New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
https://zakichi.ojaru.jp/menutml.html
From what little time i have spent with it its clearly a zanac tribute/clone. Really nice game
From what little time i have spent with it its clearly a zanac tribute/clone. Really nice game
-
strawpoll-legend
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 6:36 pm
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Having never played Vastynex before, I decided to blindly throw Zakesta a bone. I was shocked at its quality. Although it's extremely short, what I saw blew me away. Great graphics, cool effects, and a catchy song playing in the background to boot. This is definitely one of the best doujin games I've played, and I'm now excited to look through the rest of the developer's catalog.
Although, I am wondering why the developer chooses to host their games on OneDrive... strange.
Although, I am wondering why the developer chooses to host their games on OneDrive... strange.
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Glad you enjoyed it. It is very short but I agree on the quality. I'd recommend vastynex (Thunder force/Aero blasters) clone and even more so Kaikan which is also on the developer's site.strawpoll-legend wrote:Having never played Vastynex before, I decided to blindly throw Zakesta a bone. I was shocked at its quality. Although it's extremely short, what I saw blew me away. Great graphics, cool effects, and a catchy song playing in the background to boot. This is definitely one of the best doujin games I've played, and I'm now excited to look through the rest of the developer's catalog.
Although, I am wondering why the developer chooses to host their games on OneDrive... strange.
-
schleichfahrt
- Posts: 141
- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 12:50 pm
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Website looks like from 1997, the only available download is via a microsoft cloud link.. please, Japan, never change (I don't mean this ironically).
When you ruin some enemy, add to score points.
-
BulletMagnet
- Posts: 13899
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:05 am
- Location: Wherever.
- Contact:
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Thanks for the heads-up, I've enjoyed several of this guy's freeware offerings.
-
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2019 4:52 pm
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Played a few runs; quite like it. Pretty fun little score attack. Kinda like a faux-caravan. Gonna do so more testing to see if, caravan-style, speed killing waves nets bonus waves, but that unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case so far. I'm probably just not fast enough.
Thoughts on the subweapons? 3 (rotating... blue balls...) seemed nice at first, but the balls don't seem to damage ground/environmental targets. Been using 2 (half-circle shield) to up damage while point-blanking the boss, but I'm not sure if that actually works lol.
Also wondering if there's more than one stage. Seems odd that the game specifies "stage clear." Probably just overthinking it though. Would be cool if there were bonus/hidden stages, but the game is great as is.
EDIT: Mistakenly identified the shield subweapon as 4 when it is actually 2. Tested it further, and it turns out that the shield does[/] do damage, just... not very much.
Speed killing doesn't seem to reward you with bonus waves, unfortunately.
In my best run so far, I found five bonus Zs. I also got a special bonus at the boss: destroyed the turrets on both side pods, then destroyed a piece on the central rectangle before the actual boss completely finished assembling itself. Possible you only have to destroy the central piece and not the side pods; not sure about that yet.
2ND EDIT: I'm an idiot. The special bonus seems to be awarded from doing enough damage to the "core" of the actual boss before it gets enclosed in its two outer shell parts, i.e. the classic caravan thing. Obvious in retrospect, but wouldn't be surprised if I still got something wrong lol.
Thoughts on the subweapons? 3 (rotating... blue balls...) seemed nice at first, but the balls don't seem to damage ground/environmental targets. Been using 2 (half-circle shield) to up damage while point-blanking the boss, but I'm not sure if that actually works lol.
Also wondering if there's more than one stage. Seems odd that the game specifies "stage clear." Probably just overthinking it though. Would be cool if there were bonus/hidden stages, but the game is great as is.
EDIT: Mistakenly identified the shield subweapon as 4 when it is actually 2. Tested it further, and it turns out that the shield does[/] do damage, just... not very much.
Speed killing doesn't seem to reward you with bonus waves, unfortunately.
In my best run so far, I found five bonus Zs. I also got a special bonus at the boss: destroyed the turrets on both side pods, then destroyed a piece on the central rectangle before the actual boss completely finished assembling itself. Possible you only have to destroy the central piece and not the side pods; not sure about that yet.
2ND EDIT: I'm an idiot. The special bonus seems to be awarded from doing enough damage to the "core" of the actual boss before it gets enclosed in its two outer shell parts, i.e. the classic caravan thing. Obvious in retrospect, but wouldn't be surprised if I still got something wrong lol.
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
This developer's freeware are really well done. I wasn't aware of these games until someone posted something on twitter and I had to check it out.
-
QuakedoomNukem
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:20 pm
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
A new demo just dropped, adding a second stage, set in a mine.
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Here, do any of you lot know what you're meant to do with that black question mark on a big green tile that flips over and turns into a frowny face near the end of stag 1?
Looking forward to the finished version of this, it's really good fun!
Looking forward to the finished version of this, it's really good fun!
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Cool, thought it was an awesome little caravan style. But would be cool if it gets developed into more stages.QuakedoomNukem wrote:A new demo just dropped, adding a second stage, set in a mine.
-
QuakedoomNukem
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:20 pm
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
It's still in development, it will most definitely have 5 or 6 stages when complete.z0mbie90 wrote:Cool, thought it was an awesome little caravan style. But would be cool if it gets developed into more stages.QuakedoomNukem wrote:A new demo just dropped, adding a second stage, set in a mine.
-
BulletMagnet
- Posts: 13899
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:05 am
- Location: Wherever.
- Contact:
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Version 1.0 is out, credit to the Shmups Twitter for the heads-up.
Gave it a quick "didn't even bother to Google Translate the readme file" run; definitely most reminiscent of Star Soldier and Compile's stuff, though there are shout-outs to other shmups in there too. Not at all tough to beat, even for me, though dying at a boss (where powerups don't spawn) can begin to spiral if you're not careful. Will need to actually learn how it works before my next run.
Gave it a quick "didn't even bother to Google Translate the readme file" run; definitely most reminiscent of Star Soldier and Compile's stuff, though there are shout-outs to other shmups in there too. Not at all tough to beat, even for me, though dying at a boss (where powerups don't spawn) can begin to spiral if you're not careful. Will need to actually learn how it works before my next run.
-
tinotormed
- Posts: 1069
- Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:08 pm
- Location: Philippines
- Contact:
-
BulletMagnet
- Posts: 13899
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:05 am
- Location: Wherever.
- Contact:
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Shmups Twitter just noted that this is now available to download on itch.io - Zakichi's main Japanese page for the game actually links there now.
-
BulletMagnet
- Posts: 13899
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:05 am
- Location: Wherever.
- Contact:
Re: New (free) doujin from the maker of vastynex. Zakesta
Kaikan's been updated to 2.0 (and then to 2.1, which undoes one of the previous changes); credit again to Shmups Twitter.