Souky bores me D:

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:03 pm

I think you'll find thats level 6... but that level is equally fun

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:38 pm

Burn Heretic

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 8:51 pm

MovingTarget wrote:I think you'll find thats level 6... but that level is equally fun

D'oh. My bad.

EDIT: Waitaminnit. Isn't stage 3 the asteroid field, then stage 4 the dock/ocean stage, then 5 would be Mars with the last jumbo carrier/boss the final "level" am I correct?

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:23 pm

Nope you need to push your stages forward by 1, stage 3 is the descending thru the clouds stage with the amazing music, stage 4 is the asteroid field.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 9:41 pm

tehkao wrote:Nope you need to push your stages forward by 1, stage 3 is the descending thru the clouds stage with the amazing music, stage 4 is the asteroid field.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the second stage with the space station fight with the big satellite boss at the end. I love locking onto that thing's rotating cannons.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:02 pm

Ok so theres three people posted their scores in the souky high score thread... Where the hell is everyone elses? Does it really matter if your not at the top? I sure as hell dont care as long as am on the thing. Surely you should be posting your high scores for every shmup you got for the sake of this site.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:05 pm

Hmmm, I need to check my Souky scores again. Been months since I played it.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:12 pm

Thats almost the spirit!

jp · Post by jp » Sat Apr 16, 2005 10:43 pm

I posted my score. Though I haven't been playing too many videogames as of late... meh.

At any rate, I love Souky. The music is fantastic, the bosses are amazing, the control is spot on, and I just found it to be an overall enjoyable experience. I especially love the final boss and the music during the "hallway" leading up to it. Creepy shit.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:08 pm

MovingTarget wrote:Thats almost the spirit!

Heh, sorry MT (can I call u MT for short?), I'm too busy scoring in Batsugan right now. It and Megaman anniversary pack are eating up all my time. But once I get a free hand I will dive back into Souky scoring again. 'Bout time I got some extra bombs and wreaked some havoc.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:11 pm

BatsuGUN fekker

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:14 pm

MovingTarget wrote:Ok so theres three people posted their scores in the souky high score thread... Where the hell is everyone elses? Does it really matter if your not at the top?

I might be able to contribute a BASE (BulletMagnet Atrocious Score Entry) to the cause somewhere down the line.

Heh heh, All My BASE Are Belong to Your High Score Threads...

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:19 pm

Neon wrote:BatsuGUN fekker

Seriously though, now that I've gotten into Batsugan this week I can't stop. It's nice to play a straightforword scoring game that is easy to get into but at the same time is subtly deep. IE: you can just mow down enemies for score sure, but you need to make careful use of bombs and find extra score elements like the ship on the hangar bay, the pigs, ect. So i's like a manic shooter and a fun scavenger hunt all in one.

Wow, now I really don't feel like playing Souky for awhile.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 12:50 am

Seriously though, now that I've gotten into Batsugan this week

Take another look at the cover...or title screen if you warezed it. Batsuguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun with a U.

[/stickler for a tickler]

I better stop before Thunderforce cuts out my posts and starts a new thread in OT as to the spelling of Batsugun

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 1:29 am

Neon wrote:
Seriously though, now that I've gotten into Batsugan this week
Take another look at the cover...or title screen if you warezed it. Batsuguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun with a U.

[/stickler for a tickler]

I better stop before Thunderforce cuts out my posts and starts a new thread in OT as to the spelling of Batsugun

Ah, now I get it.

Sorry.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 1:43 am

lol now i finally get just how funny that really was

Anyway about souky, I was originally thinking bleh bleh bleh... but then i though bleh bleh bleh... and bleh bleh bleh bleh... and so yea finally... thats why this is my favourite game right now

(thought I'd get right to the point)

LASERBEAST · Post by **LASERBEAST** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 1:59 am

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

Manbu Namiki did not do the soundtrack to Souky. His official website credits him with doing the sound effects and the sound porting, but not the actual music. Hitoshi Sakimoto (Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics) is the one who made the music.

Edit: Erm... yeah, what Rastan78 said.

Darkcomet72 · Post by **Darkcomet72** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:10 am

LASERBEAST wrote:
Ord wrote:I love the music in Souky. I think it's some one of Manabu Namiki's finest work to date.
Manbu Namiki did not do the soundtrack to Souky. His official website credits him with doing the sound effects and the sound porting, but not the actual music. Hitoshi Sakimoto (Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics) is the one who made the music.

Edit: Erm... yeah, what Rastan78 said.

Read what I said three posts before what Rastan78 said.

LASERBEAST · Post by **LASERBEAST** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:15 am

HAH!

Okay, what DARKCOMET72 said. Though mine gave concrete evidence and was THEREFORE SUPERIOR!

Darkcomet72 wrote:
LASERBEAST wrote:
Ord wrote:I love the music in Souky. I think it's some one of Manabu Namiki's finest work to date.
Manbu Namiki did not do the soundtrack to Souky. His official website credits him with doing the sound effects and the sound porting, but not the actual music. Hitoshi Sakimoto (Radiant Silvergun, Final Fantasy Tactics) is the one who made the music.

Edit: Erm... yeah, what Rastan78 said.

Read what I said three posts before what Rastan78 said.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:58 am

This thread prompted me to go pop Souky into my Saturn, have it fresh in my mind before I weighed in with my opinions.

I bought three games to start off my Saturn collection: DonPachi, DoDonPachi, and Soukyugurentai. I used Souky as the maiden voyage of my Saturn, mainly because I had been able to try out DP and DDP in MAME. I was impressed. It was a great game, and a blast to play. And yet, something was amiss. It wasn't as straight forward as it seemed.

I was new to shmups (this was about the fourth shmup I had bought), and soon I discovered what was "wrong": rank. Fucking rank, fucking Raizing rank. I hate it. It ruins great games. Because Raizing made some great games.

During my time just spent with Souky, I was absolutely infuriated. Finally, I said fuck it, and played it "wrong," the way a normal, sane person would design a game to be played. And it was blissful. The levels are well designed, and the boss are entertaining. Everything seems in place. But you can't just ignore rank. Rank permeates every modicum of a Raizing game, it's inescapable.

Raizing games are sadistic. Truly great shmups allow room for personal taste, giving the player the leeway to play the game according to their own personal style. But not Raizing games. You have to play it their way. With their fucking asinine, arbitrary rules. Don't kill the enemies. Don't fire. Kill yourself. That's not how a shmup should be played, and that's not how I'm going to play. But when I try and ignore their rules, they smack me silly. They punish me.

And I'm a shmupper, I know, I should relish punishment. We're all a little masochistic, right? But I want to be punished for the right reasons. I want to be punished because the game is hard as nails, and I'm not good enough. And obviously any game will have a particular, ideal way to get through certain situations, but they shouldn't be set in stone. I don't mind normal rank, that makes some sick kind of sense. But what Raizing does is just awful.

I loved Soukyugurentai when I first played it. It was once one of my favorite games. Then I found out about the rank. Easily the worst rank ever. If there were just some way to play Raizing's games without rank systems, I would embrace them whole heartedly.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 3:13 am

I've been playing games almost my entire life (since 1978) and I never noticed a "rank". Even with countless 1CC of many games.
The only game that has a noticable rank to me, is Strikers 1945 PLus. I can notice the difference between grabbing every powerup vs. only sticking with two. Still, even when played that way, there isn't really much difference. (imo)

BTW: I like Souky.

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 3:58 am

Some people love it. Some people hate it. It's just one of those kinds of games. Raizing have a knack of making games like this

(Being the Raizing fanboy I am, I love it to death.)

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:03 am

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:I've been playing games almost my entire life (since 1978) and I never noticed a "rank". Even with countless 1CC of many games.
The only game that has a noticable rank to me, is Strikers 1945 PLus. I can notice the difference between grabbing every powerup vs. only sticking with two. Still, even when played that way, there isn't really much difference. (imo)

BTW: I like Souky.

So Twitch, maybe I'm over reading what you are saying here but are you saying you have been able to beat some Raizing games like Souky or even (wishful thinking i know) Garegga paying little/no attention to the rank?

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 7:35 am

Nah, not those games. But when I was really playing Souky and Garegga, I didn't really notice a "rank", even when shooting everything and grabbing all powerups.
I guess maybe, if I played the games in a more "conservative" way, maybe then I would see what the big deal is.
If my memory is correct, I was getting up to stage 5 in Garegga (lightning backround) by grabbing and shooting everything on site.
I haven't played either game in quite some time though.

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:16 am

I have no frickin idea what the hell "rank" is, and I hope I never find out.

Ignorance is bliss.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:02 am

I actually enjoy the way the game forces you to play. Even then though its not really forcing you into playing that way, if you ever manage to 1 cc the game you can then experiment using more of the fully powered up guns(which are powerfull and usefull) and deal with what the rank throws at you. I have to admit the rank doesnt seem all that extreme to me, I've only noticed more simultaneous attacks with the bosses and much less bombs. It'll make the game more challenging once your ready for it, I think net lasers are still vital but the guns can make some of the more chaotic sections a little easier.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:41 pm

alpha5099 wrote:If there were just some way to play Raizing's games without rank systems, I would embrace them whole heartedly.

I keep forgetting who it was on this forum who suggested, some time back, the concept of "optional rank," in which players could decide whether rank could be affected by specific player actions, or instead increased at a steady rate as in most "non-rank" games. I really wish that Raizing (and others) had included that option in some of their games, it would have made them infinitely more accessible and given them much more wide appeal without sacrificing what the "hardcore" players like so much about them.

To Raizing's credit, though, Souky's rank system is probably the worst one it ever came up with...Battle Bakraid's, for instance, is much more manageable, and doesn't try to overwhelm the player unless he tries to really take advantage of the multiplier and score very high, and as such more "casual" players don't have to worry so much about it.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 3:46 pm

BulletMagnet wrote: 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?

i disagree on that, the main shot can help you take out the smaller baddies faster in some instances, but in general, lock on is much more effective.
not only you can kill small baddies before they are on the same plane as you, but you can also take them out from miltiple directions, dont get me started about the score bonus when you use lock on.
there's not much delay between each web attack...you can do it over and over against bosses, and the damage you'd do with a powered up main weapon would be neglectable, the difference is just huge.
as for ot putting the main weapon if they emphasis you on using the web...convenience, the game without the main weapon would be jerky, just imagine it..
mars matrix, its better to use the sword 90% of the time, not only that but the sword isnt powered up, unlike the main weapon that you dont use much (if you want to play in the optimal way that is), still, the game without the main weapon would just be weird, and it would turn people off from it, when you put a quarter in a machine first time, you expect to press a button and shoot stuff.

though i should agree on something, souky main weapon is so badass looking that sometimes i was sad it was so useless.

MovingTarget · Post by **MovingTarget** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 3:56 pm

So whats wrong with using the main weapon for added challenge/fun? Or maybe starting out at a lower difficulty level and limiting the net for those rat bastard submarines and enemies like them. The green ship's fully powered up gun is very powerfull indeed

Maybe its also good practice as it lets you observe the bullet patterns more easily...

There is something about this game that is special, is it style? Dunno, but am lovin it anyway.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:08 pm

Didn't really notice the rank thing myself, although I haven't really played much of Raizing/Eighting's work extensively. Enjoyed Souky when I had my Saturn, but it wasn't a particular stand-out title on that machine IMO. Although I did think the level where you come out of the clouds onto the desert floor was fucking cool. The web thing just seemed a little... clunky I guess, as though it hadn't quite been implemented properly.