Akai Katana EXA Label [February 17, 2022]

[EOJ]

This releases today (the 17th in Japan). I'll be on the lookout for any gameplay videos.

[Liquidus0]

Gameplay of the new Exa Mode with the new Kiwami difficulty selected. Dies in Stage 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJ2M-xp-OA&t=196s

[Liquidus0]

Other footage of gameplay of the Exa Mode with Kiwami difficulty selected, but also with the Extreme difficulty selected.

From what I understand, Extreme is a new difficulty in the test menu. In the original PCB difficulty was between 1 and 4 ("2" being the default difficulty). Looks like the new Extreme difficulty would be "5". Crazy stuff going on :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bLB7rae9qg

[EOJ]

I watched a stream from Wai Wai arcade yesterday. Best run I saw was 702 billion in EXA mode/Kiwami, up to the stage 5 boss. The scoring looks like a mix of Espgaluda and Progear (but mostly Espgaluda). There also seems to be some shot change mechanic like Futari Original/Ultra. You have a stage counter and overall counter on the lower left. The overall counter flashes and switches between red and blue until you get over 980000 (it maxes out at 999999), whereupon it changes to yellow and the shot change mechanic seems to go away. When you die or bomb, like in Futari, both counters reduce.

I saw someone playing Zetsu mode and it looked like it ran faster than the X360 original (some Japanese guys on the stream also commented on this). Less slowdown, and the slowdown that was there looked choppier. Not a big deal, the X360 version is less than 50 bucks, so just play that instead. I didn't see anyone play the original Akai Katana, unfortunately. I hope the slowdown accuracy is better there.

[EOJ]

Here is the archive of the stream I mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbUC5wbsyik

[Liquidus0]

Footage of Original mode played by VXD (Great Aka to Blue Type-R player btw) :

Starting at 34:22

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1304172021

[Liquidus0]

I hope the slowdown accuracy is better there.

They did stated since this version was announced that they were making adjustments and didn't aimed for slowdown accuracy, which is a good thing in my opinion considering how things were running on the CV1000 PCB.

So far, I like a lot what I see and I'm eager to try the game myself.

[buffi]

Yeah, I own a AK pcb (EOJ’s old one actually :p ), and game runs uh… not great on that, so not replicating that slowdown feels like the right choice to me.

I dont mind slowdown when its for some pattern, but AK on cv1k just goes full slowmo even during stges when you have enough gold items on screen

[EOJ]

I watched VXD's stream. The slowdown looks pretty similar to the X360 version.

I agree the PCB has too much slowdown overall, but IMO there is an ideal middle ground these ports (X360 & EXA) have not reached, unfortunately. Some high level scoring patterns on the PCB are based on the slowdown and are thus much more difficult to pull off on the ports with different (or missing) slowdown.

I also don't like that the EXA port has used the score font from the USA/EU X360 port of Akai Katana. Only the Japanese X360 version has the Arcade original's score font.

[Liquidus0]

I also don't like that the EXA port has used the score font from the USA/EU X360 port of Akai Katana. Only the Japanese X360 version has the Arcade original's score font.

Score font in the exA version looks the same as the cv1000/JP360 to me. Only differences being the numbers are now all the same size and use color instead to count the japanese way. Also, commas are implemented each 3 numbers to count like the US/UK (imperial ?) way.

Looking again at the cv1000, I guess the lower res font could trick the eye.

[EOJ]

Only differences being the numbers are now all the same size and use color instead to count the japanese way. Also, commas are implemented each 3 numbers to count like the US/UK (imperial ?) way.

Well, these are pretty apparent differences, and I just don't like the look compared to the original. Perhaps the font is technically the same, but it looks like all the digits are the size of the 100 million digit on the original (perhaps a bit larger than that even).

I don't like the new high score font in the DFK 1.5 home ports either.

[buffi]

Game plays very well. Havent touched the pcb in a long time, but got a quick and dirty Type C 1CC of Original first. Gonna start looking more at exA Label mode now, which seems fun.

https://youtu.be/rs233USslrg

AK Original is sortof weird, in that if you play type C, you basically dont have to dodge the bosses much since you can just be in guardian mode, with the quick recharges. This works same on exa as it did on pcb and 360.

Slowdown feels better than on pcb. Still plenty during dense patterns.

[EOJ]

Thanks for the video. I watched stage 5 and the last bosses. I don't know if it's something wrong with the video encoding, but I notice a lot of frame stuttering in that video, or abrupt choppiness. Or is that present when you play the game? It's not in the X360 version.

[buffi]

Can you give a timestamp so I know what to look for

Also, heres a Climax (Zetsu) clear
https://youtu.be/7_lg4MLOs5s

[EOJ]

Can you give a timestamp so I know what to look for

Try 15:58 and watch from there. But it's pretty apparent throughout stage 5.

[buffi]

Yeah I dunno, might be encoding since I have no idea what I'm doing there tbh and just picked something in OBS and avidemux. Can't say I noticed it playing, but I'll look out for it!
I'm pretty shit at noticing things like that though fwiw.

Anyways, here's a Shin clear too. Just ExA Label left!
https://youtu.be/JhIJyfwDBR4

Having a lot of fun with Shin, cool mode!

[EOJ]

Thanks for all these videos of the different modes!

I'd like to see if Shin is a port of the X360 original, or the later Nesica version. The Nesica version has some differences. For example, bombing the TLB does not do damage (on the X360 version, it does do damage).

[EOJ]

The game crashes in EXA Label mode in 2P simultaneous play:

https://twitter.com/DASI_aily/status/1496306546342768640

Happens in the first stage. The guy above tested it and it happened three times (all in different places in the stage).

EXA-Arcadia replied that they have fixed this bug. You can send your cart back to get the update.

EDIT: It seems nearly all international orders already have the updated ROM, so this only affects a small amount of buyers.

[buffi]

Havent had much time to play this recently, since Elden Ring came out but finally got Exa Label mode 1cc now.

A lot harder than the other modes for survival, but you can still melt bosses well with some more routing

Doing enough scoreplay to hit second extend, but not going to crazy with it, since that pushes up rank a lot

https://youtu.be/4F9ftbS21KY

[buffi]

For some actual good gameplay instead, this Exa Label run is pretty damn insane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PyvvbBrHbo

[Liquidus0]

Here's some details of the 1.0.1 version update :

Version 1.0.1
Input Lag: 1 Frame (I think version 1.0.0 is 1 Frame as well)
・Fixed 2 player simultaneous play bug with Type B’s laser
・Fixed 2 player simultaneous tutorial display bug
・Removed ability to disable all play modes
・Improved graphics display for the maximum amount of bullets on EXA Label Ultimate play mode when set to Extreme difficulty

This update was made soon after the release date.

https://exa.ac/en/current-game-version-info/?v=0f177369a3b7

[buffi]

Anyone on the JP twittersphere know what the TLB requirements for Exa Label is?

I was surprised when I triggered it for the first time yesterday (https://youtu.be/tWVtbIK-4QM).

Sortof assumed you needed no miss or hit max multiplier, but here i reached it at last life and max multiplier x7.
Maybe just having a score high enough is sufficient?

Think my previous times reaching last boss (non-TLB) has all been below 400b

[EOJ]

Anyone on the JP twittersphere know what the TLB requirements for Exa Label is?

I was surprised when I triggered it for the first time yesterday (https://youtu.be/tWVtbIK-4QM).

Sortof assumed you needed no miss or hit max multiplier, but here i reached it at last life and max multiplier x7.
Maybe just having a score high enough is sufficient?

Think my previous times reaching last boss (non-TLB) has all been below 400b

I did a quick search, and only found one tweet discussing this:

https://twitter.com/dbacohukai/status/1506267560169275393

He says there is a "no miss" requirement for the TLB on the Nesica version of Shin, but this is not present in EXA label (which you already discovered!).

[Liquidus0]

Did some tests for the EXA Label TLB triggers :

Lost 0 life and used 4 bombs : yes (Haven't tested Lost 0 life and 5+ bomb used, but I would assume it's "yes")
Lost 1 life and used 2 bombs : yes
Lost 1 life and used 3 bombs : no
Lost 2 lives and used 1 bombs : yes
Lost 2 lives and used 2 bombs : no
Lost 3 lives and used 0 bomb : yes
Lost 3 lives and used 1 bombs : no
(Haven't tested Lost 4 lives and used 0 bombs, but I would assume it's "no")

So I assume these 2 conditions to trigger the TLB :

- No miss until Stage 7
or
- Use a maximum total of 3 lives and/or bombs until Stage 7

There is at least another condition that is multiplier/counter or score related as some runs do not fulfill these 2 conditions above and still get the TLB.

[buffi]

I had a run where I was having 430b+ points going into s7boss. Max counter was just 640k though, so real low.
That did _not_ trigger TLB, so it's definitely not triggered by score.

I've had several runs where score has been in the 400b range, and counter was 700k+ which spawned TLB.

My best guess right now is that counter > 666666 (2/3 of max) is one trigger, but dunno.

[buffi]

Well I dunno what triggers it, but I seem to be able to do it consistently now so any decent scoring run should spawn TLB I guess.

Beat it for the first time today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuEhm2CFq7E

Exa Label mode is definitely a big step above the other modes imo. So fun to pump that multiplier.

[EOJ]

Apparently the EXA version of Shin is different from the X360 original and the Nesica version. For one, the behavior of the bosses is different:

https://twitter.com/nitiku08/status/1596668641550151680

[EOJ]

Interestingly, the latest JHA (Japanese high score rankings) has a score of 10 points in Zetsu Mode on the EXA port (ALL clear). I assume this is some 'lowest score possible' ranking category:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eZxMbrWuUaPJRN7UnoyG8hN3jWTaSvJnSsYnValpvCw/edit#gid=1113401945

I'm guessing this could be done on the home ports as well?