What do you think of G Darius? Is it good?

[EXEXEX]

Hello there!

After I successfully 1cc'd Darius Gaiden, I started play G Darius on MAME for the first time, the worse is the music is kinda buggy yet.

The awesome is the intro of the first boss, the sun eclipse and it was the eye of the boss.

I also know the PS1 version, some people said it has huge slowdown, is that true?

[DJ Incompetent]

Taito Legends 2 on PS2 has what you need.
PS1 has slowdown but also a boss rush mode.

G-Darius is my favorite STG of all time.

[ratikal]

T4N3 has been streaming it lately, and from what I can tell it looks like a very methodical game with a decent difficulty curve.

[rpgposer]

One of my all-time favorites, not just shmups. Best in the Darius series IMHO.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The standard jamma PCB version of G-Darius is the one to play/own (bonus points if it's upgraded to Version 2 via eprom swap -- the Version 1 PCB is a bit slightly different). The opening intro and ending credits are all rendered in real time (unlike with the PS1 port which has both presented as FMVs instead) -- it's a marvel that Taito managed to cram the entire G-Darius engine on a single PSX CD-Rom though.

Had the rare opportunity to try out G-Darius Version 2 PCB on a Sega Megalo cab at the 2013 California Extreme show -- looks cool on the larger-than-life rear projection monitor setup indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Despatche]

I heard the arcade version has less slowdown than the PS port, but that Taito Legends has even less slowdown than that (none?).

And yes, Ver.2 is vital. Shame it can be found nowhere else.

[Arcatech]

Yes, the psone version has some MAJOR slowdown. Its still a good version though.

In a neat world Taito would try to port the Arcade version to a newer console. While also trying to emulate the original arcade slowdown. Trying to play G Darius on Taito Legends is way too unforgiving. Some of those harder boss patterns just seem undodgeable to me.

One of my friends tries to 1cc Taito Legends G Darius a lot. Every time I watch, I feel bad for him because I realize how hard it really is.

[BrianC]

I gave G. Darius a try in MAME and it seems to run really well now. I was surprised because it ran like crap years ago.

[Shepardus]

It runs well in MAME except for the music (which plays but is tinny and missing instruments). A real shame considering how great the soundtrack is.

I'm really bad at G.Darius but I really like it. The bosses and their intros, the beam-duels, and the soundtrack really convey this larger-than-life feeling even though it lacks the multi-screen setup of Darius 1 and 2 and the later DBAC. The capture ball system is also neat, lots of possibilities to play around with. Not a fan of its scoring system (the having to kill stuff with options part), but I never focused much on scoring in Darius games to begin with.

[EXEXEX]

So, the MAME version is runs well as the PCB version except the music?

Also I been searching and know about the PS1 version problems, and then I managed to try the PS1 port on emulator ePSXe which it has various settings, does this runs well reduce the problems or same as I play on original console? Has anyone try it?

Unfortunately only MAME offers the "version 2" release, which has a few nice changes and overall higher difficulty.

I have both romset the original and 2, which 2 is the main rom, the 2 version has a level select but I want play the original instead with autofire setting.

[Squire Grooktook]

As far as I can tell, emulators are almost never going to "fix" hard-coded aspects of a game. Unless it's a romhack or something.

And yeah, G-Darius is pretty much the game responsible for my love of the genre, alongside Einhander and Gradius III. Intense fast dodging, varied gimmicks and epic bosses, best ost ever, etc. the game's got it all.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Hm, never heard of Version 2. I guess I'll check that out some other time. Until then, the Legends 2 version is good enough for me. I actually kinda like the lack of slowdown, though it definitely does make some things pretty hard.

Either way, yeah, definitely play the game, some way or another. Like others have said, it's an audio-visual treat with some great boss fights, good stage variety thanks to the mid-level stage branches (that affect the boss patterns) and the capture ball mechanic. Beam-dueling is mindless, but it looks cool, and the boss is usually about dead at that point anyways, so it's really more like an early version of the "finishing execution move" that a lot of beat 'em ups have now.
Will echo Shepardus' point that the scoring system is kinda derp and should probably be ignored.

[M.Knight]

If you liked Eclipse Eye hiding the sun, you're gonna love many of the other boss intro cutscenes. They really ooze coolness.
As said by the others, the game itself is great, but the PS1 version has way too much slowdown.
I agree that multipliers on enemies destroyed by the options is a bit dumb, but those on enemies destroyed by the laser make sense IMO. In any case, as there are no score-based extends feel free to ignore the scoring if you are playing for the clear and to enjoy the cool boss battles.

If your computer is powerful enough for PS2 emulation, there is a guide here to play it with various emulator-based graphical improvements (scroll down the page to see example screenshots), though it is far from mandatory to enjoy G-Darius.

[Sumez]

I really want to love G-Darius, everything is so amazing. Lazering the bosses, the backgrounds and music, and general atmosphere of the whole thing.

But I can't shake the feeling that the game is stock full of the learn-or-die kind of trial and error gameplay. So many attacks and patterns are completely impossible to avoid if you don't already know about each of them beforehand.
I'm aware this isn't uncommon in many other shmups, but G-Darius just seems brutal about it, especially for such a respected game. Is there something obvious I'm missing? Is there some sort of unwritten Darius series guide to anticipating what's going to happen the next second?

[Pedro Lambrini]

I emulate the PS2 Taito Legends 2 port on my PC these days though I fell in love with the game on the Playstation. In all honesty, I can't really remember there being that much bad slow down. If you haven't played other versions of the game I don't think the experience will be bad on the PS1... It certainly wasn't for me way back when.

Personally, I think the game is a masterpiece. Lots of people seem to prefer Darius Gaiden but, though I love that game too, there's just something super cool about G Darius. Again for me, it's the perfect storm of the old meeting the new in terms of design and look. Love it.

[qmish]

It has some "punk" vibe in boss designs and overall presentation.

[Xyga]

It's got the same issue Gaiden does imho; for a Darius game the 4:3 aspect feels cramped, because some salves of projectiles start very close, very fast indeed. Add to it that the colors schemes make stuff hard to read in places and it's definitely a game that could pass for frustrating or unfair, like you're dying partly because of a design fault.

But yeah the whole package is still absolutely great.

[Squire Grooktook]

It's got the same issue Gaiden does imho; for a Darius game the 4:3 aspect feels cramped, because some salves of projectiles start very close, very fast indeed. Add to it that the colors schemes make stuff hard to read in places and it's definitely a game that could pass for frustrating or unfair, like you're dying partly because of a design fault.

But yeah the whole package is still absolutely great.

I don't see it. Gaiden and G don't really play any differently then any other 4:3 horizontal scroller, and feel like they were designed with that resolution in mind. I don't see projectiles coming at you from any closer than a Gradius game or whatever. They're just hard, is all.

That being said, I have seen a few people complain about visibility issues in G. I've never had the issue (then again, I've never had the issue with Garegga), but I've seen that one crop up from time to time.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Hmm, yeah, I haven't had any visibility issues with this one (or Garegga) either. I do get taken aback by some of the swarms they throw at you, though.

I really want to love G-Darius, everything is so amazing. Lazering the bosses, the backgrounds and music, and general atmosphere of the whole thing.

But I can't shake the feeling that the game is stock full of the learn-or-die kind of trial and error gameplay. So many attacks and patterns are completely impossible to avoid if you don't already know about each of them beforehand.
I'm aware this isn't uncommon in many other shmups, but G-Darius just seems brutal about it, especially for such a respected game. Is there something obvious I'm missing? Is there some sort of unwritten Darius series guide to anticipating what's going to happen the next second?

I don't know about completely impossible (it's hard for me to tell since I often don't dodge things even when I know they're coming!), but yeah, this game will really just spring things on you at times. The difficulty can be pretty erratic.

[EXEXEX]

If you liked Eclipse Eye hiding the sun, you're gonna love many of the other boss intro cutscenes. They really ooze coolness.

If your computer is powerful enough for PS2 emulation, there is a guide here to play it with various emulator-based graphical improvements (scroll down the page to see example screenshots), though it is far from mandatory to enjoy G-Darius.

I been play the game on downer route, and wow the queen fossil is very very huge boss and the beam duel take the entire screen as well as absolute defender intro very badass.

Well I'm not sure but my old laptop has very shitty spec, like Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1Ghz, 2GB ram, Intel chipset family.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Yeah, I tried messing around with those settings mentioned in that other thread. Some of the options aren't even there any more. To be honest, it might be a bit blurry for some people but using one of the software renderers gives the best looking experience. There're no glitches and all the graphics are shown (ie/ mid-level 'flight path lines').

Out of curiosity, I downloaded version 171 of MAME to see if the game runs better these days. Sadly, it seems there are still the sound issues...

[Pedro Lambrini]

^
It was more just vain hope on this end. I understand the guys working on MAME are often poking around in the dark.

It's Sod's Law, though. There are probably about 3000 fixed games since my last update but the only games I checked for improvement (G Darius, X3D/G and Namco Classics Collection) have all retained their errors!

Still, it'll be interesting to continue messing around with it all...

[M.Knight]

The instructions in the other thread are outdated? A shame, I would have liked trying them out for myself. Oh, well.

EXEXEX : I am glad you were impressed by those two boss introductions. Badass describes them well indeed.

[Bloodreign]

Well lets see, I love the Darius series, and I fell in love with the boss battles and entrances in this game. Queen Fossil especially, love how despite how big a boss it is, it dives in and out of the clouds like the clouds were the sea quite effortlessly. Is it good you ask? No, it's beyond that, it's great. I don't tend to play it in MAME at all, I stick with my two Taito compilations it's on, and the occasional dab with the PS1 version that I owned first (at the time there were no compilations and I wanted to play this game real real bad).

[DJ Incompetent]

But I can't shake the feeling that the game is stock full of the learn-or-die kind of trial and error gameplay. So many attacks and patterns are completely impossible to avoid if you don't already know about each of them beforehand.

The bosses? Nah. Plan your route to avoid Absolute Defender, Death Wings, and maybe Dual Horn, then you just gotta learn one of the final bosses.

[copy-paster]

The game is a perfection.

the game is stock full of the learn-or-die kind of trial and error gameplay. So many attacks and patterns are completely impossible to avoid if you don't already know about each of them beforehand.

Not on vanilla G-Darius, Ver.2 is.

I wonder why they made a 'hard game' harder? I even had no idea how to no miss the final boss on zone lambda, mu and xi.

It has some "punk" vibe in boss designs and overall presentation.

Not only that, the story also more improved, looks like Taito inspired by 80-90s mecha anime.

[Sumez]

Both PS1 version and Taito Legends are vanilla, aren't they? Those are the ones I played.

[TVG]

It's a great game, gaiden has better music and gfx but g plays better imo. Well, cept the bosses, those are fucking incredible. Possibly some of the best around.

You can raise the volume of the music in mame by playing with sliders controls. Can't remember on top of my head but if you put two of the channels on max the music will be loud enough. It will stilm be badly mixed but it's acceptable, much better than default.

Ver 2 seems good, maybe better scoring system ? Problem is, absolutely nobody plays it so good luck finding any info. The japanese replay that I saw, I don't understand at all why he does the things he does.

[G-Darius]

My Fav shooter
I love most things about the game and on top of that I love all the game music which is some of the best I have heard.
If you have time you can see and hear most of it on youtube.

[Sumez]

This stage, and its music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb06JHEqOS8

It's a highlight of all shoot'em ups ever. The preview of the boss at 1:34 is perfect.