Cotton Rock'n'Roll コットンロックンロール - Normal Mode - Kawase - ALL - 81.411.330pts - ABEJIMGH

Описание: It's now Kawase's turn to clear the game! As a big fan of her series, I knew I would want to play as her as soon as I learned she would be in the game...well, that was a few years ago already, damn lol. I remember playing Blade Strangers (a fighting game) for the same reason too lmao.

And maybe in order to be faithful to the learning curve in the actual Umihara Kawase games, she definitely isn't the easiest character to use and score with in this game...and by that I mean she's probably the hardest lmao. Well, getting the clear with her isn't an unsurmountable feat either as I managed to get it in a few days so maybe 4/5 hours of playtime since the Fine clear? But it was harder than Cotton and Appli for sure.

The reasons why she is tricky to use and why her WR score potential seems to be the lowest are two-fold : her magic and her lure. They are both technical, specialized, and require precision...even though the game is extremely chaotic lol

Just like Cotton or Appli, Kawase can collect colored crystal to get fire, lightning or wind spells...but she gets her own variants on it. (Like that Wing Layer thing for lightning) If you have the right spell at the right time, you can get some juicy bell counts, but if not, it can be pretty hard to improvise with the others. It didn't feel like this with Cotton and Appli, even though there were still many scenarios where a best magic type was noticeable.

And even with the right magic, there'll be plenty of times where that Wing Layers hitbox will feel way too small as it fails to catch the big laser that even overlaps the sprite wtf. Contrast that with the tornados from the witches and it's night and day.

Another hitbox that can feel too small is the lure. That tool is very cool as it allows you to generate bells without crystals, a bit like Appli's grab mechanic. The catch is that the direction you throw the lure or the caught enemy depend on the directional input...and the lure itself can be small, so ramming into an enemy after failing to catch it can happen if you're doing risky movements to get it. There's also issues if you want to catch an enemy in front of you but then move back at the last second before throwing the lure as not to get rammed, which will make you throw the lure backwards and not solve the dangerous situation you put yourself in. I tended to grab enemies diagonally to minimize risk though it's still not without its risks.

Here I picked some safe stages I know I can score decently well and can survive in but also stages I haven't played/showed a ton yet, like the Cotton 2 stage. That one is likely not gonna see a lot of use, it seems really terrible for scoring sadly. Short stage, and the boss milk is not amazing either (especially for a character that needs a consumable resource to generate bells) I am pretty sure some other stages will be used in her optimized route but i'm still extremely far from thinking about that

Final two stages didn't go suuuper well, especially the Space stage with that Tacoot death, and also not getting the bonus spawns on the midboss. Well maybe it was for the better since those sections are crazy and Kawase struggles to keep up lol. The final stage went better but still a bit wonky here and there. I had to practice that last boss since I showed up a few times there in other runs but got wrecked by the mecha form. This is another place where you want the Wing Layer at specific moments since it is way better than the other two spells for the aimed salvos of missiles, whereas Cotton and Appli could probably do fine with either lightning or wind.

Played on PC (Steam version), recorded with OBS Studio
#STG #shmup