[1cc] Shippu Mahou Daisakusen (疾風魔法大作戦) - 2-ALL - Miyamoto

Описание: Known as "Kingdom Grand Prix" in the west.

00:00 - Start-up
0:22 - Basalna City
1:53 - Air Circus
4:10 - Outcast Castle
6:47 - Cold Corridor
8:47 - Strato Storm
11:40 - Kingdom Grandprix
15:22 - Loop 1 ending
16:22 - Basalna City (Loop 2)
18:44 - Velmatic Ocean
21:06 - Cross Fire
23:39 - Deeply Dungeon
27:03 - Forest of Dead!
29:55 - Kobolds Tower
33:56 - Ending and attract mode

The game has maybe the best implementation of second loops I've seen in a video game. In the first loop, after each stage you beat you're given the choice of the following one, between two possibilities. Whichever stage you didn't pick will be forced in the second loop. Only exception is Stage 6, as there are 3 choices, and in the second loop you pick between the two remaining choices.

On top of that, you have to qualify for the second loop by racing. The game becomes a balancing act where you want some fairly easy stages in loop 1 to make sure you qualify for loop 2, but still keeping easy stages in stock for when you're actually in loop 2, because rank can be brutal there. This also means that you get different stages in loop 1 and 2, aside from the first stage.

Speaking of Loop 2, recovery is really hard because you lose all your subweapon items upon death. Regular shots without subweapons tend to be mediocre in this game, and a death in the wrong spot can mean a game over.

With Miyamoto, you pretty much want Homing all the time, but with other characters you may want to alternate.

My stage picks are, for loop 1:
Air Circus: Not a fan of the boss, so I prefer to get it out of the way. Racing can be really hard, and I prefer to just give up on it. It's one stage where I won't get racing points, but I know that I can win 3-4 races and that's enough to qualify. If I competed for racing, other people would generally ram into me during tricky parts like the boss and get me killed.
Outcast Castle: really easy win for racing, if you hurry up at the beginning all your opponents will fall behind because the door closed, and you can take your time from there. Meanwhile, Cross Fire, the other stage, is way too hard for racing and gives you 2 bombs (Outcast Castle has none), so it's best saved for Loop 2.
Cold Corridor: Racing is fine if you bomb at the start. Deeply Dungeon is a little too hard for racing, but the boss sucks in Loop 2 so you may want to do it in Loop 1 instead.
Strato Storm: Another race I can maybe hope to win or at least finish second place if I'm lagging behind. If I'm already ahead for the ranking, I don't take too many risks. Both stages are hard in the second loop anyway.
Kingdom Grandprix: Yashiki of Ninja is hard, and Kobolds Tower's boss is really easy so I keep it for loop 2. It's hard to win the race because the boss is too long, but the same could be said about any of the 3 final stages.

Racing in the second loop is very hard, and there's no real point in finishing first. In fact, scoring runs waste time on purpose as it's worth more points: the point reward for finishing in good position is mediocre and you get more by killing enemies. It's technically possible to win the race in the Loop 2, but it's extremely difficult and requires very specific routing.

Speaking of racing, the AI is kinda weird. If you fall behind, it will be hard to catch up, but if you manage to start ahead of the pack, chances are that they'll never catch up. It's kinda like reverse rubber banding and feels weird. You can start a race by using a bomb to hit all racers (it's the only way to slow them down by yourself), and doing so almost means that you'll win the race. I do it in Cold Corridor, as the beginning can be messy if there are many opponents anyway.

In typical Raizing fashion, bosses have a few select patterns and will randomly pick what to use. They're very unbalanced, with many patterns being a complete joke even in loop 2, while others are borderline impossible unless you bomb. It's also not only about patterns individually: bosses can start using another attack while the previous one is still on screen, leading to weird interactions that can get you cornered. This can happen very often with Cold Corridor's boss and its slow attack that stays on screen for a very long time. So a clear may sometimes depend a little bit on luck. Thankfully, stages can be done very consistently, so even if you get the worst possible luck for bosses you should have enough ressources if you are solid during stages.

I don't really know what happened against Stage 2-3 boss. This spot is supposed to be safe but in recent runs it killed me several times. Thankfully it's not the worst spot to die because you can get a lot of items, but it made my life slightly harder in 2-4, and I died again while that part is easy at full power.

This game was actually my first Raizing clear 1.5 years ago (both loops), but the recording was messed up, so I didn't upload it and it always bothered me. Recently decided to just redo another 2-ALL.