I love Psikyo

[shmupsrocks]

I'm new but so far I like the Psikyo style the best. The Strikers and Gunbird games are awesome. I'd love to find a Dragon Blaze board. Any other shmups you'd recommend based on this? Either Psikyo or otherwise.

[trap15]

You might enjoy the games in the Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings series.

Additionally, depending on why you like Psikyo, you may like Same! Same! Same!, Japanese 1P version.

[shmupsrocks]

From what I'm reading, Aero Fighters 1 was Psikyo but the sequels weren't. These are their best from what I can tell:

Aero Fighters 1 (as Video System)
Strikers 1
Strikers 2
Strikers 3
Gunbird 1
Gunbird 2
Dragon Blaze

Same! Same! Same! looks cool too.

[scrilla4rella]

Haven't played them myself but Vasara and Vasara 2 are said to be Psikyo-ish. You also might want to check out Cyvern by Kaneko

edit: Same! Same! Same! (aka Fire Shark) is a great game that you ought to play. Not sure I'd consider it similar to the Psikyo style tho...

[pegboy]

Sonic Wings for the Super Famicom. Much better than the arcade version IMO.

[trap15]

From what I'm reading, Aero Fighters 1 was Psikyo but the sequels weren't.

AF1 was designed by the same designer that went to Psikyo, but the development team is different I think. All of the games in the series play fairly similar to Psikyo and have a similar sorta-goofy bent to them.

[DietSoap]

Sonic Wings for the Super Famicom. Much better than the arcade version IMO.

How do you figure?

[garrz32]

Haven't played them myself but Vasara and Vasara 2 are said to be Psikyo-ish. You also might want to check out Cyvern by Kaneko

edit: Same! Same! Same! (aka Fire Shark) is a great game that you ought to play. Not sure I'd consider it similar to the Psikyo style tho...

Good shout, Vasara & 2 were the one's I thought of when reading the OP's question.

[Shepardus]

Game Tengoku is quite Psikyo-ish. Do yourself a favor and play Space Bomber too.

[FRO]

Gotta give another recommendation for Dragon Blaze. Probably the best thing Psikyo ever did, although Strikers 1945 II, Gunbird 2, and Tengai are all pretty good.

[Stevens]

Gotta give another recommendation for Dragon Blaze. Probably the best thing Psikyo ever did, although Strikers 1945 II, Gunbird 2, and Tengai are all pretty good.

No love for ZG 2?!?!

By the way congrats on the SE clear!

[Square_Air]

I find later NMK games have some similarities to Psikyo and Video System titles. Thunder Dragon 2 and Rapid Hero are the ones that specifically come to mind.

My personal Psikyo list out of the ones I've cleared goes something like this:

Top Tier:

• Gunbird 2
• Dragon Blaze
• Sengoku Blade

High Tier:

• Strikers 1945
• Space Bomber
• Strikers 1999

Mid Tier:

• Gunbird
• Sengoku Ace
• Strikers 1945 II
• Strikers 1945 Plus

Sol Divide Tier:

• Sol Divide

I honestly have a soft spot Psikyo, even Sol Divide is charming to me in some way. I really don't understand the praise Strikers II & Plus get, but both are still pretty good games. With how short Psikyo loops are it won't take long to try them all, so go for it.

[wiNteR]

Earlier:
Gunbird
Sengoku Ace
Strikers 1945

Mid:
Strikers 1945 II

Late:
Strikers1999
Gunbird2


The general trend is that moving from early to late we see more elaborate patterns.

I would not rate gunbird2 very high. While it is true that some of this comes to personal preferences, I feel that gunbird2 has some genuine issues. Personally the rhythm movements and really (I mean really) strange safe spots are a real disappointment. This is true for both stage-5 and stage-6 bosses (I can bear the stage-4 boss). I mean, it has great aesthetic, but that doesn't make up for its issues.

I would say Strikers II is one I like the most (but I haven't played many). Recently I have stopped using charged shots or basic shot on a couple of spots (because I feel the game is more fun this way). Mostly just stage-7 though (for example, no charge-shot on tank section, no basic-shot on the two boss like battles towards the end etc.). And no charge-shots at few spots on earlier levels (bosses on sky, sea, stage-5 for example). But that probably doesn't matter that much.
Other than that, I am trying to go NM all with as few bombs as possible. Probably 3 (necessary one on turrets), although 2 of them can be mitigated but the patterns are just not fun (stage-3 boss opening, stage-6 boss second phase).
"Very" gradually though ...... if I played more I could get it soon enough. But I don't have enough time for that.

Come to think of it, it is a bit of general issue with their games. A couple of patterns can be really unfun. I would say just bomb those parts. But I think that even I bombed those parts on GB2 (it is still pretty decent though), I still don't like it as much as StrikersII.

Anyway, fun games overall.

===

As for games that are Psikyo-ish, I am a bit suprised that Storm Blade isn't mentioned. I never went back for a NMNB clear (but probably should), but that is very much in-line with Psikyo style. Other than that perhaps JamesTown on hardest difficulty is sort of a vertizontal Psikyo (but I think that is likely much harder than any Psikyo game).

[shmupsrocks]

Storm Blade looks awesome!

[FRO]

Gotta give another recommendation for Dragon Blaze. Probably the best thing Psikyo ever did, although Strikers 1945 II, Gunbird 2, and Tengai are all pretty good.

No love for ZG 2?!?!

By the way congrats on the SE clear!

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, sadly.

[llaoyllakcuf]

Turbo Force is the precursor to Aerofighters and is quite good too, even with its steep difficulty curve.

Another cool game is Akuu Gallet. It has more in common with Raiden but is a great military-themed shooter that I would rate along with the Strikers series.

Lastly if you like Same! Same! Same!/Fire Shark, then check out Double Wings. It's a rather decent clone that gets intense more quickly than the original.

[shmupsrocks]

Akuu Gallet looks very cool!

[schleichfahrt]

Storm Blade looks awesome!

You will find Storm Blade to be significantly easier to finish than the whole Psikyo catalogue.

[Shepardus]

Also, AngerForce: Reloaded is quite obviously Psikyo-inspired, though I've never played it.

[opt2not]

I too love Psikyo games.

But if you're just starting out on Psikyo games, I don't recommend jumping into Dragon Blaze just yet. The difficulty level on that game is pretty high for your first entry, and may distract from learning the Psykyo system.

The Strikers I and II is good to start with, as well as the Gunbird set. Good introduction games to the Psikyo system, and they're still somewhat inexpensive PCB's to acquire...though I've noticed that Strikers 1 and 2 can no longer be had for under $100. Sad times.

I also feel very strongly that Strikers 1945 Plus on the Neo Geo platform is an underappreciated game. A lot of people give it crap because of the poorly converted sprites from their vertical resolutions to the more condensed horizontal format. But if you can look passed that, Plus is a very good entry to the Strikers series. It has a good balance of difficulty, level length, and I still love the randomized stage order for the first few levels. That amounts to a decent level of replay value. In addition, it has the best version of the Zero Fighter Type 52 (my favourite ship) -- it's slow, yes, but it's a beast in fire-power and feels really satisfying to play.

After Strikers and Gunbird, I'd recommend playing Samurai Aces/Sengoku Ace.

[shmupsrocks]

I have Strikers Plus but the slowdown is just incredible. Is it just me?

[D]

Sonic Wings Special either on ps or saturn. ps>saturn in this case.
In total 26 different ships, branchings paths, multiple endings.
Sort of a save state in between rounds.
I love this gem.

[shmupsrocks]

Any PCB or arcade cart for that one?

[Tokyo-J]

Said it a million times already. I just want them to release Space Bomber and Strikers 1999 at this point. Pilot Kids and the Original Zero Gunner would be a nice bonus.

[Square_Air]

I have Strikers Plus but the slowdown is just incredible. Is it just me?

It should be running like this.

I would not rate gunbird2 very high. While it is true that some of this comes to personal preferences, I feel that gunbird2 has some genuine issues. Personally the rhythm movements and really (I mean really) strange safe spots are a real disappointment. This is true for both stage-5 and stage-6 bosses (I can bear the stage-4 boss). I mean, it has great aesthetic, but that doesn't make up for its issues.

While the final attack of the stage 5 boss and the radial spread from the stage 6 boss are pretty silly (Psikyo shows little restraint, and throws loop 2 patterns into loop 1), I wouldn't consider these to be genuine issues. The only actual safespot that I would consider to be strange is the previously mentioned single attack from the stage 6 boss. The stage 4 and 5 bosses are amongst my favourites in the genre, so I can't really relate to this.

One thing that always fascinates me is when people talk about Psikyo games not being fun to learn when compared to other developers output. I've never really encountered this, but maybe after a few more 2-Alls I'll have a different opinion.

[wiNteR]

While the final attack of the stage 5 boss and the radial spread from the stage 6 boss are pretty silly (Psikyo shows little restraint, and throws loop 2 patterns into loop 1), I wouldn't consider these to be genuine issues. The only actual safespot that I would consider to be strange is the previously mentioned single attack from the stage 6 boss. The stage 4 and 5 bosses are amongst my favourites in the genre, so I can't really relate to this.

Stage-4 boss is fine (as I mentioned).

For stage-5 boss, well it is just that one has to encounter this in both loops. Also, with second loop, this becomes worse in a number of ways.

For example, if you have a death just before (and rank is low), the rhythmic movement for stage-5 boss becomes different. The movement also seems to differ enough between loops! By the way the first phase of the boss is okay (I am just talking specifically about the rhythm movement attacks).

Another thing is that with stage-6 boss, on the second loop, the dense bullet pattern is also not any fun in the second loop (on top of the radial one).

===

I think if I play it next time, I will rather use some bombs on these specific parts though (to mitigate this). But if these certain parts were different, the game would be better for it imo. Anyway, that's not all (these were the points that could be described directly).

There is also a certain holistic way the game plays (hard to pinpoint), which felt more fun to me in strikers (1 and 2 in particular .... though I have just seen videos of 1). I guess that the difference (between GB2 and strikers-1,2) feels less pronounced between stages than in bosses. Maybe it is just that I like popcorn enemies during the boss fights (as I re-call, in GB2, a good number of phases have no popcorn).

At any rate, I think it is a reasonably good game. I just felt like adding some actual discussion about specific aspects.