Progear No Arashi - Guida di Futobishi

From when the game was published a year and a half has past, I can play with the game only on WE when I don’t work, so it does not seem that much time has passed, but when I noticed that the game was slowly disappearing from the game rooms I said “Arrgh! Stop there! I didn’t have time to finish the game! You are already changing it?”. From when I started working the passing of time is annoyingly fast.

Here you can find the parts of the game I could do best and the guide I was preparing during work days.

I know there are a few parts that are not good enough, but I would be happy if this is useful.

Note: in the video there is a part where reproduction stops and in some parts the audio is disturbed.

The video can be downloaded from www.super-play.co.uk.

(video recorded 14 September 2002)

2 - SCORING SYSTEM

These elements should be already known, but I decided to include them in this guide:

1. NO MISS - NO BOMB

You can obtain 2 important effects accumulating bombs after the maximum stock allowance has been reached:

A) Points double for every bullet that hits something and for the jewel counter

B) The minimum dimension of the rings gets bigger.

After 5 bombs, the effect of B terminates.

Dying or using a bomb end the effects of A and B.

Since this is the base for a high level game I will take these for granted, and will not repeat.

Looks like with Militant it is possible to complete the game nomiss-no bomb (!?), but with the Gambler... Well, for now it’s not cautious..

2. JEWELING

This is the most important point of all! It is the main source of points. And the jewel counter is the base of a good game. Mainly in the first loop you need to collect as many jewels as possible even if you take some risks. After you complete the first loop the jewel counter doubles and leaps the score of the second loop (even too much!). After you have checked out the video you can have a better look at this guide where I explain in detail how to collect many jewels.

3. ALL CLEAR BONUS

By the end of the game this is what influences more the score:

- For any life you get 5.000.000 pts,

- For any bomb left over 1.000.000 pts,

- Jewel counter multiplied by 30 at the end of stage 10.

These are very big bonuses. To maximize you need to spear as many life and bombs as possible and never let the jewel count fall!

4. BULLETS ON TARGET AND RAPID FIRE

These elements show there importance in the second loop. Shoot as much as you can in F-mode. The G-mode is not that good so better limit the use... But there is always the risk to receive a swarm of bullets in this case, so use it with moderation.

Now let’s talk about the rapid fire. Usually the buttons have the following position:

A: SHOT – pushing it quickly you should enter F-mode (Fighter mode), keeping it down you enter G-mode (Gunner mode).

B: BOMB - bomb (Don’t touch it 'till stage 10).

C: FULL AUTO – keeping it pushed you enter F-mode. If you are missing button C you need to do a little tapping on the A button.

It would look like C = Tapping-A, but the thing is a little different. You understand this if you use tapping A instead of C: as you will be slower to destroy the stronger enemies, and end up ruining the pattern. So you will ask yourself “what is the difference between C and tapping A?”. Probably there is a difference in the Gunner fire.

In the end, you can understand that that tapping A will produce a slower squall that the one produced by C, the squall of the Gunner produced by tapping A is weaker, what happens to the points? In Theory, as the gunner increases is strength, tapping A should give higher points. But in the end what is the real effect? I didn’t do a specific study of it, but Gambler and Militant with Gunner α increase the score. With Gunner β there is not much change. I didn’t make any test with Gunner γ.

Note: With any gunner you play tapping A is weaker than using C. For this reason some parts of the game like killing the Bosses will take up much time. "Ok but what about points?"... Maybe using A in this way is only a risk (obviously, it depends on how you use it…)!

3 - STAGES

3.1 - STAGE 1

To get a good score, you will have difficulties since the beginning. You could easily say that the score of the first loop is determinate by the score of the first two stages. I am actually very happy when I can complete the first stage with 30.000 jewel and more than 4 million... In the video I couldn’t make it, I don’t have enough experience yet.

To get a good score you need to get to the critical point at the half of the stage (where the yellow planes appear) with more or less 7000 jewels.

With the method shown in the video you should be able to absorb 7000 jewels, but there should be a way to absorb more. We need to find it. If you absorb more than 7000 jewels your rank grows much (even if, occasionally, it does not... And sometimes it grows even if you have less than 7000 jewels). It is possible to concatenate from the yellow planes, the problem is how to do it with many?

The best method is probably to stay in the low left corner and not move too much, leave the yellow planes shoot and wait the bullets to bind together.

With gunner β you need to be careful: artillery (AAA) can give problems, it’s in the way and you can’t hit the yellow planes!

At this point you are left with the yellow planes at the end. Failing this sequence is will make you cry, it could be worse than losing a life.

BOSS 1

The trick is to absorb the Bosses squalls as much as you can without dying. There is a way that lets you absorb more squalls (3 in total), but I avoided it as it is too risky.

3.2 - STAGE 2

The road to success, the first test for the quest for a good score is the second stage. In this stage even if you always play with the same style the score can be very different. Tragic climax will fall upon us, also in the video feed. If you work on the terrain, the most is done. If you manage to do it always like this it will be a big improvement for your score... If you manage to change the squalls of the mid-boss in from ring diamonds to diamonds it will be a very good result. Everything easy up to here, but now you’re coming up to something that will test your wits!

Ah looks like a phrase coming out of a TV program. I’ll try to avoid that (it happens very often I'm afraid).

Let’s say it is opportunistic of me dying just before the most consistent “chain”. At least I recovered just afterwards. At the end getting the power-up and the bomb you had other 500 gems (Anyway, I have done my share of damage).

BOSS 2

Fist: let’s get go near and on with heavy shooting.

Second: Let’s leave as many bullets on the screen when we are about to destroy the first form, period!

3.3 - STAGE 3

This stage as a more ”stable” path, if you consider the first two (with this pattern). But I have the sensation that it is possible to collect many more gems… example: in the first part and at the train… the jewelling of the little planes (Hanuman) is quite big. I made a mistake also at the end...

BOSS 3

At the first form how much trouble he’s going through! It looks like he’s doing it to absorb more bullets, but it’s not true! To get a good score you need to push yourself up to these levels! Then get close and shoot!

3.4 - STAGE 4

The problem in the first half of this stage is to find a way to absorb the gems from the group of little tanks that comes up after the 3 Otakebi 3rd.

In the video I do five ring-gem cycles, what do think of that? Sometimes it just happens to be able to concatenate the bullets. Anyway I do the pattern for the 1UP. Sometimes I have this nightmare where I can’t do it…

There’s another problem: the choppers after the mid-boss. Strange enough in the video I managed to chain them together beautifully, but this part is not much clear and sometimes it is pretty risky. It is not easy to understand. I suppose I was just lucky to chain the together.

BOSS 4

It is all about absorbing the shots from the small enemies during the second form. In the video it’s a flop. You need good deal of luck here. O yeah!

3.5 - STAGE 5

Here’s a crucial point for an optimal score.

There are two crucial parts in this stage: chain the yellow planes in the first part, after you finish ascending, and the cable-car. The yellow planes… the sequence is similar to the one at the end next stage… I didn’t get it quite right in the video. Sorry I am trying to fix that pitifully. The mid-boss is easy with Gambler! It’s just a bonus enemy to cover with shots (sometimes I die here).

Here we are in the cable-care area. This is the last jackpot of the first loop! Go check the video… But since you would say that that not what a guide is for, I’ll explain it simply enough. Immediately destroy the first cable-car, and damage the second so that it will start “turning” (you need to control the damage you cause, it takes some sensibility) and destroy the third in G-mode. Leave button A in the instance it blows up. In that way you should be able to make it. Depends on how much time you spend training on it, and you’ll be able to do it (the probability is the same as the yellow planes in stage 1).

If you can’t make it you just need more training. You need to keep your attention on absorbing and timing to destroy the cable-car in G-mode (i.e. how long you need to keep A button down. So you need to time perfectly the A button, but it is also important to move in sync with when the second cable–car start to rotate in the direction of the rotation. If you stay on the left side of the screen you will end up destroying the second cable-car, which we do not want to destroy, for the rest you just need experience.

When the second cable car starts to turn you need to consider how the bullets turn so to chain them. You must not get surrounded (this part is already quite a mess).

The is a super technique to start the absorbing of the first cable car, but it is very difficult, more than the bug in the first stage, so I didn’t want to do it. If I manage maybe I will add that…

BOSS 5

For the first form just shoot as much as you can in F-mode.

For the second you need to do the last jewelling at the end, maybe I concentrated too much on jewelling, maybe because the gunner are not in the up-down formation(selectable pressing A+B in the gunner selection screen) I get many attacks from above. Careful! You risk an uppercut. So be very careful. If you want to make a good score you need to kill the final form in F-mode actually it is best to not loose lives here.

So we end the first loop. Up to here cure more the jewel count than the score, even if the score is low in the second loop you can get back much back. Now you need to get as far as you can with no miss – no bomb … Ehm…

3.6 - STAGE 6 (2-1)

Finally the second loop. As I already said you need to shoot much and concentrate on jewelling. Don’t think too much about it as the gems are at least emeralds (actually you should think about it as diamonds value is double, well let’s not say these things as we are at the second loop, but what should we do? Which of the two?) When the tanks come up (Government Digger) shoot on them using their invulnerability, this way you get more points that with a very difficult jewelling, you need to absorb the planes near the bridge (Otakebi 3rd) a get as many points as possible in the castle, where we find two big tanks (Mount Digger), the second most of all. You can make up to one million points. And yes, it’s the Gambler! With the Militant doing the same will get you half the points and a few dangerous miss. In the final jewelling it is easier to cancel the bullets of the yellow planes going up gradually… am I the only one to think it like that?

BOSS 6

I am not deleting the squalls very well. Or at least I am not doing it well in the video, I try, but I fail, I am not accurate enough. At the second form it is possible to do a good score, but it Is dangerous, I die very often, since the danger is more than what I can gain from it, I prefer to do it like you can see in the video.

3.7 - STAGE 7 (2-2)

In this stage if you get distracted even a little bit you will find yourself surrounded by bullets. If you do not do enough training avoiding all it can get very dramatic. When I get at the train I give a nice show, but it was not done with great decision, I think of the shower of bullets and I just don’t make it…

Now I do not even try. At the mid-boss I delete for 3 times the “rose” attack using the turret, I avoid the fourth… But it “Jeweled”. At the fifth attack I destroy the first form. From the next attacks I stay clear of the first and cancel the second. I stay clear up coming two attacks, otherwise I would have dealt with a few annoying suicide bullets. Then I cancel the rest using ground enemy and when I felt like it I killed the mid-boss (you need to give him some punishment!). When you get to the Otakebi 3rd area you need to stay clear from the focal point of the attack, so it’s less scary. Cancel the bullets using the smaller enemies… If you don’t get them its trouble.

BOSS 7

For the first form shoot in F-mode! At the beginning of the second form I received that attack and lost 2 million points (it happens with gambler, as in the video). The last attack is quite a challenge I do it in G-mode because each time I try to do it in F-mode, for some reason I don’t know, I die…

3.8 - STAGE 8 (2-3)

In the first part of the stage I go a little around the screen. Since the only part I need to avoid bullets is when I reach the small tanks. Means the pathern I use Is quite confy. But I fail the jewelling and that is dreadful. With the mid-boss... I begin shooting a lot to make up points. I cool down in G-mode. I didn’t come up with a good pattern here. In the second part I leave alone the train. But to do a great score you need to take it down! Yeap it’s normal, sometimes it happens, you get to feel quite a thrill! In the end in the part with the tanks I use the following pattern: I get the first out of the way then I run up on the right.

BOSS 8

Sorry. I don’t do it quite right. At the first form I really am squandering much. You need to destroy the parts. The score would be significantly different.

I was too prudent. At the second for I don’t even put a little pressure on him, I wait for the storm to end. At the third form, after I got in 2 times, if I just got a bit nearer I could have destroyed him.

I try each time thinking I can do it (but then I get frighten and I go into that small passage…).

3.9 - STAGE 9 (2-4)

Once you reached this point, more than trying to get points you should try to stay alive. Doing a re-try now would be annoying. Now, once you reached the point where 3 tanks come out in a queue (Schutzrum Digger) without shouting I position myself on the top (suicide bullets around). Then I first take down the Schutzrum on the left the one in the center and then the last on the right.

Trying to evade you get killed very often here, because anyway you need to elude the suicide bullets other than the attack. After evading I move to the top left and after I destroyed the tanks in F-mode I star on with G-mode, So killing the smaller tanks at the back I can absorb the bullets high up. After that it is convenient to kill the Government Digger that comes out on the left (the suicide bullets go upwards so I go down). Then I slow down in G-mode (the gunner goes to take down the tanks below so I must elude the suicide bullets…). Also the choppers are annoying. Careful on staying to close suicide bullets up ahead (even if there are moments in which there is actually nothing to do). If you want to squeeze out as much as you can you need to let the 1UP (20.000 gems) come out, obviously without being killed. When you’re in trouble with the mid-boss (a big chopper), use the bomb. The gunner is weak, and the Gambler is slow, a very difficult part, but this time it went well, so it’s ok.

BOSS 9

This is the boss that will make you despair, and you could easily lose the no-miss. This is also the weirdest part of the video. At the end of the first form something strange happens.

If we look at the slow-motion you can see that I leave it at the last moment, if I got hit I would find myself at the second stage, so that is ok. I pattern is good, and also the eluding. In the second form he’s good with me… In the third for when he comes from left to right I just make it from beneath, but it no always like that.

3.10 - STAGE 10 (2-5)

Citation from my friend T-shima:

“Here you obviously need to use a bomb!”

At all people that could think it I must say there are many things I can’t do. Sometimes I store too many bombs and I end up dead, other times I use the al up and I find myself without any left. The meaning of all this is to go ahead you need to use the bombs in the right place and at the right moment… Sorry. To hide a terrible game I was trying to justify the use of the bomb.

I beg for your forgiveness. At this point it’s a slaughter. It would make you laugh, but after the 200 million points mark that's nothing to laugh about.

I wanted to go ahead so I just left a bomb here. I found myself surrounded by bullets, I tried to delete them in G-mode but nothing happened, so I used a bomb and they all disappeared. After ascending, just when I started the attack on the Otakebi 3 rd in G-mode I said to myself “Oh god the rubies! Before destroying the Otekabi it looked as I was going to pieces! The gunner isn’t good enough!” so I lost another bomb. The third bomb: to the tank. Why? Look at the video and you will understand… The fourth after the mid-boss: this part done with the Gambler is terrible... Please someone tell me how to do it no-bomb! With Militant in a way or the other it is possible. I totally fail the cable-car part, but at this stage it always happens. The part with the last Sky G came out quite beautifully. I wish it would be always like that. Getting killed here is not good for moral.

BOSS 10

Evade the first attack at the top or the bottom it’s the same (are you joking?). I do it from high grounds and make up a good deal of points, but I am force to launch a bomb. I evade the firework attacks that originate from 3 different areas; I could avoid quite easily the later attack with the bullets all on the screen. The Big problem comes with the next attack! That one is really ugly. And in this instance I have no bombs! I just left myself die. Later he was sorry for it. Let’s say it was a draw. I retreat when I see the second form. This is dangerous hence there goes another bomb.

At third form just throw another bomb: “Die, quickly!”

I made it (I got lucky, I was nervous) also at the fourth form the bomb is going to be the trick in any moment. And the pattern was good, the attacks where all simple.

The later attack is nasty, but the boss was good. I die, by my hands, in the last attack after I launched the bomb. Then I use twice the bomb because I cannot see any space within the heavy curtain of bullets. I must have done something wrong after launching the bomb, for sure.

4 - CONCLUSION

Very well, what do you think about it? Isn’t it a good security plan to the people that want to get an all-clear? Yes I think that as well… It’s not that I want you do dangerous things for real. And I am not saying that this is the way you should do it. I have been writing think like “Here you can do it like this, but there are many other ways to do it”. For who was looking for a definitive guide, well I am sorry, this isn’t it. I cannot say that the technique used in the video is the best way, there are many errors. I just want you to think that “This is a way to do it”.

Anyway being able to play only on weekends isn’t good. Every Saturday I would recover the sensations of the last week and on Sundays I would show my valor, but now…

Also the game rooms where I went to play was 300 km from where I lived and the period Progear was released was a bad one. It would take me 5 hours and a half! What an idiot, that’s why I don’t like to stay out of the city. It would have been best if I purchased the motherboard of the game!

But at the time it was fun, so it’s all right, But I don’t want to have anything to do with that place again.

My score this year during Spring was dreadful, about 180 millions, any I could get always around the second loop, but this time I made it. At this point the 300 million story came out… Is it really possible? Well, playing like in the video not ding at the second stage, getting to the end with a no-miss, it’s possible… Uhm, it is difficult. But it is not an impossible score. I will try for some time. I can’t way till a holiday!

(10 October 2002)

[NB At the moment (February 2007) the record with Gambler is from Clover-TAC with 284.523.450]

This document is property of Arcade Extreme and AEX Shooting Team. Publishing on any media and in any language (with the exclusion of the original Japanese version) without express authorization is forbidden. If any authorization request remains unanswered it will mean that it has not been granted.

(thanks to CJ for this translation)