Ibara Vs. Pink Sweets, sequel Vs. prequel

[moebinkay]

I have been playing Ibara recently, and have realized that although its the prequel to Pink Sweets I have really enjoyed it more. My question is which one did you prefer?

[MrTie]

TBH it's hard to say, when I bought Ibara it was my first cave pcb, and I was relatively new to shmups(I still suck), on one hand I thought that game was beautiful, and I still do, but the game demanded more ability then I had to give. I sold it to fund Pink Sweets, based more upon the fact that it was unported and looked insane then anything else. I have spent more quality time with PS, and I have become a better player over my course of ownership, and it has a ton of really interesting things going for it. That said I will never beat it, I will never grace much further then stage 5 ever, and it's a fundamentally broken game if you aren't the following 1. Using rapid B, 2. Amazingly good at shooters, 3. Or willing to play absolute low rank runs. However it does have a ton of charm, from it's enjoyable sound track, to score attack, and harder mode(Really needed that didn't we?), I adore it's restart command as well. I think personally I'll end up holding on to PS for a while and coming back to it when I work my way through Garegga enough to be competent, hell maybe I'll even build a 555 timer circuit and set up a rapid b for my cab. But as it stands I think I hold onto the game more out of uniqueness and rarity then actually out of joy I get from playing it, PS is a spiteful mean spirited bitch, but thats the way Yagawa rolls


Either way I would like to buy a copy of Ibara again one of these days.

[neomoe]

this is off-topic....

...but, Moebinkay, is that picture of your Avatar your actual home setup?  If so, how large is that TV?  How does the saturn picture quality look on that?  And if you don't mind me asking...what kind of stand are you using for the TV and how much did that cost?

Sorry for all the questions, but I just noticed that picture and it really grabbed my attention

[Platypus Stan]

I'm a Raizing fanboy who's been defending rank against the naysayers for years, but Pink Sweets takes it to the extreme and it just breaks the game.  Yagawa has always seemed a little eccentric, but it's like he made this game in the midst of a nervous breakdown. 

The end result is you're either focusing more on rank control than you are on the rest of the game or you're getting your ass remorselessly kicked.  It's a shame because I love everything else about the game, even the goofy boss designs.  It's the Cave game that needs an arrange mode or black label version more than any other IMO.

If I were to rank Yagawa's Cave games, it would be Muchi Muchi Pork > Ibara > Ibara Kuro > Pink Sweets.  I might switch the Ibaras once I spend more time with Kuro, but so far its scoring system is a little more complex than I prefer.

[EOJ]

If I were to rank Yagawa's Cave games, it would be Muchi Muchi Pork > Ibara > Ibara Kuro > Pink Sweets.  

Yagawa didn't program Kuro.   It doesn't play much like a Yagawa game either.

[Joe T.]

I owned a Pink Sweets for a little while last year and as much as I really liked it, I decided I just didn't have the time to commit to playing it seriously and sold it.  It was a lot of fun.  Ibara is up there with Battle Garegga as one of my favorite video games ever period.  I think it's just right in terms of challenge and accessibility.  I rarely have time to play more than a few credits of any game these days but I'd say Ibara is one of those PCBs I'll never get rid of.  I've recently been trying to get back into playing Muchi Muchi Pork! this week as it has sat in the jamma bin untouched for about a year and I'm definitely enjoying it.  Ibara still seems more minimal and refined to me though, which I prefer.

[Platypus Stan]

Yagawa didn't program Kuro.   It doesn't play much like a Yagawa game either.

True, but neither does MMP.    That one almost feels like Ikeda came up with the scoring system and Yagawa just said, "OK, but what about rank and boss milking?"

[EOJ]

Yeah, Ikeda and Furukawa (the guy who programmed IKBL, and seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet since) are listed as "system advisers" on the MMP credits. I still get that magical Yagawa feel when playing the game, though.  

[professor ganson]

My relation to Ibara has been love-hate.  When I first got the PS2 port, I was pretty amazed.  Then I got the PCB and really soured on it.  Now I'm not sure exactly what my problem was, apart from it's just seeming too complex and difficult.  I sold the PCB, and then got it again in a trade. Now I realize: the game is just brilliant. It seems I learn something new about it every time I play.  I only wish that I was better at it.

I haven't played PS, MMP or Kuro.  It sounds like the innovations in Kuro may be more suited to top players who can play at max rank, so I don't know if I'll ever try to get this.  MMP sounds like a must-play at some point, but that would mean spending a lot less on jrpgs and other things I like to spend money on, so I'm not sure when it's going to happen.

[spl]

I haven't played Pink Sweets due to lack of access, but Ibara I have tried on the PS2 and I love it. It's a welcome change of pace from most Cave titles and I hope they keep making Yagawa titles in the future.

I'd love to play the other Yagawa games but besides console ports, I don't really have access to any Cave titles.