https://mobile.twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1528320642852229120
@s G-Darius for Consumer? I‘M consumer, that’s me! I‘ll take it
(I did not expect this update at all, but it’s very very cool)
Also, while I’m here, I should mention that Cotton Fantasy (né Cotton Rock n’ Roll) finally came out in the US, so I of course bought & played through it. I feel like I’m probably undervaluing it – credit where it’s due (emulation snags aside) that Cotton’s 30th anniversary was celebrated proper-like, with Reboot leading to modern re-releases of virtually the entire series ending with a brand-new game in this – when I say that it does something very impressive for those who might like to dig into the mechanics of an STG, in that it offers six-ish playable characters who mostly play wildly differently and all (mostly) somehow just work across the variety of stages. Playing as Umihara Kawase is a highlight because A) You get to play as Umihara Kawase riding a blowfish and B) it’s one of the more intuitive and fun executions of the ol’ shmup capture mechanic that I’ve seen in a bit
Gut-level, though, despite it aesthetically looking like a lost Dreamcast game, I have to admit that for me in this particular moment it’s missing some of the je ne sais quoi, I dunno, VERVE that I felt was very present in Cotton Reboot? It might be fair to say that Reboot is more experiential while Fantasy is more mechanical, though, and I admit that I often visit STG Land more for the experience than the mechanical grit
Having a mini meltdown over learning Takatsuna Senba “fought to the end” to keep the rank system that inspired Battle Garegga out of Gun Frontier.
https://twitter.com/_atrac17/status/1532366074720706560?t=Gri18mgheRXPBRhkgWx46Q&s=19
Toaplan 2 running on MiSTer!
As it happens, the Saturn version of Gun Frontier doesn‘t have the autofire rank and people hated it for that very reason. (We recently learned that the Saturn port was contracted out to Toshiaki Fujino, currently of Triangle Service, and he basically remade the game from scratch by eye, so anything that’s missing is something he simply didn‘t pick up on, as he wasn’t given any specs or code or whatever.)
Any of you guys have your eye on this Shmup Creator? Seems pretty robust, but I wonder how far you’d be able to push it with any non-standard concepts…
Why is no code always listed as a plus haha
https://twitter.com/SGP009/status/1531791675345059840?t=a-3E8WhWgNtW4cMMXYfOzA&s=19
Thinking of makin a pico 8 game for this
@TracyDMcGrath Do it!
(& let us know if you do)
@TracyDMcGrath Oh dang, now I’m probably going to have to make a game!
It might even be my ‘learn a new game engine on the fly’ project! Fingers crossed!
I just wrote about this in the new games chat thread, but my friends and neighbors, did you know that there is a visual novel/escape room/STG hybrid – with the latter part developed by none other than G.rev – coming out in a few weeks? There is, it is called Yurukill: The Culmination Games, and there is a free demo of it on Switch, PS4, and PS5 right now:
I talk more about the visual novel framing in the other thread, but specifically wanted to post here because the shmup community gotta eat. Briefly, the situation is that criminal prisoners are paired with their alleged victims to solve puzzles in funhouse-style recreations of their crimes, culminating (caluminating?) with a virtual reality showdown that takes the form of a G.rev-developed STG, which is also broken up by psychedelic Phoenix Wright-style interrogation sequences.
Having just played the very brief peek at the shmup upon starting a new game and one three-stage showdown (it seems like you’ll have one of that length for each chapter, of which we can guess there are probably six or so, based on the amount of characters to cover), I don’t know that the STG itself will turn out to be killer, but it’s substantial and interesting, and I found it fun (playing on easy; there are three difficulties). You collect a stock of lives by flying into a series of correct crime-related answers during ship takeoff, and can spend those lives getting blown up in the STG or making mistakes in interrogation (I could see people who are here for the shmup getting annoyed at how the interrogations/visual novel segments break it up into micro-doses). Once you get into that action gameplay itself, it’s a wee slow with a bit of transitional hitching (perhaps not on the PlayStations, I played on Switch), but pretty visually and aurally gorgeous with ample systems at play, including collecting bits of the game code (!) that you’ve blown up to increase a special bar, which can be spent on a screen-clearing bomb, a lock-on/bullet-clearing power attack, or simply on absorbing hits before you lose a life. There are also hidden objects to find, which you must spend a special attack to collect. It looks like you’ll be able to play just the STG mode in a score attack, at the very least, but that option is not available in the demo.
I doubt that this was the creators’ intention (maybe it was), but you know what it kind of feels like when you’re playing that shmup and the characters are exchanging dialogue about the headtrip of the story that’s been playing out for the past two hours or so? It feels like you’re playing any number of classic Japanese STGs (hello, Cave) that have those wonderfully, absolutely asininely nonsensical dialogue exchanges while you’re playing. The ones that are, in no world, decipherable among the vacuum of the game, the poor translation or the pace of the gameplay. But here, they suddenly make sense because you’ve just experienced the multiple hours of insane murder game show virtual reality psychological torture narrative that provides them with context. I just found that neat as hell, intention aside.
@TracyDMcGrath reminder this starts tomorrow!
@tokucowboy woah what a cool weird thing. Yeah I’ll buy this sight unplayed. Thanks for giving the heads up.
I didn‘t put it in the sale thread cause it’s still not super cheap, but Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+ is on sale for $15.99 from the usual $40 on the US Switch eShop – haven't seen it drop too often, and at least for me, that was enough to finally pick it up
@tokucowboy Yeah, looks like both of the Darius collections are also on pretty deep sales on Switch right now as well, which… doesn’t… make me bitter… for paying full price for them… AT ALL, how dare you suggest that it would?!?
For some reason I can’t get G-Darius to come up in sShop search results, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it probably is too.
@Karasu it is! 40% off. I tend to prefer using dekudeals as it‘s a lot more stable than nintendo’s site.
@tokucowboy is this different from Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours? I kept glossing over this one as I have the other on PS4, but something tells me they’re different games.
@coffeentacos Another Chronicle EX+ is a port of the final (?) iteration of the Dariusburst arcade game, rather than the console game that’s an expanded port of the arcade game.
Cool, thanks for confirming about G-Darius!
@Karasu Yes, those Darius collections are steep – they are so excellent I can‘t regret paying full price too much, but it’s expensive to be an STG fan (I assume because they‘re niche releases and it’s probably one tactic to remain profitable, but it makes me extra thankful when we get the occasional Gleylancer price). I think that‘s one reason I waited on Chronicle EX+; with it, I now have every Darius on Switch, but ININ got a ton of my money along the way. And, yes, G-Darius is $17.99 right now – personally, I’d say if someone just gets one Darius, I’d grab that or the arcade version of the Cozmic Collection
Brief Dariusburst Chronicle EX+ impressions: wow, this is a ~~~~short Darius! Obviously shmups are short, but I did a double take on this one (I’ve only cleared one path, but it might be the shortest start-to-credits Darius). The weird ultra-wide aspect ratio makes some of the bullets hard to see on a regular TV, which contributes to its above-average difficulty, but dang Zuntata is going hard this time – usually they’ll go hard and then have an interlude or two, but they’re just at 10 constantly here. Bosses are so bullet-spongey that the levels almost seem inconsequential; they don’t have life meters this time around, because even Taito couldn’t find an aspect ratio wide enough to fit 'em! Overall, it’s good-but-not-the-best, get-it-on-sale Darius for $15
FWIW one of the added events for ACEX+ was a more traditional-length 13-stage course.
@gsk Fantastic, I will try that on my next run