DoDonPachi Resurrection Reignite Announced

[Ms. Tea]

The new stage should look pretty familiar ..

https://x.com/shinyaku_cave/status/2065362549802184813

The graphics here are really interesting. Due to the quality of the screenshot and all of the enemies, it's really hard to tell if these are new renders or just the original pixel art recycled. The contrast between the enemies and the level background is very strange. Does anyone know if CAVE still has their 3d employees?

I don't know how many of them are the same employees since their gachas don't have credits, but Gaomatsu and Touhou Genso Eclipse both have art in a similar enough style to late-era Cave and I'd assume it's some of those people who are doing the new assets in this stage. The contrast between enemies and backgrounds makes it feel like they're recycling the background tiles and redoing the enemy sprites, which isn't too different from their first few 360-era HD ports.

[Light1000]

Mahou Otome Dodonpachi (DFK?) collab teased for January 15th:

[Light1000]

Upon further inspection, the Reiginite demo has credit feeding.
Combined with the fact that the Touhou 6 remaster also has credit feeding, I'm starting to feel really pissed off about whoever is in charge of these things.
Both are probably going to sell about 200k copies combined and every single last one of those players are just going to feed once then dump the games, never learning about shmups, never improving, near learning anything...
Are Japanese boomers really just mentally incapable of understanding how dumb this is? What is going on

[Jackoz]

I wonder how much overlap with whoever is responsible for developing the exA versions of Cave's games with their various adjustments, arranges, soundtracks, etc.

I guess philosophically, I'm supportive of the idea of actually releasing this stuff in a format more easily accessible to audiences. As opposed to the trend toward all of these exA exclusive remasters with arrange modes and other features locked to arcades. So, if I want to see more official arrange-like releases on home platforms, I suppose showing it by supporting a release like this kind of makes sense. And I do like DOJ a lot. But eh, I haven't even paid attention to the demo or bothered to download it, wake me up when the game gets here I guess. Didn't expect to feel that sort of malaise but here we are.

A common misconception mate
exA develops all of their exa label versions themselves and often involve the original staffers. Non exa labels are normally developed but produced and directed by exa staffers. They may not always be programmed by exa but they are surely benefiting from their experience.

[Faith]

Upon further inspection, the Reiginite demo has credit feeding.
Combined with the fact that the Touhou 6 remaster also has credit feeding, I'm starting to feel really pissed off about whoever is in charge of these things.
Both are probably going to sell about 200k copies combined and every single last one of those players are just going to feed once then dump the games, never learning about shmups, never improving, near learning anything...
Are Japanese boomers really just mentally incapable of understanding how dumb this is? What is going on

I mean... can you really blame them X_X"... look even in our own community there are many who complain if Continues are nerfed in any way (lol don't even have to look far, just look at Eden's Eclipse thread now @_@)... and here is not even that bad, usually on Steam Discussions will see even more such complaints even by players who have played many other STG before >.<!~

[Jonpachi]

I mean, by nature, all arcade games from about 1986 on allowed credit feeding. It’s literally the original business model to try and get players to feed the machine. Artificial limits on home releases has always felt pointless. You can simply impose your own rules if you only try single credit runs.

I personally find using credits to practice deep into the game (and then working to whittle down how many I need for the clear over time) is the best way to practice. I used to have a strict personal rule to never continue and always start from stage 1, but my progress and personal 1CC list exploded when I let go of that rule in the name of more complete “full run” training.

[Light1000]

I mean... can you really blame them X_X"... look even in our own community there are many who complain if Continues are nerfed in any way (lol don't even have to look far, just look at Eden's Eclipse thread now @_@)... and here is not even that bad, usually on Steam Discussions will see even more such complaints even by players who have played many other STG before >.<!~

This is a situation where "tough love" is very applicable. Gamers do not know what they like, or what will be good for them. That's why devs *need* to have the balls to not care about complaints like those...
Every shmup has had infinite continues for decades and things only got worse during this time. It's not hard to see a correlation.

I mean, by nature, all arcade games from about 1986 on allowed credit feeding. It’s literally the original business model to try and get players to feed the machine. Artificial limits on home releases has always felt pointless. You can simply impose your own rules if you only try single credit runs.
I personally find using credits to practice deep into the game (and then working to whittle down how many I need for the clear over time) is the best way to practice. I used to have a strict personal rule to never continue and always start from stage 1, but my progress and personal 1CC list exploded when I let go of that rule in the name of more complete “full run” training.

What you do is not the same thing as the average person does. When a regular person boots up a shmup, they're not going to look at it that way, it's just that simple. The developers need to make learning the game more approachable or normal people are just not going to care.
Every single home release should have forced 1cc / no continues at all with unlockable stage-by-stage practice contextualized as a "real" game progression structure for practice purposes outside of arcade runs.

[davyK]

Upon further inspection, the Reiginite demo has credit feeding.
Combined with the fact that the Touhou 6 remaster also has credit feeding, I'm starting to feel really pissed off about whoever is in charge of these things.
Both are probably going to sell about 200k copies combined and every single last one of those players are just going to feed once then dump the games, never learning about shmups, never improving, near learning anything...
Are Japanese boomers really just mentally incapable of understanding how dumb this is? What is going on

Surely boomers eschew continuing as they are old school gamers now?

I'm gen X and avoid continues and credit feeding but it's a legit way to learn a game when budgeted so I use it for sparingly for that. Though most ports have practice modes, save states etc.
The concept of credits in console ports has really been superseded by a decent practice mode that enables you to replay any level you have reached in the main game mode. Modern mainstream gamers will likely have no idea about the concept of credits. But beating a level in the main game should give some sort of payback/reward that will pander to mainstream gaming tastes; especially the first level.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Upon further inspection, the Reiginite demo has credit feeding.
Combined with the fact that the Touhou 6 remaster also has credit feeding, I'm starting to feel really pissed off about whoever is in charge of these things.
Both are probably going to sell about 200k copies combined and every single last one of those players are just going to feed once then dump the games, never learning about shmups, never improving, near learning anything...
Are Japanese boomers really just mentally incapable of understanding how dumb this is? What is going on

Surely boomers eschew continuing as they are old school gamers now?

I'm gen X and avoid continues and credit feeding but it's a legit way to learn a game when budgeted so I use it for sparingly for that. Though most ports have practice modes, save states etc.
The concept of credits in console ports has really been superseded by a decent practice mode that enables you to replay any level you have reached in the main game mode. Modern mainstream gamers will likely have no idea about the concept of credits. But beating a level in the main game should give some sort of payback/reward that will pander to mainstream gaming tastes; especially the first level.

I'm a grizzled Gen-X arcade gamer myself -- in an era of the early-to-late 1980s where the almighty quarter was considered the "gold choice" to credit up a arcade game. Playing such arcade games back in the 1980s was considered an expensive hobby/pastime and thus forced said arcade gamer to quickly learn the finer "in 'n' outs' of what made said arcade game title tick/work in order to master with the least amount of money spent to master it.

The ol' adage of "Practice makes perfect" rings so true back then in the early-to-late 1980s era as it does, currently, nowadays in 2026.

----------
If you're "in the zone" with your favorite arcade game title, no matter what obstacle the CPU throws at the skillful and masterful arcade gamer, he or she will overcome them regardless of the situation at hand because of heighted situational awareness, rapid-fire reflexes and hand-eye coordination is at it's best and honed to absolute perfection.
----------

Sure, I've been "in the zone" when playing on the Atari Games' arcade puzzler of Klax back in May of 1994 -- put a single token in the coin slot and played a single session that lasted about two to two & half hours playing it non-stop without any breaks whatsoever and scoring easily over 6,000,000+ points after finishing Wave 100 (Score 250,000 points) -- which is easy if you can pull off two multi-colored "Big Xs" with two Wild tiles in reserve. Of course, no two games of Klax are the same due to the randomness of the CPU generated tiles given to the player to make do with the current titles on hand (thus forcing the player to make decisions in an instant/make the best choice to get through each wave as needed).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Nate123]

this guy's whining is really getting on my nerves his steam post is just so entitled like he thinks that if stg ports didn't have continues they would be lauded like ikaruga and every one would make stgs.

[slateman]

this guy's whining is really getting on my nerves his steam post is just so entitled like he thinks that if stg ports didn't have continues they would be lauded like ikaruga and every one would make stgs.

Ignore it. There's literally no need to question why anyone is playing shmups in 2026. If they are = good. If there are sales, there are more games. Anything to get a modern Futari in my obsessive mitts.

I'm down on Reignite b/c of this demo. But a DFK reissue with new mode/stages/ships in the same year as I get my beloved Muchi Muchi Pork!? Life is good. Ignore the haters and the doubters.

[Light1000]

this guy's whining is really getting on my nerves his steam post is just so entitled like he thinks that if stg ports didn't have continues they would be lauded like ikaruga and every one would make stgs.

No idea who you're talking about, but it's just a matter of objective fact that shmups would be more popular if none of them had infinite continues. I care about CAVE making more games and being profitable, so obviously the game being presented in such a way that newcomers will be able to understand the appeal is important to me.
As it is now, there's really no reason for me to believe that this is going to go anywhere or make shmups more profitable for prospective devs at all.

Ignore it. There's literally no need to question why anyone is playing shmups in 2026. If they are = good. If there are sales, there are more games. Anything to get a modern Futari in my obsessive mitts.

I'm down on Reignite b/c of this demo. But a DFK reissue with new mode/stages/ships in the same year as I get my beloved Muchi Muchi Pork!? Life is good. Ignore the haters and the doubters.

This is called "toxic positivity"

[jehu]

Some people find a grand hill they’re willing to fight for, and die on - and others take Custer’s last stand for a stoop.

[AGermanArtist]

I have no time for elitism.

[DietSoap]

Throwing my support behind Light1000 purely because some of you guys are being buttheads.

[SavagePencil]

If I paid $20 for a game I’ll limit myself to 80 continues

[Jonpachi]

I want to be part of the cool kids club so I just sold every shmup I own that allows continues. This is sure to wake up the industry.

[1000Eyes]

I mean, it's not like the answer is clear cut in the games themselves anyway. Some shooters use a weird metagprogression scheme that gradually awards continues (plenty of home / ports like Homura), some gate even more of the game if you use one (like Hellsinker). Even recent games like the Kobayashi dragon maid shooter don't have continues, instead it forces a restart at the beginning of the stage (still pretty forgiving, granted), and from what I read Eden Eclipse brought back checkpoints.

You could say this ultimately hardly affects shooter sales, which is not unreasonable. However, it is also clearly not unreasonable to think about it, given even the devs do it.

[Udderdude]

They're adding some wacky battle royale mode .. I can't even. 10 players is extremely optimistic ..

https://x.com/shinyaku_cave/status/2066400312911364502
https://x.com/famitsu/status/2066478416287985967

Re: Credit feeding, easiest thing to do is add arcade mode (unlimited continues), and challege mode (no continues). Will they actually do that? Probably not.

[emphatic]

I want to be part of the cool kids club so I just sold every shmup I own that allows continues. This is sure to wake up the industry.

Ban save states and training modes too. Thanks.