shmuplations.com - 12/1 Zanac

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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/14 R-Type sound and music

Post by emphatic »

Most awesome!
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/14 R-Type sound and music

Post by BIL »

Oh cool, I didn't realise the Wild Guns interview was with Shunichi Taniguchi (just got around to reading it). One of my favourite names in classic Japanese action gaming along with Nobuya Nakazato and Shigeharu Umezaki. Dragon Fighter, Yami no Shigotonin Kage, Solbrain, SFC Kiki Kaikai, The Ninja Warriors Again and Wild Guns is a serious resume. Good to finally hear his thoughts - I love that he and the rest of his team paid no mind to the then-upcoming generation while perfecting their SFC technique. Natsume's best works (adding Abadox and Final Mission to the aforementioned) always strike me as labours of love.

Interesting that they were aware of WG's counterstop issues. It's too bad they couldn't iron them out in time, though it's most definitely not a game wanting for appeal. I still like score attacking the opening stage from time to time.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 9/4 R-Type II, Image Fight

Post by blackoak »

Thanks guys, I'm always glad to see these enjoyed. I read them for my own pleasure but translation is about sharing with others, hehe.

Added the second Irem alumni interview, this time with R-Type II, Image Fight, X-Multiply, and Ninja Spirit composer Masahiko Ishida. More cool little stories from Irem, including an in-house Image Fight score challenge. Apparently Ishida was a pretty good player.

Continuing with my non-shmup interviews, I also added a Contra: Hard Corps developer commentary (thanks BIL for some clarifications) and a short interview with Natsume composer Hiroyuki Iwatsuki (Wild Guns, Kiki Kaikai, Mitsume ga Tooru, etc). Should have more stuff from Iwatsuki and Natsume in the coming months too.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 9/4 R-Type II, Image Fight, X-Multipl

Post by BIL »

Nice layout for the Hard Corps GT Robot's three forms. :smile: I wish that thing had been given its own spinoff game.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 9/4 R-Type II, Image Fight, X-Multipl

Post by jepjepjep »

Thanks for the excellent translations blackoak!

I love this part of the Ishida interview:
One interesting story I have about Image Fight:.! The designers came to me at one point and asked me to change the length of the songs I had already written But I was not going to let that happen without a fight So I challenged one of the designers to a game of Image Fight:. if I lost, I would change the songs Normally, you would think I'd have no chance against the designers at their own game, but I too had played it a great deal without music, and I was now an expert at it. We both ended up making it to stage 2 of the second loop, but my score was lower, so I lost. As promised, I changed the length of one of the songs, and added that final piano outro to the ending theme.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by blackoak »

I haven't been doing a lot of shmup stuff lately (coming soon next month), but my recent "Nintendo" themed update does have an interesting interview about Star Fox. Yeah its a rail shooter, and yeah there isn't too much about the game mechanics itself, but there is a bunch of pontificating by Shigeru Miyamoto about STGs in general. It's an interesting perspective to read so I thought it warranted a share here.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by BIL »

Good read! Don't necessarily agree with the sentiments, unsurprisingly, but it's interesting hearing from a prominent dev "outside" the genre. Was just having a grand old time playing Galaxy Force II via my 2DS on the train home, so I was in the mood for a bit of borderliner talk.

I actually picked up the SFC game very recently after seeing several guys I trust praise its purity as a rail shooter. It's dead cheap even complete so I thought I'd give it a go. Was surprised that I was able to get into it with the brutally low framerate, but it's true that while you're at the controls it hangs together unexpectedly well, and it really has zero filler. It makes SF64 feel like virtual reality circa 30,000 AD afterward, too!
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by MathU »

Star Fox is a 3D shmup, not a rail shooter, so it's very welcome. It's great to hear Miyamoto himself re-affirm this too. Thanks!
Of course, that's just an opinion.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by Pretas »

It's still tragic that Star Fox 2 was canceled to make way for the N64 after the game was essentially complete. I don't see why they couldn't have released both, and in some ways it's actually more advanced than SF64 (and certainly the most technically impressive SNES game ever). Some of its unique elements eventually found their way into Command on DS, but that ended up being largely a disappointment.

Nintendo should at least give it a cleaned up Virtual Console release to go alongside the upcoming Wii U Star Fox.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by Lord Satori »

I love Star Fox. Though I never played command. Did I miss anything?
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by Squire Grooktook »

"Moreover, when you see how players seem to be fully satisfied with playing all the earlier STGs, it’s easy to feel that this existing strain of STG games is at its end."

Ironic considering this was the age of Toaplan. The danmaku score chasing was yet to begin...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by GSK »

Nothing to do with shmuplations, but here's another translated SF interview from a little while back (once again, something I showed to someone but couldn't afford to pay for... ugh):

http://www.glitterberri.com/star-fox/message-from-god/

It's a pretty typical staff questionnaire, but it's nice to be able to get a peek at exactly who did what, especially as people seem to think Miyamoto singlehandedly chisels these games out of granite with his teeth or something.

Pretas wrote:It's still tragic that Star Fox 2 was canceled to make way for the N64 after the game was essentially complete. I don't see why they couldn't have released both, and in some ways it's actually more advanced than SF64 (and certainly the most technically impressive SNES game ever). Some of its unique elements eventually found their way into Command on DS, but that ended up being largely a disappointment.

Nintendo should at least give it a cleaned up Virtual Console release to go alongside the upcoming Wii U Star Fox.
When they made the decision to cancel the release of SF2 they were expecting the N64 to hit the market much sooner than it did; if they'd known the N64 was going to be delayed so many times they probably would have released SF2 after all.

The other factor was cost: the SFX2 chip wasn't cheap, and they had a royalty arrangement with Argonaut that chewed away some of the profits, too. Completing and then mothballing SF2 was allegedly done by Nintendo as a way to fulfill the terms of their arrangement with Argonaut once they realised they didn't need them anymore (ie they'd obtained all their knowhow and/or their key personnel).
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by ACSeraph »

Great stuff, its interesting to read the perspective of such a big name. Looks like "shmups are dead" has been a 20 year tradition.

After that I sorta fell down the rabbit hole and started reading all sorts of different stuff on the site. So much great content! But gawd-dam that Asada interview was more depressing than crippled puppy...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by nekketsu »

LOL @ the developer mugshots in the Starfox interview GSK posted. Anyway interesting stuff

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Re: shmuplations.com - 10/21 Star Fox

Post by EmperorIng »

Reading Miyamoto's thoughts was indeed fun. I don't think he was too far off from the truth, considering the time. Lots of samey awkward shmups probably oversaturated things to a point where Miyamoto et al. must have hoped that Star Fox would be a total game changer. Or at least a breath of fresh air.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by blackoak »

glad to hear you guys enjoyed the Star Fox interview. I also thought it was amusing to read Miyamoto's comments on STG.

@ACSeraph, that's exactly what I like to hear... falling "down the rabbit hole" hehe. I haven't tried reading all the content on shmuplations front to back but I imagine it would take a few afternoons.

Bump with two new interviews: Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun. Both are with Hiroshi Iuchi and Masato Maegawa... probably should be read as companion pieces actually. Neither interview goes into the kind of depth that these games deserve (STG Gameside should get on that, hehe...) but there's still lots of cool insights.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by BulletMagnet »

I hope players get long and full enjoyment out of the real-time puzzle game that is Ikaruga.
Heh, assuming this quote was translated accurately a lot of snarky commenters here will be stretching their arms skyward to a rousing orchestral sweep, Shawshank Redemption style...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by Squire Grooktook »

BulletMagnet wrote:
I hope players get long and full enjoyment out of the real-time puzzle game that is Ikaruga.
Heh, assuming this quote was translated accurately a lot of snarky commenters here will be stretching their arms skyward to a rousing orchestral sweep, Shawshank Redemption style...
I picture Xiga doing that.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by GSK »

I think Iuchi has mentioned Image Fight in every interview I've read. I really need to get onto that game someday.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by xxx1993 »

So, Ikaruga was never a sequel to Radiant Silvergun? Even though there have been some people saying that it is, and that the Stone-Like from Ikaruga is the same one from Radiant Silvergun, and that Ikaruga tied up loose ends to Radiant Silvergun by destroying the Stone-Like and breaking the endless cycle that humanity couldn't break out of?
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by Pretas »

xxx1993 wrote:So, Ikaruga was never a sequel to Radiant Silvergun? Even though there have been some people saying that it is, and that the Stone-Like from Ikaruga is the same one from Radiant Silvergun, and that Ikaruga tied up loose ends to Radiant Silvergun by destroying the Stone-Like and breaking the endless cycle that humanity couldn't break out of?
That's just fanon. The Stone-Like's appearance in Ikaruga has no relevance to the plot of RSG, they are in completely different universes. It's merely a recycled design that's meant to be indicative of the conceptual link between both games.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by Squire Grooktook »

I don't think it's fanon or canon. I think it's one of those intentional "leave it to your imagination" type things, where they deliberately put the recurring characters and concepts in to create a sense of continuity/world building and encourage fans to speculate and imagine a larger story then is actually present in game. I think it's up to the player to decide if Ikaruga is truly the story sequel to RSG or not, because it could easily go either way.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by ciox »

There's no indication whatsoever that the Stonelike was destroyed, and that's not an accident, don't forget RS-3 was in the works at some point.
What it seems like is that the "restrain devices" placed on the Stonelike were destroyed instead, allowing the Stonelike to annihilate everything and turn dormant like in Silvergun.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by blackoak »

BulletMagnet wrote:Heh, assuming this quote was translated accurately a lot of snarky commenters here will be stretching their arms skyward to a rousing orchestral sweep, Shawshank Redemption style...
Hehe yeah, he actually says "real time puzzle" in katakana.
xxx1993 wrote:So, Ikaruga was never a sequel to Radiant Silvergun?
I think this interview quote makes it pretty clear it was a spiritual sequel more than a direct sequel: "If you want to call Ikaruga a sequel to Radiant Silvergun then you can call it a sequel, but it’s a little different than your typical “Part 2″ or “Part 3″ direct sequel. In reality it’s an entirely different game." Later on he says that they wanted to make a more official, directly connected Radiant Silvergun trilogy at first, but those plans never materialized.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by xxx1993 »

Then they should make some changes on TV Tropes, because if you see the articles of both games on that site, they make it look like Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga are connected.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/V ... tSilvergun
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Ikaruga
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by rtw »

First of all thank you for yet another brilliant translation blackoak!
xxx1993 wrote:So, Ikaruga was never a sequel to Radiant Silvergun?
I think it was intended to, if you decrypt the NAOMI image of Ikaruga,
extract the PVR files and then search you will find this:

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Note the black on green letters...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by xxx1993 »

I saw that before, when I first played it on the GameCube.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by xxx1993 »

Just out of curiosity, do the events of Radiant Silvergun occur on a Friday the 13th? Because every stage (with the exception of the flashback stage, Reminiscence, which took place a year before the events of the game) says "7.13", which is July 13th, 2521. I assume that it's on a Friday the 13th, which means mankind is doomed on the most unluckiest day.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

Post by Icarus »

xxx1993 wrote:I assume that it's on a Friday the 13th, which means mankind is doomed on the most unluckiest day.
It's a Sunday, actually.
Which means mankind is doomed on the day half the planet has a lie in.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 12/3 Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun

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Icarus wrote:It's a Sunday, actually.
Which means mankind is doomed on the day half the planet has a lie in.
Bloody typical that.
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