Played Royal Edoma?

[captain ahar]

just saw this on shootthecore. ma i just say it looks frickin nuts. impressions please (as i cannot download and play it myself!

screenies for the curious (from homepage)

[Tomtom]

Holy crap, it's like Viewpoint meets Psyvariar. I think I'll try it out, thanks for the heads up.

EDIT: Well, I tried it out. It's a well-made game with some cool ideas, I think. It doesn't run at full speed on my computer, though. Oh, and it's only one level, unfortunately.

[postman]

I really like it so far.......only played up to the level 1 boss, but you're right, it's like a manic version of Viewpoint.

It gets hard to dodge since the shots can be spaced very close together, however it allows for grazing so it is a bit forgiving.......lots of wall dodging involved in RE too, and enemies hiding behind walls. Overall I say it's at least worth the demo download......

[it290]

Looks pretty sweet, but man, I can't imagine dodging all those bullets in an isometric game. I have a hard enough time judging my ship position in Viewpoint.

[Ganelon]

Looks pretty sweet, but man, I can't imagine dodging all those bullets in an isometric game. I have a hard enough time judging my ship position in Viewpoint.

Yeah, is there really any point to the isometry besides a different perspective? So you can hide behind the pillars to shield yourself from bullets? They already block off enough of the screen from view, which is a big no-no...

[dave4shmups]

I don't know about that-from those screenshots it looks like more then enough of the screen is in view. People complain about the same thing in the US version of The Raiden Project, but it's not a problem because the enemies you can't see can't shoot you either. They probably did the isometric thing to make the gameplay somewhat like Viewpoint.

I'll try 'er out as well, but this is just one good example of why Sega should have redone more of their old arcade hits in the PS2 Sega Ages series. They could've redone Zaxxon and created the isometric shmup to end all isometric shmups, IMO.

[dave4shmups]

Oh great, the links down! Does anyone have the demo for this game that they could send me-or is there anywhere else to download it?

[Ganelon]

Err, if you're standing right behind or under the pillar that's jutting out, how will you dodge bullets (considering this game looks like a manic)? Yeah, there's plenty of space left but I just think that's needless obstruction. IIRC, Zaxxon and Viewpoint never had any form of obstruction.

I complain about the same in Bomberman World where some stages have large trees or poles where you can place invisible bombs.

[dave4shmups]

Good points Ganelon. Too bad the link's down to this game.

[it290]

Viewpoint did have pillars that moved up and down as well as other blockades.

[Dandy J]

Aw man, this looks awesome! Hope the link goes back up soon...

[Ganelon]

Viewpoint did have pillars that moved up and down as well as other blockades.

Err, those didn't block your view did they? Or if so, there weren't enemies firing a lot of shots at you concurrently was there? I don't remember ever hating invisible bullets in Viewpoint but the last I played was about 10 years ago so I could be wrong.

[it290]

Nope, they didn't block your view, but they did nullify bullets.

[piyo]

impressions please (as i cannot download and play it myself!

I actually bought the game. It was 1500 yen. I will comment on it here (instead of just linking to my gaming log post):

Royal Edoma Engine is ... the "cat's meow." This game has beautiful bullet patterns, 75 fps or 60 fps wicked crisp VGA graphics and backgrounds. It's fun, well sometimes. Too bad the game is damn hard. This is a 5 stage game. There's "novice", "advanced" and "maniac" difficulty, no "normal". I first played on "advanced". It's like jumping onto level 3 of Mushihime-sama. I guess that's the reason why they give you a life bar! They don't mention, however, that if you get hit by a cluster of bullets, your ship is rendered inoperable for a sickening moment. I don't remember the last time I played a shmup that had both of these qualities. I don't like this. Another game play element is that your second button just doesn't work until you have collected enough sushi (yes sushi). Once you got enough, it acts as a bomb and as a life replenisher. You will need the latter just to get past sub-bosses in later stages.

Another thing is that at 75 fps, the game is really faster than 60 fps. Why is that? Originally the video settings were 60 fps and vsync on. The corresponded to 75 fps in the status fps. Then I set the video settings to 60 fps and vsync off/timer on. This made the game 60 fps and a lot more playable. I did beat "novice" at 75 fps, though hehe. That was no walk in the park, I tell you.

This game is hard because of the isometric "quarter view", but also because they throw a lot more bullets at you than in a regular danmaku game. I suppose with a life bar, it's your job to find the path of least resistance, instead of no resistance, because there is sometimes no way through without hitting a bullet wall. Control is actually normal orientation, press up to move up, not the diagonal up. With that I could quickly get into the game.

Replays can be saved. The replay data shows all the attemps at one stage. If you die, and then if you clear, then you get to see both of the replays.

This is a great PC shmup, cute characters with no nonsense (sometimes impossible?) bullet patterns, but I recommend it for advanced players only. It make me want to beat my head into a pillow.

I forgot to mention it's fast. Really fast. This is the reason why you bought a (Pentium 4 3.x) fast computer.

Just in case you want to purchase it: Here's a Japanese store that has it. But I didn't buy it here.
---
piyo

[the2bears]

A nice game, great production values. But that perspective... hard as can be for me. It'd take some practise to get good at figuring out exactly where the bullets are going.

Bill

[Tychom]

Played Royal Edoma?

Yep, and it's further proof in my mind that isometric shooters just do not work. Shame as I reckon I'd really enjoy it if it played horizontally or vertically.