What DRM? Besides the standard Steam stuff, I mean.
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Ikaruga (PC) |OT| Even though the resolution is high, I never give in.
- Thread starter Dolphin_Butter
- Start date
What DRM? Besides the standard Steam stuff, I mean.
Think it's got a bug that prevents the game from being played while in offline mode, like the MGR: R one.
Trading cards are apparently coming after all.
It's good that Treasure updated their store page before people went "OMG IT ISN'T THERE!?" But they do need to get an English branch or whatever for the sake of both sides of the ocean being on the same page for them.
It's good that Treasure updated their store page before people went "OMG IT ISN'T THERE!?" But they do need to get an English branch or whatever for the sake of both sides of the ocean being on the same page for them.
mdsfx
Member
Yep. Steam was down within the last couple of day (can't remember when) and I was not able to play.
Lionel Mandrake
Member
Jesus Christ this game is ridiculous. I've never played a bullet hell outside of 1942 or whatever that old arcade game was called. I was not prepared.
Going to have to turn on continues.
Going to have to turn on continues.
I'm just starting out, half an hour of game-time and I've managed to beat the first level twice. Going for Normal, no continues for that authentic experience. The boxes in the second level surprised me to death but I think I get the idea now.
I really, really like how the polarity mechanic gives them license to make two bullet hell mazes and layer them over each other.
I really, really like how the polarity mechanic gives them license to make two bullet hell mazes and layer them over each other.
^You are surprised in chapter 2? Wait till you see chapter 4. A stage that is much harder compared to the last.
OK, time to properly discuss Ikaruga for the scoring. How do you chain in chapter 3's start? It feels like a complete puzzle getting the chain going on. All the other chapters, you get a feel on how to chain. Almost. Chapter 3? None.
OK, time to properly discuss Ikaruga for the scoring. How do you chain in chapter 3's start? It feels like a complete puzzle getting the chain going on. All the other chapters, you get a feel on how to chain. Almost. Chapter 3? None.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Don't give up, the game is great once you get the hang of it.
If you feel like it's too hard, this should help your self esteem
drop
I understand your initial reaction but once you get used to them modern bullet hell shooters aren't that daunting. The mass of bullets is offset by the much slower speed they travel at, plus the forgiving hit boxes of your ship.
The skill in Ikaruga lies as much in switching to absorb bullets as dodging them. It's counter intuitive to begin with but once the penny drops you'll be doing better than you thought possible.
Seriously? Won't be picking this up. then.
Hmm, Ikaruga isn't fooling around, but calling it bullet hell probably does it a disservice: as some other people have noted, it's really more about the rhythm of charging up like-polarity shots, releasing them, and switching polarities, rather than weaving an obscure path through bullets. I mean, you could play it like that, I suppose, but it would be hard to last too long, and I don't think that's what Treasure was going for. I also like the commentary I hear lately that Ikaruga is about solving puzzles (what polarity-switching combination will get me through this safely?), which brings it even further from bullet hell, which is at best a labyrinth game and at worst twitch-based memorization.
Alternate assessment: Ikaruga is either a dance rhythm game or Tetris, disguised as a space shooter.
This is still true, though.
DESTROYA
Member
ArclightBorealis
Member
Spent half an hour practicing Stage 1 on normal, and still unable to get passed that B++ rank. Again, I can still chain all enemies for about the first two half of the level, but later enemies I can't kill fast enough and the smaller enemies that I have to graze in between and pick off with precision shots always screws me up.
Just looking at replays I notice I'm not making much use of my charge attack, but that's cause I still don't have a clear idea of what targets it prioritizes when both types of polarity are onscreen (I typically save it for bosses and sections where the enemies are primarily one polarity). It's definitely not random, but more often than not it screws up my chains.
Oh well. Always tomorrow and the rest of the week to put more time into it. Best not stress myself right now.
Just looking at replays I notice I'm not making much use of my charge attack, but that's cause I still don't have a clear idea of what targets it prioritizes when both types of polarity are onscreen (I typically save it for bosses and sections where the enemies are primarily one polarity). It's definitely not random, but more often than not it screws up my chains.
Oh well. Always tomorrow and the rest of the week to put more time into it. Best not stress myself right now.
Ikaruga is a twitch based puzzle game from the 40+ hours I played. It requires precision along with puzzle solving to know what to chain, and what to not.
I also want to learn how charge attacks work. In all the hours I played Ikaruga, I could never figure out how they really work.
I don't think Ikaruga is really twitch. I mean, I'm sure that's how people play it when starting out. But when you look at these kinds of players, it's clearly more like a dance/rhythm game at its peak complexity.
rockmanjoe
Member
Here's a detailed video showing the depth of the chaining in this game. I just love how well designed this game is.
SkyTurnsRed
Banned
I love that I used to have so much difficulty getting through the first stage. Now having passed stage 3 finally, the first stage is a walk in the park.
I actually disagree with many comments posted on the difficulty levels. No "difficulty" is inherently "easier" than the other. For me, and most players, Normal is the easier way to learn the game and get the highest casual scores, the non-top tier scorings. But Easy requires you to really master the stage and do everything near perfect for the S++ ranks, Hard once you've basically mastered avoidance of damage and switching polarity is the easiest to get the highest casual scores on, due to the near infinite supply of missiles, making the mini-boss in Stage 3 and bosses in general a walk in the park.
So for me, Easy, is actually quite the hardest "difficulty" to really pull off amazing S++ Ranks on. But that might just be my preference or opinion. But no diffficulty is easier than the other in competitive play, they all require a quite different approach to how you play and all that stuff. Particularly, the chaining and bosses.
My recommendation is, go for the Dot Eater grade on every level on every difficulty. Since this lacks the GC's conquest mode, it's the best way to really master and observe each stage and how to potentially approach it.
So for me, Easy, is actually quite the hardest "difficulty" to really pull off amazing S++ Ranks on. But that might just be my preference or opinion. But no diffficulty is easier than the other in competitive play, they all require a quite different approach to how you play and all that stuff. Particularly, the chaining and bosses.
My recommendation is, go for the Dot Eater grade on every level on every difficulty. Since this lacks the GC's conquest mode, it's the best way to really master and observe each stage and how to potentially approach it.
Dolphin_Butter
Member
Just got an update:
Seems like the online-only bug fix and trading cards have yet to surface.
EDIT: Trading cards are online.
Seems like the online-only bug fix and trading cards have yet to surface.
EDIT: Trading cards are online.
Trading cards are already in. I just got a drop.
PandaPedinte
Member
After watching this video I discovered I've playing Ikaruga in the wrong way.
The_Super_Inframan
"the journey to a thousand games ends with bad rats. ~Lao Tzu" ~Gabe Newell
The_Super_Inframan
"the journey to a thousand games ends with bad rats. ~Lao Tzu" ~Gabe Newell
The game has now cards!
edit: 12 cards
crafting will be expensive for this one...
and beaten by a mile, didn't noticed that it was already said above
edit: 12 cards
crafting will be expensive for this one...
and beaten by a mile, didn't noticed that it was already said above
Updates for all
Fixed some audio problems (mainly occurred in Windows XP)
- no audio bug
- crash on launch
Stabilization of the frame rate
- use software timer if VSync from DirectX is not available
Support secondary monitor
- edit "display_adapter" section in boot.txt (created in local install folder)
- ex) display_adapter 1 (use secondary)
アップデートしました（2014/2/24 ビルドID 198101)
■主に Windows XP 環境で起こっていたサウンドの問題を修正
・音がならない問題
・ゲームが立ち上がらない問題
■フレームレートの安定化
・VSync が利用できない時はソフトウェアタイマーを使用するように修正
■セカンダリ以降のモニタのサポート
・インストールフォルダ内に作成される boot.txt 内の「display_adapter」の項目を編集することで、セカンダリ以降のモニタでフルスククリーン表示が可能になります。
・例）display_adapter 1（ディスプレイアダプタにセカンダリモニタを使用）
And apparently cards too!
The ideal is higher!
Fixed some audio problems (mainly occurred in Windows XP)
- no audio bug
- crash on launch
Stabilization of the frame rate
- use software timer if VSync from DirectX is not available
Support secondary monitor
- edit "display_adapter" section in boot.txt (created in local install folder)
- ex) display_adapter 1 (use secondary)
アップデートしました（2014/2/24 ビルドID 198101)
■主に Windows XP 環境で起こっていたサウンドの問題を修正
・音がならない問題
・ゲームが立ち上がらない問題
■フレームレートの安定化
・VSync が利用できない時はソフトウェアタイマーを使用するように修正
■セカンダリ以降のモニタのサポート
・インストールフォルダ内に作成される boot.txt 内の「display_adapter」の項目を編集することで、セカンダリ以降のモニタでフルスククリーン表示が可能になります。
・例）display_adapter 1（ディスプレイアダプタにセカンダリモニタを使用）
And apparently cards too!
The ideal is higher!
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
Backgrounds are looking pretty nice so far!
Raw Ikaruga title screen http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=231967862
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
One thing I love about Ikaruga is the inclusion of a practice mode which allows you to play the intro to each stage in slow motion. I've never seen this done in any other game, and it reinforces my opinion (based on hours and hours of Sin & Punishment on VC) that Treasure games are meant to be played like a musical instrument or piece.
It's funny how you first differentiate Ikaruga from "bullet hells" which you characterize as "twitch-based memorization", then compare Ikaruga to rhythm games. Yet, rhythm games are virtually the purest twitch-based memorization there is. The latter is actually sort of appropriate, because Ikaruga is a bullet hell with a particularly heavy focus on rigid memorization. I'm a big bullet hell fan, but I don't much like Ikaruga precisely because I don't like memorization. Many other bullet hells have much more free-form and flowing scoring systems where you do more adapting, on-the-fly problem solving, deal with fuzzy analog situations with a bunch of dynamically-changing counters, collectable floating items and enemies - as opposed to having to always shoot the next bunch of enemies in a precise, surgical A B C D order to keep your chain going, as in Ikaruga.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
There's only going to be a "correct" order and procedure if you're literally trying to go for the maximum score possible.
A lot of the risk/reward at intermediate play is determining which groups of enemies you're going to shoot for more points, which you're going to skip to make survival easier, and how best to rebound from a misfire.
Still very memorization dependent, yes, but I've played few 2D shooters that aren't.
As long as you're trying to chain, you are inevitably operating within quite rigid parameters. Sure, you can choose to shoot enemies of the same color in a different order, and skip shooting something if you are out of balance and think you couldn't pull it off, but that's not a whole lot of room for freedom. The results are rigid and unambiguous. You get a chain or you don't. Your success and failure are strongly localized; after messing up, you may have to improvise a bit, but you very quickly get back on track, with the only difference being that you'll have less points. That means you can actually stick to one rigid plan from start to finish even without playing perfectly, and even poor players should always have such a plan (even if it's not as risky and high scoring as a good player's plan).
That's not the case with games like Espgaluda, where your options depend on resource counters that take lots of time to build up, will vary over games and inevitably diverge. Even how the enemies and bullets behave depends on the state of those counters! With no quick resets to a default state, a rigid plan would be worthless for the 95% of players who can't play near-perfectly, so they don't need to be concerned with one.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
New update:
Support Offline Mode
Adjusting the frame rate when not use Vsync
- closer to 60fps
- fix ultra speed bug in some environments
Adding "SHOW FPS" option in ADVANCED SETTINGS.
Fixed achievement icons and other minor bugs
Support Offline Mode
Adjusting the frame rate when not use Vsync
- closer to 60fps
- fix ultra speed bug in some environments
Adding "SHOW FPS" option in ADVANCED SETTINGS.
Fixed achievement icons and other minor bugs
Mine dropped ages ago... got them day 1 and about $3 for all of them.
Well, I just watched the top score replay and laughed in disbelief. The sort of memorisation required to get to this level is beyond human. I'm not sure which was more amusing though, his skills or the fact he lost a life on the last level. Boy that imperfect run must be really gnawing away at him.
Unless there's a scoring-based reason to lose a life in that spot? Doesn't seem so likely for Ikaruga, but there are situations like that in many games.
Weirdly the badge didn't show up on my badge page until now, but I'm still not getting card drops. WTF?
Oh I don't know, losing a life is very upsetting when you're that good at a game. Goes from being a 1LC to a 1CC, these things matter!
BoosterDuck
Banned
How do you turn off VSync?
If you die in Ikaruga you lose your chain, and the game has no ranking system, so there's no reason to do it on purpose. It was a mistake.
^
Agree 100%. If Ikaruga is a puzzle game, then every shmup is a puzzle game, because you always need to plan a strategy for scoring or just for survival. I don't know why this comparison only comes up for Ikaruga, maybe because the rules of the game are so simple that the strategy aspect is more evident then in a game like Espgaluda or Battle Garegga. Especially Garegga lol.
^
Agree 100%. If Ikaruga is a puzzle game, then every shmup is a puzzle game, because you always need to plan a strategy for scoring or just for survival. I don't know why this comparison only comes up for Ikaruga, maybe because the rules of the game are so simple that the strategy aspect is more evident then in a game like Espgaluda or Battle Garegga. Especially Garegga lol.
No doubt it was a mistake, though I'd have to watch it again to see how his score was affected. At that point he was on the final boss and mainly absorbing bullets. 68 chain I think.
The offline only restriction was patched out.
I'm curious what's going on with Japanese Steam developers and them, either accidentally or not, pushing games out with that.
I'm curious what's going on with Japanese Steam developers and them, either accidentally or not, pushing games out with that.