Astebreed (new from Edelweiss)

[Shepardus]

NieR: Automata did Astebreed and Darius better than Astebreed and Darius. At the same time.

Did what better? Half-assed, unsatisfying shooting?

[Sumez]

As much as I enjoy the shooter sections in Nier:A, I would probably hate an entire game playing like that.
i did have a chuckle when a huge battleship was approaching fast, though.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah NieR: A is cool but the shooting is definitely not prime stg material. Shooting and dodging is nowhere near as satisfying or fun as Darius, and slashing isn't as fun as Astebreed if you're in a shmup section.

astebreed is great

Yeah it's not for everyone but it's good.

@Kitten

Mentioned before, but the thing about Astebreed is that there's no survival difficulty on the default difficulty setting, but score play works. There's also a hard mode which is a bit better about the difficulty.

It's an interesting game that definitely plays outside the box with its melee mechanics (that homing lunge is really unlike any other melee mechanic I've played in a shmup), perspective switching (even moreso than Eschatos), and difficulty curve. It's one of those games that's different enough that I don't think I can unreservedly recommend it to most stg players, but if you're interested and the survival/scoring note above doesn't deter you, it's worth a shot.

[AxelMill]

As much as I enjoy the shooter sections in Nier:A, I would probably hate an entire game playing like that.
i did have a chuckle when a huge battleship was approaching fast, though.

I was specifically talking about that, being a fight between a mech and a giant whale, but I understand people misinterpreting me.

Sorry for the unfunny off-topic joke that no one got.

[Super Laydock]

Sorry for the unfunny off-topic joke that no one got.

nah. Keep them coming!

And in no way or form is Astebreed even remotely close to being as good as DBCS!
Just stating the obvious here to people claiming otherwise.

[Bananamatic]

yeah it needs more shitty dlc and endless stage rehashes

[Super Laydock]

yeah it needs more shitty dlc and endless stage rehashes

dlc is always an extra and not a good way to judge the base game.

[Squire Grooktook]

Neither should CS/Chronicle aka Euroshmup modes.

[Zaarock]

Neither should CS/Chronicle aka Euroshmup modes.

Euroshmup mode has more hectic levels/bosses than any of the arcade routes though.. and narrower screen gets rid of quite a few safespots. AC would be just the same if it had longer time per credit to stack shields. To balance it out CS has a big score bonus for taking no hits in stages. AC doesn't, so getting hit outside bosses has little cost. Once people learn the game they won't get close to running out of shields anyway.

[Squire Grooktook]

Neither should CS/Chronicle aka Euroshmup modes.

Euroshmup mode has more hectic levels/bosses than any of the arcade routes though.. and narrower screen gets rid of quite a few safespots. AC would be just the same if it had longer time per credit to stack shields. To balance it out CS has a big score bonus for taking no hits in stages. AC doesn't, so getting hit outside bosses has little cost. Once people learn the game they won't get close to running out of shields anyway.

Hmmm, Arcade-Ex's lower routes felt more hectic than anything in CS in terms of enemy and pattern density, but then again I stopped at the "normal" ending. If the later stuff is more lethal, guess I'm wrong then.

Still a lot of work to reach it. I could see people not finding it worth it, even if I enjoyed CS mode myself (though also found it tiresome at times as well).

[M.Knight]

I think the arcade mode would have needed another set of stages with even more difficulty given how even the EX stages, while still tricky, are not as complicated as Gaiden or G-Darius's toughest routes. I still haven't cleared QUZ with Origin though, so there's still work to do!

I nonetheless prefer the AC mode thousand times more than the euroshmup mode where the reduced screenspace gives you very little room to dodge some bosses or boss patterns in frustrating ways.
For instance, assuming a non-burst ship, G.T.V's second pattern (the one where it stays at the bottom of the screen) needs to be dodged by staying at the top-right corner of the screen, occasionally using the missiles and hoping the zako don't hurt you whereas in AC mode, I could dodge that pattern while still staying in front of the boss. The sets of purple lasers that track you step-by-step while the dolphins are spawned also always make me feel the game is stealing shields/lives from me whenever I face them in CS mode, while their arcade equivalents are pretty fine.

I would rather have a few safespots than being unable to dodge patterns that I can handle in AC mode just because there is not enough width to deal with them.

[XERO]

im probably late on this one, but a company called LIMITED RUN GAMES has released this for the PS4.
Sorry if this is old news, been out of gaming for awhile.

[Chacranajxy]

My physical copy came in this morning. Looks pretty rad.

[GSK]

They're finally patching the PC version with all the enhancements from the PS4 version: http://steamcommunity.com/games/283680/ ... 1334879760

[mamboFoxtrot]

Oh, cool. I had to rewatch that video to remember what those enhancements even were! I forgot how doofy that video was
I haven't touched the game in a while. I wonder if I'll like the arrange mode better? It didn't seem like it was a huge difference, but weirdly there isn't a single post in this thread talking about it.
Also, apparently back in 2015 I was like "I wonder if they'll bring these changes to PC", well... guess that answers that now lol

[Bananamatic]

arrange mode seems like it will require a second stick so controller only?
will probably stick to original

[mamboFoxtrot]

Eh, I didn't have a stick when I first played this game and ended up doing it with a 360 controller anyways. It has proper analogue stick support, if you're not too allergic to the idea.

Apologies but could you please give a short recap of the changes or link to the original post? I fail at search today, and I don't remember enough about the first version to notice the changes in the video.

Are you referring to this video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXc8PsW-yf8
Because it explicitly states what the changes are.

Other than the Steam Community post linked a couple posts up, I don't know of any real detailed changelog.

[Shepardus]

This is a nice surprise, I had given up by now on the PS4 enhancements coming to PC. The arrange mode looks controller-focused so I probably won't be playing that, but the other miscellaneous improvements are always welcome.

I assume the version on Playism will also receive the update, seeing as the Steam version is published by Playism themselves?

[Tim James]

Hmm, not sure if it's enough to get me to play again. I fired it up recently and decided I was kind of done with it. Maybe you guys can hype it up for me.

[Mischief Maker]

Just hit gog. It doesn't look like my copy on the humble japan bundle is getting updated.

Aw frig, am I gonna have to buy this game a third time?

[Rue]

Just hit gog. It doesn't look like my copy on the humble japan bundle is getting updated.

Aw frig, am I gonna have to buy this game a third time?

Try contacting Playism or something.

[Bananamatic]

seems like there are a lot of random fixes/convenience stuff from the original

[MRydralle]

When I booted the game, the old scores were missing. Turns out once you boot the game and spend some time into it, all your pre-update scores come back to the leaderboards under your new name entry and location.

Despite me still living in Brazil, the game registers United States. It can't be because my system is in English.

[ReleaseTheLazer]

It's just on sale on GoG at 8,50€ (50%)

[tate]

Just hit gog. It doesn't look like my copy on the humble japan bundle is getting updated.

The Humble DRM-free version was updated yesterday, according to the date stamp.

[Mischief Maker]

Just hit gog. It doesn't look like my copy on the humble japan bundle is getting updated.

The Humble DRM-free version was updated yesterday, according to the date stamp.

So it did! Hooray...

Whaaat the hell did they do to the keyboard layout?

Does anyone know a way to get the game to recognize Z, X, and C inputs?

[Rue]

Map it to VBN or wait for a patch.

[Bananamatic]

Just hit gog. It doesn't look like my copy on the humble japan bundle is getting updated.

The Humble DRM-free version was updated yesterday, according to the date stamp.

So it did! Hooray...

Whaaat the hell did they do to the keyboard layout?

Does anyone know a way to get the game to recognize Z, X, and C inputs?

not sure but I think you need two sticks for arrange mode due to the 360° targetting, two of the buttons were "null" for me with a stick and keyboard connected

[Mischief Maker]

The dev said on the steam forums that the keyboard issue is being looked into. Glad to know I'm not the only one squaking.