Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO Int.

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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Plasmo »

xxx1993 wrote:You're welcome. But I'm the only one so far who actually doesn't mind the dialogue.
But that's only because you are actually the Raiden pilot!

And there can only be one.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by xxx1993 »

That's right. I am Raiden.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

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No, I am the Iron Fist!
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by NeoStrayCat »

BrianC wrote:No, I am the Iron Fist!
That's Tekken, lol.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by BrianC »

NeoStrayCat wrote:
BrianC wrote:No, I am the Iron Fist!
That's Tekken, lol.
Spoiler
Actually, it was a reference to the second person narrative in Marvel's early Iron Fist comics
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by qmish »

Ok, finally played a bit.

A bit harsh on eyes due to color decisions (and i don't mean bullet visibility), bloom effect, zooming out (aaah so small) etc.
Bosses (except 1st) and some enemies have those crazy ass ?psikyo? like patterns that are both bullethellish and fast, not sure about liking that (though Raiden IV had it starting with last form of st2 boss but here in R5 its much much stronger). Bosses are cool though.

How to mute voice? I can only disable chat by pressing RB.

"Advice" section on the left is adorable :P Gotta read what they say
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Obscura »

You can mute voices by going into the sound options and setting "voices" to 0.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

After putting a fair bit of time into Raiden IV, and really enjoying that, and watching the Bullet Heaven review of Raiden V, I'm slightly apprehensive about it. I only got my PS4 in the last couple weeks, but bought Raiden V early, in anticipation of getting the console. I'm probably just being silly, but Raiden III was such a lackluster experience, compared to the 2 games that bookend it, and especially the Jet series, that I'm hoping V won't be similarly underwhelming.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Austin »

FRO wrote:After putting a fair bit of time into Raiden IV, and really enjoying that, and watching the Bullet Heaven review of Raiden V, I'm slightly apprehensive about it. I only got my PS4 in the last couple weeks, but bought Raiden V early, in anticipation of getting the console. I'm probably just being silly, but Raiden III was such a lackluster experience, compared to the 2 games that bookend it, and especially the Jet series, that I'm hoping V won't be similarly underwhelming.
By the sound of it, you probably will not enjoy V all that much.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

Austin wrote:
FRO wrote:After putting a fair bit of time into Raiden IV, and really enjoying that, and watching the Bullet Heaven review of Raiden V, I'm slightly apprehensive about it. I only got my PS4 in the last couple weeks, but bought Raiden V early, in anticipation of getting the console. I'm probably just being silly, but Raiden III was such a lackluster experience, compared to the 2 games that bookend it, and especially the Jet series, that I'm hoping V won't be similarly underwhelming.
By the sound of it, you probably will not enjoy V all that much.
That's not very comforting :lol:

I watched the Bullet Heaven review of it, and they indicated that it's still a solid game, even if it strays a bit far from the series' pedigree. I'm hoping it clicks with me at some level. I've really enjoyed Raiden IV's return to form, because I've always been such a fan of the first 2 Raiden games.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Austin »

FRO wrote:I watched the Bullet Heaven review of it, and they indicated that it's still a solid game, even if it strays a bit far from the series' pedigree. I'm hoping it clicks with me at some level. I've really enjoyed Raiden IV's return to form, because I've always been such a fan of the first 2 Raiden games.
Ha! Well, it is Bullet Heaven. Nearly everything they cover is, at the very least, "solid" in their book. :lol:

In regards to the Raiden series I feel similarly. I hold the original two games in very high regard. IV was a welcome return to form for me after the lackluster III and I was hoping V would follow suit. It doesn't. I do still recommend trying it and forming your own opinion, and it'll be interesting to hear what you think about it after you try it. Just don't go in expecting a lot.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

Austin wrote:
FRO wrote:Ha! Well, it is Bullet Heaven. Nearly everything they cover is, at the very least, "solid" in their book. :lol:

In regards to the Raiden series I feel similarly. I hold the original two games in very high regard. IV was a welcome return to form for me after the lackluster III and I was hoping V would follow suit. It doesn't. I do still recommend trying it and forming your own opinion, and it'll be interesting to hear what you think about it after you try it. Just don't go in expecting a lot.
Yeah, I suppose Ser is a pretty amiable guy, and it takes a lot to cause him to call a game crap. I'll have to boot it up soon, maybe when I'm done with my play-through of Axiom Verge.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by xxx1993 »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FihXWnyQn1o

Wait, you can get the bad ending on the S route? How?
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by NeoStrayCat »

xxx1993 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FihXWnyQn1o

Wait, you can get the bad ending on the S route? How?
Judge Spear on the comments mentioned that all your weapons have to be LV. 10 prior to triggering the TLB to appear. If you don't trigger the requirement, you don't get the good ending, only the bad ending.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by xxx1993 »

I thought you'd get a rather decent ending compared to the bad ending...
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by xxx1993 »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6RqIcdMlPc

Hey, I don't remember this ending at all... I beat the game several times on the S route and even defeated Divine Rampart, but I don't recall seeing this ending.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

Just credit fed my way through Raiden V. The overall mechanics are good, I like the option for 3 different weapon styles for each type, and I appreciate the auto-collection mechanic for the medal drops. The soundtrack, while not as immediately memorable as IV, is good, and I could definitely hear allusions to previous games in the series. The game starts out really easy, and ramps up somewhat by the 3rd set of stages, or at least that was what I experienced. The HUD was WAY too busy, and the near-constant chatter was a big distraction. It made sense in Philisoma, and I appreciated the novelty of it then, because that was a cinematic shmup, not so much a scoring shooter. I do appreciate the risk/reward aspect of medal collection, both airborne and ground based. Some of the bullet patterns verge on danmaku, but are far too fast to effectively dodge, unless you have them totally memorized. I suppose that’s the point, however. The graphics were good, overall, though it’s a little weird that the ship looks kinda low poly when it’s up close for the scene transitions. It made me think of The Raiden Project, and those 3D models used in the attract sequence. Overall, it’s enjoyable, but probably not something I will go back to nearly as often as IV or even the first two. However, it was worth playing through, and I might do it again sometime. Odd that the game has free play enabled by default...
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by sbester »

I just played for the first time last night, absolutely loved it!
This series has never let me down. I'm always hesitant to play a new one, thus why I waited on this one even though I bought it day 1. It just worries me that a new entry will kill the franchise for me, but honestly, I've still never been let down!
As an aside note, I know a lot of people hate III, but I'm not one of them.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Strider77 »

The soundtrack in IV was completely forgettable.
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

Strider77 wrote:The soundtrack in IV was completely forgettable.
Really? I quite liked the soundtrack to IV, and since I bought the version that came with the soundtrack CD, I have spun that in the car a bunch of times over the last couple years. I like the callbacks to earlier Raiden music, and find the totally new material to be solid as well.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Gespenst »

From what I found within the game data it seems they initially planned for more playable ships. There are leftovers indicating more playable ships from other nations (Germany, China, Russia) in player data text.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

Gespenst wrote:From what I found within the game data it seems they initially planned for more playable ships. There are leftovers indicating more playable ships from other nations (Germany, China, Russia) in player data text.
You mean that they had structure there for ships via DLC, or that they potentially planned on including more craft in general?
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by EmperorIng »

I had some extra cash come in so I finally picked this up. My initial impressions are really positive. The difficulty seems significantly lower for the first stage and a half, but that itself is a nod towards a more casual crowd (as well as story chatter*, and all the fun fluff along the side of the screen). The game feels "modern" in a way that many other shooters do not. Even venerable Raiden IV can feel a little archaic (especially since it seems like half the soundtrack is reheated selections from previous Raiden games). The bloom can be a little annoying on the second stage, when yellow bullets are set against a desert town, but those gripes feel niggling at best right now.

Weapon selection is neat, but I stick with mostly the purple homing lasers. They seem to ensure the highest destruction rate. I don't know how to unlock the branching paths yet, but I look forward to figuring out.

However, I'm having a problem with the game on PC: I'm getting the message that "raiden5_one.ex has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware" on my Windows 10 PC. I assume this is why the intro FMV doesn't play. I'm sure I updated my nvidia driver. Has anyone else gotten this message, and if so, do they know a fix?

EDIT: nevermind, I had to go into the Windows Device Manager and manually update my nvidia drivers, which solved the problem. So much for Geforce "taking care" of things for me... :roll:
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Despatche »

They're not really branching paths, more like different difficulties for each stage, like Deathsmiles. They're selected based on how well you do (I think how many enemies you shoot down), but it's pretty easy to get S stages for most of the game.

You want to keep switching weapons until you max out all three weapon types. This triggers the TLB if you reach stage 8-S. Weapon levels are easier to build in Director's Cut than the original game, due to the Mission stages.
FRO wrote:You mean that they had structure there for ships via DLC, or that they potentially planned on including more craft in general?
Likely DLC, considering Raiden IV's ship DLC. However, that could have been an extra perk for Director's Cut as well.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by FRO »

I forgot to post my impressions as well. I ended up playing this a few weeks ago, and credit-fed my way through it. I don't feel the same pull to improve and eventually go for a 1CC in this, like I do with Raiden IV. I'm not sure what it is, but it just didn't grab me like I was hoping. The music seemed fine, and once I get the soundtrack CD ripped to my computer and copied to my phone, I suspect that will go into rotation, but until I listen to it more, I won't know if I like it more or less than that of Raiden IV, or any of the previous OSTs, for that matter. Something about the game just feels "off" compared to previous entries. For all of its blandness, Raiden III still feels quintessentially Raiden to me, but Raiden V doesn't have the same kind of feel. I'll qualify that also by saying that I haven't played ANY of the Raiden Fighters entries yet (I know, shame on me), and I know those take a different direction than the main series, so it's possible I'll find some connections there. However, I did enjoy the overall experience of playing through it, and while I don't see myself going back to it frequently, it's something that I might like to explore more down the road sometime. Perhaps after I finally get the Raiden IV 1CC, I would come back to this one and give it a try.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by EmperorIng »

I think the music in this game is more dynamic and interesting than the catchy, but samey synth poppy stuff they had in Raiden III* and IV. Raiden IV has too many Raiden remixes (how many times can I type Raiden in this post? stay tuned). That stage 1 theme, man. Amazing stuff. Variety, in a Raiden game? What is this, the future? :P

I know that the weapons seem to have varied effectiveness, but I like options. I prefer a mess if it means I can fine-tune my mess (see: Mars Matrix. Not in weapon variety per se, but how you can approach the stage/enemies). That cycling blue laser with the crystal can do some really mean damage to bosses, but getting that crystal inside the boss, and getting it out enough so that you can hit it with your laser and activate the spin... Takes some finesse and can be fun to pull off.

I'm starting to like all the zooms in and out. Sometimes it's annoying as you trudge your ship across a wide space, but the trade-off is that it makes the stages more dynamic and interesting. I don't know where Moss was coming with all these fresh ideas for the genre in a series that usually typifies "playing it safe" of all things. Even the health bar is well done: some attacks hurt more, and you gain an itty-bitty sliver back per stage, enough to convince you you can survive just a little longer.

The difficulty feels great. The game can get a little tricky by stage 2, but stage 3's port attack really ups the heat. The difficulty feels a bit more natural and pleasant than a "get them off the machine by stage 2" formula that we've all seen so many times by now. I've made it to the boss of stage 4 on a credit, which feels about right. The Missions feel a little weird, but the music and chance to power up your weapons make up for it.

I'm going to play this some more but this is already knocking off a couple of titles off my ol' top 25 ballot. It's just all-around pleasing. Everyone get to playing it! I'll cheer for you if you want :wink:

*hey, still good music though. Can't comment on the game since I haven't played it.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Despatche »

The above post is basically why I've been so frustrated by the reaction to Raiden V. It has all the right elements to be a critical darling, but it was bashed by ignorant and undiscerning clowns. I mean there are people who unironically say it's just a retread of the previous games, despite being different enough that you could have actually called it something else (hello Viper Phase 1). It's just another example of how bullshit "opinions" really are, noone cares about actual game quality. The best proof? Imagine if something like this had been released on the 360, perhaps instead of Raiden IV. It would have been heralded as the best shmup ever made, probably.

The problem with III is that the "earth" songs (stages 1~3) are really good, but the "space" (4~6) songs are kinda boring (the stage 7 song is alright for a final stage theme). But that was what the composer was asked to do, for some reason. Really weird.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Shepardus »

Despatche wrote:Imagine if something like this had been released on the 360, perhaps instead of Raiden IV. It would have been heralded as the best shmup ever made, probably.
Heralded as a good game, maybe even great, but "best shmup ever" would be a stretch considering how much people like CAVE-style danmaku and scoring. Talk about "actual game quality" and your "facts" all you want, those hardly matter when it comes to one's enjoyment of a game, nor should they matter.
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Bananamatic »

Despatche wrote:It has all the right elements to be a critical darling, but it was bashed by ignorant and undiscerning clowns.
right elements of a shmup: bosses that die before shooting anything, yellow bullets on yellow background, same formations over and over for over an hour, zooming in and out for no reason and a challenge mode where you spend 90% of time in loading screens
even the people who defended this game dropped it in a week and forgot about it
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Re: Raiden V: Director's Cut for PS4 to be released by UFO I

Post by Durandal »

Bananamatic wrote:
Despatche wrote:It has all the right elements to be a critical darling, but it was bashed by ignorant and undiscerning clowns.
right elements of a shmup: bosses that die before shooting anything, yellow bullets on yellow background, same formations over and over for over an hour, zooming in and out for no reason and a challenge mode where you spend 90% of time in loading screens
even the people who defended this game dropped it in a week and forgot about it
I've gave this a whirl again lately and pinpointed my biggest issue with V: the air parts suck, and there's too many of them
When there's no ground enemies, you'll instead be shooting down the same formations of zakos and the occasional tanky ship over and over which swing vulcan/reflect laser/any plasma really can easily clear out, and the bullet streams of the aerial enemies aren't long enough to really box you in
Ironically V is at its best when it's classic Raiden, when you're slowly moving over the ground with tanks and other tankier targets popping up which you can't kill the moment they appear (without letting enemies on the other side of the screen take a shot), it helps that you can't collide into ground enemies so more of them can be placed without crowding the screen or having to worry about collisions
Biggest difference is that the ground parts actually have handcrafted enemy placement instead of reused zako formations everywhere so the ground parts don't feel like filler, even if the aerial formations are occasionally used in conjunction with the ground enemies, which is perfectly acceptable

This shit is a consequence of wanting backgrounds where you're flying super-fast in the air but don't have the knowledge to design a proper air stage or the time to have enough unique air parts for a 1-hour long game
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