Has anyone figured out the gameplay mechanics yet?
Here are a few things I've noticed:
- Point items add .01 to your life. If you're hit, you lose 1.00 - graze/200 (.40 minimum, I think). Yes, for some reason, graze reduces damage.
- PIV starts at 50,000 on Easy, 100,000 Normal, 150,000 Hard, 200,000 Lunatic, and 300,000 Extra. Coins increase your point item value by 500 on Normal, 250 on Easy (haven't tested anything else).
- Grazing increases your point item value somehow; it seems to affect both the value directly and the rate of increase. I think there's a multiplier involved.
- PIV decreases significantly if you're hit. I don't think it's affected by bombing.
- The PIV seems to reach a cap if you go for a while without being hit, but the cap increases somehow as the game goes on. I think it's something like PCB's cherry/cherrymax. It's hard to tell what increases this cap, though, with the PIV not visibly displayed except when you collect a point item. However, I think it's related to graze somehow...
- The number of items dropped after each boss phase seems to depend on how quickly you finished that phase. So stalling for graze is probably not worth it on later bosses; it might actually be worth spending bombs on a few phases if it happens to give you additional items.
It seems to me that scoring in this game would be MoF-like: primarily about not being hit, then about using spare bombs on stages for point items. Not sure, though.
Also I noticed there's a stage 7 on the replay screen. Anyone know when it's relevant?
