Espgaluda II

[Animaitor]

Thanks mate.
From what I gather, the layout can be one of these two:

[Fire] [kakusei] [guard barrier]
[autofire]

or:

[Fire] [kakusei] [autofire]
[guard barrier]

And you recommend the first layout. But isn't the second layout more similar to Futari and Dodonpachi which we're more familiar with?

You are right, I recommend the second layout. At least for me is the one that makes more sense and feels comfortable.

[evil_ash_xero]

I really like the original version, but I can't get into any of the other arrange modes. I just don't care about this whole shooting enemy bullets thing.

[GaijinPunch]

You guys are getting all worked up for a game that's 5 years old. For those that are moaning about the difficulty, every successive Cave game after Galuda II has been far easier, or at least had far easier modes. It's their last "just hard" game. You won -- now just play the damn thing.

Which version of ESPGaluda II did Yagawa work on? I forgot.

Arrange.

[Special World]

actually i didnt win because they didnt do a ripoff of mars matrix

[Van_Artic]

ok, i don't get this:
i 1CC'd Arrange with Tateha, but no Rank increase; WTF??
is there any special condition to be fullfilled for rank increase?

i've also watched an all-clear replay, but still no rank up
any idea?

edit: never mind, i'm such a moron

i'm going to score attack Arrange tomorrow with rank 36*23

[chempop]

Arrange is good times, I'm currently at 8*7 rank With Tateha. I can't imagine what 36*23 looks like... is that the highest current replay for download?

[Van_Artic]

Arrange is good times, I'm currently at 8*7 rank With Tateha. I can't imagine what 36*23 looks like... is that the highest current replay for download?

current #1 leaderboard score is 35*23, but there a lower score replay with 42*23

[roker]

I was going to hold off on the impressions until I got my stick setup (Still waiting for my wired controller to come in so I can use my PS2 stick with the Xconverter)

otherwise I have these impressions:

-Don't play arcade mode unless you plan on using a lower resolution and/or CRT monitor. It looks like absolute shit on my LCD. 360 mode is tits and that's the only way I plan on playing the game.

-The other modes are cool but I don't plan on spending too much time on them. There's all these cancelation rules that change the way it plays. I'd rather learn the game in the mode it was originally made in.

-I suck. I know part of the reason is because I need a stick. There were more than a few misses I can attribute to the shitty xbox dpad, but overall, this game is tougher than the first and I feel like the timing (pacing?) is a bit more rushed in this game.

-The character on the bottom right sucks. I can't use her worth a shit, but the other two are more my style.

-The music while not as good as the first, is still enjoyable. More so than I thought when I first listened to it.

Sort of unrelated: I hope Ketsui has a high res mode. The only way to play Arcade mode is in 480p or 640x480 and even then, it's only passable. I never thought I'd be a resolution whore, but low res just does not look good at all on my Samsung LCD Monitor.

[Elixir]

-The character on the bottom right sucks. I can't use her worth a shit, but the other two are more my style.

Actually this is wrong, I did some tests and have concluded that Asagi is the weakest character in the game. Her kakusei laser is really useful but for the most part she's really weak. I even timed out a midboss by accident.

Sort of unrelated: I hope Ketsui has a high res mode. The only way to play Arcade mode is in 480p or 640x480 and even then, it's only passable. I never thought I'd be a resolution whore, but low res just does not look good at all on my Samsung LCD Monitor.

Ketsui won't have one, so you'd better get a CRT monitor pretty fast.

[DC906270]

Ketsui won't have one

If youre referring to hi res mode, of course it will

[evil_ash_xero]

You know, maybe it's the size of these TVs you guys are using, but i'm using a 22 inch monitor(16:10) and the 360 version of DOJ looks A-OK. It basically looks like you're playing it in MAME.

I mean, it's nothing..NOTHING compared to Mushi or Ibara on the PS2. To me, it looks like Raiden Fighters Aces(without the scanlines, of course).

Now, the "Arcade" modes of DS, Futari, and Galuda II(not quite so much with the the smoothing turned on) look pretty awful on this monitor. As for DS, I couldn't get it to look good on a CRT, no matter what the size.

[DC906270]

i never play the arcade modes, not sure what these are for, as people whove tried them on crts have said they look rubbish. the xbox 360 mode is designed for lcd tvs and look great. i assume xbox360 mode=arcade mode with high res graphics.

[Elixir]

Ketsui won't have one

If youre referring to hi res mode, of course it will

Uh.. no it won't? This is by 5pb, and is going to follow the same path that DOJBLEX did. DOJBLEX didn't HD modes either.

[DC906270]

eh DDPBLEX looks fine on an lcd.

[RetroRepair]

Ok so I guess there are a lot of different type of score boards on the 360 version so that would explain why I didn't think it was saving my scores (yet to check that though) but I just played a game and got my personal best score and the fucking thing didn't let me put my name in at all?! Worse still, it didn't even give me the option of saving my replay?! WTF is up with that bullshit?

I'm playing arcade mode but there's no option I can see for score attack or anything, plus it let me save my score every other time I played.

If there's a certain condition I have to meet to be able to save or some crap like that then me and this game are gonna part ways real soon

Why couldn't they just leave it the way it was on the PS2 versions? That was pretty straight forward, not like this rubbish. ANGRY!!

[Momijitsuki]

-The character on the bottom right sucks. I can't use her worth a shit, but the other two are more my style.

Actually this is wrong, I did some tests and have concluded that Asagi is the weakest character in the game. Her kakusei laser is really useful but for the most part she's really weak. I even timed out a midboss by accident.

Which is a shame, really. I love Asagi's shot type.

As for which mode I prefer the most, Black Label definitely. I dunno why I like it as much as I do, though.

Oh, and does Over mode have any useful application in Black Label, by the way?

[DC906270]

As for which mode I prefer the most, Black Label definitely

Yes i agree

[Elixir]

-The character on the bottom right sucks. I can't use her worth a shit, but the other two are more my style.

Actually this is wrong, I did some tests and have concluded that Asagi is the weakest character in the game. Her kakusei laser is really useful but for the most part she's really weak. I even timed out a midboss by accident.

Which is a shame, really. I love Asagi's shot type.

As for which mode I prefer the most, Black Label definitely. I dunno why I like it as much as I do, though.

Oh, and does Over mode have any useful application in Black Label, by the way?

It spawns tiny blue needle-like bullets. I'm not sure it has much use.. Seseri's kakusei does a lot of damage if used correctly.

[Gwyrgyn Blood]

Kakusei Over mode your chain meter drops really slowly. Zetsushikai Over mode spawns the needle bullets which can be canceled for gems.

[DC906270]

Just for clarification :

kakusei = ?
zetsushikai=?

i know of 4 buttons :

1) SHOT
2) AUTO
3) GUARD BARRIER
4) SWITCH "MODE"

Can someone relate those 2 words with reference to which button function so i know WTF people are talking about..

Jesus, what a complicated shmup..

[Trevor spencer]

I think arcade mode on DS , Futari , ESP II all look great on my CRT TV via RGB and there the only modes i play , only thing i dont quite like is in ESP II there is that tearing effect on the background and the pinks look a little odd compared to the PCB but all in all i think these ports are pretty damn good if you can afford PCB's all the time

[moozooh]

1) SHOT
2) AUTO
3) GUARD BARRIER
4) SWITCH "MODE"

Can someone relate those 2 words with reference to which button function so i know WTF people are talking about..

Jesus, what a complicated shmup..

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6281 Ctrl+f for "modes".

[roker]

-The character on the bottom right sucks. I can't use her worth a shit, but the other two are more my style.

Actually this is wrong, I did some tests and have concluded that Asagi is the weakest character in the game. Her kakusei laser is really useful but for the most part she's really weak. I even timed out a midboss by accident.

That maybe so, but I can get farther with her than any other character. I need to spend more time with the game, like I said, these were just early impressions, but thanks for tip.

Sort of unrelated: I hope Ketsui has a high res mode. The only way to play Arcade mode is in 480p or 640x480 and even then, it's only passable. I never thought I'd be a resolution whore, but low res just does not look good at all on my Samsung LCD Monitor.

Ketsui won't have one, so you'd better get a CRT monitor pretty fast.

can't do, I live in a tiny New York apt. I have to make due with what I got ... or my girlfriend will kick it out to the curb! (I'm still the man of the house ... sometimes )

You know, maybe it's the size of these TVs you guys are using, but i'm using a 22 inch monitor(16:10)

I'm using the same size. I have a 22.5' Samsung LCD circa 2007. How do you set up your screen (i.e. zoom percentage, etc.)?

[Special World]

seems to me like Ageha's totally the best but I could easily be wrong.

I really hate that slow girl though christ so slow

[StarCreator]

I like to use Tateha (aka slow girl) simply because she can hit anything on the screen without me actually knowing where they are.

Or even knowing they're on screen at all.

[chempop]

I use Tateha in Arrange mode because in Kakusei (over) mode her rapid fire hits the most bullets = tons of points, awesomeness (once my rank is in double digits after a few more 1CC's I know I can break 2 billion).

I use Ageha in 360/arcade mode too, he's ole reliable when it comes to speed and shot power (I'm just starting to get the hang of stage 4 boss on one credit).

I use Asagi in Omake mode because I can, Omake is very easy to clear with her because the last few bosses go down so fast against her (even on rank 4 Hard I'm close to 1LC).

So I'm finding that all the characters have their place, which I really like - gives more diversity while switching around between modes. I haven't played much Black Label but I figure Seseri (?) is best for that mode since her mechanics are slightly attuned for it.

[dmauro]

This is vying for position of my favorite Cave port. The different modes are all completely different styles of play and all so good. I'm a little sad that Omake! doesn't have online leaderboards though because I think it's a really great mode.

Arrange mode is too obnoxious for me though. I downloaded a replay from the top of the leaderboards and even going at 5x fast forward it took forever to skip past the boss "fights" because you have to milk the fuck out of them. It makes the stages feel almost pointless since so many points are to be had from boring boss milking. No thank you. It's a shame though because if there were something to prevent that boss milking from being so obscene, it looks like it could be a really fun mode.

[chempop]

It's a shame though because if there were something to prevent that boss milking from being so obscene, it looks like it could be a really fun mode.

Yeah, I'm starting to feel the same way... looks like it's time to up the difficulty to hard, 1 life, 2 extends (which is what I do to make Omake! mode interesting). That'll make me think twice about excessive boss milking. I think I'm done with playing Arrange for score for a while.

360/Arcade mode is a great challenge though, I'm starting on easy and working my way through the difficulty. The last boss form is outrageous though, I don't think it matters what difficulty I'm playing on

[dmauro]

Yeah, I was just playing some more 360 mode again today. It's such a blast. I'll probably be able to 1CC black label in the next week or so, but 360 mode is a challenge that will last me a while. I started out by 1CC'ing novice mode a few times and focusing on scoring, which was actually quite helpful for getting the hang of things. I've only made it to stage 5 so far with just under 100 mil on the regular difficulty though. If you're having trouble with the last boss, check out this video (YOZ making short work of the final boss). It's for black label, but it is probably helpful for 360 mode as well (does the last boss take full damage while you're in kakusei mode in 360 & Arcade modes as well?).

[AraraSPAMWitch]

Dumbass question:

The sound options list in all modes except Black Label seems to have an option to switch between original and arranged bgm, but it's blacked out and unselectable. I like the arranged tracks a lot better, is there any way to make them selectable for 360 or Arrange modes?

Also, is there any talk of Cave releasing the rest of the Black Label tracks on CD? There's only a couple on the sample disc, and the ones that are hype as hell (i.e. stages 3 and 5) aren't there.