Illvelo Swamp

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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

What did he get locked up for?

If I recall correctly it was securities fraud (fancy name for pyramid scheme)
It wasn't video game, or even Milestone related. Rather a new company he was attempting to start.

(I know people want to hear he killed somebody or robbed a bank, but sorry, normal white collar shenanigans)
mojilove
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

JP release date and prices announced in Famitsu: https://www.gematsu.com/2021/07/illmati ... 4-in-japan

Launches on October 14
2,980 yen for the digital version
It will also be released in a physical version (published by Mebius) as a double pack with Radirgy Swag: 5,378 for standard edition and 8,778 yen for the limited edition.

Surprising news
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

That LE seems interesting. I mean $80 ain't cheap, but it's two games. We'll see if the junk that comes with the game is neat (something tells me a soundtrack will be involved and tbh Illvelo is my least liked k.h.d.n. soundtrack outside of a couple good tracks)
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KAI
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by KAI »

Will include a 48 page booklet and a 8 centimeters CD including some arrangements according to what mojilove said on discord.

If only i had a ninty switch :(
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mojilove
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

The official site is now up https://rs34.co.jp/game/illveloswamp/il ... index.html
There's a new video too - there is a lot of information to be gleaned from the trailer but I don't have time to comb through it right now.
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KAI
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by KAI »

some screenshots:
Spoiler
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Image
Image
this game looks awesome


Release date: 2021/10/14
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Illvelo Swamp standalone digital release- ¥2,980
Illvelo Swamp+Radirgy Swag Physical - ¥5,478
Illvelo Swamp+Radirgy Swag Physical Limited Edition - ¥8,778
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Okay... Well...

So I guess that confirms it's not just a port of Illvelo but a sequel.

It's odd that the trailer makes Radirgy Swag seem positively calm by comparison (Radirgy Swag is not a calm game by any stretch of the imagination)

They certainly have my interest...

(should we set up a collection to buy KAI a switch?)
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by BulletMagnet »

Man, even the bomb is wearing a face mask now; Covid's just that dang transmissible, I suppose. Presumably it's taking extra precautions against the (R-Type) Delta variant.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by BulletMagnet »

The Shmups Twitter has passed along a statement from RS34's Instagram saying they intend to release the game overseas (with the expected "please wait a while" disclaimer), so keep your fingers crossed that it comes to pass in some form.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

I have this crazy dream that NISA will handle the western release with a nice CE that actually releases and ships when it's supposed to, but I know that's just crazy dream. Although, not an impossible dream.
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Ms. Tea
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Ms. Tea »

Wow, that cover art is gorgeous.

Really excited for this! I *loved* the original Illvelo, got high hopes for this. Glad they're planning a western release, but might not wait around for it this time after what happened with Radirgy Swag...
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Reticulan
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Reticulan »

BulletMagnet wrote:The Shmups Twitter has passed along a statement from RS34's Instagram saying they intend to release the game overseas (with the expected "please wait a while" disclaimer), so keep your fingers crossed that it comes to pass in some form.
Does anyone have an idea if the Japan version would be playable for someone who doesn't read or speak Japanese? I'm wondering about menus and in-game text and so on. I do fine with M2 imports, but I don't want to pre-order something I won't be able to play due to language barriers.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

I think Radirgy Swag is still playable without language ability. There are a few unlockable items (like you need to reflect X amount of bullets cumulatively to get the special shield that fires forwards - it is automatically equipped every time once you unlock it. Also, you need to spend like 1 hour in each area cumulatively to get tickets for skipping the first few areas) that you can equip before sortieing, but you can use the shmups.wiki page for that.

The point items etc. that appear in-game in Swag each have different shapes and colours, so you don't need to be able to read what they say (iirc they weren't translated in the screenshots from Dispatch either). These items are also described in the shmups.wiki page for Swag.

The orders at the left of the screen in Swag are just to keep you motivated and they do nothing but unlock pictures in a gallery once you get XX% of total orders done.

I can't really tell how Illvelo Swamp is gonna be until it releases. One thing I can tell from screenshots/video is that the orders/requirements are displayed as icons to the left rather than as text. I think the orders (e.g., destroy a certain number of enemy X, pick up email items, destroy a certain number of enemy X using your main shot specifically) will be more important in this game as they may affect the path you take though the multiple branches, so it is nice that they are icons this time. There are also specific conditions for getting bronze, silver, and gold keys (these conditions are also displayed as icons), and apparently you need to get all 100 keys to get the true ending.

There are also indicators in Illvelo Swamp that let you know if you have destroyed a whole formation of enemies, or if you have destroyed all the parts of a larger enemy before finishing it off. These indicators have a thumbs-up icon with "formation," "parts," or "leader" (I think "leader" appears if you destroy the leader enemy of a formation and then destroy all the other enemies in the formation) in katakana, so it is hard to distinguish between them if you can't read katakana. I'm sure some orders will require you to do these things, so the indicators are useful for confirmation, but not essential (Swag doesn't have indicators like these, but they would be helpful in Swag too).

I will stream the game and write an shmups.wiki article for Swamp when it comes out, too, so that should help for any parts that do require language ability.

btw Swag has a huge amount of flavour text in the messages that pop up in-game, but they are mostly weird/interesting/funny non-sequiturs that are not related to gameplay. Some of the messages give hints on how to play, but I cover the most important information in the Swag thread (around page 3 onwards in the thread) on this forum, and in the shmups.wiki page. I'm sure that Swamp will also have a lot of flavour text like this, but similarly it will not be essential for playing the game (all that text makes it a pretty big job to translate for a shmup).
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by BulletMagnet »

Delayed to mid-November, according to Shmups Twitter.
mojilove
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Nov 18 to be precise - the RS34 youtube channel put up two new videos yesterday showing the delayed release date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63BFtcGnSw
This one shows the different doll formations (you activate them like a hyper when the megalophaz (bomb) gauge is full), and it also shows that the modules are controlled with the right stick, making this an unconventional twin-stick vert.
A bit of trivia - one cut in this video says that the background music was specifically created for this video.
There will be more videos to come as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abDg1qXzLeg
This one is a teaser for the soundtrack to be released the same day as the game.

Shame about the delay, but oh well
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

While I am excited, I'm not pouncing on this one until I see it's import friendliness anyway. So it's not like I had the old date marked on my calendar or anything.

That said, I am still considering the physical even though I already own Swag just because it has a really nice cover... What is happening to me?
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

FYI
Play-Asia just e-mailed that this shipped (a day early). So the digital will be up tomorrow as planned.

I originally was going to wait to see how "import friendly" it was, buuuuuut, it was cheap (especially for two games, even though I already own Radirgy), I want to support RS34 because they're doing good, original work (when everyone would be perfectly happy with just ports. Maybe even happier...), and it's got a nice cover (sometimes I am that shallow)
harborline765
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by harborline765 »

I decided to take the plunge on this one as well - including Swag on the game card made it a no brainer. Wanted to try it and never got round to it. Hope Illvelo Swamp is good.

Do we know if the games are running on their own engine?

Could someone highlight the home menu icon for the game, press +, and go to intellectual property notices? It should state what middleware was used like Unity etc
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jehu
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by jehu »

If anyone picks up the digital version of the game, I'd love to hear your first impressions. I'm also curious about its import-friendliness, its performance on Switch, and am just curious to see how it all turned out.

I never really gave Milestone STGs a fair shake, but I'm looking forward diving into this one whenever my Play-Asia copy makes it way to NYC. [And if historical precedent means anything, I've got an excruciating two weeks to wait.]
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by NeonLightIllusion »

I'm probably the least qualified person to share my first impressions, but I'm gonna give it a shot. I bought the game digitally today and have put in about 2 and half hours into it. I've so far made it to level 23 and am ranked 4th globally for score, which will swiftly change :lol:. I looked under the intellectual property notices and I can confirm that the game was made in Unity.

Upon first booting up the game I was greeted with menus which were pretty similar to Radirgy Swag. There was a bit of dialogue to read, but I'm American so I skipped through it. Most everything is intuitive though. I was quickly able to get used to the control scheme and everything about the game feels tight. RS34 clearly put a lot of love and time into making the game. I couldn't tell how much input lag there is, but it seemed about the same as Swag. I believe the game requires you to play with a dual analogue controller though to use the doll. I played in both docked and handheld mode. The game plays great either way and I didn't notice any performance issues.

The graphics in this game are beautiful! Though if you hate the art style then...well...how seriously do you take youself? I love Radirgy Swags presentation, but this game has a lot more going on visually and I like that the camera is no longer tilted. The music, of course, is also phenomenal. K.H.D.N. can do no wrong!

The game has a 100 levels and numerous branching paths. There's a lot of variety in the enemy patterns and backgrounds, but the gameplay is pure Milestone through and through. Shoot to build up your MEGALOPHAZ gauge and then bomb for score. It's deceivingly simple, fast-paced, and as addictive as always. Sort of like the original Illvelo, there's an RPG element with the keys, but it works differently and is designed with consoles in mind rather than the arcade. Just liked Radirgy Swag was. I'd say that you can still play this game in short bursts like Swag, but it's well suited for longer sessions of play too. Also, I won't spoil anything, but I was very surprised by how the first 12 levels played out before I unlocked a new branching path. It was a small touch, but I thought it was cool.

Overall, the game is awesome! Crossing my fingers that it gets translated, but it's defiantly not unplayable if you can't read weeb.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

I still need to get used to it a bit more, but I am liking it so far! It was really confusing at the start though - more confusing than Swag was.

A few notes from playing the game and reading the book that comes with the limited edition set:
swamp is starting to make a bit of sense so I'm gonna leave a few notes here now and then to be included in the wiki page later
- Progression in boss orders carries over between runs (Edit: not any of the other orders, sorry!), two of the three key requirements in each boss stage are impossible to get in just a single run, as you need to beat the boss multiple times.
- Levels reset to zero at the start of each run, but the more you play (doing orders? getting keys? destroying enemies?) the quicker your exp goes up each run (Edit: I'm not sure if this is actually true, or if you just get better exp by getting used to the game more. You do apparently get exp bonuses for clearing orders, even if you have cleared them before.)
- Getting the keys in a stage will raise the rank of that stage in your next run (up to 3). You can increase the rank of the boss stages beyond three (up to five) by collecting keys on the way to the boss.
- New branches unlock if you have gained a certain number of bronze/silver/gold keys over all playthroughs (the key counter at the bottom resets to 0 at the start of each run, but you can look at your progression in the map screen - the three columns at the left represent gold, silver, and bronze keys, and the rest are extra orders for each stage).
- You can retract the dolls by double-tapping the doll button, and you can also do this to cancel a megalodoll attack too (useful for orders like "use reflect doll five times in the stage").

Some of the orders are very tricky, like destroying the "captain" (with a little red ribbon on it) with shot (and not modules or shield or bomb) before destroying any of the other enemies in the same formation.
The new megalodoll system takes a bit of getting used to - if you have at least around a quarter(?) (Edit: you can use this attack with less than half a gauge full, and the game will make a sound effect to let you know you can use a megalodoll attack) of your megalomajill gauge full (at the bottom right) and your module is attached to your ship, you can start a special attack by pushing the right stick in one of the four cardinal directions and pressing the Doll button (R or B; realistically, R is easier to push in this case). You get different attacks depending on which direction you push the right stick.

I'll try to make a shmups wiki page later, but it might take some time.

**edit** - I've corrected some of the notes above because I got them wrong. I also discovered a new thing about how to raise the boss stage rank up to 5.
Last edited by mojilove on Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:36 am, edited 3 times in total.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

whenever my Play-Asia copy makes it way to NYC. [And if historical precedent means anything, I've got an excruciating two weeks to wait.]


*sigh*
Same

Now I have resist the urge to also purchase it digitally (especially since I already have Radirgy in both formats, I REALLY don't need both). If there's a silver lining, I suppose many of the gameplay mechanics will get worked out in the next couple weeks, so I won't be going into it as completely confused as I was with Radirgy. (and I won't be the one pestering mojilove with an endless array of questions)

I'm not surprised that it works well docked as Radirgy seemed designed around the Switch, and unlike most shooters, worked well on the small screen. I assumed they were giving Illvelo the same treatment.
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Sumez
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Sumez »

Two weeks is a lot faster than anything I've ever received from PA. :O Their US shipping must be way better than the European.

Either way my order is held back by another game that won't be released till the end of the month.
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jehu
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by jehu »

I broke down and got the digital to mess around with while on a trip this week. And - it took a bit to get used to - but I'm definitely into it now. It's so different from a trad. STG that it almost feels like it sits in a different conceptual universe. To anyone importing: expect it to take time to figure out the gameplay loop if you don't know any Japanese. I'd recommend using a translation app or maybe even waiting for a wiki if you know you're going to be short on patience.

It's pretty clear they understood how impenetrable the game was going to feel for some and really pad out the difficulty curve for new players. I was stuck on the 1-12 stage loop for longer than I care to admit. Though in retrospect I'm glad they didn't just throw the player to the sharks. And once I figured it out it really hooked me - and it's a surprisingly accessible game once you figure out the design philosophy. The music is a huge selling point - probably my favorite aesthetic element of the game. Though I do think the backgrounds are a little bland, and I could have used more variety in the bosses. Maybe something's waiting for me, though - I'm in the 50s, so have roughly half to discover yet.

Thanks to everyone who left their impressions - your little tips helped me gain some ground when I was just getting going. I wonder what longtime Milestone fans will think of the direction they took this game.

In any case, it's a recommend from me.
mojilove
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

I made a little video describing the basics of the game both on Twitch and Youtube;
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1212449806
https://youtu.be/WTSj5pQDWCU

There's some bad mic clipping in the first 12 minutes, but I adjust my volume levels after that.

Hope this helps take down the language barrier.

The icons for orders relating to the use of the modules or megalodoll attacks are really small, and it is hard to tell them apart especially in handheld mode (only minor differences in shape, and a difference in colour within a really narrow rim around the module in the picture). This is probably the hardest area in the language barrier, as I often find myself pausing the game to check the text so I know what the icon is referring to. The other icons are identifiable once you know what they mean.

I've also updated the notes in my post above after I figured out a few new things.
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Sumez
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Sumez »

Jesus, this game is a lot more complex than I'd thought.
Thanks for making the video though.
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Immryr
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Immryr »

switch games will show your prefered language if that's available for the game, right? so, if i import this and it later gets a western release, will my japanese copy then be playable in english? or would english need to be specifically added to the japanese version?
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Sumez
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Sumez »

They'd need to patch the Japanese release with an English language option.
All the Switch's feature does it change the default setting for you, and not all games even honor it (like in Cave Story you need to find the menu to change it manually).
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Immryr
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Immryr »

ah, i thought that might be the case. hmm, the game looks really interesting - the amount of language for a shmup is slightly concerning. i think i might get it anyway, if it does ever come out in english i can always get that digitally if i really want the convenience of being able to read it.

thanks for the video moji, i'm sure this will be very helpful.
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