Illvelo Swamp

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BulletMagnet
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by BulletMagnet »

Sumez wrote:Jesus, this game is a lot more complex than I'd thought.
Video Title: "Quick Guide to Illvelo Swamp"
Video Length: 1:04:58
:shock: I can only wonder what the full guide would encompass...
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Jonpachi
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Jonpachi »

Oh god, I just want to play the game. I don't want to do any of these orders, and I don't want the game to randomly roll the credits after 20 minutes of sleepy non-gameplay. Does this pick up, and/or any tips on how to get into the meat?
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mojilove
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

BulletMagnet wrote: Video Title: "Quick Guide to Illvelo Swamp"
Video Length: 1:04:58
I definitely could have made it more concise by actually preparing a script but that would have taken me ages hah
Jonpachi wrote:Oh god, I just want to play the game. I don't want to do any of these orders, and I don't want the game to randomly roll the credits after 20 minutes of sleepy non-gameplay. Does this pick up, and/or any tips on how to get into the meat?
I'm afraid you will have to do your homework and complete the key orders at the very least to unlock new branches with harder stages (key orders also raise the rank of the stage you cleared them in). Orders are an intrinsic part of the game, and the fun (for me at least) is in building a strategy that lets you clear as many orders as possible in each stage. The sub orders are not needed to clear stages but they are also helpful as they give bonus exp (and you need to level up so that you can take on later levels with enough firepower).

The stages from about 25 to 30 and onwards have some gnarly enemy layouts. I haven't got there yet, but 50 and onwards will probably be even harder.
(If you got the physical, Radirgy Swag is more straightforward than this, and the orders in that game are completely optional)
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Ms. Tea
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Ms. Tea »

My copy came yesterday so I've gotten a chance to play a bit and man, I'm really into this. Loving how much they're playing with the shmup format; I'm really enjoying something that's coming at it from such a weird angle.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by dmk1198 »

I like all the milestone shooters
I'm a big fan of cel shading to
But their mostly very confusing games to me , ain't gotta clue what I'm doing but having fun nevertheless
This new game looks seriously confusing lol

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Kiken
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Kiken »

Recent k.h.d.n. live online performance:
https://youtu.be/pxyI5GBVEfE
https://youtu.be/-DURNuhjuac
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Some-Mist
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Some-Mist »

just received my copy yesterday and much like radirgy swag I had to do a lot of experimenting to trying and get stuff popping up all over the screen (lmao).
I like how there are shikigami(?) controls so you have to control your character and shikigami kind of like guwange/guwange blue mode.

guess I better delve into that quick hour guide
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

In a (somewhat) amusing twist, the mailperson decided to jam my copy in the (narrow standard apartment building) mailbox, thus impeding the door latch from turning. So my copy has been trapped for the past two days...

But, I used the time to watch a good bit of the video, and it's exactly what I feared. I mean, I never sought out the original Illvelo because the gameplay videos were indecipherable to me, so it's no surprise the sequel is more of the same. I know it will be eons before a western version is released (if ever), so I'll get to it eventually. But right now I have Progear, Sisters Royale, and a barley touched ESP Ra De, none of which requires attempting to cram blind experimentation into 15 second levels (in the video. just demonstrating basic functions required restarting like 20 times. My hat is off to you. Job-like patience have you...)

And really, I just bought it to try to keep RS34 in business, since they're one of the only companies seeming interested in still creating original titles.

(plus, once I got to the part of the video explaining your seven different weapons, I started to get some major Radiant Silvergun flashbacks. And personally, I could never stand that shit. Just give me a shot and a bomb...)
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Ms. Tea
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Ms. Tea »

Is there a way to activate your special doll attacks without a right analogue stick? I was trying to play with my arcade stick and realized I didn't have any way to activate that. Guess it's really designed for a gamepad though.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by jehu »

Ms. Tea wrote:Is there a way to activate your special doll attacks without a right analogue stick? I was trying to play with my arcade stick and realized I didn't have any way to activate that. Guess it's really designed for a gamepad though.
Yeah, unfortunately I think you're out of luck. Swamp is basically a twin-stick shooter, or at least has elements of the genre. Even aside from the special attacks, you'll need the second stick to manually move the dolls around - a godsend for many of the orders.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Here's a translation of what RS34 President Masubuchi was saying in the middle of the recent stream:
https://pastebin.com/B2AK3ywR

He talked about the struggles they went through for both games and he indicates how they want to have a novel take on shmups in their games. He ends with a surprising statement that "Milestone shmups are a thing of the past" (or more accurately, "the term 'Milestone shmup' is a thing of the past" on second thought) - I think they have a complicated relationship with their past as obviously it is important to them but they probably don't want to be constrained by their legacy as they move forward.
I do like the direction they are going in, so I look forward to whatever they do next


edit - in other news, a patch has been released today for Swamp:
- making some orders easier (some of the "absorb bullet" sub-orders were almost impossible to achieve, even among experienced players)
- fixing glitches with displaying scores (the online leaderboards, I assume, because there was something funky with them)
- fixing a glitch where Cheep'O always says the same phrase about adjusting the position of the rolling doll when you come back from a run
- other minor fixes
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

He talked about the struggles they went through for both games and he indicates how they want to have a novel take on shmups in their games. He ends with a surprising statement that "Milestone shmups are a thing of the past" (or more accurately, "the term 'Milestone shmup' is a thing of the past" on second thought) - I think they have a complicated relationship with their past as obviously it is important to them but they probably don't want to be constrained by their legacy as they move forward.

Well... Milestone shmups ARE a thing of the past. He's just stating a fact.

From an ideological standpoint, he's pretty much stating the obvious. Milestone made arcade shmups. Swag IS NOT an arcade shmup (which works to it's advantage). I mean, they use the Milestone titles, and their 'worlds' (so to speak) for consumer identification. So that people like us take notice, talk about, and (hopefully) purchase their games. But of course they want to do their own thing and not be tied to work they did 20 years ago.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Small update from Mebius about localization: https://twitter.com/digitalmebius/statu ... 8847646721
[News]Regarding the localization of "Illmatic Envelope Swamp", we are currently working with RS34 and cooperating companies. More information It's a little further, but please wait for the information.
Hope they give some more details soon!
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

So mebius is doing the localization? I guess that's good, and at least the digital version should be released in a timely fashion.

I did harbor a fantasy that perhaps nisa would do it. And, while I know some people grumble about their localizations (full disclosure: I never played their infamous original version of Y's 8. So I never saw what the stink was about firsthand), they do get things out in a timely fashion and with (usually) really nice LEs.

Maybe I should finally pop the shrinkwrap on my JP copy of Illvelo Swamp. I was a bit spooked by reports here, and my friend in jp who called it "almost perversely import UNfriendly" (his 'review' also consisted of "On one hand, I kind of like the things it's going for. Unfortunately, it doesn't achieve any of them" Oof...)
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Just a heads up that RS34 is doing a livestream this weekend (8:00 PM, July 2 JST): https://youtu.be/A671Wt_APWo

They are also doing a survey with questions about what people thought of illvelo swamp and the kinds of games people would like RS34 to make in the future: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... Q/viewform
(Here's a rough EN translation that should work well enough in combination with google translate on the actual form for anyone who wants to answer it: https://pastebin.com/FYRx8WvF)

Apparently they will discuss some of the feedback from the survey in the livestream, but I wonder what else they will talk about.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Ack! All the questions are about Swamp (which I've still yet to play)

(I really want that singed vinyl, but the concept of Google translating a survey fills my head with images of my answers turning out exactly the opposite from what I intended... I think I just wrote a Black Mirror episode)
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Hero of Legend »

Someone said before I think that they're not really willing to go back to their Milestone catalog, but can they not just let Live Wire port those to Switch in their place? They seemingly have HD assets from the Sakura Flamingo Archives release to use from their Klon days. Just have Live Wire port the NAOMI originals while implanting said HD assets where needed.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Someone said before I think that they're not really willing to go back to their Milestone catalog, but can they not just let Live Wire port those to Switch in their place? They seemingly have HD assets from the Sakura Flamingo Archives release to use from their Klon days. Just have Live Wire port the NAOMI originals while implanting said HD assets where needed.

They said that porting a old title is actually more difficult than creating something anew.
Plus, is Live Wire even interested in porting Milestone titles to Switch? Thus far, they've only done Cave, which has a much higher profile.
Then there's the question of $$$...
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by jehu »

moji, if you've got a sec after the stream, would you give us the quick and dirty synopsis?

The electronic cricket sounds are a nice accompaniment while I'm working, but I'm still not sure why I made a point of tuning in with absolute zero knowledge of Japanese.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Here's this for now - I'm trying to get to sleep at the moment but I'll try to give a little breakdown on the survey results as well later (newsflash - people want RS34 to make shmups more than other genres, and two thirds prefer traditional shmups to new stuff like swamp)

https://twitter.com/mojilove/status/1543242017928794112
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

newsflash - people want RS34 to make shmups more than other genres, and two thirds prefer traditional shmups to new stuff like swamp

:shock: :shock: :shock:
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

Okay, here is the more detailed breakdown:
  • - 10% of respondents in the survey were women
    - Two-thirds prefer traditional "stick + three button" shmups to newer formats like swamp
    - In the "which series do you want a new game for" question, Karous came top, "completely new game" came second, followed by Radirgy, Chaos Field, and Illvelo all quite far behind them (Karous makes sense because that hasn't got a sequel or spinoff for a while now)
    - They discussed the reasons that some people gave for the previous question - quite a few want a new game because they want to see new characters and a whole new setting (myself included)
    - They showed a small extract of answers for "what genre of games would you like RS34 to make." "Shmup" came up a lot, but "action" was there too. Someone answered "visual novel" and another answered "rhythm action."
    - A quarter of respondents haven't bought swamp yet! (in the multiple choice answer for "which series do you want a new game for," 72 people chose Karous, so maybe 80 or ~100 people at most have responded to the survey so far)

    - As mentioned in the tweet I posted, they are planning to bring Swag + Swamp to "another platform" (I'm guessing PS4, judging from Rolling Gunner which was also published by mebius). No further details than that for now - everything is to be announced at a later date.
    - They also talked about the localisation for swamp: "We are working with people we can trust this time" (!!!!!) and it will come not immediately, but it is in the works (I'm guessing LRG is involved, solely judging from the Rolling Gunner release).
    - They didn't go into any detail at all, but they said that they have three (!) games in the dev pipeline. I have no idea how far in development they are, but that's nice to hear (I'm guessing one of them is "Ranhansha no Sanguis," the previously announced spiritual sequel/spinoff to Karous (only the title and a vague sort of teaser have been shown so far https://www.4gamer.net/games/428/G042832/20190730125/))
It was a really nice stream - the music was great too
Last edited by mojilove on Sun Jul 03, 2022 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Thanks for the recap.

I didn't attempt the survey for the reasons I gave above, but I'm in agreement. I would ideally like an all new title--but if they're going to do a legacy--I'd want Karous to get the 'Swag' treatment.

Buuuut... I may be in the minority on that one.
Personally, I really liked Swag. I felt it succeeded in giving you the 'feeling' of a bullet-hell while being playable on the Switch's small screen. That said, I didn't really have any idea how it was going to go over (at least on these shores)

After it's release, I read a lot of
-"It's weird"
-"I don't understand what I'm suppose to be doing"
-"I don't understand why they didn't just port the Dreamcast Radirgy"

So, I would completely understand if went back to something more 'traditional' for nu-Karous (or whatever)

- They also talked about the localisation for swamp: "We are working with people we can trust this time"

Dis
(although Dispatch earned a lot worse)
Hero of Legend
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by Hero of Legend »

I'm curious why they went with Dispatch in the first place and not with their old buds at UFO who of course did Ultimate Shooting Collection and were doing Illvelo on Wii but canned it at the last minute, likely to just do USC2... only do then not do that at all...

There's always ININ as well, but I'd much prefer UFO for old time sake, even better if they can just give them Radirgy Swag as well to redo and just release Swag and Swamp as the 2-pack in the west as well.

I doubt Dispatch wlll be around for much longer at this point, so in that event, they should be free to whatever they want with the western release of Swag, right?
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by jehu »

Thanks a lot for the detailed update, moji!

The 'three game' thing stands out the most, very exciting. I'm with the crowd on almost all fronts. Would love the traditional STG, and a new IP would be amazing - though a Karous sequel is still more than welcome.

Swamp is still among my top 5 most played Switch titles. It really got into my blood when it came out; a blast figuring out the game's systems.

I'd prefer they not make it, but I actually think they'd make a killer rhythm game.
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by mojilove »

a whole year has passed since anything has happened in this thread, but the publisher mebius has just given an update about the international version:
https://twitter.com/digitalmebius/statu ... 4866749467
Localization work for the international version of Illvelo Swamp is making rather good progress. An official announcement will come a little later, so please wait.
fingers crossed!
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

I was kind of assuming the were waiting for the Dispatch dust to settle so they could just do the localize the whole 'twin-pack' they released in jp.

(It did occur to me that Radirgy 2 was being released almost exactly two years after this, and yet the localization was still nowhere to be found)
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by VGShrine »

Ms. Tea wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 5:04 am Is there a way to activate your special doll attacks without a right analogue stick? I was trying to play with my arcade stick and realized I didn't have any way to activate that. Guess it's really designed for a gamepad though.
I know it's kind of late to reply. I bought this game back in 2022 and just recently picked it up and I'm into it unlocking keys and doing some small progress as the orders are hard to understand as a non-japanese speaker. After playing it on the switch I also wanted to try to play with my arcade stick which I couldn't achieve in the console. But if you play it on PC in a emulator, you can set the right stick to the same movement stick and you can control the dolls and activate the skills with no issues. In fact there is a small limitation as the dolls will move in the same direction as your ship but can be compensated if you increase the dolls movement speed, that allows you to move the dolls around without moving your ship too much. I recorded a video playing with my arcade stick on PC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNkKi1GwBO8

I'm not the best of the players as I'm still learning how to play but doesn't feel too bad playing it with an arcade stick. In fact this is the same way I'm planning to play Radirgy 2 using Murasame :D
Last edited by VGShrine on Sun Nov 26, 2023 7:23 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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M.Knight
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by M.Knight »

Ohh that's interesting how it basically mimics the original game's way of moving the detached modules around haha.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's not as optimal and efficient as the intended dual stick controls with independent movements of the player ship and dolls, but it looks like a decent compromise for single stick control!
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VGShrine
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Re: Illvelo Swamp

Post by VGShrine »

M.Knight wrote: Sun Nov 26, 2023 5:38 pm Ohh that's interesting how it basically mimics the original game's way of moving the detached modules around haha.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's not as optimal and efficient as the intended dual stick controls with independent movements of the player ship and dolls, but it looks like a decent compromise for single stick control!
That's right. After playing it for a while now, the single stick limitation doesn't feel too bad as you get used to it. In fact, the most difficult part of the game are the orders because in some stages you need to be very fast and precise. As there is no guide for each level anywhere on internet, I've had quite some hard time with some orders, specially the stage 22 order of the envelopes which it took me about 2-3 hours to be able to get all the messages needed for that stage (probably they appear randomly).

So far I've completed all the orders up to stage 30 and reached stage 65 last night.

Overall, it's a really fun and addictive game. It's a very special shmup. Probably I will try the first entry of this series.
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