VideoGame_Discussion

I beat the frog duo after a couple of tries. I spent my first four coins on the spread upgrade. That shot is a beast if you can get close enough to the target.

My previous playthrough, I think that Spread was one of the last items I bought. I highly recommend it. It can make things trickier, being up close, but it really packs a punch.

I’m a decent way through Cuphead (about halfway through Isle Three). Got most of the way through it a couple years ago but never finished it, so started a new save and the first half of it or so wasn’t too bad. It’s starting to really kick me now though. I hadn’t heard of the Genie thing until someone here posted it. Saved me during Dr Kahl’s Robot, that one is so hard.

Yep I still am barely mediocre at this game. I had only beat 3 of the first island's bosses when I played this around April. I had been sort of stuck on the 2nd optional level and really didn't bother with it this time. Went to face the orange flower and that took a bunch of tries, but I got it.
Next I faced the 2 guys that turn into a huge cash register, they were actually rather easy for me, taking a handful of tries. That opened up the 2nd island and I went to the candy lady first. Did a good dozen tries before I even got to her final phase and that sucked so I walked away.
Then I tried the genie and faced him on simple difficulty and beat him quickly, but then I changed to regular and after around 8 tries got him too.
Game is challenging for sure, facing the candy lady again will suck, just too many things to hit you from so many different directions, with some hard to spot. Not sure if I'll want to nor get to put in the time this month to beat the 9 or so remaining bosses, this is a game where it feels wise to set an attempts limit on myself and then turn it off.

I keep getting out on the forest/tree stage that has the mosquitos flying around. Last time also that stage took me awhile.

Made it to the third island. That bee level stings a bit.









Heh.

Renaissance2K wrote:
:)

Just beat the first flying stage, Hilda. Almost got a perfect score. I would have just needed to do 2 of those parry moves, but I was purposely destroying the little ships in order to focus on the boss, and those little ships release the pink things. I guess I could have parried the pink stars later on, but I dodged them instead.

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@Renaissance2K You're already up to the third island? Very nice! Is this your first time playing Cuphead?

nonamesleft wrote:

Yeah, I bought it a long time ago but never got around to it.

Renaissance2K wrote:
Impressive to have gotten so far so quickly on your first run with this not so easy game.

Well, that was satisfying. Took me some ungodly number of attempts to finish the bee boss, and then managed to get her before she hit her final form.

This game's sole reason for existing is to cause me to want to break my controller. I went back and did the 2nd Run'n'Gun level that caused me to quit on this ~9 months ago and for a simple level it still took me yet another 15+ tries. Was satisfying to finally beat it and the 5x coins were useful I suppose. I then did the 2nd museum level and that wasn't too bad.
Then I did the candy lady and did better against her today vs. my last try, I'd guess after another only maybe 8 tries I got her which opened up a new area, I first took the hidden 'shortcut' and tried another Run'n'Gun level where you ended up on the ceiling - the frigging duck got me so many times. I actually decided to switch up the controls to make LT shoot, so I could hold that in all the time and moved dash to X which let me be a touch better at that level but I still didn't complete it <sigh>. So I went back and faced the 2 other boss levels I gained access to - against the flying dragon in the sky and the birdhouse one. Dragon was easy in his first phase, but that 2nd, what a PITA - I could reach the 2nd phase generally w/out issue but in 10+ tries I couldn't get past his 2nd phase. In the birdhouse fight, I did rather well against his first 3 phases, then couldn't really do his 4th and the one time I did finally get it, I didn't survive his final phase - ugg.

I like the use of LT for fire and I'm getting used to X for dash, but my pinky got sore pretty quickly holding down LT constantly - I'm likely gripping the controller too tight, this game is flarking frustrating. I'm 'glad' I've got the first island fully done now, but it hardly feels like I'm getting better at it overall.

Slickriven wrote:


This is a winning post. 👊🏻

The fact that each level takes less than two minutes is what makes it palatable. If I was losing ten minutes of progress every time a robotic duck stepped on me, I'd probably have given up by now.

I love that this game is getting some great discussion. I haven't played it yet and not sure if I'm going to be able to fit it in this busy month, but I sure do enjoy hearing y'all talk about your experience with it.

I agree with you @Renaissance2K it's frustrating though when everything, every level takes so dang many tries. I'm also playing a Metroidvania with similar mechanics (8 Doors) and some sections and some bosses are difficult, but I'm making progress. I just beat a recent boss in that game and it took me around 8 tries, each try was around 2 mins, but I made decent progress leaning his attacks and 8 or so attempts wasn't too bad.
With Cuphead because there's nothing but boss fights or the nearly as annoying r&g levels it just doesn't feel like I'm hardly making any overall progress. Since you've gotten past me onto island 3 already, that's maybe not the case for you and hey I'm happy to hear some folks can beat these levels unlike me. I might have to try to beat the bosses on their simple difficulty to at least get familiar or exposure to their general patterns and phases. I did the genie that way and then noticed that on regular his health was likely higher, but each phase had more things to account for in the higher difficulty level. But I at least could expect things a touch better I suppose.

Here’s something I never really thought I’d get to say: I finished Cuphead yesterday!

Had a lot of fun with it despite the challenge. Bought the DLC and got a good chunk into that yesterday too.

Drip-drip of progress... I think the key for me is to not get sucked in to the whole 'just one more try' pull.
I fired this up tonight and beat 2 levels. First I faced the birdhouse again and was going to try on Simple difficulty, but his opening egg attack acts differently and I nearly died right away, so I figured that I was better off with him on Regular. And after reaching his final phase and eating it quickly due to his stretched out form, across the bottom of the screen, I remembered that I had a different weapon and tried that when I reached his final form a 2nd time. I got further but still died - grr but was doing way better with the new weapon and on the next try I got all the way to his final form with either no or just 1 hit and I got him - Woot!
Next I did the first RnG level in the carnival and the opening section where you bounce on the trampoline was annoying at times, but after maybe 8-10 tries I was getting the hang of it and completed that one too. Then I faced the roller coaster clown and wasn't a fan, so after 3-4 failures I quit for the time being, but got sucked back in and got better with him, 1st phase is easy enough, 2nd sucks, 3rd's not too bad and I've only hit his 4th phase a few times and with only like 1 stinking HP left. I'm up to 183 deaths according to the water fountain - <sigh>

I was at 28% before yesterday's progress, then 38% after yesterday. Today got me to 45% which sounds about right with 3/5 bosses and 1/2 RnG levels completed.

Sorry for more updates, but I've unlocked the 3rd island - woohoo!
Clown took a handful of tries and I realized that using different weapons was wise and I switched to the spread-shot and that was very useful in phases 2-4 as he's close/stationary in at least 2 of those.
Dragon took me longer, I used the glob-shot on him initially in his 2nd/3rd phases but realized that it was decently effective in all 3 actually. Took a few too many deaths in his final phase but having to continually jump forward to the right while shooting back to the left was annoying.

I only faced the 2 newest bosses once each really and now I'm kind of bummed about the choices I've made with my coins. I only have the glob and spread weapons and the ship really needed another weapon I'm guessing since the gob wasn't great and you need to distance yourself from him at times, thus the spread isn't ideal either. Bee was another challenge with the platforms.

Oh and the King-Dice song is really good.

Slickriven wrote:
The dragon took me many tries. The glob shot was surprisingly effective against him once I tried it. You just need to calculate the arc of the shot. But it's pretty strong when you hit.

I haven't been offered the glob shot yet, and I feel like I'm missing out.

I need to figure out what weapon to use against the ship since I'm not sure the glob-shot will work great.
@nonamesleft I found I could actually hit the dragon from almost anywhere with the glob so long as I was higher up, him filling the left or right sides of the screen meant so long as I was high enough up, the arc would reach the far side of the screen and hit him down low.

I figure the glob should work okay with the Bee, and it did in the first phase, it was just a challenge avoiding the other stuff and not falling.
But I only tried each once so we'll see.
Stinks that you can't earn more coins, or can you replay the RnG levels and collect the coins over again?

Slickriven wrote:
I'm pretty sure that you can't collect the coins in the RnG levels more than once.

Coins in this game aren't super easy to accumulate.

Yeah I went in and verified that coins can't be re-collected, crummy. But after verifying, I knew the 5x from the 2nd island's 2nd RnG level would be rather helpful so I tried that again and looked up a YT vid on how the heck to actually avoid the dang ducks. Dashing forward in that section could give you a gap btwn the end of the first ceiling car-train and the first duck, then dash like crazy again on the ceiling and you can void out the 2nd duck entirely!
So I did that and after maybe 8 tries I finally got that dang level, yea! So islands 1&2 are fully complete now. I then decided to use some Google assistance and watched a clip against the ship and picked up some pointers and spent some coins on the Roundabout shot, which was listed as the 2nd best weapon, behind the spread. I then faced the ship a good 10 times and couldn't get him, I think I got a little too impatient, but with things coming along the pier/ground, from him, the falling barrel and his 'called in buddies' it gets chaotic and some times you basically can't avoid taking a hit.
I've been using the +1 health charm this whole time, but I think I might need to use the no-damage dash one and rely on dashing more against the Captain with that charm. We'll see, I really disliked this pick initially, but now I'm getting determined to beat it.

@Renaissance2K the glob-shot is actually called the Lobber.

Bob Loblaw's Glob Lobber?

Renaissance2K wrote:


Bob Gargantuan Loblaw's Garbling Large Glob Lobber.

Should cost 3 or 4 coins at the shop.

@Slickriven

Roundabout shot is pretty great. I think that was the first one I bought the first time I played the game. It made the battle against the frog duo much easier.

Dash invincibility is a kind of niche, but it can be very useful strategically. But your timing has to be spot on.

Would you like to know a neat trick regarding the Captain battle? It's a minor spoiler though.

Great job so far by the way. Keep those updates coming.

How do y'all use your super attacks? Do you use the normal special attacks as your meter fills, or do you wait until it's full to use the EX attack?

When I wait, I feel like I end up wasting a lot of charge as I wait for a window to open up.

Renaissance2K wrote:
I occasionally use the regular special attacks, but I usually wait.

The top-end supers don't generally feel all that effective, so I agree with @Renaissance2K that they can feel like a waste. They take too long to fill up. I purchased and switched to the one that puts you on the other plane, basically preventing you from taking any damage, but it lasts like what 4 seconds?
One thing's for sure, the game makes you feel very under powered. The strong attacks, if used before becoming a super only his 3 times. Granted I really want to see boss's health meters.
I did consider buying the charm that will cause the meter to fill up on its own, but wasn't sure about the effectiveness of that.

@nonamesleft sure I'll take a pointer on the captain, I'm not sure there's much story to spoil but you can PM me if you want, vs posting in here.

@Slickriven Sure. I'll PM you. It's not a story spoiler, but rather something that's cool to figure out during that battle.

Made some progress, finally got the captain ship beat. Had to change my approach and switch to the basic gun after the cannonballs started coming out, vs being right up close with the spread shot. I also learned how to avoid his bubble attack which helped.
Note if you're ducking underneath an attack, do not switch weapons as that will force you out of the duck enough to take damage.
After getting him that opened up access to the 1 RnG level and the sea-queen/Medusa boss. I tried her only like 3 times as she stunk. I then went to that RnG level and nearly snapped my controller. I used the one weapon that fires lime green 'frisbees' and really liked that weapon as it took out the flying fish in one shot. I could get through 75% of that level reasonably alright but the final part with the octopus you had stay on was crazy challenging.
Thankfully I eventually got that final stupid section. I then went to the final mausoleum and had to get better at the parry to beat that. With that done I spent some coins and then called it quits.
Slow grind...

Slickriven wrote:

Sounds like you’re making pretty fast progress. I need to play this more. Liked it but I only got passed the first plant dude I think.

Feeb wrote:

I'd say it's more been perseverance, I'm only up to 65% according to the save record. I'm seeing more boss contracts to collect on the 3rd island, when compared to the first 2 <sigh>
It's 100% frustrating at times and I think anyone who plays it should only do maybe 8-10 runs at a time otherwise you can get SO ticked at failing over and over.

I only have 1 contract in island 3 so far and have tried 3 other bosses at least once.

I should learn to take my own advice... I just spent far too long against I'll call it the Cat & Mouse boss. First phase wasn't too bad, 2nd was a touch difficult to avoid taking damage though it shouldn't have been but I would make a wrong move and a lot of the screen is filled by him. 3rd phase also wasn't too bad, but too many times I'd take my last hit before taking him down, I saw the progress bar so close to done after death it was annoying.
So now I've got 2 contracts from the final island.

This. Game. Has. Sucked. Me. In.
Did another session, got my 3rd contact of the 3rd island, the Theater lady. She wasn't really too bad. Took a handful of tries to get used to/good against her 1st & 2nd phases, 3rd was easy to pick up her patterns and once I got to the 4th it only took me like 3 times to get her. Frisbee weapon was good against her and the cat & mouse, that's my favorite weapon right now.
Beating her opened another area and I found a shortcut so I've now tried all levels on the 3rd island. The huge robot dude wasn't fun as there was a ton going on the try to keep track of. The final RnG level didn't seem difficult but I didn't get too far on my only maybe 5 tries, need to figure out what weapon will work best, possibly the one I don't have yet - Chaser.
Also the battle against the train guy was interesting, only tried him once. I'm now at 285 deaths, good grief. Plus I've resorted to pausing and restarting a level if I've taken a hit or two a bit too early in a fight, especially once I've felt like I know what to do in the earlier phases of a fight and just missed a jump or dodge. There's really little point in taking 1, or especially 2-3 hits early in a fight and keep pressing on, better to cut losses, save time and restart.

Boss.

I just had a panic moment and thought I deleted my Cuphead save after I swapped my SD card out of my Switch; the Analogue Pocket just got PC Engine CD support, and my Switch barely has any content on it after picking up a Steam Deck.

Fortunately, the save was stored in the cloud. Pretty sure that's the first time Nintendo Switch Online ever did something right.

@Slickriven Great progress! Keep it up. That robot boss took me awhile, but there was at least one boss in the 3rd island that I defeated almost immediately. I'm considering it beginner's luck. I don't know what happened.

The frisbee weapon is great. It was my go to weapon the first time I played the game.

The train boss can be tricky but once you notice certain patterns, it's not very difficult, imo. Though maybe that's the case for any game?

I do the reset thing on the RnG levels specifically. Nothing quite like getting out right at the end with just 1 hp. Happened to me against that giant mosquito.

Renaissance2K wrote:
Thank goodness. Would you have restarted had it been deleted?

Sweet! I took a 7 min break from work and... beat the giant bee boss. She might have gone down the fastest for me. I only faced her 3 times just now and I want to say like only 5-7 more in prior sessions. 1st and 2nd phases the frisbee worked best because its return arch could land if you just kept firing while you were forced to jump around on the platforms. Allowing yourself to drop down low infront of the cop, firing away, then climbing and dashing over him caused me to take him out quickly. Then I switched to the lobber shot for the final phase since she's nearly 100% below you. I'm stunned that I beat her after just 3 tries today.

Was planing on taking a 15-20 min break, but since I took her down so swiftly I decided to just stop there and live on the high of some success,