Ex-CAVE members reform as TANOSHIMASU Co., Ltd.

[stacks183]

I can't imagine microtransactions designed for shmup players.

You need to sell consumables. Bombs. Smaller hitbox. Speedups. Powerups. Homing shot. Continues. Maybe, some kind of tokens that allow you to do practice runs for the stage of your choosing. All of this should be one time use and needed to be bought again when they're consumed.

For extra profit in Japanese market, package the powerups in crates and sprinkle them with some ship skins and waifu art. That stuff sells like hotcakes.

[Shepardus]

Just look at whatever Gothic wa Mahou Otome is doing I guess.

[EmperorIng]

Finally bought it earlier in the week. I'm impressed with the visuals and stage design for a mobile game. I think that if this were played with a controller, it'd be a fairly easy shooter, but for the most part it feels like the game's bullet speed is slowed down commensurate with the touch controls. The controls are pretty simple and intuitive, though what you won't realize until a few times is that the arrow that hovers in front of your ship is the indicator of the direction your bomb will fire: if you are not careful, you can waste a bomb by being by the edge of the screen and shooting it over the edge.

That being said, there are a lot of fucking bullets to dodge for your fat little finger to move around the screen. I still don't know if this control style has been optimized or pushed in the direction it needs to go. Arcade-esque thick bullet patterns are difficult to navigate on my smartphone (Android LG) when you get past stage 1. The farthest I have gotten is the boss of Stage 3. The game assumes you don't have the dexterity to dodge everything normally - while each pattern has paths through it, you won't get there if you are not used to using your finger for movement. The game has a refillable autobomb/bullet cancel meter to alleviate this problem, though it's a little frustrating at this stage to be unable to dodge patterns that I can see the gaps in (I am probably like most of you a neophyte in mobile gaming).

It's kind of funny to see so many Cave-isms in a shooter, but I suppose that's to be expected. The st1 boss has a few of DDP DOJ Stage 1 boss moments, for example.

The game is pretty interesting as an experiment of a "serious" shmup on mobile (instead of something ultra-simplified, or a quick port-job). I don't know if the small screen of a smart phone is optimal for this game vs. a tablet. I do enjoy having what feels like a polished release on the phone.

[ryu]

I'm having the opposite experience, I find it surprisingly easy to control. But I'm playing on a 5" screen and can't imagine it playing as smoothly on anything smaller.

[qmish]

While there are some cave-like moments in it, overall pattern/enemy encounter design doesn't feel cave to me.

[Necronom]

I've played Aka to Blue pretty much every day since release day and am currently trying to get past the last phase of the chapter 5 boss.
Playing on a samsung galaxy s7 the controls are supertight but the screensize of a smartphone during bossbattles can be an additional challenge. I'm very sure the game was not only tailored for touch controls but also for a screen that is bigger than a smartphone, a 10 inch tablet being probably the perfect device for this current version.
The blue arrow that let's you aim your bombs can only be found on the second ship. Choose the red one and you don't have to worry about aiming 'cause it always fires straight up. The red one is definitely a better option for beginners with its wide shot and simplyfied bombing.

If you want to play effectively you HAVE to learn when to bomb. In Aka to Blue bombs are not screenclearing smartbombs but more like the katanas in Akai Katana's Slash Mode. When powered up they eat through literally everything while repowering up the bomb meter.
If you know when to bomb it can not only be a life saver but also a very satisfying and powerful mechanic.
Imo everybody who enjoyes Akai's Slash mode should definitely try Aka's aggresive approach to bombing. You never just dodge shit here...rather you dodge until you reach the best point to bomb...rinse and repeat. I really like it

I don't mean to step on someone's toes but saying Aka to Blue doesn't feel like a cave game is pretty silly considering Hiroyuki Kimura - head of Tanoshimasu - was heavily involved in the creation of Akai Katana Shin, Dodonpachi Saidaioujou and Dodonpachi Maximum. Mechanically, it is most definitely inspired by those three games.

Although imho Bullet Hell Monday is a better game with more content and variation I really hope Tanoshimasu don't give up after this one. Talented team and a great game. Highly recommended.

[qmish]

I haven't played soon or ak shin, only DDP maximum but DDPmax bases on older cave layouts...

Though whatever that was my quick impression

That akai to blue is too much danmaku for me and not bullethell
Yeah I speak nonsense sorry

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Finally bought it earlier in the week. I'm impressed with the visuals and stage design for a mobile game. I think that if this were played with a controller, it'd be a fairly easy shooter, but for the most part it feels like the game's bullet speed is slowed down commensurate with the touch controls. The controls are pretty simple and intuitive, though what you won't realize until a few times is that the arrow that hovers in front of your ship is the indicator of the direction your bomb will fire: if you are not careful, you can waste a bomb by being by the edge of the screen and shooting it over the edge.

That being said, there are a lot of fucking bullets to dodge for your fat little finger to move around the screen. I still don't know if this control style has been optimized or pushed in the direction it needs to go. Arcade-esque thick bullet patterns are difficult to navigate on my smartphone (Android LG) when you get past stage 1. The farthest I have gotten is the boss of Stage 3. The game assumes you don't have the dexterity to dodge everything normally - while each pattern has paths through it, you won't get there if you are not used to using your finger for movement. The game has a refillable autobomb/bullet cancel meter to alleviate this problem, though it's a little frustrating at this stage to be unable to dodge patterns that I can see the gaps in (I am probably like most of you a neophyte in mobile gaming).

It's kind of funny to see so many Cave-isms in a shooter, but I suppose that's to be expected. The st1 boss has a few of DDP DOJ Stage 1 boss moments, for example.

The game is pretty interesting as an experiment of a "serious" shmup on mobile (instead of something ultra-simplified, or a quick port-job). I don't know if the small screen of a smart phone is optimal for this game vs. a tablet. I do enjoy having what feels like a polished release on the phone.

Playing Aka to Blue on a larger screen endowed tablet setup is a much better experience for me -- it just depends how much you want to spend on a tablet by going with an iPad/iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1" tablet route (this particular Android powered tablet will run Aka to Blue without any fuss & is cheaper on the wallet or purse for that matter compared to going the iOS tablet route). It's no dice in trying to get Aka to Blue to run on a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0" tablet setup indeed. It's doable to run Aka to Blue with an Mini iPad 2 with Retina Display (circa 2014) but with visual settings set to "Low" as default setting -- that's the bare minimum spec to be able to play it with a cheap-ass iPad setup imo.

In whatever arcade pcb iteration that Tanoshimasu Co. Ltd. decides to release aka to Blue as (in the nearby future) -- it truly feels like an arcade pcb release but within the narrow confines of a smart phone or tablet setup (for now). The battery life with a tablet setup is moderate (especially if new or in super mint condition) if the visual EFX settings of Aka to Blue to cranked up to the max.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[GSK]

They've said absolutely nothing about putting out a dedicated PCB and they don't really have the budget for ports of any kind, at least not without a publisher.

[Bananamatic]

with how some people talk about pcbs, I'd be less worried about buying used anime figures than a "used" pcb

[qmish]

How could they make it into PCB if it's on unity3d engine?

Something like raspberry pi with linux as base chip?

[Barba]

How could they make it into PCB if it's on unity3d engine?

Something like raspberry pi with linux as base chip?

raspi is far too underpowered for something like that. Only the most highend cellphones are qualified to run it. There are compact PCs (AMD based, look at "Airframe", the thing that Skycurser uses) that may be able to handle it, and there are JAMMA-converters for the outputs. You may end up with a garbled looking boot process (PCs love to boot with at least 31khz of resolution), but other than that it can work.
The typical problem with these things is the PSU. Arcade PSUs typically produce less than what a fully fledged PC box needs, compact or not. So you may end up putting a regular PC ATX-PSU inside your cabinet.

[Necronom]

Has anyone beat the very last boss phase on stage 5? ...yes, the cheap asshole firing non telegraphed fireballs all over the screen
Also, could anyone direct me to a superplay (of stage 5...) can't find anything on youtube

[RecklessRave]

I finally beat the last boss with both Aka and Blue; unfortunately I had to turn auto-bomb on to do it, so I feel kinda crappy about that, but at least I've seen the ending. I was kind of hoping there would be a different ending for each character (but there isn't), but the ending is fully subtitled so now I understand more about the ending than I do about the rest of the game. I really like this game, but I'm playing it on an iPad Pro and I can't really see myself enjoying it that much on a smaller screen.

One thing that amused me is that with the exception of stage 2, my high scores for Blue are about half of what my scores for Aka are. This was totally unintentional and I didn't even notice until today (also, I must really suck at stage 4):

Spoiler