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Mushihimesama
  PCShooter_VertUC  
  opened by paleface at 15:11:56 07/24/22  
  last modified by paleface at 20:29:24 03/06/24  
  paleface [sys=PC; cat=Shooter_Vert; reg=NA]
           
The Steam version of "Bug Princess" takes the lush insect world graphics to 960p (1080p bordered) sprite detail somehow, looking really sharp. It adds a Novice mode with fewer enemy bullets, alongside Normal and Arrange.
 
There's "V1.5" or "Matsuri" mode DLC; people seem to like it but I'm going to avoid it for now because it increases the color saturation, which my already photosensitive eyes probably don't need, and adds a sucking up ground amber chunks "by holding the focus shot button," which my crunky old shoulder doesn't need. : P I'm too old to play shmups!
 
  paleface 16:14:28 07/24/22
           
Oh Wikipedia has a nice concise write-up on the Steam version:
 
"Degica released a port for Microsoft Windows through the Steam digital distribution platform on November 5, 2015. This release, developed chiefly by Cave, is based on the Xbox 360 'HD' port, and includes the same Novice, Original, and Arrange modes rendered with HD graphics. Unlike the Xbox 360 version, however, where Version 1.5 mode and the arranged soundtrack were only available in limited quantities, the Steam version offers these as paid DLC available to all. Additionally, whereas the Xbox 360 port was region-locked to NTSC-J hardware, the Steam version is an international release with no region restrictions."
 
(Steam also offers a version 1.5 arranged soundtrack as Mushihimesama DLC--but to clarify, the DLC OST, AST, and 1.5 AST are just mp3 downloads of the in-game music.)
 
  paleface 00:17:51 07/25/22
           
Unlike Cave's DonPachi sci-fi shooter series, the insect-themed Mushihimesama concentrates more on loose bunches of fast-moving enemy bullets, rather than slower, tightly knit patterns--although they can still get pretty thick in, say, Mushi's Maniac mode. You can still make your ship move slower by holding the Shot button down (the arcade had Shot, Bomb, and Auto-Fire buttons), but it doesn't really seem necessary here, which my grouchy old shoulder should appreciate--for now I'm just hammering Shot repeatedly. ; )
 
Didn't realize until halfway through the run in Arrange mode that the Auto-Fire button doesn't shoot the lasers from your "Trace" (aka "option") side-car ships UNLESS you hold it down. Speaking of Arrange, it's probably the mode I should stick to, since it automatically uses a bomb when your princess is hit, instead of you just dying--unless you're out of bombs; and I can't seem to recognize when I'm in trouble fast enough to drop a bomb manually, so I end up getting further in Arrange than in Normal, despite Arrange's heavier enemy shot patterns--although the always-maxed firepower of Arrange probably has something to do with that, too. 'p' I like Arrange's AST, but I like Normal's OST as well, plus I keep thinking I should play Normal to GET better at manual bombing...so I'm still going back and forth on this. = P
 
I tried running the game in windowed mode, the default, but it doesn't seem to kick in the HD sprite work in that mode, and runs the game in a small-ish window with big side borders; you can scale it up to fill the 9:16 ratio window version at 150% zoom, but that comes out pixelated. But fortunately the game does NOT drop frames in full screen when I record it with OBS on the same PC--whereas the simpler-looking Blue Wish Desire (see entry 1446) DID; so, maybe a fairly optimized conversion here.
 
I wish I could stop it from asking if I want to save a replay after every run. : P The "A" confirm and "B" cancel menu functions don't correspond to your mapped Shot and Bomb buttons, so I keep having to hunt around for them on my Hori Real Arcade Pro V 2017 PS4 arcade stick (in PS3 mode; haven't tried "PS4" or "PC" modes)--which does, at least, otherwise work just fine here, as long as I remember to plug it in before running the game.
 
Mushihimesama is about the least flash-laden Cave shmup, so my photosensitive eyes can just about handle it, with some help from Windows' amberizing "Night Light" overlay, which my OBS recording software thankfully DOESN'T capture. : ) Still, my eyes were a bit sensitized after an hour or two of messing with it, I think next time I'll crank Night Light up from my usual 45 to a real orangerizing 65 or so.
 

 
That thing where I ended fairly early on stage 3 is NOT a boss, it's just...the stage. = oo
 
The 960p presentation here is a huge step up over the filtered PS2 480i version. The other blurry PS2 Taito Cave port, whose name I couldn't think of in the video, is the rose-themed, weapon-complicated Ibara (see entry 1029).
 
  paleface 11:07:05 08/30/22
           

 
S, the fastest but narrowest, is definitely the ship for me! = D And the narrow pattern doesn't matter so much in Arrange where you start with 6 Option ships, I suppose.
 
Hadn't realized that when you take a hit and your ship auto-bombs to save your life in Arrange mode, it drops ALL your bombs at once! : O That made me wonder whether I want to play Original mode instead, but ehh I still seem to like / do better in Arrange mode, so new Arrange bomb strat: manual bomb when scared until down to one bomb, then just concentrate on dodging, and let auto-bomb use that last one (I screwed this up once ; D).
 
Got to the stage 3 boss (barely ; DD) and nearly doubled my old Arrange high score!
 
  paleface 12:12:19 09/15/22
           
Finally realized I can *mostly* make YouTube show 3:4 vert-screen game videos--Mushihimesama, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug--in up to at least 1080p60--and usually 1440p60--if I double their starting 1080p resolution in OBS (using "Point" scaling--seems pretty CPU-cheap, and since these are narrow screen anyway the file sizes still aren't too bad).
 
YouTube still allotted ONE (https://youtu.be/IGCzozFFaAU) of the resulting 4K Ms. Pac-Man PS4 test videos I uploaded a mere 720p60; I think that was because most of it was while it was paused and I was twiddling with the screen scaling, which in this probably final Namco Ms. Pac-Man port--seeing as how they're currently working to eradicate her from human memory, replacing her with Pac-Mom so they don't have to pay those Ms. Pac-Man royalties to the old GCC hackers who invented her--is awful: no discrete scaling values, or even to screen border; it just scales some distance based on how briefly you manage to tick the "Zoom" button, UGH; also it's always slightly blurry--probably due to the unavoidable rescaling--which probably makes YouTube figure hey it's already blurry why should I bother making it HD blurry.
 
Anyway it'll probably work (https://youtu.be/Dl74aaSnCc0) most of (https://youtu.be/CrLuan_i0sw) the time (https://youtu.be/DZcmuECLueM), so now I can stop having to side-border them to 1:1 to get that YouTube 1080p60, and they'll come up nice and big on phones in portrait mode.
 
  paleface 20:29:24 03/06/24
           
Those "full extent of the jam" etc warnings are similar to ones in the arcade versions of earlier Cave shooters DonPachi and DoDonPachi: https://www.tumblr.com/smbhax/744252611510796288/warnings-in-cave-shmups-donpachi-1-2-and
    
 
references:
· Capcom Arcade Stadium (PS4)
· Dangun Feveron (PS4)
· Dangun Feveron (PCB)
· DeathSmiles (X360)
· DoDonPachi (PS1)
· dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU (PCB)
· dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU (PS2)
· DonPachi (PS1)
· ESPGaluda (PS2)
· ESP Ra. De. (PCB)
· Guwange (PCB)
· Ibara (PS2)
· Ibara (PCB)
· Ketsui (PCB)
· Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra (PS3)
· Mushihimesama (PS2)
· Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 (X360)
· Progear (PCB)

 
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