UPDATE (7/15/2010): The title is Akai Katana. Official page:
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/
Location test at HEY from July 23-26. Release date is August 19, 2010.
(http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/images/2010/07/16/_.jpg)
------------
Just announced by Asada in the Cave blog, location test will be in just a few weeks. It's a completely new game, and a hori, no further info just yet:
http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2010/07/post-f2df.html
UPDATE (7.5.2010) from gfront blog:
-Danmaku type horizontal scrolling shooting game
-Hardcore military shooter
-Each ship has a pair of characters (pilot and gunner?) with specific attacks
-Each ship changes its attacks when you change "mode"
-The characters (enemies, allies, and others - all human) are quite diverse
-Ships are designed as hardcore, 1950s style retro mechas
-Game is designed around destructible objects and dodging bullets - the core elements of an enjoyable STG - rather than obstacles and topography. This gives it a refreshing feeling.
-It has been carefully developed for over 1 year.
-Release in summer/fall 2010
http://gfront.sblo.jp/article/39460871.html
Keeps fingers crossed for 2D.
DSIII >:D
Perhaps its the cat girl. My guess (and trust me its not what I want) is a run and gun game with ds2 graphics. My hope would be for a 2d shooter of course
Cat-girls! =D
Awesome! Thanks for the tip.
I'd note for people asking about the run-and-gun that he doesn't say it's a hori game, but a hori shooter
i hope its not a run-and-gun hori but than again i dont like horis in the first place ...
i would have prefered a vertical shooter :(
G-front has posted some details about the new game. It all sounds awesome (pretty similar to Progear in many respects). My translation:
-Danmaku type horizontal scrolling shooting game
-Hardcore military shooter
-Each ship has a pair of characters (pilot and gunner?) with specific attacks
-Each ship changes its attacks when you change "mode"
-The characters (enemies, allies, and others - all human) are quite diverse
-Ships are designed as hardcore, 1950s style retro mechas
-Game is designed around destructible objects and dodging bullets - the core elements of an enjoyable STG - rather than obstacles and topography. This gives it a refreshing feeling.
-It has been carefully developed for over 1 year.
-Release in summer/fall 2010
http://gfront.sblo.jp/article/39460871.html
Fantastic news! :righton: Now pictures please...
Fuckin cool! Now the only question on my mind is whether it's 2D...
fingers crossed for auto-bomb!
Sounds pretty promising, but on the other hand, perhaps too oldskool for these times (economic interests)... Probably they'll fix this by the carater designs (lolis).
Wonder who will be the designer.
Sounds good. SH3 or PC based ???
If it has been in development for >1 year that's after DS2 was released. Here's hoping they still have a surplus of SH3 boards kicking about
Sounds fantastic....lets hope for 2D! :P
Quote from: EOJ on July 05, 2010, 08:33:01 PM-It has been carefully developed for over 1 year.
:righton:
Quote from: EOJ on July 05, 2010, 08:33:01 PM-Danmaku type horizontal scrolling shooting game
-Hardcore military shooter
-Each ship has a pair of characters (pilot and gunner?) with specific attacks
-Each ship changes its attacks when you change "mode"
-The characters (enemies, allies, and others - all human) are quite diverse
Ah yes, sounds like a (spiritual) sequel to Progear no arashi - very much looking forward to it!
2D, 3D whatever. I'm just hoping it looks good and plays good.
That does sound fantastic. Lets hope it surprises by looking fantastic too.
fingers crossed for a pimp progear sequel with double the jewels for double the pimpin. i'm hoping for no lolis, but if there is, at least the pimp hand will be ready if it is indeed a progear sequel.
The game is called "Akai Katana" ("Red Sword"). Official website is up:
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/
Character designs are SLICK. There is a promo vid there you can watch, but it doesn't have any footage of the game.
Location test at HEY from July 23-26. Release in August.
(http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/images/2010/07/16/_.jpg)
Hate the characters, but that's not why I play these games. A little pissed off there's not a single game screen, but oh, well.
I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling this will be polygonal 2.5D.
Get ready guys this is gonna be awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsXzEVPsiw
Glad to see those, you know, "titty-free" designs.
Will be the last image of the vid. the presentation screen? It seems HD...
Quote from: Udderdude on July 16, 2010, 04:24:38 AM
Get ready guys this is gonna be awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsXzEVPsiw
oh my
Quote from: kernow on July 16, 2010, 05:08:25 AM
Quote from: Udderdude on July 16, 2010, 04:24:38 AM
Get ready guys this is gonna be awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsXzEVPsiw
oh my
Is a huge understatement.
Awesome design and characters, the game must be awesome with "Katana" in the name. =D
("Monouchi" is the last 20cm on a katana blade.)
...but 3D.. :whyioughtta:
Not feeling ESP freestyle swimmer bro, yall.
Clearly he's drowning at the end.
Underwater level confirmed.
That's his final attack. :-X
Quote from: Joe T. on July 16, 2010, 08:10:50 AM
That's his final attack. :-X
I think he is still working on his hitbox.
But, seriously, is that swimmer part of the game or just a joke? :P
That's a Jitterbug demo the programmers messed around with when making DSIIX. It has nothing to do with this game.
Quote from: EOJ on July 16, 2010, 02:58:50 PM
That's a Jitterbug demo the programmers messed around with when making DSIIX. It has nothing to do with this game.
Thanks to god! That character was too much Choaniki style.
Anyway, I like the character design, more similar to old DDP or Ketsui.
Art direction reminds me more of a G.Rev game than a Cave game. Interesting! Really interested in seeing what the game ends up looking like. And with the way things are going, I might even get to play it at home one day =D
Quote from: MX7 on July 17, 2010, 07:09:22 AM
Art direction reminds me more of a G.Rev game than a Cave game
+1
*crosses fingers that they outsorced the graphics engine to G.Rev IF this game will have 3D graphics (I know this is very unlikely but I don't want another technical disaster)
Now theres an inspired idea
Quote from: EOJ on July 01, 2010, 03:35:21 AM
UPDATE (7/15/2010): The title is Akai Katana. Official page:
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/
Location test at HEY from July 23-26. Release in August.
(http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/images/2010/07/16/_.jpg)
Yes.
F*ck yes. This is more like it.
Aside from also being in the "I want this to be 2D", if this is supposed to be a spiritual Progear sequel, I do hope it has a different scoring system; I could never get too much into the original because of it.
Also I wonder who'll be in charge of music: Namiki being the main guy(unlikely), the Basiscape team (high likely), or maybe an external composer (who knows, another IBARA-like ost by Hosoe would be awesome).
So far I'm feeling quite positive about this,if truely feels as a genuine attempt at coming up with a new and "serious" franchise. Looking forward to more details.
the character designs look really good, especially when compared to all the loli crap lately. these characters actually look kinda dope like the ones in ketsui. let's hope there's someone who can rival Alice Blackbarn in badassness, if that's even possible :cool:
Speaking of character designs, who's the character designer? Does anybody know? I really like his/her style, it has quite a "Odin Sphere" vibe to it.
Quote from: Kewing on July 18, 2010, 06:06:34 PM
Speaking of character designs, who's the character designer? Does anybody know? I really like his/her style, it has quite a "Odin Sphere" vibe to it.
Odin Sphere was much more cuter in design imho.
But i have to agree that the artstyle is spot on, it looks as this will be a more serious game in terms of setting/ story.
No panties showing in the first trailer and pics must mean something more serious, right? =D
It would be really cool if the "VanillaWare" logo would pop up in the next clip we're shown.
(http://www.try-inc.co.jp/pcb_shop/akaikatana.jpg)
Looks 2D to me. :D
Jamma, 15k and 198,000y.
Sh3 by the sounds of things?
Well I never, quitting the publishing really did mean quitting that hardware too, for now at least. DS2 must have been costly!
I wasn't expecting this. A military shooter with 2D graphics, I couldn't be happier. 15KHz 4 eva!!!1
Quote from: SuperPang15KHz 4 eva!!!1
>:D
=D
Ah yeah, looks rather reminiscent of Progear :D
Quote from: markedkiller78 on July 20, 2010, 08:13:43 AMSh3 by the sounds of things?
It'd be nice if they upgraded the hardware a bit (COUGH C'MON PUT IN STEREO AUDIO OUT ALREADY), DeathSmiles MBL and DDP DFK were straining the hardware a bit much as it was... but I guess the odds are good that they'll just run with SH3 again (would expect they've got a stock of boards, so would make sense).
Looks pretty cool! Is anyone here going to the location testing? Maybe I missed that in the thread...
Quote from: SuperPang on July 20, 2010, 08:18:18 AM
Well I never, quitting the publishing really did mean quitting that hardware too, for now at least. DS2 must have been costly!
What do you mean by "quitting the publishing" ?
Quote from: rtw on July 20, 2010, 12:23:16 PMWhat do you mean by "quitting the publishing" ?
DeathSmiles II was self-published by Cave.
Who's publishing this one? Is it Annex, or someone else?
2D!!! =D
That is so awesome...now Im really hyped for this game.
Looks interesting, but let's not jump the gun thinking 15khz = SH3. It could be some other hardware entirely.
Quote from: ookitarepanda on July 20, 2010, 12:06:51 PM
Looks pretty cool! Is anyone here going to the location testing? Maybe I missed that in the thread...
I'm going to try to go on Friday.
I wish the game were getting released a little earlier since I have the month off, but I should still have plenty of time to get excited, play, hit a wall, get bored of it, and see the master players find the bugs that require a version 1.5.
=D Fokkin awesome
Be interesting to see what approach they take to making this 'accessible' as per recent games.
I might go out there Friday.
Kaneda -- any desire to mosey to Shinjuku later in the evening and check out Inception? Not sure what your threshold is for crashing in internet cafes & shit.
EDIT: scratch that. I'm going to the water gun fight at midnight on Friday.
can't wait to see this in motion. the screen shots looked super sweet
very curious to what the score mechanic will be in this one...i know cave won't disappoint, not with how much time they've put into this.
Quote from: GaijinPunch on July 21, 2010, 10:18:46 PM
I might go out there Friday.
Kaneda -- any desire to mosey to Shinjuku later in the evening and check out Inception? Not sure what your threshold is for crashing in internet cafes & shit.
EDIT: scratch that. I'm going to the water gun fight at midnight on Friday.
People in the West would give a nut to go check this out. But you are going to a water gun fight?
Quote from: GaijinPunch on July 21, 2010, 10:18:46 PM
I might go out there Friday.
Kaneda -- any desire to mosey to Shinjuku later in the evening and check out Inception? Not sure what your threshold is for crashing in internet cafes & shit.
EDIT: scratch that. I'm going to the water gun fight at midnight on Friday.
I'll be at HEY from about 6:30-8:00 if you decide to drop in. Usually the queue isn't too bad Friday night compared to the loke tests on the weekends but we'll see...
Quote from: brentsg on July 22, 2010, 01:38:32 AM
Quote from: GaijinPunch on July 21, 2010, 10:18:46 PM
I might go out there Friday.
Kaneda -- any desire to mosey to Shinjuku later in the evening and check out Inception? Not sure what your threshold is for crashing in internet cafes & shit.
EDIT: scratch that. I'm going to the water gun fight at midnight on Friday.
People in the West would give a nut to go check this out. But you are going to a water gun fight?
How dare he have other things to do. This is an outrage.
People are playing it at HEY now. Some info from this dude:
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/game/44689/1279270822/429
He says there was an hour and a half wait to play it after the arcade opened. The system reminds him of Hypers, or the Barrier system in Espgaluda.
He made it to the stage 3 boss. The midbosses are ships/vehicles, while the bosses are humans that ride around in various craft (train, plane, etc). The screen is often splattered with bullets, which gives the game a really cool look.
Sounds like a horizontal Galuda-ish game.
More info from this guy:
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/game/44689/1279270822/434
My translation:
The game has 4 buttons: shot, bomb, rapid shot, "nenshin" (means something like "feelings & body")
Rapid shot is defense mode, shot is offense mode. You can only absorb items in defense mode. In offense mode, your option draws in items. In this state, you can make the enemy bullets change into even more items.
With the "nenshin" button you can change between a Fighter and a Phantom Ninja. As a phantom ninja, you slightly force back the enemy bullets near you. When you're a ninja a gauge starts to deplete (called something like a "prayer" gauge). Also as a ninja, when in defense mode, when you touch bullets they change into suicide bullets like in Deathsmiles II. When in offense mode, this does not occur, only the prayer gauge depletes. Also, like in Esprade, with a blast you can wipe out enemy bullets. When you defeat enemies as ninja they release suicide bullets, like in DSII.
--
Sounds like it takes some features I like (DSII suicide bullets), and some I don't (Espgaluda II Black Label bullet-pushing, Futari Arrange Defense/Offense garbage). Also sounds like it's pretty complicated. Interested to see some vids.
Also, location test version ends after the stage 3 boss.
Thanks for the info and translation EOJ, sounds very interesting. :)
Vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Y2dbEydD0
I really don't think the game is on the SH3 board. There's tons of shit going on and NO slowdown, complex parallax backgrounds, and it looks like some boss ships are 3D.
Game looks really stylish.
And yes, lots of things going on.
It looks fun to collect those golden boxes.
Nice touch that the life bar or what it is, its not visible all the time.
Very cool! I want.
Just watched the video - this looks very exciting. Really digging the red lasers that the bosses seem to use. Great theme too.
The first boss throwing the Ketsui Canal Fleet at you is a nice touch :cool:
Quote from: EOJ on July 23, 2010, 01:02:14 AM
I really don't think the game is on the SH3 board. There's tons of shit going on and NO slowdown, complex parallax backgrounds, and it looks like some boss ships are 3D.
I heard there's an iPhone in there.
Cool :o :o :o :o :o Waiting for a 360port asap >:D
Another vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3xGgxWKo80
This one shows stage 3 (the snowy stage). Also has better scoring.
So, how long did it take from DSII arcade release to the 360 port release?
I'm experiencing strong feelings of desire towards this game.
Wow. :o This looks very pretty indeed, let's hope that DeathSmiles 2 was just an experiment and this is the future of their games. I like those "dimensional ports" that bosses could open in thin air with fighter planes emerging.
For sale, one right nut, price 198,000 Yen.
Welcome back Cave.
Quote from: brentsg on July 23, 2010, 03:20:58 AM
Quote from: EOJ on July 23, 2010, 01:02:14 AM
I really don't think the game is on the SH3 board. There's tons of shit going on and NO slowdown, complex parallax backgrounds, and it looks like some boss ships are 3D.
I heard there's an iPhone in there.
iPhone 4 (with the more powerful A4 processor and more RAM) even, wasn't it? ;)
Anyways, looks stunning. Can't wait to play it ? how long does it usually take from location testing to official release to arcades?
This is sexy. Very, very sexy. Too bad i can't justify the cost and don't have a proper Jamma cab.
I'm kind of surprised that you only select your pilot. With how they had portrayed the characters in pairs so far I was hoping you'd have mix and match options like Pro Gear.
Quotehow long does it usually take from location testing to official release to arcades?
19th August.
The perspective is absolutely bizarre, even more than progear!
Is there any word on what the music is like? I can't hear anything through the characteristic arcade squall.
Looks lovely! I'm not the biggest fan of horis, but this looks fun and I like the art direction too.
Looks cool but I'm not really digging the bullet reflecting stuff.
Quote from: Ast-Kot on July 23, 2010, 04:51:19 AM
Cool :o :o :o :o :o Waiting for a 360port asap >:D
"Hey guys will it be region free??!" :laugh:
Quote from: njiska on July 23, 2010, 07:04:21 AMI'm kind of surprised that you only select your pilot. With how they had portrayed the characters in pairs so far I was hoping you'd have mix and match options like Pro Gear.
You can't? It looks to me in the videos that you first select between three humans, then the plane. Sort of two choices.
Quote from: HVL on July 23, 2010, 09:15:43 AM
Looks cool but I'm not really digging the bullet reflecting stuff.
Quote from: Ast-Kot on July 23, 2010, 04:51:19 AM
Cool :o :o :o :o :o Waiting for a 360port asap >:D
"Hey guys will it be region free??!" :laugh:
Well, it's hori and not over the top japanese as others. i bet my ass this is coming to the west.
Quote from: MX7 on July 23, 2010, 08:01:25 AM
Is there any word on what the music is like? I can't hear anything through the characteristic arcade squall.
Ha, that atmospheric sound is extremely nostalgic. I miss it!
Game looks great.
Wasn't there a moderately recent interview with Asada speaking about how how the west liked more military type games? Do you think this is an attempt to kind of market a game to the west a bit?
Quote from: MX7 on July 23, 2010, 08:01:25 AMIs there any word on what the music is like? I can't hear anything through the characteristic arcade squall.
I would like to know as well... From that video, second stage sounds like wailing guitar solo, and that is something I can get behind. :righton:
Quote from: evil_ash_xero on July 23, 2010, 10:22:26 AM
Wasn't there a moderately recent interview with Asada speaking about how how the west liked more military type games? Do you think this is an attempt to kind of market a game to the west a bit?
I think that the whole game looks like a stab at emulating popular shooting game tropes, or facets of arcade games in general. The character design reminds me a lot of Senko No Ronde. The Nazi style armbands seem to be trying to evoke a militaristic setting, and remind me of Under Defeat (zomg, G.Rev). The horizontal alignment is obviously popular as games like Deathsmiles and Otomedius have proved, and it makes the inevitable home console version that much more attractive to the average casual gamer (no wrestling with the TV monitor here!). The increased difficulty (this of course being speculative) seems to have been implemented to appease the Cave hardcore who must surely represent a good deal of their audience, or at least the audience that is willing to sink coins into machines. The move back to 2D graphics also seems to be supporting this. To me it's obviously reminiscent of Progear, but with a big dash of Daifukatsu, with some Deathsmiles style life bars chucked in for good measure. It still looks really fresh and exciting though. I'll be surprised if this doesn't at least capture the imagination of Cave fans.
I think that while shooting games are always going to be somewhat marginalised in today's gaming climate, the fact that it is a military theamed hori definitely isn't going to hinder its chances.
*EDIT ohhhh, and before I forget, the title is awesome! It harkens to a time where sticking a synonym for 'sword' in a shooters title was the coolest thing you could do. Gradius, Sengoku Blade, Zed Blade, Brave Blade, Change Air Blade, uh, maybe not as varied as I thought. It's still a good title.
Quote from: ookitarepanda on July 23, 2010, 02:08:05 PM
I would like to know as well... From that video, second stage sounds like wailing guitar solo, and that is something I can get behind. :righton:
Unfortunately that's something that causes my arse to clench, but that's a matter of taste I suppose ;)
One more vid, showing a different ship type:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i1-XZ3Rfic&feature=player_embedded
Damn, I wish Chinatown Fair here in NYC would get this game.
The overall design and the bullet patterns look fun.
Man, I just filled the cup over this. It's exactly what I wanted Cave to do next.
I saw it in dreams.
From the videos it doesn't look like 15k, can anyone going to the location test try to determine resolution... please :) ?
It said 15k on the flyer and I think they're Egret II's. Looks low res to me.
EOJ has a point that the rendered graphics for the big planes etc look like a step up though. Although its hard to tell exactly how pretty it is from a Youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDYfDCcbny8
Yet another youtube movie. Low quality, shaky and lots of heads, but shows two players and a bit more of stage 3 (unfortunately the remaining player dies before the third boss can summon anything).
Nice video. I just wonder if it's harder than it looks, considering there's not yet a video of anyone completing the third stage. Doesn't look that hard IMHO.
Just about every Location test version of a Cave game has been harder than its final release, too.
It would be so cool if the 360 ports included the location test versions and such.
Quote from: brentsg on July 24, 2010, 05:36:26 PM
It would be so cool if the 360 ports included the location test versions and such.
Yeah, it'd be a really cool gimmick but I think it's pretty safe to say it's not happening, ever.
M2 gave us Futari 1.01, that's about as much as we can hope for in a port. Cave wasn't so generous with DSII - it would have been a lot of fun to try out vers 1.0 and 2.0 in that game.
Wow wow wow, those look lovely. It was high time Cave released something like this. Scoring system looks quite complicated, but I like the galuda-esque approach (tho I'm not fond of the suicide bullets there, I hope it won't be much of an impact). Do I see a little DFK there, with the red laser cancelling? I don't know, but it looks like it may be mandatory for some places (stage 2 boss). Also gotta love the battleship summons in the boss battles; they are right down impressive.
Also, like it's been mentioned, there seems to be a lot of guitar in the background; maybe I wasn't too farfecthed and Hosoe's back? Or maybe Kamikura and Kudo are given a more prominent role in this one?
(Very minor detail, but I like they started using different colors for bullets again)
I would assume that most loke-test versions (in complete form anyway) are somewhat haphazardly taken care of. When it all comes down to it the source code is no more than a collection of various routines and graphics. Some of those graphics and routines would be overwritten, some would be substituted, some simply altered. So, unless you're aiming to offer the loke-test version at a later date, it's an awful lot of crap to keep up with. I think any programmer would agree it's awful practice to completely overwrite an older version of something, but maintaining an awful lot of code gets shitty cumbersome.
Back off that tangent, I've not made it down to Hey!. That water balloon fight did hell on my ankles, so I got some well-deserved sleep this weekend. I excercise a lot but never sprint (never for my life...especially when I'm just running from water). W/ hindisght I should've been a total vaj and worn red & ridden my bike everywhere.
Quote
Guessing that they use some kind of version control system (svn, hg, git) going back from the final version to the loke test one shouldn't be that big of a problem, though. Of course this implies that the company doing the port would need access to the source of the loke version snapshot, too.
Even w/ such systems, it's added work... not to mention far less rigorous bug testing.
Quote from: EOJ on July 24, 2010, 05:49:34 PM
it would have been a lot of fun to try out vers 1.0 and 2.0 in that game.
I think the constant crashing would get annoying =D
I gave it a try this weekend and thought it kind of sucked.
They have a month to tweak some things but I don't think I'll be playing it much when it comes out. It looks badass, at least.
So (and this is obviously pure speculation at this point) it looks like survival gameplay consists of going into ninja mode and building up a bunch of orbiting green things so that when the green meter depletes, the green things instantly recharge it and you go back into ninja mode.
I really hope there's more to it than that; this game seems to have some really cool patterns which I'd actually like to dodge.
It could have a kind of ESPGaluda II thing going on if they a) severely reduced the rate at which the green meter recharges (like to 1/3 of what it is now) and b) made it harder to push the bullets right off screen with the reflect power.
Ah well, enough speculation. I look forward to seeing some videos of the final version being played properly.
Thanks for the impressions, Kaneda. If it feels at all like Futari Arrange, I don't think I'm going to like it.
Two more youtube vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua3_nsVw8Lw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReXMV4WWCvQ
The first one tries to give an impression of the soundtrack (audio only). The second one shows stage 3 in decent quality and the guy actually lives long enough to have the boss summon something :-)
I do see slowdown in that stage 3 vid, usually when you have a lot of items rotating your ship.
Quote from: EOJ on July 25, 2010, 03:04:09 PM
Thanks for the impressions, Kaneda. If it feels at all like Futari Arrange, I don't think I'm going to like it.
Yea it feels a ton like Futari Arrange, mixed with some Galuda II if you screw yourself over leaving bullets on the screen. Very hectic, but not much fun.
Also looks like some hit/chain system tossed in. Bleh. I think Asada said this was his first arcade game he was involved in. If so, maybe he should stick to making the crappy home port arrange modes.
The Tokyo Tower in the opening is cute.
I guess the "circling tanks" had to be used again, which help justify the strange perspective.
Quote from: EOJ on July 25, 2010, 06:35:56 PM
Also looks like some hit/chain system tossed in. Bleh. I think Asada said this was his first arcade game he was involved in. If so, maybe he should stick to making the crappy home port arrange modes.
Yeah, the game is graphically awesome but the gameplay seems pretty damn underwhelming. It screams Futari Arrange all over the place. Also, since the release date is supposed to be in less than a month, I don't think we can expect any major improvements over the loke test version.
Quote from: HVL on July 26, 2010, 01:44:19 AMAlso, since the release date is supposed to be in less than a month, I don't think we can expect any major improvements over the loke test version.
Agreed - until the (almost certain, given Cave's past form) 1.5 and Black Label releases, that is.
Only me that thinks it looks fun? :P
Im drooling after collecting those rotating boxes, as many as I can!
After watching the videos properly I'm inclined to agree that theres a bit too much reflecting and not enough dodging going on. I hope they get the excitement factor right for the finished version because I love the design and I might be able to get the cash together (at the expense of everything else on my wishlist). I await more impressions. :-\
It does look a little too, undodgeable> hit barrier.
Still, the overall art direction looks promising and cave have yet to deliver a poor arcade score mechanic IMO.
I'll remain optimistic for the console release :)
Quote from: Chi_Ryu on July 26, 2010, 08:48:11 AM
Quote from: HVL on July 26, 2010, 01:44:19 AMAlso, since the release date is supposed to be in less than a month, I don't think we can expect any major improvements over the loke test version.
Agreed - until the (almost certain, given Cave's past form) 1.5 and Black Label releases, that is.
Beat me to it. *laughs*
Say, what does it say in the bombs?
(Haven't seen the third one yet)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044203&id=1092862733&l=503df5025f
(I know...it's a ghetto-as-hell way to post, but it's all I have that works)
I'm surprised by the bad impressions given by the people who played it so far. Isn't there a notebook in the game center where players can write the pros and the cons ? If so, maybe Cave can still arrange a few things for the final version.
I'm hearing guitar squealing in the music unless I'm mistaken so that's promising, interesting that those items the player was hoarding with the option carried over to the next level, I kind of enjoyed that in raiden fighters jet with the medals. I think the games looking alright but surely they'll change it around a bit, do a black label etc & I'm sure like every cave shooter it'll at least be playable and fun.
The official webpage has been updated with new art, story and character info.
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/index.html
Wooooow the artwork on the main page looks stellar :righton:
Gfront has posted the daily earnings of the game during its roke test at Hey arcade:
http://gfront.sblo.jp/article/39893101.html
14,000~15,000 yen each of the three days.
Is it me or is this quickly losing steam (at least until it's actual launch in two weeks)?
Quote from: EOJ on July 30, 2010, 10:42:02 PM
Gfront has posted the daily earnings of the game during its roke test at Hey arcade:
http://gfront.sblo.jp/article/39893101.html
14,000~15,000 yen each of the three days.
Admittedly this doesn't tell a lot. :(
How many cabs were there? What is the average income for a loke test?
Futari made less money in its location test at Hey arcade - about 11~12k each day. Japanese guys are impressed with how much it has made so far.
(I may need lots of help, so bear with me)
Of course, this is one of those "Evil empire threatens to take over the world" kind of plots with a sort of spiritual twist.
In the case of the Saionji family (who are the main characters), is the brother being sacrificed to help li'l sis out? I know this also is fueled from revenge for their parents, etc.
On an unrelated note, the three fighter types are
(Zero(?)) piloted by the Saionjis, of course. Their main array reminds me a little of the M-power from the first Mushi. Option auto-tracks (When (A) is held down?!)
Lightning - Obviously wide shot. Option sweeps up and down.
Shinden(?) - Linear shot. I'm almost feeling like DDP's Type-A.
Now the character page is updated with the Kinsenka team (Asaka & Shinjou) and the Word section.
Found a "hidden" location test of this yesterday with Adverse. We had it pretty much to ourselves so we spent a few hours with it and it started to grow on me a bit, but the flow is just so off. Plus the scoring is strange...everyone was getting between 10-20 million at best, but then there were two top scores on the board of over 600 million :/ Someone knows something and it accounts for an absurd difference in score. My guess is bunk boss milking.
With just a week away from release, I doubt there will be huge changes made. I'm predicting this one to bomb.
Thanks for the extra impressions. Was the location test one on the list posted on the main site, or something else?
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/
There are 4 location tests going on right now, until August 9th. Then 3 more will occur from August 12-15.
Don't see it listed, it was at Taito Station in Shinjuku. Pretty good selection there, too bad it isn't 50 yen.
The top score of 612 million was also the top score when I saw it at HEY, so probably the same board.
I noticed that in the videos, that the top score was an order of magnitude higher than any run we saw. Puzzling, but I guess we'll see soon enough.
Quote from: Kaneda on August 09, 2010, 12:16:23 AM
Don't see it listed, it was at Taito Station in Shinjuku.
Ah -- makes sense. Adverse is in love w/ one of the operators there.... despite his old age and all the cigarette smoke.
Legend is offering for $2200USD. That's the lowest I've seen.
Is anyone buying this?
They must have a special deal since w/ the current exchange rate in Japan it's $2330.
Character page updated with the remaining dual character team:
http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/akaikatana/character/index.html
The System page should be up shortly (it's at least not greyed out anymore).
Now shipping from Fujita.
QuoteThis is very good game our staff also said.
Best regards,
Yumi
Quote from: SuperPang on August 18, 2010, 11:57:19 AM
Now shipping from Fujita.
QuoteThis is very good game our staff also said.
Best regards,
Yumi
Did you buy one?
This guy:
http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/game/44689/1281706743/772
says he asked a PCB shop about the game, and the guy working there told him customers/operators are worried there will be a 1.5 or BL version soon after, so the orders have been very low.
My interest in this game is close to zero right now, but maybe some funky scoring vids will get me excited for it. Just have to wait for them to roll in.
Some info trickling in from 2Ch:
-5 stages, one last boss.
-Credits roll after the stage 5 boss, so doesn't look like there's a loop.
-Extends at 20 and 50mil.
Direct feed video (15minutes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu1n13Elvug
Shows stages 1-4 (including the boss)
I really like stage 4, the surfacing is nice and I like the boss.
I also like the repelling system. (If it is balanced of course.)
How's the music? (As I can't access YT and there's nothing new on Nico...yet.)
Mostly horrible guitar rock, similar to Dodonpachi.
Quote from: EOJ on August 19, 2010, 05:53:41 AM
Mostly awesome guitar rock, similar to Dodonpachi.
I fixed that for you. =D
Oh my stars...
(And I thought DDP stage 1 (and 3) were pretty catchy.)
I haven't notice that but it looks like DFK background at beginning of stage 1 and Ketsui canal at the boss fight.
Quote from: Tesuman on August 19, 2010, 05:51:42 AM
How's the music? (As I can't access YT and there's nothing new on Nico...yet.)
The original recordings strongly hinted to and direct feed only confirms it's Namiki again. Kamikura could be on guitar, like Deathsmiles.
Is it just me or does the perspective make no sense? :3
You see the background from the top, but the players ship from the side?
If that's intentional, than that's some mad flying skills on display. :righton:
Autobomb!!!!! Isn't it?
Let's hope for an arrange soundtrack should this be ported to 360. Guitar masturbation is meh. :whyioughtta:
Yeah, can't stand all that self-indulgent guitar crap either. Let's have some proper VGM Cave.
Part of me hopes this flops badly so we can see an end to this tedius PCB > Home Systems cycle. It might mean an end to low-res from Cave, but at least it would put to bed all this slowdown bullshit we get when it comes to port time.
I have to agree too, not very good music.
doesnt anybody think besides me that its strange that if you bomb you're losing all your bomb stock ?
it doesnt matter if you have 1,3 or 4 bombs in stock ... once you bomb all of them are lost ? bug or intended since this wasnt in the loc test ...
I played it this afternoon and cleared it after four tries. Not especially difficult. I beat both the stg 5 boss and theTLB my first try :/
Better than the loke test but it doesnt feel deep enough to warrant much play time. Its fun killing bosses and big enemies with the laser while in human form but there needs to be more stages or something.
@Lusche - Thats the autobomb that kicks in when youre on your last life.
Are the endings at all decent, or just one or two screen crops?
A few still images, like the rest of their games. I honestly wasnt paying attention and skipped to the high score screen so I could go home..
Not very impressed with it at all. Looks like it should have gone "straight to console".
If I had the money, I would buy this game. I think it looks like a lot of fun. The first "complete" run is already on nico. It is a 1-loop video, not sure if the game has some second loop or not. :righton:
I think the stage 4 music is awesome. I also like the enemy placement throughout.
Game was directed by Tsuneki Ikeda, not Asada. Asada is only listed in the "Special Thanks" section at the end of the credits.
There are 6 programmers in this game, including YAGAWA:
Tsuneki Ikeda
S. Yagawa
Daisuke Koizumi
Toshihiko Sera
Takashi Ichimura
Yuji Inoue
Sera has previously done their in-house ports, and I've not heard of Koizumi before.
Music is by Ryu Uemoto, not Namiki.
Quote from: Kaneda on August 19, 2010, 09:27:34 AM
Better than the loke test but it doesnt feel deep enough to warrant much play time.
I'd bet there will be code-unlockable extra modes or other elements that will start popping up in a month or so. Every (non-BL) release in the past few years has had some code-unlockable elements.
Quote from: EOJ on August 19, 2010, 03:53:38 PM
Music is by Ryu Uemoto, not Namiki.
Yeah, it didn't sound like Namiki to me. He would have made a much better soundtrack too.
Had Namiki handled it himself, it would have been another batch of remixes on his 1996?2002 works, including another six variations on DonPachi 1st stage theme and assorted unimaginative loli-detroit-techno. Thanks, but I'd take something original any day.
Quote from: Kaneda on August 19, 2010, 09:27:34 AM
@Lusche - Thats the autobomb that kicks in when youre on your last life.
ah didnt know that ... its more like a 'this is your last chance' than being helpfull ...
but if the game had the autobomb feature from dfk 1.5 it would be too easy
but the game is pretty short ? 25min for a full run :(
Call me shallow, but I'd probably play this game for graphics alone - I think it looks gorgeous. Also, good news that the auto bomb is only on the last life etc. On the youtube vid there seems to be a fair amount of slowdown, which I also like... The only thing I'm not sure about is the transforming/reflecting bullets thang.
Quote from: Lusche on August 19, 2010, 06:49:54 PM
but the game is pretty short ? 25min for a full run :(
UH OH
(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/SuperPangster/P1010023.jpg)
(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/SuperPangster/P1010025.jpg)
OMG! You bought it!? :o
Damn nice art without underage girls or melon breasts for once! :righton:
CV1000-D. Is that the same revision as DFK BL?
Quote from: moozooh on August 20, 2010, 10:59:52 AM
Damn nice art without underage girls or melon breasts for once! :righton:
I like big pig / young boobs.
So I played a few credits. It hasn't blown me away yet but I am enjoying it more with each game as I figure stuff out, although I'm still a long way from understanding the scoring fully so forgive me if I get anything wrong. ;)
The system seems to be that you shoot enemies for energy, tap shot to absorb Progear style, hold shot to have it circle your option. You can then manoeuvre the energy orbs over bullets to increase them in size (feels a bit like Deathsmiles suicide bullets). If you leave them too long they shrink.
D button turns you into your character. The energy can be used offensively as a laser by holding the fire button (no shield), or defensively by tapping it. This repels the bullets and destroying enemies here gives you gold.
Thats as much as I've figured out. :rolleyes:
It's one of Caves easier games to play through and much like DFK, is all about the scoring rather than the survival. Its as generous with the energy shield as DFK is with hypers. I think autobomb on your last life is a good compromise too.
Presentation is lovely, graphics are some of the best seen on the hardware. Music is a step back to dodgy rawk.
Thanks for the impressions. The PCB looks like a regular CV1000-D configuration, so I was quite wrong about it being upgraded hardware. I am very impressed with what they pulled out of the board (graphically) in this game.
Agreed, the game looks gorgeous and actually well-directed in terms of design (at least if you don't mind playing with perspective).
Also, since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of bullets unlike most other recent titles, it doesn't slow down too much either!
Seems terribly short from the videos. There have to be at least 1-2 locked stages. I don't think Cave would have something new like this in development for a year only to deliver a 25 minute game.
ESProgearSmiles-jigokutatsu...?
That poster looks amazing, best art since Ibara's I reckon.
Now to wait until one becomes available somewhere. :P
Really enjoying it now.
There are a couple of things I either forgot to mention or didn't notice (although someone probably beat me to it anyway.)
Every life lost extends the ninja gauge a bit. The red lasers slowly deplete a life rather than killing you.
You can hold gold around your ship and increase it by touching bullets or enemies, just as with the energy. Here lies the danmaku, and the fun factor. It's pretty satisfying negotiating a load of bullets for insane gold increase. Your score soon shoots up when you find the sweet spots.
Ships are rather twitchy when you're tapping fire or pressing C. The significant speed reduction when lasering ties in with when you're defenceless and going for gold which works really well.
Holding your option over bosses/midbosses releases extra energy. Bloody risky though.
Quote from: SuperPang on August 21, 2010, 01:01:13 PMThe red lasers slowly deplete a life rather than killing you.
Is this all the time, or only when in Ninja Mode?
Akai Katana, stage 5 using Kobayakawa Shion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29Z0YRijUA&feature=related
Final score : 71,323,915
Quote from: Eyedol on August 21, 2010, 07:13:12 PM
Akai Katana, stage 5 using Kobayakawa Shion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29Z0YRijUA&feature=related
Final score : 71,323,915
awesome!! Thanks!! :lol:
How's the Kinsenka team (Tsubaki+Sumire)?
Haven't seen much...yet, other than the one loke vid.
Quote from: Eyedol on August 21, 2010, 07:13:12 PM
Akai Katana, stage 5 using Kobayakawa Shion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29Z0YRijUA&feature=related
Final score : 71,323,915
Thanks for the vid.
Wow, the music in this game is absolutely awesome, I could play it for the music alone.
Wheres the 360 port!?! :righton:
Quote from: Monouchi on August 22, 2010, 01:06:07 AM
Wheres the 360 port!?! :righton:
Fall 2011 at the earliest. Lots of stuff coming out to enjoy in the meantime. :)
Quote from: EOJ on August 22, 2010, 01:07:45 AM
Quote from: Monouchi on August 22, 2010, 01:06:07 AM
Wheres the 360 port!?! :righton:
Fall 2011 at the earliest. Lots of stuff coming out to enjoy in the meantime. :)
You are so right about that! And with my soon finished Egret 2 1-player 24Khz Xbox360 setup, well, I will be busy. =D
Love the laser cannons in stage 5.
Maybe Akai Katana will be the first CAVE OST I will buy.
Quote from: EOJ on August 22, 2010, 01:07:45 AM
Quote from: Monouchi on August 22, 2010, 01:06:07 AM
Wheres the 360 port!?! :righton:
Fall 2011 at the earliest. Lots of stuff coming out to enjoy in the meantime. :)
:o
oh man, I was thinking Cave would stop porting their arcade stuff to 360.
This is great news~
Quote from: emphatic on August 21, 2010, 06:48:06 PM
Quote from: SuperPang on August 21, 2010, 01:01:13 PMThe red lasers slowly deplete a life rather than killing you.
Is this all the time, or only when in Ninja Mode?
It looks like in Fighter mode only. You see this during the TLB fight in the Yaezakura vid 2/2.
Quote from: Hive on August 22, 2010, 01:14:00 AMoh man, I was thinking Cave would stop porting their arcade stuff to 360.
Only the old stuff. But as Dangun Feveron is now getting an M2 port, who knows what happens to Mushihimesama, Mushihimetama etc.
final pattern of the TLB looked damn easy. seemed like it was progressing into something harder, but still looked like a cake walk imo
I don't see why all the Rock hate. It's a top notch and very well produced soundtrack from I've heard. I like it more than Galuda 2 BL. It was a surprise to see Ryu Umemoto there; I didn't know he was able to compose such Rock-ish music.
I had a deja-vu at the end of the video... The Stone-Like?
Quote from: emphatic on August 22, 2010, 07:12:36 AMOnly the old stuff. But as Dangun Feveron is now getting an M2 port, who knows what happens to Mushihimesama, Mushihimetama etc.
Hmmm...
- Donpachi and Dodonpachi doublepack?
- Esprade on XBLA? (As Guwange and Feveron are coming, and Progear is tied up with Capcom.)
- Ibara and Ibara Kuro doublepack?
... nah, probably just pipedreams.
I think Akai Katana looks pretty fun. The running-on-your-last-life-to-score-big thing looks like my kind of game.
Quote from: Kewing on August 22, 2010, 10:55:43 AM
I don't see why all the Rock hate. It's a top notch and very well produced soundtrack from I've heard. I like it more than Galuda 2 BL.
Many things are better than Galuda's Euro-trash soundtrack, but i think the issue here is that the guitar is too prevalent. To me it makes the tracks feel like they're missing something.
Bah...
The pumping beats form Esp to Akais guitars to DFK BL techno is all utterly fantastic.
All hail CAVE.
Imo the only really bad soundtrack in a Cave game is the one from Deathsmiles II.
The DSIIX arrange soundtrack is quite bad. But the original DSII arcade soundtrack is great - much better than DS, and one of my favorites from any Cave game.
SIN seems to like this. After his first day playing, he came away with a 260mil ALL clear:
http://sinmoon.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/196/
(http://file.sinmoon.blog.shinobi.jp/10_08_23_1.jpg)
He says the game is very difficult when playing for score. He also says many arcades around him didn't buy the game, so it can be hard to find it.
In other news, a 20mil stage 1 vid [not by SIN]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-H3oukKk4
Quote from: EOJ on August 23, 2010, 04:29:33 AM
SIN seems to like this. After his first day playing, he came away with a 260mil ALL clear:
He says the game is very difficult when playing for score. He also says many arcades around him didn't buy the game, so it can be hard to find it.
Personally, this sounds very interesting to me, a game that is easy in survival. (Appeal more to beginners.)
..but hard in score play, perfekt for scorers thats looking for a challenge.
On a side note, I am in love with the sound effect when you change from fighter to human. Oh, and the music.
Not @ Seven Islands...feh.
They're usually good about getting all the Cave shmups (BLs too!).
Quote from: EOJ on August 23, 2010, 04:29:33 AM
He says the game is very difficult when playing for score.
He's not kidding, there's a lot to concentrate on. Expect a lot of frustrating deaths. It has that "oh just one more go" factor though.
Why has this not pre-sold well I wonder? Are operators that sick of Black Labels killing off interest in the vanilla versions? If so we may have seen the last. I can't think of another good reason, the price is reasonable, it took good money in the loke tests.
I must admit I was a little concerned after the lukewarm early impressions. After seeing IKD listed at the top of those credits posted online I was afraid he'd made his first stinker. Thankfully, he hasn't, I think Akai is superb. The system takes a lot of getting used to but when it clicks and you're flying by the seat of your pants on your last life its pure Cave excitement. People have called it a hotchpotch of other games but I think it feels rather unique. And lets not forget the visuals, it's the loli-free military shooter we've all been crying out for and it's a joy to play through, if you can tear your eye away from the hitbox, option, ninja gauge and almost random bullet combinations.
A pretty good scoring run (209mil at the end of stage 5, no TLB):
Stages 1-2
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11860875
Stage 3:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11861114
Stage 4:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11861191
Stage 5:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11861654
Quote from: SuperPang on August 23, 2010, 08:12:13 AM
Why has this not pre-sold well I wonder? Are operators that sick of Black Labels killing off interest in the vanilla versions? If so we may have seen the last. I can't think of another good reason, the price is reasonable, it took good money in the loke tests.
I have to think it's got a lot to do with the Black Labels, 1.5's, and also the DeathSmiles II thing. I mean how many touch-ups that that one undergo?
I'm not sure how Cave handles their Japan-based customers 1.5 upgrades, but I will say that it gives me pause. Now obviously it's a bit different for an overseas collector/player than a local operator, but still.
SuperPang, thanks for providing your thoughts on the game.
Quote from: EOJ on August 23, 2010, 06:35:46 PM
A pretty good scoring run (209mil at the end of stage 5, no TLB)
Ooh, this is how it should be played. One thing I notice: the gold spins in a larger circle the larger it is, so when you have one big circle of gold it's ready to be absorbed. This may be true with energy too, but the circles are smaller.
He could have got a much higher score if he killed himself twice on the 1st boss. I have the impression that the hits work as a multiplier and that the player doesn't understand it.
He never get more than 2,5m pts on a chain through the first 3 stages, it's always stuck at 250~ hits...
You can see the connection to and evolution from Deathsmiles II X-Mode scoring in this game. I don't like DSIIX's scoring, but this looks like a somewhat improved version of that.
If you have to suicide all your lives down to 1 in the beginning to get a high score, I won't like this game at all.
Quote from: Fu-ZAN on August 23, 2010, 09:03:06 PM
He could have got a much higher score if he killed himself twice on the 1st boss.
But then he would have lost all his accumulated gold for the stage, which would have ruined his score. If anything, you'd need to suicide at the start of a stage.
the music is so fantastic!!
Did we find out who the composer is? Namiki?
The answer you seek was posted 2 pages back.
Quote from: Fu-ZAN on August 23, 2010, 09:03:06 PM
He could have got a much higher score if he killed himself twice on the 1st boss. I have the impression that the hits work as a multiplier and that the player doesn't understand it.
He never get more than 2,5m pts on a chain through the first 3 stages, it's always stuck at 250~ hits...
Judging by the video the hits just tells you how many pieces of gold are floating around your ship. 250 gold at full value (10,000 points) would be 2.5 million.
256 hits actually looks like the limit, probably to keep you from killing the game with massive amounts of sprites. I see the player hits exactly 256 all the time. The only times he exceeds 256 is when he finishes off a boss. Suiciding for a longer energy bar may not matter all that much if you can't get more than 256 hits.
Taking damage from lasers also seems to charge your energy meter, that's kind of neat.
Quote from: brentsg on August 23, 2010, 06:50:32 PM
I'm not sure how Cave handles their Japan-based customers 1.5 upgrades, but I will say that it gives me pause.
1.5 upgrades are free when they're released. Cave don't want a v1.5 any more than the operator.
Is that right?
Out of interest I just asked Fujita about this very subject and they told me that if cave do an Akai Katana v1.5 then it would likely cost around 105000Y for the upgrade to be done because they consider it a seperate product.
Akai Katana Black Label...
Am I the only one who would find this...funny? :laugh:
Quote from: Sycada on August 24, 2010, 07:36:35 PM
Is that right?
Out of interest I just asked Fujita about this very subject and they told me that if cave do an Akai Katana v1.5 then it would likely cost around 105000Y for the upgrade to be done because they consider it a seperate product.
Nah they just upgrade the existing PCB, which is why there are so few futari and dfk 1.0s floating around.
Protip: believe nothing that Fujita tells you. They lie 99% of the time.
Quote from: EOJ on August 25, 2010, 12:07:29 AM
Protip: believe nothing that Fujita tells you. They lie 99% of the time.
That's only a problem if they bother to reply to you. Last couple times I e-mailed them it took like 2 weeks to get a response.
Both Futari and Fukkatsu had a free recall. 1.5's are only produced for severe balancing or bug issues that are putting players off. Minor bugs are fixed on unshipped PCBs with a "." added after MASTER VER to distinguish them. As other people are discovered it's not easy to send a PCB back for those fixes.
Although the flexibility of the scoring system certainly leaves the potential for something missed, AK was in development for a long time so I would hope its bug free.
Quote from: MrMonkeyMan on August 24, 2010, 12:36:45 AMJudging by the video the hits just tells you how many pieces of gold are floating around your ship. 250 gold at full value (10,000 points) would be 2.5 million.
256 hits actually looks like the limit, probably to keep you from killing the game with massive amounts of sprites. I see the player hits exactly 256 all the time. The only times he exceeds 256 is when he finishes off a boss. Suiciding for a longer energy bar may not matter all that much if you can't get more than 256 hits.
Taking damage from lasers also seems to charge your energy meter, that's kind of neat.
I thought the hits represent more the value of the ennemies killed than the gold. On this video from the loke test the player gets 460 hits on a single life (meaning he has a full energy gauge to full in).
It's one of the best score videos I've seen so far as the ones that poped up these days on nicovideo just show what's approximately the best score you can get without killing yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReXMV4WWCvQ#t=1m40s
He does get a hit count over 256, but he cashes in his first set of gold and then quickly switches back to ninja mode and starts a new chain, so maybe he just glitched the hit counter?
His score increases by about 2 million points from the first 240 hits and he gets another 2 million points when he cashes in the second time with the counter at 460. This would be the same as two separate 200+ chains with most of the gold worth 10,000 points. There doesn't seem to be any benefit to getting a higher hit count.
There's also a new run up on nicovideo. Final score is 292 million.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11874834 Stage 1+2
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11875054 Stage 3
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11875336 Stage 4
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11875646 Stage 5
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11882773 Stage 5 Boss + Final Boss
At the end of stage 5, before the boss he gets the hit counter over 256, but he also exits ninja mode and then quickly enters it again. Doesn't seem to affect the value of the gold.
I don't think dying affects your stage bonus either. He dies a lot in stage 5 and still gets a healthy bonus at the end. He also causes some glitchy sprite flicker during the stage 5 boss.
I think this looks kinda like ESPGALUDA II Omake! but with added deaths. I'm really looking forward to the port.
I don't understand how someone got 612 million... Almost the day the game has been released on top of that.
Probably due to some broken scoring areas (which were fixed in the final version) that allowed them to milk bosses for a long time, or something like that. The location test version only had the first 3 stages, remember.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see scores well over 600mil in the coming months, if people are getting ~300mil right now.
Stage 1: 22mil:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11930402
Stage 2: 64.5mil
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11930714
Guy suicides down to one life soon after the start of Stage 2, to max out his ninja gauge. Bleh. Crazy 20mil end of stage bonus in Stage 2 (almost equal to the amount he scores in the stage). Double bleh.
He says he'll put up stage 3 tomorrow, and 4-5 soon after.
Quote from: EOJ on August 30, 2010, 03:12:27 AM
Stage 1: 22mil:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11930402
Stage 2: 64.5mil
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11930714
Guy suicides down to one life soon after the start of Stage 2, to max out his ninja gauge. Bleh. Crazy 20mil end of stage bonus in Stage 2 (almost equal to the amount he scores in the stage). Double bleh.
He says he'll put up stage 3 tomorrow, and 4-5 soon after.
Looks like suiciding will be an integral part to scoring high in Akai Katana? At least as of yet it's only linked to expanding the Ninja Gauge, and not diminishing rank like in other games. Interested to see more, thanks for the post EOJ!
@SuperPang, could you please take a picture of the version/region warning screen on your PCB ?
Finally had my go at it today (and it actually was at Seven Islands - oops!)
As far as the aesthetics, the videos don't exactly do it justice. Aside from the wacky perspective, it's absolutely beautiful. It's kind of like that feeling I got when I saw DFK (looks "familiar" but polished at the same time)
The scoring seems a bit intimidating at first, if even I can pick up on it, most should be able get the gist of things by time they hit the first mid-boss. Maybe it's just me, but I did see what could be a couple of bugs still around. In one other play, someone managed to rack up some 300+ hits, but have a gravely inconsistent bonus (like 1/3 of what is likely to be "normal") One thing's for sure...you'll be on your toes right after you scale in.
The music...I actually like it. It seems to fit the mood of every battle. Not bad for pseudo "retro-metal synth guitar stuff".
i hope another game center near me has it. As stated before, it kinda grows on you.
Quote from: rtw on August 31, 2010, 09:10:22 AM
@SuperPang, could you please take a picture of the version/region warning screen on your PCB ?
(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/SuperPangster/P1010088.jpg)
@SuperPang, thanks for the lovely picture!
That player put up a new set of videos, stages 1-3. Ends stage 3 with 145 million.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11954839
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11954950
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11955077
By the way, the stage bonus is exactly equal to the value of all the gold gained during the stage. So, assuming you beat the stage, you're actually getting 20,000 points per large gold piece.
Same player, getting 233 million by the end of stage 4 :whyioughtta: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11958496
Stage 5 (322 million) (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11965061) and Stage 6 (362 million) (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11965175). Not bad.
Those high scoring replays put me to sleep. The entire stage is played in slow motion.
Not sure if this was noted anywhere, but the option control in attack mode is way different for Botan than the other two. With her the the option is moved in "reverse mode" (ie. push the stick left, option goes right).
With Shion and Tsubaki, the option is locked in its relative position when you are in attack mode.
YOS.K tears it up with one of the other characters:
Stages 1 and 2 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11999273)
Stage 3 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12001342)
Stage 4 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12001503)
Stage 5 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12002240)
Stage 5 and 6 boss (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12002362)
BTW, where is this fabled stage 5 1up?
Quote from: Kaneda on September 07, 2010, 08:50:02 AMStage 5 and 6 boss (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12002362)
The quality is so inexplicably bad on this video I didn't get what the end score was. 357 million, was it?
Stage 5 is also quite awesomely played. Lots of laser recharging and extended hit counts, nice!
Not so much about the score, but the fact that both survived.
(EOJ might go into comatose after seeing all this slowdown...)
Stage 1&2 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11993786)
Stage 3 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11993929)
Stage 4 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11994068)
Stage 5 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11994388)
Last Boss+Ending (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11994620)
No matter how many vids I watch, I can't seem to warm up for this. The awful music and the dingy reflecting system isn't doing it for me. Bring on the DFK BL music crew and hypers! Oh wait.
Quote from: HVL on September 07, 2010, 03:44:04 PM
No matter how many vids I watch, I can't seem to warm up for this.
+1.
The more I see it, the more it looks like DSII X360-Mode, but with worse music, worse graphics, and not as fun. I never thought I'd type such a bizarre sentence! :o
The more I watch, the less excited I am...
I dunno... I still would like to play it - I'll wait till it hits Ibara cheap.
Quote from: EOJ on September 07, 2010, 10:10:33 PM
The more I see it, the more it looks like DSII X360-Mode, but with worse graphics.
Errr...what? Worse graphics than DSII???
Ok, I have to counter here. The music and the slowmo makes me all lovey dovey, I love it. :-*
This is just the kind of game for me, cant wait for a port.
And imho the graphics just squashes the uninteresting low-quality 3D graphics of DSII.
Better graphics than DSII (Arcade), but I think DSII X360-Mode (16:9 mode, with updated graphics) looks better than this.
I'll have some of what EOJ's smoking =D
I have to admit, the high scoring vids look hella boring. Gameplay is nothing like that for the average player though, it's heaps of fun. I would agree however that AK doesn't have the something-for-everyone balance of certain Cave STG. It starts off confusing, gets really exciting as the possibilities open up, then if you have the time/skill to squeeze everything out of the scoring it appears it grinds to a halt.
Fortunately I suck.
QuoteAnd imho the graphics just squashes the uninteresting low-quality 3D graphics of DSII.
I kinda have to agree with that, I think the visuals are pretty high up there to me. I enjoy the tunes enough from what I've heard also. DS2 enhanced or not is one of their wost looking games IMHO. I'm not against 3D either... but Ikaruga and Gradius V (especially if running in HD) looked WAY better than DS2 to me.
I haven't played it but the presentation, graphics and sound all set really well with me.
I'm not in the camp that thinks DFK music sucks and only the BL music kicks ass though. I like both but there are some tracks in DFKs BL that are kinda droning and racket like to me.... but I haven't heard them in game. Not saying I don't like BL's tracks though.
QuoteI'll wait till it hits Ibara cheap
Or a 1.5 or BL version will come out. Who knows though, I keep seeing Ibara kits going for way higher than what I thought they went for, either that or I got a hell of a deal @ 250 for a new kit unused kit.
The gameplay I can't comment on... just kinda shocked at folks not liking the visuals or tunes. I'm ok with cave games giving options for easier modes like Futari and Mushi's original modes, DFKs strong and Deathsmiles lower stage difficulty choices. I have had fun with those, but then again if I only had original in Futari and Mushi... then only strong in DFK, I don't think I'd like them nearly as much. I'm no where near EOJ's level at these games though and I actually enjoy Futari's BL maniac mode more than vanilla Futari's maniac.
A lot of the recent Cave games are boring to watch played for high score. It's either about lots of slowdown and fairly liberal bullet canceling, or abundant boss milking, or both. For instance, SWY's DFK trillion run was really impressive in the stages, but boss fights sucked all fun out of it already by the end of the first loop.
Quote from: moozooh on September 08, 2010, 01:18:26 PM
A lot of the recent Cave games are boring to watch played for high score. It's either about lots of slowdown and fairly liberal bullet canceling, or abundant boss milking, or both. For instance, SWY's DFK trillion run was really impressive in the stages, but boss fights sucked all fun out of it already by the end of the first loop.
I think the shmup genre is in need of a major overhaul like the one we had with the introduction of "danmaku" shmups: we need something readically new, else we're gonna see lots of boring/uninspired/unoriginal games in the future.
Realistically, we're already seeing them. The last five years or so most shmup developers, including Cave, can only think about imitating Cave's style (except when Yagawa is at the helm, in which case he largely imitates Raizing's style in Cave's presentation). The rest are busy rehashing series that brought them popularity: Gradius, Parodius, Darius, Space Invaders, ThunderForce, Raiden. Do these names sounds familiar? That's because these guys are too afraid of coming up with something new, because the majority of the audience that would clap their hands at a completely original title are by this point busy walking their kids to school, not spending time in dark places filled with smoke and Egrets. Hence why you don't see anything radically new from arcade developers.
I would still like to point out games like Shoot the Bullet and Fairy Wars (Touhou spin-offs by ZUN himself) that were probably the most original ? yet underrated ? stuff released in the aforementioned time frame. Their gameplay is radically different from regular shmups (although maybe not in the direction you wanted), and not at the expense of difficulty. Then there are games like Senko no Ronde, but it's a crossbreed situation, which may be what the genre will eventually find itself in.
I'm afraid the only way for the genre to rehabilitate itself, as unrealistically as it sounds, would be for all involved developers to stop relying on it as the source of income (in other words, funding the genre development at their own expense). As it goes they will stick to the trusted formulas to ensure at least some profit. They will restrain themselves from the boldest ideas as long as any expectations of financial success remain. But if things go the way they do, financial success will decline along with arcades and shmups in them. It's also the reason it's the doujin/homebrew scene that should be monitored for breakthroughs ? those have nothing to lose by wild experimentation because it's just a hobby for them.
It's a sad, but I don't see any ray of hope unless major console and PC publishers suddenly realize that there's such an awesome game genre as shmups, and that the shovelware titles they've referred to by this name to this point are for the most part utter garbage. Which I honestly don't see happening.
Quote from: moozooh on September 08, 2010, 08:36:58 PM
The last five years or so most shmup developers, including Cave, can only think about imitating Cave's style (except when Yagawa is at the helm, in which case he largely imitates Raizing's style in Cave's presentation).
Cave can't imitate themselves, no more than any person can imitate him or herself. They have continually evolved. Every game from Ketsui onwards is an evolution of something. That's why they all feel so unique, and why people shell out huge amounts of cash for the PCBs.
I never liked Cave before Mushihimesama. The SH3 Cave shooters are the best ever made, period (IMO, of course). Even today, I
never play any of their games released before Daioujou because frankly I think they're a complete bore, and even Daioujou and Ketsui are my least played Cave games (I don't like them as much as the SH3 games). The current trend they are doing (bullet reflections, non-stop 'underwater-like' slowdown, bullet cancellation, homing bullets, etc) is not my favorite, but it will pass and they will try something new soon enough.
All other STG developers out there today have been creating games that are completely boring and uninspired in comparison, and that's why they all sell less games, and are less popular among STG fans.
Also, it's worth noting that Cave is a relatively large company, and shooting games are only a small part of their overall business and profits.
I meant that in the sense that a lot of the recent scoring systems are permutations and recombinations of earlier scoring systems, rather than completely new stuff. Actually, pretty much every Ikeda game since Espgaluda relied on bullet canceling and/or cycles of filling up some gauge/counter and cashing it in as major parts of their scoring systems. That's Cave's style in a nutshell, imo.
As I see it, Akai Katana is very close to Espgaluda 2 in terms of scoring principles (gathering items, then entering a different mode, where bullets are slowed down and are following your location, to cash in) and DeathSmiles 2 in terms of how it actually looks (lots of pointblanking with familiar, bullets floating around you, rather liberal canceling, etc.).
Obviously none of this is a criticism.
Quote from: moozooh on September 08, 2010, 09:23:54 PM
Actually, pretty much every Ikeda game
Yes, but let's not forget there are three main programmers at Cave that shape the scoring systems: Ikeda, Ichimura, and Yagawa. Ichimura is the most neglected (almost cruelly - no one mentions his name on Western or Japanese forums), even though he created some of the most beloved scoring systems (Ketsui, Deathsmiles).
Your point about the common elements of Cave scoring systems is valid. While Ichimura and IKD are similar in style, I think Ichimura is the more exciting of the two in recent years. I also think having YGW tossed in the mix makes things feel continually variegated.
Who created the scoring system for Dangun?
Ichimura.
Welp he's my favorite now. Ketsui, DS's and Dangun I always thought had the best of Cave's best scoring systems.
Quote from: EOJ on September 08, 2010, 09:03:37 PMCave can't imitate themselves, no more than any person can imitate him or herself. They have continually evolved. Every game from Ketsui onwards is an evolution of something. That's why they all feel so unique, and why people shell out huge amounts of cash for the PCBs.
^^This.
I'd like to use my favorite quote here "Everything you do is a self portrait". When you get kids, they look like you, when you write your name, write a song, a book, paint a picture etc, all creative input is on some level very personal. Some artists embrace this, some try to work around it, but in the end, it's really hard to create something truly unique with every try, because your brain has gotten used to doing things a certain way. When CAVE released Death Smiles II, it was on a new hardware platform, and you could tell instantly at first glance. Then the revisions came, and with every one, the CAVE vibe poured into it. Of course there's copyists out there, but IMHO, the best way of being original is not trying too hard to be original.
27m+ in stage 1 (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12120299). More impressive to me is the high score of 421m, that's got to be pretty close to optimal scoring.
Over 300 hits on Stage 2, 3, 4 bosses (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12072225)
---
Obtaining a bomb cancels all bullets and gives you a bonus.
Quote from: Tesuman on September 16, 2010, 04:52:40 AM
Over 300 hits on Stage 2, 3, 4 bosses (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm12072225)
I don't quite get the difference. What causes hit counter inflation?
The only thing I can make out is the number of lasers on screen that aren't fading out...I think this can be done on some of the mid-bosses too.
---
I made a few runs today. Didn't get any stellar scores, but at least made it mostly through Stage 4 - with Botan. (ever notice that there are no super plays yet?) Recovering energy is a bit challenging with her.
Always finish the bosses in Ninja mode with as many bullets/lasers on screen as possible.
Fujita states that they are sold out of Akai Katana :oogle:
Anyone heard anything similar from other suppliers ?
Quote from: rtw on October 03, 2010, 05:31:11 PM
Fujita states that they are sold out of Akai Katana :oogle:
Anyone heard anything similar from other suppliers ?
Yeah I checked HK recently and they were sold out. I forget if I asked Legend or Excellent.
Also, beware... Fujita tried to push a used kit on me at full retail price.
But lest anyone get freaked out.. surely Cave will refill the supply channel if their first run is already sold out.
This game seems to have bombed hard in Japan. I wouldn't expect them to make many more of them.
Or perhaps a ver 1.5/BL is coming soon, and that's why Cave isn't replenishing stock.
Still don't understand the game controls. so when exactly should you change to the other player and when should you remain default? Could anyone help me out with the whole gameplay system...
Plus anyone know if there is any Akai Katana desktop wallpaper. Thanks
Quote from: EOJ on October 03, 2010, 05:36:47 PM
This game seems to have bombed hard in Japan. I wouldn't expect them to make many more of them.
Or perhaps a ver 1.5/BL is coming soon, and that's why Cave isn't replenishing stock.
Sophia also confirmed that Cave is either no longer selling this game, or they won't be for long. (a bit of an engrish issue but it's one or the other)
Kind of interesting. It's so new, it basically sounds like a 1.5/Black Label thing.. or it just simply isn't popular so it's done. If it's the latter it makes me wonder if it'll even see a port. Heck it came out, what.. a month and a half ago and it's being dropped?
Definitely points toward a new version coming soon.
A port is a no-brainer for this game. It's a hori, character-driven, and they can expand on it with a bunch of quickie arrange modes, and then toss in a new arranged soundtrack. Easy yen for them. Expect it by the end of 2011.
The real question is how this impacts their future arcade development. With this and DSII, it seems like the arcade versions are becoming little more than location tests for the home ports.
Well it seems that they favor new games that are much easier from a survival perspective, with the only expert challenge left in scoring. That's fine from my perspective, but I'm not an arcade OP. I'd imagine that it amounts to a lot of long gameplay sessions for not a lot of yen.
Deathsmiles was like that, but it did very well in the arcades. Maybe lolis really do make a difference.
Quote from: brentsg on October 04, 2010, 12:12:37 AM
Well it seems that they favor new games that are much easier from a survival perspective, with the only expert challenge left in scoring. That's fine from my perspective, but I'm not an arcade OP. I'd imagine that it amounts to a lot of long gameplay sessions for not a lot of yen.
I actually really dislike this new tact. I like games that are short and furious. :mad:
Quote from: EOJ on October 04, 2010, 12:07:50 AM
The real question is how this impacts their future arcade development. With this and DSII, it seems like the arcade versions are becoming little more than location tests for the home ports.
This is technically two turds in a row. Not good for the arcades. :D
Who is the distributor for CAVE now that AMI is no more ? (webpage please)
I heard from one of my contacts that the distributor is returning all kits to CAVE at the end of this week.
Quote from: rtw on October 05, 2010, 06:31:42 AMI heard from one of my contacts that the distributor is returning all kits to CAVE at the end of this week.
By "the distributor", do you mean the new one, or AMI? If the latter, does this mean that CAVE will be sitting on all of the unsold kits AMI has been sitting on? :oogle:
Quote from: emphatic on October 05, 2010, 06:41:34 AM
Quote from: rtw on October 05, 2010, 06:31:42 AMI heard from one of my contacts that the distributor is returning all kits to CAVE at the end of this week.
By "the distributor", do you mean the new one, or AMI? If the latter, does this mean that CAVE will be sitting on all of the unsold kits AMI has been sitting on? :oogle:
I mean the new distributor
Quote from: rtw on October 05, 2010, 06:31:42 AM
Who is the distributor for CAVE now that AMI is no more ? (webpage please)
I heard from one of my contacts that the distributor is returning all kits to CAVE at the end of this week.
New one is Annex but I'm not sure of a webpage. That would explain how it went from new to sold out in 6 weeks.
Sounds like it's AK 1.5 time.
I doubt it. Black Label, maybe.
black labels are generally made for games that are popular in the first place, right? besides, cave pulling back existing copies sounds like they're trying to get the current version off the market, not getting ready to release what is essentially a separate game.
1.5 sounds more likely, it will piss fewer arcade owners off.
It would be an unprecedented amount of time to see a Black Label. Most have been significantly later, no?
You're right, it's usually at least a year before the label variant gets released, though if memory serves me correctly there wasn't a huge gap between DOJ and it's BL. I'd say a ver 1.5 is far more likely, but at the same time what would you change? It's been my understanding that the game isn't so much flawed as it is just not very popular.
Lots of things could be changed/improved: scoring system, add more modes, add a second loop, etc.
I cross my fingers for a 6th stage :-*
Quote from: EOJ on October 05, 2010, 02:40:25 PM
Lots of things could be changed/improved: scoring system, add more modes, add a second loop, etc.
..and Ninja Mode is replaced with Loli Mode.
Quote from: EOJ on October 05, 2010, 02:40:25 PM
Lots of things could be changed/improved: scoring system, add more modes, add a second loop, etc.
A Progear setup (different fighter/ninja combinations), would be nice.
Having played this a couple of times here in Kyoto I must say I'm enjoying it very much ? then again, I consider myself an intermediate player at best, not a scorer in any way. Took me 2 rounds of playing or so and some watching other guys to better understand the mechanism but then it really started to work for me :righton:
As for its popularity: I get the impression that STG is not that big here in the first place. Maybe that's the reason AK was free most of the time (so was DFK and most other Cave shooters). At least yesterday (Saturday) the cab at A-Cho was constantly busy (then again, there was some KOF event there) ? the one at Namco Tower wasn't however.
In any case: Looking forward to a port =D
I must remind: soundtrack (http://vgmdb.net/album/21346) official release soon. What's Umemoto doing here again?
You can listen to three tracks of the upcoming soundtrack here:
http://www.cave-shop.jp/fs/caveshop/fes_cd/cvog0018
Still a strange situation here.. Kit not available 6 weeks after introduction, but tons of goods at the Matsuri including a signed cell. Hmm..
Quote from: EOJ on October 14, 2010, 02:12:38 PM
You can listen to three tracks of the upcoming soundtrack here:
http://www.cave-shop.jp/fs/caveshop/fes_cd/cvog0018
The select track is pretty good, so is the boss track until the guitar kicks in. I'm still of the opinion that the OST is one of the worst CAVE soundtracks. It's a shame, it certainly has potential but it's all wasted.
Quote from: brentsg on October 14, 2010, 02:33:14 PM
Still a strange situation here.. Kit not available 6 weeks after introduction, but tons of goods at the Matsuri including a signed cell. Hmm..
CAVE's new direction for making cash? :laugh:
Quote from: HVL on October 14, 2010, 02:44:01 PM
The select track is pretty good, so is the boss track until the guitar kicks in. I'm still of the opinion that the OST is one of the worst CAVE soundtracks. It's a shame, it certainly has potential but it's all wasted.
Humm, not sure about that. The Select track is great (shame we'll only hear it for about 3 seconds at a time) and I don't really dislike the Stage 1 and Boss snippets. Would have preferred something a little more feudal sounding considering it's all about swords (Guwange style with some big beats), but I can deal with the gay Daifukkatsu guitar synth.
I can find only 3 numbers so far you guys might wanna hear so here they are.
05 Koiguchi (Stage 2).mp3 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/td3pmi
09 Setsuna (Last Boss).mp3 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/qy5fgb
10 Hanaichige (Ending).mp3 - http://www.sendspace.com/file/7pnxhn
btw links are from Final Fantasy Shrine Forums
So, any news on anything?
Should I be seeking out a regular kit? Or are there rumors of a 1.5 or ?
No 1.5 or BL news, and after the recent Cave meeting, I don't think either are forthcoming. Cave seems to be setting their sights on their new vertical arcade shooting game for 2011.
You can spend your money as you like, but I would not be looking for a kit right now. I'd wait a few months, when the prices will plummet. It's an unpopular game in Japan, and while some people like it, no one seems to think it's really great.
Quote from: rtw on October 05, 2010, 06:31:42 AM
Who is the distributor for CAVE now that AMI is no more ? (webpage please)
http://www.annex-am.jp/
Quote from: EOJ on November 04, 2010, 11:24:25 PM
No 1.5 or BL news, and after the recent Cave meeting, I don't think either are forthcoming. Cave seems to be setting their sights on their new vertical arcade shooting game for 2011.
You can spend your money as you like, but I would not be looking for a kit right now. I'd wait a few months, when the prices will plummet. It's an unpopular game in Japan, and while some people like it, no one seems to think it's really great.
You think there is a supply issue?
Allegedly the retailers returned their kits to Annex/Cave. There was a steady trickle of kits on YAJ but that seemed to dry up. Those went between 120,000 and 147,000 yen. Nothing as of late, however.
Why is it unpopular in Japan? I played it at a local shmup meet and thought it was quite good. Not my personal favourite of course, but I liked it more than Progear and Death Smiles. Apparently most Japanese players won't share my opinion concerning Death Smiles, but I thought all that stuff (steampunk, girls, mighty machinery) would have attracted a bigger audience. Or is it the game itself, is it too easy? The score system not providing enough room for strategies?
Score system is limited - it seems the scores were maxed out early on, so players lost interest soon after. No extra modes or extra loop further contributes to the unpopularity game and the lack of players score-attacking it on a long-term basis. I'm sure it's fun to pick up and play, but these games live and die in the arcades by their long-term score-attacking potential.
Quote from: EOJ on November 06, 2010, 10:13:28 PM
Score system is limited - it seems the scores were maxed out early on, so players lost interest soon after. No extra modes or extra loop further contributes to the unpopularity game and the lack of players score-attacking it on a long-term basis. I'm sure it's fun to pick up and play, but these games live and die in the arcades by their long-term score-attacking potential.
You think the boards will be "Ibara easy" to come by?
(in the near future?)
Nah, they made a ton of Ibara PCBs, but it seems like they didn't print up many Akai Katana PCBs.
You should be able to find it if you want it, though it probably won't be Ibara cheap.
Why did they make so many Ibara PCB's? Wasn't the game rather unpopular compared to the predating SH3 games?
Quote from: ave on November 07, 2010, 10:11:26 AM
Why did they make so many Ibara PCB's? Wasn't the game rather unpopular compared to the predating SH3 games?
Perhaps they thought it would become an instant cult classic as it tries to be like Garegga?
Got to play a few credits on this at r3play over the weekend (thanks to SuperPang for kindly loaning it to the event) and was really quite impressed.
I'm quite a Deathsmiles fan and this has a similar feel - probably down to the similar option control and excellent presentation. What it has that Deathsmiles doesn't have is much more interesting bullet patterns, making it feel a little more immediate - it's just a shame you don't necessarily have to dodge them :P
Quote from: EOJ on November 06, 2010, 10:13:28 PM
Score system is limited - it seems the scores were maxed out early on, so players lost interest soon after.
This is a real shame - a missed opportunity. And considering the obvious effort that has gone into producing the game, it's surprising that Cave dropped the ball with most fundamental aspect of the game. Like many others though, I'll certainly pick up the port if it gets a release.
Did Annex distribute the arcade release of AK? I thought they did, and if so the Wiki is wrong.
Annex also distributed Futari Black Label "Another Ver." didn't they? I assumed so but could be incorrect.
What wiki do you speak of?
Quote from: EOJ on November 21, 2010, 02:35:50 AM
What wiki do you speak of?
Just the Cave one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_(company)
Eh, that's a pretty crummy list (errors, missing games, etc). We have much better lists on cave-stg.com. :righton:
Quote from: evil_ash_xero on December 08, 2010, 08:26:19 AM
There seems to be such a lukewarm reaction to this game. It's disappointing.
I don't get why, when I played Pang's board (vanilla version) I really enjoyed the game. The scoring is weird at first, but then instantly gratifying once you start to get a feel for it. It's kind of like currency balancing, but here you get all the gold building around the ship and it's awesome.
The whole style felt really nice too, with a lot of movement space for a Cave hori (it feels freer than both Progear and Deathsmiles.) And damn, it's got warships and planes, heavy artillery and battleships jumping out of wormholes.
I guess the Japanese guys didn't like it cos there weren't enough pre-pubescent, edwardian dressed nymphs flying about. :whyioughtta:
Quote from: skykid on December 08, 2010, 10:45:31 PM
I guess the Japanese guys didn't like it cos there weren't enough pre-pubescent, edwardian dressed nymphs flying about. :whyioughtta:
No, as stated earlier, they maxed out the scores after like a month. Any game where you can do that dies quickly in Japanese arcades.
QuoteI guess the Japanese guys didn't like it cos there weren't enough pre-pubescent, edwardian dressed nymphs flying about.
QuoteNo, as stated earlier, they maxed out the scores after like a month. Any game where you can do that dies quickly in Japanese arcades
In other words "to pedestrian"...... :-X
Quote from: EOJ on December 08, 2010, 11:04:06 PM
Quote from: skykid on December 08, 2010, 10:45:31 PM
I guess the Japanese guys didn't like it cos there weren't enough pre-pubescent, edwardian dressed nymphs flying about. :whyioughtta:
No, as stated earlier, they maxed out the scores after like a month. Any game where you can do that dies quickly in Japanese arcades.
To be fair, it would be accurate to say the operators didn't like it... While the scores might have been maxed, there weren't a lot of boards out in the first place.
Akai Katana 1CC - 504mil (3rd char.) (WR run - player PHA)
(standard version)
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13219249
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13219481
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13219775
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13220053
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13220245
Enjoy !
Tidbit: at the last Cave meeting IKD said "No game was made in as short of time as Akai Katana". They started it in May 2010 after Deathsmiles IIX was complete, and Yagawa did most of it himself as the other programmers were busy with other stuff. It was released in August 2010, so do the math.
Remember the pre-release hype from gfront that said it was "carefully made over 1 year"? Turns out that was just (PR?) BS.
Maybe their other games where "carefully made in 2 (or more) years" :)
I got a question: how can i get middle- or large sizd gold in the limited ver.? It does not circle around any more so i am not able to let it grow by touching shots. I managed 1-2 times to get middle sized gold but i couldn't figure how i did it.
The game does feel short but its an incredible achievement for 3 months! Does that include the enemies and level design as well I wonder because they're extremely detailed. I love the backgrounds in AK, especially stage 4.
Quote from: Runefaust on January 08, 2011, 06:35:11 AM
i am not able to let it grow by touching shots.
You are but its much harder, you need a lot of bullets and some slowdown on screen. Much easier to do on the later levels.
I so want the port of this, moreso than any Cave game in ages. I'm hoping this will fill the void DFK has left me with. :'(
Quote from: SuperPang on January 08, 2011, 07:08:23 AM
You are but its much harder, you need a lot of bullets and some slowdown on screen. Much easier to do on the later levels.
Thank you! That sounds VERY hard to do on purpose. I'd love to see japanese hardcore scorers do the trick. Hopefully a superplay DVD comes out soon, Youtube does not support enough resolution and FPS to spot such little details.
As for the game: i love it! To me it is the best Cave game so far. You surely need some time to get into it and figure the "feeling" and the mechanics. Some friends who are also into Cave said "what a junk" on their first credit.
Quote from: Runefaust on January 08, 2011, 09:01:24 AM
As for the game: i love it! To me it is the best Cave game so far. You surely need some time to get into it and figure the "feeling" and the mechanics. Some friends who are also into Cave said "what a junk" on their first credit.
I got the vanilla version a month ago, and i think it's a great game too !
Of course, it seems a little odd at first (compared to other cave games), but after feeding some credits, it is just pure fun.
Congrats :) :) :)
I must admit i had a few problems with it too. On first sight it looked to me like some plastic-looking 1995 Jaleco game, and it just had not this feeling of "flow" i love at Daifukkatsu and Futari. But then i discovered the avesome fun of the ninja-mode, scoring, repelling bullets, diving right into the bulletstorm and beating medals out of it. From now on everything seemed right, i fell in love :o
Edited...
Here are a couple of things I found that I don't think have been posted yet. When you kill enemies at close proximity with A held you generate a small amount of energy balls but when you hold your helper directly on top of enemies you generate a higher number that depends on their hit points, and when you fight bosses and hold it on top of them it generates a bunch of them quickly. Then of course when you let bullets pass through them they get bigger and then you need to absorb them before they start to go away. Also rapid fire (C) at close proximity gets lots of energies going as enemies blow up, but when you're fighting a boss or an enemy with a lot of hit points, the only option is holding A with the helper on top to get them going quickly. This game is extremely fun after you get used to it.
And when you smart bomb on your last player, it takes away all of your bombs, not just one.
That happens only if you auto-bomb. You can still manually bomb one by one.
(Of note, the voice changes if you bomb in ninja mode.)
It's been a while, but I think it's just a case of how many bullets are on screen and because it doesn't hang around for long it's hard to do.
There are lots of things I like about LV but I think Arcade is my favourite purely because the energy slowing the bullets breaks the patterns. It completely screws up the last boss.
Akai Katana was Cave's biggest money loser ever other than Deathsmiles II so I doubt the production number was very high. They totally did it to themselves I think. The rumors are IKD already had made his changes for Limited Version and he wanted that to be the version of the game that was released, then marketing people suggested selling it later as a different board and they released the older game system version. Then a lot of game center managers passed on it because they believed there would be a black label version that they would just wait that out, then Cave heard about that and said there would be no black label version I guess thinking that would make more people buy the original version, then I guess Limited Version turned into the home-only thing so they wouldn't make themselves out to be a liar.
Pretty dumb stuff. If they would have just listened to IKD it would have been a hit. The build up counter and then banking off the E balls with your tail uncomfortably on a boss in Limited Version makes the game feel like "the full Cave".
A Japanese guy was cleaning his room today and came across an old Akai Katana promo flyer! I was under the impression there was no flyer for this game, but whatdoyaknow.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EODOI7ZUcAAqGoF?format=jpg&name=medium)
Source: https://twitter.com/PO_TPJ/status/1216198559860543488
There seem to be two types of promo flyer, the thicker paper ones handed out at shows etc with cut-outs and the like, and then these paper ones which I can only assume were sent mainly to retailers, possibly arcades? The likes of Fujita used to email out B&W scans of them when pre-orders opened.
Their last three SH3 games (DFK BL, AK, SDOJ) all had these paper flyers that seem to be quite rare today. MFBL also had one like this.