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[Lazy Jones]

An Akai Katana demo will apparently be released soon:

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/04/27/akai_katana_shin_demo/

Downloaded the PV from the japanese market place and it looks pretty glorious on a big TV.
Can't wait to try the demo.

 

[CAVE343]

Nice! That will help past the time till release

 

[sixteen-bit]

Nice, I'll definitely try the demo when it's up for Silver members.

 

[iconoclast]

Nice to see that someone else is still playing Futari. I reached stage 5 once on Maniac 1.5, but with a much lesser score (about 320 millions). I have a pretty consistent strategy for stages 1-3, but in 4 and 5 I can only survive and my score is abysmal.

If you haven't saw it already, you should watch the 1 billion run by Clover-TAC. He takes crazy risks, but he also shows a lot of good strategies that can be adapted for safer ( = less insane) play. Oh, and it will blow your mind.

I can't score well on stage 4 either, but I try to get what I can since I'm usually just trying to survive. On stage 5, I can get around 90-100m if all goes well, so I'm a little better on that stage at least.

I'll check out that replay too. I usually avoid the super high scoring, mind blowing replays since they're way out of my league, but they're fun to watch every once in a while. Hopefully I can learn something from it.

 

[Lazy Jones]

Demo will be avaliable next week, on may 4th.

 

[iconoclast]

Well I reached my goal of 450m in 1.5 Maniac, but I still died on Larsa's final phase. I am so disappoint it's not even funny, because all of my deaths but one were completely stupid and avoidable. Ugh.

And the one death that wasn't stupid was on the medium flying enemy right before the stage 4 boss. To kill him without a bomb takes NOTHING but luck. That part is poorly designed.

 

[adversesolutions]

Well I reached my goal of 450m in 1.5 Maniac, but I still died on Larsa's final phase. I am so disappoint it's not even funny, because all of my deaths but one were completely stupid and avoidable. Ugh.

And the one death that wasn't stupid was on the medium flying enemy right before the stage 4 boss. To kill him without a bomb takes NOTHING but luck. That part is poorly designed.

You talking about that last moth?

Yeah IIRC it's overlapped with another moth and some popcorns, hard as shit, especially for Reco with her weak shot.

 

[To Far Away Times]

Is the Akai Katana demo available to us lowly US region dwelling peasants?

 

[mjemirzian]

Is the Akai Katana demo available to us lowly US region dwelling peasants?

If you have a Japanese Xbox Live account you can log in from a US console and download it. I don't know how hard it is to set one of those up these days, though. They keep making it more difficult.

 

[iconoclast]

You talking about that last moth?

Yeah IIRC it's overlapped with another moth and some popcorns, hard as shit, especially for Reco with her weak shot.

Yeah, there are two moths that come in at the end. The first one isn't bad, I can kill him most of the time without trouble. But when the second one comes, it's tied in with a bunch of popcorn enemies like you said, and you don't get any slowdown to make it manageable. It's a real bitch and I always bomb it (and so does everyone in every replay I've seen, unless they were out of bombs).

 

[Yaboosh]

Got my very first 1cc on the iPhone version of DDP: Ressurection, arcade mode. The game is pretty easy overall since any bombs you have are triggered when you are hit, so you essentially have 9 lives to start and get a few more throughout the game (via bombs). Still, it feels good to get that first 1cc.

 

[Lazy Jones]

Akai Katana demo is up on the japanese markeplace!

There are two stages, which are pretty short.
Menus are in japanese only so not sure how to play this properly yet.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Akai Katana demo is up on the japanese markeplace!

There are two stages, which are pretty short.
Menus are in japanese only so not sure how to play this properly yet.

Gold-only?

 

[Yes Boss!]

Sux seeing the big splash page for AK and not be able to download ;-(

Even tried a 48-hour Live code and it still would not let me download. Gotta wait a week, it seems.

 

[Lazy Jones]

If someone uploads it to the internet I think you'll be able to just burn it to a cd or dvd and play it that way. I did that once for some demo.
I wonder if it's possible to save the demo to a USB flash drive and then just upload it from that.

Demo is pretty fun, since I don't know how the scoring system works yet I'm just playing for survival and it's very easy. Seems on par with Deathsmiles in that regard.

 

[To Far Away Times]

I'm downloading the demo right now. I tried to sign up for a free account and it gave me one free(?) month of xbox live. Well, I hope it stays free, but with microsoft you never know. Anyone had any experience with the free trial?

As far as the demo goes, its okay I guess. Kinda reminds me of Progear in the sense that its a horizontal shmup that kinda feels like a vertical shmup. I'll have to give this one some more time tomorrow.

 

[danmaku]

I'm downloading the demo right now. I tried to sign up for a free account and it gave me one free(?) month of xbox live. Well, I hope it stays free, but with microsoft you never know. Anyone had any experience with the free trial?

It's normal, every new account starts with a month of free gold. After that it reverts automatically to silver status, just as if you entered a code from a card.

I'm not really in a hurry to play another shooter, as I'm already busy with Mushi Futari. I'll just wait for release date.

 

[To Far Away Times]

It's normal, every new account starts with a month of free gold. After that it reverts automatically to silver status, just as if you entered a code from a card.

Awesome, thanks.

 

[hipgnosis]

Tried the demo of Akai Katana. Holy shit this game is insanely good looking. The scoring system seemed pretty complex, kind of a mix between Progear and Espgaluda. I think it is the Shin mode in the demo. I wish this game gets localized, it would be a shame if a game this beautiful would only be available in Japan.

 

[iconoclast]

I'm not really in a hurry to play another shooter, as I'm already busy with Mushi Futari. I'll just wait for release date.

Same, but I am still really looking forward to AKS. I really hope I can get done with all of my Futari goals before it's out, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen...

On a side note, I hate how Larsa accounts for like half the difficulty of the game (with Reco). Such a huge difficulty spike. :\

 

[Risette]

I bought Futari 1.01 DLC code/card today. It's fun. Definitely much harder, but it keeps you on edge.

Also tried the Akai Katana demo. It looks pretty but I had absolutely zero fun playing it. Glad I didn't preorder the special LE.

 

[danmaku]

Same, but I am still really looking forward to AKS. I really hope I can get done with all of my Futari goals before it's out, but I'm not sure that's gonna happen...

On a side note, I hate how Larsa accounts for like half the difficulty of the game (with Reco). Such a huge difficulty spike. :\

Be glad that, at least, she doesn't have a bomb barrier like Hibachi!

I experimented with some patterns in stage 5, and found out that getting 100 million is totally possible without taking too much risks. I just need to polish my execution. The only part that still gives me nighmares is the last section of the stage, after the second big dragon. The screen is choke full of enemies and I don't have a good pattern to survive without bombing. As for Larsa... she's basically Stage 6 lol

 

[Lazy Jones]

Also tried the Akai Katana demo. It looks pretty but I had absolutely zero fun playing it. Glad I didn't preorder the special LE.

It's definitely not one my favorite Cave games that's for sure.
I vastly prefer verticals but both Deathsmiles and Progear are more fun than AK in my opinion.

I think the arcade mode will be somewhat more enjoyable though. Never really cared much for arrange modes (except ketsuipachi)

 

[iconoclast]

Be glad that, at least, she doesn't have a bomb barrier like Hibachi!

I experimented with some patterns in stage 5, and found out that getting 100 million is totally possible without taking too much risks. I just need to polish my execution. The only part that still gives me nighmares is the last section of the stage, after the second big dragon. The screen is choke full of enemies and I don't have a good pattern to survive without bombing. As for Larsa... she's basically Stage 6 lol

That part gave me some trouble for a while as well, but it's not so bad once you memorize all of the spawns for those green pterodactyls. It's kinda like the first half of stage 4 in Ketsui in that sense.

Anyway, I cleared 1.5 Maniac with Palm. Wound up with 349m, which I'm okay with because I wasn't trying too hard for score. I really don't like playing as Palm, so I probably won't be trying to improve that. Hopefully a clear with Reco isn't too far off. I've spent a lot of time practicing Larsa, and if everything goes perfectly, I can beat her with only one spare life. Now I just need to make sure I don't die a billion times before reaching her.

 

[Risette]

It's definitely not one my favorite Cave games that's for sure.
I vastly prefer verticals but both Deathsmiles and Progear are more fun than AK in my opinion.

I think the arcade mode will be somewhat more enjoyable though. Never really cared much for arrange modes (except ketsuipachi)

PS Arrange is pretty sweet!

Yeah I'd say that even Progear is better than AK going by the demo, and I don't even like Progear either.

 

[iconoclast]

Woo, got the 1.5 Maniac clear with Reco. I was mainly playing for survival, so I only finished with 374m. Now that I've finally got that achievement out of the way, I can focus entirely on scoring. I'd like to hit 550m (my current HS is 513m), but I think 600+ will require too much work.

Not sure what to do next. I think maybe I'll go for the achievement for 1cc'ing Ultra mode, since it has lenient conditions (you can restart stages as much as you like and you can set extends to every 80m), but I'm sure that's still going to be really hard. But I'll give it a shot since I'd really like to get the 1000/1000 on this game.

 

[danmaku]

congrats!

600+ millions would be close to the current western record, at least according to shmups.com leaderboards (it's 630, by Schrodinger's Cat), it won't be easy to get that far. When you say Palm, you mean abnormal Palm? is Maniac easier with him? I like to play normal Palm in Original, but his laser is so weak that I think it would be terrible in Maniac.

 

[iconoclast]

Yeah, I mean Abnormal Palm. I don't like playing as him in any mode because it's harder to score, I don't like his shot, and he gets less slowdown than Reco. The bosses are easier because his laser is so strong, but the actual stages are little bit harder because of his shot. But yeah, it's still easier to clear Maniac with him.

I'll probably keep playing Maniac on and off because it's still fun after sinking so much time into it, but I probably won't be trying too hard to improve my scores. I'd have to revise my strategies for stages 2, 3, and probably 4 just to squeeze out a few million extra points. Too much work.

 

[hipgnosis]

Woah congrats! That's not an easy one. Good job!

I'm too getting back to Futari 1.5, this game is just phenomenal. I'll never get bored of it.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Cave shirts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVGyl0zimtI

 

[SmokyDave]

Every time this topic is bumped I want to check the App Store for Deathsmiles

 

[Daigoro]

Nice, I'll definitely try the demo when it's up for Silver members.

Hot.

I have a fan made one with just the Cave logo, some of those are nice though.

 

[DCharlie]

Not Cave, but I bought Otemedius Ex today so i could keep my X360 set complete and now i hate myself that bit more

now to find time to get back to playing them (well, the Cave ones again), going back to Ketsui first.

Woo, got the 1.5 Maniac clear with Reco

Nice!!! Congrats

 

[manzo]

Not Cave, but I bought Otemedius Ex today so i could keep my X360 set complete and now i hate myself that bit more

That reminds me, I'm still missing Bullet Soul and Senko no Ronde 2 from my complete collection.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Hot.

I have a fan made one with just the Cave logo, some of those are nice though.

TBH the cave logo ones are the only ones I'd consider buying, but even then I'd have a hard time leaving the house with one on XD
Could be much worse though, they're rather minimalistic as far as game shirts go at the very least.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Cave shirts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVGyl0zimtI

:O

Where? When? How?

I bet they're expensive though

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Not Cave, but I bought Otemedius Ex today so i could keep my X360 set complete and now i hate myself that bit more

Wow, so nice to see them all together

 

[Yes Boss!]

So what is the final word on Senko no Ronde...are those truly shooters and should be considered part of the J-360 Shooter Collection? I've considered them but youtubes make it hard to see what type of game they are.

And boo! My internet has been down for a day. Wanna get the Akai Katana demo for silver members ;-(

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

So what is the final word on Senko no Ronde...are those truly shooters and should be considered part of the J-360 Shooter Collection? I've considered them but youtubes make it hard to see what type of game they are.

Not shooters in the traditional sense but IMO, definitely worth it.

 

[sixteen-bit]

:O

Where? When? How?

I bet they're expensive though

There's a link to the store in the description. 3500 yen :/

 

[Risette]

In other news, all 3 Mushi games (-sama, -tama, and Futari) have been added to MAME. The emulation driver doesn't work yet though.

 

[Tain]

So what is the final word on Senko no Ronde...are those truly shooters and should be considered part of the J-360 Shooter Collection? I've considered them but youtubes make it hard to see what type of game they are.

They are straight-up Virtual On. Awesome, awesome games, but you need people to play them with, and it helps a lot if you're familiar with VO.

Very much not STGs.

 

[tearsofash]

Not shooters in the traditional sense but IMO, definitely worth it.

I've always considered them as VS shmups. I don't think that's a real genre, but that's how I explain it.

Might want to check out acceleration of suguri-x, it's a doujin type game with a similar style.

Btw, back on topic: are we generally to assume that if it's region-locked new release then Cave is planning a Western release? I don't remember what they ever said about that.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Ah, that helps, the VO comparison. Im gonna keep going with my collection without them. Maybe just pick them up down the line in a slow month as a japanese import title for fun.

 

[DCharlie]

There's a link to the store in the description. 3500 yen :/

The blue Reco t-shirt is 6000 yen, but is absolutely beautiful. I love it.

 

[iconoclast]

I wish the Akai Katana Shin demo had the original game, or Zetsu mode at least, because I'm not digging Shin mode too much. I haven't earned the extend yet (100m), so I still need to put some more time into it first. At least it looks great. And the soundtrack is easily Cave's best since Ketsui/DOJ.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2011/05/post-2950.html

$29.99

by FINALFANTASYDOG:

Human that doesn't know english grammar very well translation:

Death Smiles 2, just like it is, will be released on games on demand in North America.

The Microsoft rep told me this is a first step in experiment with this kind of release. They went through all the trouble of choosing us, so let's do it!

If things go well, this will tie in to many more titles that were only released in Japan being distributed online

 

[sixteen-bit]

Cave has more pull than Aksys confirmed.

 

[To Far Away Times]

5月17日配信予定

May 17th release date?

 

[BocoDragon]

Deathsmiles II getting a digital release is wonderful news! I'm a big "physical copy" guy... but in the case of games where we might not be getting them at all? Who cares. I'll take it, gladly!