falling in love with Dangun Feveron

[shmupsrocks]

I'm way too excited about this game. Anybody else?

[M.Knight]

It's one of my all-time favorite shmups!
Almost everything about this game is sooo good : the disco/funky music, the high speed bullets, the dynamic enemy wave spawning, the discomen to frantically grab, the fired up announcer, the bonus score attack mode. The pace is just so fast and furious, you're always busy doing something and the difficulty level is high but also very stimulating.

It's the kind of shmup you would have never expected CAVE of all companies to make because it plays nothing like a usual CAVE game and it's surprising how fun and well-crafted it is for something so out of their comfort zone.

[donluca]

I absolutely love everything about the game, but it is so. damn. hard.

I swear I almost can't reach the second stage boss, I must have been doing it completely wrong but at last I ditched it.

[Shepardus]

Cool game, one of my favorite CAVE games (maybe due to how unlike most CAVE games it is). On the other hand, though, Dangun Feveron's firing on all cylinders all the time, and I prefer having a bit more lulls in the pacing. I rarely play more than one or two credits of the game in a sitting.

[shmupsrocks]

I feel like it's teaching me how to be relaxed under extreme focus because I can't maintain the tension. Anything else like this? Maybe late Toaplan?

[Deadliar]

Outzone and its constant death timer comes to mind. You'll probably love it.

[Shepardus]

Thunder Dragon 2 has a similar "kill stuff fast to spawn the enemies faster" system, as do many caravan games.

[CloudyMusic]

I feel like it's teaching me how to be relaxed under extreme focus because I can't maintain the tension. Anything else like this? Maybe late Toaplan?

Yeah, any caravan/time attack-style mode is probably going to be nonstop action. I had fun learning Crimzon Clover's Time Attack mode. Dangun has one of its own, incidentally.

[scrilla4rella]

despite having this PCB since 2006 or so I just can't get into this as much as other STGs from the era. I guess I just suck, but I still have plenty fun with DOJ and Ketsui

[Obiwanshinobi]

I haven't really played a shmup for so long that I can't trust my very own memories of it, but for some reason - Omega Fighter Special sits in Dangun Feveron's vicinity of manicness, there. Some versions of Star Force as well (or it's just the similarity of its title's font to that of Omega Fighter; it's been a while).

[finisherr]

I think this is the only Cave shooter I haven't played.

[Despatche]

It really does play nothing like other CAVE games or even Toaplan games. It's more like an NMK game.

[shmupsrocks]

Second time someone has mentioned Thunder Dragon or NMK. I need to check that out.

[dink]

Thunder Dragon 2, omg <3

[stryc9]

I think I'm probably going to prefer Fever Arrange mode on the ShotTriggers release over the original. That's very likely because I find the arcade game pretty brutal in terms of survival, but I find the bomb for score/safety line/focus button mechanics are genuinely cool in the arrange with the focus on scoring instead.

Either way, love the aesthetic in the game - hard sci-fi all the way, but mixed with the bizarre disco theme and mental announcer it's not something you see every day. Tremendous sprite art in effect too.

[M.Knight]

Thunder Dragon 2 gets my approval too. It doesn't have a disco theme, but it has the wild announcer and the same kind of level design style where you are encouraged to kill waves as fast as possible. There is a great groove from one wave to another and the moment to moment shooting and dodging is pretty good. If you give it a try, test both P1 and P2 ships as they play differently. I have a preference for the 2P ship and its faster movement, but some of the later stages are a lot harder with it.

Some versions of Star Force as well (or it's just the similarity of its title's font to that of Omega Fighter; it's been a while).

Star Force does lay out the foundations for the entire caravan sub-genre and as such, it has a flow that is quite similar to Dangun Feveron, with its sucessive waves and fast bullet patterns. It's also prefectly enjoyable even after the decades, sequels and other inspired shmups that followed it. Keep in mind though that the ship speed is not as fast as Dangun so there is a bit more memo involved in andling the numerous enemy types' behavaior. But yeah, it's great.

[shmupsrocks]

Keep in mind though that the ship speed is not as fast as Dangun so there is a bit more memo involved in andling the numerous enemy types' behavaior.

That might be a big part of why I'm loving Dangun. I feel like I can react to what's happening instead of memorizing.

[M.Knight]

Yeah, I love that aspect of Dangun too. Just using your reflexes to dodge the super fast stuff that's thrown at you. Bosses in particular can be very exciting for that reason. Though in the long run, I think you end up learning the enemy patterns and placements anyway, so the memo still comes in handy at times.

[Square_Air]

Dangun is a game that I initially brushed over for other shmups in the past, but after sinking some real time into it from 2016-2017 it quickly became not only my favourite Cave game, but also my current favourite STG. There are few games that really feel like Dangun, but the Thunder Dragon 2 recommendation is spot on. This game is certainly difficult enough to warrant memorization, but it's not quite the same as something along the lines of Raiden or R-Type. Tatsujin shares a few similarities with Dangun, at least with the aesthetics and controls.

FEVER!

[WarpZone]

It's funny, when I first played Dangun in 2003 alongside other Cave games like Guwange and Dodonpachi, they all felt equally varied and excitedly experimental to me; it's only years later in contrast to the general direction of their catalog that it seems like an anomaly. I think it was intended as a one-off Truxton tribute and Ikeda didn't work on the game, but it's too bad they never revisited the concept. It always clicked with me in a way that, say, Psikyo never did, because the fast bullets were paired with fast movement, and rather than memorize little positional twitches, I felt more in control to manipulate patterns and dodge in a more dynamic way.

When I first cleared Dangun on defaults in 2005 it felt like the hardest game I had beaten in my life, but I think much of that is due to the brutal single extend; the game may be more generous with bombs than many Cave games, but you can loose your stock in a flash, so I never stopped having uneven runs and the final boss is just a wall (there is a trick to skipping one of its harder phases that helps a lot). I think the game plays better on the 5-life setting to give you those two additional extends most Cave games do already -- I remember reading in an interview that even the devs played/recommended(?) this setting. Alternatively, I think some kind of balanced autobomb (that depletes your entire stock) would have worked better, taking the edge off tiny errors while also encouraging more risky play, but M2's autobomb unfortunately can't be set up for this.

I wasn't crazy about M2's Arrange mode... some of the changes just seemed like they were trying to force a more typical Cave paradigm onto a game where it doesn't fit, especially the generous suction range for discos that require less effort to move around the screen to collect. The safety line is an interesting concept, but it disappears if you're playing well anyway, feeling more like a training-wheels feature than a persistent risk/reward dynamic that you always need to think about.

My favorite addition from M2 is the 'Judgement of Love' mode that ramps up the rank beyond what you could ever see in the arcade game. I would have liked a version of this to be one of the official new modes rather than just a toggle hidden in the custom mode's options, but I had fun messing around with it and trying to come up with a setting that was balanced so I felt like I was barely hanging on. I put up a video of this mode here.

[BAD]

It's funny, when I first played Dangun in 2003 alongside other Cave games like Guwange and Dodonpachi, they all felt equally varied and excitedly experimental to me; it's only years later in contrast to the general direction of their catalog that it seems like an anomaly. I think it was intended as a one-off Truxton tribute and Ikeda didn't work on the game, but it's too bad they never revisited the concept. It always clicked with me in a way that, say, Psikyo never did, because the fast bullets were paired with fast movement, and rather than memorize little positional twitches, I felt more in control to manipulate patterns and dodge in a more dynamic way.

This. That era was very influential for me. I always saw those Cave games from that era in Gamest magazine (which I still proudly have), and I always admired how stylistic and cool they looked. The bullet shapes and colors were fascinating to me. Hand-shaped bullets?! I felt similar when I saw the dancer silhouettes in Dangun Feveron, and then later when I saw the saw-blade things. Though I still love Cave and their current games, I do think that era of DoDonPachi/ESPRade/Dangun Feveron/Guwange was my favorite. I feel it was their most varied, but some may disagree with the era(s) that had ProGear, Mushihimesama, etc. I can see where they're coming from...

[BurlyHeart]

Anyone know if the Japanese PSN digital version of Dangun Feveron has an English option?

[Technicolor]

Seeing this thread get bumped made me go check out Jaimers’ score run. Holy shit, that TLB is absolutely hilarious.