Espgaluda II -official-

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 9:55 am

Word. I was so high for the whole 6th stage through the boss fight, I thought my heart was going to explode.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:51 am

Congratulations! ^_^

agony · Post by **agony** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:48 pm

from me too!

and now since you are done with it, You could make me a nice Christmas gift

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:15 pm

Wow, Congrats!

Plasmo · Post by **Plasmo** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 3:02 pm

gj congrats!
(just to complete the triple german congratulation WTF!?)

btw how high are the WR scores already? 700m?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:24 pm

Heh heh, nice job: it doesn't seem like too long ago that you were happy to have cleared the first Galuda (your first Cave 1CC, IIRC); heck, it took you a lot less time (or so it seems, nayways) to clear an even tougher version of it.

LUNardei · Post by **LUNardei** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:13 pm

Very quick! Congrats!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:21 pm

Well, this is pretty much all I've played for the last 3 weeks, and yes, BM, the first Galuda was my first 1CC (excluding crap I did as a young man in elementary school, which I can't really remember now).

I think the highest scores reported are about 600 million. I could've gotten about 350m here, but just screwed up in too many scoring opportunities.

Now I need to work on a clear fighting True Seseri. I could have on this credit, but I suicided on stage 5 to avoid it.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:07 pm

Finally got a chance to try my hands on this game last Sat when I gone in town.

I found it in an acrade side by side with Progear, Sns2, Raiden III, Mushihimesame & Ibara ?!?!

Players there said the PBCs is actually on loen some shmups fans and is not owned by the acrade.

What a scane!!! I cannot belive I ccould see that in an acrade outside Japan.

But the Joysticks are really ceappy...

Anyway, I make it to pass the midboss of stage 3 once in the few games I play. Seems not very hard if you are not trying to score high by playing with the bullets.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:41 pm

Seems not very hard if you are not trying to score high by playing with the bullets.

It is definitely not that hard if you are playing "safe", until around stage 5 anway. But your score will be awful. Stage 5 and 6, and some parts of 4 have lots of small enemies so you have to use the Zesshikai mode or you will run out of gems and die.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:29 am

Website update.
Stage 3 Boss - Janome

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:38 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Seems not very hard if you are not trying to score high by playing with the bullets.
It is definitely not that hard if you are playing "safe", until around stage 5 anway. But your score will be awful. Stage 5 and 6, and some parts of 4 have lots of small enemies so you have to use the Zesshikai mode or you will run out of gems and die.

How much more difficult is it than the first one? Though some people said the first was too easy, I think the difficulty was perfect. The difficulty progresses evenly, and even when it starts to get crazy (4 and 5-1) the difficulty is built steadily and doesn't feel insurmountable. There's no real "wall" in the game where all of a sudden it gets crazy. I hope the second one is as balanced as the first.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:07 am

Well, I rank it somewhere a hair or two above Guwange in terms of difficulty. As Sam pointed out, if you use the Kakusei mode to play it safe in some parts, the first 4 stages are a breeze, but your score will be awful -- could easily be only 15 million after stage 3 (a good score is 100 million after stage 3).

I personally find the 4th stage to be pretty simple once you get used to it, but the boss gets pretty tricky (especially his last two forms). This is really where the dificulty ramps up. Stage 5 is where it gets really manical, as there's a lot of popcorn coming from many directions (button and top of screen). This is where Ageha is not the safest choice, and using only the kakusei mode on this stage will make you run out of gems pretty fast (especially the end). The backwards and sideways scrolling parts can be tricky as well. Finally, the last stage is really long (2 mid-bosses) and the last boss is pretty damn hard. All in all, I'd say the longer boss fights, and the dangers added to the scoring mechanism are what make it harder. That, and more bullets of course.

If you practice, it'll come, but I find it really easy to screw up, especially in the high-scoring parts.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:03 am

Rather boring, but impressive Tateha No Kakusei 1CC
http://www.geocities.jp/vmd_acf/stgmovie.html
(Be sure to mute it -- you'll thank me later).

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:58 pm

I know I'm sounding like a broken record but, any news on ESPGaluda II Music?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:27 am

Review I wrote. Something I never do.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:56 am

Nice, but it'd have been nice if it was a bit longer. You could talk about the art and soundtrack a bit.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:26 am

I tend to hate long-winded reviews, and as before... I'm not the person to ask about soundtrack. Also as mentioned, I didn't want to go into the graphics, or art... that's something that one could easily take in for themselves from a video.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 7:03 am

Gaijin, you suck at music reviews.

I'd give the ESPGaluda OST a bit more credit than you did.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:24 am

Coming from a background of playing classical piano for about 11 years, andwatching anime for some 4-5 years in college, even before it was mainstream, I can honestly say that it is just not for me. I always hated anime music, and game music seems to be built on the same blocks. I actually own the ESPGaluda soundtrack, and listen to it in spatterings. I just don't see why game developers won't hire proper musicians more often. The few time they did (Rez, Ghost in the Shell on the PS, Wipeout, JSR) the results were fantastic.

Of course, it doesn't always work. One of the Virtual On soundtracks (vinyl only maybe?) had some famous Japanese DJ's (Yo-C, Shinkawa, Tomo) do some tracks. I asked one of them if they were given total freedom to write the tracks. According to him, they weren't.

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:18 pm

Eh, it's all Robert Miles ripoff trance, but it fits the game nicely.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:36 pm

Actually DDP is capable of more bullets on screen than DOJ is. It was in one of the CAVE letters.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:14 pm

The official word from Ikeda was 260-something, wasn't it? (Too lazy to look up). Did anyone count DOJ? The point was, it's a shitload harder.

Eh, it's all Robert Miles ripoff trance, but it fits the game nicely.

That's about as best as anyone could describe it.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:30 am

DDP = 245 shots
DOJ = 210 shots

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:58 am

*wants to know who Robert Miles is*

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 8:20 am

Blade wrote:*wants to know who Robert Miles is*

Believe me, you don't want to know that.

Bingo · Post by **Bingo** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:57 pm

Can't be that great a comparison when I can't stand Miles yet have an admitted weakness for the upbeat urgency techno of the Galudas. But that's probably 'cause I've always been that way with Trance music, never could pin down which of the many subgenres really was my cup of tea. Decriptions that fit one track never seem to fit another! Miles is way too lazy-dreamy, with plodding beats that make me want to go hug a bunny. Galuda is nothing like that.

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:02 pm

Blade wrote:*wants to know who Robert Miles is*

Check out the album Dreamland. If you like Galuda's piano based tracks, you'll probably like Robert Miles.

Just don't tell anyone about it! Electronica fans will scoff at you!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:14 pm

I had a gay roommate a long time ago that had Dreamland. Considering he was always playing diva-esque house records, I kind of warmed up to Dreamland. I still play One and One for nostalgic purposes.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:14 am

Official Site Update

Stage 1 & 2 map and enemies (including score, gem count and gold count).