Ibara Black Label or Pink Sweets...what to buy?

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:03 pm

hey guys and girls,

inspired by ibara black label thread i now have an option on the ibara black label that fujita is selling. it's a pcb only with color copied artwork for 103,000YEN/~$900/~670 Euro. i don't know if i should go for it cause it's quite a significant amount of money for just a pcb. then again prices of ~$1500 for a full kit are more than i'm allowed to spend on a game...

so i'm looking for advice on whether or not i should get this pcb IBL.

or if i should perhaps go for a Ibara Pink Sweets kit or a Mushi Futari Kit instead. i sort of figure that Mushi Futari will be easily available (and maybe even dropping in price a bit) for a while still so that puts it lower in the priority cue. however i am a bit afraid of missing out on the IBL and IPS... i've never played either of them and only saw a small amount of footage of both of them.

*sigh* so basically please help me choose / argument my choice...

thanks,

eretsua

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:10 pm

id choose black label over pink sweets.

black label is very caveish with loads of purple death and tiny hitboxes, it shares regular Ibaras visuals but other than that theyre nothing alike.

id say its a fair bit different from teh arrange mode on PS2 aswell tho they share alot of similarities.

i never really clicked with pinksweets, it has psikyo like gameplay qualities in that it has a novelty gimmick that is to be used exclusiveley if you want to score.
was never a fan of cute cartoonish graphics either, but theres no enying its a pretty solid game anyways.

im sure youll be happy regardless what you choose but my money is in black label.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:18 pm

for the price, that black label sounds alright. take into account that it has white label ibara on it too. so that's two games really

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:20 pm

jpj wrote:for the price, that black label sounds alright. take into account that it has white label ibara on it too. so that's two games really

nope, that only applies to DDP DOJ BL, Ibara Black Label has only the black label version.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:21 pm

really? wow, that's crap.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:44 pm

If you are pleasing your OCD habbit, and are only concerned with collectable/resale value, then IBL is your board. If you are wanting fun gameplay in the traditional Raizing or Cave mechanics, then you can't go wrong with Futari or Pink Sweets. Obviously Pink Sweets is going to be an acquired taste, as all Raizing games play quite different than Cave games.

Being a big fan of Raizing and Ibara, I see IBL as a one-off bastardization of raizing mechanics to cator to poor sales of the original board to the dominant Cave fanbase/market. You'll get more gameplay value paying $1500 for an Ibara kit (to get the original intended experience) plus PS or Futari kits, than a single "rare?" bl kit.

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:59 pm

thanks for the input everyone. i'm still undecided though i find the psikyo elements sven mentioned quite a counter argument for me buying Pink Sweets.

i've been playing Ibara Arrange all day long which is quite enjoyable! but just don't really know yet if BL is sufficiently different to warrant such investment.

Dave_K. wrote:Being a big fan of Raizing and Ibara, I see IBL as a one-off bastardization of raizing mechanics to cator to poor sales of the original board to the dominant Cave fanbase/market. You'll get more gameplay value paying $1500 for an Ibara kit (to get the original intended experience) plus PS or Futari kits, than a single "rare?" bl kit.

sorry, i'm not really understanding what you're saying here...

also what is an OCD habbit?

i'm not buying pcb's for their resale value but if i ever sell it i'd rather not lose money over it. at same time i also rather not have to pay significantly more for a game if want to buy it somewhere in the future. difficult choice.

btw: anyone can comment if 103,000YEN/~$900/~670 Euro is a fair price a IBL pcb only with color copied artwork?

once again thank you for your input,

eretsua

bay · Post by **bay** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:04 pm

i would contact ECL and see what Ibara Black Label kit they can get for you. It seems they last had a price in the 900US range for their kits.

i enjoy IBL, and after playing that a good amount going back to Ibara is actually more enjoyable to play. this is probably just due to the familiarity of the boards and whats going on. IBL rank grows very quick while in Ibara it grows but not so intensely. maybe i'm just a noob, but it made Ibara more managable after playing IBL.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:28 pm

eretsua wrote:
i'm not buying pcb's for their resale value but if i ever sell it i'd rather not lose money over it. at same time i also rather not have to pay significantly more for a game if want to buy it somewhere in the future. difficult choice.

btw: anyone can comment if 103,000YEN/~$900/~670 Euro is a fair price a IBL pcb only with color copied artwork?

id say its a fair price.

dont worry about the value of these boards, both will be quite rare items in a year or two, pink sweets is the most suceptible to decrease but i doubt more than $1-200 under the current value.

brumma · Post by **brumma** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:49 pm

eretsua wrote:also what is an OCD habbit?

I can tell you that OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:36 pm

eretsua wrote:thanks for the input everyone. i'm still undecided though i find the psikyo elements sven mentioned quite a counter argument for me buying Pink Sweets.

Don't worry, there aren't any Psikyo elements, it's a real Raizing/Cave mix of a game, with some of the bullet-eating elements of Ikaruga tossed in for good measure.

Pink Sweets has three game modes, all of which are a lot of fun. Also 4 ships, and 4 types of each ship for a total of 16 ship types to mess around with.

Both PS and IBL are a lot of fun. You can't go wrong with either one IMHO. PS takes more time to get into, but most people here who have given it time have really come to love it (myself included). Don't listen to the people who have only played it 5-6 times.

btw: anyone can comment if 103,000YEN/~$900/~670 Euro is a fair price a IBL pcb only with color copied artwork?

That's the best price you'll find these days, unfortunately. It's pretty expensive.

Overall, If you can spend a couple hundred dollars more, go for a Mushi Futari 1.5 kit. That game blows both IBL and PS out of the water, and has an insane amount of replay value. Or you could wait a month or two and Mushi Futari kits will probably drop to around $1000 then.

If you need a new Cave PCB now, ask yourself if you like Raizing type games like Ibara, APB, Battle Garegga, etc. Do you like cute-em'up type graphics and bullet-absorbing game play. Or do you really just like Cave-type games like Mushi, Ibara Arrange, DDP, etc. Then make your choice.

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:40 pm

so after careful deliberation and obsessive thinking over the last few days I found i could not make a choice...a problem i'm faced with on a daily basis in my everyday life... so I decided to rape and pillage my savings account some more and buy both Ibara Black Label & Pink Sweets.

<--- that's how i feel too!

Mushi Futari looks totally tempting and certainly is something i want to have one day but Ibara Black Label just seems too cool to pass up. It's a pity isn't a full kit but in the end I'm buying it to play and not to (re)sell / collect. Same goes for Pink Sweets really. After reading things here and else where on the board and watching the very few video's I found on net I found the game to be so irresistible as it looks happy. I'm just totally curious about it...so i hope i like it.

So now I'm not allowed to buy another pcb for at least a 100days...and that's okay cause my savings account won't be filled up nearly enough for such an adventure anytime soon anyway....

....let alone the fact that i have more than enough shooting to last me a life time now.

@ bay: I've tried contacting ELC in the past a couple of times but I've never received a response from them. :/ oh well it's not really important for me anymore anyway as I payed my order at Fujita already.

anyway people, thank you very much for trying to help me make a choice!

eretsua

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:50 pm

eretsua wrote:so after careful deliberation and obsessive thinking over the last few days I found i could not make a choice...a problem i'm faced with on a daily basis in my everyday life... so I decided to rape and pillage my savings account some more and buy both Ibara Black Label & Pink Sweets. <--- that's how i feel too!

Ah... the feeling of buying PCBs!

Have fun with the games! I'd like to see some pics of the game(s) running if you don't mind.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:11 am

eretsua wrote:so so I decided to rape and pillage my savings account some more and buy both Ibara Black Label & Pink Sweets. <--- that's how i feel too!

Haha, that's pretty much what I ended up doing, though I bought PS first and IBL a few months later. I think you'll love both games. I'm really liking IBL more and more I play it, it's NOTHING like Ibara Arrange on the PS2. IBL is better in every way, especially with the XTC chaining system. Super addictive.

I'd still take Mushi Futari over these games, but I think you were wise in waiting for Futari to drop in price over the next months. I think they made enough of them that it will eventually be close to Espgaluda 2 prices ($600-$700) a year or so from its release (unless it sells out before that of course, like the first Mushi did).

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:49 am

haha, way to go eretsua!

Radiant · Post by **Radiant** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:11 am

futari is 122000@fujita ~1040US$ ~780€ so it's already in the 1000$ range

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:30 pm

Radiant wrote:futari is 122000@fujita ~1040US$ ~780€ so it's already in the 1000$ range

Is there some mailing list for Fujita? Their website still list Futari kit at 130,000Y. They haven't updated their prices since I first went out there a month ago.

Radiant · Post by **Radiant** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:24 pm

no....i want to buy it and so i asked for the actual price...

BTW they still have 2 futari 1.0 in stock (same price)

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:12 am

TWE wrote:
eretsua wrote:so so I decided to rape and pillage my savings account some more and buy both Ibara Black Label & Pink Sweets. <--- that's how i feel too!

Haha, that's pretty much what I ended up doing, though I bought PS first and IBL a few months later.

yeah I figured that i would pretty soon come to regret buying one and not the other so i'd thought i better save on banking & shipping costs.

TWE wrote:I think you'll love both games. I'm really liking IBL more and more I play it, it's NOTHING like Ibara Arrange on the PS2. IBL is better in every way, especially with the XTC chaining system. Super addictive.

i totally believe you. i watched the INH Lunatic dvd footage of IBL and it looks so extremely violent/nice.

TWE wrote:I'd still take Mushi Futari over these games, but I think you were wise in waiting for Futari to drop in price over the next months. I think they made enough of them that it will eventually be close to Espgaluda 2 prices ($600-$700) a year or so from its release (unless it sells out before that of course, like the first Mushi did).

yeah, Futari looks mighty attractive. i actually had stop watching all the footage of it around the net a while ago in fear of ordering when i couldn't afford it. now i won't be able to afford it for a while to come so now i can only hope it will not sell out in the meanwhile. and i sort of trust in that as you can still buy new kits of PS, ESP2 even though they are significantly older than Futari (please don't burst my bubble my wallet wouldn't survive).

sven666 wrote:haha, way to go eretsua!

eretsua