Karous 2 -Ranhansha no Sanguis-/-The Diffused Sanguis- [RS34/TBA]

[KAI]

Ranhansha no Sanguis, the sequel to Karous that RS34 teased a few years ago on an event has been announced for Exa-Arcadia

https://exa.ac/en/editors/rs34/?v=0f177369a3b7



https://exa.ac/ja/games/ranhansha-no-sa ... p040192024

Glad to know this game is finally coming out.

Hope now we can understand wtf happened on that weird ending sequence from Karous.

[jehu]

Gratifying to know that free market capitalism will keep the stupid poors away from this release.

Takes a man of a certain class, taste and distinction to appreciate the deep-fried jpegs of trees and street-lamps.

[m.sniffles.esq]

You have to be shitting me

Well, I hope they got a house or two out of it...

PS the second link in the OP is "page not found" (unless that's on purpose to represent most of us playing this game)

[Ms. Tea]

Remember to check your calendar before you believe anything you read today.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Remember to check your calendar before you believe anything you read today.

While true. It's tomorrow in japan. And would two companies coordinate a April fool's joke? That seems... sorta elaborate

[KAI]

KAROUS 2 IS REAAAAAAAL!!


Announced last night during the ARXIAL RENDEZVOUS４ THA DECADE event
https://youtu.be/9JUVWlauGzw?t=5040


RS34 also announced a crowfunding campaign via Campfire to port the first Karous on modern systems.
More info to come soon.

[EmperorIng]

That "X" in the event title has me nervous.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Ah, fuck! I was so excited about the fucking Baystars yesterday, I forgot all about this fucking thing the next morning (even though I was the person who first posted it was even happening)

Anyway--yeah--not a big shocker. I couldn't understand a word they were saying during the last event's poll results, but I certainly could understand they were saying "Karous" 28 times and not "Chaos Field"

Oh, and the fucking Whales came back from 0-2 to win it all sunday night. Even DB Starman got laid.

[Ms. Tea]

Definitely excited for this! I'll keep an eye on whether that Campfire campaign's going to be accessible to people outside Japan.

That "X" in the event title has me nervous.

I don't think that's an X, it's a stylized screw. The same design is in the Radirgy 2 logo.

(BTW, I appreciate the dedication to the bit of putting this actual news in the april fools thread instead of giving it its own thread.)

[m.sniffles.esq]

That "X" in the event title has me nervous.

Spoiler

[Kiken]

I want to be excited about this... but I feel it's going to be another Beast of Re:Eden instead of just a proper arcade sequel (5 or 6 standard shmup stages with bosses and a TLB).. despite being released on EXA Arcadia.

I would love to be proven wrong though.

At the very least, it'll have a fantastic OST.

[KAI]

Youtube trailer just dropped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mro4xsG8V6U

And the platforms planned for the new port of Karous 1 are Switch and Steam!


https://rs34.co.jp/game/tcrp/karous.html

https://camp-fire.jp/projects/798386/

the stretch goals listed are really neat:

• *3,000,000- Steam port: Will be ported to Steam
  
  *3,500,000- Sound enhancement: Implemented a mode that allows switching between newly created background music, and added a new song rearranged by Super Sweep to the soundtrack.
  
  *4,000,000- Creation of Karous Setting Documentation: Karous setting was once the subject of much discussion by players. This will be the first official setting document.
  
  *5,000,000-Create Nintendo Switch package version: Create a Nintendo Switch package version.
  
  *6,000,000- PS4/PS5 port: We will port the game to Playstation4 and Playstation5.

Im crossing my fingers to reach at least the first 3 goals.

[Ms. Tea]

I hope they get funded for that arranged soundtrack... sounds really promising. I'm glad they're making a new arranged EP one of the backer rewards, too - very tempted to go for that. Some of the more expensive rewards are fun too, like getting to submit a custom email that'll be available in-game. (I'm assuming it'll be a bit like how Radirgy 2 has some special in-game emails from the BEEP CEO.)

.. despite being released on EXA Arcadia.

OK, I feel bad for ruining KAI's joke, but I feel like this has probably gone on long enough

The original post in this thread was KAI's april fools joke. (Look at the date.) The link to the game page on the exa site never existed. Yesterday's announcement that Karous 2 is happening has nothing to do with exa.

You can tell a good april fools joke from the fact it's still riling people up seven months later. KAI, genuinely well played.

[mojilove]

The crowdfunding page says they plan to release the port of OG Karous in September 2025, but that Douglas Adams quote comes to mind ("I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.")

It's interesting that they have put the boilerplate "trademarks are the property of their respective owners" in English, Japanese, and French on the site and press release for the OG port. Not sure exactly why they did that, but I imagine it hints at something in-game, rather than an international (or perhaps specifically Canadian) release necessarily
(edit: wait, looks like this has been copied from nintendo's own rights notices page for the switch: https://support.nintendo.com/jp/switch/ ... witch.html . idk why nintendo has it in EN/JA/FR there)

[Ms. Tea]

You heard it first right here on the shmups forum. Karous crowdfunded physical edition, exclusively available as a bilingual ESRB edition in Canada

[m.sniffles.esq]

The crowdfunding page says they plan to release the port of OG Karous in September 2025, but that Douglas Adams quote comes to mind ("I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.")

Speaking of deadlines, they didn't say anything about nu-illmatic at the event*. And seeing that 2024 is over in about 50 days, I take it that will not be happening?

*my bad, they did show about 15 seconds of gameplay, but I don't know what they said beyond that.

[mojilove]

Oh yeah, they said that they are making good progress with Happy Together and that they will hopefully have more to say soon, but I'll wait warmly because you never know how long it will actually take
Also, Happy Together will have voice acting and gacha in some form (I'm imagining the style of gacha that was in esprade psi using tickets you earn by playing the game, but idk)

[m.sniffles.esq]

Oh yeah, they said that they are making good progress with Happy Together and that they will hopefully have more to say soon

So I think the whole "latter half of 2024" thing is firmly off the table

[mojilove]

yeah, looks like Happy Together will be playable at an event at the end of this month, but the release date for that says "2025." I'd really like to try it (and get whatever little freebie they're gonna give out) but it's a bit of a trek for me. maybe they'll do another similar event in Osaka in June like they did this year and last year, but otoh I hope they'll release the game before then

[m.sniffles.esq]

yeah, looks like Happy Together will be playable at an event at the end of this month,

They probably put it together in tribute to...

well, y'know...

[To Far Away Times]

You could sit in the corner and automatically 1CC the first one. Pass.

[m.sniffles.esq]

You could sit in the corner and automatically 1CC the first one. Pass.

I read that they'll be addressing this for the sequel. You'll now be able to sit in the center of the screen


(my other favorite criticism was "Gah! Easy mode is obviously for children or the disabled! TRASH!" Because lord knows, we can't have children enjoying video games...)

[M.Knight]

Yeah Karous (and most other Milestone shmups) are not designed to be tough 1CC challenges, but are instead score-oriented caravan shooters with a full game duration

If you're looking for a demanding survival experience you won't find it there indeed, though on the other hand the most basic survival is so easy, brain-dead and unsatisfying that scoring (and playing with the toolkit in general) is something you'll be incentivized to pursue if you wanna have fun with the game

I wonder if the new game will be that extreme for easy 1CC, if only to keep the tradition and the memes alive

[m.sniffles.esq]

Actually nowadays, having alternate, non-violent paths through a game is all the rage, and will make Polygon and the like write articles about progressive and forward thinking the devs are. Milestone was WAY ahead of that curve. A shooter for people opposed to shooting things? In 2006?

I think I may be getting some extra freelance dollars for x-mas...

[m.sniffles.esq]

First two goalz are met, although crowdfund does appear to be JP only. Grrr... I wanted that poster

[mojilove]

The lore book stretch goal has been reached now. The president said in one of the recent midnight streams that they're gonna announce new pledge tiers related to audio, so that might bring a new wave of pledges. It might reach the switch physical goal within a month at this rate, I think (maybe it'll reach PS4/5 as well but who knows). Slightly worried that the release might get delayed if the campaign hits all the extra stretch goals though

Also, the merch from Arxial Rendezvous 3,4 and 4 is available on BEEP's online store here (it should ship internationally with tenso): https://www.beep-shop.com/ec/products/l ... ry_id=1856
I imagine that stock is limited

[Ms. Tea]

Just how fast did that Arxial Rendezvous 4 stuff sell out? The new EP is already just a 404. Hasn't shown up on RS34's own shop page yet either.

[mojilove]

Just how fast did that Arxial Rendezvous 4 stuff sell out? The new EP is already just a 404. Hasn't shown up on RS34's own shop page yet either.

hmm, the tweet from @beep_shop about the new ARVS4 stuff seems to have been deleted as well - perhaps it will all come to the online store again later. not even 24 hours have passed, and I doubt it sold out that quickly...
I'll post a message here if I see the merch coming to the RS34 shop page as well

[mojilove]

The merch from ARVS4 is up on the RS34 store now and it seems like they ship overseas too: https://rs34.fashionstore.jp/

[pixelhans]

The merch from ARVS4 is up on the RS34 store now and it seems like they ship overseas too: https://rs34.fashionstore.jp/

got myself a few posters and a keychain

also cant believe that karous 2 is real! karous is my favorite shmup of all time and rs34s output the last couple of years has been amazing, too. also backed the campfire campaign of the karous 1 port

what a time to be alive