Trizeal (DC) is here! Impressions...

[Bar81]

After all this talk I think I'm gonna have to get an evaluation copy [err, just did, now have to wait to get back home to try it out.] Re Border Down, that game got slagged off for good reason imo.

[Diabollokus]

Hey Kingbuzzo, signed yer petition thar. Beat the game and theres like 4 names in the credits so more than one.

[llabnip]

After all this talk I think I'm gonna have to get an evaluation copy [err, just did, now have to wait to get back home to try it out.]

I don't remember Triangle Services releasing an evaluation copy, but maybe I missed it.

Or do you mean you downloaded a copy of it? If so, stealing Trizeal brings you bad Karma. My suggestion would be to buy the game and support Triangle for bringing us an old-school 2D-ish overhead scrolling shooter. It matters not if you enjoy the game - buy it to either support your love of the genre or to support their love of the genre. The good Karma you inherit as a result is just a bonus.

Is it worth the money? That's up to you and your wallet. I'm just glad that I'm able to help support current & future DC shump development

Well done!

[Bar81]

After all this talk I think I'm gonna have to get an evaluation copy [err, just did, now have to wait to get back home to try it out.]

I don't remember Triangle Services releasing an evaluation copy, but maybe I missed it.

Or do you mean you downloaded a copy of it? If so, stealing Trizeal brings you bad Karma. My suggestion would be to buy the game and support Triangle for bringing us an old-school 2D-ish overhead scrolling shooter. It matters not if you enjoy the game - buy it to either support your love of the genre or to support their love of the genre. The good Karma you inherit as a result is just a bonus.

Yes, "evaluation" is a euphemism. If I like I buy. I refuse to lay out cash blindly these days. I've been burned too often by recommendations and reviews.

[Zweihander]

[Yes, "evaluation" is a euphemism. If I like I buy. I refuse to lay out cash blindly these days. I've been burned too often by recommendations and reviews.

Agreed. Hell, the only legit Dreamcast shmup I own is Mars Matrix. The rest are "evaluation copies", half of which I downloaded because even Play-Asia.com showed them to be out-of-print (Ikaruga, Border Down, etc). I see no harm in downloading a game that isn't even being produced anymore. Don't get me wrong; I love shmups, but I simply don't have the money to import more than a game or two a year. :/

However, for what it's worth, I'll definitely purchase Mushihime-sama when it's released this July. ^_^

[DavidHolliss]

at least your honest !
I have played Trizeal for over 30 hours since it's release two months ago so good value for money for me

[Bar81]

[Yes, "evaluation" is a euphemism. If I like I buy. I refuse to lay out cash blindly these days. I've been burned too often by recommendations and reviews.

Agreed. Hell, the only legit Dreamcast shmup I own is Mars Matrix. The rest are "evaluation copies", half of which I downloaded because even Play-Asia.com showed them to be out-of-print (Ikaruga, Border Down, etc). I see no harm in downloading a game that isn't even being produced anymore. Don't get me wrong; I love shmups, but I simply don't have the money to import more than a game or two a year. :/

However, for what it's worth, I'll definitely purchase Mushihime-sama when it's released this July. ^_^

We're talking about two different things. You pirate when it's out of stock at play-asia. I only pirate to check out the game and then I **BUY** it if I like it (even if I beat it during the "trial" period.) I certainly don't have anywhere near ONLY one DC game. And on point, just because play-asia lists it as out of stock does not mean it's out of print. As to whether being out of print justifies piracy, that's another topic for another day.

[Zweihander]

[We're talking about two different things. You pirate when it's out of stock at play-asia. I only pirate to check out the game and then I **BUY** it if I like it (even if I beat it during the "trial" period.) I certainly don't have anywhere near ONLY one DC game. And on point, just because play-asia lists it as out of stock does not mean it's out of print. As to whether being out of print justifies piracy, that's another topic for another day.

actually, i WOULD buy Gunbird 2 and Giga Wing (the only other US-released shmups on DC) if i could find them at Gamestop. :/ i apologize for not being a good little consumer and paying $70+ (shipping included) for every shmup i wish to try out. :/

[Bar81]

[We're talking about two different things. You pirate when it's out of stock at play-asia. I only pirate to check out the game and then I **BUY** it if I like it (even if I beat it during the "trial" period.) I certainly don't have anywhere near ONLY one DC game. And on point, just because play-asia lists it as out of stock does not mean it's out of print. As to whether being out of print justifies piracy, that's another topic for another day.

actually, i WOULD buy Gunbird 2 and Giga Wing (the only other US-released shmups on DC) if i could find them at Gamestop. :/ i apologize for not being a good little consumer and paying $70+ (shipping included) for every shmup i wish to try out. :/

Try making some sense. It costs zero dollars to try something out. And why limit yourself to Gamestop? You have these boards, other boards, and ebay.

[Zweihander]

Try making some sense. It costs zero dollars to try something out. And why limit yourself to Gamestop? You have these boards, other boards, and ebay.

I was generalizing when I said Gamestop; I should have said "used game outlets", but I'm sorta tired right now. -.-zzZZ Also, ebay (90% of the time) would require me to have paypal. I don't trust ebay anyway... i've heard too many horror stories. But yeah... just because I enjoy shmups like Zero Gunner 2, Gunbird 2, Double Shienryu, Espgaluda, and others, doesn't mean I should feel the need to import them.

Now.. Say an excellent shmup like, say, Espgaluda, was released here, most likely bastardized in the style of "Mobile Light Force" but at a decent price, say $20 or 30. I'd buy it. But because there's no mainstream market for shmups here in the US, that'll never happen. And i sure as hell don't have the $60 or 70 to shell out at play-asia.

Granted, shmups being released here depends on sales in Japan, and i WOULD be supporting them (on a microscopic level) by importing. But considering games cost twice as much in Japan as i'm used to here in the states, AND add $10 or 15 for shipping (i paid $86 total for my copy of Gunslinger Girl vol.3; that broke me for the following month), that's a LOT of money spent on one disc.

Right now, I'm just gonna agree to disagree; 3:51 AM, the birds are chirping.. i need sleep. x_X

[Marc]

Well mine turned up today, will add my two cents when I've played properly later on.

[Marc]

Hell yes, this is the shit. Nothing special audio/visually, but the controls are solid and responsive (tate'd anyways), and while gameplay is straight forward enough to be played as an old-school Toaplan/Seibu kill-fest, there's obviously a lot of extra stuff in there for those really willing to dig. Thought it was a touch easy to bein with, but once i'd gotten a couple of plays of the first round and managed to dispose of the bunch of purple ships for the first time, the dragons gave me one hell of a nasty surprise. Action's not too frantic, weapons are cool (and surprisingly impressive), and it's hard enough to feel challenging, yet I really feel like there's a 1cc coming for this. Nice boss explosions as well. I like it lots, defititely more up my street than Shiki2 or Psyvariar2. Obviously been a real labour of love for Triangle Service, and playing this really does make me feel a little less jaded, nice to know the little guys can still make good occasionally.

[visuatrox]

I'm late to the party, bought this game a while back, but did not have an dreamcast until now . This game now officially gets the "visuatrox quality appoval" .

I disliked XII stag and thought that there would only be a slim chance that I would like Trizeal, but being an obessive collector I had to buy it anyway and I'm happy I did. The graphics may not be stellar, but it still looks better than say Chaos Field and Gigawing Generations. Personally I like the music, it has a pretty cool retro feel and the bonus CD with avant girls voice tracks is great too . But most importantly the game is lots of fun

Anyway the Trizeal guy and his miniscule developing team did a good job. I just hope he has plenty of noodles left, so that he can afford developing another game.

[Elixir]

I was pretty annoyed with this game to begin with.

I can't play it in yoko mode very well, and some of the text is unreadable. I'm pretty decent with shmups in yoko mode(such as, ikaruga) but Trizeal seems to be the kind of port that is far better in yoko(like kiken has said).

The XII Stag ship that's accessable by pressing >, <<, 12x A is also a teaser. I'm not sure if I prefer the original ship, or this(who am I kidding, I really like the XII ship) but I haven't passed level 4 yet.

It'd be nice if it recorded your time(more shmups need this option, not just treasure games) and aside from the annoying boss music. it's reasonable. I'm not sure if I'd bother taking this game seriously, but the more shmups that get to the DC, the better.

The thing I've noticed is that the second level specifically is rather slow. A few tanks are about to shoot at you - they're dead. A giant cannon shoots at you in a typical xXx pattern and then there's the boss. Aside from the slow paced levels, it's pretty good.

[Herr Schatten]

Trizeal seems to be the kind of port that is far better in yoko(like kiken has said).

You mean tate.

It'd be nice if it recorded your time

It does. You can see how much playtime you sunk into the game in the menu where you can save/load your scores/settings.

The thing I've noticed is that the second level specifically is rather slow. A few tanks are about to shoot at you - they're dead. A giant cannon shoots at you in a typical xXx pattern and then there's the boss.

Trizeal is designed differently to most modern shmups in that its first stages are quite easy to survive, even if you have little experience with the game. TS probably did that to attract more casual players, but sadly that doesn't seem to have worked. Instead they got a lot of flak from teh hardcore players, because those felt that the game was bland, slow, empty and unchallenging (which I admit it does look like when you only play it for a short while).

The challenge that lies in the first two (maybe three) stages is not survival. Once you move on to being an advanced Trizeal player, you'll start caring about score (which you should even if you play for survival only - you want both extends, do you?) and this will reveal that the first levels of Trizeal are actually quite challenging if you go for chaining medals or getting the 100% (or both). Stage 2 in particular is devilishly designed if you try to keep your medal chain going, and I haven't managed to get the 100% yet (although I usually get it in stages 1, 3 and 4).
Today, it feels inacceptable for me to finish stage 2 with less than 1 mil.

[rant] (Not directed at you:) I just wish people would stop bashing Trizeal when all they do is proving with every post they make about how bad it is that they don't even have put enough time in it to remotely understand what it's about or how it's supposed to be played. Of course everybody's free to dislike anything he wants, but please show a hint of understanding before doing so. [/rant]

Wow, look at me, I sound like Rando.

Maybe I should finally complete the review and the ST on Trizeal I'm working on, so more people can enjoy it for what it is.

[Elixir]

Yeah, I meant tate. Sorry about that. I haven't really put as much effort into Trizeal as I should. I just can't seem to get motivated to play it(I really, really hate the soundtrack).

However that is no excuse - I recently purchased the best thing ever - a dreamcast VGA adaptor. I managed to try out Trizeal on it, and it was really good. Far better graphics than I had ever imagined. I'd like to take this game more seriously, but I'm not sure if it'll ever happen.

Another thing I don't like about it(and yes, I'm nit-picking at the most pointless graphical detail ever) is the way your ship explodes. Sometimes I'm doing fine, then all of a sudden, 2 seconds after I've actually died, I realize that I've been killed. I'm not sure if people can understand what I'm trying to say here, but it's basically like this: ship gets hit, ship slowly fades downwards, ship vanishes. Not like Raiden games or anything, when you have no choice but to KNOW that you're dead(unless you're deaf, have sound off, or are just plain ignorant.)

I'll definitely plan Trizeal some more. I've been comparing it to other games which is a really stupid thing to do. People expected this game to be a revolutionary 2005 game that's superior to Ikaruga, and were horribly disappointed(re: gamefaqs forums) but everyone has their own views.

[Diabollokus]

I've about 7 hours into this game now.

And my only gripe is level 2 I wish the developers had axed the level and replaced it with the omake level its imho much better.

Yep its a good solid game i think alex vorm brock or herr schattern? is doing a review for it I'm tempted myself level 3 is strangely addictive I love the little blue support ships! kill yourself before the boss and don't pick up any powerups and loads will come!

[DavidHolliss]

Level 2 is probably the weakest level in the game, nice to see people still picking it up.

[M0nk3y]

Well I've had this sat on the shelf with the CD and bandana since I pre-ordered it months ago, still shrink wrapped. Due to technical difficulties (scart switchbox dying) and the daily trauma of life, missus, job, child and not being arsed to unplug the Saturn.

However, armed with a new scart switcher and giving the sprog to his Auntie for the night I finally had a crack at Trizeal. I really like it. It's nothing new or revolutionary, but It's a damn fine shooter.

So um, yeah. Thats my comment: Trizeal is quality. There's much shittier games out there made by vastly bigger dev teams. Fair play to Triangle Service, hope they give us another DC game.

[icepick]

Elixer- I know what you mean about the ship "explosions" (if you can call them that--they're sort of more like "disintegrations," or something)... I experienced some of the same when I first started out, but like many of the initial minor hangups about the game, it subsided after getting more comfortable with the game -- And, not simply because I got used to it. As you tune into the game, getting onto the same wavelength, you also come to know when it is that you're dead, because you know a split-second before it happens that you didn't quite make it.

Also, I have to say that I appeal to using the Trizeal ships in Trizeal, although the XIISTAG ship can be fun every now and then. I like dynamically switching between the primary weapons, to use varied tactics in the varying situational challenges. I'll also say that the Lifting minigame (unlocked after finishing stage 2 in arcade mode, right?) is a great way to initially get into the game, as I planned on playing it for maybe fifteen minutes on my first night with the game and ended up playing for almost an hour (or over?). Fun, challenging and addictive! Not unlike the game as a whole.

Now I've got two games on my "to-play list" for tonight.