R-Type Final2

[Firehawke]

If we're talking art direction, I really have to give the nod to Gradius Gaiden.

Gradius 5 would get high marks except for the fact it uses entirely too much grey and brown. Quake levels of grey and brown, even.

[VanillaLucia]

I seem to have stumbled upon a password upon some browsing.

Spoiler

"loveandpeace" in lower caps is the password for the R-9A3 "Lady Love" in the museum.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Still waiting for me code

Spoiler

Someone is streaming the DLC. Looks like they changed more than the graphics for the homage stages. R-Type III stage is missing it's iconic giant crushers and the midboss has been neutered in a weird way. I'm not as familiar with the LEO stage but there's a new powerup: the icon that cycles through the three weapon colours just like in the arcade!

I've been saying this since 2004 but I'd welcome a FULL LEO mode without the force, that was the whole point of LEO. It seems like none of the ship choices force you to play the game any differently except for the ones with seeker forces and op charge shots which force you to not try.

[qmish]

Gradius 5 would get high marks except for the fact it uses entirely too much grey and brown. Quake levels of grey and brown, even.

I'll pretend it's grisaille
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisaille

[Wilsoncqb1911]

I seem to have stumbled upon a password upon some browsing.

Spoiler

"loveandpeace" in lower caps is the password for the R-9A3 "Lady Love" in the museum.

Sweet! Thank you!

Really enjoying this one so far. Just cleared normal.

Do the different colored orbs you collect on the underwater stage determine you routing for the last few levels? Seems like that might be it....

[VanillaLucia]

Do the different colored orbs you collect on the underwater stage determine you routing for the last few levels? Seems like that might be it....

They do and it seems to be in order with the top leading you to Stage 6.0 (the same as skipping them it seems) and the next ones under going to Stage 6.1 and 6.2. I do not know what the last item at the bottom does quite yet, however.

[Mortificator]

I've been saying this since 2004 but I'd welcome a FULL LEO mode without the force, that was the whole point of LEO. It seems like none of the ship choices force you to play the game any differently except for the ones with seeker forces and op charge shots which force you to not try.

Yeah. I haven't got Final 2 yet, but something that didn't sit right with Final 1 was how the ships didn't deviate from a certain template. They all had the same speed, the same hitbox, the same normal shot. Not like it's unheard of to change those things, as certain Raizing games do. The Strider's supposed to be a bomber; make it slower and bulkier so you have to use its barrier system to cancel attacks other craft could dodge. Let's see some Force-less vehicles, some lacking a charge shot that have stronger guns to compensate, some that can take more than one hit.

[tizerist]

So it seems that the revisited older stages are a seperate campaign, chosen fom the main menu, correct?

[Wilsoncqb1911]

Do the different colored orbs you collect on the underwater stage determine you routing for the last few levels? Seems like that might be it....

They do and it seems to be in order with the top leading you to Stage 6.0 (the same as skipping them it seems) and the next ones under going to Stage 6.1 and 6.2. I do not know what the last item at the bottom does quite yet, however.

The grey one lead me to a bad ending. It wasnt a stage 6 but a different stage. That's the orb at the very bottom. Top one was a good ending. Havent tried the others yet.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Yeah. I haven't got Final 2 yet, but something that didn't sit right with Final 1 was how the ships didn't deviate from a certain template. They all had the same speed, the same hitbox, the same normal shot. Not like it's unheard of to change those things, as certain Raizing games do. The Strider's supposed to be a bomber; make it slower and bulkier so you have to use its barrier system to cancel attacks other craft could dodge. Let's see some Force-less vehicles, some lacking a charge shot that have stronger guns to compensate, some that can take more than one hit.

Nightmare mode: Kiwi Berry plays like the jeep in Silkworm.

[ZaKa-tokyobassist]

So this whole thing with the DLC voucher chaps my ass a bit for a few reasons:
1. They sent people the wrong region of the disc myself included.
2. Does anybody know if the voucher is going to be the season pass proper or just for the first pack?
3. On point number 2, they should just give codes for season passes as to not keep having to constantly keep up with issuing out new individual codes .
4. What region will the code be? That would so dumb if they sent me a JPN copy with a US code and I feel like that is very likely to happen to mamy people.

[ZaKa-tokyobassist]

Also has anybody tried the password "DISASTERREPORT" for any slots? I haven't played in a few days as I've been on Nier.

[To Far Away Times]

What's everyone's favorite ships so far? I like the orange ship with the rodless force (forgot what its called right now, its one of the starting three.) The R-10 is cool too. Only got 14 ships so far, so I'm barely scratching the surface.

[IDruggedShamu]

I like both the TX-T Eclipse and R13 Cerebrus so far. Kinda disappointed the museum appears to be mostly unchanged from Final 1. Was hoping for some new ships..

On another note, I think the Xbox version's achievements may be bugged? There are several I'm sure that I've completed and can not get them to trigger. Anyone else have this issue?

[VanillaLucia]

What's everyone's favorite ships so far? I like the orange ship with the rodless force (forgot what its called right now, its one of the starting three.) The R-10 is cool too. Only got 14 ships so far, so I'm barely scratching the surface.

After getting the R-9Leo2 "Leo II" it's amazing how trivial the game feels once you get the bits on the lower difficulties. Once you lose the bits, however, the game feels much harder as a result for my playstyle as I have unfortunately made it a habit ever since R-Type Final (due to me using the R-902 "Ragnarok II" or the R-99 kitted out with its setup) to simply use only the Wave Cannon without ever pressing the Rapid Fire button. I cannot wait to see how the Giga Wave Cannon/Cyclone Force/Psy Bit+ Combo works out in this game.

[XoPachi]

Recovery is really difficult in this game. :c
I also can't stand how long it takes to respawn.

[Wilsoncqb1911]

The final level in the bad ending is atrocious. It's long, boring, and I cant tell what's cool background effects and what can kill me. I died so often to things I couldn't tell were going to hurt me and just random lasers that zipped across the screen without warning. And then I'd restart minutes away at the only checkpoint and have to sit through long stretches of nothing. I think they were going for something grandiose but but they didn't hit it. Ugh.

Overall I'm hooked on the game but it's got some annoying issues. They went too far on the special effects and sometimes I die to stuff I cant see. Nothing comes close to that bad final level though.

[ZaKa-tokyobassist]

I'm not a fan of the Bydo route either. That vertical shaft level is absolutely BS without the right ship amd the following level has some evil checkpointing on top of being lengthy.

I think my favorite route have been the Ebon Eye path. The others just have some serious pain in the butt moments I'm not crazy about. I kinda wish people quit asking for so many ships because I'd much rather have less but more unique ones. So many just can't hang on higher difficulties.

I hope there is some patches that either tunes the checkpointing or at the very least gurantees a power up drop because some sections even as early as Stage 2 are almost impossible if you die.

[Wilsoncqb1911]

I'm not a fan of the Bydo route either. That vertical shaft level is absolutely BS without the right ship amd the following level has some evil checkpointing on top of being lengthy.

I think my favorite route have been the Ebon Eye path. The others just have some serious pain in the butt moments I'm not crazy about. I kinda wish people quit asking for so many ships because I'd much rather have less but more unique ones. So many just can't hang on higher difficulties.

I hope there is some patches that either tunes the checkpointing or at the very least gurantees a power up drop because some sections even as early as Stage 2 are almost impossible if you die.

Not sure I've seen the ebon eye yet. Is that the orb that looks like a small sun? I think that's the only other path I've seen so far.

I hear you on the checkpoints. I got distracted at the beginning of stage 3 and tried to get back in it after dying and couldn't. Just wasnt doable.

[VanillaLucia]

I'm not a fan of the Bydo route either. That vertical shaft level is absolutely BS without the right ship amd the following level has some evil checkpointing on top of being lengthy.

I think my favorite route have been the Ebon Eye path. The others just have some serious pain in the butt moments I'm not crazy about. I kinda wish people quit asking for so many ships because I'd much rather have less but more unique ones. So many just can't hang on higher difficulties.

I hope there is some patches that either tunes the checkpointing or at the very least gurantees a power up drop because some sections even as early as Stage 2 are almost impossible if you die.

On top of this Stage 2 in particular is really rough if you try charging immediately. Those large flower plants are vicious if you shoot them just as you spawn trying to charge your Wave Cannon which makes the difference of you being barraged with a mass of bullets you can't completely block especially starting fresh. I found that some Force units like the Anchor Force have a very large hitbox when you throw them which triggers the plant shooting back if you aren't cautious. I do like how you are encouraged to shoot or to not shoot to make it through safely but it is very brutal when you have a back-to-back checkpoint that literally has one of these plants between one side and the other (it is the segment in R-Typer where after you pass the plant enemies start coming from above and behind you as you go under a pillar).

[system11]

My favourite ships so far are the Eclipse and the Happy Days. The path to unlocking the Cerberus is a nightmare trail of grinding etherium and unlocking so, so many pre-requisites including one after a password unlock (thanks to a poster above for finding that!)

[MJR]

If we're talking art direction, I really have to give the nod to Gradius Gaiden.

Gradius 5 would get high marks except for the fact it uses entirely too much grey and brown. Quake levels of grey and brown, even.

Gradius Gaiden's only weak point in my opinion is it's art direction, though its not exactly terrible by any means. But if I compare it to Gradius II and Gradius III, it doesn't work as a whole at all. I also dislike the shading techniques employed in that game, both in sprites and in background. In fact, it was it's graphics that had always put me off from completing it in the first place. But I do like that enemy graveyard very much!

Gradius V I love very much, though it doesn't score as high on art direction as II and III either, on my cards.

Back to R-type Final 2: I tried the homage level from R-type III, and it looked pretty good to me. Well lit and detailed. Too bad that I never liked R-type III much, the first level always killed my interest stone cold (too long, breakpoints too few between, not much visual elements to look at after the sizzling beginning.. that whole level should have been scrapped or at least cut by 50%)

I also booted up my R-type arcade PCB to celebrate this new release, played it until stage 14, and then proceeded to R-type II, III, delta and final.
R-type is still the best game in the series imho and with best art direction, Delta is clearly the second best, I love Delta so much, and so many nice details. Final was much better than I remembered, though that battleship level indeed takes far too long, as well as the opening stage.
R-type II has lot to love, but there are elements that have always rubbed me off wrong way, like Stage 5 with those awful block-weaving enemies.
R-type III and R-type Leo I haven't had the patience to complete, difficulty being what it is demands that you have to be willing to give lots of love to these games to really sit them through.

I haven't made my mind up about Final 2 yet, but at least it does feel like "true" R-type and there is lots to love. I'm just afraid that it feels maybe bit too unfinished to really qualify as the "ultimate" R-type experience it was marketed in the kickstarter. But maybe my expectations were just little bit too high. It's still pretty solid shooting game, and you don't get many of those these days.

Oh, and is this swag box they sell in japan been mentioned in this thread?

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

I wouldn't worry about it not qualifying. It seems to be doing fairly well and the team is clearly capable of making good levels. We ought to see what future patches and DLCs have to bring, as the game has just released.

[the androgyne]

My favourite ships so far are the Eclipse and the Happy Days. The path to unlocking the Cerberus is a nightmare trail of grinding etherium and unlocking so, so many pre-requisites including one after a password unlock (thanks to a poster above for finding that!)

What is the path to Cerberus? I’m getting impatient with the amount of materials the game hands out and don’t want to waste them too!

[MJR]

Well, I'll be damned and triple damned! For Mischief Maker was actually right, the art style of 3.0 must be intentional after all.

I played through stage 7.1, and that was exactly how I would have expected the level with huge shootable battle cruisers to look like in modern R-type game. So the 3.0 IS some kind of AI virtual world representation. Problem is, it just didn't really look like how I would have imagined "the virtual AI world" to look like. (I'd say that more succesful rendition of visiting AI world could be in Mass Effect 2 Overlord DLC)

I didn't pick any of the orbs by intention, because I wanted to see which path it will take me when you don't pick any vs. when you pick some. I must assume that I got the "worst" ending.

6.1. was frustrating as hell, must have spent over 20 credits on that one, and I think I beat it by luck solely :p - and I did try every ship that was on my roster (Warhead did the trick)

[qmish]

Is it okay to play Final 2 if never completed (or seeing all levels of) previous games? Like, wouldnt be ships (or enemies) spoilers due to same design?

[VanillaLucia]

My favourite ships so far are the Eclipse and the Happy Days. The path to unlocking the Cerberus is a nightmare trail of grinding etherium and unlocking so, so many pre-requisites including one after a password unlock (thanks to a poster above for finding that!)

What is the path to Cerberus? I’m getting impatient with the amount of materials the game hands out and don’t want to waste them too!

From what I can understand, you can try to fast-forward this by going straight for the R-9A4 at the top-right (the R-9A3 requires as password) which has been shared earlier. At the lower part of the tree available you will want to start researching this until you get to the RX-10 line and then will proceed all the way until you finish the R-11 series. Upon finishing this, you should be able to finally start the RX-12 and the R-13T following that before finally reaching Cerberus.

Spoiler

R-9A3's password is "loveandpeace" while the R-9B's password is "granzella" all in lower-case.

Is it okay to play Final 2 if never completed (or seeing all levels of) previous games? Like, wouldnt be ships (or enemies) spoilers due to same design?

There is barely an in-game story outside of the Museum entries so if you are worried for spoilers of the cinematic kind there is only one that I can blatantly see in the Museum that references an ending from a past game. Otherwise you should most definitely be fine since even the recreations of the past stages have no particular story depth to them either that I feel should really be bothersome for "skipping around" in the series.

If your worry for a spoiler is to avoid ruining the experience of seeing the original stages compared to playing it here, the gameplay in R-Type Final 2 is still distinctly different from past games as it is slower-paced than the older arcade games but much faster than the original R-Type Final is. The recreations are relatively fun takes on the old ideas and levels and to me are both distinctly different so even if the experience is similar I don't see it as having been "spoiled" when the gameplay itself is still unique between games.

[qmish]

I don't mean story though. More like "seeing boss/enemy/ship for first time"

edit:
So i hope, i can start with Final 2 now and "revisit seriously" older games after it. R-Type isn't a game i credit feed to look, so i never went more far than stage 2 maybe in RT1 or Delta

[Ghegs]

Got through 7.1 without the game crashing on me this time, so I've now seen all the normal stages available and since I got the 1CC earlier as well, I think I can post more thoughts.

Overall, I like R-Type Final 2. Not much of a surprise personally since I like R-Type in general. I also didn't play Final 1 much at all, so to me unlocking the ships here doesn't feel like a repetition of the previous game. Getting new ships and taking them for a run is fun. That said, the rate of resources dropping should be higher (if not from the start, then upped after some accomplishment - seeing all the stages, finishing any route, getting X hours of flight time, etc, or make the resource packs re-buyable in the shop). I'm at 36 ships and it'd take a lot of grinding (~20 hours, maybe?) to get enough resources to unlock the rest of them. I do want to see the rest of them, but man...

I think the game's one of the more easier R-Types, maybe a step below Delta. Until 6.0 or 6.1 memorizing the environment isn't really an issue, which is further helped by how hitting walls no longer kills you. This is a good thing in a 3D game, but I think Delta's way of letting you scrape against a wall for a while before it kills you to be a good middle-ground for this thing. 6.2 -> 7.2 route is probably the easiest clear.

I actually like 6.1. It's these kind of stages that horis uniquely bring to the shmup table. 6.0 felt like the hardest one of the three. Luckily I came there with a ship that could charge blast enemies on the other side of walls, without that ability it'd be even more hellish.

I didn't pick any of the orbs by intention, because I wanted to see which path it will take me when you don't pick any vs. when you pick some. I must assume that I got the "worst" ending.

And regarding the endings: I think it's confusing when people refer to the "bad" ending, since two of the endings could be interpreted like that. So, my clarification:

Spoiler

Good ending from 7.0 - Bydo destroyed, pilot survives.
Bydo ending from 7.1 - Pilot changes into Bydo and destroys the Earth Space Fleet.
Bad ending 7.2 - Bydo destroyed, pilot MIA.

I'm pretty sure when I tried not picking any of the orbs, I got sent to 6.2. I think picking the bottom-most one sent me to 6.0.

As for 3.0 and whether the art style is intentional or simplified due to lack of time from the devs - I think the stage looks good on its own, if every stage looked like that I'd be fine. It's the inconsistency with the other stages that makes it jarring.

My favorite ships, at the moment:
TX-T Eclipse: Solid ship in every regard. The Force covers more area vertically so it's safer to hit enemies and their bullets with it. Detached it homes in on enemies which makes short work of most things.
R-11S2 No Chaser: The whole series, inspired by Armed Police Unit Gallop, is fun to use because of their Force. The weapon effect changes depending on the ship speed, so Yellow and Blue go at different angles and Red gets narrower and a lot more powerful. With Red, at Speed 1, I was able to destroy Dobkeratops before he got a single attack out.
R-9B3 Sleipnir: Kicks like a mule on steroids. Red shot is strong by itself, but the ship comes with the Balmung missile which makes a big boom that lasts on the screen for a good while. On the flip side the charge shot is rather useless, but even without it the ship just tears through enemies.

The Switch version plays perfectly fine for the most part, other than crashing on me once at 7.1 and in the same stage there's a 5-second period where the framerate plummets. Luckily there aren't many enemies at all on the screen at time, but it also makes me wonder why it chugs there, when otherwise it's so smooth. I do want to try the PC version at some point, mostly to see if it looks that much better, but the thought of unlocking all these ships again is not very appealing. Though I guess I could just find a complete save file from somebody else.

[Mischief Maker]

Well, I'll be damned and triple damned! For Mischief Maker was actually right, the art style of 3.0 must be intentional after all.

I played through stage 7.1, and that was exactly how I would have expected the level with huge shootable battle cruisers to look like in modern R-type game. So the 3.0 IS some kind of AI virtual world representation. Problem is, it just didn't really look like how I would have imagined "the virtual AI world" to look like. (I'd say that more succesful rendition of visiting AI world could be in Mass Effect 2 Overlord DLC)

Huh. Well it wouldn't be the first time I refunded a GOG game and ended up buying it back.

To be clear, I didn't think 3.0 was a VR level, I meant that that the kind of ships AIs would design in the real world would be super sleek without inefficient greebles (but with LED strips everywhere).