Souky bores me D:

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:43 am

Got Souky Otokuyo today for the Saturn...WTF! I feel no love, no emotion, no nothing from what I feel while playing Battle Garegga! The graphics are merely OK, the music is lame, the game itself is not even intense. I doubt I was spoiled by Garegga too, because I have a feeling I'd feel the same way about Souky if I had not played Garegga (run-on sentence, whoo).

Just a dull game with no life. I'd much rather have liked it if Armed Police Batrider had been ported than this meh-ish game

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:49 am

I'm guessing you only like manic shmups?

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:55 am

Really? Man, I could not disagree more.

I love the visuals, well detailed sprites but semi rendered. Also, I love the booming music in stage 2 as you descend through the clouds and then later fight that crazy flame throwing tank while scraping the ground. Beautiful. Yeah, I still like Garegga better but it's close I tell ya. Give it more time, I think you'll warm up to it after awhile. If given a choice, I'd much rather play Souky than say, Mars Matrix (another fave) which is way more manic.

5 years ago when I got my modded Saturn and played Souky and Radiant for the first time, I liked both a lot. My brother asked to take both for a spin, first Radiant, then Souky while I browsed the old forum. I asked him which he liked best and while playing Souky he said: "I don't know, I think you have a couple of real winners here."

Just though that was an additional random, yet interesting take on two very different shooters.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:00 am

tehkao wrote:I'm guessing you only like manic shmups?

No, just ones that are good

While playing Souky, I was thinking to myself "Man, even I like Gekirindan more than this."

Yeah, I'll definitely give it more time, it's just so bad to see that a game I've wanted to play for well over a year sucks so hard

I dunno Kosh, everything about this game just seems so generic to me...graphics, music, they didn't even do that lock-on system a la Rayforce very well, either.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:04 am

Are you playing it for score? That's what makes it a blast.

Green ship is where it's at BTW.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:08 am

I'd probably agree to some extent that the game's look is "generic," in that it's the same ol' spaceships and tanks and stuff that you've seen before for the most part, but in spite of that I think the game looks very nice, and that the music fits it well. I see it as a very "serious" shmup, for lack of a better word, in that it basically tells you "I am making no attempt whatsoever to be cute or funny or shocking or anything else: you will play me, you will fly over cities and planets, you will see stuff shooting at you, and you will blow said stuff up."

The rank system is rather "misguided" in that it renders your main gun mostly useless if you try to take advantage of it, and is more or less required in order to take advantage of the disproportionately large extra bomb bonus, but using the "web" is neat to score with, since you must learn to lock onto lots of stuff at once or you'll actually lose some points, not to mention that bombing stuff sacrifices even more. I persoanlly don't think of it as "second only to Silvergun" or whatever, but especially seeing as it's rather inexpensive to get, methinks it's worth the 30 bucks or so that you'll pay for it.

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:22 am

It's just a really fun shmup with awesome music that grows on you.

I've played a lots of hmups that look better or are "deeper", but there isn't many that are as "fun" and easy to pick up and play as Souky.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:25 am

tehkao wrote:I'm guessing you only like manic shmups?

next time, dont.

as for the topic, it gets my seal of disagreement, souky feels, looks, plays and sounds great, and thats just judging from the watered down PSX version that i played to death.
(yes dylan, i plan on getting it once i have a sat, and a job :p)

if you expected battle garegga 2, i can understand you being disappointed, tho, its not quite simmilar, but just because its made by the same company, does it have to o_O?

as for the rank and complaints about main weapons, well, since the main shot is so ridiculously unerpowered compared to the web attacks, why does it matter? raizing cleanly shows they want you to use the web in that game, and if you dont like it, its better to play a different game i guess.
note also that i didnt play for score back then (and didnt know how to), i had no clue that something such as rank existed, and still used the web exclusively.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:26 am

tehkao wrote:I'm guessing you only like manic shmups?

Souky is manic. The first level is somewhat easier on you, but just wait until the middle of the game. Score play is the key to enjoying it- especially making sure to get more lock-ons.

LoneSage- Give Souky a bit more time and it may grow on you.

Radiant Silvergun is very good, but Souky is just more to my liking.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:40 am

Souky, like a lot of Raizing's stuff, is one of those great empowerment shooters where once you get it down you feel invincible. A lot of this has to do with the multi-sectioned bosses who you can pick apart piece by piece. Knocking around that giant bastard that pops up from behind the asteroid is one of the all-time great boss battles. For beginners I think the green ship is a great choice as it has overpowered main guns that let you play it like a more traditional shmup as opposed to having to focus on the web. I tend to think of this game as a sort of Layer Section Gaiden.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:41 am

@Lonesage: remember to bump up the difficulty a notch or two. The Saturn default is 4, but the Arcade default is 6 if I remember correctly.

BTW, use the red ship and the pinpoint web. They rule. I used 'em to do my Souky 13 million clear *Brag mode off*.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:43 am

LoneSage wrote:I dunno Kosh, everything about this game just seems so generic to me...graphics, music, they didn't even do that lock-on system a la Rayforce very well, either.

That does it. You're fired. Well, at least you're suspended from the forum without pay.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:45 am

The vagrant wrote:as for the rank and complaints about main weapons, well, since the main shot is so ridiculously unerpowered compared to the web attacks, why does it matter?

Not to start a big ugly debate about this, but this has been brought up before...I personally don't feel that the gun is too wimpy to be useful, especially if you power it up, and moreso since there's a delay before most lock-on weapons hit the enemy, which can give them an opportunity to squeeze off another round of shots or outright crash into you. The thing is, the rank system makes the gun nearly useless, since grabbing powerups for it 1) increases the rank, and 2) makes bombs appear less often, which a) gives you fewer opportunities to save your butt, and b) makes it much more difficult to get the huge extra bomb bonuses. However, even if I agreed with you that the gun was useless to begin with, then why did Raizing bother putting it there, along with items to power it up, if they only wanted you to use the lock-on anyway?

As always, to each his own, but even Raizing fans (I wouldn't really consider myself one, at least not as much as many others) consider Souky's rank system to be rather skewed.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:47 am

Dylan1CC wrote:
LoneSage wrote:I dunno Kosh, everything about this game just seems so generic to me...graphics, music, they didn't even do that lock-on system a la Rayforce very well, either.
That does it. You're fired. Well, at least you're suspended from the forum without pay.

are you serious? You´re banning him for THAT sentence?

IlMrm · Post by **IlMrm** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:07 am

Nah, it's just Dylan's "The Donald" impression.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:11 am

I didn't like it either. And once I found out how to play it I liked it even less.

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 7:13 am

Do u guys like the music at least?

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:36 am

I love the music in Souky. I think it's some one of Manabu Namiki's finest work to date.

Diabollokus · Post by **Diabollokus** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:38 am

Music wise one of the best games ever!

I love the oil ocean, in top 10 shmup stages thats up there with ikaruga stage 4.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:55 am

I absolutly love this game, I've had it for about 4 months and it just keeps getting better. After a bit guidance I was actually able to improve my score by 4 million points in ONE day, from 5 million to 9 million! I've yet to put the 9 million score in the high score table but i'l do it sometime today.... Its an absolute blast to play once you figure out some of the harder levels such as the 5th. And i'm gettin there with the 6th... Music wise its excellent, graphics wise I love it and replaywise? Well am still playing it!

edit: and up until last year I'd been tending towards the prettier more advanced games of this generation, and now souky is taking up all my time it just goes to show...

show what exactly uhh... i'm not quite sure. Definetly great game though

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:31 pm

Souky is among my top 3 favorite games.
I prefer to turn the music off so that I can hear its excellent sound effects. Doing so gives the game an excellent old-school feel.

OmegaFlareX · Post by **OmegaFlareX** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:42 pm

cigsthecat wrote:I didn't like it either. And once I found out how to play it I liked it even less.

Seconded. Stage 3 is pretty cool, though.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:52 pm

Hmm, I love souky, but I can also understand--if you are coming from Garegga, Souky may at first seem unimpressive. I do not like how you must more or less ignore the main weapon and focus only on the lock on.

And the first level is boring (can be said of many shmups though.)

Give it more time and don't associate it with Garegga, it is an altogether different kind of game.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:55 pm

Level 5 is the shiznizz

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 1:11 pm

CMoon wrote:And the first level is boring (can be said of many shmups though.)

I was just thinking the very same thing, though I guess Souky's first level is boring compared to the levels to come, not compared to first levels of other games.

Darkcomet72 · Post by **Darkcomet72** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:12 pm

Ord wrote:I love the music in Souky. I think it's some one of Manabu Namiki's finest work to date.

???

The music was done by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Stage 1's music, I believe, was done by Namiki, though.

MNK · Post by **MNK** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:28 pm

Great game. The music on stage 3 is almost like an outtake from RSG.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 5:28 pm

It was one of my first imports for my beloved psx and when I first played it I loved it...I traded it to BIG awhile ago.

Then more recently beatifik gave me a copy free with my purchase of gunbird 2 cos he's a cool guy. For some reason I can't get into it anymore, I guess cause I've played a lot more shmups since I first got it.

Rastan78 · Post by **Rastan78** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:47 pm

Ord wrote:I love the music in Souky. I think it's some one of Manabu Namiki's finest work to date.

I think Hitoshi Sakimoto did the music on this one while Namiki did sound effects. Sakimoto likes that booming orchestral type of sound also heard on Radiant Silvergun.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 7:15 pm

raiden wrote:
Dylan1CC wrote:
LoneSage wrote:I dunno Kosh, everything about this game just seems so generic to me...graphics, music, they didn't even do that lock-on system a la Rayforce very well, either.
That does it. You're fired. Well, at least you're suspended from the forum without pay.
are you serious? You´re banning him for THAT sentence?

IlMrm wrote:Nah, it's just Dylan's "The Donald" impression.

Nah, not really a Donald impression so much as, this is weird I know, but sometimes I view the forum as an "unofficial" office/workplace with a sitcom atmosphere. Think Shmups forum meets Newsradio. haha

MovingTarget wrote:Level 5 is the shiznizz

Agreed, I love fighting all those heavy cruisers and batteries while flying high above Mars or whatever planet it is. It's really fun to use the bomb on this stagemore than any other.