Strike Witches [JP X360]

[EOJ]

New shooting game [might be a shmup, but no one knows yet] based on an anime, coming soon:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/09/07/xbox_360_strike_witches/

90% chance this will be crap, but let's wait and see.

[skykid]

Just when you thought the Japanese couldn't push the boundaries for tasteful crotch shots any further.

[EOJ]

Official site is up, developer is Gulti, who made the excellent Raiden Fighters Aces port. They also worked with G.rev to program Mamoru-kun (which is also great). Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought:

http://www.cyberfront.co.jp/title/strike_witches/

From that page we can see there will be a very pricey LE (over 11,000 yen) with some dumb figure included, while the SE will retail at over 7300 yen.

[Elixir]

I am half expecting something like this: http://www.digitalcute.com/contents/content/view/335/193/

Which isn't actually all that bad, really. Firing becomes more intense if you graze (hello Shiki), point blanking cancels line of fire and bombing gives big bonuses in the righ spots. Not bad for a minigame.

[EOJ]

New promo vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FoM04_vZ1U

[EOJ]

This was just released, did anyone get it? I've heard it uses dual stick control. I'm wondering if there's an arcade-stick layout option.

[twoup]

I ordered it, should be here on Wednesday or Thursday so I can post some impressions then.

[EOJ]

New DLC character released today, for 800 MSP points.  

http://www.gpara.com/article/cms_show.php?c_id=21930&c_num=14

[twoup]

This came yesterday and I played through story mode a few times. It's about as bad as people are saying it is. I noticed there were many small breaks in the levels where nothing was happening at all and you're just floating there for a few seconds.

Almost all the enemies and bosses are red & black with that hexagon pattern & the last stage has a red & black background so the enemies blend in. Sound is quite bad too & the music is so ordinary I didn't even notice it.

Scoring just involves picking up the medals. Pick up 100 and the value increases, pick up 200 & the value maxes out. There's no penalty for missing a medal or getting hit & the medal counter resets after each stage.

I played a game on Very Hard and it was mostly the same patterns (occasionally with extra bullets) only much faster, a bit like mushi original on ps2 right down to the bullets leaving a glowing trail. It made some sections a bit more interesting.

The game takes too long to complete imo, I think this is in part due to those bits with no action on screen and the boss battles. Every boss has more then one lifebar/phase and the last one is always shooting at a bloody crystal 'core', it just drags on.

I don't feel bad for picking it up, I mostly did so to maintain a complete collection of 360 shooters. I like it more then 0-day attack on earth, omega 5 and raystorm HD but less then everything else.

[EOJ]

I just got this today.

I've only played the first two stages, but so far I'm quite liking it. The twinstick control is very new for me, but it works. Unfortunately there is no option to play with an arcade stick, but I guess the game really wouldn't work that way.

The enemy and bullet patterns are pretty nice, and the super powered up shot you can unleash is neat. I also like all the different teams, and the story mode is structured well with nice voice acting (though you could only really appreciate this if you can understand Japanese). Thankfully the story scenes are skippable if you so choose.

A pleasant surprise thus far, and worth a purchase.

[EOJ]

Finished Story mode with one of the teams. Solid game, but I think some of the boss fights drag on too long. The bullet patterns remind me a lot of Border Down (which is a good thing). Decent challenge too, even though your lifebar gets refilled at the end of every stage.

I also find playing a run or two in a row makes my right thumb hurt. Pressing on the analog stick that much becomes uncomfortable.

Definitely a game with a console feel, but take away the end-of-stage-lifebar-refill, add some score-based and/or fixed extends, and slap it in a widescreen cab with twinsticks, and you'd have a fun and pretty unique arcade game. Way better than something like Otomedius.

[njiska]

Glad to hear you liked it. I had canceled my pre-order based on the initial vibe it was giving, but not that i'm hearing some positive I think I may tack it on to my DFK LE order.

[EOJ]

I'm enjoying this game more and more. Probably the biggest surprise of the year for me. If you have a JP X360, buy it. You may end up liking it as much as I do.

I've noticed there seems to be some rank. If I get through a stage on Normal without getting hit, or just getting hit once, by the time I reach the boss, his patterns can change and get a bit harder. Also, some boss patterns seem random no matter what.

Currently playing arcade mode as Junko-Pyrenne-Lynette, as I've read that's the most powerful team. I'll have to experiment with other combinations.

[EOJ]

I opened a high score chart, since I'm so addicted to this awesome game:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=1019.0

Join in!

[meancode]

So what all do you get in the LE and I can't find anything but the LE on Play-Asia.

[EOJ]

With the LE you get some goofy figurine and a big dumb box. Waste of money.

I got the SE, of course. It's currently sold out at ncsx.com and play-asia doesn't carry it anymore. Best bet right now is probably ebay.
This game is already become scarce, and it's still selling for full price.

[njiska]

Pretty sure this is the SE if you want to try - http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3815775

[EOJ]

Patch was released a few days back:

http://www.cyberfront.co.jp/title/strike_witches/update.html

It fixes the leaderboard freeze, and the leaderboards were reset on Oct 7. Only scores for Normal mode difficulty are accepted, so it's pointless to play on other modes if you want to compete with the online scoring. They also added numerous balance tweaks to the characters, and fixed some minor glitches with some of the voices, endings, and other bits.

One more big change in the patch: they added an Arcade joystick control option! Finally, you can play the game like in an arcade cab.  

Get this game if you haven't already. It's a gem.

[njiska]

I though the original control scheme was akin to a dual-analog shooter. How did they adapt the pattern for use with a stick?

[EOJ]

They just let you map shot to a button. As long as you hold that button down, you will shoot, but your direction of shot will stay fixed. When you let off shot, you can move your character's aim 360 degrees. I tried it out, and it works OK, but it may take some getting used to. Character control is definitely better with an arcade stick, but so far shooting is easier with the dual stick setup.

[njiska]

So it's sort of like aiming the familiars in Deathsmiles?

[EOJ]

It doesn't feel similar, as it's your main shot, and you can't shoot 360 degrees in Deathsmiles, only left or right.

In other news, top-level Japanese player SIN continues to play this, as he is a man with good taste in games. His recent post on the patch and whatnot:

http://sinmoon.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/199/

If I can find some time, I'll translate some bits. In the meantime, try and beat his stage times in the time-attack DLC mode!

[njiska]

I didn't mean in terms of DS shooting. I just was wondering if aiming in arcade mode is similar to how you aim your Familiar in DS. You know, how it sort of moves around you opposite from how you move your character.

[EOJ]

It's not the same - it moves in the direction you point. I've still not gotten used to it. If you come from DS (like me), it certainly feels weird.

On the bright side, it still feels solid with the dualsticks.

[twoup]

That's really cool and surprising that they patched in joystick support. I really didn't cope well playing this with the 360 & ps2 pads. When I can be arsed swapping the ethernet cable around I'll grab that patch and give the game another go.

[EOJ]

SIN has posted an awesome Strike Witches vid:

http://sinmoon.sakuraweb.com/movie.html

First link on the page. It's a Very Hard No Miss ALL + Time Attack in 53 seconds.

[njiska]

I finally got my LE from Amazon JP. Is there some trick to using magic effectively?

[EOJ]

It's usually best to just tap it when you get in trouble - it gives you a few seconds of invincibility (even after you stop shooting), and let's you recharge to max really quickly. For bosses, it can be helpful to hold down the magic and just blast away during the tough bullet patterns. Just experiment, you'll get a feel for it after a short while.

[iconoclast]

I picked this game up recently and I've been playing it over the last couple days. I'm enjoying it more and more each time I play, but I've clearly got a lot to learn about scoring. For starters, can anyone tell me what the stats at the end of the stage mean? The top one is clearly how many medals you've collected, but the bottom two, no idea.

Fun game though. There's some neat bullet patterns and enemy placement, and collecting tons of shiny gold medals is always fun. I also like how you can customize your team, mixing and matching the girls' different abilities to suit your playstyle. Although my thumb starts to hurt after playing for a couple hours, which is strange, considering I've never had that problem with Geometry Wars, or any other dual analog shooter for that matter. Ah well, it's still a good game - glad I bought it.

[EOJ]

This is getting ported to the PSP:

http://andriasang.com/comzvz/strike_witches_psp/

Guess Cyberfront's port of Mamoru-kun to the PS3 did so poorly in sales they have decided to try the PSP instead.