Raiden IV: Overkill shows up on Steam for release in Fall

[Gespenst]

Release date is September 3rd from what it seems.

[Domino]

Unlocks in less than 24 hours.

[mdsfx]

Unfortunately we'll probably be lucky to have any kind of western release whatsoever, so for the time being it would be safer to assume that it will be Xbone exclusive.

Xbone/windows 10 exclusive?

Edit: Aaaand downloading.... NOW

[drunkninja24]

Played a bit, seems to run pretty well. My only real complaint is the fact that it has set resolutions and no option for fullscreen window mode (which is a bit of a pain on my own setup since my primary monitor is a 2560x1440 screen), more resolution options would be nice.

Other than that, good port, much better than Raiden III's was lol

Also probably the only time in history I will see myself #1 on any online high score table, just me and one other person in the Additional mode leaderboards right now lol.

[Blattdorf]

This is exactly the problem with Steam releases nowadays. Unless you buy a big banner, chances are your release will just fly under the radar, since the only thing promoting your release is the little three-panel on the front page. If you're popular, the game will appear in the longer list. I think it's unfair, to be honest, and it should be fixed.

EDIT: Grabbed it, by the way.

EDIT 2: Excellent port! It works like a charm, resolution options go up to full HD, you can even adjust the screen size during game. Which you should do, since the top and bottom edges of the game area don't actually touch screen borders by default. It takes like three seconds to change it, so whatever.

My one gripe so far is that there's no retry option in the in-game menu.

And I guess the models could use some slightly better textures. When viewed in the gallery up-close, they are ugly! Fortunately, during the game you don't really notice this. I'm just nitpicking here.

If the game happens to run exceedingly slow when you launch it, just go Fullscreen. Maybe it's because I'm using Windowblinds, but the game runs slow as hell in Windowed mode.

This port gets my seal of approval, is what I'm saying. Pick it up!

Wishlist: Retry option in the menu. Borderless Windowed mode. Perhaps some additional filtering on those textures.

[MathU]

Can anyone confirm is there's DRM or not?

[coturnixx]

I´m unable to start a play. I enter original mode , go to "start" and push accept button, but strangely that makes the help screen appear (the start button has no effect ). Using accept/cancel buttons will send me back to the original mode screen (the one where you select ship etc...), using start button cycles through the two help screens. rest of buttons do nothing.

So i´m stuck, i can only pop the help screens, how did you start playing?

[Blattdorf]

I´m unable to start a play. I enter original mode , go to "start" and push accept button, but strangely that makes the help screen appear (the start button has no effect ). Using accept/cancel buttons will send me back to the original mode screen (the one where you select ship etc...), using start button cycles through the two help screens. rest of buttons do nothing.

So i´m stuck, i can only pop the help screens, how did you start playing?

I have a Logitech F710, so I just pressed A everywhere. Maybe there's an issue with your gamepad?

[Blattdorf]

Can anyone confirm is there's DRM or not?

It's there.

[emphatic]

Can anyone confirm is there's DRM or not?

It's there.

Hooray!

[MathU]

Can anyone confirm is there's DRM or not?

It's there.

So you can't play the game without Steam running?

[coturnixx]

Can anyone confirm is there's DRM or not?

It's there.

So you can't play the game without Steam running?

Nope, he means there´s DRM. Tried launching with Steam disabled and first thing it did was launch Steam and connect to it.

[MathU]

Ouch. This one really hits where it hurts.

I never really cared a whole lot for Ikaruga personally so it was easy to sustain outrage over Treasure screwing over its PC port with Steam DRM. The salient point there to me was just how much influence it would have over future PC ports. But I damn well love Raiden. I really want to play this. I really want to support MOSS.

The Raiden brand is a hugely iconic and influential name in scrolling shooters and it's fair to say that Raiden IV itself was a pivotal factor in what caused the Xbox 360 to become “the shooter console” of last generation. I can only see a dark future for PC scrolling shooter ports now. This is absolutely depressing.

[HydrogLox]

I'd imagine that H2 Interactive is even more depressed about many of the results when you google "raiden 3 pc gog".

https://www.google.com/search?q=raiden%203%20pc%20gog

Apparently it's difficult to get into the mindset that by-and-large people who steal software cannot be turned into paying customers anyway, regardless of how hard you try to make it "un-steal-able".

Note:

• Steam\SteamApps\common\Raiden IV OverKill\Digital Extras\Secret File\Secret File.pdf seems to be original (Japanese) secret file that was part of the INH shop OST preorder bonus mini-DVD - NOT the UFO Interactive localized version (RaidenIV_SecretFile.pdf) that was a downloadable EB/GameStop exclusive with the North American Raiden IV Xbox 360 release.
• Steam\SteamApps\common\Raiden IV OverKill\Digital Extras\OST\09 Tragedy flame.mp3 is the full length (2:54) version found on the original INH release of Raiden IV original sound track -Ultimate of Raiden- that also shipped with the Japanese Xbox 360 release and the N-pro Raiden IV superplay - NOT the mutilated (1:30) version that was found on the OST that shipped with the North American Raiden IV Xbox 360 release.

[mdsfx]

I don't see the problem, but maybe that's because I live in the grey area. I buy the game to support them, then download the cracked, drm-free pirated version. They get their money, I get my drm-free game.

[CWM]

Yeah, if the DRM bothers you so much, then why not just buy the game and crack it? I'm pretty sure it's legal to do so in several countries, and I can't think of a moral argument against doing so even if it's not.

[Observer]

Well, if Raiden III is at GOG this one may probably make it too.

Anyway, about the port job, so far it looks soooo good and runs fantastic. I need to play more tonight but I'm so happy this was put on the comp!!

[x91]

Hate to break it out to you guys but I decided to share a bit of gameplay and port build issues discovered by Chinese folks here:

Difficulty - if you want 100% vanilla Raiden IV experience you may be disappointed

Spoiler

NOT ACCURATE:
1. Enemy bullets in PC port are slower than they usually should be in arcade machine(on default)
2. Death only causes major firepower loss, rather than resetting firepower

1. Game has strange slowdowns on occasions, the most obvious one must be the beginning of Stage 1
2. Death will set you at a certain firepower level, rather than decreasing firepower. (e.g.: If you instantly kill yourself after Stage 1 begins, you'll find yourself actually power-upped)
3. Initial firepower is EVEN greater in LIGHT mode, makes it possible to be fully-upgraded in Stage 1

Music
The music doesn't repeat in the correct manner, with a brief blank between the loops

And some compatibility issues were reported, mainly regarding input devices(the game are picky about sticks), not really a big deal for the PC platform though.

[vector7]

1. Enemy bullets in PC port are slower than they usually should be in arcade machine(on default)

What do you mean by that? Default is the normal difficulty in the port, right? And the difficulty 1 step higher than normal is called original and the description of it says that it's the same difficulty as on arcade. So do you mean that even original difficulty is lower than arcade?

[x91]

So do you mean that even original difficulty is lower than arcade?

EDIT:

Now confirmed, the game has occasional slowdowns that make people feel like bullets flying slower.

[BPzeBanshee]

x91 do you know if this difficulty adjustment is present in the 360/PS3 versions as well?

Also,

The music doesn't repeat in the correct manner, with a brief blank between the loops

Is anyone else able to confirm this? This is the deal-breaker for me on buying this.

[drunkninja24]

Yeah I suppose I did gloss over it cause it honestly didn't bother me much, but yeah, there is a brief break in music between loops (usually like 1-2 seconds in my experience) and tracks like the boss music loop the entire thing instead of just the portion after the initial intro.

[x91]

x91 do you know if this difficulty adjustment is present in the 360/PS3 versions as well?

afaik there are few people own the PS3 version in our community, but I heard 360 is pretty much the same as the original arcade however.

[BPzeBanshee]

afaik there are few people own the PS3 version in our community, but I heard 360 is pretty much the same as the original arcade however.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely be keeping my J-360 version then.

Yeah I suppose I did gloss over it cause it honestly didn't bother me much, but yeah, there is a brief break in music between loops (usually like 1-2 seconds in my experience) and tracks like the boss music loop the entire thing instead of just the portion after the initial intro.

Ugh. These guys should've been able to get that fixed in the three months they had before launch ESPECIALLY considering the game originally ran on not-Windows XP with music working perfectly. Someone needs to tell MOSS to fix that bullshit ASAP. And then get on with the GOG.com version.

[ZellSF]

Isn't the music loop issue the same as in the PS4 version?

Yeah, if the DRM bothers you so much, then why not just buy the game and crack it? I'm pretty sure it's legal to do so in several countries, and I can't think of a moral argument against doing so even if it's not.

Accepting DRM because you can just crack is it not a good long term solution, because the entire point of DRM is stopping you from cracking it.

[mdsfx]

The music doesn't repeat in the correct manner, with a brief blank between the loops

Is anyone else able to confirm this? This is the deal-breaker for me on buying this.

Wow really? A brief pause in the music is a deal breaker?

[ZellSF]

1080p max

So tired of stupid developers who implement arbitrary resolution support and then proceed not to actually query the system what resolutions it supports.

[HydrogLox]

1080p max

Main Menu > Options > Display > Video Settings > Screen Mode [Fullscreen|Window]
Main Menu > Options > Display > Video Settings > Resolution:

• 1920x1080[16:9]
• 1280x720[16:9]
• 1024x576[16:9]
• 854x480[16:9]
• 768x1024[3:4]
• 600x800[3:4]
• 480x640[3:4]
• 1024x768[4:3]
• 800x600[4:3]
• 640x480[4:3]

On my 2880x1620 display 1920x1080 scaled to "Fullscreen" looks fine.

[ZellSF]

Looks fine, maybe.

Could look better with minimal effort on the development side? Definitely.

[HydrogLox]

The reality is that many of these type of ports to PC (which isn't a standardized platform like an arcade board or a console) are a minimal commercial effort to bring product to market - not the labor of love of a group of enthusiasts. So work is typically limited to "getting it working" rather than "getting an accurate duplication of the experience on the reference platform (Taito Type X)".

I'm also not expecting the PC Version of Eschatos to dethrone the Xbox 360 as it's reference platform. The almost hysterical expectation of "arcade accurate ports" in the Cave x Steam teaser topic is simply unreasonable for products that are being deployed to a "platform" that has no standard configuration or performance.