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Just curious, did you try having faster base movement for the main character before implementing the dodge? Many arcade shmups give you the option of having ships of different speeds and shots or in the case of some PC Engine shmups, giving you the option to switch between ship speeds. You'd be surprised how many shmup superplayers can control a fast ship even without a focus shot mechanic. 

What if you programmed it to where you can still tap the shot button and dodge, but not dodge when you're holding shot down long enough since you do have autofire in this game? Just a thought.

I think this game does have plenty of things going for it like the graphics and the rank system, but I think the dodge mechanic needs to be tweaked a bit. It's too easy to activate it by accident when you're trying to adjust your position slightly or tap dodge. Also, because you use down to switch weapons, using diagonals as an alternative is obviously not going to be an option here. 

My suggestion would be to tweak the dodge to where you can only do that while you're not firing. That way, you can double tap while firing without having to worry about accidentally dodging. 

But I love seeing a new Master System game in 2025.