Mushihimesama (2004)

Finally went back to grind out a long-overdue 1cc (1-credit clear) of this game’s original arcade difficulty. I’d done that on the novice/easy modes or arranges of a bunch of Cave's games, but never on a proper arcade mode, and this was naturally the one to do since it’s possibly my favorite from them and on the easier side. I fell off this genre for a while due to some chronic pain issues but seem to be fine enough now luckily. It’s an interesting challenge to do, definitely satisfying and reinforced things I love about the game. Since everything is dangerous and able to clip you at any time, it can be a somewhat demoralizing exercise at points and one that requires constant alertness—even with a practice mode, a lot of time was spent on the first few stages to say the least. At least this is a relatively short challenge at around 22 minutes, compared to something like DoDonPachi’s 2-ALL at around 49, which might make me lose my sanity if I died at the end a few times. I definitely found this exciting to pull off and improved at stuff that I’m interested to try in other games.