R-Type Delta or Einhander?

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KimagureMachibuse

R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by KimagureMachibuse »

Both games are both 3D polygonal games desingned for console that have a very similar feel in their look art direction and soundtrack but are quite differnet in every way yet which of the 2 games do you prefer?
Last edited by KimagureMachibuse on Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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kid aphex
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by kid aphex »

Man, what a difficult question!
R-Type Delta is so well done, especially considering it was the series’ first foray into 3D and 3D itself was in it’s early days.
Einhander had such a strong vibe and soundtrack, the awesome new arm mechanic and it was Squaresoft’s first STG!

I’ll be super curious to hear people’s responses on this one.
For me? They’re equals.
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Rastan78
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Rastan78 »

I was lucky enough to play both of these at release in the day. Einhander is no slouch though I have to give it to Delta. The atmospheric vibe and memorable stage design made the game stay lodged in my memory for years after I was done playing.

Einhander's weapon system was cool and at the same time just a bit too tedious and finicky for me.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

kid aphex wrote:it was Squaresoft’s first STG!
You'd never know it from the title, but that honour belongs to the first game they ever created & published on Famicom, King's Knight:

Image

They programmed and published the Famicom port of Thexder immediately before that as well. Not sure whether folks would place that squarely (heh) in the STG category though, and it was a Game Arts creation to begin with.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Sloppy_J »

Such a hard one to call, both are PS1 essentials.

I’ve always loved the way the bosses are introduced in Einhander, the presentation was really top notch. Delta is an absolute joy to play, great atmosphere, and most importantly it gets the fundamentals right.

Delta wins for me but not by much.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by sunnshiner »

I absolutely love Delta. I had it for my PS1 BITD, bought from a bargain bin ex-rental clearance in Blockbuster for a fiver :lol:
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kid aphex
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by kid aphex »

You know, I just discovered this three days ago and already forgot about it.
:oops:
Sengoku Strider wrote:
kid aphex wrote:it was Squaresoft’s first STG!
You'd never know it from the title, but that honour belongs to the first game they ever created & published on Famicom, King's Knight:

Image

They programmed and published the Famicom port of Thexder immediately before that as well. Not sure whether folks would place that squarely (heh) in the STG category though, and it was a Game Arts creation to begin with.
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BrianC
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by BrianC »

Sengoku Strider wrote: You'd never know it from the title, but that honour belongs to the first game they ever created & published on Famicom, King's Knight:
Funny thing is that I mistook it for an RPG the first time I saw a screenshot, before reading more about the game.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by xxx1993 »

Einhander.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Tarma »

Einhander.

Delta is too dark (palette wise) for me, and tied with the limitiations of early polygonal shmups I struggle to tell what the hell is going on a lot of the time. I have the same issue with Thunderforce V.

Einhander is an awesome game, and it's disappointing Square never made another foray into the genre (not that I know of anyhoo).
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by BIL »

Einhander didn't quite come out of nowhere on the STG front; it was directed by Tatsuo Fuji, who'd previously worked on Gradius II and XEXEX at Konami. Good man to have at the helm!

Actually, XEXEX's ship isn't entirely dissimilar from Einhander's. Similarly insectoid displacement of the cockpit from the body. I think Jonny2x4 mentioned there being multiple ex-Konami staff onboard, would have to go look 'em up though.

Image

As to the thread title, I'd feel like a gaping asshole going without either. Image They excel in an uncannily similar niche; technical, special weapons-intensive horis with impeccably cool direction and generous servings of walloping violence. Delta's space/horror aesthetic is more my jam but that's about it.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

BrianC wrote:
Sengoku Strider wrote: You'd never know it from the title, but that honour belongs to the first game they ever created & published on Famicom, King's Knight:
Funny thing is that I mistook it for an RPG the first time I saw a screenshot, before reading more about the game.
I'm sure just about everyone does. It's why I included the gif, it doesn't fully click until you see it in motion.
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BIL
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by BIL »

I mean it's kind of an RPG, in that if you reach the final stage without finding all the Sacred Charmz™, the game just piledrives you into a literal brickwall and kills you. :lol:

Concept: "Build the strongest four-man party you can, then challenge the final stage!"
Reality: "Missed a secret tile? EAT WALL YOU FUCK"

Proud owner of a NOS Famicom copy. :cool: Best feature: KID THIEF TOBY and his absolutely fucked walking animation, the boy's nuts must be all twisted up :shock:
Last edited by BIL on Thu Aug 25, 2022 7:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by To Far Away Times »

R-Type Delta is one of my favorite shmups of all time.

It's got a great cinematic flair. The barrel roll on stage 1, diving into the water on stage 2, the little breather from the bydo assault and turning the corner on stage 6, all of the last stage.

The visual design

The music

That game is perfection.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by donluca »

I'm honestly surprised by the people that preferred Einhander, for me it's R-Type Delta all the way.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Jonpachi »

I played the hell out of Einhander back in the day, but never thought much about R-Type Delta and didn't really experience it until much later in life. As such, it's hard to put on my "PSone Glasses" and see it for what it IS or even for what it WAS. That era of 3D is really hard to appreciate without a healthy swig of nostalgia juice.
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gray117
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by gray117 »

Einhander for me.

That's not a knock against delta. Its just Einhander is the more impactful and unique title for me.
Martinov
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Martinov »

Delta is one of my favourite hori shmups.

Einhander is a strange one. It never quite clicked for me, but I do still like it nonetheless.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Steven »

I bought a super cheap Einhander about a year and a half ago and haven't really played it yet, but it is a nice game from what I have played. I do have Delta digitally on PS3, but I really want a real copy of it and have not gotten around to buying it. I see the game all the time in stores, but I don't typically carry cash with me, so I have yet to buy it.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

I used to subscribe to the U.S. Official Playstation magazine and it came with a PSX demo disc every month. On one particular OPM demo disc was a single stage demo presentation of Einhander to try your hand at. Wow, I was blown away by the overall gritty sci-fi presentation of it that I knew I had to pre-order it at my local Funcoland when it was listed to be for sale on it's American launch debut date priced at $44.99 usd back in 1997. Of course, Target had got their allotted amount of Einhander copies for sale and was priced at $39.99 usd (five bucks cheaper to boot as well). Bought it on day one of debut release as it was heavily promoted as the cool stg title to get/own/play.

As for R-Type Delta, I managed to get the Japanese PSX version of it and was blown away by the Dual Shock 1 rumble effects used quite masterfully throughout the entire game (only Squaresoft's iS: internal section makes extensive usage of the Dual Shock 1 rumble effects quite effectively & is regarded the 2nd PSX game title to do so with it's 1999 debut release). When the American game publisher, Agetech, finally released the US version of R-Type Delta, I bought it as well.

Their both powerhouse PSX stg titles worthy of anyone's stg collection indeed.

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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by kayakoyaka »

Delta is probably my favorite shmup of all time, so yeah. BTW, is there a legal way to buy Delta? It got delisted from PS3 store years ago, and never resurfaced again even as other R-Type games were being released.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by copy-paster »

kayakoyaka wrote:BTW, is there a legal way to buy Delta? It got delisted from PS3 store years ago, and never resurfaced again even as other R-Type games were being released.
Check other PSN store if it's still available, and if not then you're out of luck must go with teh ROMz route. :lol:

Einhander's limited ammo make me itchy sometimes especially in recoveries before bosses, they usually give you basic gunpods not strong enough to kill bosses. And stage 2 drags too long sadly while the rest of the stages are well-paced, no stage select and cheat mode makes it impractical to practice in real hardware.

Delta's obviously my pick here, hell I think Delta is more of action game than shmup given how tight stage design and atmosphere is. If Gamefaqs sources are reliable, Delta's probably the only shmup with ridiculous unlockables which is to access stage select you have to use Delta weapon for 1000 times! Well you can skip this by entering gameshark codes, or play with invincibilty/full-power codes during in-game (thankfully these are available any time even when you died many times).
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Austin »

To Far Away Times wrote:R-Type Delta is one of my favorite shmups of all time.

It's got a great cinematic flair. The barrel roll on stage 1, diving into the water on stage 2, the little breather from the bydo assault and turning the corner on stage 6, all of the last stage.

The visual design

The music

That game is perfection.
100% agreed. Summed up way better than I ever could.
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MintyTheCat
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by MintyTheCat »

Einhänder embodies that Shmup spirit of 'you're on your own against insurmountable foes' very well.
The entire premise of the game's background and story is kind of dark.

R-Type Delta was the reason that I bought a PS1, and this was before I owned a Saturn and had not even played one up to that point.

It is very hard to choose one over the other as they are very different Shmups.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by xxx1993 »

Why not pit Einhander against another game that's considered the best of its genre? Ikaruga?
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Bydobasher »

Both are among my favourite shmups, but Einhander wins.

Graphics: Einhander more polished -- though admittedly the "mechanical" look of the game lends itself better to PSX technology than Delta's more organic scenes.

Sound: Tough call, because I love the "dynamic" quality of Delta (e.g. the underwater music in stage 2, the "crescendo" when facing stage 3 walker, the building intensity throughout stage 6, etc.), but nevertheless Einhander may edge it with its driving beats and superior sound effects (esp. for the various weapons!).

Stages, bosses: great designs in both, challenging and fun. This is even.

Ship selections: again both are great. The R-ships are all unique and useful, and POW is a great bonus. But then, the Einhanders are also a varied and effective trio, with the Selene a great "prize" ship, and the "police ship" changing the gameplay very considerably. Even again? It's close.

In the final analysis, the fact that Einhander is an original is a point in its favour also. I love Delta, but not more than the first R-Type game (or the second for that matter).

EINHANDER
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BrianC
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by BrianC »

BIL wrote:I mean it's kind of an RPG, in that if you reach the final stage without finding all the Sacred Charmz™, the game just piledrives you into a literal brickwall and kills you. :lol:

Concept: "Build the strongest four-man party you can, then challenge the final stage!"
Reality: "Missed a secret tile? EAT WALL YOU FUCK"

Proud owner of a NOS Famicom copy. :cool: Best feature: KID THIEF TOBY and his absolutely fucked walking animation, the boy's nuts must be all twisted up :shock:
And then there's King's Knight Special on the PC-88 that replaces some (all?) of the underground sections with dungeon stages and allows you to pick the character at start.
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BIL
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by BIL »

Damn that sounds rad. :shock: Unironic FC ver appreciator, but it's undeniably a cheeky bastard with its "ARPG" pretensions. :lol:
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by Kobayashi »

I own both and my favorite is R-Type Delta, the best in the series in my humble opinion.
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Re: R-Type Delta or Einhander?

Post by FRO »

It's a difficult choice, but I would have to go with Einhander. The sheer amount of time I put into that game when I first bought it was immense, and having gone over it again a few years ago for my podcast, I found myself pulled right back into it. The soundtrack is crazy good, the atmosphere of the game is unmatched for the hardware on the genre, and the game's sense of scale is great. There's a lot to like with it, and despite my frustrations with a couple boss encounters later in the game, and the difficulty I had with the final level, it's a great game, and one that I enjoy going back to.
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