Raiden V for Xbox One in 2015

[MachineAres 1CC]

Sounds wierd. Why does everything we like suddenly have to be wierded?

Because unfortunately, the genre is on life-support, and needs to adapt in order to attract a broader audience.

Basically exactly what I was about to post. It's a different time and the things we like need to be marketed to newer audiences as well to even be considered for development at all.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

I just got my copy today, and I am actually quite impressed with the game. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The game really does kick it up a notch starting from Stage 3. The later bosses have some awesome attacks and transformations. And to answer qmish, yes one boss does take on a spider-ish form. The Stage 3 naval craft transforms into a hover-spider of sorts. Soundtrack blew me away. It may not be the older Raiden style I fell in love with, but you can clearly hear some parts where Kudo was influenced by Go Sato's music. Standout tracks are "Fortress of Philosophy", which gave me chills with the female vocals a la Dodonpachi style, and "Crystal of Abyss", which is an epic monster of a song that blends epicness, sadness, and intensity and sets the mood for the final stage. I haven't encountered any glitches thankfully. I still have yet to try the Boss Rush. Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either. Only minor complaints I have with the game is the fact that subweapons are locked to each plane, and the shield system was not really necessary, but it doesn't really hurt the gameplay. Sure, it's no DX, but Raiden V does a decent job of ushering in the new age of Raiden. I will also have the soundtrack uploaded to Youtube soon, for anyone who wants to hear it.

[drunkninja24]

Would love to hear it, doesn't look it its gone up on ffshrine or anywhere else yet

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

Would love to hear it, doesn't look it its gone up on ffshrine or anywhere else yet

I'll have it up by tomorrow for sure.

[hien]

Would love to hear it, doesn't look it its gone up on ffshrine or anywhere else yet

I'll have it up by tomorrow for sure.

Nice! Really liked what I heard in the videos.

[yyr]

I don't have the skills to post late-game impressions, and I didn't put a lot of time into this last night, but nobody's mentioned this yet...

Sooooo the Cheer system. It's thoroughly unnecessary, and IMHO it could be stripped from the game easily, but I found it to be really adorable. So there are a whole bunch of milestones you can earn (started the game! passed 1000000 points! got 50 cheers! started stage 3! etc.) and when you earn one, it pops up in a little bubble. However, you will also see the milestones earned by other folks playing at the same time as you, in a larger bubble towards the upper-left corner. When one appears, you're supposed to press the Y button to Cheer that player for their milestone. Down below, there's a running tally of the Cheers that you've received personally.

At Game Over, you are given two lists: the 5 players you cheered the most, and the 5 players that cheered you the most, with the number of times each.

Gameplay-wise, you could treat it like a multitasking challenge. It's not to the extent of this thing I made, but you could. Or, if you don't like it, you can spend a few seconds in the Options menu; it can be completely turned off.

I did notice that according to the back of the box, it is 1-player only. Clearly, no 2-player mode is in or was planned. Also, the main menu feels a bit bare-bones. "Story Mode" is the only gameplay option, other than a mode to fight the bosses you've already reached during Story Mode. And yes, there is no tate in the screen options. The Cheer features utilize a lot of "off-screen" space, so running in tate would make that impossible. I could see them possibly patching it in later, with it automatically disabling Cheer if it's used.

The game itself feels solid, though. No complaints from me and it feels like Raiden, or at least, it feels like it could be the sequel to Raiden IV.

[xxx1993]

I just got my copy today, and I am actually quite impressed with the game. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The game really does kick it up a notch starting from Stage 3. The later bosses have some awesome attacks and transformations. And to answer qmish, yes one boss does take on a spider-ish form. The Stage 3 naval craft transforms into a hover-spider of sorts. Soundtrack blew me away. It may not be the older Raiden style I fell in love with, but you can clearly hear some parts where Kudo was influenced by Go Sato's music. Standout tracks are "Fortress of Philosophy", which gave me chills with the female vocals a la Dodonpachi style, and "Crystal of Abyss", which is an epic monster of a song that blends epicness, sadness, and intensity and sets the mood for the final stage. I haven't encountered any glitches thankfully. I still have yet to try the Boss Rush. Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either. Only minor complaints I have with the game is the fact that subweapons are locked to each plane, and the shield system was not really necessary, but it doesn't really hurt the gameplay. Sure, it's no DX, but Raiden V does a decent job of ushering in the new age of Raiden. I will also have the soundtrack uploaded to Youtube soon, for anyone who wants to hear it.

If I can't access this "Divine Rampart" by using continues, is it okay if I restart a stage or area I'm on?

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

I just got my copy today, and I am actually quite impressed with the game. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The game really does kick it up a notch starting from Stage 3. The later bosses have some awesome attacks and transformations. And to answer qmish, yes one boss does take on a spider-ish form. The Stage 3 naval craft transforms into a hover-spider of sorts. Soundtrack blew me away. It may not be the older Raiden style I fell in love with, but you can clearly hear some parts where Kudo was influenced by Go Sato's music. Standout tracks are "Fortress of Philosophy", which gave me chills with the female vocals a la Dodonpachi style, and "Crystal of Abyss", which is an epic monster of a song that blends epicness, sadness, and intensity and sets the mood for the final stage. I haven't encountered any glitches thankfully. I still have yet to try the Boss Rush. Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either. Only minor complaints I have with the game is the fact that subweapons are locked to each plane, and the shield system was not really necessary, but it doesn't really hurt the gameplay. Sure, it's no DX, but Raiden V does a decent job of ushering in the new age of Raiden. I will also have the soundtrack uploaded to Youtube soon, for anyone who wants to hear it.

If I can't access this "Divine Rampart" by using continues, is it okay if I restart a stage or area I'm on?

I would like to believe that you can, but I will verify that later.

[yyr]

If that doesn't work, maybe using Stage Select to begin at the final stage would do it.

[xxx1993]

I just got my copy today, and I am actually quite impressed with the game. I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The game really does kick it up a notch starting from Stage 3. The later bosses have some awesome attacks and transformations. And to answer qmish, yes one boss does take on a spider-ish form. The Stage 3 naval craft transforms into a hover-spider of sorts. Soundtrack blew me away. It may not be the older Raiden style I fell in love with, but you can clearly hear some parts where Kudo was influenced by Go Sato's music. Standout tracks are "Fortress of Philosophy", which gave me chills with the female vocals a la Dodonpachi style, and "Crystal of Abyss", which is an epic monster of a song that blends epicness, sadness, and intensity and sets the mood for the final stage. I haven't encountered any glitches thankfully. I still have yet to try the Boss Rush. Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either. Only minor complaints I have with the game is the fact that subweapons are locked to each plane, and the shield system was not really necessary, but it doesn't really hurt the gameplay. Sure, it's no DX, but Raiden V does a decent job of ushering in the new age of Raiden. I will also have the soundtrack uploaded to Youtube soon, for anyone who wants to hear it.

If I can't access this "Divine Rampart" by using continues, is it okay if I restart a stage or area I'm on?

I would like to believe that you can, but I will verify that later.

I hope you can at least restart. Because I don't want to retry the entire game if I die even once. That's too sadistic and something that only CAVE would do.

[trap15]

[MachineAres 1CC]

Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either.

I did a lot of experimenting last night and also read around on a few Japanese message boards to try to get some more idea of how the branching works. It looks like it is tied to points/kill rate and just generally how well you do. I found this out by playing the same stage multiple times on stage select and getting more or less points each time, and it is true that lesser performance takes you down a rank to the next route for the following stage (from A to B, for instance) and doing better takes you up a rank (from A to S.) I think each stage has different point requirements and you'd generally just have to experiment with them to figure out what it is for each stage, at least until someone gets some more solid numbers up somewhere.

I'm still not sure of TLB requirements, but I did get it on two of my play-throughs, and I did continue multiple times on both of them, but I think both times were on Normal difficulty or above, so I'm not even sure if it appears in anything under Normal, but no confirmation yet.

On a side note, it looks like no one in the world has gotten the achievement for 1CC S-Route, even though you can play it on Easy. There's actually only two 1CC's on the leaderboard for easy difficulty, and neither were S route. I even saw a few Japanese players on 2ch calling this achievement "unreasonable."

Sooooo the Cheer system. It's thoroughly unnecessary, and IMHO it could be stripped from the game easily, but I found it to be really adorable. So there are a whole bunch of milestones you can earn (started the game! passed 1000000 points! got 50 cheers! started stage 3! etc.) and when you earn one, it pops up in a little bubble. However, you will also see the milestones earned by other folks playing at the same time as you, in a larger bubble towards the upper-left corner. When one appears, you're supposed to press the Y button to Cheer that player for their milestone. Down below, there's a running tally of the Cheers that you've received personally.

At Game Over, you are given two lists: the 5 players you cheered the most, and the 5 players that cheered you the most, with the number of times each.

Gameplay-wise, you could treat it like a multitasking challenge. It's not to the extent of this thing I made, but you could. Or, if you don't like it, you can spend a few seconds in the Options menu; it can be completely turned off.

This is a pretty good summary of the system. It really does make it feel like you're connecting with other players and feels more "social" like a game of this type never quite has. Leaderboards don't count for that... I saw a number of Japanese players also saying they liked this feature quite a bit, and I do see myself getting a LOT of cheers while I'm playing (sometimes over 200 cheers on one run,) so they're definitely using it.

This is pretty much what I've been saying to this guy for the last 3 days.

[xxx1993]

I'm watching a review of Raiden V right now. I've been told that there's a game-breaking bug that can cause the game to freeze in the middle of the stage. He also said that it's been easy for him to reach the S route no matter what, and the only way to go to the other routes is when you play bad.

[maxmultiplier]

Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either.

On a side note, it looks like no one in the world has gotten the achievement for 1CC S-Route.

TrueAchievements has 3 people listed so far that have all the achievements.

http://www.trueachievements.com/gamegam ... ameid=5868

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

So, do you have to stay on the S path for all stages in order to reach the true last boss? I'm assuming I didn't reach it because I took the A path for Stage 6 or 7 I believe.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

I have the soundtrack up now: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... JhwseK5kzc

[Durandal]

I think I like the shield system more. Dying and having to pick up all those power-ups which consequently change types on their own rhythm really breaks my flow.

I have the soundtrack up now: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... JhwseK5kzc

YOSH!!

[MachineAres 1CC]

Also, the true final boss "Divine Rampart", cannot be fought by credit feeding through the game, which leads me to believe that you need to 1CC all stages. I'm not sure if you have to destroy all the Sol radar towers as part of the requirement either. I still haven't figured out how the branching paths work either.

On a side note, it looks like no one in the world has gotten the achievement for 1CC S-Route.

TrueAchievements has 3 people listed so far that have all the achievements.

http://www.trueachievements.com/gamegam ... ameid=5868

I guess I should have said no one on the leaderboards. It looks like the two people who had gotten it before today didn't have their scores uploaded on the leaderboards.

So, do you have to stay on the S path for all stages in order to reach the true last boss? I'm assuming I didn't reach it because I took the A path for Stage 6 or 7 I believe.

I believe I also got it on the A route too, so it must have some other requirement, who knows what at this point.

I think I like the shield system more. Dying and having to pick up all those power-ups which consequently change types on their own rhythm really breaks my flow.

This. After going back to Raiden 4 last night it felt like 10 steps backwards with having to pick up all the power-ups after each death.

[trap15]

Holy shit this soundtrack is great. I think the best way to describe it is "Caladrius but with energy and excitement". Great instrumentation choices, great everything.

[KAI]

Holy Kudo shit!

[Shepardus]

That's a damn cool soundtrack, I feel like you can't possibly make a bad game if you give it a soundtrack like that.

[hien]

I have the soundtrack up now: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... JhwseK5kzc

Thanks a lot for that upload! Tracks for Stages 6 and 8 are especially amazing.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

I have the soundtrack up now: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... JhwseK5kzc

Thanks a lot for that upload! Tracks for Stages 6 and 8 are especially amazing.

You're welcome! Also, those two stage themes are my favorite as well! The vocals give Raiden a new atmosphere!

[Heavy Viper]

Yeah, cheers for the OST upload FFJP! It's giving me Ace Combat flashbacks! Kinda wish there was a way to dogfight in the Raiden in 3D...

[rtw]

Thanks for the OST, game does not look to bad. Will wait for PC or PS4, I have discovered that only one person that I know owns an XBONE here in Norway

[CStarFlare]

Are there any videos of a TLB run yet? I missed MachineAres' stream

[qmish]

Thanks for OST, i liked spanish guitar in "Secret Cave".

[Mero]

XB1 Japanese sales last week: somewhere between 60 and 73.

[AxelMill]

XB1 Japanese sales last week: somewhere between 60 and 73.

Ugh. That hurts.
Hopefully they'll be able to broaden their audience at some point. They really deserve a second chance.

Not-Ninja edit: Yup, you meant the console. Yee.

[yyr]

XB1 Japanese sales last week: somewhere between 60 and 73.

Um, are you talking about the console or the game? We already know that week-to-week console sales are awful.