I Played Ikaruga EVERY DAY for a YEAR and all I got was this video essay 

Similar to a good few other comments, came here from the Jimmy McGee video. Thank you for making this video, it's genuinely pretty motivating for me. I've been trying to make art, but I've always been scared to actually go for it. I guess if any video was going to make me feel like truly going for it, I should've guessed it'd be the one about one Baphomet's journey with a hard as hell shmup. Which I now think I have to play. Thank you, Phirmth!

"He's not regret. And you know what, neither am I." Literally the perfect words to end this thing, 10/10

ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT. Here’s to seeing this hit the algorithm!

"Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die." - Mary Elizabeth Frye.

One of my favorite Ikaruga redeems had to be the first proper death of the Outer Wilds streams. I don't know why I found it funny (and still do) to just go "Now the game truly begins, BUT FIRST (Redeems Ikaruga) (stream slowly dies)"

Jimmy McGee's video on AI brought me here. I like videos of people who are enthusiastic about more niche video games like this, it shows just how dedicated this community is. Thanks for making the video

Ikaruga's spiritual successor, Ubusuna, is coming soon i hope you play that as well, to support the director who's been wanting to make a sequel for nearly 20 years at this point.

I think RU-vid is out of its mind that a video with a production value this high is not actually recommended to people more.

As someone who just got into the fighting game genre, and has wanted to do long form videos like this for over a decade, I think this level of dedication and care is what I needed to see. Thank you

I love this editing so much. I can't believe you played this game for a year, you mad lad

Wow, just... wow. I was craving a video about Ikaruga that actually breaks down the gameplay instead of just regurgitating the same talking points from 20 years ago, but I DID NOT expect to find a new all-time favourite video-essay. Your ability to weave between humour and genuinely insightful points was astounding, the pace of this video is basically perfect. The way you broke down each level's core challenges and how the scoring subtly alters the level design honestly surpasses most of the dedicated shmup channels I follow. Unlike them you're coming from the perspective of someone who struggled through these sections recently and the memory of them still stings. When learning languages, often times a native speaker is unable to explain their own language's quirks because they don't realise how someone new could struggle with it. You've managed to explain each section in a way that makes the challenge understandable yet does not downplay the difficulty, providing very solid tips for intermediate players who are looking to get the 1CC. The fact that you managed to take the experience of learning Ikaruga and conclude with an incredible treatise on games analysis and the nature of mastery (somehow encapsulating the themes of this game's obscure story DESPITE NOT READING ANY OF IT) is actually blowing my mind. The level of craft here is insane. Ikaruga has been on my mind for over 10 years now; my opinion of it going from thinking it's the coolest game ever to outright distaste because I felt it was too restrictive compared to other shmups. At first glance, the scoring system seems to only reward perfect play. Breaking a chain sucks at first, and watching S++ videos on youtube makes it seem like the only way to play was to memorize a perfect route after dozens of hours. This year I came across a playlist of videos showing intermediate scoring strategies (A ranks on each stage), and it made me realise that I don't have to play perfectly to get enough points for at least 2 extra lives. From there, I started learning basic scoring and found out this game has so much more to offer than I previously thought. I switched to Easy mode to give myself the best chance of learning a full 1CC, and finding my own route through the game has been immensely rewarding. Every broken chain, every life lost, every continue fed is another opportunity to learn, and I'm so glad there's finally a video on the internet that expresses all these feelings I've had towards this special game. Thank you for putting this together, and I hope you're having a great day.

This video was randomly recommended to me by the RU-vid Algorithm. Found the premise interesting, so I gave it a shot. I was quite surprised to find both a great dive into a great game and a shit ton of motivation towards my current goal. Thanks, random Baphomet stranger. Needed that kick in the shin.

I don't know how a bullet hell game essay inspired me to do my chores. Glad i found this gem of a channel.

The curse has been lifted and half an hour of your time has been freed. Imagine what you could do with all that time. You could sleep, relax or even snack. Or you could just play ikaruga. It's probably just going to be more ikaruga.

God, this video has so much passion and work put into and yet it's so underrated. Your editing, your writing, your humor are all uniquely captivating in their own right. Hats off to you man.

I've played *a lot* of shmups over the years. God damn choosing Ikaruga as your first one is insanity. Props 💪🏽

There's another way to deepen your understanding of a game. You're right that time is important, but it doesn't necessarily all have to be your time. If it took you a year to get 1/10th as good as those high level players you took inspiration from, it no doubt took them 10+ years. That's not just time they've spent playing the game, but thinking about it, forming new pathways in their brains to understand the concepts required to even get close to that level. We create new terminology to make those concepts communicable. And we really, *really* want to talk about our chosen game of obsession. I think you're distinctly aware that you chose not to research or reach out to the Ikaruga community any further in this particular case, and obviously your journey was very rewarding because of that. But there are some games that teach even experienced gamers the wrong lessons upfront, and can only be enjoyed and understood to their fullest through corrective measures or long term mentorship because some of that are just unintuitive. It's almost impossible to know if you're falling into this trap until it's too late, but it can be a powerful approach to give a voice to a community that otherwise lacks the technical means or motivation for this level of outreach

I don't normally leave comments on videos but it's criminal that so few people have seen this so here's an algorithm boost

Making art is such an incredibly, human thing, and I love your outro message about how making just comes with all of these feelings we never think about, all these challenges, I recently started drawing and sure it looks bad but im so happy with it, I thought earlier it would be "too late" to start drawing, what a fool I was, art has no requirement, only refinement

Your sacrifice shall not be forgotten, brave goat Boi. I feel so much better informed about Shmups now!

RU-vid knows me too well, recommending me an hour long video about something I've never had an interest in but know damn well I'm gonna get hooked into it anyways.

what a journey dude, literally a year of work and time and training all for a one hour video probably my fav vid of yours tbh, the ending line was brilliant

This is some serious dedication, and I applaud it. Not just in the gaming aspect, but in terms of video editing as well. Shmup games are very difficult to talk about. There's usually not a whole lot to explain, so the script can end up being short, and you don't want to pad out its content too much. But since you had over a year of experience to share, there was a lot to say! And you were able to balance engagement and video relevance well. I'm happy that I decided to take the time to watch the video you recommended, when I commented on your short about Ikaruga. I took note of the similarities and differences in our ways of playing the game, what we're willing to put ourselves through and how to best enjoy it. And it's good to see that your work on this is finally paying off, as this appears to be your highest viewed video on your channel. This gives me a glimmer of hope, as even a six month old video essay about a two decade year-old game can get picked up by the YT algorithm. I want to believe that starting channels should focus on quality content creation, despite how time consuming it can be. But it's rather demoralizing to me when I don't get the results that I envision. I want to be able to monetize my content, and it's not exactly helpful that I'm currently not doing anything mainstream. ...Well, let me not make this about myself. That short was the first piece of content that I've seen from you. I'm not really a stream watcher, since I just don't have the time for that now. So I'll see what else your past videos offer. We'll meet again some day soon, Phirmth. ...Virtually. I hope to see more of your content and watch it improve with each passing video.

Awesome concept for a video; the path of taking on shmups really is a grueling one, but very rewarding when you start hitting that flow state. Danmaku Unlimited 3 is also a great shmup, I kinda feel like it's a spiritual succesor to Ikaruga in terms of it's vibe.

As someone who plays these kinds of games for fun, I really appreciated this video. You said earlier, that there is a critical lack of content for Ikaruga, despite it's status as one of the best in the genre. I think you really captured the ideal feeling of playing, not only Ikaruga, but shmups in general. The feeling that you get by surpassing unsurmountable odds and making it through by the skin of your teeth. It's a truly awesome thing to experience. And I'm happy that you shared it with us.

Jimmy sends his regards

I've never been interested in bullet hells and never put much thought in them, but this video has given me a new appreciation for the genre. It's like every wave of enemies is a separate puzzle, and tactics such as preemptively running into bullets to create near-future safe areas for yourself was mind-blowing. Hearing all of your play-by-play strategies really put everything into perspective. I have no ideas how the devs managed to push out so much variety and creativity from just a few simple mechanics.

Very big Kudos for taking on such a discipline lesson and for discovering how deep shoot-em-ups can go. You really deserve a much bigger audience with your quality of content too, keep it up!. I also only managed to find this video through the steam community content page of ikaruga funnily enough.

My buddy and I decided to play ikaruga co-op via parsec as my first bullet hell (only played those automata segments before myself) and the second we hit stage two after dying a few times, we realized how badly we underestimated the difficulty of this game. Later stages feel like a pollock painting of death. Fell in love with this game a bit more every death, maybe ror that reason. Awesome video, and even better music choice (thotcrime ftw)

These games are so underrated, there visually addictive. The in between philosophical breaks caught me off guard

i bought ikaruga on sale sometime during the peak of the pandemic. i’d heard a good amount about it-the difficulty, the genius design, that maybe it was a puzzle game disguised as a bullet hell-and since i have a love for the genre, albeit casually, i thought i’d give it a shot. i played through the stages on and off, tried to make sense of the patterns, and then did two complete runs with unlimited continues on normal. i was amazed. it felt like i’d found myself on the first floor of a tower yoked to the sky, and there was no end in sight. the skill ceiling discussion you brought up makes perfect sense in the context of this game. i looked at my playtime. just a few minutes short of two hours. i’d just gotten hired for a new job that would be eating a lot of my time. suddenly i knew this was a tower i couldn’t climb. i refunded the game with the reasoning “this is amazing, but i’m not going to have the time to get meaningfully good at it” and i haven’t looked back since. one day i will go back to it. great video, mad props to you. i enjoyed the whole watch and it was nice to be reminded of my brief but honestly life-changing time with the game.

Back like fifteen years ago (fuck me I'm old) Ikaruga absolutely dominated my life, and I went into a similar obsessive journey with it as you. I played it relentlessly, only to find myself woefully incompetent at every turn, but never giving up; it's rhythm and constant barrage of small new ideas give space for you to mentally strategize, and slowly but surely, internalizing its rules to the point it becomes almost autonomous. It is one of the very few games that could be considered perfect; it takes a dead ass simple game concept, as fundamental as something that could come from the 70's (dodge shots and eat pellets), and gives you every possible permutation of the rule, but organized in a manner that can only be described as poetic; not as a metaphor but like in literal poetry, each level being clearly defined into verses and stanzas, almost. Every level presents and extends a mechanical theme, iterating in ways that are unique to each level, but also relate to previous challenges; difficulty also escalates more according to the theme than an arbitrary difficulty curve (like the lasers on Stage 3 and the spirals in stage 4) but still work like said curve.. Not to mention the narrative, which takes the standard shmup "lone pilot against an army" setup and transforms it into a mythical journey of enlightenment and rebirth, that is both literal and allegorical. You live millions of lives, and the games allow expressiveness in that way, from playing with someone else in 2p mode, or playing without shooting, or playing without changing polarity. It's all deeply allegorical and yet it works as an approachable arcade game, which is often seen as the least "artistical" of videogame genres. A lot is stipulated on videogames as art since Ika's launch, and very little concern is given to games like these, which express the sublime not through manipulating players emotions through story like so many AAA games do, but just their rules and experience; the core of what a game is, without the misleading varnish of polish. Its comically, cosmically high skill is also proof of that. It is possible to perfect finish Ikaruga, by destroying all enemies in every level in a single, perfect chain. It is basically impossible to only but a few dedicated individuals, like monks seeking ascendance. But it its possible. And that's the sort of terrifying beauty only games can create.

I absolutely refuse to believe that you don't know anything about Ikaruga's plot (or, by extension, Radiant Silvergun) and yet still summed up the literal exact moral word-for-word in your "progress through futility" section. I am not exaggerating when I say that by putting yourself to this challenge, you truly and literally lived the message of Ikaruga.

Really awesome video! Congratulations for improving so much at this difficult game man, that’s some serious dedication. I feel like this illuminated for me just how difficult getting a 1CC of this game truly is. It’s gotta be one of the most difficult shmups of all time to clear. I’ve been playing CAVE games for years and I’m still so intimidated by Ikaruga, but I admire the game a lot. It’s extremely unique in the shmup world, and the brutal difficulty adds to the mystique. Really enjoyed this deep dive man, not really many videos about Ikaruga that are this in depth exist.

Colorblind Ikaruga-Lover here. Never had a single issue separating the colors - it's the gold standard. Radiant Silvergun's color chains mess me up sometimes tho.

Congrats on the 1CC! As someone who's been into shmups for a while it's really interesting to see someone new to the genre dive in head first. A great experiment and a great video.

Holy shit what a gem of a video (and channel!). Such an unexpectedly inspiring and insightful video with some interesting topics and wholesome conclusions. Thanks to Jimmy McGee for recommending the video, but more so thank YOU for putting in the work and making this. Time to share this with everyone I know.

Thank you for this video. Ikaruga has been one of those games that's been in the back of my mind for years as one that I always wanted to get better at, but never really got around to it. But after watching this, you've given me the motivation to go for it. It's only been about 3 weeks so far (I'm not playing every day, just a couple times a week), but I'm already starting to see real progress! I'd never really tried to learn to chain in this game before, but I am now, and it's been so rewarding to finally get a good run when it happens! I've gotten an A in chapters 1 and 2 so far (haven't touched 3, 4, or 5 yet). I don't know if I'll ever be good enough to get S in anything, but maybe some day! My eventual goal is to be able to 1cc the game, and I know my journey has pretty much just begun, but...I will not die until I achieve something. Even though the ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore, I never die with regrets.

This video essay feels so refreshing and inspiring. I'm very glad that this exists

It's great seeing gamers in 2023 still discovering and appreciating this masterpiece.

This was a great watch, thank you

You making this video has made my life better. Thank you for making this type of content, masterfully. Keep'em coming!

This video elegantly combines the perspective of an experienced shmupper trying to 1CC a game with the perspective of a person looking to get into shmups. It also yielded an outstanding video essay too, with humor, tips and lore analysis all in one! Well. Done.

The beginning of this video is pure joy. I rewatch the intro at least 2 times a week. I'm not able to support you monetary but you should 100% do more videos.

im here from jimmy mcgee recommending this video as Being Good Video

I'm glad you made this video. Had a good time watching it, and I feel like I took some good core ideas from your philosophizing about it.

"And what I witnessed therein was like letting the edible hit while watching Hatsune Miku take a flamethrower to the Sistine Chapel" is such a line. Buying this game imminently.

Man, the "second boss" turnaround is such a classic surprise and cinematic move. Need more of this

I had this video saved in for about a year, probably a bit more (YT sucks), and it's my first time viewing a video of yours, and I love it. I have a similar strange relationship with R-Type Final (though that game at least gives you new shit even if you lose, so you have prizes for your progress), and you put in words not only a great dissertation on the game but also on what it's like to play those "be perfect or die" games and what they say about us. So yeah, you got a subscriber, which isn't much at this stage (hell, I'm 36 and recently got a job, I don't have the time to see content in binges), but it's important to me. I hope the rest of your videos are as good as this one.

Great work! And of all games, Ikaruga. Ikaruga is often listed as one of the hardest games of all time now without reason. Regarding the adaptive difficulty thing, or us shmup players refer as Rank System, no, I don't think Ikaruga has any of that. The moments where you mention that are probably just the pattern activating new bullets as the fight gets longer. If there is indeed a Rank System in Ikaruga, we would have already exploited it to heck for extra mercy... Battle Garegga is the notorious example of this. Ikaruga shudders even the shmup veterans. One of the main reasons aside of the color switcheroo is Ikaruga has no bombs to protect you, only strictly for offensive purposes. Bombs are great for skipping patterns, but since Ikaruga doesn't have that you have no choice but to engage with all of them. Having bombs doesn't mean the shmup will certainly be easier, but we're so used to have a fail-safe bombs at this point, even on 2001. If you're planning to tackle Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga's prequel, well.... one can say that game is meaner than Ikaruga since your DPS is directly tied to your scoring, so... beware.

No idea who this Jimmy character is, but apparently he's an algorithm wizard. This video showed up in my main feed so I figured I'd check it out. Ikaruga is one of those things that's IYKYK. My crew played the shit outta this game on Dreamcast... this and MushiHimeSama.

Was not expecting to see Matthermatosis here. He also definitely played a massive role in getting me interesting in eventually doing the video essays I do. Incredible essay and your commitment has really payed off. It's so funny to me that so many people I've watched have their origins coming from that silly Irish lad with the voice of an angel.

OMG! Awesome video ❤

Great video mate, enjoyed your editing so much! Also, thanks for introducing me to the music of Fullscreen in the intro

Hai!! Came here from Jimmy McGee's video, and you honestly inspired me to get back into New Vegas challenge runs. I've played so much of the game (like easily over 1000 hours) that I know basically everything about it, but I've never really felt the desire to "master" it through doing any. But seeing you work so hard (and consistently so) to master an incredibly hard bullet hell makes me want to do the same for it!! Also your video is so incredibly good, thank you so much for making it.

Fantastic video! Love to see high quality shmup content. Hopefully there’s more som the horizon!

Continue making video essays dude, you're good at it and the editing is insane

this video made me more emotional than it had any business making me. wonderful work ! also love your little goat guy :)

Love your editing and sound design, amazingly done

This is a really sick video and I love it.

So glad I found this, me and a friend used to try and co-op Ikaruga for a few weeks and never made it past stage three. Great video, I'm excited to see what else you put out here.

Dude this video just randomly popped up and honestly, your humor and personality got me hooked! Great vid!

I played a pirated Japanese copy on my Dreamcast back in the 2002, beat it on easy 5 lives (no projectiles released from enemy deaths) and its an experience that stuck with me since. Bought the artists book for this too. Started playing the Steam version lately on normal 3 lives and have no idea how I did it on easy as a kid but I will stick with it. I think these hard Japanese games are experiencing a resurgence in appeal because modern western game does not respect the player's intelligence or ability to persist. This isn't a content safari where you will see everything just because you paid the money and sat in the seat long enough. I've seen some responses to difficulty like its a gimmick, a spicy chilli for the sake of it but its that bar to jump that makes experiences like the lightning snake and second stage gauntlet so satisfying. Masterpiece game, the development environment, era and talent that led to its creation won't happen again. Its a real gem more people should play.

SO algorithm coming in clutch. I haven't played in a while but it's a wonderful game. This video alone got you my sub :3

I'd watched the Skullkid S++ run videos a while back when I wanted to enjoy that sort of zen experience of maximum skill in this beautiful game. You have now fulfilled another desire of the heart by doing this video essay gushing over the game. And I super dig your avatar, the quartet of ectoplasm hands are such a nice touch.

You are my childhood hero, I played this game on Dreamcast when was a kid and never got to beat it. I built a arcade machine out of my Dreamcast like 10 years ago in my parents house and this game was one of my favorite, and yet, I didn't beat it. I think I lacked the motivation needed, maybe is time to grab this old game again on steam and finally beat it. Thanks for the wonderful 1h of nostaugia, wasn't expecting this much fun from a 1h video about a 20 years old game, but you got me hooked. You got yourself a subscriber :)

great video! i started playing ikaruga and wanted to see the kinda videos people made discussing it, and yours is definitely my favorite out of the ones i checked out! despite its insane difficulty, i just can't put this game down treasure really knows how to make insanely challenging yet addicting games i don't think i'll ever 1cc this game, but i sure will keep trying!

Ya done good. This was a masterful work on your channel. Congrats!

found this randomly on youtube, very powerful video now i want to play ikaruga and now i want a video like this about zeroranger thank you

Timing the music to the shots around 3min in was such a great video choice

The video is very well edited, I enjoyed it a lot

Love seeing new channels

Ya boy when he realised only the centermost pixel counts as your hitbox in bullet-hells: 😯 Ikaruga is an amazing game and this video made me so nostalgic for it. FWIW it'll always be eee-kah-ROO-gah to me.

Great vid dude!

Loved every second of this! The algorithm giveth today. I'm 6 months late, but lucky for me, good shit has no expiration date.

I was looking to see if there are many players that can express their emotions and explain their progress about a shmup they have committed to over a year. This was the recommendation...I have to say ...this is genuinely good. It may not be Kinja Run, but with any auto scrolling, or space invaders/galaga shooter, there is always a learning curve... Yeah I'll just share this and let the Kinja Run Community know about skill and knowledge progression.

Algorithm blessed me with this vid, I'd say I'm a fan of shmups, but out of all the ones I seen Ikaruga is incredibly intimidating This video makes me want to pick it up and go through the grinder like you have (maybe not everyday for a year, I still dont hate myself enough for that quite yet) But if you're looking for another fun shmup (thats nowhere near as difficult) I recommend Zeroranger, it chock-full of references to other animes, shmups, incredibly simple in comparison, and I remember someone saying its "a love letter to shmups" which I agree, its not as indepth as 'ruga, but it's a fun time waster

Your video editing is really slick, keep it up

waking up at the middle of the night hating myself, this video pop up, I decided to watch, starting to feel tiredd. Laying on bed watching it full, that was the most relaxing shit in a while. Thank you for your work.

second time watching this video, the first time I wanted to at least play ikaruga before watching but it's really inspiring what you did, I struggle with discipline a lot so I think I really want to try doing something like this, where each day even if I don't feel like I've learned anything I'll be able to say that I've put in the effort and that's enough maybe. The part where you talk about failure and it not adding up in the game also was really powerful for me, as I'm one to often get discouraged really easily, so the fact that this game actually pushes you to not just get better but to push forward despite your mistakes really gud stuff, I'll come back to the video once I'm at least done with all the stages at least.

This makes me think about my absolutely FERAL playthroughs of Hades. 70+ clears (I think?), and an almost Zen-like appreciation of the whole thing. Its mechanics, the bossees, the story, the combos, the weaponry. And those godDAMN vistas the game throws at you and almost forces you to reckon with. To catch your breath for a few seconds. And then it's on to your breaking out of hell. Again. Just like in Ikaruga you're put through the wringer in order to break out of the karmic cycle. Again.

Beautiful video. I've put off watching this for a while, but now I wish I didn't. Thank you for making this :)

Awesome video! I was blessed enough to have my first time playing Ikaruga be in a Japanese arcade. Needless to say the gamer spirits weren't with me on that day

I used to be such a huge fan of bullet hell games but just fell off them gradually without even noticing. Thanks for the Essay and for covering a game I really love and for putting in the effort to get way deeper than I ever did!

I adored this video, it's just radiant. Thanks for this 1h10m

This was an amazing video, great job editing and explaining mechanics and strategies to the aptly named bullet curtains. congrats on the one year one the awesome game. hope you get a ton of subs and views off this vid. Can't wait for more content from you!

That was a great video, I'm impress you only have 700+ subs, your quality is superb, and I love that you can talk about and appreciate hard games while still talking with accessibility options in a good light. Thank you for this journey goat demon v-tuber.

Been putting off watching this for a while and now that I did it was better than I expected. Ikaruga being one of my favorite games, this was a joy to watch. You "get" the game, down to the weird broken english translation. I think "impeccable" is the word most adequate to describe Ikaruga, and this video does it justice. Makes me want to get back to it and go for that 1CC I still haven't got even after several years and dozens of hours on it (great job on that, btw). The only thing I'd change about the video is how much I'd gush about the back and forth against the final boss with the homing lasers. Very few other things in games are as effective as that part at putting you in a complete trance if you manage to get into the rhythm. It's insane. Also, Radiant Silvergun is harder. Substantially harder. And a counterpoint to Ikaruga's minimalist design. Absolutely worth checking out (as is the case with most of Treasure's catalog).

Jesus, what a well made and presented video. You've inspired me to come back to this game and actually finish it. Amazing job my dude 👌

Jimmy was right, what a good video! Thoroughly enjoyable

Hello algorithm please show this video everyone for a long time

I don't know why this video randomly appeared in what was supposed to be a youtube song mix playlist but boy am I glad it did.

Loved this video! This masterpiece deserves more views!

Multiple tears where shed. Beautiful video

Dude. I'm going to blow your mind right now. There are literally hundreds of shmups with pure, wall to wall peak game design. You just need to start playing all the classics. Mushihimesama, Rtype Delta, dodonpachi doj, G darius, batsugun... i mean there are so many "perfect" games in this genre its unreal. Someone once said the purest forms of game design are racing games and shmups. And i agree with that.

Using Final Credits near the start of a video feels like a crime, but it works? Huh. Good vide :)

having only 18k views on this feels absolutely criminal. Please keep making content this was wonderful

1:08 might be the sleep deprivation but damn the music hits hard

Stumbled on this, excellent avatar! Really cool design!

I like your passion Goat man :) I will subscribe.