Thunder Force 6?

[FortNinety]

It's actually coming?

http://tecnosoft.com/

And it'll be for the PS2 apparently...
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[NFG]

Brandon doesn't want scans here, just FYI.

I'm HYPED for this. HYPED, I say! Fuck yeah.

Ever since I got the soundtrack oh so many years ago, I've been hyped for an eventual release. That it's for a system I actually own only makes it all the sweeter.
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[Gironika]

[Jon R.]

[FortNinety]

The first trailer...

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37646.html
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[Szcz]

Erm... Available to order right now, says Play-Asia.

But at £40, I dunno, seems a bit steep. I am dead broke until next month, plus I've Yakuza 2, three N64 games, but a whole bunch of Xbox stuff to play through. Oh, and Mother 3 and Disgaea DS...
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I genuinely think the first two CDi Zelda games are good, and they have Metroidvania designs

[Gironika]

what the ....

I planned on importing but that is a way-too-hefty pricetag that play-asia/yesasia has. Sorry but I can't afford that now, as much as I wanted to have it at launch-date.
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[ThisMachineKillsFascists]

[Szcz]

I too liked Astroboy a great deal... But I'm broke. Flat broke. So broke I'm having to withdraw from my "never-to-be-touched" savings account to buy food for the next week.
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I genuinely think the first two CDi Zelda games are good, and they have Metroidvania designs

[FortNinety]

I've been playing it. Long story short... don't bother unless you are a diehard Thunder Force fan.

But seeing as I am, I've been enjoying it, though not as much as I had hoped to. First off, the story makes zero sense. Perhaps somewhere out there, like in Gamefaqs land (which I haven't checked), someone has translated the manual and can shed some light, because as is, I have no idea what the hell is going on. For those who don't know, part 1-4 was this war between a presumably human race versus some evil alien, presumably the scary-ugly-not very human kind. Part 5 is when the humans somewhat got involved, and the story/plot was perhaps the best part of that game. Here, everything seems to be thrown into the mix, and not even in an interesting manner.

Graphics are on par with how Thunder Force 5 compared with other Saturn games at the time... meaning it's completely serviceable. Like 5, the backgrounds are kinda "eh", but some decent coloring to make one not mind too much.

The audio is easily the weakest part of the game... I recall an image album for 6 when it was certain none was going to happen being quite awesome, and this time its just very limp, especially during one of the more exciting encounters.

The format of the game has remained virtually unchanged. You pick the order of the first few levels, hit a dramatic mid-point, then proceed to the grand finale. There's one stage that's vaguely R-Type-ish... you're attacking on huge ship from all different angles, go up, over, under, and over... which I believe is based off the final boss in 4. Speaking of, a few familiar "faces" do return, but updated. I hate to spoil the fun, but yes, Rynex, aka Original Vasteel, does return.

The final boss, quite seriously, is one of the worst, goofiest bosses in a very long time... though it could be viewed as being an homage to the past, something retro. I still hated it. And hardly as compelling as the final foes from 4 and 5.

Also, the game on its default difficulty is more or less a cake-walk.

Still, there's just enough to qualify it as a Thunder Force game, so any serious fan should still check it out, steep price or not (I hate saying that, since I don't want to be blamed for wasting anyone's money, but still).
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[Szcz]

Nice write up, thanks. This is why I trust Insert Credit's forumites more than any print mag out there. Straight to the point, zero bullshit game opinions.
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I genuinely think the first two CDi Zelda games are good, and they have Metroidvania designs

[FortNinety]

Re: the crappy music. Some might recall that part 6 was originally supposed to be a Dreamcast game, but the plug got pulled when Technosoft got bought out by some pachinko company. A few years later, its soundtrack, which I guess was completed, was released, by the same person behind 4 & 5, and it was quite awesome. Then came Broken Thunder, a dojin game that was supposed to be a spiritual part 6, which featured new music from the same guy, also awesome, along with many other Thunder Force trimmings. Its said that a number of ex-Technosoft employees worked on it, such as the person in charge of 5's front-end (and it shows), but the core game itself totally blew.

Anyhow, fast forward to recent times, and once it was time for a real part 6, the composer was given the boot... the powers at be apparently didn't like him dabbling in the fan community. Instead we get a score that's somewhat of a who's who of shump music composers, but none of it is really good for some reason.

Anyhow, finally playing the game on manic, and its at least a bit more fun. Oh, each time you beat the game, you get access to a different ship... thus far I have two different Rynex variants.
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[Szcz]

Are you going to be doing a front page review for IC on this? Something of this info seems too valuable to be left languishing in the forums.
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I genuinely think the first two CDi Zelda games are good, and they have Metroidvania designs

[FortNinety]

Thanks. BTW, if anyone is interested, I actually pulled together a review from what I just said, with a few additional details, for over here. Plus there's some pics I took of a really nice Japanese magazine that features games that I know you'll dig Szcz.

As for front paging, that's totally up to Brandon, since I no longer have posting privileges. Wouldn't hurt to ask.
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[Kiken]

[luvcraft]

[FortNinety]

Wasn't that how you did it in KOF XI, Japanese version? Is it some general rule of them for such a feature that we just don't know about here?
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[aderack]

So, Space Harrier 4D, huh. Or Fantasy Zone 3.

I could do with either of those.

[Deets]

Have you played the Fantasy Zone II remake yet, aderack?

[aderack]

No Japanese PS2. I want to, though!

[ReroRero]

There is a PC demo around somewhere. It's very good, I could see myself enjoying it over Super Fantasy Zone which is my favourite of the series.
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[aderack]

Yeah, SFZ is great. I've always liked Tears of Opa-Opa, though...