Homura PS2 early reviews...

Post by **Ghegs** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:10 pm

CMoon wrote:Would you recommend this game to someone who isn't particularly fond of Psyvariar 1&2 and the Shikigami series? The game looks very unique, but I don't really like the bullet patterns too much in those games.

Hmm. I do like Homura much more than Psyvariars, but that's largely thanks to the scoring system. Not that I know how to manipulate Homura's any better, as my score shows, but at least I think I understand it more. But if you don't like the bulletpatterns in those games, you won't like them here either, as they're quite similar. Beautiful in an abstract way. Unique. Shiny.

sammaza · Post by **sammaza** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:16 pm

Kiken wrote:
sammaza wrote:I cant 1 credit it....The boss on 3-1 has bullet patterns that I cant figure out...

Great game...great replayability

9/10
You mean the sub-boss (sorta like a large octopus/manta-ray... thing)?

The first pattern (the triplets of diagonal red shots) is easily dodged by moving up and down along the center of the screen (starting at the bottom of the screen). The second pattern should be the large green spray with occasional red ball shots.... pick a direction, either left or right and slowly make your way from the center to the edge of the screen and then up that side. The third pattern is the random bouncy red balls which will rebound off the edges of the screen... it's normally easiest to dodge this in about the center of the screen while slowly beginning to move backwards (as you'll be mid-screen from having dodged the green spray). The fourth pattern is a high-speed spurt of blue Nerd (they look like the candy) bullets. You normally have to make 2 quick taps left or right to get through this pattern (it's best to save a Counter Slash for this). The next one is a series of larger red triplets (they slow down as they approach the edge of the screen) with 4 or 5 intersperced triplets of blue balls. If you're starting in the center, you should have a hole to either the left or right to move in to... wait for the triple of blue ball shots before moving though. Repeat that until you get through the pattern (keep a Counter Slash ready just in case your exit disappears). The next patterns returns to the original red shot triplets. If you don't kill the boss by this time, he'll normally self-destruct.

I'm sure some other members here have some different tactics for dealing with this boss.

WOW...thanx for the info. I removed the ps2 from my vertical cab and put it inside my red neogeo horizontal cab. So, Homura is on hold...I got Chaos Field : New Order Jap running now...I am having a hard time ajusting to horizontal shmups. Pics comming in a few mins. in the Chaos field thread.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:42 am

Ghegs wrote:Hmm. I do like Homura much more than Psyvariars, but that's largely thanks to the scoring system. Not that I know how to manipulate Homura's any better, as my score shows, but at least I think I understand it more. But if you don't like the bulletpatterns in those games, you won't like them here either, as they're quite similar. Beautiful in an abstract way. Unique. Shiny.

These remarks definitely have me interested in the game. I'll have to get it when I can afford it.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:00 am

Ok, if anyone is interesting in getting a quick look at the final boss, I captured some video (although, be warned, he pwned me pretty quick... but this was the first time I managed to survive the first attack pattern) of stage 5 (well, the boss IS stage 5... but you get the idea):

Homura Final Boss (5 MB)

The design reminds me a bit of Giga Wing 2's final boss.

sammaza · Post by **sammaza** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:19 am

Awesome video!

That inspired me to pull the ps2 back out of the upright cab and put it back in the vertical neocandy

Compared to Chaos Field...i'll play homura!

Homura is where its at!

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:32 pm

I've concluded that the gallery is unlocked further as you gain credits. As for the credits, I'm pretty sure you get one for every 10 mins or so worth of play time-- can anyone confirm this?

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:18 pm

Zweihander wrote:I've concluded that the gallery is unlocked further as you gain credits. As for the credits, I'm pretty sure you get one for every 10 mins or so worth of play time-- can anyone confirm this?

That sounds about right... I have over 40 credits and am missing only 8 images from the gallery.

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:40 pm

Kiken wrote:
Zweihander wrote:I've concluded that the gallery is unlocked further as you gain credits. As for the credits, I'm pretty sure you get one for every 10 mins or so worth of play time-- can anyone confirm this?
That sounds about right... I have over 40 credits and am missing only 8 images from the gallery.

Through some mildly tedious testing, I can confirm this: You get one credit for every time you play past stage 1. Took a few runs on stage 1, and killed myself at the end each time. No increase in credits. Then i played past stage 1, and-- viola-- credit increased by 1. Not that the credits themselves mean anything to me... I'm just trying to unlock the rest of the Gallery.

Well, make of this what you will. ^^

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:05 pm

I finally managed to no-bomb/no-miss my way to the stage 4 boss (apparently, the stage-3 split is score-based, and that score marker has to be over 500 million, because I still haven't managed to activate 3-H yet), and was able to get past him with only 1 death, meaning I had 3 men and at least 3 bombs to take on the final boss.

The later attacks of his first form leave very little room to maneuver, plus the boss is moving back and forth across the top of the screen, making him difficult to pin down. I mostly bombed my way through the first form just so I could at least see the final form (well, I hope he only has two forms). He changes into a large winged demo and starts to litter the screen with loads of random bullets while firing some very annoying preditermined attacks (remember the stage 2 final boss' blue curvy laser?, well they're back). I didn't make it that far into the second form unfortunately.

I've made it my mission to SCC this game before the new year.

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:34 pm

Kiken wrote:I finally managed to no-bomb/no-miss my way to the stage 4 boss (apparently, the stage-3 split is score-based, and that score marker has to be over 500 million, because I still haven't managed to activate 3-H yet), and was able to get past him with only 1 death, meaning I had 3 men and at least 3 bombs to take on the final boss.

Score-based? The way I do it is just let him live (with very little health

) and it lets you take the Hard path.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:38 am

Zweihander wrote:
Kiken wrote:I finally managed to no-bomb/no-miss my way to the stage 4 boss (apparently, the stage-3 split is score-based, and that score marker has to be over 500 million, because I still haven't managed to activate 3-H yet), and was able to get past him with only 1 death, meaning I had 3 men and at least 3 bombs to take on the final boss.
Score-based? The way I do it is just let him live (with very little health ) and it lets you take the Hard path.

Interesting. So it's merely a survival thing? But I've had him time-out before and I never got the Hard path. How much of his life-bar should he have left to trigger the path?

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:13 am

Kiken wrote:
Zweihander wrote: Score-based? The way I do it is just let him live (with very little health ) and it lets you take the Hard path.
Interesting. So it's merely a survival thing? But I've had him time-out before and I never got the Hard path. How much of his life-bar should he have left to trigger the path?

Not sure exactly... i'd assume under half. All i know is, if i kill him, i get the easy path, and if he survives, i get the hard path. o_O Sorry i can't be of more help.. i'm still in the process of forming scoring strategies. ^^;

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:03 pm

Zweihander wrote:Not sure exactly... i'd assume under half. All i know is, if i kill him, i get the easy path, and if he survives, i get the hard path. o_O Sorry i can't be of more help.. i'm still in the process of forming scoring strategies. ^^;

You were right. I finally triggered the Hard path in stage 3 last night. Took me a couple of tries to rework my strategy for dealing with the mid-boss so that I didn't completely drill him.

Even though stage 3 seems to be the weakest for scoring overall, the Hard path definitely has more enemies and therefore more combo potential.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:27 am

Gah... you bastards... My pre-ordered copy finally came from yesasia today. Strange because my pre-ordered IIDX 10th has not arrived yet, and it shipped out on Nov.18.

Will give this game a run tomorrow since it's late tonight...

sammaza · Post by **sammaza** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:22 am

This game is the bomb...I am not as good as you guys for sure. But now that I have seen your vids and learned how to play better I am loving it. I wish you could all see this game on a 29in monitor.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:28 pm

sammaza wrote:This game is the bomb...I am not as good as you guys for sure. But now that I have seen your vids and learned how to play better I am loving it. I wish you could all see this game on a 29in monitor.

I'm playing on a 29" tated monitor. Taito used the same interlaced video mode as Raiden III, Mushihimesama, and Gigawing Generations. It looks ok, but still not as good as DDPDOJ/ESPGaluda ports. Notice how you see vertical lines in his primary fire...interlaced....yuck.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:13 pm

Dave_K. wrote:I'm playing on a 29" tated monitor. Taito used the same interlaced video mode as Raiden III, Mushihimesama, and Gigawing Generations. It looks ok, but still not as good as DDPDOJ/ESPGaluda ports. Notice how you see vertical lines in his primary fire...interlaced....yuck.

Yeah, but it's Type-X... nobody's expecting it to look good in the first place. :/

The fact of the matter is, it plays beautifully, which is the most important thing.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:58 pm

Kiken wrote:
Dave_K. wrote:I'm playing on a 29" tated monitor. Taito used the same interlaced video mode as Raiden III, Mushihimesama, and Gigawing Generations. It looks ok, but still not as good as DDPDOJ/ESPGaluda ports. Notice how you see vertical lines in his primary fire...interlaced....yuck.
Yeah, but it's Type-X... nobody's expecting it to look good in the first place. :/

The fact of the matter is, it plays beautifully, which is the most important thing.

I didn't mind PS2 Homura's graphics. Just like Raiden III, they're more than reasonably good and better than I expected.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:19 pm

Kiken wrote: The fact of the matter is, it plays beautifully, which is the most important thing.

Of course, this is why I still own/play it, as well as the three aforementioned games. I think people confuse my opinon of the port's quality with my opinion of the game itself.

2DGaming · Post by **2DGaming** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 3:28 am

The game arrived today for me. Haven't had the chance to play the game yet. Will definately get some gaming done tonight.

Just want to know if this port contains anything extra? Anything to unlock? I know there is a gallery mode by looking through the manual. Anything else?

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:07 am

2DGaming wrote:The game arrived today for me. Haven't had the chance to play the game yet. Will definately get some gaming done tonight.

Just want to know if this port contains anything extra? Anything to unlock? I know there is a gallery mode by looking through the manual. Anything else?

Just the gallery images and extra credits (every extra credit you earn opens up an image in the gallery). The gallery is fully unlocked after 55 credits, however, I've yet to max the number of credits (I think it stops at 99).

2DGaming · Post by **2DGaming** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:33 am

Kiken wrote:
2DGaming wrote:The game arrived today for me. Haven't had the chance to play the game yet. Will definately get some gaming done tonight.

Just want to know if this port contains anything extra? Anything to unlock? I know there is a gallery mode by looking through the manual. Anything else?
Just the gallery images and extra credits (every extra credit you earn opens up an image in the gallery). The gallery is fully unlocked after 55 credits, however, I've yet to max the number of credits (I think it stops at 99).

Credits-a-plenty I see. Thank you.

2DGaming · Post by **2DGaming** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:40 pm

Homura is great. After playing it non-stop for many hours in the past couple of days I find the game throughly enjoyable. I can't say the same for Raiden 3. I really didn't like the game at all and sold the game to a friend after owning it for a week. Thats not to say that Raiden 3 is rubbish. Just not my taste.

Back on topic. Graphically, Homura is alot better in motion than the first impression I got from the initial screenshots. I think the design is great overall. Gameplay wise, its fantastic and a whole lot of fun. I am terrible in terms of scoring. Just trying to survive past stage 4 to see stage 5 but nope... both level 3 and 4 keeps giving me troubles. More practice I guess.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:19 am

Just got back from my bidness trip on Sunday, and found this waiting for me.

I was pretty skeptical at first, but I'm really enjoying Homura. Although she ain't really a looker, the scoring system, gameplay, and music are all top notch. I know there are still a lot of fence sitters on this one, but I think those who enjoyed the Shikis will like this too.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:37 pm

I just got this a few days ago and I must say I am very surprised. It's MUCH better than I had thought, and about a million times more fun than Raiden III. The graphics are quite nice actually (very smooth 60fps, with nice lighting and explosions, though the enemy designs leave a bit to be desired), and the music is excellent. The gameplay has a puzzle-ish element to it, which is great because I was a big fan of Ikaruga. I just wish there was a practice mode. The port and extras are overall very nice, but the absence of a practice mode is just silly.

Anyway, this is a great game, and one that I will be keeping. I recommend it to all shmup fans, particularly fans of ikaruga and shikigami no shiro 2.

shmups.system11.org

Homura PS2 early reviews...

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Re: Somewhat important