Horizontal and Vertical Scrolling Shooters!

ESPGALUDA is still wonderful.

It's a superbly balanced system that caters to more inexperienced players who use Kakusei to survive and get out of tight spots, and for the experienced, who use Kakusei to rack up massive points multipliers.

Movement in the levels isn't anywhere near as twitchy as in many Cave shooters and because of the pace and the implementation of Kakusei modes, it feels like a graceful dance rather than the typical tap-tap-tap-tap-tap feel of most shooters.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Looks like the Raizing style Cave games continue as both Ibara Kuro: Black Label (above) and Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara (below) are on their way and looking sexy.





The Pink Sweets poster looks a bit disturbing though



There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by NoMaD

Man, I can't believe the general consensus is that ESP Ra.De is one of the easier Cave games! I mean, I can get up to Stage 5 on one credit in DoDonPachi (if I try real hard) but ESP slams me on Stage 2/3 :/

Does anyone else think this? Maybe I'm trying too hard to score properly...

Eh, I've always thought the general opinion of Ra.De is that it's shit hard and the scoring system makes no sense whatsoever.
You might be confusing it with ESPGALUDA, which is considered much more approachable and I'd agree.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Killing enemies as soon as they appear is a "scoring system which makes no sense whatsoever"? Ra.De isn't even that hard, I just have trouble dodging tight gaps since the hitbox is larger than the one in Galuda.

I don't think you quite understand how the system works.
I was referring to the jumble of levelling up to L4, then collecting bonus tokens up to 200, then having them decrease till you restart collecting to a higher count.
Not to mention how the multiplier system requires the use of the secondary shot and then shooting enemies with a normal shot before the bubbles disappear.

I'm not even sure if there's more to it, MrMonkeyMan can probably explain it better.

I didn't find the hitbox any bigger, it's simply on the charater's head as opposed to on the back like in Galuda.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

This is why I said you don't seem to know how the system works. The multiplier doesn't work like in Donpachi or DoDonpachi.

To up the multiplier you first need to hit enemies with the secondary shot and then destroy enemies with the normal shot while the secondary shot's "bubbles" are still up in the air. This is why super play video players destroy bosses with such strange and careful timing.

Once you reach power level 4 the 200 counter decreases. After which collecting again will get it up to 300, then 400, and so on.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Dodonpachi doesn't rely on killing enemies fast. It relies on killing enemies at a certain time so you can chain together a combo and continue to do so throughout the level.

Of course it relies on killing them fast, what the hell are you talking about? =/

After you shoot an enemy, you have a very brief moment of time to shoot another enemy to continue the chain and up your multiplier, you can see the gauge in the upper corner.

Just because you need to take care of in which order to shoot the enemies so as not to break the chain, doesn't mean you're not "killing them fast".

Similarly, of course ESP Ra.De's multiplier system requires you to kill enemies fast, but because of the necessary use of the secondary shot to initiate the multiplier in the first place, that's not all there is to it, and it's an entirely different system.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Elixir

It isn't really necessary which order you kill them in

Are you listening to yourself? Of course it's necessary to kill them in the right order if you want to keep up the chain. If you shoot the wrong enemy before you were supposed to, there'll be a break in enemy pattern and you'll lose the chain.

That's like saying killing order is irrelevant in Ikaruga. Sure you can improvise every now and then, but to keep a chain up, you need to follow an order.


And either way this doesn't even matter since the ESP Ra.De scoring system is not merely about killing enemies fast like you claimed.

Originally Posted by Sir VG

It's hard to count it when it doesn't scroll.

I don't know why anyone would count Space Invaders as a side scrolling shooter, but a vertical one is a bit different.
Warning Forever and rRootage are considered vertical shooters, even though the ships don't actually scroll upwards (even though the backgrounds do). In that sense Space Invaders would be one too cause of the viewpoint and mechanics. Change the graphics a little and add a scrolling 3D background and people would think it's a pastiche inside a vert shmup =P

FELIPE NO

Since my Japanese is very limited, I'm guessing Phantasmagoria of Flower View mixes characters from previous Touho games, right? The girl on the right in the first pic is from Imperishable Night, so I was curious whether there's a story to the game that explains it or if they just use characters in a megamix style.

Looks a lot like Twinkle Star Sprites actually, only less Puyo Pop style and more hardcore shmup dodging.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?