Raizing help needed please.

[Ord]

Hi folks i was wondering if any one could help. I'm writing an article on Raizing and their shooting games and was needing some help.
Basically it's the facts that i'm after. Questions would be -

1)I know they produced their first shooter (Mahou Daisakusen) in 1993, but which game companies did the programers used to work for, before starting Raizing?

2)It's accepted that Gun Frontier (great game!!) was the inspiration for Battle Garrega, was there any other titles that have influenced Raizings work that i should know of?

3)Stupid question coming up. Raizing and 8ing are two different companies right? please don't laugh! I mean it! If they are 2 different companies when did they merge and does anyone know the story behind this?

4)When Raizing stopped making shooters what happened to the staff? Did they stay on and make the Bloody Roar, Kuru Kuru kururin series?

5)Does anyone know which Raizing members joined Cave to make Ibara

7)If you like the Raizing shooters what would be you favourite game and why?


Any help would be deeply appreaciated.
Thanks.

[alpha5099]

I can't remember if it was pure speculation, or if someone confirmed it, but I thought I detected a Compile connection in some of the games. Some similar feeling level designs in Souky, similarly designed power-up carriers. I think someone who worked on Gun Frontier was involved in Garegga. And there was probably some Toaplan staff; there was a big burst in companies at the same time Toaplan went under, most of them must've gotten work elsewhere.

My favorite is Shippu Mahou Daisakusen. Unlike Garegga and Souky, the rank doesn't seem quite so oppressive. Once I got used to the racing element, I enjoyed the old-school style employed in the game.

[Shatterhand]

Batrider, for sure.

I've heard that the director of Gun Frontier worked on Battle Garegga, or something like that.

And I've heard many times that some staff from Compile was in Raizing.

Which makes me wonder who did Zanac X Zanac

There was a guy, Pac Fujishima, he was the main creator of most Compile shmups back in the day. I wonder if he went to Raizing or something.

[Ganelon]

I've heard that the director of Gun Frontier worked on Battle Garegga, or something like that.

That would be a completely false rumor. The producer/director of Gun Frontier was Takatsuna Senba, who also co-produced Metal Black along with many of the other Gun Frontier crew. He was not involved in Battle Garegga in any form. In fact, nobody on Gun Frontier worked on Battle Garegga. Only inspiration was taken from the game.

And I went with Batrider as well.

[BulletMagnet]

3)Stupid question coming up. Raizing and 8ing are two different companies right? please don't laugh! I mean it! If they are 2 different companies when did they merge and does anyone know the story behind this?

I've heard the two described as "sister companies," so I'd imagine that they were somehow affiliated with each other before they merged...not sure exactly when that happened off the top of my head, maybe 2001, sometime around there?

5)Does anyone know which Raizing members joined Cave to make Ibara

I don't think that this has been "officially" confirmed by Cave yet, though if nothing else there definitely seems to be a lot of Raizing influence tucked in there...in any case, I don't think any specific programmer info for Ibara is floating around at this point, though I could be wrong.

7)If you like the Raizing shooters what would be you favourite game and why?

My vote went to Battle Bakraid: while looks-wise it's one of Raizing's most bland, in terms of gameplay it gets nearly all the essentials right, with lots of selectable aircraft and modes, weapon and scoring options, and more visible bullets than many other Raizing offerings. Not perfect by a long shot, but in terms of playability I'd rate it highest among the Raizing lot.

[shiftace]

I don't know much about any of this, but relating to #1, Shinobu Yagawa created Recca, which was released in 1992 for Famicom. That was published by Naxatsoft, and KID was the name of the developer, standing for Kindle Interactive Development, I believe.

[Strychnine]

Garegga is the best. Even though it looks like butt. And despite the fact I think that Bakraid is a lot more fun, Garegga beats me like the little bitch I am. Thus it is superior?

[Randorama]

1) Raizing had a few members from Compile (most of the programmers on Mahou, Shippu Mahou, SokyuGurentai and Dimahoo), but...

2) S.Yagawa made the Ba- trilogy, with some help of course. The said guy worked at Toaplan and the reason Garegga looks like the unofficial sequel to Gun Frontier is that he proposed to make a, uh, unofficial seuqle to Taito's game. You sholdn't be surprised of this because GF was a successful game and Toaplan and Taito, up until 1991, were "closely related" (in fact some Toaplan games were published as Taito, like Tatsujin/Truxton) . Sokyugurentai is also an unofficial sequel to Rayforce (but curiously enough, none of the programmers were related to Taito: beside that, it was published a few months after the OFFICIAL sequel, Raystorm).

At any case, please check on namakoteam.com, or ask to local user 'jiji", he surely has all the infos stored.

5) SPECULATION (but some idiots will surely consider it a fact...) S.Yagawa may be one of the people behind Ibara, since some comments on gameplay after the first beta-testing sessions were like " The game is very close to Garegga". Hope it helps.

[Kiken]

3)Stupid question coming up. Raizing and 8ing are two different companies right? please don't laugh! I mean it! If they are 2 different companies when did they merge and does anyone know the story behind this?

I've heard the two described as "sister companies," so I'd imagine that they were somehow affiliated with each other before they merged...not sure exactly when that happened off the top of my head, maybe 2001, sometime around there?

The timing sounds right. Raizing were absorbed after 2000 (Daimahou being the last title I remember reading about). So sometime in 2001 does seem correct.

And technically Eighting purchased Raizing... so it's a little more than a mere merger. It's sad that Eighting just put them to work on more Bloody Roar sequels, rather than letting Raizing do what they do best. :/

[Bydobasher]

I think the Compile influence is pretty obvious in the way that there is often a "sheet" of powerups that comes raining down towards you and it's very difficult to pick them all up. Compile often liked to design their shmups in this fashion, so I would have been a little surprised if Rando had said that there weren't any Compile developers among Raizing's ranks (no pun intended ).

I really like Raizing, more so than either Cave or Psikyo, to whom they're so often compared. My favourite title of theirs is Mahou Daisakusen, perhaps in part because of its relative simplicity when compared with their newer games. If Kingdom Grand Prix had omitted the racing element, I might like it even more, but I've never been able to play that game without wishing that it was a more typical shmup.

[jiji]

I was always under the impression that Eighting was a paper company created for business purposes, while Raizing was the name used for development. When they decided to merge the two, it would make sense that they would have Eighting "purchase" the Raizing entity.

As for staff links, Raizing has had Toaplan and Compile staff work on various games of theirs, and the art-style and gameplay similarities between late Compile games and the bulk of Raizing's games are plain to see. I'm trying to figure out how best to present an article talking about the links between the companies, and once I figure that out I'll link to it (Randorama, come to IRC! ~_~). I've also heard about the Gun Frontier influence - the director of Garegga was a big fan of Gun Frontier and wanted to make a game like it.

As for games, Battle Garegga is my favorite. It's pretty much the perfect execution of a shooter as far as I'm concerned and I could play it forever, though the ranking system and the difficulty pretty much guarantee that I'll never manage a 1cc.

Cave have not acknowledged whether they have Raizing staff working on Ibara, but IKD stated in the recent Arcadia interview that he wanted to give the game's director the most freedom possible in creating the game. We'll know as soon as the game sees official arcade release, I'm sure.

[dboeren]

I think the Compile influence is pretty obvious in the way that there is often a "sheet" of powerups that comes raining down towards you and it's very difficult to pick them all up. Compile often liked to design their shmups in this fashion, so I would have been a little surprised if Rando had said that there weren't any Compile developers among Raizing's ranks (no pun intended Wink ).

Hmm, the rain of powerups is one of the things I don't like about Battle Garegga, Bakraid, and Batrider. I like to earn powerups, and also not be punished so much for picking them up.

I really like Raizing, more so than either Cave or Psikyo, to whom they're so often compared. My favourite title of theirs is Mahou Daisakusen, perhaps in part because of its relative simplicity when compared with their newer games. If Kingdom Grand Prix had omitted the racing element, I might like it even more, but I've never been able to play that game without wishing that it was a more typical shmup.

Yay! Another person voted for Mahou Daisakusen! I thought I would be the only one. Mahou is great to me because it's like a modern version of a late 80's Toaplan shooter. Excellent humor and fantasy art style, plus lots of detail in the backgrounds. I love seeing the goblins running around in a panic.

[Ord]

@Jiji
I look forward to reading your article on the staff links thoughout Raizing. I'm doing a Batrider review for my site, which is going slowly I also want to write an article which deals with the history of Raizing shooting games. It would have covered the creators, their art style (typical Raizing explosions etc) and common gameplay elements throughout their games(medaling etc).
If it worked out ok i was thinking of doing an article on other developers such as Cave, Treasure, Psikyo, Seibu Kaihatsu etc.