Trying to remember a game: does it even exist?

[neorocker]

There are a boatload of these threads; apologies for another. Let's find out if my friend is sending me on a wild goose chase.

Vertical scrolling, 3D / polygon graphics, human characters (or something like that), fairly bleak visual style, has a canyon stage (don't they all), and the bosses have names displayed on screen. I thought it might be Karous but it's not that. It's also not eXceed 3rd, which was deemed by my friend "too moe" to be the game in question as it has a grittier look. I've also ruled out Night Raid even if that doesn't have some of the things mentioned above.

Cheers, and thanks for any help

[SapphireDensetsu]

There are a boatload of these threads; apologies for another. Let's find out if my friend is sending me on a wild goose chase.

Vertical scrolling, 3D / polygon graphics, human characters (or something like that), fairly bleak visual style, has a canyon stage (don't they all), and the bosses have names displayed on screen. I thought it might be Karous but it's not that. It's also not eXceed 3rd, which was deemed by my friend "too moe" to be the game in question as it has a grittier look. I've also ruled out Night Raid even if that doesn't have some of the things mentioned above.

Cheers, and thanks for any help

My first thought is that it could be Homura, or less likely, one of the Shikigami no Shiro games.

[neorocker]

My first thought is that it could be Homura, or less likely, one of the Shikigami no Shiro games.

They say Homura is graphically closer to what they remember and they're mostly sure it wasn't a Shikigami - a bit "weirder" than those with more sci-fi elements

[Cee]

KOF sky stage or psyvariar 2?

[neorocker]

KOF sky stage or psyvariar 2?

Nope

[M.Knight]

Trigger Heart Exelica maybe? Though it may not fit the "not-moe" criteria.

[neorocker]

Definitely not.

[Zen]

"Chaos Field", comes to mind. That game doesn't have boss names on-screen though, does it?

[neorocker]

Not that either. They compared the graphic style to Sin & Punishment and Ikaruga which leads me to believe it might be a combined memory of a few things since we skimmed through a number of titles together pretty quickly, but who knows at this point. I can't think of anything in particular.

[BulletMagnet]

Brave Blade, maybe?

[BrianC]

Not that either. They compared the graphic style to Sin & Punishment and Ikaruga which leads me to believe it might be a combined memory of a few things since we skimmed through a number of titles together pretty quickly, but who knows at this point. I can't think of anything in particular.

It's not Radiant Silvergun?

[Jeneki]

Try out Vasara 1/2.

[Despatche]

The Vasaras are pre-rendered, not polygons.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The Vasaras are pre-rendered, not polygons.

As is Soukyuugurentai (mostly), but it does show some neat perspective in the first stage, as well as vector lock-on cones, so it can be vaguely rememberd as "2.5D"/polygonal (it is quite cleverly done - ugly as hardware designs are, some very slick tricks on display there)*. Can't remember it showing any boss names and I doubt I'd reached any canyon stage, however.
"Human characters" bring Guardian Force (with its tiny infantrymen) to mind, but that one didn't even pretend to be 3D.

Come to think of it, Psyvariar 2's playable mech could be remembered as "human character".

*) You can tell THAT's what Saturn was made for, even moreso than ports from other 2D systems.

[Xyga]

People easily mistake prerendered graphics or multi-layered perspective effects with 'polygonal 3D'.
I've heard Nebulas Ray called a '3D graphics' game before, so...

Anyway if it's not one of the already mentioned games (it proabably is thu) I suspect some forgotten release à la Shienryu Explosion / Steel Dragon EX (PS2), or even deeper, shittier stuff like Air Grave, Stahlfeder...
But none of those really fit your description.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Raystorm maybe? 2.5D with some neat tricks, fairly gritty visual style, has a canyon stage. No human characters though.