Could the ship in Raiden III POSSIBLY be any slower?!...

[dave4shmups]

Honestly, I've lost count of how many times I've died because I couldn't get the ship out of the way of the bullets. The ship speed is more appropriate for something like R-Type Final, then it is for Raiden III. I'm playing on default difficulty, without adding any extra lives or anything like that, and I still haven't even gotten past the second stage!

What are people using to play this on their PS2's? I'm using the Street Fighter Anniversary pad. I don't mind the thickness of the controller, since I have big hands, but I'm wondering if this game really needs a joystick.

[Twiddle]

learn 2 play

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Heh, go play the originals and you will see that they have about the same movement speed. As much crap as Raiden III has taken it remains a gem for fans of the originals.

[shoe-sama]

It could be worse.

Imagine what would happen if the only weapon you could use was the blue laser.

[shinsage]

God I love this game.

Slow ship speed, Type X graphics, the Vampire Killer ripoff, the whole she-bang.

I can't help but think how much better it would have looked with sprites, tho. Looking at the design sketches, they had some good ideas, but as it is the graphics were too muddled to reach the full potential of what could have been.

[CIT]

What are people using to play this on their PS2's?

You definitely gotta play with the second player controller. The blue ship has faster horizontal movement, as in Raiden DX.

[dave4shmups]

Heh, go play the originals and you will see that they have about the same movement speed. As much crap as Raiden III has taken it remains a gem for fans of the originals.

I'm not trashing it, and I do think it's a great shmup (long live traditional shmups!!! ), I just felt like ranting about the ship speed. I'm certainly glad it got US PS2 port; I honestly thought that it never would. @CIT, I didn't know that the second player ship was faster, I will give that a try!

The homing missiles certainly seem to move much faster then any other installment in the series that I've played, and that helps a lot. I have no problem with the graphics, the backgrounds look pretty nice, and the explosions look great and sound great as well, IMO.

[Rob]

Could the ship in Raiden III POSSIBLY be any slower?!...

Yes.

[landshark]

What are people using to play this on their PS2's?

You definitely gotta play with the second player controller. The blue ship has faster horizontal movement, as in Raiden DX.

Is this the case with Raiden III as well? I always use the 1p ship.

[-Bridget-]

I gotta ask, how is the challenge level on this game?


I'm considering picking this up, but this type of game will only keep my attention well enough, if it has a great deal of challenge.

Im used to bullet-hell shooters like Mushihime, DDP, Touhou, Giga Wing, and stuff such as that.



I saw a video of this being played, on the game's final level, and honestly it looked kinda easy...... but I dont know about the game's difficulty options, for all I know it mighta been lowered.



Been awhile since I've played a Raiden game......

[CIT]

What are people using to play this on their PS2's?

You definitely gotta play with the second player controller. The blue ship has faster horizontal movement, as in Raiden DX.

Is this the case with Raiden III as well? I always use the 1p ship.

Yes. Didn't I just say that in my post?

I gotta ask, how is the challenge level on this game?


I'm considering picking this up, but this type of game will only keep my attention well enough, if it has a great deal of challenge.

Im used to bullet-hell shooters like Mushihime, DDP, Touhou, Giga Wing, and stuff such as that.



I saw a video of this being played, on the game's final level, and honestly it looked kinda easy...... but I dont know about the game's difficulty options, for all I know it mighta been lowered.



Been awhile since I've played a Raiden game......

Raiden III is really hard, especially if you play on Arcade difficulty setting. Very small bullets at great speed and sniper attacks from the sides to look out for. The bosses spew extremely fast patterns that take quite some time to learn. You'll probably have a hard time adjusting to the Raiden style if you've become used to danmaku shooters.

[-Bridget-]

Actually I'll play both types of shooters, it's just that what I've been playing lately, is mostly stuff made by Cave (who does alot of the danmaku type, of course).


But it's the non-bullet-hell ones that I grew up on; All the Gradius games, for example. R-Type, Darius, stuff like that.


Im thinking the video I saw mighta been just toned down, now, after hearing this.


Either way, now it's gonna drive me crazy, so Im gonna have to go pick it up tomorrow


As if DOJ wasnt driving me up the wall enough already.

[Deets]

I found it pretty reasonable on the default settings. I didn't try arcade difficulty, but it took about a week of play to finish the game. A friend of mine who lives in Denver (no, not dave4shmups) also bought it on my recommendation having never really seriously played a shooting game before and finished it on defaults after a few weeks, so.

[EOJ]

I found it pretty reasonable on the default settings. I didn't try arcade difficulty, but it took about a week of play to finish the game. A friend of mine who lives in Denver (no, not dave4shmups) also bought it on my recommendation having never really seriously played a shooting game before and finished it on defaults after a few weeks, so.

What's your definition of "finish the game"? 1CC? Or a set amount of continues? Just curious.

[EddyMRA]

Ahem, Raiden mk-II in the Raiden Fighters series. Try playing as THAT ship in those games. It's the slowest ship of them all. It's even worse in Raiden Fighters Jet because that game balances itself around the Slaves.

[Erinu]

it's raiden 3

what do you expect.

[Dandy J]

What's your definition of "finish the game"? 1CC? Or a set amount of continues? Just curious.

*grabs popcorn*

[Deets]

What's your definition of "finish the game"? 1CC? Or a set amount of continues? Just curious.

1cc (from the RIII score thread)

[EOJ]

1cc (from the RIII score thread)

Nice! You've got some skills.

[dave4shmups]

You definitely gotta play with the second player controller. The blue ship has faster horizontal movement, as in Raiden DX.

Is this the case with Raiden III as well? I always use the 1p ship.

Yes. Didn't I just say that in my post?

I gotta ask, how is the challenge level on this game?


I'm considering picking this up, but this type of game will only keep my attention well enough, if it has a great deal of challenge.

Im used to bullet-hell shooters like Mushihime, DDP, Touhou, Giga Wing, and stuff such as that.



I saw a video of this being played, on the game's final level, and honestly it looked kinda easy...... but I dont know about the game's difficulty options, for all I know it mighta been lowered.



Been awhile since I've played a Raiden game......

Raiden III is really hard, especially if you play on Arcade difficulty setting. Very small bullets at great speed and sniper attacks from the sides to look out for. The bosses spew extremely fast patterns that take quite some time to learn. You'll probably have a hard time adjusting to the Raiden style if you've become used to danmaku shooters.

The bullet speed relative to the ship speed is my biggest gripe; I've never seen bullet sprays that fast in Raiden, Raiden II, or Raiden DX. Time to go try the second-player ship.

[DJ Incompetent]

The bullet speed relative to the ship speed is my biggest gripe; I've never seen bullet sprays that fast in Raiden, Raiden II, or Raiden DX. Time to go try the second-player ship.

Roll with Red and Radio (or maybe in your case, Homing) the entire game. Since almost every shot and pattern is aimed directly at you, you can tap-dodge most of the whole thing. Your ship doesn't really need speed or to cross the screen much when your Red gets some decent coverage.

The group of 3 helicopters and the "appears from middle of left-or-right-side" tank are the hardest obstacles in the game. If all else fails, memorize when these appear and the rest of the game should coast into place. Oh, and practice boss rush...that'll help.

Your disk comes with a superplay. Watch it.

[dave4shmups]

The bullet speed relative to the ship speed is my biggest gripe; I've never seen bullet sprays that fast in Raiden, Raiden II, or Raiden DX. Time to go try the second-player ship.

Roll with Red and Radio (or maybe in your case, Homing) the entire game. Since almost every shot and pattern is aimed directly at you, you can tap-dodge most of the whole thing. Your ship doesn't really need speed or to cross the screen much when your Red gets some decent coverage.

The group of 3 helicopters and the "appears from middle of left-or-right-side" tank are the hardest obstacles in the game. If all else fails, memorize when these appear and the rest of the game should coast into place. Oh, and practice boss rush...that'll help.

Your disk comes with a superplay. Watch it.

Will do. Where is the superplay? I "left it alone", and it just showed a demo, and the two ships in the demo were moving around like nobody's business! There must be a better controller for this game, but the only one I can think of is the PS2 Saturn controller, and every online import store is out of them.

[Battlesmurf]

I'm going to have to look for that superlay myself here in a sec

[nZero]

I've cleared the PS2 version with a DualShock (1) and I've been to Lv6 using the keyboard on the PC version (since my gamepad randomly changes ID on every reboot). I wouldn't blame the controller.

Superplay is the second option under the Replay & Gallery entry from the main menu. It's broken into stages, I forget the unlock criteria but it's probably completion of the stage or previous stage.

[Frederik]

What's your definition of "finish the game"? 1CC? Or a set amount of continues? Just curious.

1cc (from the RIII score thread)

Touché! It´s not the kind of answer that is expected when talking to very new members.

[dave4shmups]

I've cleared the PS2 version with a DualShock (1) and I've been to Lv6 using the keyboard on the PC version (since my gamepad randomly changes ID on every reboot). I wouldn't blame the controller.

Superplay is the second option under the Replay & Gallery entry from the main menu. It's broken into stages, I forget the unlock criteria but it's probably completion of the stage or previous stage.

Thanks, I'll have to watch those! I'm not blaming the controller, just trying to figure out what will work best for me, personally.

[Deets]

Touché! It´s not the kind of answer that is expected when talking to very new members.

Joined: 12 Feb 2005

I used to post a lot more on the old shmups forum, haha.

[Baboo]

If you guys think the bullet speed is fast, wait till you play Raiden IV Original mode.

In Raiden III, the gameplay is more about tapping rather than moving from one end of the screen to the other...in fact once you the hang of going in between bullets (as opposed to moving as far away from them), the game is fairly easy. Aggression is key to completing the stages without bombs, try to destroy the enemy before it can shoot bullets out.

Raiden IV is insane. Granted, the ship is VERY fast, but the bullets are also tremendously fast. The enemies have much more hitpoints so no matter what you will get surrounded by bullets (akin to Raiden III hard difficulty except you now have to contend with super fast semi-unpredictable bullets). Some occasions require you to tap slowly, others require you to make sweeping moves. There's also the challenge of timing your flash shots (a new bonus feature).

There is a lot of room for error in Raiden III. However, in Raiden IV, once you stray a bit from your memorised positions, prepare to either use your bomb or pray to god your super fast reflexes can save you.

[Strider77]

Could the ship in Raiden III POSSIBLY be any slower?!...

yes..... it could.

[JusteZero]

If it was much faster I'd probably run into more bullets than I currently do.

I figure right now it moves fast enough that you still need quick reflexes to save your ass, which is the main reason I find it fun, even if I die way to much.