[Gunvein] Lizzy (Type C) Expert TLB ALL CLEAR (Score: 4,131,454) [CC Commentary]

Gunvein is a great game. No doubt about it. But to be honest, while I did have a great time with it, I love Gunvein, I still prefer Sol Cresta. I guess I'm more of a cinematic set piece guy... Don't let that discourage you from playing Gunvein, though. It's a full recommendation from me!
Gunvein is a bullet hell shmup in vein (hehe) of DDP and Battle Garegga, though the shot types are more distinct than that and the bomb resources are relatively kind in comparison. You can shoot, use the special weapon that functions differently for each shot type, go Hyper and bomb. Your normal shot is usually spread out, mainly for against popcorns. The special weapon also functions as the focus button, focusing your shot to be narrower. Hyper gives you momentary i-frames, around 1 second compared to around 5 seconds of Hyper? Please keep in mind when using Hypers for defensive measures! The bomb is unique for each shot type, including the i-frames, the attack hitbox positions and DPS.
Before I explain the nitty gritty of the Expert mode, let me do a small review of Gunvein as a package. It has robust options like practice mode, challenges (The highlights are the 3 caravan stages and boss rush) and ew, Rougelite Arrange!? There will be a video for that, but let's just say it's not bad. It's hard to say that it's a bad game at all. It's great! But on the stages itself the cinematics feel lacking. I'm a multi-scroll junkie :P. And the patterns difficulty-wise feel rather spiky. Like, the Stage 2 boss is trickier to learn than the Stage 3 boss, for example. The stages are pretty easy too as long as you're conscious with your bomb fragments. But hey, it feels good to blow things up! Last but not least, the DPS difference of Type C and other shot types is too apparent! Type A is quite weak in many aspects like bomb farming and DPS. Type B at least have the best bomb. Type C's drop bomb, that has the power to skip many patterns. At the time of recording the video, the thing that I'd criticize the most about Gunvein, though perhaps it's rich coming from me, is the poor shot type balancing. I think Type A should be possible on Expert, but I doubt it'll be a comfortable one. My personal suggestion? Buff up the special weapon damage to be comparable to Type C's. Type C must not be nerfed. Buff, good. Nerf, bad.
The tutorials for the basic survival is robust, but it's not that good at explaining itself on the deeper level. I'm fine with not explaining bomb finishers is the key to scoring, but I wish I have more info about extend excesses! If you get an extend while having max lives, you can stock only up to 3 extra lives, you'll be given a shield. That's quite a tsundere way to tell you have a total of 4 lives max. Now what happens when you get another extend when you still have your shield? I don't know. One thing for sure, because getting hit while still having a shield is not considered a death, the bomb reset to 1 if you have less than 1 bomb won't happen. Stingy! Oh, right, the Ready thing. After you finish off the bosses the counter gets reset upon entering the next stage. What a tease! It works on Boss Rush, but this is still a mean teasing!
In Expert mode the main horror, at least for Type C, is the bosses. Type C melts the stage easily with coordinated drop-bombing and bomb fragment management. On boss fights, though, you must ration your bombs. Good thing bomb refills can be planned and easily too. The main key is to figure out how to not die with minimal bomb usage. Usually by deciding whenever you need to bomb, which uses 10 bomb fragments, or Hyper, which only uses 5 bomb fragments. In other words, a total of 6 mistake corrections. That is Gunvein's memorable charm.
The patterns are overall fun, though on boss fights some patterns can have really obtuse solutions, and early too. Sometimes it impossibly stacks so you must bomb. Or maybe not and I just haven't found how to no-miss no-bomb it. Some are heavy on the RNG too. Yikes! For the best enjoyment think of it as a game where you must bomb.
The good news is the TLB s not bomb immune! Thank goodness! Also it's not that insane. Heck, the insane one is the Final Boss. That's where you need to ration your bombs out, and that's the primary goal.
Expert is a worthy spicy challenge to test your skills as a shmup player. Get ready to be rained down with serious butt-kicking!
Steam Page of the game:
store.steampow...
#stg #shmup #gunvein

[@shmups_hobby]

Really great commentary, thanks. Good work, we need more vids like this instead of clears with no notes!!

[@EkoEko-yx5zd]

OPERATION: BLIZZARD CRACK MISSION 1 BOSS 1: SANADA YUKIMURA MISSION 2 BOSS 2: IONA SORAI MISSION 3 BOSS 3: DATE MASAMUNE MISSION 4 BOSS 4: KAGAKURA KOJURO MISSION 5 BOSS 5: ITSUKI FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: HONDA TADAKATSU OPERATION: KNIGHT STREAM BURST MISSION 1 BOSS 1: SANADA YUKIMURA MISSION 2 BOSS 2: DATE MASAMUNE MISSION 3 BOSS 3: KASUMI TOYAMA MISSION 4 BOSS 4: TAE HANAZONO FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: HONDA TADAKATSU OPERATION: ICHI MISSION 1 BOSS 1: HATSUNE MIKU MISSION 2 BOSS 2: KASANE TETO MISSION 3 BOSS 3: ORIKA HOZUMI MISSION 4 BOSS 4: ANN YAMASHINA FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: KAMIJOU TOUMA OPERATION: HYAKU MISSION 1 BOSS 1: MISAKA MIKOTO MISSION 2 BOSS 2: SATEN RUIKO MISSION 3 BOSS 3: SHIRAI KUROKO MISSION 4 BOSS 4: UIHARU KAZARI FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: HOSHINO ICHIKA OPERATION: D-SNIPER BLUE FINISH MISSION 1 BOSS 1: TENMA TSUKASA MISSION 2 BOSS 2: AOYAGI TOYA MISSION 3 BOSS 3: SHINONOME AKITO MISSION 4 BOSS 4: YAMAMOTO SAKURA FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: MISAKA HYAKU OPERATION: D-ROD GREEN CRASH MISSION 1 BOSS 1: MISAKA ICHI MISSION 2 BOSS 2: MISAKA NI MISSION 3 BOSS 3: TAICHI AIZU MISSION 4 BOSS 4: MISAKA HYAKU ICHI FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: MEIGO ARISAKA OPERATION: D-KNUCKLE SKYBLUE IMPACT MISSION 1 BOSS 1: OROKASA MAYU MISSION 2 BOSS 2 TOKORO HANAZUKI MISSION 3 BOSS 3: AKIYAMA MIZUKI MISSION 4 BOSS 4: OTORI EMU FINAL MISSION FINAL BOSS: OTOSE HARE OPERATION: D-KNUCKLE PINK IMPACT OPERATION: D-SNIPER GREEN FINISH OPERATION: D-SHOT PINK CYCLONE FLASH