Gradius V

[dataDave]

Still losing a life on the stage 5 boss and still getting my arse kicked by stage 7. This is gonna take mucho practice, the bosses on stage 7 are piss apart from the first one - If I get through that I should be ok.

[Saurian]

I'm at a stupid stage where I can do stage 5 boss no problem in practice.....but in main game I get pwn3d!

[dataDave]

I'm at a stupid stage where I can do stage 5 boss no problem in practice.....but in main game I get pwn3d!

It's a bad segment for nerves I think. I keep tally of how many lives I lose on each attempt in practice. At the top of the list are a few 0's a couple of 2's and one steady stream of around 30+ 1's. I can't do it without losing a life anymore.

One thing I have noticed, I don't know if I've already mentioned this, but I find it 100x easier to dodge the 2nd spray attack phase eventhough there aren't as many asteroids to hide behind. Can't work out why, it looks the same as the first phase - even if I clear asteroids in front of me to emulate the 2nd phase I get totally wiped. Too many bullets to avoid.

One thing I like doing is making sure there are TONS of asteroids in front of it before it starts, that gives me a second or two to warm up with the flow of asteroids coming from the left of the screen.

How are you playing Saur? Have you slagged through with credits and unlocked stage 6 for practice incase you do pwn 5-4? Stage 6 is incredibly easy, seems hard at first like, it only took me 2 practice runs to get it into my head, it's all about ship/option positioning and little else tbh.

You've GOT to slag thorugh the entire game tonight though man! The very end of stage 7 had me well excited then I remembered I was only playing practice so I couldn't carry on to stage 8 to find out what happens!

[Saurian]

Nice one for that man!

I've been a good boy and left credits well alone, I hear you about getting the other stages up, I'll be a cheap slut tonight and use credits to get beyond 5.
It's definetly nerves why I keep dying, individually I'm OK with stage 5 it's just when I put it all together it gets messy.

[venom743]

Best advice I can give is to move around the screen in the shape of a diamond. It makes it a lot easier for you to dodge the bosse's bullets as it finds it difficult to target your ship. You should destroy it way before it starts to spray its second load of bullets.

[winky]

One thing I have noticed, I don't know if I've already mentioned this, but I find it 100x easier to dodge the 2nd spray attack phase eventhough there aren't as many asteroids to hide behind. Can't work out why, it looks the same as the first phase - even if I clear asteroids in front of me to emulate the 2nd phase I get totally wiped. Too many bullets to avoid.

Im convinced that the asteriods at the first spray still have the momentum from the ship barging through them, so they seem to move around more and faster.

Also if you are lsoing a life on the first spray your speed will be lower, I find doging the asteriods much easier on the intial speed only because the PS2 dead zone makes it a nightmare to get full use of the analoge control :/

[dataDave]

Haven't played this at all in the last couple of days due to a short manic depression phase after taking our dog to get put to sleep. (see off topic)

Anyone got any strategies for the 7-2 boss (5-core) ? I'm always overwhelmed by phat lasers!

I'm easy with the following bosses... It's just the bastard 5-core and the yellow laser puzzle that's stopping me from looping!! gnaahH!

[VR46]

Rob Page has a stage 7 (and many others) vid here

http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/files/gradv/

[dataDave]

LOL - Even that brer loses a life there and he was making it look easy! Damn, I'll try and stick closer to the front of his ship tonight, that's a good idea, you only have to dodge 1 stream for each shot that way.

Please make me loop!! I'll be no.1 at the score thread if I can sort out this boss and the laser puzzle section.

[VR46]

Just seen that the USA release of Gradius V is getting a "Perfect" DVD bonus disc (pre-order only ?), here's hoping for a PAL one, this must be a first for a "Appreciation DVD" outside JPN ?

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=B280818A

[dataDave]

7-2 is almost there... (my best attempts so far have all been 1 life lost)

Having some major problems at the beam puzzle section, I know where to place the balls it's just those bastard blue block things that appear in rings that put me off and make me shoot the balls further along.

I might have to change from type 2.

[dataDave]

I'm still bloody stuck here...

If I try and defend myself from the circular appearing blue blocks I mess up the ball shift, even with type 1.

[Saurian]

Have you seen the Perfect DVD man? He sets that bit up nicely with Type 2!

[Mayhem]

Being me lacking the chippage on my PS2, I was very glad to see Konami's stand @ CGE that I attended over the weekend in San Jose had a ****off huge monitor playing Gradius V! Can't complain, got to level2 boss on my first go. Treasure, you utter nutcases... only you could break away from a company 15 years ago and have them come back to you to do the definitive entry in a long loved series

Trust me, I was loving this through the several plays I had... so when's the PAL release?

[dataDave]

Have you seen the Perfect DVD man? He sets that bit up nicely with Type 2!

Mate, I've only just got around to watching the vids rjpageuk has uploaded and they're all type 4.

I think I need a bit of a break because I'm getting pissed at it now. 35hrs gameplay racked up so far, 7/8 of those spent on stage 7. Once it's bagged I'm sure I can loop easily as stage 8 is a slightly harder version of stage 2 minus the bosses.