RF Generation Message Board

Amber Black, a military faction based in the Asian Continent, has their influence all across the southern hemisphere, and has begun taking over other private military companies and factions. However, their rival JOKER will not stand for this. After a gap in their jumpgate defensive system due to the Enemy Black operation, JOKER begins their mission to take down Amber Black once and for all. Take to the skies, JOKER unit no.233487, and destroy Amber Black's ambition.

Pilot the insanity fighter "Assault Shell" and shoot down the enemy down to pieces! Select from 4 different variations, the powerhouse ALPHA, the high-ranged BETA, the stonewall GAMMA, and the melee master DELTA! Charge up your hyper meter to unleash a powerful hyper mode, but charge it up again to unleash the insanity system BLANK STAND, which not only makes you even stronger, but damages the enemy's sanity and turns them insane, making them harder to fight. Use the risk vs reward system effectively in order to score high and destroy efficiently! Blast through 5 stages and eradicate all of the large and epic bosses Amber Black has to throw at you!

Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in September 2021, as we take a look at indie shooter Assault Shell from Overloaded Studios! You can buy it now on Itch.io, or on Steam.

Check out the game trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2IxPn0bS0c

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
MiniConsoleMan
Corkman
Reticulan

I'm in!

For anyone on the fence, the game is on sale for it's 1-year anniversary. It's only $6.99 on Itch.io (https://overloadedstudios.itch.io/assault-shell/) through Saturday, September 4th.

 
  Count me in. Time to get blastin'  :gunpistols: :gunpistols: :gunpistols:

One thing I'm struggling with is the stage 1 boss. I have trouble reading its initial spread pattern, so I get hit too often. The later pattern I can do just fine. I may need to concentrate on just getting through that first pattern and health bar, and only engaging Hyper Stand in that mode, not Blank Stand, so I can get the benefit of the extra damage, but not make the pattern any more than I already have issues dodging, and then go full on in the 2nd phase. Other wise, stage 2 isn't bad, and the stage 2 boss is fairly manageable, at least until the final pattern, which can be a bit of a problem. Anyone else have difficulty with the stage 1 boss?

I did for a little bit. At first the stage 1 boss can be frustrating compared to stage 2 or 3 but with some practice you can do it. Ganbare Guru!

Most of this game is micro dodging. Playing Touhou will help you with that.

(https://vmi.tv/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/02/bullet-time.jpg)

Me: "Are you telling me I can dodge bullets?"
Reimu: "No. I'm telling you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

  I'm starting to get a hang of this game. It's been awhile since I played a danmaku game so I had to shake that rust off. Also, I don't have a lot experience with using hypers in shmups so that will be a learning experience. I'll be playing for survival for the first few weeks here but I'll get into playing for score later since this game. The "blank stand" mode (red mode) I understand is for scoring seems interesting. But, I'll save those tougher bullet patterns for later once I get a better handle on the game.

  Been trying out all the ships. The variety in them is really nice and allows for different gameplay types.  I think I like the blue Ketsui ship the best so far. Those defensive shields sub-weapon she has are very useful since they seem to stay on screen and absorb bullets more than other subweapons. The red ship is nice and fast but I'm not sure how useful speed is in this micro-dodging heavy game. The green ship has a nice wide shot and might be my next favorite ship. The grey ship might have more potential as one to use for aggressive play. You can position your trailing buddies high on the screen and hold them there to decimate enemies.

  Anyway, having fun with this one.  :) :) :)

I'm with you on the blue Ketsui-style ship and the defensive barriers. Despite it's slower speed, the homing option shots and defensive barriers make that one a bit easier to play with, I think.

Finally getting something going in Assault Shell! I'm focusing primarily on survival strats, but with longer survival comes more score, because you get to see more of the game, and I have. As of my stream earlier this evening, I hit 1-5 on a single credit, and got my PB score to date: 264,762,650 points!

  Nice job! Heck of run there!

   I see a lot of scores that end in stage 2 there. The stage 2 boss is really pretty difficult. It has 2 health bars and some tough patterns. The stage 3 and 4 bosses are much more
   manageable.

 
   I'm getting a much better hang of this game now. I think I knocked the danmaku rust off and playing better now. Still just playing for survival.

   I noticed the blank stand cancels bullets as well. I've been using that in extremely dire situations where I need to cancel bullets or take a shield hit if it's available.

   Here's my scores at this point. Got to the final boss but didn't haven't any shields left. It might be time to do some practice on later stages.

Great score! Seems like G-1 is the ship type to go to, particularly because it's special has such a defensive benefit to it. I've tried some of the other ships, but haven't clicked with one quite as much as Gamma with the type 1 special. I like the type 2, but with the spinning barriers, it's kind of unpredictable, and isn't nearly as good as a defensive measure, at least in my estimation.

Got a new personal best this evening on stream! I feel like I'm close to clearing the 1st loop, and am feeling more comfortable with engaging Blank Stand in the first 2-3 stages for scoring. The first "extend" comes at 175 million points (an extra shield hit, essentially), and in stage 3, if you pick off all the small cannons at the midboss in stage 3, prior to taking out the large green core, you'll earn another extend as well. So there's definitely opportunity to help "extend" your game beyond stage 3, if you play your cards right :slick:

Okay, I'm in. I just started digging in this morning. I have a lot to learn.

 
  It seems like if you get past the stage 3 midboss, you almost get 2 shield extends since 175k is around that same time (at least in my runs). Then once you have those, you can go quite a bit further in the game.

  I've been using Blank Stand more often in the last round of runs and got a 463k score. Blank Stand pattern are harder but not unmanageable. I'll probably get even more into Blank Stand from the rest of the month.

 

I'm currently hitting a wall against the Stage 2 boss. Maybe I'm going at it too aggressively? In any case, one thing I am enjoying about this game in the early days of playing it is that is sucked me right into playing for score with the two-stage hyper mechanic. Normally I am a survival player, but in this one I am always toeing the line with how much double hyper I can get away with to boost my power and score, despite the increase in difficulty.

Just made the above post, went back to the game, flailed around with the D shell, went back to my fave B shell, passed the stage two boss, and got a new personal best.

Totally agree with this! I wanted to score in this game right away, but I struggled big time with knowing when to engage Blank Stand, and risk the crazier patterns and larger bullets. So I stuck to Hyper Stand for a while, learned the first few stages, then went back and started figuring out how/when to activate Blank Stand, to start scoring more. If you do it right, you can earn the 175mil you need for the 1st extend by stage 3, and then earn another extend in stage 3 from the mid-boss, by destroying all of its smaller cannons before taking out the green core at the top. It gets pretty crazy if you use Blank Stand at the wrong time against some bosses, though occasionally I'll activate it to get out of a pattern I can't deal with.

Regarding the stage 2 boss, when you get to the final phase, it's good to stay toward bottom center, wait for the bullets to come around to where they're almost ready to hit you, and activate Hyper Stand, then reposition to do the same thing again. If you're not charged up enough by the time the bullets come back around, use your defensive technique to milk some bullets and get charged up to activate Blank Stand as the boss is low on health, so you can clear bullets, give you the ability to reposition again, and then hopefully get a final cancel when you take it out.

Also: new PB on stream this evening!

 
   Nice run there FRO!! I saw that run on stream. I thought about chatting with and distracting you to throw you off your game to retain the highest score. But, I was too nice.
 
   At any rate, I gave it a few more runs and got a new high score. 634 mil.  It's been cool this month seeing each of us beat each other's scores. Like an epic football game that goes  back and forth and both teams seem to play better as it gets later and later in the game.

Yes! I like that kind of tension in this situation, because then it's not a blowout, where one person dominates, and everyone else scores very low, or can't compete. It's been fun to see both of us progress throughout the month. I'm not likely to clear the game this month, but I've enjoyed my time with it, and definitely feel like this game grabbed me more than I anticipated it would. Anyone else have final thoughts to share?

 

  I don't think I'll get the clear in this game either this month. I would need to practice the stage 5 boss more. It's pretty tough.

  This game was a nice surprise for me. I didn't know anything about it and I played it quite a bit and loved every minute of it. Even though, I stayed with one ship most of the month, I really appreciated the ship and defensive weapon variety. The hyper and blank stands added a lot of strategy to the game whether to play for survival or score. There was a second loop and several game modes to play as well. There's a lot packed in here for $10!

  I also think this a great game for a mid-level shmup player. It's not easy but it won't overwhelm you. You also have those bullet cancelling hypers, defensive weapons, and regenerating shields. So you can take a hit or use a defensive maneuver and still have a great game. It reminds a little of some Cave arrange modes where you have some ability to make the game a tad easier if you use it right.

  Thanks for introducing me to these doujin shmups. They've been a blast to discover.  :)

I got a late start on this one; only been playing for a week. I'll put up my scores for now since the month is over, but I expect I'll keep returning to this game for a while. I really enjoyed it, and I don't think I would have heard about it if not for this forum/podcast. I found the game simple and refined, while still offering a lot of variation and room to explore that comes from the timing of blank/hyper strands, defensive shots, cancels, i-frames, and such. For me, that combo of a straightforward design with a few options that can be mixed in surprisingly complex ways can create one of the most enjoyable shmup experiences, because it is easy to pick up and get into yet feels like it has space for lots of experimenting. I mean, I gotta keep playing this... I didn't even try the 3-stage hyper arrange mode yet!