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In December, the RF Generation Shmup Club will be taking on a game that has been requested since the beginning of the club. We'll also be finally playing one of the many shooting games on the Xbox 360. A descendant of the Gradius series of games, and to a lesser extent, the Parodius series, Otomedius Excellent is the second of 2 shooting games from Konami that feature an all-female cast of pilots, and a very anime-styled presentation. The game's predecessor, Otomedius Gorgeous, was only available in Japan, but in the West, we were not only given the chance to buy the sequel, but were treated to a deluxe package, including an outer box, an artbook, a pair of pillowcases, and a soundtrack CD, featuring a sampling of songs from the Otomedius Gorgeous soundtrack, as well as the vocal songs included in this game. For collector's, Otomedius Excellent certainly provides more value the the average game purchase.

Otomedius Excellent plays similarly to the classic Gradius series of games. Shoot down enemy waves, and collect power-up chips, and then use those to upgrade your ship. What sets this entry apart, however, is that you have a choice between more characters and ships than ever before, and your weapon load-out can be highly customized. Not only that, but the game has a large amount of DLC, adding additional challenges, and other content to explore. The game combines detailed 3-D environments with fully voiced, anime style boss introductions, and dialogue from all the characters. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in December 2019, as we play Otomedius Excellent for the Xbox 360!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
ReddMcKnight

High Scores:

You even have to ask with me? Sign me up! :)

I'm unable to participate in this one, sorry.

I wish I had an Xbox 360, that game looks like fun!

It's unfortunate that Konami hasn't done anything for the Xbox One backwards compatibility, either, so as far as I know, this game isn't playable on the Xbox One.

Too bad it's not region free, i'd love to give this one a shot. :(

You're right. I didn't even realize this didn't receive a European release, but it appears that it did not. And yes, it's too bad this isn't region free. That would certainly be nice. :|

Gather round, everyone! Almost time for what I now dub Score Attack: Waifu Wars Edition! :D

Just played my first few runs of the game and these are my first thoughts on this game.

    -Bullets love to hide in the background.
    -The hit box seems bigger then most gradius games
    -Don't get distracted! (You know what I mean!)

Super fun get though,  get I could dust it off again and play it for a while.

I may have got a little lucky on score attack but here is a good score.

Alright, this is my best so far in Story Mode, on Normal difficulty:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/89QuG3ql.jpg[/img]

I'm still figuring out the hitbox for the character I chose, and there are definitely some spots where it feels like there are unavoidable hits. I might have to change my outlook on that, but right now, there are definitely some initial humps to get over. A couple of the bosses I haven't been able to beat yet, and they just time out. I'd really like to figure out how to beat the snake boss, rather than timing it out.

I managed to get a fair bit farther, and increased my score by quite a margin! I feel like a Normal difficulty clear isn't too far past the horizon...

I wanted to share a strategy with everyone - on the Old Big Core boss, there's a moving vertical "platform" that tracks with your movement, and shoots bullets at you. Even with multiple speedups, you're not likely to outrun it. Instead, if you use a Burst when the fight starts, you get a couple seconds of invincibility. You can use that to fly right through it, and then just move up and down to shoot the barriers and cores, while moving up and down to avoid the occasional volley of bullets from the top and bottom cannons. It's a pretty easy strategy to employ, and though there's an end level bonus for the number of bursts you have in stock, you get WAY more points for destroying the boss than you do for holding onto a burst.

Seems like I'm stuck in 1-7. I haven't quite been able to overcome the Dark Force boss fight. The pattern shouldn't be that difficult, but I can't seem to crack it yet. I am progressing in score, though. I managed to finally beat the snake boss, though, instead of it just timing out, so there's that.

The past few days I have been trying out all the characters and seeing what there pros and cons are.  Kokoro Belmont,  there are some interesting powerups that are plainly made for her. She can use the beam whip and then have access to the holy water, axe and the Beam cross. The option that Kokoro uses is the Trigon. This option you only get one but with each upgrade it will start to shoot more powerful shots forward and backwards in whichever direction it is pointing.  Though the Trigon sounds great it forces you to move around  to position it to shot where you want it too. I would say don't use her unless you want to challenge yourself.

So... Diol Twee, so far my favorite character thus far. Packing the Twin Lazers (my favorite weapon) and equipped the very useful H.Missle in my runs. The option power is the "Flint"! Work very similar to Aoba Anoa's options with the added bonus of keeping the options in the formation you want them as long as you are shooting.  They will follow you when not firing just like standard options do.

Next up, Arnvel! She is very straight forward on how she works. Using the Formation Options that sits 2 options on top and bottom of the ship. I used the single laser LV2 and 2 way missiles with her. With great control and medium span with weaponry you can go far and not have to think to much on which way you are moving for maximum damage.  After I use everyone else I think this one maybe my main person to use!

I managed to reach Dark Force this evening on Expert, but I still can't seal the deal. But I know I'm close, I just need to tighten up my fight with the 1st form of Dark Force, so I can reach the second form with some shield and lasers, as well as more lives.

I forgot to post this a couple days ago when it happened, but I managed to finally clear the game, and got nearly 3 million points! I ended up using Diol Twee, and customized the weapon loadout a bit to accomplish it, but I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhIzXpXbpMk

Anyone else have scores to post, or final thoughts on the game?

Question of the month to answer for the podcast: If you could make a shooting game that revolved around a certain theme or event, what would that be?