Ghost Blade is actually pretty good. I need to play it under some different circumstances to confirm some things. it’s definitely better than the Dux games. No narrative (explicit or not) so it isn’t a classic. I’m saying shooters need a narrative to be a classic, I’m say it helps.
Someone write a thing about the Toaplan shooters they like because I hate their entire output.
Please write a thing as well! I’m interested!
I’m biased because there was a Truxton/Tatsujin machine in my local arcade growing up, and the music etched itself into my brain probably kicking off my passion for audio years later. You can read about that here - it’s the only post on my long-neglected blog worth reading!
In general, Toaplan games just make me feel great. The music, sound effects, gameplay and visuals all just combine into a big vehicle for me to be awesome in. They’re the most honest kind of game, I think.
Toaplan’s output, from Tiger Heli through to Batsugun, represents the evolution of vertical shooters from games like 1943 and Xevious into the likes of Dodonpachi and Battle Garegga.
I like a lot of the console ports (i assume done by others?), being through necessity a lot different than their arcade versions. The genesis Twin Cobra and PCE Daisenpu/Twin Hawk are personal favorites. Oh, and the genny version of Fire Shark is great too.
Always had a bonner for this one
Boo, next Cave game Degica will release on Steam is Deathsmiles for $19.99 (U.S.)
A fine game, I’ve played it a ton and it’s a lot of fun… but it’s already one of Cave’s most accessible existing releases (in terms of ability to obtain a legit copy outside of Japan) and the 360 port is already excellent.
If you haven’t played it though, by all means give it a try. If you stick to easier difficulties it’s one of the most beginner friendly of their games. Was actually my first Cave 1cc (of a fairly small number of 1CC for me period).
I re-purchased Gradius V the other night on PS3 because it was (is?) discounted. Maybe this time around I’ll actually beat it. I always found it to be a difficult game, especially the boulder boss. (I also have never made it through the last stage in Ikaruga, despite having played it many times.)
Apparently Soldier Blade is also available on PS3. That’s one I haven’t played in a long time. I think one of the reasons I like Crimzon Clover so much is that aspects of the visual design remind me of Soldier Blade.
A new Darius game would be fun. Maybe when I get a PS4. When I was young, I was enamored with the towering three-screen arcade version with its immersive look and sound.
Deathsmiles is the best I will buy it again.
Also Shooting Love Test is getting a release. We’re getting closer to me throwing my 360 in the garbage.
It is! So is Super Star Soldier, but no Final Soldier (though that is on Wii VC). The PS3 games also work on PSP and Vita and I play a lot of Soldier Blade on portable. Good times.
Yesterday I found a Dariusburst AC machine in the wild (outside of Japan). That was fun! Vancouver B.C. - actually Burnaby, in the mall arcade at Metrotown that was also the first place I ever saw BlazBlue several years ago. Anyway now I want to get the Steam version of Dariusburst solely for the dual monitor option.
yeah the weird thing about those PS PCE releases is they actually look okay on PSP. Which the PCE Collection physical releases look absolutely terrible. I wanted Sapphire on my PSP for money! The homebrew emulator makes those games look great. They had to make an emulator for a single resolution and did a bad job.
I noticed on the Battle Crust website that the game was created with Shooting Game Builder
Probably this thing
http://blog.livedoor.jp/stgbuilder/archives/8169650.html
Have any English speaking web-communities talked about this thing yet.
Or this maybe different maybe the same thing
http://ux.getuploader.com/heytechno/
They seem like pretty interesting tools.
I liked gradius V more than most people it seemed (some days it’s my favorite shmup) but glad to hear it getting its due! In part I think I tend to overrate games from 2004 for personal reasons, but the sakimoto and the tiny hitbox don’t hurt. I think I managed to 1cc up to stage 5 or 6.
I vaguely distrust Darius burst due to a combination of the graphics, the price, and the promise of it being a big(!) game. I don’t love big games. My favorite shmup-style game in years is teleglitch and that’s a very small game.
Maybe I’ll play strikers 1945 or blazing star tomorrow. That’s sort of my bread and butter. Never got into this cave stuff. Always seemed way too Japanese-games-post-2005 to me (i.e. dial up the animu and make the game mechanics impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t have a very in-depth history with the genre).
If you have an aversion to animu, you might still consider giving their early output a try.
Uo Poko
Dodonpachi
Progear
Guwange
Are all good games.
It’s a Big Game™ that divides its Big Self into a lot (A LOT) of Small, Savour-able Pieces. It has a direct port of the arcade game that has Chronicle Mode, which is a mission mode that mixes up stages and bosses and tops it with special objectives. It also has a separate option called CS Mode, which is essentially like Chronicle Mode except its optimized for single-screen play, and is designed to link together the entire Darius series.
I don’t know how long you like your play sessions, but most of the missions are about ten to fifteen minutes long, which I’d say is just in the sweet spot. It’s a very easy game to chip away at and still come out satisfied, I reckon.
RE: Cave - seconding @Alyx. DonPachi and DoDonPachi are rock-solid. Guwange is a fairly unique game play-wise that has a cool, spooky ancient Japan vibe going on.
Hey Firenze… posting in a new SB.
I’d say my top 5 were the following, in no particular order:
Mushihime-sama Futari Ver 1.5
ESPGaluda II
ESPGaluda
Ikaruga
Under Defeat
Runners up include: Strikers 1945 Part II, Soukyuugurentai, R-Type Delta, Thunder Force III, Thunder Force IV
Kiken give me the hot tips I need to survive espgaluda.
Heh, was gonna light the Kiken signal in this topic, good to see you here!
@Felix I don’t think Cave games necessarily have impenetrable mechanics, and even some of the ones that DO have complex mechanics can often be played completely ignoring them if you’re playing more for survival than for score.
In particular, Dodonpachi Daioujou is one of my all time favorites, has minor animu nonsense (android doll pictures at level complete screens are really about it), and is easy to catch on to. Other than the basic shot/laser/bomb mechanics common to many Cave games (which to me really forms the core of their generally satisfying “feel”, along with the bullet hell patterns/bullet density), there aren’t any super complex underlying systems. Chain stuff for higher score (key to playing for score in the game) is about it. There are also hidden “bees” to shoot in the background for points, but nothing too huge. Ketsui is basically the same thing as DDP DOJ. The further DDP sequels do veer progressively more into the anime aesthetic but I wouldn’t really call them excessively complex games mechanics-wise.
Mushihimesama or its sequel (Futari) are arguably slightly anime but the premise is great. Ride an insect and shoot other insects. Quite straightforward from a gameplay perspective too.
Espgaluda series could be hit or miss with you. Mechanics are fairly dense, but the high fantasy look isn’t very “animu” stereotype. You can also still enjoy the game ignoring a lot of the bullet cancelling/shield mechanics, but it’s obvious enough that they are present that it could hinder enjoyment.
You might get annoyed by the more complex mechanics in something like Akai Katana or many of Shinobu Yagawa’s games - particularly Ibara, Pink Sweets, and Muchi Muchi Pork, all of which also have very heavy anime visuals that might make some people hate them just on aesthetics. Yagawa is infamous for “rank” systems in which the better you do, the harder the game gets - often crushingly so. Difficulty doesn’t get to a more manageable level until you die. This leads to people playing for score trying to get it hard enough to get lots of points but not get killed, until they possibly intentionally die to lower rank. Some people can’t stand this concept. Honestly though, if you’re not particularly good and don’t care as much about playing for score, you can still enjoy the games just fine as survival shooters while ignoring the underlying mechanics. But once you want to get serious about a game it’s kind of a big deal.
The above are all more “modern Cave”, older stuff like Donpachi & Dodonpachi are very much straightforward shooters with simple mechanics and military/mechanical/sci-fi visuals along the lines of a Raiden or Thunderforce. Oh, and I also notice you mentioned “post 2005” Japanese style… perhaps it’s indicative that the games I’d recommend you the most actually slide in slightly before that timeframe. Daioujou in 2002, Ketsui 2003, Mushihimesama 2004.
Anyway, out to go celebrate some new year. See you all in 2016, happy shooting!
thanks for the breakdown! That really does help.
Are we talking about the first or second game?
The first mostly boils down to efficient use of kakusei. As a general rule, it’s better to save up a respectable number of gems before going into kakusei and then being patient with large hordes of enemies so that they can litter the screen with bullets that you can then cash in on (by killing them). Trying to play for score in various areas of the game can actually make it easier to survive since you’re staying in kakusei for longer periods of time.
Pushing the game into max rank by the end of the first level is actually recommended as it increases the max jewel release from enemies once they die (kill Seseri’s first form and then just go into OD and remain there and dodge until the 3 gradually increasing blue circles around your character are gone). Then switch back to normal and kill her. So long as you can refrain from getting hit, you’ll remain in max rank which grants you +15% gems on kills… another +10% comes from killing enemies when you’re in the upper third of the screen (both bonuses are calculated from an enemy’s base gem value… so once you have both active you’re looking at a bonus 25% per kill). Of course, once you get hit rank plummets back to normal.
Also, if you’re having trouble with bosses, there’s no shame in saving up some gems prior to the fight so you can slow them down during difficult patterns.
I think the stumbling block most people run into is Jakko’s final form. Here’s the thing, this attack only has two variations. The way to approach it is to stay in the center bottom of the screen (about 1 or 2 character heights from the bottom). The pattern interweaves from the left and right and the best starting point is between rows 2 and 3 (IIRC). The left side will either raise first or lower first… that’s it. Remain in the central gaps between these two bending streams for as long as possible before dipping down through the 2 streams into the large gap created below. You should be able to stay here for a good 8 seconds or so. Just be cognizant of the vertical bullets that will start raining down. The next dodge will either be to the left or right depending depending on which way the streams are moving. Beyond that, the most important thing to remember is NEVER HIT THE FINAL FORM WITH YOUR BOMB (Jakko actually heals life from being hit by your guard barrier)! If things get hairy and you need to tap the energy release to clear the screen temporarily, as soon as you hit the button, immediately move to the left edge of the screen! This way you can discharge the power barrier without any of it contacting the boss (as he/she mostly stays in the upper middle of the screen. Also, use kakusei sparingly during the fight (the boss takes damage at a much lower rate).
If you need help with the second, I’m afraid I can’t be as helpful. The second game is actually quite difficult and the scoring system is insanely deep. As before, getting into max rank by the end of the first stage is recommended (luckily it remains at max for the entire credit… so you don’t have to worry about it disappearing after you take a hit). Also, there’s no shame in abusing the tutorial glitch (it can just be annoying to wait for it). Beyond that, just remember that you collect way more gems from enemies than in the first game and they drain the meter at a much lower rate when killed. Zetsushikai Kakusei constitutes the game’s primary scoring… so essentially, save up some gems, make sure you have some gold and then hold down that kakusei button. In zetsu, be very patient with killing enemies, as destroying even a small zako will despawn-then-respawn the zetsu bullets. Get used to tapping the auto-fire button (as opposed to the normal shot button) since doing so will release a single salvo of shot which is better for targeting smaller enemies and not mass killing everything. Try to use sweeping motions, as in, kill an enemy which’ll cause the zetsu rounds to despawn and then move to the opposite side of the screen as the bullets start to respawn. This will then shift their trajectories to that side. Kill another enemy and then move back… wash, rinse, repeat. The other big trick is learning when it’s effective to hold down the kakusei button… as in, you have no gold but a load of gems. If you press and hold kakusei indefinitely, you’ll enter regular kakusei until you kill something. As you collect the gold, the game will shift you immediately into zetsu… so long as you haven’t let go of the kakusei button.
One final note, if you start feeling like the screen is getting too busy in zetsu, so long as you still have some gems left, switch back to normal mode and then trigger regular kakusei. Kill any one enemy and all the remaining zetsu rounds will clear permanently from the screen.
Aside from that, good luck.
Yeah, so speaking of systems complexity and Espgaluda II… say no more than looking at Kiken’s detailed reply! Been a while since I’ve played it so I forgot most of that, and probably never did understand the scoring 100% even when I was really playing the game.
Also, I played some Ketsui last night and remembered that despite it not being incredibly complicated, it’s a HARD fucking game.
Still suggesting DDP DOJ (also kinda difficult but it’s quintessential Cave to me) or Mushihimesama as good games to get into Cave. With this in mind, I’m now coming around to some of the reasoning of Mushihimesama being the first Steam release of a Cave title. It has kind of a unique look without the sort of anime styling that goes overboard and creeps people out, gameplay is not overly complicated, gives a good sense of the speed and bullet patterns Cave is known for. And the epic BEETLESHIP stage is still one of my favorite levels in a STG ever.
Also realized I didn’t specifically discuss Deathsmiles in my previous post. Perhaps particularly relevant due to incoming Steam release. Gameplay wise it’s a real triumph of something that’s easy for newcomers to ease into by sticking to selected low difficulty level, but difficulty can be pumped up a lot at higher level for veterans (lv.999 mode with suicide bullets galore is a serious challenge) and a scoring system that does have some complexity in using “ideal” specific weapon types against specific enemies. Personally I like the short levels (except for the gigantic final level a la Metal Slug 3) but I guess some people see that as a turnoff. Of course, the big sticking point for a lot of people is the whole little anime girls thing… which wasn’t helped much by the Aksys US promotion focusing on the Loli crap!
