Cave's new shooter - character illustrations released

[Motorherp]

Cave goes pedo(er).



Originaly reported over at Kotaku -> http://kotaku.com/5039738/character-ill ... oting-game.

Yep, seems we'll be getting another arcade shooter from Cave -- and boy, do we love them Cave shmups. While the developer's last completely new shooter IP was the horizontal side-scroller, Golthic Lolita-infused Death Smiles, it's next bullet hell title is more moe. Otaku artist POP was wrangled in to provide the character illustration. Maybe in the vein of Cave's Muchi Muchi Pork, minus the buxom fat girls? Anyway, that's a sample right up there. Take a look. Cute!

Anyone got any more information on this game, this is the first I've heard about it.

[JoshF]

Well, since Cave's development is so streamlined I can see why they keep going for simplistic character designs instead of intricate mechanical designs. If they chose the latter it might have the consequence of extra time for non-donkey country graphics.

Originaly reported over at Kotaku

yep

[jonny5]

according to EOJ's post at cave-stg about this the game is called switch and it will be formally announced soon....and its a shooter.....unclear if it is arcade or cell phone drek

[Motorherp]

according to EOJ's post at cave-stg about this the game is called switch and it will be formally announced soon....and its a shooter.....unclear if it is arcade or cell phone drek

Ah cool. Seems I misread the article and thought it was called moe . Never mind, I'll update the title.

[jonny5]

meh...character design is just aesthetics.....

its the game play that really matters.....when i play the game im focused on the gameplay, not the characters and design.....to a degree of course

[Observer]

Cave is starting to disappoint me. Enough with the boobs, gothic lolitas, dolls and giant fugly transformable girls.

However, discussing this will prove to be futile. Three years ago the same issue occurred with Mushihime.

Seems that the day of the elaborate and over the top ships are long gone. Even G.Rev went from something like Border Down and Under Defeat to that... thing they are going to release soon. Like a cute Guwange and bullet hell. And only because it's G.Rev won't stop me from frowning at some the artworks.

I take a ThunderForce VI with all the so-called generic rock 'n' roll over these cute atrocities any day.

Of course, as said by others, it's how the game works and plays what matters, not the aesthetics... to some extent.

Plus I always get the fear that when they go straight for all this pink, fluff, childish crap they are just giving themselves the excuse to pull off shitty graphics and slack off. It's not the same to model those things than building a fully detailed planet-sized battleship with heaps of turrets and moving parts than making some green smiling goo spew bullets while emitting 'kawaii' noises.

ARGH. Let's hope it won't be like that.

[Nuke]

meh...character design is just aesthetics.....

its the game play that really matters.....when i play the game im focused on the gameplay, not the characters and design.....to a degree of course

Aesthetics can hurt even the best of games, especially when they're bordering on the tasteless/illegal (in Canada, Norway and Sweden at least).
And with the negative media coverage of those things that has been increasing in Japan over the last few years, It can hardly be beneficial for Cave and other companies that have jumped on the wagon. To cater towards fans of this fetish must be both damaging towards these companies and Otakudom in the long run, even though it's making teh bucks right now.

[honorless]

Last ones to find out about it: Kotaku.

Fixed.

...I think the characters are cute (same person did designs for Cave's cellphone ARPG, Loveny's Art Book, btw) but their outfits missing the sides so they're half-naked is bleh whatever.

Pretty much ambivalent anyway since I have a difficult time even imagining the fetishistic side. I want to know more about the game, more specifically whether it's even for arcades.
GP hypothesized that it might be Yagawa's next game on cave-stg; I'm a little incredulous at the supercutesy designs, but I think he might be on to something:

a.) AFAIK Cave has never bothered to create new characters for their cellphone shooting games—they just use their existing franchises
b.) Yagawa's games have been getting more ridiculous theme-wise at a much faster rate than Ikeda's have
c.) It's been a bit since Cave's last Raizing-esque shooter

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Yay new Cave game.

Ugh, new Cave game where the appeal is fetish nonsense that has absolutely no bearing on the game.

Guess you gotta make money some how, and the pr0n industry is still goin strong.

[Twiddle]

If it's Yagawa I'm all over it, average age of peripheral characters dropping exponentially regardless.

[captpain]

If I had to choose between badass robots in the future and anime babies in the present, I'd choose the badass robots in the future.

[Observer]

It's hard today, to play a bullet hell and not feel like a pedophile....

bwahaha. Otomedius, Illvelo, Mamoru-Kun, Radirgy, this new Cave game, Death Smiles (granted, the game is and looks amazing anyway =P), Mushihime (same deal)... Well, Progear was a sign with that little girl as a co-pilot. They've been sending us warning signs for a while.

What's wrong with a nice spaceship or fighter plane that shoot 42,000,000 missles per second?

Oh boy, finally some common sense. Sig-worthy. It's almost as if people are just giving up and saying: "Well, it's a shooter after all... *sigh*" NO. I don't give up! I don't want to 'pilot' a 4-6 year old little girl shouting aloud noisy catchphrases while blasting smiling goo and giant vegetables!

I usually avoid placing the art direction over the gameplay, scoring and such but sometimes there are limits...

However, it's not a thing strictly affecting shooters. Check animé and manga. So full of harem shit, high-school boredom sold as King Midas' gold and stuff like Sky Girls or Strike Witches. Girls with mechanical legs, animal ears and tails? Shooting down planes? What the flying fuck?

This is why I'm looking forward to TFVI... At least it seems to deliver the good ol' shootan missile barrage action that Macross got me addicted to.

...

Pedo Bear seal says it all.

[SockPuppetHyren]

However, it's not a thing strictly affecting shooters. Check animé and manga. So full of harem shit, high-school boredom sold as King Midas' gold and stuff like Sky Girls or Strike Witches. Girls with mechanical legs, animal ears and tails? Shooting down planes? What the flying fuck?

This is why I'm looking forward to TFVI... At least it seems to deliver the good ol' shootan missile barrage action that Macross got me addicted to.

...

Pedo Bear seal says it all.

And here I thought Gurren Lagann was marking a changing point in that regard. Oh well, guess I'm gonna stick to reading FoTNS and Shin Getter Robo again.

Really, I'm all for people using whatever theme they want, but CAVE is going WAY overboard with this. This seems almost as bad as Kodomo no Jikan. I'm really starting to miss CAVE's ships 'n planes. At the very least we have...what do we have?

[clp]

as much as i enjoy all styles of shooters it would be nice to see cave venture into somthing more serious for want of a better word , like garegga style in terms of more industrial with a real energy filled music score , or ideally a REAL esprade sequel.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Well, since Cave's development is so streamlined I can see why they keep going for simplistic character designs instead of intricate mechanical designs. If they chose the latter it might have the consequence of extra time for non-donkey country graphics.

Originaly reported over at Kotaku

yep

Take a look at the animated sprites that comprise the transformation of the end-stage bosses in Psikyo's Strikers 1999/Strikers 1945 Pt. III. The detailed and complex transformations of such bosses are nothing to sneeze at. ^_~

Does Cave not wish to go back to their former glory days and relish in such intricate and complex boss transformations? It is an artform that the Japanese have mastered...of course, it helps to have a good mecha designer at the helm to pull off such convincing and realistic mechanical conversions in the first place.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Zebra Airforce]

This seems almost as bad as Kodomo no Jikan

That show is crazy

NO. I don't give up! I don't want to 'pilot' a 4-6 year old little girl shouting aloud noisy catchphrases while blasting smiling goo and giant vegetables!

Yeah, a cute-em-up! Now you're talking.

[Observer]

Ok, I am relieved to see that people are actually agreeing that this recent cutesy trendy has reached a point where we have to say stop. Why? Well, because it's Cave we are talking about. Considering they are some of the people that keep the arcade shooters alive and are often considered as the greatest, I can only tremble as I see how the remaining developers step into the same trend.

I think images do wonders and some of the following will portray this change of paradigm:

http://www.w-canvas.com/main.html



I don't know where is the over-abundance of 'dark gritty space shooters'. Or 'dark/grim games'. Maybe some visual novels. Even Higurashi with all its violence still has the 'harem' (of psychos). Nippah, Nippah... Yeah, whatever the retarded catch phrase is, desu? All you will find is a lot of cutesy imagery with big eyes. Not bad per se, just, well, a bit overwhelming.

I wouldn't mind to see another one like this (sweet and swift lock-on system and missile barrages)



I'm finding hard to believe how people are able to take this. Sorry, I can't. Nobody dares to say the artwork is fucking gay? Ok, ok, after checking the thread, a lot of people actually said it. My bad.

Look, it even has the smiling goo I was talking about! The game might be good, play great, etc., etc., but that won't change the former fact. For god's sake, people, he's using square boots. With flowers!

But don't take anything of the above seriously. It's just silly blabbering and it would be lame to delete it all. It embodies a bad mood moment. Teaches me to think before posting.

edit1: cut some excesses and capitals, re-ordered sentences, etc.
edit2: more stuff kicked out. I checked more in-game footage of the G.Rev game and while the artwork still makes me cringe, the videos proved me wrong. But, come on, square boots =P

[captpain]

Fortunately, in shmups you don't really think too much about role-playing a character, you just scoot some sprites around the screen and blow stuff up. So alone, it's fine. That being said, my goodness, I would never play that in front of another human being (who doesn't post here...)

[GrimoreLibrarian]

TouHou lolis I have no problem with. Since they wear big baggy clothing most of the time. (but there was that one time in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil where that time maid called Marisa a love doll(What the fuck does that mean?!)

But the stuff that's on the front page of this topic is just plain gross. The only kind of body I want to see in that clothing in a womans body. It does not look cute nor appealing.

[EOJ]

Anyone got any more information on this game, this is the first I've heard about it.

Reported 5 days ago here:
http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=323.0

[honorless]

Damn, I have got to stop checking this place at work...

[GrimoreLibrarian]

I forsee locking of this thread.

[system11]

Damn, I have got to stop checking this place at work...

Except, you shouldn't have to, this kind of problem is covered in the rules.

This topic made me very unhappy. Either it's discussed properly, or not at all. Any more of this fucking idiocy and I'll just delete it entirely. I've tried to salvage what I can.

If anyone wants to start a proper topic for the game, feel free. While I'm hoping it can get back on track, I suspect it'll derail by morning, and I'll have to delete it anyway, and all that will be left is a rather lower opinion of some people who posted in it.

[jonny5]

im not personally into the whole cute-sy design style being used so much these days, but i dont find the images offensive......its animated.....its sprites....its not like they are dressing up 4 year old kids in lingerie or something.....

its not real....the whole thing i like the most about playing games is the escape from reality....sure that kind of dress would be unacceptable in our society...but this made up, so why not?

and from what i can see, i cant tell if the sides of the suits are missing or just a different color....and the one on the left has breasts....4 year olds dont have breasts.....

i will wait patiently to see more of this and certainly wont pass any kind of judgement on it until i have actually played it.....

thats my only concern with most games....how they play....artwork is an afterthought for me....but at the same time i dont like budget graphics....so if it is well done, im happy.....it just makes it easier to stare at the game for hours on end

and im kind of surprised everybody is getting so up in arms, with nothing but some character pics....not even in game

[Aru-san]

and im kind of surprised everybody is getting so up in arms, with nothing but some character pics....not even in game

I also find it very abysmal that some people get all worked up over the designs of two, or more specifically, one character before even a partial product has been produced and shown. After all, no matter what Otomedius may have people thinking, a game isn't based on graphics alone, but the mechanics and whatnot.

Hell, for all I care, these characters could be in ships the whole time. And people thinking that the character designs are getting younger...they're not. It's just the art design put into the characters that make them look young, but beyond the designs, you never know what their character information could really be.

[Skykid]

Any more of this fucking idiocy and I'll just delete it entirely. I've tried to salvage what I can.

What happened?!

[emphatic]

Those characters might even be non-humanoid for all we know. Their eyes for one thing are gigantic!

Emph

[GrimoreLibrarian]

Nothing important....

[Aru-san]

Any more of this fucking idiocy and I'll just delete it entirely. I've tried to salvage what I can.

What happened?!

Some guys blew the whole character design loli fiasco out of proportion by means of photoshopping and ranting.

In other words, two hentai photoshops and some crude humor. Let's just leave it at that.

[lgb]

I had a feeling this would happen. Now, let's discuss the game.

I'll say it again, it really sounds like IN here. Two characters might not mean much, but the game IS called Switch.