This is a shot in the dark, but the GameFAQs FAQs say nothing about this that I can find, and the message board for the game is pretty much dead.
Anyway, I was playing my nightly game of Gradius V last night, and doing really well--I breezed through stage 1 as usual, and absolutely tore through stage 2, including the boss parade, without losing a life. (This is a personal achievement for me, because I refuse to use continues for the game, or to play on any difficulty less than Normal). But going into stage 3, something weird must've happened among all the mayhem (there's a lot happening on screen in section 3-1, and it's hard to separate out the background animation from things that can actually kill you, while still picking up powerups), because when I reached the end of that stage I somehow got hosed out of two of my multiples. Since they were the two top multiples in the type 3 arrangement, my carefully choreographed plans for the rest of stage 3 were pretty much shafted.
So here are my questions--
1. Is there something in the game that steals multiples?
2. Is its appearance triggered by reaching a certain score, or by playing for a certain length of time without losing a life, or does it appear at that particular point in 3-1 if you satisfy some other gameplay requirements?
3. Can it be killed, or can you avoid it for a certain length of time, after which it'll disappear?
Anyway, I was playing my nightly game of Gradius V last night, and doing really well--I breezed through stage 1 as usual, and absolutely tore through stage 2, including the boss parade, without losing a life. (This is a personal achievement for me, because I refuse to use continues for the game, or to play on any difficulty less than Normal). But going into stage 3, something weird must've happened among all the mayhem (there's a lot happening on screen in section 3-1, and it's hard to separate out the background animation from things that can actually kill you, while still picking up powerups), because when I reached the end of that stage I somehow got hosed out of two of my multiples. Since they were the two top multiples in the type 3 arrangement, my carefully choreographed plans for the rest of stage 3 were pretty much shafted.
So here are my questions--
1. Is there something in the game that steals multiples?
2. Is its appearance triggered by reaching a certain score, or by playing for a certain length of time without losing a life, or does it appear at that particular point in 3-1 if you satisfy some other gameplay requirements?
3. Can it be killed, or can you avoid it for a certain length of time, after which it'll disappear?