Platinum Games announces Sol Cresta, Sequel to Terra Cresta

[harborline765]

Press +/- on the game icon on the Switch home screen and go to "Intellectual Property Notices".

Me suspects the Unity engine and third party library bloat.

Just a reminder:

- Pac-Man on PS4, a Unity engine port of the 16KB arcade game, is almost 1GB.
- La Mulana's PS4/Xbox One/Switch Unity engine port weighs in 2.5GB(!). The original game had to fit in WiiWare's 40MB filesize limitations, and the Vita director's cut was only a couple hundred MB.

Hopefully it's on its own engine, though, Platinum is one of the few developers left that prides itself on its own home grown technology made to suit the games they specialise in.

Yup, the engine is Unity according to the intellectual property notices attached to a preload. Explains the giant filesize and the wonky presentation. Also the stuttering which tends to be an issue with the built-in garbage collector: https://youtu.be/Lpdv4473QsU?t=410

Not really pleased with this trend where we see developers who once honed their craft and built engines specifically to get the most out of their games moving toward using third party engines. If the end result is fine then who cares, but Unity engine in particular is inherently laggy (Fall Guys has 13 frames of lag on PS4, there are remasters of PS2 and GC games on Unity with significantly more lag than the original games) and usually the presentation doesn't feel authentic because data streaming tends to be slow and the engine is hugely CPU-bound. Something is usually always lost when Unity is used to make faux-retro games or port old games over. Some talented developers fork Unity and get some great results out of it, but those cases are the exception rather than the norm.

[Despatche]

Why is this game getting such good reviews everywhere? Who is buying a shmup for this price in 2022 and not screaming about how it isn't worth it, 4/10, etc?

And yes, Unity is shithouse, but sadly they have successfully gotten Japan on board. Game seems to be good otherwise.

If Skykid is giving this game a 7/10 while saying it's not all that great, I think we've fucking won.

[Sumez]

Usually with arcade style games like this, you can take any mainstream review and multiply the score by -1 to get the actual score.

[DietSoap]

If Skykid is giving this game a 7/10 while saying it's not all that great, I think we've fucking won.

????

[Shatterhand]

Why is this game getting such good reviews everywhere? Who is buying a shmup for this price in 2022 and not screaming about how it isn't worth it, 4/10, etc?

And yes, Unity is shithouse, but sadly they have successfully gotten Japan on board. Game seems to be good otherwise.

If Skykid is giving this game a 7/10 while saying it's not all that great, I think we've fucking won.

Were you around when the "... our frothing demand for this game increases" thing happened?

The same reviewer giving like 5/10 for Triggerheart Exelica for being too short you can beat it in 30 minutes etc, and then praising Ikaruga giving it a 9/10? The same things regarded as good points in a game and bad points in another game? Except one game was made by a cult japanese developer and the other being made by... "who the fuck is Warashi, what the heck is this Shienryu game?"

Many reviewers just want to look cool. This is a sequel to a classic series of game developed by a studio who became cool the last years by making some real good games. Not saying Skykid did that (I think his review had some very good info about the game and gave me a good sense about if I am going to like the game or not) , but many reviewers will give it a good word just based on that.

[DenimDemon]

Yeas let’s play Score that Game. Looks like 4/10 video game. Maybe it’s better in hand and in person but at a glance…i award it a 4.

[BIL]

I wish I had four hands! So I could give it
FOUR THUMBS DOWN (■｀W´■)
Wait. Sorry. I thought we were talking about NintendoLife's comment section. I thought that colour scheme was familiar

[Despatche]

Oh, I made the mistake of scrolling down to the comment section on Skykid's article. There's the hate I come to expect. Sad to see, yet somehow comfortingly familiar.

[Shatterhand]

Oh.

Now I see what you mean.

[DietSoap]

Just to clarify Skykid, can the CRT filter be turned off?

[Skykid]

Just to clarify Skykid, can the CRT filter be turned off?

Yes, it’s off by default. Unfortunately, there’s no good reason to turn it on.

The same reviewer giving like 5/10 for Triggerheart Exelica for being too short you can beat it in 30 minutes etc, and then praising Ikaruga giving it a 9/10? The same things regarded as good points in a game and bad points in another game? Except one game was made by a cult japanese developer and the other being made by... "who the fuck is Warashi, what the heck is this Shienryu game?"

For the sake of clarity and anyone stumbling on this, Shatterhand isn’t talking about me here.

I’d never give Ikaruga a 9.

[Skykid]

Why is this game getting such good reviews everywhere?.

Well, it’s not stealing any crowns. The problem is, VGC, if I’m correct, was the publication that had an original interview with Platinum about Sol Cresta - its quotes being heavily redistributed - and their plans to make ‘smaller, more memorable games’ or something. I don’t know if that translates into some kind of compulsion for VGC to give it a better review and score - that would be conjecture on my part. But who knows, perhaps they just really liked it.

That said, they only gave it an 8, and I gave it a 7. Not a great gulf of difference. Makoreactor (whoever that is) threw it a 7.5. Only Nintendoworldreport, which produced a poorly written article, lobbed it closer to a 9.

These are the current metacritic standings:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/sol-cresta

Honestly though, you guys might trash it real hard, or you might enjoy it for its unique elements. It is kind of fun to toy with.

I have to say though, at 55 minutes for a loop (and yes, it loops) it’s really too long by looping standards. What was Slap Fight MD, 10 minutes?

[BIL]

Oh lawd, the invocation of Slap Fight MD (cracking article wot u wrote a while back ) hit my enthusiasm right in the nuts X_X Now that there be shump with NIL FUCKS 2 GIVE for anyone but the diehards. "Wah it's short!" So's your cock! Ram it up to Loop 200 and see how well you do, CUCKY BOY!

But you know what, mainstream STG darlings don't tend to please our crowd, but they do at least draw attention (and hopefully cash) from the nightmarish world of Calladoodie and Lesbian Zombie Movie The Game Part II: Prison Anal Boogaloo.

So I hope it does well for all concerned, even if I probably won't buy it unless things shape reet the fuck up on closer inspection. S'all good in teh hood

[Skykid]

Day one glitch has dropped:

https://twitter.com/wltr3565/status/149 ... 89378?s=21

[BIL]

They just don't hit as hard as they did in the pre-patch era. 3;

EDIT: Behold this remorseless dark fire

In all honesty, you shouldn't be so harsh to RHE. The game has only been in development for 15-something months. I'm more than sure a good part of this time was put into creating a fun Risk & Reward™ scoring system, probably at the cost of balanced difficulty.

And every one of you who preordered a game, you should be thankful RHE decided to accept your money and send you his game in the first place.

Yeah.

Blistered black and crumbling, remants of carbonised ass-cheeks fluttering like moths in the blast wind

(unless of course the devs in questions are total shitbirds who refuse to fix their shoddy work, ala Digital Eclipse! then they hit pretty hard indeed!)

[Zaarock]

I have to say though, at 55 minutes for a loop (and yes, it loops) it’s really too long by looping standards. What was Slap Fight MD, 10 minutes?

This sounds really worrying. If it's meant to be a score attack focused game these kind of lengths per credit are really awkward. No interest in a marathon looping game personally. The longer I play the genre the more I prefer 20-30min games where you try to sharpen your play in short sessions.

Again I'm not sure if this has any more mainstream appeal than M2's Aleste series reboots like GG Aleste 3, Senjin Aleste and Aleste Branch. Which are also aimed at players of all levels. Curious how it compares to those.
At least the visual side looks questionable not having played yet. I'm curious about the highest difficulty modes, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread games released by platinum (and kamiya) tend to be more fleshed out than usual on that front.

[BIL]

Kamiya is who I'll pin my hopes on, if anyone. Not just for past works with a clear grasp of harder gaming, but an obvious appreciation of vintage STGs and other arcade staples (Ninja-kun represent). I know he's not working in a vacuum, though, and AFAIK he's never actually worked on an STG. For now the best scenario seems to be a bit of mainstream buzz.

[Skykid]

I’m just waiting for one of you boys to drop $40 on it and weigh-in (or $50 if you like a shmup with a story and characters).

Kamiya, incidentally, gave me an insta-block on Twitter shortly after my review went live. I’d heard of his infamous ‘insect’ swatting, and while I didn’t think much of it, ventured to his page to find my badge of honour had been swiftly achieved.

I’d never been to his page before or had any dealings with him. Nice to know he’s reading!

[BIL]

Yeah, he's a bit of a dickhead. Kinda literally with that shiny dome nowadays.

[bigbadboaz]

Kamiya, incidentally, gave me an insta-block on Twitter shortly after my review went live.

That's just sad.

[xxx1993]

Kamiya, incidentally, gave me an insta-block on Twitter shortly after my review went live. I’d heard of his infamous ‘insect’ swatting, and while I didn’t think much of it, ventured to his page to find my badge of honour had been swiftly achieved.

Well, that's Kamiya for you.

[Jeneki]

Spotted this on PSN now, for those who are interested.

[Sengoku Strider]

Kamiya can be defeated.

[Ed Oscuro]

Calladoodie

oh yeah, the game about flying girls by MOSS, I heard of that one

Kamiya, incidentally, gave me an insta-block on Twitter shortly after my review went live.

My sympathies. That's the price of fighting the good fight.

[BIL]

Calladoodie

oh yeah, the game about flying girls by MOSS, I heard of that one

Sadly, that version was only for Japan, where a lack of Superior White Gamer Genealogy sees X-TREEEM FPS action causing those poor Nihonjin to spew all over their screens, much like George HW Bush once did on their PM!

[jehu]

Well damn it bros, I stayed up through midnight to share more impressions with you - but looks like Switch isn’t going to let me get my grubbers on it until 9am tomorrow. After work it is, then.

[BIL]

Thank you for taking a stand against that angry slaphead, jehu-san (｀w´メ) With his blindingly shiny dome, and shit, it's clear he's become a human bug zapper, driven mad by the torment of insects kamikazeing themselves into his big fuckin head at all hours of the day - even while he's trying to enjoy a game of Darius II! Perhaps a stern bitch-slap that he cannot simply block will restore his composure, AND his masculinity!

[DenimDemon]

Spotted this on PSN now, for those who are interested.

Me too and jesus those screenshots. I’m far from a graphics nut but this looks horrendous to my eyes.
I was really prepared to embrace this…But I can’t pull the trigger

[Skykid]

Kamiya can be defeated.

That was funny

[BIL]

Look at this shiny motherfucker, trying to hide amongst the Chicoms, so he won't face the heat for his game's diarrhoea graphics. Unbelievable. At least he's taking a fucking right battering from his hated insects, the cunt! Look at him, he doesn't even react to the relentless tiny impacts any more. I bet his concentration power is inhuman, he should join up here and help our pitiful scoreboards

Spoiler

Gotta say one thing though Sky Boy, I follow you, and I'm not blocked from Japanese Mister Clean's page, so at least our fallen icon of Stylish Hard Action isn't quite so bitchmade as to use one of them thar block bots. Perhaps there is hope he'll find his balls yet!