Ketsui EX [JP X360] - April 22, 2010 release date confirmed

[adverse]

Seems to me that timing is off on the second and third phases of Boss 5 as well.

[bcass]

Shot of the LE box. Looking pretty cool.

That's no box.  It's a flimsy piece of PVC with no top or bottom that slips over the two DVD cases.  Just about the cheapest nastiest option they could have gone for.

[brentsg]

Shot of the LE box. Looking pretty cool.

That's no box.  It's a flimsy piece of PVC with no top or bottom that slips over the two DVD cases.  Just about the cheapest nastiest option they could have gone for.

Right, because a cardboard box ala Futari is so awesome to have around..

[EOJ]

Nice direct feed 5+min vid showing the loads times, stage 1 in both Arcade and X-mode, and all the option menus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnlM1KOhj1I

[EOJ]

What kind of scores are people putting up on the leaderboards, or is it still pretty sparse?

Also, what replay options are there (fast forward, stage skip, etc)?

[adverse]

Leaderboards are sparse at the moment.

IIRC, top Arcade mode score was 130 mil so far.  X-mode was somewhere around 300 mil?  I have the top X-mode B-type score IIRC lol.

[cstarflare]

Nice direct feed 5+min vid showing the loads times, stage 1 in both Arcade and X-mode, and all the option menus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnlM1KOhj1I

What are those little tabs that popped up in the upper right corner in X Mode? I started noticing them around 3:35

[adverse]

Nice direct feed 5+min vid showing the loads times, stage 1 in both Arcade and X-mode, and all the option menus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnlM1KOhj1I

What are those little tabs that popped up in the upper right corner in X Mode? I started noticing them around 3:35

Achievement trackers, which can be turned off in the menu if you feel like it.

I think it's a cool feature.

[cstarflare]

That's really awesome. I hate grinding achievements that don't tell me how close I am.

[StarCreator]

The post where he asked isn't in this thread anymore, but for bcass's benefit, the tracklist for both CDs included with the Ketsui LE are complete - disc 1 contains all the Ketsui arranged music, and disc 2 contains all the dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU arranged music.  There's nothing missing.

[bcass]

What about the menu music from both titles (used on the 360 only)?  Are those on the discs?

[charlienash87]

is there any special first print only stuff, like a download card or anything. I can only imagine how angry someone would be to have had this pre-ordered for over a year and not get the first print only thingy ::coughs playasia::

mine shipped today. I still haven't played my esp2 from being busy as hell. can't wait for my vacation to roll around so i can play both of these bad ass games, as well as SSFIV of course. it's going to be a sweet week

[StarCreator]

What about the menu music from both titles (used on the 360 only)?  Are those on the discs?

Yes, first track on both discs.

is there any special first print only stuff, like a download card or anything. I can only imagine how angry someone would be to have had this pre-ordered for over a year and not get the first print only thingy ::coughs playasia::

The only bonus was the little guidebook thing, same as DOJBLEX.

[EOJ]

The full list of tracks on the CDs has been on 5pb's site for awhile:

http://5pb.jp/games/div2/ketsuiex/media/special.html

[EOJ]

A Japanese 4 year old plays Ketsui on the X360 for the first time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvV7EGnzX5I

He gets to the middle of Stage 2 on one credit (game set to Easy, max life stock).

[EOJ]

I got my copy today, and spent the last hour playing. Wow. This is a spectacular port. Already I can tell you, in regard to the first loop (haven't tried the second ones yet), this is far more accurate than the Espgaluda 2 or DSMBL ports, and a bit more accurate than the Futari 1.5/BL ports as well. The slowdown feels like it's everywhere it should be, a couple spots feel like there's a little too much, or not quite enough. I will need more time to test. Also, they've replicated the "slowdown" as it is on the PCB in the sense it is basically frame dropping instead of smooth slowdown (I never cared for this on the PCB, but at least the port is true in this regard), which gives it a choppy feel. I was so worried they were going to pull an Ibara and wipe out all the slowdown, ruining the game. But 5pb came through in the end.

X-Mode is a lot of fun, far better than Futari's Arrange mode. There's no sissy autobomb, and it's actually harder than it seems when you play for score. Feels a lot like a "Ketsui Black Label".

Running the game in Nearest Neighbor on my RGB monitor makes it look superb (I can hardly tell it's interlaced). Better than Espgaluda II's Arcade mode.

Hats off to 5pb. They've made one of the best Cave ports ever. I have zero desire to ever buy a Ketsui PCB again after playing this.

EDIT: Just watched a replay. FYI: you can fast-forward with the RB, but that's the only option I could find.

[brentsg]

I have zero desire to ever buy a Ketsui PCB again after playing this.

On a scale from 1-10, how strong was your urge to buy a Ketsui PCB before this port was released?

>

[Schrodingers cat]

I'm also impressed with how the game turned out. 

X-mode is probably my favorite arrange mode out of any 360 port so far... hold shot on those bullet canceling enemies up close and all you get is 555555555555555555555 for a really long time.  Pure scoring madness.

Also, there are quite a few options to practice the 2nd loop (no bullet mode, continue at DOOM, among others) but they're apparently locked.  You probably need to reach the 2nd loop first, which means that it's going to be a while.

I love how much this port doesn't hold your hand as much as the other 360 ports.  Continues are limited and I can't find an option to change it to free play, which means that newcomers will at least have to get somewhat better in order to even get through the game.  Hopefully this encourages them to get good enough in order for them to want to start playing for score instead of just credit feeding to the end.

[EOJ]

On a scale from 1-10, how strong was your urge to buy a Ketsui PCB before this port was released?

Let's just say if I could have bought a Ketsui PCB for $400 within the past year I, like most people, would have jumped on it. But after playing the $60 port (well, that's what I paid for it), I wouldn't buy the PCB even if it was $200 now. I'd probably buy it for $100 just for the 240p, but even then I'd have to think about it.

I tried out the practice mode (which is just called "stage select"), and it's great because they automatically start you with the default max lives/bombs/power ups. You can manually adjust these if you like, to a max of 9 lives, 6 bombs, and 5 power ups. I've been wanting to practice stages 4 and 5 for years, so it's really nice to finally have that option, let alone the ability to practice the second loops. Like Ikaruga, you can't practice a stage until you've reached it.

One thing I would have liked in this port is a 1-Loop score attack mode consisting of the Tsuujou and/or Ura Loop. Like an "Ultra" or "Harahara" mode. That would have been a fun.

Also, they call the Tsuujou Loop "Omote" in the leaderboards (makes sense, as that's the opposite of "Ura").

Just got a 316mil ALL clear in X-Mode with A-type. I didn't get to fight Doom, so it seems you can't bomb or die a certain amount of times in order to face him (just like entering the Loops in Arcade mode). It's so nice that this Arrange mode isn't a pushover.

[Schrodingers cat]

Are there any remarkable pieces of info in the first print guidebook?  It seems to be quite detailed for certain sections of the game but I can't read Japanese.   

[rtw]

EOJ thanks for the info!

Could you tell us what Ura and Omote mean ?

[moozooh]

EOJ may correct me on this, but I think omote is obverse (front side), and ura is reverse (back side).

[EOJ]

Ura = "back or reverse (area)", Omote = "front or face".

EDIT: Beaten by moozooh.

I played a bit more, and watched an Omote A-type replay, and then compared it with MMM's 2-ALL vid. I was hard pressed to find any major slowdown differences (there are a few spots where the slowdown speed is a little different in the port - for example the last phase of the 2-3 boss), it's really quite amazing how accurate they got this port. When I play through the first loop, there are only a couple slight differences in slowdown speed that I notice (Stage 4 boss, as adverse mentioned earlier, is one), otherwise I feel like I'm playing the PCB, which is something I can't say about ANY Cave-developed Cave port except Deathsmiles Arcade mode. I can't really say it about M2's Futari port either, mainly due to the bits of added slowdown in stages 3 & 4.

[Icarus]

Thanks for the impressions, EOJ (and everyone else). Ketsui was one of the ports I've been patiently waiting on for like forever, and it's good to hear that they've done a great job of it. Looking forward to picking it up from the family home when it arrives, hopefully next week, along with the Seimitsu-modded SFIV TE stick that I left there a while ago.

[EOJ]

Be prepared to be amazed when you play this.

The Japanese guys on 2Ch seem equally amazed. Those who've posted about the port accuracy say it's a better port than Futari or Espgaluda 2, and I've read some of them say X-Mode is up there with EII's Black Label in terms of quality home arrange modes. In contrast, the first few days after Futari and Espgaluda 2's releases they spent a good amount of time bitching about the fucked up slowdown, and most were generally displeased with the ports.

One more thing: you can select the Arranged music for Arcade mode, something you couldn't do in Espgaluda 2 Black Label.

[LFO]

that's really great news. me too was waiting for a port since the anouncement that the ps2-version is cancelled, and i'm glad that this port finally arrived and turned out to be outstanding. and it`s basically ketsui that's brought me to wanting a 360. but somehow that is quite fitting, because i bought my first ps2 for ddp: doj. ;-)

since yesterday, my ketsui copy is waiting at my parent-in-law's house (together with galuda2 and futari). all i need is a j360 now (and the money to buy it...)

thanks for the detailed impressions!

[dmauro]

Be prepared to be amazed when you play this.

This. I haven't played enough of the PCB to comment on how true it is to the original slowdown, but just in terms of presentation and ease of menu navigation, this port is great.

One more thing: you can select the Arranged music for Arcade mode, something you couldn't do in Espgaluda 2 Black Label.

You could do that, you just had to set it from the top menu rather than from the sound menu for the individual games.

[antares]

So who developed the X mode for this game? Was it solely done by 5pb or did someone from Cave outline the direction and system of X mode?

[Kiken]

Also, there are quite a few options to practice the 2nd loop (no bullet mode, continue at DOOM, among others) but they're apparently locked.  You probably need to reach the 2nd loop first, which means that it's going to be a while.

I love how much this port doesn't hold your hand as much as the other 360 ports.  Continues are limited and I can't find an option to change it to free play, which means that newcomers will at least have to get somewhat better in order to even get through the game.  Hopefully this encourages them to get good enough in order for them to want to start playing for score instead of just credit feeding to the end.

The EX options and extra credits (and finally free play) just unlock through play time.  After roughly 8 hours or so of play, you should have everything open.

[adverse]

Be prepared to be amazed when you play this.

The Japanese guys on 2Ch seem equally amazed.

I think most everyone, including me, took Mihara's word for it when he was dissing the port quality. 
I too was pretty shocked at the quality when I played it at the CAVE Matsuri, but didn't want to pronounce judgment too soon.

I hope it sells better than it looks like it is right now as word gets out.

Maybe we should un-ban JapJac in honor of the port not sucking?