Espgaluda 2 Black Label [JP X360] - SE Region free, LE Region locked to Japan

[NR777]

Cave apparently likes to make 360 mode a slightly tuned, different version. We already see the tutorial bug is only present in EII's Arcade mode, so they deliberately removed that from 360 mode. Similar to how they changed the way the rank selection worked among DS's Arcade and 360 modes.

I don't necessarily see anything wrong with that in and of itself but if 360 mode is going to play differently than the PCB, the arcade mode should at the very least include enough visual options to keep it from looking like absolute ass on a modern display.   

[EOJ]

Agreed, of course. It's unfortunate they dropped the ball on that with this port (and DS).

One thing I like about having different Arcade and 360 modes is it gets people to play Arcade mode as well as 360 mode. With Futari, where the two modes are basically identical except for the graphics, people generally just play 360 mode, leaving Arcade mode less competitive. I think with Futari, it would have been better if they had merged the online rankings for the two, and just had a single mode called "Arcade" that had an option for "Original or HD" graphics.

[NR777]

Absolutely.  It's a shame that there is really no reason to play Arcade mode in the Futari port...the leaderboards are barren, but they do include the only 1cc run of Ultra I have found outside of the Official Cave Superplay DVD ( the Dame K.K. Palm run...forget who the Reco player is).

[EOJ]

I prefer playing Futari's Arcade mode, in fact I play that most of the time now. It gives you more of a PCB experience.

[Hive]

Absolutely.  It's a shame that there is really no reason to play Arcade mode in the Futari port...the leaderboards are barren, but they do include the only 1cc run of Ultra I have found outside of the Official Cave Superplay DVD ( the Dame K.K. Palm run...forget who the Reco player is).

that's insane.. Someone did that with Reco??
I think I knew this, but forgot..

anyways, that person deserves the medal of freedom

[NR777]

I had a link to the file in Ura Loop a while ago.  It's an insane video.

[EOJ]

A guy on 2Ch:

"For this game, the Esgaluda 2 port is like an "Omake" (i.e. bonus) mode. The title screen says 'Espgaluda II BLACK LABEL', after all. If you're looking for an exact port of the Espgaluda II arcade game, it's not here, so go play it in your local arcade instead."

[emphatic]

Coming soon for XBox 360 (Japan region only):

ESPGALUDA II - Arcade version - DLC. 

[oldzkool]

Omitting all the swanky new screen options from the M2 port is retarded.  Unforgivable really.  I'd rather just have 1 mode (arcade) and have them get that right than adding all sorts of other modes and getting it all wrong.

So in 360 mode, can you at least zoom the display out to remove the gaps between the top and bottom edges (like Futari)?

[EOJ]

Yeah, it has the same screen options as Deathsmiles (zoom, rotate, etc) plus "smoothing on/off", like DDPDOJBLEX. Turning smoothing on makes it look like a blurry mess, though.

[seiatsu]

Man...I'm a bit lost on the game mechanics of this one. One of the few (common) Cave games (galuda 1 or 2) that I never got a chance to play but always wanted to so I picked it up. However, I quickly learned that there is a lot to the game mechanics that aren't what is typical of cave. Seems to have more systems than usual....

Anyone want to give me a brief summary to get me going or maybe point me to some kind of primer?


Nonetheless...so far I'm having fun and with all these different systems I assume I will be busy for a while

(Unfortunately I don't read much Japanese so the tutorials aren't helping)

[cstarflare]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=6281

[EOJ]

Dammit Cave, what did you do to Arcade mode? 

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28705&start=958

[bcass]

Well, semi-good news for UK people who ordered from VGI - all pre-orders were shipped on Friday, so if you chose Special Delivery, you'll (we'll) be receiving it on Saturday.  Looks like Lee (at VGI) has a proper supplier in Japan who can supply his stock prior to retail release.

[GaijinPunch]

Dammit Cave, what did you do to Arcade mode? 

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28705&start=958

Yikes.  I've not touched either yet... but I"ve played my PCB to death, so am not too bothered.
Am I the only one that has broken Arrange replays?

[adverse]

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Level 18 Arrange replay!   

When you play Arrange and easily 1CC it on Level 0, don't come in here bragging.  This mode gets crazy as fuck.

[HVL]

Nice shot of the LE back cover and the faceplate.

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=20011411&postcount=314

[EOJ]

There's a possible small tsunami headed toward Hawaii right now, so they closed nearly everything on the island, including the mail services. My Espgaluda II sent via EMS was scheduled to be delivered today.  Now I have to wait until Monday. Damn you, tsunami!

[HVL]

There's a possible small tsunami headed toward Hawaii right now, so they closed nearly everything on the island, including the mail services. My Espgaluda II sent via EMS was scheduled to be delivered today.  Now I have to wait until Monday. Damn you, tsunami!

...and you're most concerned about getting EIIBL.

Hopefully somebody uploads some BL vids soon, AFAIK there's only Novice BL on niconico.

[EOJ]

...and you're most concerned about getting EIIBL.

YES!   Seriously though, I live on the island of Oahu, and we're only supposed to get a wave 1 meter high. I live up near the mountains, so this won't affect me or anything around where I live.

[Kiken]

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Level 18 Arrange replay!   

When you play Arrange and easily 1CC it on Level 0, don't come in here bragging.  This mode gets crazy as fuck.

Yeah, the rank meter keeps going up as you stay in over-drive.  There are several patterns that become so fast and bullet heavy that they will get through your shot and hit you as you're gold milking.

EOJ, I'm interested to hear what you think about the two arcade modes in this port (once you receive yours).  To me, the game as a whole feels radically sped up.

[HVL]

EOJ, I'm interested to hear what you think about the two arcade modes in this port (once you receive yours).  To me, the game as a whole feels radically sped up.

Have you noticed any slowdown differences between arcade/360?

[eckart]

Hope we will get a patch, who will fix the slowdown case in the 360 mode...

Anyway, looking foward to playing it next week.

[EOJ]

Just got the game.  I lucked out, the tsunami was pretty tame so they decided to deliver mails to areas away from the coast. Going to go play for a bit, will post later with thoughts on the port accuracy.

[VxD]

Got my LE on Friday and have been playing since... Loving every bit of the game so far, I just wish we had more screen options a-la-Futari. Since I did not spend that much time in the arcades on it, I cannot comment on the slowdown, though... 

On a different note, I still wonder what the faceplate has to do with the game. I mean, the characters in the original game are pretty cool, and the girlfriend likes their looks, but she got totally freaked out by the depiction of Seseri on the faceplate. I know times are scarce and Cave wants to milk the otakus a bit, but their latest trend to put little girls everywhere is becoming embarrassing... 
I wonder what we will get with the DFK port, an Element Daughter AI pair of pants?! 

[GaijinPunch]

Adverse... how do you up the LEvel in Arrange?  I know, I suck.

My main gripe out BL mode is that the Zesshikai part of the scoring (where you fly through the bullets) doesn't skew the  scores enough.  There's a 1 billion Ageha replay up where the guy doesn't use it at all.  I did a play w/o using it and got my highest score of 700,000 or so, reaching Stage 2's 2nd midboss.

EOJ: I was wondering if that wave was going to hit here.  The Earthquake was 8.0   
And here something you'll appreciate, I just moved house... there's a van owned by one of my neighbors parked out front.  Sticker put on the *front* of the car, "Molokai Mo Bettah".  I can't escape. 

[brentsg]

Man I headed out to the mailbox sure to grab my game and it was empty.  So you can get it in Hawaii with tsunamis and the post office can't get it from NY to MO in 2 days.   

[EOJ]

And here something you'll appreciate, I just moved house... there's a van owned by one of my neighbors parked out front.  Sticker put on the *front* of the car, "Molokai Mo Bettah".  I can't escape.  

Unbelievable.

@brentsg, sorry to hear that man. At least you have a Daifukkatsu Black Label PCB to tide you over in the meantime!

I played a full run of Arcade mode and Arrange mode. So far Arcade isn't as bad as I feared. I noticed missing slowdown on the big ships in the second half of Stage 3, and a few other bits here and there. People keep complaining about Seseri lacking slowdown but in Arcade mode she felt pretty much the same as the PCB (I'll have to test some more). The Stage 6 boss felt spot on. There are spots that have MORE slowdown as well - often using Zesshikai feels like it has more slowdown than the PCB. Also as mentioned earlier there is bizarre slowdown at the start of stage 2 when no enemies are even on the screen yet. Really hope they fix that in a patch, even though it doesn't affect scoring. One thing they changed in Arcade mode, for some unknown reason, is the font for your hi score name entry. They changed the original cool font on the PCB to a new crappy one. WTF? Little things like this get on my nerves, because there's no good reason for them.

Arcade mode with smoothing off looks good on an RGB monitor in 480i. No noticable flicker. Haven't tried it on my LCD yet, but I imagine it would look like ass there.

Arrange mode is great fun, I 1CC'd it on my first try with a score of about 455mil. Watching the 5.2+bil replay on the hi score chart was neat, though I don't yet know how to start off at rank lv 18. If you have to 1CC it 18 times that would be lame.

[adverse]

Arrange mode is great fun, I 1CC'd it on my first try with a score of about 455mil. Watching the 5.2+bil replay on the hi score chart was neat, though I don't yet know how to start off at rank lv 18. If you have to 1CC it 18 times that would be lame.

Download the Lv. 18 replay, watch until the end.  You will be given the option to update your game profile.  Press A.  Now you should be Lv. 18.

[purpbullets]

You download level? how would you do it the other way?