Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

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BurlyHeart
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by BurlyHeart »

Lethe wrote:I think Reyka is the best ship in general. Its shot does everything you need and I have no idea how to handle some stuff with the ships that lack a real bomb. Maybe one of the others would be good for a cheesy low-scoring run or something, but of all of them, avoid Hirane, its shot is deficient versus zako.

As to "experienced players" there still really aren't any except Kanzaki, and he hasn't handled the ura route which involves turbocharging every boss and then no-missing them all. The earnestness of its madness is much of this game's appeal. The attitude reminds me of an older shmupsfarm-dev oddball, Saviors, albeit Sophstar is much better than that game.
My apologies, I thought I had replied to this. Thank you for the information and the videos. The URA route sounds tough :shock:

I've tried a few different ships, but I keep coming back to Leo (the turtle - ha, by typing this I just realised why his name is Leo :lol: ). His homing shot is weak but it, eh, homes, and I like his special where he hides in his shell becoming invulnerable. The ship also seems to do a lot of damage to enemies in this mode too.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Astro City II »

Up for pre-order today on the Xbox marketplace with a 10% launch discount.

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/ ... _web_chart

Releases next week (28th October)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

Regarding difficulty, there is's a guy on youtube who 1cc the game with every ship.

And also another guy who beat the game in a single credit on Brutal difficulty, which I must admit I thought it would take longer to see :)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

I noticed that Sophstar appeared on the USA region Nintendo eShop site at 6:00am PST today dated 10/28/2022 and ready to be downloaded with it being published by Red Art Games. It's a mere 245mb d/l at best and is at v1.07 as of right now. Runs at a silky-smooth arcade-spec 60fps framerate. The only minor gripe is if scanlines are turned on and you have selected tate, the scanline filter is applied horizontally rather than vertically (an update to fix this pressing issue would address it, indeed). No biggie.

Rumble effects, if turned on, will be activated during normal gameplay and during the arcade attract demo runs as well. Deactivate it to conserve lipo battery usage on the both the 1st-gen LCD and 2nd-gen OLED Switch consoles if playing it in handheld mode would be your best bet.

I like the wide range of filter options to choose from including CGA mode & Famines screen filters. The really cool background art would be the available listed arcade background and low-res Sophstar background are worth checking out just for the novelty factor alone if playing it in yoko. Gotta love the retro arcade "only 25 cents pricepoint" moniker if using the arcade background art set in place during a serious gaming session of Sophstar.

Online Leaderboards are present for all modes available, so that means a lot of scores to be uploaded for the wide variety of modes available from the get-go for the hard-core stg player to choose from but the default online mode would be the listed following: "Mode: Arcade, Difficulty: Intermediate & Scoring: Original". Am currently listed with the provided default online leaderboard listing at #8 with 669,370 pts. So yes, it's up and running alrighty as of right now.

If you pre-ordered the Switch version of Sophstar prior to it being listed on the USA region eShop site, then it was a mere $11.69 usd purchase (with a automatic 10% off discount applied) to d/l it.

If the Switch port of Sophstar is set to full stretched screen mode + tate mode, it'll be properly displayed on a 5:4 LCD screen setup in 480p mode with no border art to muck up the overall beautiful stg presentation.

I'd like to see developer Banana Bytes make an Exa-Arcadia version of Sophstar or at least release a true low-res 320 x 240 standard jamma pcb kit to play properly on a candy cab would be even better (with an 8-way digital joystick setup + 4 button layout), that'd be ace in my book.

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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by beer gas canister »

Been playing this for a couple of days on Switch and it's a real pleasure. Does anyone have any general advice?
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by dmk1198 »

Can u not repeat levels?
Annoying to have to start at beginning when u start fresh next day

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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by beer gas canister »

The training mode allows you to select any level that you've reached previously, with or without continues. Otherwise it's like every arcade shmup where runs begin from the start.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

Been playing this for a couple of days on Switch and it's a real pleasure. Does anyone have any general advice?
Being the developer and having watched a lot of people playing the game... if you're having trouble with the game, use one of the easier ships. Reyka is probably the easiest ship to play, with people also saying they had an easy time with Arobe-D, Leo and Dumont. They have some strong defensive options which makes the game easier. Reyka's bomb gives you a fair amount of invincibility time which can be abused a lot :) Dumont's secondary shot clean the screen of bullets, and it has a better teleport mechanic than Reyka (though it takes longer to recharge). Leo also has a very strong teleport with its black hole, but it takes a lot of time to recharge... couple that with its ability to enter your shell and become invencible for a while, and the homing shots that let you stay anywhere on screen while still dealing damage, and you have a very strong defensive ship.

Some people have 1cc the game with all 9 ships on the default difficulty, and the overall feeling is that Z2 and Katha are the hardest ships to beat the game, mostly because they have no defensive options at all. Z2 and deal a lot of damage if you play it right, but it's pretty hard to do it properly when the game gets meaner on later levels.

Of course you may just want to play with the ship that you find more fun to play.

Also, the charge/bonus icons become 1-ups if you wait long enough. Not all of them though, I'll let you figure which ones (there's a logic behind it, not hard to figure it out :D)

If you want more tips let me know, I may tell you a couple more things. But there are already some good youtube videos with good advice :)




BTW, we're doing pretty fine so far :)

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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Samuray »

Shatterhand, how do we pronounce the game title? Is it an elongated o or a short one?
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by BurlyHeart »

Some of those bonus items turn into 1ups!? I had no idea :o
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by dmk1198 »

Shatterhand wrote:
Been playing this for a couple of days on Switch and it's a real pleasure. Does anyone have any general advice?
Being the developer and having watched a lot of people playing the game... if you're having trouble with the game, use one of the easier ships. Reyka is probably the easiest ship to play, with people also saying they had an easy time with Arobe-D, Leo and Dumont. They have some strong defensive options which makes the game easier. Reyka's bomb gives you a fair amount of invincibility time which can be abused a lot :) Dumont's secondary shot clean the screen of bullets, and it has a better teleport mechanic than Reyka (though it takes longer to recharge). Leo also has a very strong teleport with its black hole, but it takes a lot of time to recharge... couple that with its ability to enter your shell and become invencible for a while, and the homing shots that let you stay anywhere on screen while still dealing damage, and you have a very strong defensive ship.

Some people have 1cc the game with all 9 ships on the default difficulty, and the overall feeling is that Z2 and Katha are the hardest ships to beat the game, mostly because they have no defensive options at all. Z2 and deal a lot of damage if you play it right, but it's pretty hard to do it properly when the game gets meaner on later levels.

Of course you may just want to play with the ship that you find more fun to play.

Also, the charge/bonus icons become 1-ups if you wait long enough. Not all of them though, I'll let you figure which ones (there's a logic behind it, not hard to figure it out :D)

If you want more tips let me know, I may tell you a couple more things. But there are already some good youtube videos with good advice :)




BTW, we're doing pretty fine so far :)

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Cheers thank you

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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by beer gas canister »

Shatterhand wrote:
Been playing this for a couple of days on Switch and it's a real pleasure. Does anyone have any general advice?
Being the developer and having watched a lot of people playing the game... if you're having trouble with the game, use one of the easier ships. Reyka is probably the easiest ship to play, with people also saying they had an easy time with Arobe-D, Leo and Dumont. They have some strong defensive options which makes the game easier. Reyka's bomb gives you a fair amount of invincibility time which can be abused a lot :) Dumont's secondary shot clean the screen of bullets, and it has a better teleport mechanic than Reyka (though it takes longer to recharge). Leo also has a very strong teleport with its black hole, but it takes a lot of time to recharge... couple that with its ability to enter your shell and become invencible for a while, and the homing shots that let you stay anywhere on screen while still dealing damage, and you have a very strong defensive ship.

Some people have 1cc the game with all 9 ships on the default difficulty, and the overall feeling is that Z2 and Katha are the hardest ships to beat the game, mostly because they have no defensive options at all. Z2 and deal a lot of damage if you play it right, but it's pretty hard to do it properly when the game gets meaner on later levels.

Of course you may just want to play with the ship that you find more fun to play.

Also, the charge/bonus icons become 1-ups if you wait long enough. Not all of them though, I'll let you figure which ones (there's a logic behind it, not hard to figure it out :D)

If you want more tips let me know, I may tell you a couple more things. But there are already some good youtube videos with good advice :)




BTW, we're doing pretty fine so far :)

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Fascinating stuff, thank you!

Another find: Rigby's special shot can be held to form a defensive ring around the ship. Make sure you're testing the inputs of every ship, there seems to be a lot of this stuff!
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Jonpachi »

Absolutely love this game for the most part, but I loathe the teleport mechanic. It feels like a combination of a band-aid for broken patterns and a gimmick to slap on the back of the box. As such, I find myself playing as Reyka so I can bomb my way through and ignore the whole thing entirely.

That sounds harsh, but it betrays my faith as a player in that I'm always second-guessing every tough pattern. "Was I supposed to be able to dodge that, or was that something I was expected to teleport through?" The fact that there's no pressure to worry about teleporting until later in the game only compounds this feeling.

If there were a few clearly unavoidable sequences early on to incentivize its use, I think it would really help smooth over this uneasy relationship. For example, have a sequence where a slow-moving wall of unbreakable asteroids comes at the player to force a teleport. Either double-down on it or cut it. As-is, the game feels confused and insecure - unsure of its own mechanics and unwilling to really go all the way with them.

All that said, I'm still having a lot of fun and the overall package is really well done. It's something I'll stick with until I get the clear, and I was excited to see it go up for pre-order on Play-Asia. I will absolutely be adding a physical copy to my collection.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

Coming from who designed the game, me :)

There was some arguing between the team when we made the game. Some people on the team wanted to force the player to teleport, like making some patterns that are impossible to avoid without using the teleport. I didn't agree with that. I wanted the teleport and the second fire to be complementary and replace what is usually a bomb in a shmup, but giving different mechanics so the player could approach the game in different ways.. and as I was the game designer, my word was final :D

You can finish the game, even on brutal, without ever using any other button but fire and focus. Actually, if the bosses timed out (its something I wanted to add but ended up not doing), you could actually finish the game without ever shooting. I tested each level enough to make sure they aren't impossible to be beaten by just dodging enemy fire. Of course on Brutal some patterns are indeed.... brutal. But it's still possible if you have the skills and know the patterns well.

You don't need to use the 2nd fire and you don't need to use the teleport. They are there to aid you if you want and can manage to use them properly.

And there's a reason why I didn't make the teleport required to make you able to finish the game. Different ships have different cooldowns times for the teleports. I really didn't want the player to be forced to teleport at some point but then the teleport it's not available because you used it a second before and now you're waiting its cool down. As a player I would be really pissed off if this happened. The teleport gives you a few (or a lot depending upon the ship) moments of invincibility which you can use in a anticipated way or, if you quick enough, as a desperation move (or to kill a row of enemies in a fashion way with Z2 :D )

So, it is possible to dodge *every* pattern. There's no pattern that requires you to teleport (or bomb).

This is regarding the arcade mode. On the cadet school there are many levels that requires you to teleport, but then it's a different game there.. the levels are very short and some are designed around this and you won't be frustrated for having used the teleport at a wrong spot and dying because of it in a 30 second game.

So, yes, you can completely ignore the teleport mechanic if you want to, as you can also ignore one of the "slower speed" buttons and only use the other one (which is what I do when I play the game). The teleport can help you though... Nina's teleport can help you a lot and Leo's teleport can be really abused if you just stay inside the black hole and don't care about scoring :D
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by beer gas canister »

Appreciate your commentary Shatterhand, it's illuminating stuff. Thanks!

I've been working away at this game, currently trying to get up through stage 4 on one credit. It plays so well. My only criticism is that stage 1 is way too long. I feel like almost everything up to the midboss could be deleted without issue. Once you know the patterns, it's just a matter of glueing your ship to the top of the screen and blasting for a couple of minutes. Maybe it's less of an issue with the harder modes, but on Beginner it's a bit of a slog. Maybe if there was more variation in the enemy spawns after the midboss, but a lot of them seem to repeat from the first chunk. I do love the run of single ships right before the boss though, like a ski hill slalom!
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

No problem mate, I never thought I would be discussing a game *I* made with people who actually *spent* money on it here on this forum (I mean, I've been here for more than 20 years now!). It's still kinda crazy to me considering how this project started. It's always a pleasure to talk about the game. :)

I'm really glad you are overall enjoying it :)

-

I can't change the game now, but a lot of people complained about the length of level 1, and it's something I'll have in mind for future games.

I thought there was some incentive to try to learn the level to score well, but I can definitely see what people is talking about and I think it's very fair criticism. I think that level 1 alone is what made people first compare the game to Compile games... I did a very obvious homage to Zanac there, but I also think Compile levels go on for too long sometimes, and I should have paid attention to that :D

Did you ever fight the boss on Hyper Mode there? :)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by beer gas canister »

Wow now that you mention Zanac I can see it. Got to reconsider some of these encounters! The patterns are quite Compile-ish at times, but with rather un-Compile bullets :mrgreen:

Haven't managed to fight a hyper boss yet, because I haven't found enough :?:s. The most I've managed is 2 each on the first two stages.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

Have 310000+ points when beating the midboss, destroy the 2 big enemies that hover the middle of the screen by point-blanking them and destroy all the middle-sizes carriers before they reach the middle of the screen :)

I've posted on the Steam Forum how to get all of them.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by kid aphex »

For those who need to keep an eye on their mailboxes:
It looks like the physical copy from Red Art Games has shipped.
That was pretty fast, especially compared to LRG…
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Jonpachi »

@Shatterhand

I'm excited to be picking up a physical copy of Sophstar when it's out next month. Can you detail any differences between the PS4 and PS5 versions? Any "next-gen" upgrades in the PS5 version?
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

PS5 version has haptic feedback. Other than that , I don't think there are any other differences.

May sound crazy, but I haven't played any of the consoles versions yet . The most modern console I own it's an Wii U, heh.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by soupbones »

Really enjoying this one - it definitely has that “one more try” quality to it.

My favorite ship at the moment is the one with the random teleport - i essentially use it as an emergency bail out button lol. I’m playing this game in my cabinet with a stick (PS4) - i imagine playing with a controller is MUCH easier… As of now, I hardly use the 2 speed options and obviously lose the benefit of having a right stick for teleporting.

Absolutely love the aesthetic - gives me Sega Master System vibes!

Great job on the game @Shatterhand! Will be playing this for a while!
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it. :)

YOu can safely ignore one of the speed buttons and use just the other one, whichever you find it suits you better. On my mind, that was how I designed it. I guess if I had just 1 speed button and let the player choose its speed people would find less confusing.

But you basically have 4 buttons... Fire, 2nd Fire, Teleport and Speed. Using shoulder buttons for Teleport and Speed is certainly more comfortable, but I could get used with 4 buttons on my arcade stick too :)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by guigui »

Game is on sale 50% on the eshop. Not sure if developper earns some money at that price ?
I'll definitely give it a try.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by BurlyHeart »

Spoiler
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Didn't play for a long while. Picked it up today and on my first play got a new PB, before dying on Level 5. I actually had 6 lives when I reached the level 4 boss but it destroyed me :lol:

I really love this game and have a lot of fun when playing. I'll try get better! More people should definitely play this. Shout out to the music being so good.The Enemy's Heart being a personal fav.
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

For Shatterhand,

Any plans to release Sophstar on the Exa-Arcadia "arcade only" platform? Any new gameplay mechanics and/or other features such as new stages to add to make it the definitive "arcade exclusive" version of Sophstar?

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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

guigui wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 5:34 pm Game is on sale 50% on the eshop. Not sure if developper earns some money at that price ?
I'll definitely give it a try.
I do, but I honestly think the publishers went with very aggressive discounts too early but... oh well, they should know about this better than me, I guess.
For Shatterhand,

Any plans to release Sophstar on the Exa-Arcadia "arcade only" platform? Any new gameplay mechanics and/or other features such as new stages to add to make it the definitive "arcade exclusive" version of Sophstar?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Not really, I have no idea of how to do anything with the Exa-Arcadia... I don't even own a Switch, let alone something like this.

But we are working on new gameplay mechanics for a new game on the Sophstar universe so... yep. Hope it feels even more arcade-y than the first game. (It's not a sequel though)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by SPM »

Does the game perform well on Switch? any problems Vs Steam? I have it on both wish lists and wonder which one I should go for ^^

(sorry if it's already been answered before/elsewhere)
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by Shatterhand »

SPM wrote: Thu Aug 17, 2023 4:17 pm Does the game perform well on Switch? any problems Vs Steam? I have it on both wish lists and wonder which one I should go for ^^

(sorry if it's already been answered before/elsewhere)
I actually... have never played the Switch version. Someone told me there's a bug on the training mode where when you choose a boss on the hyper mode you fight the normal mode boss instead of the hyper one so there's no way to practice against the hyper bosses (and good luck trying to beat them without the training mode). Red Art Games have been told about this bug (not by me though) so I dunno if they are ever going to fix it (I hope so)

But as far as performance goes, not one single complaint on any of the versions. I should say the console versions even polished some stuff (like the text on cutscenes) and added more language options (which really surprised me) so.. that's that;
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Re: Sophstar - Steam / Switch / Xbox / PS4 / PS5

Post by guigui »

I can confirm that the Switch version runs just smooth, nothing to complain about as of now.
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