Homura (Skonec) - Taito Type-X

[Saurian]

This was on test at Hirose Entertainment Yard, Akihabara over the weekend. Sorry about the write-up being bitty but it was hard to take it all in at the arcade (especially when the guy next to you is No-Miss clearing Shikigami no Shiro 2 using two characters at once and keeping the scores of both characters completely equal the whole time! X_X - against World Order he was controlling them independently while dodging! He IS The One!)

but anyway -

I'm REALLY feeling this game, it has the same risk/reward element I love most in shoot em ups. The system revolves around the sword your character carries, you got A button as shot as normal - but B button activates a single sword slash that dissolves shots, beams or whatever else thrown at it.

The slash takes 5 seconds to recharge after you use it - you know it's alive again by a glowing icon at the top of the screen.

The scoring system is still confusing me but powering-up and increasing multiplier are both 100% certainly linked to the sword. The way I was incresing my scores was first of all waiting for exact moment to unleash the sword - if you slash an enemy with the sword, you target all the other enemies in the area automatically and dash slice around the screen like a Samurai nutter. When enemies are destroyed little pickups fly out (like Gigawing), these definetly increase attack power, but not sure about multplier. If you kill with the standard shot the pickups just float in place, the slice attack makes them draw into you increasing the gain. By activating the slash on the absolute brink of death in the middle of a big group of enemies all firing at you seemed to be the way forward!

As you combo enemies the multiplier increases, what I didnt get was whether it was down to the pickups or the combo itself but you definetly have to keep it going; if you start getting lax with your combos the muliplier goes straight back down again so you have to keep the fast pace going. Slashing shots gives you the amount of shots blocked x multiplier, so there's a Psyvariar style point blank style to the game aswell - when you see a huge attack from a boss or whatever there's still that urge to dive into it - and it's mint!

It's also GORGEOUS - the bosses and enemies dont just float about with bullets spraying out, the attacks are animated so that they throw shots at you or unleash them via sword slashes. Bosses power up Dragonball style before unleashing bullet hell. All of this while sweeping over a medieval Japanese setting seamlessly branching off into Easy and Hard modes as you go. I gotta mention the music too! It's proper epic Lord Of The Rings stuff all the way through - the machine was LOUD and the booming orchestral soundtrack proper drew you into the game!

Cunsumer version HAS TO come out on something - anything!

[Raidenfighter Kirkov]

Thx for the information.

It seems the Taito Type X Hardware will be THE next shmup hardware.



Greetings
RFK

[Saurian]

There's a few more things I forgot to mention -

Bomb is activated by hitting A and B button at once - the bomb is like multiple homing projectiles, which give you invincibility for the duration as you'd expect.

Stages split off into Easy and Hard at checkpoints - you dont have to achieve conditions to enable the different branches afaik, you just fly to the left of the screen for Easy and to the right for Hard.

The slash combo system is also linked to your attack power; chain-up a section really well and you are rewarded with little options which hover around you increasing your power (maximum I achieved in a section was 4, I assume this is the cap). This is definetly directly linked to the sword combo system - it's the drive to make you concentrate on keeping the combos coming thick and fast (attack power + multiplier seem to be linked - but uncertain)

[Thunder Force]

Nice, thanks for posting impressions. Psyvariar MU, Revision and II are still among my favorite shmups (ever) and I'm praying Homura gets a faithful home port... even if it means it has to wait until PS3 or X360!

[Saurian]

I also spent A LOT of time playing Senko no Ronde aswell - that's another truly amazing game! A new revision has just been released and I aint messing about it's as popular as VF4 Final Tuned in some arcades!

Them manz up in Tokyo are so spoiled - there isnt a single arcade worth visiting in the UK where I live, and out there you can bop out at any hour to play Aliens vs Predator! >_< and I cant live without vending machines!

[Metal Gear Okt]

Hopefully, Senko no Ronde will make it to DC.

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm, the slashy thing sounds like a cross between RSG and Giga Wing...at least impressions of it so far are good.

[Randorama]

I think that Skonec takes it as granted (the ps2 port). Also, the game sounds like a Vasara unofficial sequel, interesting. Thanks saurian, btw

[Cthulhu]

Thanks for the impressions~ Sounds great. It also sounds like the Type-X is outgrowing the technical problems that hurt the early games on it... super blocky sprites, horribly chugging framerates... Raiden III looks great though, and plays quite nicely too. I'm looking forward to see Homura.

Hopefully they'll still have it this weekend... I'm going to be hitting Akiba then. I wanna see too...