Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu BLACK LABEL [Cave 2010, PCB]

[brentsg]

Thanks for the footage.  It works quite well as a left-scrolling hori!   

I'd been out of shmups for a long while so this will be the first time I've had to patiently keep my wallet in my pocket waiting for a PCB to drop in price.   

[SuperPang]

Shmups in useful post shocker.
So, I take it autobomb is still there?

[adverse]

Autobomb is optional I believe.  Maybe Kaneda can confirm.

[EOJ]

A nice writeup (in Japanese) of the changes in BL:

http://nicolai.blog22.fc2.com/blog-entry-376.html

I don't have time to translate now, but maybe later tonight. Or someone else can take a stab at it. The main point the guy talks about is "this feels like a completely different game!".

[powerfuran]

Very interesting link, I can now understand something which was very obscure judging from the videos (at lest for me, of course).

A brief overview of the main points indicated, feel free to correct/elaborate:

-there's a new shooting mode called "red" (reddo, 烈怒). You enter that mode by pressing A+C. It's a combination of shoot+lasers, and apparently it produces the highest amount of damage (this is quite reasonable).

-Hitting enemies in red mode fills up the upper left gauge. When the gauge is filled to the indicated threshold, enemy fire doubles. When it is filled up to almost 4/5, the kanji 烈怒 flashes and real hell begins. The blogger calls this situation "red zone". While in the red zone, bullets are almost twice as fast and bullet patterns are 3 to 5 times harder. Basically this will make some people change their way of playing, in that most players enter laser mode by pressing A while C is still being pressed down.


Something on hypers:

-while not in red mode, hyper meter doesn't build up, or it does very little.

-while in red mode, hypers last very little time.

-hit counter doesn't increase if you're not in red mode

-basically, if you're not in red mode you cannot score.

-some enemies produce their bullet cancelling effect, as explaned by adverse.

-auto bomb can be turned on/off at ship selection screen

-all three styles are there: notice that if you select strong style, from stage 1-1 you get the same amount of enemy fire as in Omote 2-1. (I beleieve he's referring to daifukkatsu 1.5 here). He says that it feels like the enemies are in strong style, not the player.

-Styles are comparable to difficulty modes now: comparing to Mushifutari, this translates to bomb -> original,  power -> maniac,   strong -> ultra.

-NO EXTENDS? This seems to be specific to the location test version, maybe...

There's a lote more, inlcuding visual changes, but my boss is chasing me now.  Feel free to add more, of course. Sorry for the possible typos.



EDIT: some more, in random order

- seems like the brief invincibility status given when the hyper is unleashed  is now much shorter.

- the number of some enemies in stage 5 is doubled.

-chain doesn't break even with max hyper gauge.

[MrTie]

Big thank you to Powerfuran, this is sounding very interesting, I really hope we get a BL dlc whenever they make the DFK 360 port.

[EOJ]

Sounds a lot like Ibara Kuro ~ Black Label, actually. The "Red meter" is similar to Kuro's Rank Meter, and like in IKBL, you have to play mainly at max rank to score. As Yagawa had nothing to do with IKBL, he may not have been involved with this. IKBL was programmed by Mamoru Furukawa, maybe he helped with this too?

I like how the styles correlate to Mushihimesama-style modes/difficulty levels now. That will open up a whole new level of depth and competition.

-chain doesn't break even with max hyper gauge.

Hooray!

[powerfuran]

You're welcome, MrTie.

Obviously, we could expect some changes and tweaks before the final release, I believe.

I like how the styles correlate to Mushihimesama-style modes/difficulty levels now. That will open up a whole new level of depth and competition.

To me this is the main point, I was hoping that something similar was actually in DFK when it first came out and we learned about "styles".  Styles were not so interesting, as far as my useless opinion is concerned, that is.


I was seeing some multipliers popping out when collecting stars, but honestly I didn't pay much attention to that  (I was looking at the "red gauge" all the time) Could it be that we are getting the first DDP game when collecting stars actually matters for high-scoring? That would add something more to pattern-builders.   I could be totally worong on those counters by the way.

[Monouchi]

-Hitting enemies in red mode fills up the upper left gauge. When the gauge is filled to the indicated threshold, enemy fire doubles. When it is filled up to almost 4/5, the kanji 烈怒 flashes and real hell begins. The blogger calls this situation "red zone". While in the red zone, bullets are almost twice as fast and bullet patterns are 3 to 5 times harder. Basically this will make some people change their way of playing, in that most players enter laser mode by pressing A while C is still being pressed down.

Yes, thanks for the translation.
As DFK is my Nr:1 hope for a port to the 360 I really also hope that the BL will be included in that port.

The Red Zone system sounds great, a new gimmick to give more depth.

[brentsg]

I just received a preorder notice from a Japanese vendor that I've used.

It puts the pricing of the game at 198,000 yen and due in January 2010.

The solicitation also states that Cave will only be producing enough kits to satisfy pre-order demand for this release.

[drboom]

The solicitation also states that Cave will only be producing enough kits to satisfy pre-order demand for this release.

I wonder if that's actually true. I'd be suprised if Cave didn't make another 50-100 kits plus that pre-order number.

[GaijinPunch]

I've lost all faith of any Black Label being playably ported to a console.  Will have to wait and hope the shit economy brings this to affordable quickly.

[EOJ]

I'm somewhat tempted to preorder this, play it a bit, write about it, and sell it off. Hmm.

Try-inc has a blurb about it up:



They say it'll come out sometime between January 20-31st.

[SuperPang]

Is that a lower price than usual or are Try usually that cheap?

[brentsg]

198,000 seems to be the equivalent of MSRP in this case.

I don't know how these vendors usually work but that's the case here.

I have no idea though, are there any vendors that are particularly good to preorder from..  and what are the policies?  Prepay in full?

[SuperPang]

Maybe the BLs are usually a few thou lower and I never noticed.

[EOJ]

That's Cave's MSRP (tax not included). It's definitely cheaper than the previous BLs that retailed for 248,000yen.

[GaijinPunch]

It's cheaper.  Try always sells for the suggested price... you might be able to get this from Fujita for for 10,000-20,000 less.

[brentsg]

It's cheaper.  Try always sells for the suggested price... you might be able to get this from Fujita for for 10,000-20,000 less.

Fujita offered it at 193,000 yen I believe.  They also cited concern about the numbers being produced, but it may just be hype.

[rtw]

Just got a quote for 2440USD and a statement saying that there is only 20 pieces being made...

[brentsg]

Sophia:

1- DODONPACHI DAIFUKKATSU BALCK LABEL (PCB)

UNIT PRICE                :  JPY198,000
GENRE                        :  VERTICAL SCROLL SHOOTING
OPERATION               :  1 LEVER & 4 BUTTONS
PLAYERS        　　　    :  1-2 PLAYERS
ADVANCED ORDER   :  SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALES
RELEASE DATE           :  SCHEDULED IN END/JAN. 2010
PCB USED                  :  EXCLUSIVE
PRODUCT FORM      :  HDD+DONGLE
MANUFACTURER      :  CAVE

[KOMA]

From Sophia corp

1- DODONPACHI DAIFUKKATSU BALCK LABEL (PCB)

UNIT PRICE                :  JPY198,000  (EX-GODOWN TOKYO)
GENRE                        :  VERTICAL SCROLL SHOOTING
OPERATION               :  1 LEVER & 4 BUTTONS
PLAYERS        　　　    :  1-2 PLAYERS
ADVANCED ORDER   :  SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALES
RELEASE DATE           :  SCHEDULED IN END/JAN. 2010
PCB USED                  :  EXCLUSIVE
PRODUCT FORM      :  HDD+DONGLE
MANUFACTURER      :  CAVE
DEPOSIT AMOUNT   :  YOU ARE REQUESTED TO SEND US DEPOSIT
JUST BEFORE WE PLACE AN ORDER TO THE MAKER.

WTF?

[brentsg]

So is this game 15kHz or 31kHz?  I just looked around and I see one photo of the game being run on an Egret II, which would indicate 15kHz or 24kHz.  But the videos that were filmed at HEY appear to be on an LCD I think, which would indicate 31kHz.

Can anyone shed light on this?  


And I don't buy the 20 pieces thing.  If that's the case, why even bother to produce it?  I can see a vendor being capped at 20 pieces though.


Edit:  Per Sophia...

DEAR MR. BRENT,

SORRY! I FORGOT TO ANSWER FOLLOWING POINT.

YOU CAN USE THIS PCB WITH ORDINARY JAMMA CABINET 15KHz.

BEST REGARDS,
T.ORIHARA

[SuperPang]

The 20 pcs are just ECLs stock surely.

[GaijinPunch]

The 20 pcs are just ECLs stock surely.

20Pcs is their stock.  Let's not be stupid everyone.

The flyer on Try's site says 15khz or 24khz which is just so fucking crazy it makes me pull on my balls a little.  Someone buy this thing.  I have a trisynch monitor to test it out on.

[brentsg]

So this is not SH3..  or I guess it could be for purposes of keeping the code base from DFK easy to port.  But it's got a hard drive..

Does this mean it's reusable for future games?  Heck maybe it's essentially an Xbox board and they're using code from an unannounced port...

Does this mean DFK BL will be incomplete and patched up like DS II was?

At least it's compatible with older JAMMA cabs.

[rtw]

So this is not SH3..  or I guess it could be for purposes of keeping the code base from DFK easy to port.  But it's got a hard drive..

Does this mean it's reusable for future games?  Heck maybe it's essentially an Xbox board and they're using code from an unannounced port...

Does this mean DFK BL will be incomplete and patched up like DS II was?

At least it's compatible with older JAMMA cabs.

It's most likely a typo, I have emailed and asked them to clarify. It makes no sense that a black label is on a different hardware platform.

[erzane]

you no need to be worried about this small detail, I saw it to but it's only a mistake from the seller
most of the seller in jp like fujita or sophia don't know much about some games
they always ask to their technician or reseller for harder inquiry
if it's notified 'hdd dongle' it's only because the latest cave alias ds2 was on hdd
they re surely thinking this game is a new type and perhaps don't know it's only another version of an older type cave game (perhaps they don't know what BL mean)
it's sure this ddpbl will stay on sh3 and not hdd

[zlk]

I put in my order today.   

[GaijinPunch]

3 Cheers for recession.
We'll be expecting a super play a week after release.