Psyvariar Revision (PC) - 1CC - 136m - Axion-R

It's been fantastic to come back to Psyvariar with some determination and I think it's fair to say that my foray into Delta mode helped a lot with pushing my score further.

The most notable improvement is in the X-B. I'm now getting a decent amount of score from the stage itself as well as milking the boss using at most 1 bomb. The stage used to seem really scary, but compared to the version in Delta it's a fair bit more forgiving. It's a lot of fun.

I'm particularly happy with how I handle the large duo of large satellites at the end. It's satisfying to point blank them and it lets you get some score without using a bomb. (I do a similar thing with one of the same enemy in X-D, and while it is possible to do it with the duo of the same too it's a lot harder due to the position of the other enemies.)

The boss here is actually a lot harder than in Delta as your level is lower which makes it harder to trigger its second phase when you want. Even in that mode, the fact that there is this extra variable makes the fight so much harder, as if you trigger it at an off moment the boss' movements can cause its patterns to be harder. Definitely something you can control but I need more practice.

The Gluon milk was somewhat suboptimal in places. Starting the final form with an empty gauge was definitely a mistake, but the safe strats of the rest of that phase was just caution. I probably could have milked him longer but I expected him to die and when he didn't I panicked and killed him. I've had too many runs ending before they can end because I got greedy. Notably I manage to avoid using a bomb on one of the final cycles which suggests my practice is starting to pay off.

I was lucky in that the deaths in this run weren't too impactful to the score. The first was at the stage 3-C boss for no reason, and the second at the start of the X-C boss fight, also for no reason. Probably 1-2m lost.

I'm not sure what's next. It's hard for me to express just how perfect these games are, so perhaps I will keep trying to push my score further. On the other hand I should probably give Psyvariar 2 a serious go before 3 comes out. In any case it's a good time to be psyvariar!