Article - Futari 1.0(1)/1.5 Ultra Version Differences By SMC

Written by SMC

Plasmo said I should post this here. Some of the general differences apply to other modes.

*Note from Mark* Plasmo is a friend of the website, he helps a lot with the video index.

Written in anticipation of the upcoming Stunfest 2019 demonstrations.

General

–  Ultra mode has a much smaller hitbox in 1.01 compared to 1.5 (which   has a 2×4 pixel hitbox) It’s possible to get away with more extreme   dodges where you would die in 1.5. This is unique to version 1.01, the   original version 1.0 has the same standard hitbox size as 1.5.

–  Bombs do much lower damage in 1.01 compared to 1.5. While the  damage  in 1.01 is not completely negligible bombs are used much more   defensively than in 1.5.

– The  counter penalty for bombing is larger in 1.01, and only the  stage  counter is penalized. In 1.5 both counters are penalized by a  smaller  amount.
– In 1.5 you lose 980 for bombing as Reco, and 840 as Palm.
– In 1.01 you lose 1540 as Reco and 1320 as Palm.
Reco’s  bomb is active for more frames than Palm’s, which explains the  greater  decrease in both versions as counter is lost at a fixed rate per   active bomb frame.

– If the stage counter depletes fully it will be set to 1 in 1.01 and 0 in 1.5.

– In 1.5 dying reduces both counters by 1/3. In 1.01 dying reduces the total counter by 50% and the stage counter by 25%.

–  In both versions the counters constantly decrease during boss  fights.  In 1.5 the rate of decrease is slow if you are currently  shooting, and  fast if you’re not currently shooting (and in Black Label  this is  reversed). In 1.01 the rate of decrease is always slow whether  shooting  or not.

– In Original Mode the  total counter changes colour after each  increase of 500. In 1.5 Ultra  this was raised to 2000 to balance the  rate of counter change in  consideration of the increased rate of counter  gain through large  bullet cancels. In 1.01 Ultra the counter changes  colour after every  increase of 500 just like Original Mode. This means  the colour of the  counter at any moment is wildly unpredictable in 1.01  as it can be  affected by very small discrepancies in the size of bullet  cancels.

–  The collection radius for airborne gems is smaller in 1.01. As   collecting gems with the green aura relies on entering the collecting   radius as soon as possible after the gem’s creation, this means the   proportion of gems that can be collected with the green aura is   considerably reduced, particularly with gems produced from large bullet   cancels where the gems are widely distributed throughout the screen.

–  In 1.5 green aura gems double the amount of counter you receive  when  collected, and also double the amount of points you receive when   collected. In 1.01 the green aura only doubles the amount of counter you   receive and doesn’t affect the point value of the gem beyond the small   increase in base value due to the extra counter received. This means   before any other considerations your score is automatically cut in half   in comparison with 1.5.

– In 1.5 ground gems can be automatically collected from anywhere on the screen by holding A. This feature is absent from 1.01.

–  In 1.5 ground gems can be collected with green auras either by  manual  or automatic collection within a certain frame window after  creation.  In 1.01 automatic collection is impossible and manual  collection does  not produce green auras regardless of how quickly it is  done. This  greatly reduces the value of ground gems and changes the  optimal order  of collection. For optimal scoring gems should ideally be  collected in  descending order of counter value as gem type does not  affect their  base score value in either version, only their base counter  value.

–  Abnormal Palm moves much more slowly in 1.01 and his laser is   considerably weaker, making him a very poor choice for 1.01, so Normal   Reco is typically used instead. Normal Reco’s laser seems to be   identical in power to its 1.5 counterpart but the shot may possibly be   slightly weaker.

– In all versions  holding A does not fire the laser immediately, but  there is a small  delay. In 1.5 nothing is fired during this delay, but  in 1.01 you  release a small burst of shot. If this burst of shot kills  an enemy the  enemy is considered to be killed with shot as you might  expect. This  is unlike 1.5 and Black Label where the game only  distinguishes the  type of shot used based on whether or not A is  currently being held –  If you release A before the laser hits an enemy  in 1.5 the game treats  it as a shot kill as you weren’t holding A when  the enemy died.

–  There are waves of zako enemies in stages 3 and 5 that appear   alongside the larger enemies at fixed times. In 1.5 some of these will   appear only on the condition that the large enemy has already been   destroyed. In 1.01 these zako enemies will always appear at their   scheduled time no matter what. This adds some extra difficulty to these   stages.

– The stage no miss bonus  is 10 times larger in 1.5 than 1.01. In  1.01 Ultra you receive a bonus  of 500,000 x stage number, while in 1.5  Ultra you receive 5,000,000 x  stage number.

– The points awarded  for destroying forms of bosses always consist of  a static amount plus a  bonus which is normally equal to the Stage  Counter x 100. In 1.01 this  Stage Counter is also used as the bonus  multiplier for the very last  bosses at the end of stage 5 but in 1.5 the  larger Total Counter is  used as the bonus multiplier for these bosses  instead.

Stage 1 Boss

–  The Stage 1 boss’s second phase opening attack is considerably  easier  in 1.01. The claws shoot their aimed bullets separately meaning  it can  be easily avoided by horizontal tapping. In 1.5 both claws fire   simultaneously requiring vertical downward tapping to deal with.

Stage 2

–  In 1.5 the large lobster enemies stop firing when they reach a  certain  vertical position on the screen as the stage progresses. In 1.01  they  continue their attack cycle all the way down the screen.

– Icicles have twice as much HP in Ultra 1.5 compared to Ultra 1.01
1.01 Ultra: 4032 HP
1.5 Ultra/BL God: 8064 HP
All other modes: 5376 HP

–  There is a bug with the stage 2 midboss. In 1.5 you optimally wait   until the midboss is about to time out before killing it as this allows   the prolonged bullet cancel to catch as many bullets from the following   groups of enemies as possible. However, in 1.01 this is not possible  as  killing the midboss at such a time that it’s still performing its  death  animation when the bullet-cancelling Manta enemy that follows the   midboss is supposed to appear actually causes the Manta not to appear,   costing you an additional bullet cancel and thereby negating the score   advantage you receive from delaying the midboss. This bug was fixed in   1.5 so there is no disadvantage to delaying the midboss cancel.   Consequently the midboss must be killed quickly in 1.01. Allowing the   midboss to time out does not prevent the Manta from appearing.

– Manta enemies in the second half and the large jellyfish they spawn shoot fewer bullets in 1.01 than 1.5.

Stage 2 Boss

–  The rings in phase 2 do not cancel bullets when destroyed in 1.01.   This means that the midboss cannot be milked by looping the attacks   unlike 1.5. The individual objects that make up the rings must be   destroyed separately in 1.01, whereas the rings themselves are destroyed   in their entirety in 1.5.

– The  final attack of phase 3 is significantly easier in 1.01, even   disregarding the smaller player hitbox, as the bullets are much slower,   and are of the narrower stick bullet type compared to the needle type   used in 1.5.

Stage 3

– The giant beetle enemies are not bullet-cancelling enemies in 1.01, unlike 1.5. This makes the stage significantly harder.

Stage 3 boss
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

– Phase 1 Attack 2 – in 1.01 the triangles are larger and contain more bullets, making it harder to navigate around them.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

– Phase 1 Attack 4 – The angle of the rotating pattern shot by the bit is different between the two versions.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 1 Attack 5 – This attack is much harder in 1.01, the large  red  bullet layer is much denser and the lanes between the purple bullets   are much narrower.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 1 Attack 6 – This attack is extremely difficult in 1.01 as  the  orbs that shoot rings of bullets from the sides of the screen  continue  shooting rings constantly as they travel down the screen. In  1.5 they  shoot one ring only soon after they appear. This means that in  1.01 the  screen gets extremely cluttered with bullets
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 2 Attack 1 – This attack is completely different between the  two  versions. The 1.01 version is much more difficult as the purple   bullets constantly try to pincer you, while the 1.5 version can be   easily avoided by circling the boss.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 2 Attack 2 – This attack is easier in 1.01 than 1.5. In 1.01  the  red spread is denser and fires more erratically but it always shoots   straight down regardless of your position. This means it can be avoided   entirely by staying close to its point of origin. In 1.5 the red spread   will also shoot upwards if you are above the point of origin so it  must  be dodged between the bullets.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

– Phase 2 attack 3 – The purple enclosure bullets restrict your movement much more narrowly in 1.01 than 1.5
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 3 – Very random and difficult in both versions but much more  so  in 1.01 as the red spreads normally stay far to the sides in 1.5 but   will come much closer in 1.01 and often trap you completely. The spreads   of the preceding attack also contain more rows of densely packed   bullets that are tricky to dodge as they are influenced by the boss’   random movement. This phase usually requires a pre-emptive bomb in 1.01   where you bomb at a specific time to manipulate the damage stacking so   that it allows you to time a lucrative cancel without killing the boss   prematurely. (see stage 4 boss notes for more details on this).
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

Stage 4

No  stage differences in Ultra but this is the highest scoring stage  in  1.01. In 1.5 it is the second highest scoring stage after stage 5. In   1.01 original mode the towers do not cancel bullets. In every other   mode including 1.5 original they do.

Stage 4 boss
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

– Phase 1 attack 3 – The spread of round purple bullets is denser in 1.01 than 1.5
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

– Phase 2 attack 1 – In 1.01 the sprawls of purple bullets are much longer and the red enclosure bullets are denser.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 2 attack 2 – The purple bullets are much denser in 1.01  making  it much more difficult to dodge the enclosing red bullets.
In 1.01  the normal safe strategy is to allow Phase 2 attack 2 to trap  you at  the bottom of the screen and then bomb out of it as late as  possible so  that the bomb hits the start of attack 3 when the orbs  appear. This  takes advantage of a strange property of enemies in this  game because  the orbs all have their own individual hitboxes that  contribute to the  damage dealt to the boss. Aiming the bomb so that it  hits multiple orbs  multiplies the damage the boss receives by the number  of orbs hit.  Since bomb damage is much higher in 1.5 this kills the  second phase  instantly, but in 1.01 it simply brings the second phase  very close to  death allowing a good bullet cancel to be performed  without dodging the  extremely dangerous third attack.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 2 attack 3 – This enclosure attack is extremely difficult in   1.01 as the orbs shoot three times as many lines of red bullets which   overlap and leave almost no space to work with. In 1.5 they shoot single   lines of red bullets making it quite simple to dodge.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

–  Phase 3 – in 1.01 the red bullets form densely packed blocks of   bullets that must be dodged around completely. In 1.5 there are very   sparse individual red bullets that are trivial to dodge.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

Stage 5

–  The lanterns in 1.5 Ultra cancel bullets when destroyed within a 16   pixel window in the centre. In 1.01 they don’t cancel bullets at all   which significantly reduces the scoring potential of this stage, to the   point where stage 4 is much higher scoring than stage 5.

– The lanterns are blue in 1.5 and grey in 1.01.

–  In 1.5 the points awarded for destroying lanterns rises with the  total  number of lanterns destroyed. In 1.01 every lantern gives only  100,000  points.

– In 1.5 destroying a  lantern causes gems to continuously pour out of  the destruction crater.  If a cancel was successfully performed with the  lantern the gems will  be large. If not, the gems will be small. In 1.01  the lanterns only  leave behind a single small ground gem in the crater.

–  The location of the hidden 1-up is different. In 1.01 it is in an   earlier house. The midboss kill must be delayed to reach it as just like   the stage 2 midboss its death animation will prevent one of the   following groups of enemies from appearing which would otherwise block   you from collecting the 1-up item.

-Throughout  this stage in 1.01 small enemies will continue to fire at  you while a  large bullet-cancelling enemy is onscreen. In 1.5 small  enemies stop  firing at you until the large enemy dies, allowing you to  deal with the  large enemy’s attacks more easily. However there is a  nasty bug  related to this in 1.5 as if you die the enemies will stop  shooting for  a while as intended, but when they start shooting again  this actually  overrides the specific property of some small enemies to  not shoot in  the presence of a large enemy, making it very hard to  recover at all.

–  The dinosaur-like medium-sized ground-based enemies fire more   frequently in 1.01, and like the lobsters in stage 2 continue firing at   much lower vertical positions than in 1.5.

–  The large red bullet-cancelling ‘turtle’ enemies have a much more   difficult second phase pattern in 1.01. This pattern was simplified in   1.5 by removing many bullets.

– The medium-sized dragon enemies in 1.01 shoot lines of needle bullets in four rows. In 1.5 there are only two rows.

–  The medium-large bullet-cancelling dragons’ first attack has three   times as many rows of the red aimed sprawling pattern, and the second   attack has denser spreads of round purple bullets.

–  The two giant bullet-cancelling dragons have a nearly undodgeable   second phase pattern in 1.01. In a survival based run the safest   strategy is to minimize damage dealt to the first phase until the enemy   leaves the screen so that second phase is avoided completely. The  bullet  cancel triggered by destroying these enemies lasts for an  extremely  long time in 1.5 allowing you to gain a large amount of gems  from the  surrounding enemies. However in 1.01 the cancel period is very  short,  reducing the scoring potential of this stage even more.
video: 1.01 version 1.5 version

Stage 5 boss

–  All bullet patterns are identical between both versions. The  increase  in difficulty in 1.01 comes solely from the much more limited  damage  output prolonging the fight.

– The  True Last Boss is somewhat easier in 1.01 due to the smaller  player  hitbox. The reduced bomb damage is irrelevant here as the boss  cannot  be damaged by bombs in either version.

Written and edited by SMC