Started playing Esprade again!
I think I mostly remember the strats I used before (in part because I had the good sense to record them the last time).
But this time round (and maybe for future shmups too), I'm going to avoid using save states and studying replays as much as I did before. It's more efficient to do so, but efficient isn't always fun. Like, figuring out my own strats feels great. And save states just make me feel like I'm more consistent than I really am, based on past experience.
Esprade is probably the one shmup where I intentionally don't use autofire. I like keeping my regular shot and autofire buttons next to each other, but then that means I have to hit the button for the secondary shot with my ring finger instead, which is also super awkward.
First run of the night and I made it all the way to stage 3 boss (I didn't make it into stage 3 at all last night) :btr_bocchi_panic:
Pretty solid stage 1. Stage 2 was kinda bad in the scoring, but I managed to roughly follow what I'm supposed to do.
I feel kinda iffy with the Satoru fight. Maybe it's because I'm really out of practice with shmups, but that 4th life bar is scary without bombs. The satellite patterns always feel like I'm cutting it close, if they aren't using the aimed attack.
I have apparently never seen the attack after you break off the top layer of Izuna's treads 
@lyncia Thank you