I think Psikyo and Touhou have opposite causes of the same problem. Where touhou patterns are so slow moving that it feels sedate and boring, even when it's difficult; Psikyo patterns are so fast and memorization based that when I see a new one (especially at max rank), it's so completely impossible to dodge on reaction, that I don't even feel the desire to try, and as such, it doesn't get the blood pumping at all. Feels kind of sedate and boring. Makes me feel more apathetic than anxious.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=23618
There's too little of a gap between the percieved threat and death. In most shooters the process is something like: Pattern starts, I can SEE how difficult the pattern is going to be for me to weave through and properly see gaps, pattern arrives and I get to start wing-it dodging, I can see how poorly/well I'm doing, feel the imminence of death or the possibility of lucky success, and either panic bomb, try to luck it through, or die, and THEN I die. It's all very exciting and gets me all worked up. With Psikyo it's like bulletsohshidead. Or bulletstaplefttaprightbulletsgone. When you DO make it through Psikyo patterns, there's no sense of satisfation at having dodged through a tricky pattern... They're far too here and gone.
Psikyo rips the band-aid off too quickly. Doesn't leave you any time to think about the pain you're experiencing ^_^
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 584#429584
I'm not sure how I can articulate it so that you'd understand. They're TOO fast and hopeless to give that sense of rush. It pushes straight past exciting all the way to apathetic. It's just "BAM! You're dead." Without that strand of hope that there's some small possibility you'll make it through, the excitment just isn't there.
It'd be much more exhilirating, for example, to see a train coming at you at 50mph, just in time for you to jump out of the way and survive, than it would be to see a land-speed record setting jetcar coming at you at 500mph where your only hope of ever jumping out of the way was to know it was there in the first place. You're dead before you have time to panic.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 605#429605
As a general rule, scoring systems suck. There's no debate to be had.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 613#429613
The bolded part in the following passage connects to what Recap was saying in the recent 1CC thread.
I also decided to do some savestate practicing to see if I couldn't figure out the 4th stage boss. I mostly did... Then I tried the 5th stage boss. First form got easy enough quick enough, but the first pattern of the second form is what I REALLY hate about Psikyo games...
I shouldn't have any right being able to dodge this pattern. The bullets are so fast, that even when I can dodge through it without thinking about it, I can't see the path through the bullets that I'm taking. It's just "tap once here, and again here, safe." I can dodge that pattern 100%, eyes closed using audio clues, and probably be better off than if I'm watching (the bullets are only confusing with that many at that speed). If I try to "see" my way through the pattern, I can't, no matter how many times I run it. But... tap tap safe. Dumb... as... hell.
The worst part, is that without savestate practice, I don't even want to think about how long it would have been before I figured that out. I probably would have just bombed it. Every... single... time. Any pattern where you HAVE to bomb or die unless you know the tap-timing, especially that early in the game, is utter fail. Not fun to dodge, not stressful, just confusing.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 639#429639
