Leave it to Naka to paint a space police cruiser pink and say nothing about it

Ah yes, one of the more bizarre R-type ships... flying 'drill' tank, Star Fox style. I always liked the unusual ones. While the TP-2 POW Armor makes sense, the Neoptolemos makes less sense and looks more like something Gundam/Robotech would do.

0:00 Ah, the R-11A, one upgrade away from my favorite R-Fighter. Here's hoping the Peacemaker or No Chaser make an appearance later in the series. 2:43 Also, I never thought of it the way that Naka put it, how certain R-Fighters are just innately better or more fit for certain stages than others. Not to mention it also works in canon, which would explain why there are easily over 70 (humanity designed) R-Fighter variants with so many vastly differing features and quirks!

tanks in SPACE!

In this episode nothing makes sense, except this map that says that East City is to the north, South City is to the east, and North City is to the east

(4:14) "This boss isn't terribly difficult, but you do have to kinda pay attention." *Boss promptly drops a ball on Naka's ship, which gave me a chuckle.

Glad to see it's not just me that has struggles with 4.0. Honestly, while there are some stages later that come close, the stage 4 options are the ones I find hardest. On the one hand, Yellow deals with things really nicely and I should probably think on what ships have Reds or Blues that work that way, since I come in with Red from Stage 3 and there is a Blue right at the start. On the other hand I am sad that this prevented you showing off the way the bits work with the Red Laser on the Gallop Force. Really funny seeing you take the Kiwi Berry to a stage with no ground elements to use it's gimmick with. But yeah, 4.1 is a rough pattern set, my current theory is that it wants you to use your force as flak to deal with swarms, but idk if it does enough damage to work. The interesting thing I find is both Stage 4s are rather frontloaded on difficulty, but once you get past the hard part things are pretty relaxed and fun. Also pretty relaxed bosses in comparison to the preceeding stages Now onto my solutions for the stages: -4.0: Strike Bomber - The Mega Wave Cannon penetrates enemies and shields making that part with the flip out enemies on the floor and ceiling and the hanging enemies in the middle a cakewalk. The hard part for me is the bit with the Bydo System Alphas from both directions and the first flip out enemy. If I can get past that the rest of the stage is nearly free. The boss has no real way to defend itself from using Mega Wave charge shots to deal with it. -4.1: use a good area control ship and pray, I managed to beat it first try as a fluke using Mariko with Red Laser and have not really done it since because I am more focused on doing the .2 route for farming ship unlock resources.

After going through the comments, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who suffered at the hands of 4.1.

Hanging out with the R-Types! 5:46 , 6:39 - I find it kind of funny that it's flying while having those treads. 7:16 - 7:21 - That's almost Touhou level there.

Here's a good tip or getting all the endings in this game for newcomers, SKIP 4.1. 4.1 is not at all necessary for getting all the endings, just go for 5.1 and you'll still get it. 4.1 is hard even on practice mode. Only finish it once through the campaign to unlock it, never choose it on a full campaign. It is not worth it, it gives you little resources and it's a nearly impossible stage to beat without racking up triple digit death count. You WILL suffer if you choose it.

I forget if this has been said, but is there an in-universe way that the pilots see through the forces?

4.1 is the worst stage by far, I threw myself at this level for about 45 minutes