Upcoming Cave arcade title (Akai Katana)

[Trevor spencer]

Looks like a mixed bag of their Cave's previous titles. Guess we'll never see it here in the uk.

It'll be at R3PLAY for anyone attending, thanks to Mr SuperPang.

R3PLAY was is that some trade show event, or arcade and if so where is it? obviously not in london.

Blackpool show in november , ill be going

[bcass]

When it comes to catering for all tastes, I don't know why Cave didn't just stick with their DeathSmiles implementation of difficulty selection per-level. It seemed like the perfect way to appease newcomers and the hardcore alike.

[JOW]

Looks like a mixed bag of their Cave's previous titles. Guess we'll never see it here in the uk.

It'll be at R3PLAY for anyone attending, thanks to Mr SuperPang.

whoa, that's a real treat - thanks indeed to SuperPang. I've had my ticket for ages now but just expected purely retro stuff.

Anybody know if any other Cave stuff will be there?

[cools]

Looks like a mixed bag of their Cave's previous titles. Guess we'll never see it here in the uk.

It'll be at R3PLAY for anyone attending, thanks to Mr SuperPang.

whoa, that's a real treat - thanks indeed to SuperPang. I've had my ticket for ages now but just expected purely retro stuff.

Anybody know if any other Cave stuff will be there?

We've not settled on exactly what games are going in the candies yet, but I'd hazard a guess we end up with at least two Cave titles Won't be a Cavefest though!

[bcass]

Not heard of R3PLAY before. I'm just down the road from Blackpool so might give it a visit come November.

[Skykid]

We've not settled on exactly what games are going in the candies yet, but I'd hazard a guess we end up with at least two Cave titles Won't be a Cavefest though!

You needed to be at IC09 for that.

Can't wait for Akai Katana.

[cools]

Heh, we had far more machines at IC09. Could've put all of Caves library in without any problem or overwhelming everything else.

[Trevor spencer]

I really enjoyed IC09 , R3play is as good

[JOW]

We've not settled on exactly what games are going in the candies yet, but I'd hazard a guess we end up with at least two Cave titles Won't be a Cavefest though!

Fantastic! I was looking forward to a weekend of beer, Defender, Robotron and whatever else took my fancy.
Looks like I'll spend most of my time amongst the candy cabs now though

[Mills]

Not heard of R3PLAY before. I'm just down the road from Blackpool so might give it a visit come November.

Same here.

[Skykid]

Heh, we had far more machines at IC09. Could've put all of Caves library in without any problem or overwhelming everything else.

We almost did - DOJ, Ketsui, Espglaluda, Espgaluda 2, Dangun Feveron, DDP DFK, Guwange... it was a pretty good haul.

PM coming your way cools.

[malc]

OOh I didnt realise there was going to be modern(ish) arcade stuff there too - this I like!

I have crawled out my hole recently and got meself tickets for r3play too, going down to catch up with people I havent seen for years, and of course some pubs. There are pubs in Blackpool arent there?

I'll defo be heading straight for the arcade stuff. woohooo!!! malc

[esreveR]

Well, this game certainly looks awesome judging by the videos I've seen. Giant people summoning flying aircraft carriers out of Kanji portals is unusually badass-sounding and I seriously wonder how no one else seems to have come up with it first. And yeah, this is basically Progear 2, and given I liked Progear, that's a good thing. Anyone notice the yin-yangs opening up and turrets popping out? Reminds me a lot of Metal Slug.

That said, like any CAVE shmup (Besides Dangun Feveron), I have no idea how it works and will probably not play for score. If I even manage to get my hands on the damn thing.

[system11]

I just watched a bunch of videos of this, the music is fantastic. Don't like the way it looks, felt like my eyes had gone wonky due to the mix of heavy forced perspective and flat 2D, got to be the best drawn ugly game ever.

[Taylor]

I'm in Japanland at the moment and tried this out. It might look like Progear but it doesn't play like it imho. No idea how the scoring system works, need to watch someone decent play but it doesn't seem very popular.

Music is awesome though. Love that boss theme.

[rancor]

I'm in Japanland at the moment and tried this out. It might look like Progear but it doesn't play like it imho. No idea how the scoring system works, need to watch someone decent play but it doesn't seem very popular.

Music is awesome though. Love that boss theme.

Where have you been playing that you can actually hear the music? I've played this game at least 20 times, and haven't heard a peep out of the machine as everything else around me is at full blast.

[Taylor]

Mikado in Takadanobaba, it's turned up so loud when I play Mushi next to it the soundtrack is Akai Katana. And even if nobody is playing it still shouts "CAVE" at me every couple of minutes.

[agustusx]

I'll prolly give this a fair chance when I get the opportunity to play it, however I never got into Progear mostly because of the strange perspective. Visuals can be really distracting to me and for some reason this style doesn't click with me. I guess I'm just comfortable with top down and side angles.

Even in DeathSmiles the castle stage has areas that have the stairs coming at strange perspectives and it always seems to catch my eye when I should be looking at the bullets and enemies. It just doesn't seem natural.

[S20-TBL]

I saw the game on YouTube by following VanofArtic's 1CC Japanese player videos. After taking a look at that and then reading the game system breakdown on the official page, I get the feeling CAVE is confused. Let me explain.

Mechanics-wise, the game attempts to apply a not-quite GigaWing/Mars Matrix bullet reflection approach combined with a variation of Galuda's Kakusei mechanic to gain points in Ninja Mode, then mixing it with Progear's shot switching for the normal (plane) mode to gather energy for Ninja Mode. It's as if they just threw in a lot of stuff at the same time and hoped it would work. I have to wonder which audience they were aiming for with this game.

Aesthetics-wise, they then went all Shikigami with the characters and bosses, only for them to stand out like a sore thumb against the dull military hardware theme. The second stage boss, along with the pair of girls before the TLB and the TLB's background also seem like they came out of a Touhou game (only much more refined). And let's not forget the uber giant crystal of doom at the end. I swear that thing resembles the Stone-Like, and several people here have noticed that too. Won't be surprising as IKD loves Ikaruga.

Concept-wise, I love the idea of a boss summoning special minions to fight for it in combat, but I went "LOL WHAT" when I saw Shion's brother summon a TRAIN. I like the thought of melding alternate war history with a bit of Japanese mythology, but this takes the cake on juxtaposition--it feels like the Progear kids decided to attack EVAC headquarters only to be ambushed by the combined might of the Yaksa and the Soma Army. Something about it doesn't make sense; the whole thing feels disjointed and out-of-context.

In summary...this game leaves me with a weird feeling that it could have been something much more than what it turned out to be. It's as if Cave was going for a particular appeal, but got their signals crossed before they reached their destination.

[brentsg]

I think it's unfair to judge the game by uber 1CC videos. You're seeing a method of play that's fairly extreme, and not necessarily reflective of how it goes for a typical player.

[PsychoGun]

I bet this game never gets ported, I heard it's selling like shit in the arcades.

People are still playing DFK and Deathsmiles.

[dan76]

I really hope it gets ported, sure it will - and that one of the arrange modes will actually take a step backwards and get rid of the "reflecting bullets type thingy" - slim chance, I know. Seriously, some of those patterns look like they would be fun to dodge through, but with the reflect barrier and all that crap going on it's only going to be of interest to scorers.

I know that ultimately that's what keeps you playing, but by lowering the 1CC difficulty and making the game almost all about scoring we are losing out on that immediate twitch gaming fix. Sounds like I'm complaining but I'm only basing this opinion on some youtube vids. I know it will play like a dream, it's Cave after all... but like Deathsmiles 2, it's looking like another "if only..."

[clp]

From what ive seen and obviously gameplay aside it just looks like a total mash of shit , it doesnt have the complete game feel of most of cave or anyone elses games it just looks like a total cut n paste of way to many styles and ideas .

[evil_ash_xero]

I think the game "looked" great, even if it was a little odd in the perspective department.
It did look too short.

Too bad that people aren't too into the gameplay. Maybe they can make a BL.

[Demetori]

Watched some videos, not appealing to me. BUT HEY, far down the road it should be one of the hard as hell to find PCB's. Or I could be wrong, and they manufactured a lot of these but just didn't sell many.

[Taylor]

Mechanics wise I think they're just running with Mushi Futari Arrange. Only now the bullets still try and kill you, so you don't just swap in and out of near-invincibility with your fingers crossed.

I just find it hard to be excited by. Progear and Deathsmiles also had quite bland patterns (at least to look at), but the bosses and stages had character - not some boss I can't even see firing tanks at me while we fly up an infinitely long scrolling parking lot. Bring back the loli's, that's what I say.

And no, it's not going to be hard to come by.

[Phellan Wolf]

For those who complains about the system play just wait for a new revision or furthermore for a Black Label version. i am sure that then most of the detractors will finally love the game. Let's say that the vanilla version is just too vanilla.

[clp]

For those who complains about the system play just wait for a new revision or furthermore for a Black Label version. i am sure that then most of the detractors will finally love the game. Let's say that the vanilla version is just too vanilla.

yeh could do ... or just accept cave have missed this time and wait for the next release.

[MrFog]

How many of the people complaining about the gameplay have actually played the game?

[rancor]

How many of the people complaining about the gameplay have actually played the game?

Me. I've played it close to 20 times, and count me as "not impressed". Massive CAVE fan, but this is by far their weakest title. Music is awesome, graphic design is among the best, but gameplay is mediocre. Among the CAVE games, its my least favorite.. (although I've never played DDP II - I hear its terrible.)