I also share my thoughts on the game (spoiler: it's fantasic) and give a few tips for anyone who might be trying to learn it.

[@letsblocking]

Note: Daioujou is not the 3rd game in the Donpachi series. I forgot about Bee Storm -_-'

[@AlviEao]

Double GG on the DaiOuJou Black Label 1-ALL!

[@letsblocking]

Thanks Alvin!

[@Shmuptopia]

Fantastic runs and commentary as always. This is ine I definitely want to get into when time allows. I did Arrange S and L a number of weeks ago and those were pretty straightforward and didn't really require learning of any sort. The base game and anything outside of the arrange modes, however, will clearly demand careful study.

[@letsblocking]

@@Shmuptopia Thanks Dace! Yeah I've also noticed the Arranges (excluding EX) were a bit too straightforward in terms of mechanics imo. They're fun and approachable for beginners which is great, but they also feel a bit shallow somehow. The main game(s) are pretty much the opposite and can feel overwhelming when everything clicks.

[@hazylevels]

Congrats! Very cool to see your run and also hear your thoughts on the game. Glad you enjoyed it so much. It's always the runs that go wrong that end up clearing in the end, isn't it? :) Agreed with the kind of weird difficulty progression in stage 5, the first half of that stage is low-key one the harshest parts of the run. You got back on track nicely despite the deaths there.

[@letsblocking]

Thanks! Yeah I ended up practicing stage 5 a lot, so I was not too worried about the second part of the stage. As long as I make it past the bee hives I'm usually ok. You also get a lot of hypers so it's easier than it looks. Now, I'm not exactly sure where to go with this game at this point. White Label? Arrange EX? Learn a bit of scoring or improve survival rate? It's a bit overwhelming but cool at the same time.

[@hazylevels]

@@letsblocking White Label 2-All with full chains 😺 jokes aside, I'm usually a survival oriented player, but chaining in this game feels super fun once you start to piece together some of the routes. So the magic for me is trying to find a sweet spot between chaining and clean survival. If you want to do a "Hazy Challenge", try getting 100mil with A-Exy! It should feel a little different from Type-B and you'll start to engage more with stage design.

[@letsblocking]

@@hazylevels Thanks, I might go for something like that!

[@Prickly_Angler]

Congrats on the clears! Interesting to compare the two runs and see how they differ with the routing :)
I have to disagree with you on Black Level though : I think the hitbox size and rank difficulty of the original DaiOuJou makes it very different from all the Cave games, nothing quite compares to it, it's more "dadmaku" and it's something I like (though Ikeda explicitely said in an interview he regretted that). BL feels much more standard Cave in that sense, more accessible (and more recommandable in that sense) but you lose some of the spicyness of DaiOuJou I think.
When I was in Spain I discussed with Chantake, a very good DOJ player and he told me he really enjoyed the feeling you get from the dodging in WL

[@letsblocking]

Thank you! I agree that WL feels more distinct and BL is more like the standard Cave -which I tend to enjoy a lot at this point, so it all makes sense. That could also be the reason why Japanese players tend to favour White Label. It definitely feels like a purer experience but it was a bit unpenetrable for me when starting out.

[@Prickly_Angler]

@@letsblocking I think one of the reason why WL is "more popular" in Japan is that the game is much more available, both in game centers and in home releases (emulation being less of a thing there). From what it looks most of the best players have gravitated towards both versions at some point of their career

[@VinuShmup]

Gros GG pour ce double clear Billy, excellent commentaires comme toujours! J'ai la même opinion que toi sur le jeu et je préfère aussi le système de scoring de Ketsui, pas trop fan du chaining mais en même temps je m'y suis jamais trop investi non plus.
30h ça va tu t'en sors bien perso j'ai mis + 😁, ça me fait peur pour Ketsui je sens que je vais pas m'en sortir 😅.
Par rapport à Crimzon Clover tu le situe ou niveau difficulté?

[@letsblocking]

@@VinuShmup Merci ! Je pense que j'ai fait plus de Cave verticaux que toi pour l'instant donc ça me prend moins de temps, il y a quand même pas mal de fondamentaux qui sont réapplicables entre Ketsui, Esprade et DOJ.
Ketsui et Crimzon Clover Arcade sont un cran au-dessus niveau difficulté mais comme tu as 1-ALL DOJ je pense que tu devrais être prêt. La partie difficile du jeu dure plus longtemps dans ces deux jeux donc c'est plus difficile d'être consistant. On sent surtout la diff au moment de grinder les runs en fait, donc si tu es patient ça devrait passer avec quelques mois de dose.
CC et Ketsui (1-ALL) ont à peu près le même niveau de difficulté je crois. Ketsui est plus court, donc peut-être un peu moins frustrant quand on foire un run.

[@jujukenobi7801]

Well done! That was entertaining to watch and listen to.
Do you plan on playing this game some more or do you have a new game in your sights ?

[@letsblocking]

@@jujukenobi7801 Merci Juju ! At this point I don't know yet. I'm planning to start playing Espgaluda sometime in September but before that, I'm not sure.

[@atmatey]

Congrats, I’ve also played the PS4 port for a few hours, but definitely need to practice a lot more to get a 1CC. I watched a video of two high-level Japanese players competing with the White Label version of this game and it was completely insane, the skill ceiling and risk management of this game must be through the roof.
Can I ask, what visual settings do you use when playing the PS4 port? I’m sure the visuals of this game shine on a real CRT, but the pre-rendered sprites look a bit rough on a large HD TV compared to the clean pixel art of the original DoDonPachi.

[@letsblocking]

Thank you! The video you're referring to is probably the Kemonomichi battle between SPS and Fufufu. Their level is beyond insane, and being able to perform at such a high level live with the pressure of a crowd is crazy.
I agree that the game does look better on CRT from what I've seen but I also play on a HD screen at the moment (thankfully not too large and I can rotate it so it's not too bad). I'm not exactly sure what visual settings I'm using because it's all in Japanese, but I always turn off any sort of motion smoothing or filter because they sometimes introduce additional input lag in some games. I don't know if it's the case on the M2 ports but it's an old habit of mine. In fact there is also an option to reduce input lag here to make the port on par with the arcade version, which I would recommend turning on if you haven't already. I know that's not exactly what you're asking about though.

[@atmatey]

@@letsblocking Yes, it was indeed the match between Fufufu and SPS. That video made me realize how genius the Hyper mechanic is in this game and how proper Hyper management affects the next stage as well, not just the current one.
I fiddled around with some of the smoothing and scanline options, but it was a bit questionable if the end result was better than just the default graphics. Do you know which option allows you to match the input lag of the arcade version? That would certainly be useful.

[@letsblocking]

@@atmatey Sure, you have to go to "Option setting", then "System settings", and it's the first option at the top out of the three available on that screen. It roughly translates to "input delay reduction" and you want it to be ON. I can't remember for sure but I think it's off by default?

[@atmatey]

@@letsblocking Alright, thanks!