34 liberation maiden - a look at tech and kamui attacks in the gallery

Dear Readers,

Not much more to cover in the gallery now. 2 entries for technology and 4 entries for Kamui's attacks. The remaining 2 then are cut scenes. I'll cover them all here.

[23] Tech 1: The Liberator, "Kamui" - Features a design of Kamui holding its sword. Detailed is how the technology is purely based on natural mechanical engineering, using Earth's electromagnetic field to power itself. All that stuff about natural purification is built into its capabilities, making it a pretty cool robot.

[24] Tech 2: Parliamentary Battleship Nagata - A massive airship that houses a full parliamentary campus with buildings, monuments and even a landscaped garden planted by Shoko to give it a softer edge. She takes care of that huge garden by herself? It's mind boggling and pretty cool in concept. It's where Kira and the team give Shoko support while she's out battling as well.

[25] Kamui Attack 1: Deflector Nodes - Image shows Kamui's wing while Shoko pilots it. It has these floaty things and big green glowy line in the centre as focus. I'm guessing it's green because it's spiritual natural energy from nature and the Guardian Spirits and stuff. Nice explanation on how it's shielding but also ammunition at the same time and it just needs to recharge.

[26] Kamui Attack 2: Blade - Image shows Kamui from the front wielding the green blade thingy. Very descriptive about how this is like a bomb that builds up and can be unleashed. Also serves as a kind of desperation attack when Shoko is in danger like when you have to swipe the screen really quickly and everything's all red. It's cool how it says it's like it's made up of Japan's spirit and Shoko's desire to free her people and not something built into design. That's some cool anime writing right there.

[27] Kamui Attack 3: Sacrifice Drive - Image shows Kamui completely green and glowing. This is the attack that makes me nervous about the touch screen, though my fears are largely unfounded! I have to admit that to be fair. Description says it's a last-resort move. It's pretty much a kamikaze attack, though it doesn't use the word kamikaze here in the description. It's a nice dramatic moment and finish to the level when a boss is ready to be tucked away for good.

[28] Kamui Attack 4: Laser Attack - Image is a really cool scene of Kamui being worked on in some kind of factory. The lighting looks awesome. The scale of human to robot looks a bit grander than in the final game but that could be just me needing to check again. The description is all about the laser weapon and how it's a faster weapon. Like Shoko, I used the missiles most of the time but it is very handy for the stage 2 boss with all the rocks flying around.

That's it! Exhibits [29] and [30] are the opening and ending anime cutscenes, ready to watch at any time for fun. Glad to have access to them and it's a lot of fun to explore the art and lore for this game. That's it for now! I'm going on to a new game soon. Thanks for reading!

33 liberation maiden - reading up on the cool characters in the gallery

Dear Readers,

Now to check out the characters in the gallery. I was looking forward to Kira's one especially.

[20] Character 1: Shoko Ozora - The main character looking cool in her uniform as she appears on the touch screen during gameplay. She has her default expression here though she has a range of them. Love it when she smiles on achieving success in a mission. It says she's very direct and forthright and that's good for a game protagonist. Again, it's so cool how she's the president and she's taking on the enemy in battle directly. Also love her long flowing hair.

[21] Character 2: Kira - The main support character as he often appears in dialogue scenes, giving instruction to Shoko. I was looking forward to reading about him but it doesn't say an awful lot about him! Apart from the fact that he became Shoko's guardian after her father died. You learn a lot more about him during gameplay when he helps you by saying missiles are coming and stuff. It also feels really good to be praised by him and being addressed respectfully all the time as Madam President. A good character and well voiced. 

[22] Character 3: Yokuichiro Ozora - Shoko's father and first president of New Japan who was unfortunately assassinated while giving a speech. We only know of him in this portrait with his long hair, dressed in a suit. He was the first to stand up and call for a rebellion against the Dominion in the fight for independence.

That's it for the characters. The rest were support ones really or the ones coming through in messages of support and praise when winning missions.

32 liberation maiden - enemy showcase in the gallery

Dear Readers,

Now to look at the enemies and targets in the gallery.

[12] Enemy 1: Tank mk I - This is like an ordinary tank and it was made to go on water as well as land. It has spider-like legs, or in this case it's more like a pond skater.

[13] Enemy 3: Battleship - For some reason they put enemy 3 before enemy 2 but whatever. These look like big mobile phones with big old buttons. Lots of missiles coming from these things.

[14] Enemy 2: Gun Battery - These are the things that come out of the ground when you go near them, honing their laser sights on you. I like destroying them before they have a chance to come out by using the beam sword bomb thing or destroying a Spike nearby.

[15] Enemy 4: Submarine - Very sneaky enemies that hide underwater before surfacing to fire missiles at  you when you're distracted fighting something else.

[16] Enemy 5: Walkers - These annoying enemies have these big spider legs that let them jump into the air and float for a while, which makes them hard to aim for. They keep respawning in stage 3 for some reason. They do look cool and spidery/octoroky though.

[17] Enemy 6: Turret Train - Trains that have been retrofitted with tons and tons of missiles. The trains themselves don't take long to deal with but the missiles take a lot longer to fend off! The retrofitting seems to take up half of the space that could've been used for transporting goods. War can be so wasteful.

[18] Enemy 7: Lesser Conduit Spike - Nicely detailed here along with their weak points. Good explanation of them too serving as shield generators for the Greater Spike supplied through Energy Veins. It's taxing to whittle them down but very satisfying to beat them and seeing the ripples of purifying nature spread out.

[19] Enemy 8: Greater Conduit Spike - A slide show of all the end of stage bosses along with their weak points in a redundancy system that helps to stop them from being destroyed too quickly. Kind of amusing to see them all together in one entry and how similar they are.

31 liberation maiden - the stages in the gallery: tokyo, kagoshima, osaka, hokkaido and mount fuji

 Dear Readers,

With all the game played out and unlocked, it's time to look at the fully unlocked gallery! This time I'm gonna look at the levels and cities. I never referred to them by their place names, even though I probably should have. Japanese geography is interesting and lots of games like this and Mystical Ninja have it.

[7] Stage 1: Tokyo - This features a big metropolitan city area on an island. This is set in the distant future where most of the famous landmarks are gone and the city just floats on top of the sea. It's not the capital anymore, since the Dominion took over I suppose. It was a fun level with islands and bridges. Of course it had the good music too!

[8] Stage 2: Kagoshima - Features a nice image of the city on an island and bridges connecting it to another island. The Dominion took over this place and its space centre in order to use it for their intercontinental ballistic missiles. I like the nice clouds painted in here. It's prettier and greener than the previous city.

[9] Stage 3: Osaka - Features another island city and it's dense with buildings and industrial structures. This has a lot of industry and entertainment, which immediately makes me think this is where a lot of gaming happens. The Dominion made this place focus on building Walkers and other machines for war. Things don't look so clear and blue here.

[10] Stage 4: Hokkaido - Features a big snowy mountainous landscape with sparse constructions and a railway connecting them. This place became a snowy wasteland due to the environmental damage that drained the Guardian energy and blotted out the sun. It's very pretty with the auroras in the sky but it is like a place that's deep in hibernation. That is, apart from all the tanks and trains and missiles I had to deal with here.

[11] Stage 5: Mount Fuji - Features the erupting mountain with the Guardian Spirit flying above it. Shoko in her mech are about to face off with it in a huge battle. Looks spectacular with the stormy skies in the background. After all that was lost to the enemy, the mountain was still here standing proud and the Guardian Spirit was drawn to it like it was some kind of beacon.

30 liberation maiden - stage 4 hard: 11,630,490 points, gallery unlocked completely

Dear Readers,

Now to do stage 4 on hard a couple of times in stage attack to set scores and hopefully unlock the gallery fully.

The default score once again was 500,000.

This is a very long level to play because of the sheer amount of missiles being shot at you! Have to deal with them all. On my first attempt I scored 10,376,596 points. On my second attempt I lingered a bit more and took out more targets but still kept up the pace. I earned 11,630,490 points that time.

I accidentally went back into the level again and so I quit out of it straight away. It was then that I unlocked the final entry in the gallery! That's all it takes! Those 10 plays on normal or hard you just have to go in and quit out of them if you want to meet that goal quickly!

Still, it was fun to play for points for a little while.

Next time I'll explore the gallery more and have a look at entries I haven't read yet.

29 liberation maiden - stage 3 hard: 1,102,316 points

Dear Readers,

I continued into stage 3 of stage attack on hard in order to set some scores and make more plays toward earning the remaining gallery entry.

Again, the default top score was 500,000 points. On my first attempt I didn't even get to beat it! I died against the boss and only earned 361,990 points.

On my second run I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the boss so I lingered and hunted out more targets. The weird thing on this level is that those annoying walker thingies keep respawning. Also they don't walk all that much. I grinded out until I had above 500,000 points and after that I went in for the boss.

Then I defeated the boss! It was pretty satisfying to beat that assistant robot thing the boss has. It's very troublesome in this level.

I earned 1,102,316 points on this second run. I didn't need to linger around after all but all the same it was great to beat up the boss after losing to it.

28 liberation maiden - stage 2 hard: 2,015,430 points

Dear Readers,

I continued on to set a record in stage 2 on hard mode of stage attack.

I had to clear 500,000 points to get the top position. I lost against the boss but earned 1,266,220 points on my first run.

On my second run I lost against the boss again but I earned 2,015,430 points.

I really ought to use the laser weapon against those flying boulders. Anyway, on to the next level as I don't have to win, just setting points and clocking up attempts for now.

27 liberation maiden - stage 1 hard: 2,515,356 points

Dear Readers,

Since I had now unlocked gallery entry 27 by playing normal mode over 10 times, I decided to skip setting a record for stage 5 and went straight on to set records for stages in hard mode, with the new overall goal of unlocking gallery entry 28 by playing hard mode over 10 times.

Stage 1's default score was again 500,000. I did a run on stage attack and earned 1,957,630 points but failed to beat the boss.

On my second run I beat the boss and earned 2,515,356 points.

Ahh... level 1 is so short and snappy... I'm tempted to play more of it just to meet the gallery goal more quickly!

26 liberation maiden - stage 4 normal: 10,910,636 points

Dear Readers,

I continued to stage 4 to set a couple of scores and work on the gallery unlock.

I had to beat the default top score of 500,000.

I like the way Shoko smiles on the lower screen when I achieve something and she smiles after I do a Sacrifice Drive. I also like to wipe the screen after doing that move, so it's like she smiles when I'm wiping her face.

For my first run I beat the sub mission with the weird slice of cake thing and got 5,898,854 points. A lot of eights in that number and for a moment I thought it might have been zeroes because of the font being a little strange, but no, the font shows zeroes without that little stroke in the middle.

On my second run I took out more targets and everything else from the first mission, but also tried to not linger too much. I earned 10,910,636 points! A very high number!

Also I unlocked the gallery "10 times normal" entry after doing the second run! Weird thing was, I played the stage attack on normal 8 times and the regular story mode just the one playthrough. Maybe it counts that as two? I'm not sure. Anyway, doing stage attack really helps for the 10 times thing!

25 liberation maiden - stage 3 normal: 1,537,056 points

Dear Readers,

I continued my gig of setting stage attack scores in normal mode plays with stage 3.

I went leisurely enough, not trying to seek out extra targets. I did complete the sub mission though. I thought why not. I got a score of 1,537,056 for my first run, beating the top default score of 500,000.

I was more thorough on my second play, got 100% purification and all and earned 1,509,676 points. It took more time so I'm guessing it pays to finish more quickly.

24 liberation maiden - stage 2 normal: 2,086,272 points

Dear Readers,

Continuing on my journey to unlock the gallery fully by playing normal over 10 times, I went on to set a couple of stage attack scores for the second level on normal.

There's going to be a few of these more easy going posts like this until I can unlock the gallery fully. I like playing like this as well since I can just have a bit of fun without trying too hard to search for stuff.

I aimed to beat stage 2 on normal with over 500,000 points. For my first easy going attempt I lost to the boss and came short with 477,020 points. On my second attempt I came up on top with 2,086,272 points.

I know I can do better but I'll move on to the next stage now that I have a score set in first place.

23 liberation maiden - stage 1 normal: 1,522,460 points

Dear Readers,

Now to take on the "over 10 times play" tasks to unlock the gallery fully. I'm not sure how to do this exactly but I'll play the stage attack on normal and hard over 10 times each. To make things more interesting I'll aim to beat the default top scores set in each mode's individual high score tables. They're not really specific since they have the same scores, but it's something to aim for.

Let's start with beating the top score of 500,000 points in stage 1 of normal mode.

On my first attempt I cleared it with 942,210 points.

Since there are just 5 levels and I have to play over 10 times, I decided to play this stage again. I'm going to make my first attempts at each stage more fun and the second attempts more serious to beat the first attempts' records if they come out on top of their respective tables.

On my second attempt I failed the sub mission which was amusing but I scored 1,522,460 points, beating the first score. I passed my first score easily so I decided to be less serious and just clear the stage. I know I can get a better score but I'll just move on to the next stage for now.

22 liberation maiden - cleared a stage without taking damage

Dear Readers,

I aimed to clear a stage without taking any damage in order to unlock entry 26 in the gallery. I managed this easily enough by picking the first level on easy mode in the stage attack.

It didn't take long at all. I skipped the tutorial and cut scenes and made sure to dance around enemy fire carefully. In easy mode it doesn't fly at me too fast so it was very manageable. 

I tore through the Lesser Spikes quickly and through the Greater Spike just as fast, while also being careful of course.

I made sure to take out the ships and other enemies that could shoot at me. I didn't bother purifying any other targets this time.

Aside from having to skip the tutorial, it's fun to do it on this stage because it has really good music, though if you're quick enough, you won't get to hear much of it!

21 liberation maiden - finally cleared the story on hard mode! 100% approval!

Dear Readers,

I finally beat the Guardian Spirit on hard! I unlocked everything for stage attack now and got the 100% public approval too!

I don't know exactly what I had to do to achieve 100% public approval but I did get 100% in all the other stages before I took on the Guardian Spirit. This unlocks the ending movie in the gallery.

So how did I beat the Guardian Spirit at last? Well, I took a few days away from playing the game and that certainly helped. I kept note of every lesson I learned from my numerous failures and took my time with it. I kept my attack setting on missiles. Whenever it launched the wave attack I would fly away really far so I could avoid it easier. I would let my nodes build up and tried to keep them at a high level so I wouldn't get hurt. I defeated the smaller enemies to help build them up too. When my energy was at a high enough level I would charge in towards the Guardian Spirit just before the wave attack ended and tried to get an aim on the Spikes before firing at them and retreating to avoid more waves. I broke the centre Spike as soon as possible and didn't have to deal with the awkwardness of the shield at all. Other than that I engaged in a slow but sure process of keeping a safe distance before getting strong enough to go in for attacks. Little by little, I took down Spike by Spike until there was none left and it was defeated. It took a long time and a lot of tries but I finally beat it!

All I have left to do now is to unlock the three remaining entries in the gallery by doing the following:

-Clear a stage without taking damage

-Play normal mode 10 times

-Play hard mode 10 times

I'm not sure what it means by 10 times. Does it mean 10 full runs of the story mode or can it mean playing the stage attack 10 times? I guess I'll find out by playing.

20 liberation maiden - still struggling against the guardian spirit on hard

Dear Readers,

I'm still stuck on the Guardian Spirit. It feels like it's getting harder and I can't make sense of it.

The cutscenes and dialogue boxes I have to put up with again and again are getting very old. I can only skip the introductory narrative. I can't skip Shoko and Kira talking to each other.

Sometimes I'm dying in the pursuit stage again and it even feels like that part is getting more difficult. I can't figure out why though. It's weird.

I'm thinking, should I aim for the spike on the Guardian Sprit's chest? That's the one that does the shielding. Maybe if I take out the wings I can stop it from doing the waves? Between the waves and shield it's really hard to fight against this thing.

I'm developing a more evasive strategy that'll help me last more than half a minute against the boss. It'll be annoying to deal with the waves but they won't fly at me as sudden as they spread.

19 liberation maiden - guardian spirit on hard is hard

Dear Readers,

I failed again and again against the Guardian Sprit. It's mainly that dang fast wave move that keeps messing me up.

I die against that wave move most of the time. Sometimes I die before I even reach the Guardian Spirit and I always have to go back to the beginning of the pursuit since it's the only credit I have left.

When I switch to the laser I lose concentration on the wave and then lose very quickly. The laser demands a lot more concentration than the missiles do.

I've also learned that some voice cues like when I say "Think you can win?" mean that I have enough ammo to begin aiming and shooting again.

The Guardian Spirit gets close sometimes, like right up to me and I don't know why. It's distracting.

I was surprised on one attempt where the waves didn't come out constantly. Maybe it was because I was going close or maybe it was because I was circling it. I'm not sure.

Then there are attempts where I think I have something sussed out and I fail on the pursuit part again!

Sometimes I can interrupt the Guardian putting its shield up if I can destroy one of the Spike targets on its body.

Still trying to come up with a good strategy to defeat this thing in hard mode.

18 liberation maiden - scouting out how difficult stage 5 is on hard

Dear Readers,

Stage 5 on hard was very hard. I died quite a bit even on the pursuit portion of the Guardian Spirit fight.

I found that I had to be within a certain range when the time ran out in order to progress to the next part of the fight. I had to get a balance while also avoiding the shots coming at me.

The Guardian Spirit was faster and more difficult. The blast wave went out very quickly towards me and it does not leave much room for error. I was able to avoid some but I felt lucky. I think with some practice I can master it somehow.

For now though, I lost and lost again against the huge bird. I'll get some more practice in later and see if I can do anything at all with the one credit I have remaining. Every time I lose I have to go back to the chasing part again.

Also I have only four remaining gallery entries to unlock with these conditions:

-Play Normal 10 times

-Play Hard 10 times

-Finish a stage without getting damage

-Get 100% approval

I'll try to get the no damage one on an easier mode stage later. I don't know what the 10 times thing means. Does it mean I have to enter and exit? Does it mean I have to do a stage that many times? Do I have to beat the whole game 10 times? I'm puzzled. Finally, I have no idea what 100% approval means. It's different to 100% purification. Hopefully I can figure these out.

17 liberation maiden - beating stage 4 on hard and unlocking the trains in the gallery

Dear Readers,

Now for another crack at stage 4 on hard. This time I beat it.

I didn't spend as much time taking out missiles, because I didn't go after the newly spawned trains that appear when the Greater Spike is unlocked. I just went straight for that boss.

This time I took out the boss handily. I just wanted to get it done and over with. I thought I could always go after the train gallery unlock later.

After beating stage 4 it was on to stage 5. I never beat this before without losing a life in any difficulty so I wasn't going to on my first try. No harm in scouting it out at least.

I died while I was chasing the Guarding Spirit so it was pretty quick!

I then found that I had the train entry in the gallery unlocked. Woo! Just four more entries to go!

16 liberation maiden - stage 4 on hard has too many missiles!

Dear Readers,

At this point I was pretty happy to even reach stage 4 since stage 3 gave me such a hard time.

During stage 4 my new sub mission for the hard mode was to take out 30 tanks. Thankfully, I was able to find the 30 I needed to destroy. I had to fly around in the snow for a while.

Then there were the trains and there were lots of them. Lots more than I needed to destroy, though I still have to destroy 50 to unlock that entry in the gallery. This time the trains had a crazy amount of missiles that just wouldn't stop coming. They were big and split into smaller ones too. It made the trains take a while to destroy.

I made it to the boss and this is where I failed. I was near enough to finishing it off but it kept coming at me with very fast attacks and large numbers of rocks and glass-like panel thingies.

I had to begin the stage again because I ran out of credits. I was very close though. At least now I can destroy more trains for that gallery goal.

15 liberation maiden - finding that small 1% to finish stage 3 on hard

Dear Readers,

I passed stage 3 on hard mode finally!

I believe what it took was a mixture of using the laser and missiles and a good bit of practice. Lasers are really good for whittling down Spike bars quickly but missiles are still good for general aiming and making sure you don't run out of juice too soon.

In the part where there are search lasers coming up from the ground I got caught and had to back off for a small while before going back to attack. The enemy put up shields and really strong weapons.

It took ages to get 100% and I was stuck on 99% for quite a while before I realised I missed a tiny bit where the Greater Spike was. Gah.

This time I paid attention to the little assistant robot thing the Greater Spike had. On my failed attempts I tried to ignore and bypass it. I was able to break out of its constricting nets just in time to avoid its lasers.

Also this time I went back to using my thumbnail to aim. It was a little easier on my hands though I was still tired after it.