Ikaruga 360 reviews cropping up, achievement list leaked.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:52 pm

Kiken wrote:
Afterbirth wrote:I think it somehow looks more detailed in SD then HD.
Theres some detail lost in HD because of the way SD displays a picture - it naturally anti aliases the picture and has better contrast so small details tend look better.
I tend to agree. The HD visuals look smeary and just a tad out of focus. The 480p visuals of the DC rev through VGA look amazingly clean, sharp and refined.

I think the 480p 360 graphics suffer the same sort of smeary/focus issues too. Although it's been a while since I've played the DC version, I feel like there's some detail missing in the 360 graphics

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:13 am

I tend to agree. The HD visuals look smeary and just a tad out of focus. The 480p visuals of the DC rev through VGA look amazingly clean, sharp and refined.

LOL...... I have both and looked at em both the night i played them. If you say so. To me HD looked better. The DC more jagged. Both equally crisp it just that the edges are now much smoother b/c.... gasp, it's higher res, not blurry.

Well that depends on what you are playing it on tv wise, I'm talking real HD resolution, not the 360 720p to 1080p scaled down HD to 480p... that's not quite a fair comparison. niether would the DC scaled to HD 720p to 1080p.

Either way... the DC still looked great to. I have both I don't have to decide and don't think I'm biased, but I guess if I were really unbiased, I'd have to give myself the benefit of a doubt.

seiatsu · Post by **seiatsu** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:50 pm

I hate to say it but if the visuals look smeared, then chances are your displays are not calibrated properly (most people don't have their HD sets calibrated properly. Well, SD too but it's harder to notice). I would venture to guess that your brightness is too high or your contrast is too low (or possibly both) as that usually causes fast moving dark or light objects to smear or lose detail.

I have to go with strider777 and say it looks great.

As a side note, the guy who says he's going to put the
"glitches" in his review and then goes on to list a bunch of controller problems as said "glitches"...those are not glitches and not a product of Ikaruga. If you simply want to say that the 360 controllers d-pad isn't very good for this game, then so be it but glitches is not the case you are looking for.

BTW: anyone tried the analog stick...it actually works really nice with this game. Even while being rusty (having not played this game for ages), i am able to do some of the chaining that requires more precision control.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:14 pm

I never listed the controller glitches as Ikargua glitches at all. I was answering two posts and you seem to have misinterpreted them.

seiatsu · Post by **seiatsu** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:19 pm

yes, i did misinterpret them. didn't realise that the first sentence was someone elses statement.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:55 pm

No worries mate. My reviews now in the review section BTW - the same as the one i'll post at Darkzero.
Its aimed a n00bs so you probably won't learn anything new - it just explains the concepts and my love for the title and genre.

I'm trying to review as many new shumps as i can over there to entice new people.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:27 pm

Afterbirth wrote:I must admit this is not my favorite game really.

Afterbirth wrote:Its aimed a n00bs so you probably won't learn anything new - it just explains the concepts and my love for the title and genre.

?????

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:15 pm

seiatsu wrote:I hate to say it but if the visuals look smeared, then chances are your displays are not calibrated properly (most people don't have their HD sets calibrated properly.

That is entirely possible. My bro's set might not be calibrated properly.. he said he would mess with the settings next time I visited.

Afterbirth · Post by **Afterbirth** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:40 pm

?????

Well although i'm rather shite at the whole thing that doesn't mean i don't respect the soul thats gone into its making or don't understand the superb concepts at work.
The countless playtesting at Treasure must have done in order to work out what scoring potentials were available, the use of orchestral music, the graphical details. You don't see them in many shmups and despite only being programmed by 4 people - its clear by the production values Treasure have devoted much of their cash into this title.

Theres a huge difference between attack patterns that are thrown at you for the sake of it, and those done so you can maximise a score but thats just one part of this title.

I just can't say its shit because i'm not good because its bloody well is. I've just not attained the same level as some of you and because the game was already so established (i never played my GC version much) I will never reach the top hi score tables.

I just can't devote that kind of time. I prefered Omega V in this repect as everyone learnt the game from scratch so you almost feel part of a Borg like collective.

-Roufuss- · Post by **-Roufuss-** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:58 pm

This is my first time really playing Ikaruga, which is kind of sad because I owned it for both Dreamcast AND Gamecube and never had the time to put into it. I since sold both of those (:( ), and really wanted to check this game out.

While I like it and think it's decent, I've noticed that the few people on ym friend's list who bought the game are horrible at it... absolutely horrible. I scored more on the first segment of stage 1, before it even says stage 1, that some of these people scored throughout most of stage 1 and 2! I'm not trying to make myself sound awesome at the game or anything, I've only got 2.75 million and can't finish level 2, but it just seemed like no one was really trying. According to the leaderboards I was number 699 overall on Normal and I can't even finish level 2 (without credit feeding)?

Maybe it's that they aren't taking the time to learn the scoring system, or people are just credit feeding their way through this, but I guess what it shows me is that most regular gamers want instant gratification for their games, and don't want to take the time to learn something and really devote a lot of time to it unless they are seeing instant results.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:11 pm

It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people who downloaded it/payed for it are completely oblivious to the chaining system. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because most people probably don't expect any more depth from a shmup than simply having to destroy things. After all, the chaining is only really a device for better scores, and just completing Ikaruga is enough of a challenge for most people.

-Roufuss- · Post by **-Roufuss-** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:23 pm

bcass wrote:It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people who downloaded it/payed for it are completely oblivious to the chaining system. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, because most people probably don't expect any more depth from a shmup than simply having to destroy things. After all, the chaining is only really a device for better scores, and just completing Ikaruga is enough of a challenge for most people.

I've also noticed there aren't a lot of people on the leaderboard, and that Ikaruga disables the leaderboard function if you use more than one credit (and I think more than two lives, but that I'm not sure of). I see your point though, and I never thought of it that way, that most people look at shmups and go "The object is to blow everything up, that's it!".

I will be honest, before Ikaruga, I used to credit feed the shmups I own and still had a great time with them, and when I did that on Ikaruga, and looked at my score on the leaderboard, it suddenly clicked that there was a whole other dimension to these games than what I originally thought. The first time I broke over a million before the first stage boss, and chained over 60 things, that was a huge feat for me, and even though it's small compared to the guys who can chain the entire level and every enemy, I still felt more accomplished than I had in any other recent game.

Etrian · Post by **Etrian** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:27 pm

I don't think scoring in Ikaruga, or any shmup really, is important unless you can fluently 1cc the game. Then it's your choice.

Has anyone bought the Ikaruga 360 theme? I saw it, it looks nice, but I'm not sure if I'll buy it.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:27 pm

Achievement is all relative to how much time you can afford to spend on the games. I think for most people, just completing the game would be a big achievement.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:28 pm

Etrian wrote:Has anyone bought the Ikaruga 360 theme? I saw it, it looks nice, but I'm not sure if I'll buy it.

Yep, I bought the theme, and it's lovelly, except maybe the background on the sub-blade (the one that appears when you press the green XBox button), I think it should have been slightly more transparent as it clashes with the forground text a bit.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:33 am

http://kotaku.com/380686/top-rated-ikar ... s-horrible

http://blog.livedoor.jp/kingoro58k/

http://www.super-play.co.uk/forum/index ... 5#msg25835

d'oh, old news. sorry.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:56 pm

Another thing recently discovered about the XBLA version:

You can attack Buppousou's weak-points before the bumpers close for the first time (the targets are inactive until after the first closure in all other versions of the game). What this means is that you can get boss destruction times of over 90.

ktownhero · Post by **ktownhero** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:12 pm

zakk wrote:
Kiken wrote:
Afterbirth wrote:I think it somehow looks more detailed in SD then HD.
Theres some detail lost in HD because of the way SD displays a picture - it naturally anti aliases the picture and has better contrast so small details tend look better.
I tend to agree. The HD visuals look smeary and just a tad out of focus. The 480p visuals of the DC rev through VGA look amazingly clean, sharp and refined.
I think the 480p 360 graphics suffer the same sort of smeary/focus issues too. Although it's been a while since I've played the DC version, I feel like there's some detail missing in the 360 graphics

This version looks every bit as crisp as the DC version Tated in VGA to me. Maybe you guys need better TVs...

ktownhero · Post by **ktownhero** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:22 pm

Kiken wrote:
yyr wrote:
Kiken wrote:Also... the game will occasionally decide to just end your play-through after you've completed a chapter. The game wouldn't let me past chapter 1 for the first four plays... and MrMonkeyMan reports that the game was just ending for him after chapter 3.
Make sure when starting a new game that "Chapter" is set to "All." If it isn't, you'll play the selected chapter, and then the game will end. This is by design.
I assure you, it was set to ALL. In fact, my brother and I switched it back and forth several times and got the same result. And again, MMM played through to chapter 3 and then the game decided it didn't want him to play chapter 4.

Also, Franz captured quite an interesting chapter 4 glitch... the game decided not to load his player craft... so the stage just played itself.

This is really odd, I have not experienced it. The only thing I can think that it might be is you losing your net connection during the game? Because leaderboard registration requires an active connection to Xbox Live (it warns you that your score will not register if you are offline), it might be a security feature to stop somebody's game if they drop their net connection while playing.

I don't *know* this, just throwing it out there as a possibility.

Square King · Post by **Square King** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:27 pm

Good lord...guess we'll just have to wait on a patch.

ktownhero · Post by **ktownhero** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:31 pm

What makes you guys inclined to feel like those "changes" were accidental? There's no way that the reversal of Shigi was an accident, it was done on purpose. I'm not enough of an expert on Ch 4 to understand the issues with missile locking, but maybe Treasure just decided to tweak the game a little??? These don't sound like things that are "broken" they just sound like things that might throw a wrench into the game plan of the super players. Uh oh, might have to change up your tactics!!! People that never "mastered" the original ports would never even know the difference.

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:48 pm

Turrican wrote:http://kotaku.com/380686/top-rated-ikar ... s-horrible

http://blog.livedoor.jp/kingoro58k/

http://www.super-play.co.uk/forum/index ... 5#msg25835

d'oh, old news. sorry.

Yeah, I saw that. Kinda pathetic.

I understand the reasoning behind the "outrage". It's just a part of the esoteric nature of shmups and shmup fans. But it's not a huge change, it's not something you can't adapt to. So it's not something for people to get worked up on.

This version looks every bit as crisp as the DC version Tated in VGA to me. Maybe you guys need better TVs...

Seconded. My TV has artifacting on some cable shows, but on videogames it's perfect. Ikaruga looks great.

One of the things that I enjoyed about Dot Eater. Slightly more time to take in the enemy and world design.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:45 pm

ktownhero wrote:What makes you guys inclined to feel like those "changes" were accidental? There's no way that the reversal of Shigi was an accident, it was done on purpose.

Honestly, this I don't have a problem with. It's annoying, sure... but not game breaking. It simply requires a change in tactics.

ktownhero wrote: I'm not enough of an expert on Ch 4 to understand the issues with missile locking, but maybe Treasure just decided to tweak the game a little???

The wind-laser lock-on errors during the preface of chapter 4 are definitely broken. There's very little room for alternative technique there... not to mention that if you watch several of the replays closely... you can even see the wind-lasers occasionally aiming correctly but simply not make contact. This is really in the same league as the PAL GC Eboshidori lock-on glitch. And nobody in their right mind considered that a "feature" when it was discovered.

ktownhero · Post by **ktownhero** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:51 pm

Kiken wrote:The wind-laser lock-on errors during the preface of chapter 4 are definitely broken. There's very little room for alternative technique there... not to mention that if you watch several of the replays closely... you can even see the wind-lasers occasionally aiming correctly but simply not make contact. This is really in the same league as the PAL GC Eboshidori lock-on glitch. And nobody in their right mind considered that a "feature" when it was discovered.

Ah, well that stinks. Hopefully they'll patch it up though.

Scarf · Post by **Scarf** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:17 pm

Can anyone translate the problems mentioned in this Japanese guy's blog?

Found this in the Kotaku comments:

"The problem with this is not about if there are changes, the real deal if this makes the game broken, he says that is mostly impossible to make perfect chain on stage 4 in easy because the lasers doesnt get to all the enemies so, if that really true, you cant make a "full chain" in that stage... and thats a broken game for me, even if i will never do something like that."

If true, Treasure really screwed up this time.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:31 pm

Kiken wrote: The wind-laser lock-on errors during the preface of chapter 4 are definitely broken. There's very little room for alternative technique there... not to mention that if you watch several of the replays closely... you can even see the wind-lasers occasionally aiming correctly but simply not make contact. This is really in the same league as the PAL GC Eboshidori lock-on glitch. And nobody in their right mind considered that a "feature" when it was discovered.

I think I've seen the aim+no contact thing elsewhere. I had a horrible time recreating my old chain of the 4 Torafuzuku in stage 1 (right after the position shifting Utatsugumi), my lasers would randomly take out one of the black Utatsugumi before the white Tora died. I finally mostly got it by getting REALLY close to the white Tora before releasing.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:23 pm

That stage 4 homing missile glitch needs fixing, but the rest of the changes I could live with. More than all that though, the 2-player co-op desperately needs fixing, it's absolutely 100% broken.

Etrian · Post by **Etrian** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:39 am

How to you view replays in this game (not player profiles)?

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:03 am

Etrian wrote:How to you view replays in this game (not player profiles)?

Select anyone in the top 100 of a leaderboard and it'll ask if you want to download the replay or view the profile.

The scores with replays have a little paperclip looking icon.

Etrian · Post by **Etrian** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 4:05 am

zakk wrote:
Etrian wrote:How to you view replays in this game (not player profiles)?
Select anyone in the top 100 of a leaderboard and it'll ask if you want to download the replay or view the profile.

The scores with replays have a little paperclip looking icon.

That doesn't work. I pressed A on Kingoro68k and it brought up his profile.