Galuda/Ra.De connections

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:35 am

I am fnishing up a review of Galuda for my site and I included a paragraph on the connections between the two games.

Espgaluda is ostensibly a sequel to 1998's Esp.Ra.De but the two games have very little in common, both in terms of setting and gameplay system. Storywise, the term ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception and, we are told, the characters in both games have innate ESP abilities. But Ra.De takes place in 2018 Tokyo and Galuda in a fantasy land of medieval castles, so there really is no connection between the characters and events in the two titles. Both games utilize a guard barrier but that's the only similarity in terms of the gameplay system. If Cave decides to release a sequel to Esp.Ra.De, as many fans are hoping, they may well come up with an overarching plot but, until then, there's not much more to say on the subject.

Apart from the spelling of the titles, am I making any mistakes or omissions?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:05 am

You might make mention of the "Arrange" mode in the PS2 version of Galuda, which allows you to play as "Chihiro" or "Black" (basically retooled versions of Irori and JB5th); they have the same basic abilities as the regular Galuda characters, but also the "piercing gun" from Ra.de, which they can use in similar manner to multiply the value of enemies they blast. The mode also has an arranged soundtrack and lots more bullets.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:49 am

If you read the character design notes of Alchemista, the designer mentions that the characters here didn't even have wings at first. I wonder how far into they were until they went w/ the whole butterfly thing. I also wonder if it WAS intended to be a true sequel at first.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:20 am

Also one of the things that link the games together is the inclusion of the Alice clones.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:33 am

Don't forget the legions upon legions of disturbing Cute-Little-Girl Massacres (sorry if this has already been mentioned) that happen in the final stages of both Ra.De. and Galuda.

...Oh yeah and Ra.De.'s final boss has Galuda-like Wings.

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:36 am

The characters didn't have wings originally? Was this before they named the game? From what I understand (and I may be wrong) the Galuda part is actually a misspelling of Garuda:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:13 am

Blade: Those legions upon legions of cute characters are Alice Clone (they are in ESPGaluda II as well). One thing to note though. In ESPRade, they are a clone of a girl (go to my site and see the ESPRade shit in the translation for a full description). In ESPGaluda, they are clones of Alice -- Ageha and Tateha's mother. I'll dig up some more info from the book. I might work up the balls to email Kadoutsukasa and ask him how they came about it. He basically designed the entire world, so I'm curious how Alice Clone got back in there.

ZLK: I'm sure you're right on the mispelling. Cave's English sucks. Then again, is Gardua REALLY the official spelling from Sanskrit?

Icy: You should read through the ESPRade and ESPGaluda stuff I've translated. There's probably some info there worth noting.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:18 am

The relevant pages from your site were the first things I read, actually.

I am reviewing the Arcade version, so I won't mention anything about PS2 Arrange mode. I still haven't gotten round to playing the PS2 version, it sounds interesting.

So I guess I need to add about the fights with the Alice clones and the fact that the last boss in Esprade has wings.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:00 pm

I wish there was some type of developer interview when Galuda came out. THe fact is, there isn't -- or any type of data on how they came up w/ the idea, other than the few short blurbs in Alchemista, which only raise more questions.

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:06 pm

Both games convert bullets into score by blowing up enemies.

I'm sure there was a discussion a wee while back that that went into detail about the scoring techniques of both and their relation to each other, but I can't find it.

EDIT: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... ts+convert

Turns out that the bullet thing is pretty much it, but it's a good read

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:51 pm

background loop on the last boss is the samein both games. (oooh what a deep link

)

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:16 pm

Background loop -- you mean the song? Never knew that?

And the bullet cancelling in RADE is 1000x more subtle than in Galuda.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:22 pm

Well, I ended up not mentioning the Alice clones. I don't think they are that important in the context of a review and, in any case, I don't want to spoil the last stage if anyone who reads it hasn't played the game yet.

The whole thing is here. It's quite long (over 2,500 words) and I am going to get some sleep now, but I will check the thread freddiebamboo linked and make any necessary changes tomorrow. If any of you read the review, I would appreciate it if you let me know of any mistakes or important omissions I might have made.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:29 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Background loop -- you mean the song? Never knew that?

And the bullet cancelling in RADE is 1000x more subtle than in Galuda.

no the graphics background.

actually the last boss in both is a big flamboyantly-gay butterfly dude..

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:07 pm

sven666 wrote:actually the last boss in both is a big flamboyantly-gay butterfly dude..

Haha! Although it's an old lady in the first one.... starts off that way anyway. O_o

Icy:

Their next game, Ketsui, hinted at the direction the company had decided to take. While keeping with the sci-fi military theme of the Donpachi series, Ketsui was significantly easier than their most recent offerings. Actually, only the first two stages were. After that, all hell broke loose as usual, but at least the casual player could enjoy the game for those two blissful stages and maybe, just maybe, persevere for the intense punishment that followed.

I've never really agreed to this statement, although I remember reading it (at Sheep's site I think). Ketsui is hard as nails. It's not DOJ, but it's still an ass-raper, and I don't think the first two stages are "easy". In all honesty, I have issues on stage 2 of both games. The one undeniable difference is that the scoring system on Ketsui is 1000x more forgiving. 1 Fuckup on any stage does not destroy your score for the whole game.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:19 am

If you are right then I have to edit out most of that paragraph and, possibly, make some changes to my reasoning.

I have to go back and re-play Ketsui to make sure. It's been a while.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:54 am

Keep the scoring method in mind. It is of course exponentially easier if you just blow the shit out of everything.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:59 am

There is one more thing worth noting, which I just remember. Looking at this image:

You can really tell, but Ageha's hand is really big... it's just slightly hidden under Tateha's wings. In Alechmista (where it's painfully obvious), Kadotsukasa says he added it as a sort of tribute to ESPRade.

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 5:05 am

I wish they would give more info on these games on their website. What's there is woefully inadequate.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:01 am

Makes finding it that much more fun.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:07 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Their next game, Ketsui, hinted at the direction the company had decided to take. While keeping with the sci-fi military theme of the Donpachi series, Ketsui was significantly easier than their most recent offerings. Actually, only the first two stages were. After that, all hell broke loose as usual, but at least the casual player could enjoy the game for those two blissful stages and maybe, just maybe, persevere for the intense punishment that followed.
I've never really agreed to this statement, although I remember reading it (at Sheep's site I think). Ketsui is hard as nails. It's not DOJ, but it's still an ass-raper, and I don't think the first two stages are "easy". In all honesty, I have issues on stage 2 of both games. The one undeniable difference is that the scoring system on Ketsui is 1000x more forgiving. 1 Fuckup on any stage does not destroy your score for the whole game.

talking survival i can 1 life to stage 4 on ketsui but i dont think i ever made it to stage 4 on DOJ at all... and ive been playing alot more doj than ketsui, not that much of either tho

stratos · Post by **stratos** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:10 am

icycalm: I can't say you if you are incorrect on all you wrote about background informations regarding this beautiful game (I'm interested too in these informations, but I can't read Japanese so it woul'd be difficult to access to many sources), but I want to say that I appreciate too much your review and I completely agree with your thoughts about the gameplay; I like especially this part: "Previous Cave games assumed the player had already mastered the art of finding a path through a thick haze of bullets. Espgaluda teaches you how". Indeed, I'm in shmups from only few months (I played them also in my later childhood on my beloved Nes, but quitted) and my first consitently played game was Galuda: few weeks after I become capable to one credit Dimahoo 'till the fifth stage and now DDP DOJ 'till the fourth... The game is really easier than other Cave games, but this doesn't make it bad, since you have a fantastic system that can be exploited for survival (making novices life easier) or for scoring (complicating the things with very difficult passagies, like the elegant barrier kakusei over mode technique that allows top player to milk midbosses to obtain more seireiseki). As you stated in the review, flexibility is the keyword in Galuda, and shooter development softwarehouses woul'd probably need this to get the attention of new fans to continue producing that genere of games we like so much... even because, after Espgaluda, Cave produced Ibara that's one of the hardest beast they (and Yagawa) produced, so both beginners and hardcore pros will be satisfied. What do you think?

P.S.: yes, scuse me if I repeat this all the time, but I feel so embarassed: I apologies if I can't speak English so well since I'm Italian and don't have foreigner friends ;)

See you soon

icycalm · Post by **icycalm** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:59 am

I am glad you enjoyed the review. And yeah I think Cave is doing great these days. And they seem to understand that they also have to accommodate the newcomers to the genre. Ibara is a good game that is very hard, but the PS2 Arrange mode is much easier. PinkSweets is somewhere between Ibara Arcade and Arrange in difficulty. Espgaluda II is the most fun shooter I have ever played. It also looks and sounds gorgeous.

And Cave is also working on a shooting game for Xbox 360. So their future looks bright.