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[SiegfriedFM]

I'm going to buy a classical vertical shooter, but I don't know which one to get. Since most of them are $60 to import, I don't want to waste my money on second best.

I have Psyvariar and Ikaruga already, and have played Dodonpachi. For the record, I didn't like Psyvariar, mostly because it was quite short, relatively easy and quite ugly. I want an intense game, but one that is still possible to complete for a relative newbie. Graphics are fairly important. Preferrably the Treasure gameplay style with lots of insane bosses.

Here are the options I found at Play-Asia. Any of these worth it?

Espgaluda $60
Dodonpachi $60
Gunbird 1&2 $39
The Castle of Shikigami II $40
XII Stag $60

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Oh, I might also throw in some of the following for PSone since they are cheap, but can you tell me about the quality?

Soukyu-Gurentai
Shienryu
Raiden DX

If they look anywhere near Dodonpachi, they might be worth it, but I don't want any games that were retro already when they were first released on PSone.

 

[Defensor]

drohne where are you?!?

 

[djtiesto]

ESPGaluda looks great, it's prequel, ESP Ra.De. (arcade) is a lot of fun, not sure if they ported it to consoles... DoDonPachi is pretty good but very challenging. Mars Matrix for DC is also a pretty good game. I'd go with ESPGaluda... there's some movies of it on Cave's homepage -

http://www.cave.co.jp/amvisual/espgaluda/movie.html

 

[drohne]

i'm right here! anyway, i haven't played xii stag, but the other games you listed are all worthwhile. i'd say the two cave games are a cut above the rest. go with daioujou if you want something really oppressively difficult, go with espgalulda if you want something a bit more forgiving. both games have exceptionally deep scoring systems...espgaluda's is more esoteric and freeform, daioujou's is more tightly integrated. i think i prefer daioujou overall.

i hear the ps1 version of soukyugurentai has lots of slowdown, but it's an excellent game. it's really chaotic and exhilarating, with a brilliant sakimoto soundtrack. get the saturn version if you can. shienryu's a solid old-school shooter that borrows liberally from raiden and truxton. i like it. but there's no reason to buy the shitty ps1 version with no tate mode -- it's budget priced on ps2 as "the double shienryu," where it comes bundled with a crappy looking sequel. raiden dx is of course a classic. you might want to track down the ps1 versions of donpachi and dodonpachi, which are far superior to the saturn versions. they're sort of rare now, though.

 

[dog$]

I'd get Espgaluda or maybe wait for the next Psikyo PS2 pack to show up: Sengoku Ace & Blade.

Dodonpachi Daiojo is the roughest of that bunch. Not sure about XII Stag.

 

[Lord Error]

From that list, Espgaluda and Daioujou I can swear by. Both are awesome games, and more than worth their price.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

I prefer the more "modern" (well, Saturn and forward) 10000 bullets on screen style. Dodonpachi looks fine, I'd take highly detailed 2D and low res over high res boring and plain objects like in Psyvariar. However, I've played Dodon and seen the replays and there's no way I'll ever be able to even finish the game.

So Souky has a good soundtrack? That's quite important, that was one of the really great things about Radiant Silvergun.

Shienryu and Raiden are not the 10000 bullet style?

No love for Shikigami no Shiro II? It looks really cool on pictures.

Leaning towards Espgaluda and Souky now... Saturn version is not an option, both because it's much more expensive and because Saturn games go into 50 hz mode on my PAL console = no fun.

 

[nitewulf]

if you preffer the manic style (1000 bullets) then i'd easily recommend Espgaluda and Dodonpachi. Try to get Mars Matrix and GigaWing 2 for dreamcast as well, both excellent graphically, have a nice vortex super technique which sorta stand them apart from other shooters and are just overall good manic shooters.

 

[dog$]

Shikigami Shiro 2 is funcitonal but I don't think there's quite so much that makes it stand out. I also don't appreciate a game giving me 7 characters to choose from in the game when 2 are useful at best and the rest are just there for show, or reasons beyond my knowledge. It's clean and it sounds nice, but if you found Psyvariar easy I don't see why you'd consider Shikigami Shiro 2 any worse (or any better of a game). Besides, last I checked, it'll be released elsewhere so I'm not sure it'd be worth getting a J version of it.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

I checked the videos of Esp, looked good enough. Guess it's that and Souky then. Also getting Sega Ages: Bonanza Bros while I'm at it.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Order away...
Also ordered Naruto: Narultimate Hero 2 which is being released later this week.

 

[Eggo]

For what it's worth, I liked Soukyu more than Radiant Silvergun on Saturn. Never played the PS One version though. Oh, I also liked Gunbird 2 a lot - might want to check that out later. Very challenging game.

 

[DCharlie]

xII stag is okay, but definitely not worth $60.

 

[anotheriori]

i have daiojou and its really hard but just what i expect from a cave shooter. The special dvd shows bosses that are impossible and yes i've seen superplay vids of ikaruga and such but the bosses in daiojou are insane.

 

[drohne]

i remember hearing that the psx version of soukyugurentai defaults to a really low difficulty level, so be sure to dig through the menus and play it at arcade difficulty. also the yellow ship is specific to the psx version, and i hear it's really unbalanced, so you might want to avoid using it.

 

[djtiesto]

I was thinking of picking up Soukyugurentai for Saturn a while back... but don't know much about this game at all. What's it like? Manic bullet-hell style? I've heard some people say they prefer this to RS, which I absolutely love.

 

[Tsubaki]

I thought Soukyugurentai totally sucked.

That being said, the SS one is infinitely better than the PSX one. Don't even bother with the PSX version. The constant slowdown makes the game that much worse.