GUSInterviewAtSoCalRetroGamingExpo2017

F-Man: I'm going to ask you about your journey and how you got into shmups.

F-Man: I'd like to introduce GUS, famous for clearing Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 Ultra Mode, counterstop.  Also one of the few people in the world who has cleared Futari Ultra Mode 1.01.

GUS: I played Futari Ultra a lot. It's my favorite game.

F-Man: How did you get into Shmups? What game? A little history? Then how did you find out about Futari Ultra?

GUS: I started out playing DoDonPachi in MAME.  That's a great game, playing for survival. I'm not big on chaining, but I like the survival.

F-Man: How did you find out about DDP, did you watch a video, trying roms in MAME?

GUS: Yes, playing different roms in MAME.

F-man: Did you play other Shmups before?  Do you remember the moment when "Shmups is my genre?"

GUS: DoDonPachi was that moment.  Before that I dabbled in some other games, Gradius, stuff, casually.  DDP, that's when I dropped all other [game] genres.

F-Man: So now you played DDP, did you go to Futari after that, or how did you get to Futari?

GUS: I wanted to get that 1cc in DDP, then I got an Xbox 360 and Deathsmiles, localized at the time.  Then I got Futari, and worked my way up to Ultra Mode.

F-Man: You had one of the top scores in Futari BL Original Mode?

GUS: No, I wish I played it more.  I watched the stream of Daruru? That dude's a beast.  That's a great game. I kind of wished I played Original instead of Ultra.  I started out with 1.5 Original, just clearing it.  Then I went to BL Maniac, then BL God Mode, is what got me into scoring with that flashing 30,000 and big bullet cancels.  Then I moved onto Ultra after that.

F-Man: So God Mode was a stepping stone?

GUS: Yeah, at the time I didn't view it as a stepping stone. I took it pretty serious. I got 5 Billion, the 2nd place on Shmups forum was 3 Billion.  I saw this other guy playing Ultra Mode he was called..(???) when no one else was playing it. I wanted to try my hand at it.

F-Man: So you saw some Superplays and wanted to try it?

GUS: Yeah, Ultra mode was underplayed.  No one knew what it was like except for a handful of people. Like that ??? guy.  I tried to message him and he didn't respond.  He left the forum after he submitted his score, basically.

F-Man: Was there a marked difference from going to God Mode to Ultra?

GUS: Yeah there was a huge difference. It was discouraging at first to memorize everything completely, again.  Totally different routes, totally different game.

F-Man: So you thought maybe God Mode was a BL version of Ultra mode, but that wasn't the case?

GUS: No that wasn't the case.  I had to build from scratch.

F-Man: So you're playing Ultra Mode.  Did you have good results right away? What were the walls?

GUS: The Larsa fight was a big wall.  That felt like something I could never do.  Stage 1.  Stage 2 with the icicles are annoying.  Stage 3... some annoying parts, but Stage 4's not that bad with the hives.  And Stage 5 was like memorizing the lantern cancels.  But it's a totally different story with 1.01-- I had to create my own routes for that that took months.

F-Man: Were you not able to see footage for 1.01?

GUS: There were survival replays available but I wanted to do a scoring run and I saw the scoring potential people weren't taking advantage of.  I wanted to see how far you could push St. 5 for score; the scoring isn't consistent at all, I had to throw out a lot of runs because of it.  The funny thing is, is that it's not worth that much.  It's weird but it's a great stage, especially when you do a good run. I couldn't help but go all out, playing for score.

F-Man: You counterstopped 1.5 Ultra mode, what made you push further?

GUS: I saw Chubow streaming it.  He was a Japanese player who liked to stream Ultra mode a lot. He was one of the first Superplays I saw who streamed anything.  He made a good impression on me with 1.5 Ultra scoring routes that went way beyond the counterstop.  I knew a simple counterstop wasn't all that good at that point, and that pushed me to keep playing.  I talked to Chubow a lot and he showed me his routes on the condition I kept them secret, and I did keep them secret, for 3 years, and finally I did upload them a week ago, for people to see on my Youtube channel.

F-Man: Do you still talk to Chubow then?

GUS: No. I tried making the replays public a year ago when I showed them to another Japanese player and Chubow heard about that and he freaked out about it. I got cold feet on the matter and I deleted the videos.  Now, Chubow has distanced himself from the Shmups community and he only plays Fighters.  He calls himself Arl now and he's playing Guilty Gear Xrd.

F-Man:  What's he doing in GGXrd?

GUS: I have no idea.  It's sad he quit shmups.

F-Man: So you did Futari 1.5, when did you get interested in 1.01?

GUS: I moved on from 1.5 March, 2014.  That was when I got my run when I got the full stage 2 boss milk.  That was insane to do. I spent two weeks trying to get out of stage 2.  I did it one time and was like, "No, *laughs* I don't want to play this anymore."  After that I took a long break from the genre and I came back in late 2015 to try to play some 1.01.  I thought that would be a good alternative since there was no stage 2 boss milk but I got a good opportunity to show some cool scoring tricks.

F-Man: So after the Counterstop in 1.5 you wanted to further challenge yourself without having to have that [limited] score?

GUS: That's exactly what it was.  I heard about Cave bringing Futari to Steam back then. I'm still hopeful Futari will come to Steam without a counterstop.  But I think 1.01 is a good mode to play to get the Ultra experience without the counterstop.  It's not a perfect game, it has some issues.  Stage 5 should be worth a lot more for how hard it is to do properly.  It's a good game, I really enjoy it.

F-Man: What advice do you have for the Shmups community?

GUS: I really love the genre.  I'd like more people to focus on playing them without getting distracted by other genres. But if that's what you like then go for it.  It's all about having fun and enjoying yourself.  You shouldn't feel bad because you don't have records. That's always been my advice. Don't focus on records.  Have fun and enjoy yourself.

F-Man: Any last shoutouts?

GUS: I'm digging this Garegga stream with Ratikal.  Before, I assumed he was a druggie playing MMOs but when I met he's actually a pretty cool guy.

F-Man: Awesome. Thanks.  Maybe you could get a PS4 and do some Console Garegga runs?

GUS: Naw. I don't see a point in getting a console when I can just play it in MAME.

F-Man: How about some MAME Garegga runs, can we see GUS playing Garegga?

GUS: I'll play it here on the PCB but at home, playing it seriously, I don't see it happening.

F-Man: If the PS4 was cheaper would you get the port and play it?

GUS: Yeah... maybe?

F-Man: You got it.  From STG Weekly and GUS, we got a "maybe" GUS might be changing to Garegga.

GUS: *laughs*