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[[Samidare]] is a vertical scrolling [[danmaku]] [[shooting game]] in which you control a ship that can use a shield to cancel out enemy fire as well as fire shots to destroy enemies.
[[Samidare]] is a vertical scrolling [[danmaku]] [[shooting game]] in which you control a ship that can use a shield to cancel out enemy fire as well as fire shots to destroy enemies.


The game consists of three stages played in order, as well as a separate Extra Stage, similarly to [[Touhou]]. There are no difficulty levels for the main game, nor is there a rank system. The main game allows you to use continues when you lose all your lives, while the Extra Stage does not. Unlike most games of its genre, there is no such thing as bombs in this game, since it features the shield instead.
The game consists of three stages played in order, as well as a separate Extra Stage, similarly to [[Touhou]]. There are no difficulty levels for the main game, nor is there any rank system. The main game allows you to use continues when you lose all your lives, while the Extra Stage does not. Unlike most games of its genre, Samidare has no bombs. The second button instead activates your shield.


====Shot====
====Shot====
The shot is the main, and only, method for the ship to attack enemies. It can power up by means of collecting items; it will power up at 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, 80 and 96 items, at which point it reaches its maximum power. The shot is the same across the main game and the Extra Stage, even though the ship colors and characters controlling the ships are different. A sound effect is played whenever one of your shots hits a target, which is either an enemy or a wall. At higher power levels, shots that fire at angles to the left and right sides are added to the main forward shot, which means that the shot will be more powerful when fired at point blank range.
The shot is the main, and only, method for the ship to attack enemies. It can power up by means of collecting items; it will power up at 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, 80 and 96 items, at which point it reaches its maximum power. The shot is the same across the main game and the Extra Stage, even though the ship colors and characters controlling the ships are different. A rain-like sound effect is played whenever one of your shots hits a target (either an enemy or a wall). At higher power levels, shots that fire at angles to the left and right sides are added to the main forward shot, making the shot slightly stronger at point blank range.


====Shield====
====Shield====
The ''shield'' is the main defining feature of the game. It cancels out any enemy bullets as well as making the ship invincible in general, meaning it cannot be killed by touching enemies or walls. The shield has limited energy, which always depletes by at least 17% (the depletion when pressing the X key and releasing it immediately after). The energy will start recharging a second after the player stops using it. When bullets are cancelled, the shot becomes wide and powerful as well as orange-colored; this more powerful shot is called the ''hyper''. The more bullets the shield cancels, the longer the hyper will be active, up to a certain limit. This is indicated by the hyper meter that will appear right under the ship during the hyper. Above the hyper meter is the shield meter, which indicates how much energy your shield has left and is only shown while the energy is not full. A bar indicating the remaining shield energy is also displayed on the bottom left of the screen. The shield is colored blue, but if its energy is 25% or lower, it is colored red instead, as a warning that it is about to be disabled. Using the shield also causes the hitbox of the ship to be much larger than usual, which is useful for collecting clusters of items.
The ''shield'' is the defining feature of the game. It cancels out any enemy bullets within its radius and protects the ship from damage by collision. The shield may be held for about five consecutive seconds before running out of energy and dissipating. When the shield's energy falls below 25% or lower, it turns from blue to red. The amount of energy remaining is indicated by the ''shield meter'', which is displayed both in the bottom-left-hand corner of the screen and again behind the ship.
 
One second after the shield is released, its energy begins to recharge. It takes about eight seconds for an empty shield meter to refill completely.
 
Whenever the shield cancels enemy bullets, the player's shot becomes wider, stronger, and bright orange. This more powerful shot is called the ''hyper''. The hyper lasts for a length of time determined by the number of bullets cancelled by the shield, as indicated by a ''hyper meter'' that appears just below the shield meter behind the ship for as long as the hyper is active.
 
As a secondary effect, an active shield enlarges your hitbox for the purpose of collecting items.


====Lives====
====Lives====
Both in the main game and the Extra Stage, you start out with 5 lives by default. This number can be lowered to 1, 2, 3 or 4 by using the options menu; it cannot be increased, however. No extra lives are awarded while playing the game. If you lose a life, shield energy will be reset to 50%, even if it was higher than that prior to dying, and will automatically start recharging.
The number of lives may be set in the options menu to any value from 1 to 5, with 5 being default. This applies to both the main game and the Extra Stage. No extra lives are ever awarded during play. If you lose a life, your shield energy will be set to 50% and begin recharging immediately.


In the main game, if you run out of lives, you are given the option to continue, which can be done up to 3 times. There is a 10-second timer which will cause the game to end automatically if it hits 0. If you choose to continue, you will resume the game from where you left off, with the same number of lives as when you started the game, and 1 point will be added to your score. It is not possible to determine whether someone has continued or not from the current score, as it is possible to gain numbers of points that do not end in 0 from certain actions.
In the main game, if you run out of lives, a countdown begins and you are given the option to continue play from where you died. This may be done up to three times. If you do not wish to continue, press Escape to end the countdown immediately. If you do choose to continue, you will resume play from the point where you died, with as many lives as you started the game with, and with 1 point added to your score. It is not possible to determine whether someone has continued based on score, as certain other events may also award points in non-multiples of 10.


===Boss Battles===
===Boss Battles===

Latest revision as of 00:20, 25 October 2020

Gameplay

Controls

The game can be played using either a keyboard or a controller.

Keyboard controls are as follows:

  • The Arrow Keys are used for movement
  • Z will fire shots; autofire if held down
  • X activates the shield and keeps it active if held down
  • Shift slows the movement of the ship, without changing the shot
  • Esc pauses the game and pops up a menu that allows you to resume, restart or quit the game; during a replay, ends the replay
  • Ctrl fast-forwards through any dialogue
  • Space fast-forwards through a replay

Basic Gameplay

Samidare is a vertical scrolling danmaku shooting game in which you control a ship that can use a shield to cancel out enemy fire as well as fire shots to destroy enemies.

The game consists of three stages played in order, as well as a separate Extra Stage, similarly to Touhou. There are no difficulty levels for the main game, nor is there any rank system. The main game allows you to use continues when you lose all your lives, while the Extra Stage does not. Unlike most games of its genre, Samidare has no bombs. The second button instead activates your shield.

Shot

The shot is the main, and only, method for the ship to attack enemies. It can power up by means of collecting items; it will power up at 8, 16, 32, 48, 64, 80 and 96 items, at which point it reaches its maximum power. The shot is the same across the main game and the Extra Stage, even though the ship colors and characters controlling the ships are different. A rain-like sound effect is played whenever one of your shots hits a target (either an enemy or a wall). At higher power levels, shots that fire at angles to the left and right sides are added to the main forward shot, making the shot slightly stronger at point blank range.

Shield

The shield is the defining feature of the game. It cancels out any enemy bullets within its radius and protects the ship from damage by collision. The shield may be held for about five consecutive seconds before running out of energy and dissipating. When the shield's energy falls below 25% or lower, it turns from blue to red. The amount of energy remaining is indicated by the shield meter, which is displayed both in the bottom-left-hand corner of the screen and again behind the ship.

One second after the shield is released, its energy begins to recharge. It takes about eight seconds for an empty shield meter to refill completely.

Whenever the shield cancels enemy bullets, the player's shot becomes wider, stronger, and bright orange. This more powerful shot is called the hyper. The hyper lasts for a length of time determined by the number of bullets cancelled by the shield, as indicated by a hyper meter that appears just below the shield meter behind the ship for as long as the hyper is active.

As a secondary effect, an active shield enlarges your hitbox for the purpose of collecting items.

Lives

The number of lives may be set in the options menu to any value from 1 to 5, with 5 being default. This applies to both the main game and the Extra Stage. No extra lives are ever awarded during play. If you lose a life, your shield energy will be set to 50% and begin recharging immediately.

In the main game, if you run out of lives, a countdown begins and you are given the option to continue play from where you died. This may be done up to three times. If you do not wish to continue, press Escape to end the countdown immediately. If you do choose to continue, you will resume play from the point where you died, with as many lives as you started the game with, and with 1 point added to your score. It is not possible to determine whether someone has continued based on score, as certain other events may also award points in non-multiples of 10.

Boss Battles

Each boss uses a specific number of patterns in a set order, each with a different number of seconds on the timer. The health bar of the boss is shown at the top of the screen, with a smaller health bar, depicting the health of only the current pattern rather than all boss patterns added up together, shown right below it. When destroyed, the boss will award a fixed number of points and, if it happens to be a stage boss and not a midboss, the current stage will be finished, causing the clear bonus to be awarded, after which the game moves on to the next stage, if any.

Screen Layout

Screen layout
  1. High score and current score
  2. Lives remaining
  3. Number of items collected
  4. Current shot power level
    • The progress bar indicates the progress to the next level
  5. Current date, current time, time the game has been running for, and total play time.
  6. Boss health
    • Only when boss is on screen
  7. Player ship and shield
  8. Shield energy
  9. Game window

Scoring

Enemies

Destroying enemies gives a small number of points by default, while destroying bosses gives a relatively large number of points. Notably, the score gain from destroying enemies in the Extra Stage is much higher than in the main game. Points are also awarded for hitting enemies or walls with your shot, at a rate of 100 points per shot, or 300 points per shot if using the hyper. Using the shield to cancel enemy bullets does not award any points.

Items

Enemies drop items when destroyed, which can be picked up for points. They give more points the higher your power is, while also giving more points the more items you collected consecutively without dropping any. At below maximum power, the position of your ship on the screen matters, while at maximum power it does not. The maximum value of an item is 5,120 below maximum power, which applies when the item is collected high up on the screen. At lower positions, the item value ranges from 20 to 2,560 depending on the height. At maximum power, the points gained from picking up an item ranges from 10,400 to a maximum value of 25,600 depending on your consecutive collection. If an enemy is destroyed at point blank range, the item dropped by it is collected automatically.

In the Extra Stage, the bakebake in the third part of the stage have a special property, namely that they cancel all their bullets into items when destroyed, which is especially important for scoring that particular section.

Multiplier

If an enemy or boss is destroyed using the hyper, the score awarded by it will be multiplied by 16, as indicated by yellow 'x16' text shown on screen at the location of the enemy being destroyed. This is the single most important scoring mechanic in the game. It is especially important on bosses; the points awarded from getting the multiplier on bosses in the Extra Stage are several millions.

List of points gained from destroying the bosses of the game with the x16 multiplier:

 Stage 1 midboss:    256,000
 Sylphid:             64,000
 Anareta:             64,000
 SMD-00x:            600,000
 Extra midboss:   16,000,000
 Mai:             10,000,000
 Gates:           24,000,000
 VIVIT:           28,800,000

In the main game, the Stage 2 midboss does not award any points from being destroyed, as its last pattern does not have a health bar and the midboss simply self-destructs once the timer hits 0.

In the Extra Stage, if you destroy Yuki instead of Mai, the x16 multiplier is never awarded, even if you destroy her by hyper.

Time Bonus

Boss patterns award a time bonus when their health bar is emptied, which is proportional to the amount of time left on the timer when the pattern ended. This is one of the two main scoring methods on boss battles, the other being the x16 multiplier. For most boss patterns in the game, it is worthwhile to finish them as fast as you can; there are however a few patterns that involve the boss firing missiles, during which it can be worth more points to delay finishing off the pattern in order to shoot down the missiles using your hyper to get x16 multipliers on them.

Clear Bonus

At the end of every stage, a clear bonus is awarded, which is calculated as follows:

 Stage x  1,000,000 (stage number, Extra = 4)
 Items x  1,000

If the player never died during the stage, a No Miss Bonus equal to 1,000,000 points is awarded in addition to the two parts of the clear bonus.

Unlockables

Extra Stage

To unlock the Extra Stage of the game, one has to clear the main game without using any continues.

Bugs

  • On the second pattern of the Stage 1 boss Sylphid, a time bonus of 28,800 is awarded if it is timed out, even though no other pattern awards a time bonus if timed out.
  • Ending the last pattern with wings on the Stage 3 boss SMD-00x at the same time as killing either wing may cause the final pattern to glitch out and also fire blue and orange lines of bullets from previous attacks. If the boss is killed while this is happening, the game will crash and the current credit, as well as any play time gained during the session, will be lost.
  • Occasionally, the game might crash after saving a replay. The replay will have been saved correctly, but if a new high score was attained, it will not have overwritten the previous one.