Steam Doujin sale, what should I pick up?

[BazookaBen]

Steam is in the midst of selling a bunch of Doujin games. I already have Crimzon Clover and Satazius. What else is good in this list?

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/douj ... 1_41_4__42

[Shepardus]

Kamui, RefleX, and Alltynex Second are great. I like Kamui and Alltynex Second more than RefleX but all of them are good.

For non-shmups, La-Mulana, 100% Orange Juice, and One Way Heroics are good.

There are others that are probably worth checking out such as XIIZEAL, Suguri, QP Shooting: Dangerous, and the Gundemonium games, but I haven't played any of those.

[alamone]

I have a lot of the games on sale already but I picked up XIIZeal, Armed Seven and Gunhound EX

[Special World]

La Mulana is incredible (and so is its music) but be prepared to be stuck a lot. I second Kamui and Alltynex Second. Obligatory Crimzon Clover as well, though I don't 100% love it.

[Squire Grooktook]

The shmup library on Steam is incredible. All sorts of diverse tastes and lots of quality. Some personal favorites:

eXceed 2nd -Vampire Rex:

Surprisingly aggressive and fast paced Ikaruga clone with an emphasis on speed killing and aggressively ramming enemies and bosses.

Ether Vapor Remaster:

Oldschool big hitbox style gameplay with a nice selection of weapons, impressively intense and unique boss fights, and a modern presentation.

Alltynex Trilogy:

3 games, all with extremely unique (both from eachother, and the majority of modern shmups) but fundamentally sound mechanics and fantastic presentation. Not all of the games are totally polished, but they're each visceral and unmistakably unique games.

Crimzon Clover World Ignition:

Overwhelmingly polished game with massive amounts of content. Designed by a legendary super player. To be honest, I consider this game the last word on traditional danmaku games.

Satazius:

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.). Not the deepest game ever made, but a fun ride to take anytime. Also their arcade run and gun mech shooter, Gigantic Army, is in a league of its own and highly recommended.

[Tregard]

Gee thanks BazookaBen. I managed to go for 2 years without buying a game on Steam, and now I just fell off the wagon and bought 3 of them.

Crimson Clover looks damn tasty though *rubs hands together with glee*

[broken harbour]

If it was a shmup on sale... I bought it.

I got most of the compilation packs + Crimson Clover, spent about $40 for 15-ish games, pretty good deal.

I don't even own a windows pc to play them on anymore, but was planning on it later in the year.

[Satan]

I enjoy Gunhound EX and Gigantic Army, but my PC stg time is usually MAME and Crimzon Clover. I think I'll pick Satazius up now.

[copy-paster]

Satazius is only 2 bux now, I should get it.

[KBZ]

I bought about 8 games for $30 in this sale.

Who is going to challenge me to some Neo Aquarium?

Who would have thought that Steam would be such a great source for Doujin titles?

[Elixir]

Nekopara (not that I'm actually buying it because I have a physical copy)

gotta rep my girl Sayori

[Despatche]

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.).

satazius is a good game but:

1. satazius looks and feels way more like a euroshmup than any gradius game ever

2. the greatest irony of the gradius series is that most of its problems come from any game after the first

[Special World]

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.).

2. the greatest irony of the gradius series is that most of its problems come from any game after the first

Will you explain this? Because in my mind all the Gradius games are a pretty logical (maybe unremarkable?) progression from the first one. I'm genuinely interested and not at all trying to disagree or have an argument or anything.

[Squire Grooktook]

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.).

satazius is a good game but:

1. satazius looks and feels way more like a euroshmup than any gradius game ever

2. the greatest irony of the gradius series is that most of its problems come from any game after the first

Looks? Maybe. Feels/plays? Not in the least. Satazius is pure classic style hori goodness.

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.).

2. the greatest irony of the gradius series is that most of its problems come from any game after the first

Will you explain this? Because in my mind all the Gradius games are a pretty logical (maybe unremarkable?) progression from the first one. I'm genuinely interested and not at all trying to disagree or have an argument or anything.

I agree with Despatche on point 2.

Gradius 1 is the most fundamentally sound outside of Gaiden. Well paced, well balanced, recoveries are mostly actually fun, lots of variety, etc...

Gradius 2 is a little bit more extreme, but also a lot more uneven. There are a ton of unwinnable recoveries now, some of the stages are fantastic while others are boring/too long, etc. It's worth playing for it's brilliant moments, but it's not quite the same air tight package as Gradius 1.

Gradius 3 Arcade is a notorious clusterfuck filled to the brim with unwinnable recoveries, a luck based boss fight, horrible psuedo 3d sections imo, etc. Gradius 3 SNES on the other hand is way too easy and any moment that's sufficiently hectic causes the games hardware to slow everything to a crawl.

Gradius 4 is like Gradius 3 Arcade "but good". Really fucking hard, but a little more fundamentally sound. A little.

Gaiden is on par with 1. Great game with some nice genuine innovations thrown in.

Gradius 5 plays the most different from the rest of the franchise but still captures the feel and best aspects of the series. Has some new flaws of its own (length) but still a great entry.

Rebirth is as well balanced as 1 and Gaiden, though without the latters innovations. Another strong entry.


Overall I'd say 1, Gaiden, 5, and Rebirth are all great, but 2-4 I'd only recommend for hardcore fans.

[Cagar]

Nekopara (not that I'm actually buying it because I have a physical copy)

gotta rep my girl Sayori

I heard that the steam version(s?) are censored or missing certain content.

[Elixir]

Nekopara (not that I'm actually buying it because I have a physical copy)

gotta rep my girl Sayori

I heard that the steam version(s?) are censored or missing certain content.

I don't think it's missing content, but it is censored. Thankfully it's not an issue, because there's a patch available for the Steam release: http://imouto.club/nekopara/

Even the full doujin Comiket release is still somewhat censored with mosaics, the Steam version is just even more censored. There's no fully uncensored version of the game.

Full release is also on the English DLsite but there's no sales discount.

[Despatche]

Oldschool Gradius styled horizontal shmup with all the fantastic environmental hazards and funky weapons and bosses, but none of the stupid bullshit that also characterized oldschool Gradius (recoveries, etc.).

2. the greatest irony of the gradius series is that most of its problems come from any game after the first

Will you explain this? Because in my mind all the Gradius games are a pretty logical (maybe unremarkable?) progression from the first one. I'm genuinely interested and not at all trying to disagree or have an argument or anything.

the original gradius was very carefully designed, very much a "gamer's game". as early as salamander, the series degenerated into spectacle, and became the horrific mess most people know of.

gradius gaiden chiefly works as well as it does because they "could" tone the spectacle down for the consumer market; had gaiden been an arcade game, it might have been as insane as the games before it.

<no salamander>

never forget that salamander was "the sequel to gradius" before gradius 2 on the msx, and then gradius ii in the arcades. konami can whitewash it into a spinoff all they want. do not let brands take you over; understand those brands and take control of them.

(idk, satazius doesn't remind me of any of the big japanese horizontal games in look/feel. every horizontal euroshmup ever comes to mind, though)

[scrilla4rella]

I picked up Armed Seven and Kamui. I was pretty impressed with Armed Seven, even though I 1CC'd normal on my first try. Tonight I'll have to crank that bitch up to INSANE mode and really get my 3 dollars worth.

I hope that Raiden clone (forgot the name but played it at Rancor's house last year) from Astro Port gets released on Steam eventually

[Lobinden]

It's already been mentioned here but Alltynex Second. I love that game, it is quite possibly one of my all time fav PC shmups. It is a bit unpolished around the edges and if you really don't like gameplay which is based around memorisation as opposed to reflexes you probably wouldn't enjoy it, but in my opinion the level design, bosses and game mechanics all work so very well together, some people may not like me saying this but I feel as though it is what Ether Vapor Remaster tried to be.

Suguri is also good, but good god am I awful at that game. In terms of subjective difficulty based on my performance alone, it is harder than any CAVE game ever made (that is to say, I have an easier time with any CAVE game than I do with suguri). I have played it for 3 hours and I still can't consistently get past the first level on normal. The dashing mechanic is very fun though and makes for exciting boss fights.

[Tatsuya79]

Bought Crimzon Clover, I didn't know about this game at all.

I feel bad criticizing something at that price but I really can't enjoy something this low res (despite the strange fake high-res scaling they did) without any kind of shader on top now.
Tried to use SweetFX to push some CRT emulation on top but that seems complicated (unless your screen is in portrait).

This is something that made me stay away from many steam releases. :/

[juonryu2nd]

Suguri is also good, but good god am I awful at that game. In terms of subjective difficulty based on my performance alone, it is harder than any CAVE game ever made (that is to say, I have an easier time with any CAVE game than I do with suguri). I have played it for 3 hours and I still can't consistently get past the first level on normal. The dashing mechanic is very fun though and makes for exciting boss fights.

The publishers screwed up the Steam port in many ways, one of them being that they didn't even include the damn manual when you right click it in the library. It's found here, by the way. You can also check out this wiki. In my opinion the game is actually very forgiving once you understand the basic game mechanics.

[Squire Grooktook]

Bought Crimzon Clover, I didn't know about this game at all.

I feel bad criticizing something at that price but I really can't enjoy something this low res (despite the strange fake high-res scaling they did) without any kind of shader on top now.
Tried to use SweetFX to push some CRT emulation on top but that seems complicated (unless your screen is in portrait).

This is something that made me stay away from many steam releases. :/

What are you talking about? The game is very hi-res for me.

[Tatsuya79]

Bought Crimzon Clover, I didn't know about this game at all.

I feel bad criticizing something at that price but I really can't enjoy something this low res (despite the strange fake high-res scaling they did) without any kind of shader on top now.
Tried to use SweetFX to push some CRT emulation on top but that seems complicated (unless your screen is in portrait).

This is something that made me stay away from many steam releases. :/

What are you talking about? The game is very hi-res for me.

Don't you see every sprite is highly pixelated and the whole background is redrawn with scaling issues?

[Squire Grooktook]

Bought Crimzon Clover, I didn't know about this game at all.

I feel bad criticizing something at that price but I really can't enjoy something this low res (despite the strange fake high-res scaling they did) without any kind of shader on top now.
Tried to use SweetFX to push some CRT emulation on top but that seems complicated (unless your screen is in portrait).

This is something that made me stay away from many steam releases. :/

What are you talking about? The game is very hi-res for me.

Don't you see every sprite is highly pixelated and the whole background is redrawn with scaling issues?

Don't see any pixelation. I'm at 1280x760 resoluation.

[Special World]

Crimzon Clover is definitely a very uniquely ugly game imo

[Tatsuya79]

Yeah, I don't know. I just tried it again, setting the resolution on 1280x768 spares me the awful background scaling at least.
But there's something that happens when developers put higher rez shaders / 3D models along side with low rez 2D sprites that really hurt my eyes.
Hated it when they did that with KOF games on dreamcast... and in a danmaku here, my brain just can't focus on anything at all.
I give up on this game.

[Squire Grooktook]

I give up on this game.

Pretty harsh considering it's probably one of the best pure danmaku games ever made. Oh well.

[amdiggywhut]

When I read people say bad things about Crimson Clover, I start to get offended like they just insulted my girlfriend or something. Irrationally defensive.

[trap15]

When I read people say bad things about Crimson Clover, I start to get offended like they just insulted my girlfriend or something. Irrationally defensive.

Me too. I'd say it's one of the best STG ever, not just danmaku style games. Boost, yo. Boost.

[Satan]

I fucking love it, it's just so satisfying.