Fantastic Danmaku Festival II Scoring Replays

[marus]

This post is partially a humblebrag, but I just got a NNN clear of Fantastic Danmaku Festival 2's extra stage, and now I'm interested in learning more about scoring routes. Are there any good resources for replays and videos for this game (particularly extra mode)? I found that LYX has an awesome video playlist and a scoring guide, but I'm curious to see what else exists or if scores are tracked anywhere.

Also here's my run if you're curious, along with some commentary!
Run
Replay file

[williewillus]

Congrats!

Fangame scoring is an incredibly niche category, unfortunately. Even worse, the scoring system in FDF2 is definitely tuned around what LYX likes (MoF-style No-Bomb runs), which isn't as popular. I think besides what he's published, you're mostly on your own.

[marus]

Thanks! I kind of figured that would be the case, but I figured I might as well ask around. I also usually prefer games that encourage you to use your bombs and resources for score, but I have to admit trying to figure out how to time the cherry borders was fun. It makes me want to learn PCB for real at some point.

[marus]

I might as well post this here since I don't know where else to post it, but I just (barely) beat LYX's extra score, with a final score of 8.39 billion! I'll upload a video and write up my strats later, but for now you can check out my replay here if you're curious: restartsyndrome link

I actually messed up a border during the stage portion, which cost me some MaxPoint and one life off the end-of-stage bonus. I also grazed a little bit conservatively during the whole Yukari fight. I still want to go for an NNN run with these routes - I'm pretty sure I could break 8.5 billion (or at least get really close to it). That said I'm still happy with this run, and now that I pulled it off I can afford to play a bit more risky.

EDIT: Video is now up, along with scoring commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGuhouKhK4

[marus]

I've been continuing to grind this game, and I've figured out some new information and strats since my previous run. I just got a PB of 8.90 billion today! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1859467370

Stuff I learned since my last update:

• JHA is tracking scores for the arcade version of this game (Touhou Dengenkei - Perfect Sakura Fantastica). It's technically a different game, but they're similar enough that I think it's worth comparing to at least some extent. DASI currently holds the Extra Mode WR at 8.83 billion - this would be about 9.25 billion in the PC version when you adjust for the larger end-of-stage bonus you get from having more lives. See Arcade WRs
• During Old God Revival of Horror (Yukari's 2nd spellcard), you can sit on the top of the screen to supergraze it. This is risky and a bit RNG dependent since bullets will spawn really close to you and you don't have a lot of time to react, but it lets you get an additional level 3 border and builds a ton of graze and MaxPoint.
• I also adjusted the timing of the bomb I do at the start of the run to let me abuse the invincibility frames you get whenever a border starts. That plus getting closer to enemies lets you build much more graze and MaxPoint. The enemies at the start of the run spawn randomly so this is a bit inconsistent, but since this all occurs during the first minute it's not too bad to just keep restarting until you get a good pattern.

My goal is to break 9 billion, and eventually hopefully "tie" DASI's WR (once you adjust their score for PC). I made a lot of mistakes in my current PB - with no mistakes my score potential should be around 9.3 billion, so my goal is doable!

[williewillus]

Very nice!

How are you adjusting the arcade score to PC?

[marus]

In the arcade version you get less lives and bombs, which means that you get less points for the end-of-stage bonus. The score calculation for lives and bombs is:

Code: [Select]

(lives * 40,000,000 + bombs * 20,000,000) * difficultyThe difficulty multiplier is 1.5 for Extra mode.

So assuming you NBMB (which you're ideally supposed to do aside from one bomb at the very beginning), then the score bonus from lives and bombs should be:

• Arcade - 4 lives 8 bombs = (4 * 40,000,000 + 8 * 20,000,000) * 1.5 = 480,000,000 points
• PC - 10 lives 10 bombs = (10 * 40,000,000 + 8 * 20,000,000) * 1.5 = 900,000,000 points

So PC earns an extra 420,000,000 points.

It's worth pointing out I don't actually know a lot about the arcade version, so there may be other differences I'm not aware of. I've played it a tiny bit and it didn't seem particularly different, but I haven't done any side-by-side comparisons. I also haven't actually seen any of the high-level Extra mode runs for the arcade version, so I'm operating under the assumption that the routing is fairly similar to what I'm doing.

[williewillus]

In arcade the borders also don't last as long

When a border is active, the cherry gauge drains more quickly
Borders no longer cycle between awarding bomb and life fragments. Instead, borders always reward bomb pieces, rewarding 0, 1, and 2 bomb pieces for Levels 1, 2, and 3 respectively

[marus]

I've read that before too, but honestly I'm not sure if it's true. At least the few times I played the arcade version, the timings for my borders have always felt the same. For example, I always time a bomb at the beginning of the run to activate my first border early, and in both arcade and PC the border ends at the same time. It might just be that I haven't played the arcade version enough, but I feel like my routes would get noticeably messed up if this were true.