Eschatos [+JSS & Cardinal Sins] on Switch and PS4 (Nov 18th)

[jehu]

https://www.gematsu.com/2021/11/shoot-e ... ps4-switch

Another release to add to the stacked end of 2021. A bit of a salve if the Sol Cresta 'Very Sorry' stream ends up being a delay...

Key Features

Multiple game modes and enjoyable difficulty settings for all levels of player skill. Choose from Original, Advanced, or Time Attack modes.
Intuitive and fun scoring system with a high skill ceiling! Scramble to wipe out the enemy waves as quickly as possible in Original mode, manage risk and reward in the challenging Advanced mode, and outrun the time limit in Time Attack mode. High score chasers are welcome!
Multiple weapons add strategic depth. The Front Shot is powerful, but has a limited firing angle. The Wide Shot can hit many enemies, but has short range. Finally, the Shield can inflict heavy damage and deflect bullets – but at perilously close range! Utilize all of them to get the best results, and don’t let the enemies get away!
The dynamic camera system creates a sense of exhilarating speed as you explore 5 beautiful stages, including temple ruins, Earth’s orbit, and the alien moon base.
Encounter massive bosses. Battle screen-filling UFOs and other strange enemies!
Check out the top players on the online leaderboards, or share your best run with a friend using the downloadable replay system!
Turn up the volume and enjoy a phenomenal retro-synth soundtrack composed by Yousuke Yasui!

[To Far Away Times]

Oh shit, Eschatos is one of the best shmups ever made. Game is fantastic.

[ACSeraph]

God I hope this finds the audience it deserves. One of my all time favorites.

[kid aphex]

This is such great news.
Eschatos is awesome... and one of the best STG soundtracks in the past 20+ years.
Will buy both versions just to throw support at it.

[Augemitbutter]

hopefully some physical releases will pop up. Always wanted to play this!

[Samildanach]

hopefully some physical releases will pop up. Always wanted to play this!

Hopefully will get picked up by First Press Games since they did Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicles. Well, I say did, but we are still waiting to receive the goods!

[Sumez]

Damn! I finally decided to get the X360 version, and soon after they announce a new port.

How about we get Raiden Fighters Aces soon, then?

[Jonpachi]

Amazing. This has been on my "When I get a little extra money I'm gonna get a copy" list for the longest time. Pray for minimal lag!

[Strider77]

I never got the fuss over this game, what am I missing out of the whole affair?

[BIL]

Fuuuuck yeah. Any one of these three would be an instant buy. Got the 360 disc but tbh fuck that whole generation of hardware, easy choice to double up.

Eschatos is awesome... and one of the best STG soundtracks in the past 20+ years.

Hell yeah, had to go blast Point Of No Return seeing this. Yousuke's the man.

Pray for minimal lag!

Can't speak for Switch, but Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicles' PS4 versions handle sharp, imo. Feeling pretty optimistic.

[To Far Away Times]

I never got the fuss over this game, what am I missing out of the whole affair?

It's like a fever dream of awesomeness and creativity wrapped up in Ikaruga-like production values. The OST slaps and there's some cool stuff with crazy camera angles that affect the gameplay. It also turns into Space Invaders for a bit.

[Strider77]

The production values were part of the turn off when I picked it up on 360.

[jehu]

The production values were part of the turn off when I picked it up on 360.

Eschatos feels like the closest thing the genre offers to a theme park experience. It's bright, fast, charming, a little kitsch, but always unabashedly loud and fun. The production values aren't always spectacular, no. To continue the metaphor, it's like looking at a old wooden rollercoaster with garish flakes of chipping paint - you might be skeptical. But if you give it a chance and just ride with it - it'll disarm you and offer a helluva good time.

Edit: I should say that the Nov. 11th date I put in the title seems like it might be a preorder date for the JPN Switch shop. Sounds like the game actually releases a week after that, so just FYI if that mislead anyone.

[jehu]

A trailer appears .. !

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

[MachineAres 1CC]

Any word on price yet? I sure hope they aren't trying to charge too much for this, given that even the original 360 release was a budget-priced title. Would likely pick it up on PS4 at some point, but no rush since I still have my 360 copy.

[SPM]

3300 yen (pricier than the Steam version, but it also includes 2 other games... Don't know how good are those though)

[BIL]

3300 yen (pricier than the Steam version, but it also includes 2 other games... Don't know how good are those though)

JSS is amazeballs

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Eschatos is rad, but I consider JSS and Cardinal Sins to be even better games. JSS in particular is insanely fun and the PC release included remixed tunes from Eschatos in Wonderswan Style. Hopefully this release has those too.

[Sengoku Strider]

Judgement Silversword is a game I've always wanted to play just because of the cool-ass name. (It might have made more sense for Radiant Silvergun to be called that instead, but ah well, that game's title is really memorable too.)

The article mentions release outside Japan with no details whatsoever, has anything been said elsewhere on that front? I try to go physical-only as much as possible these days, and domestic physical pretty much always ends up being the better investment.

[jehu]

FRIENDS, THE GAME IS NOW OUT ON THE JPN STORE.

All the menus were in English by default, so no reason not to jump in right away. Happy shooting!

[jehu]

I had a chance to play through JSS and Eschatos. The game performs wonderfully, very responsive. I don't have the tools to measure input lag exactly, but it feels like it's in the 'as good as it gets' range for Switch STGs. Highly recommended.

[DMC]

It feels very responsive to me too. And, yes, even the manuals, leaderboards, and achievement trophys are in English by default.
However, I cannot download replays because it states "I do not meet option level requirements", what is that exactly?

[harborline765]

I picked up this port too and the input lag is very low, feels like the LiveWire ports in responsiveness. Very pleasing. Judgement Silversword also looks rather incredible on the OLED model in Tate mode.

One niggle though, in Tate mode in handheld Eschatos has framerate drops whenever there are a lot of alpha transparency effects on screen. It doesn’t happen often but any large amounts of explosions causes the framerate to drop below 60 while the action continues.

Thankfully it doesn’t happen in docked mode or in horizontal mode in handheld.

Bit of a shame really, it’s probably because the alpha effects are heavy on memory bandwidth and the memory runs at a slower clock in handheld mode.

Is the remastered soundtrack option new?

[Emuser]

It feels very responsive to me too. And, yes, even the manuals, leaderboards, and achievement trophys are in English by default.
However, I cannot download replays because it states "I do not meet option level requirements", what is that exactly?

iirc, you have to reach level 18 before you can watch leaderboard replays.

[velo]

One niggle though, in Tate mode in handheld Eschatos has framerate drops whenever there are a lot of alpha transparency effects on screen. It doesn’t happen often but any large amounts of explosions causes the framerate to drop below 60 while the action continues.

Tate handheld mode is how I'd most often be playing, so that makes me hesitate

[To Far Away Times]

Do the wonderswan games have saves states or practice modes?

[DMC]

Thanks, Emuser!

To Far Away Times, no save states. Cardinal sins has trial mode, normal mode, and marathon mode. JS has easy, normal, hard. I guess it is the same as on Steam.

Played my first few runs of JS, and pretty impressed! Seems like fun scoring system, and large variety of enemy attack patterns.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Do the wonderswan games have saves states or practice modes?

Cardinal Sins is a kind of caravan game with multiple different levels with a specific gimmick (shoot all the enemies, collect all the items, find all the secret achievements, collect the 1ups, etc). There's a "Trial Mode" which has them in order and is probably the best mode, a "Normal Mode" that randomizes the order of each level and ups the difficulty, and a "Marathon Mode" where you play only the selected stage and serves as a practice mode for the game.

Judgement Silversword doesn't have a practice mode, but it's not too lengthy a game and does have options which can be used to serve for practice. Specifically, by playing the game you'll eventually unlock a super shot as well as god mode by earning total accumulated points. The super shot is essentially a debug tool which can be used to bypass any enemy or boss by killing them within a few seconds, and can be used to skip ahead and practice if you like. The god mode will allow you to unlock everything in the game even if you can't do it normally (the requirement to unlock two bonuses requires 1ccing the game if I recall, which god mode will allow you to do to unlock the goodies even if you're not that good at the game).

[prophetic]

FRIENDS, THE GAME IS NOW OUT ON THE JPN STORE.

All the menus were in English by default, so no reason not to jump in right away. Happy shooting!

Can you share a link? I'm logged into JP PSN on my phone, but searching for Eschatos or "エスカトス" (Google translate) gives me nothing.

[BIL]

I don't think it's out on PSN yet. Looked up some announcements, seems the Nov 18th date referred only to Switch, with PS4 arriving "at a later date."