Huge IBARA PCB pricedrop

Palmer Eldritch · Post by **Palmer Eldritch** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:57 am

For those interested, Excellent just lowered the price of brand new factory sealed IBARA PCBs to $1.298,00. That´s a reduction of almost 50% in just over a month since its release.

Wonder why. IIRC Mushihimesama was around $1.700,00 until about a month ago.

--Michael

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:01 am

Mushi dropped in Japan to about $1300 months ago... probably about the time the PS2 port was announced.

Ibara's apparently getting very mixed reviews (at least where I've read), which could be part of the reason why the price has dropped so much. There was one auctioned for 140,000 yen (almost half price) about a week after it came out. Then again, even Mushi got mixed reviews.

Post by **system11** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:08 am

That'd be because (from reports) the bosses are pointlessly hard to kill, and it's just not that good overall. People who bought this one brand new have lost half their money already - shocking for something barely a month old.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:33 am

It's a fun game for people who like their shooters really hard, really complex, and really memorization intensive. This makes it a pretty poor arcade game for most places, because it's totally unapproachable to 90% of the people who go there.

Personally, I think it's fun to play around with, but I have zero intention of ever trying to get good at it.

Palmer Eldritch · Post by **Palmer Eldritch** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:05 am

bloodflowers wrote: People who bought this one brand new have lost half their money already - shocking for something barely a month old.

Exactly. And as Gaijinpunch pointed out, even Mushihimesama received mixed reviews and still managed to sell for quite a bit a lot longer.

Makes you wonder whether the initial prices for brand new PCBs aren´t somewhat inflated to begin with...
Do sellers discern between sales for private use and arcades when prices are decided?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:30 am

Do sellers discern between sales for private use and arcades when prices are decided?

They sell to the highest bidder. If a game can still make money, it's value will be retained. Doesn't always hold true for all games, and doesn't mean that every expensive PCB will make money in the arcades. But at this point, if you bought an ESPGaluda for 44,000 yen, it's paid for itself in 410 plays... something easily achievable in a month in a moderately busy arcade, even at 2-3 years old.

Palmer Eldritch · Post by **Palmer Eldritch** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:58 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Do sellers discern between sales for private use and arcades when prices are decided?
But at this point, if you bought an ESPGaluda for 44,000 yen, it's paid for itself in 410 plays... something easily achievable in a month in a moderately busy arcade, even at 2-3 years old.

Same thing here. Any given PCB will probably pay for itself in a couple of months from the amount of coins the kids on our street happily insert all the time

Not true, but my son wanted me to try it out, so we did for a couple of days, then felt bad and paid them right back. Blasted conscience, eh?

Dewclaw · Post by **Dewclaw** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:10 pm

What a shame that it didn't turn out as good as everyone hoped, it had great potential with the character-driven presentation and stuff. Maybe one day it'll be in my price range(I don't want to spend more than 300 on a pcb unless it comes with a cab)

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:54 pm

Was anyone watching PCB Prices when Dangun came out? I want to think that game bombed too.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:55 pm

Ah well, i've just bought the kit including the snazzy poster at excellent.com, so roll on next week!
Seriously though this is the most I've EVER spent on a game.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:08 pm

Well, this is disappointing news. Not the price drop obviously, but the disappointment with the gameplay. So our dream Cave/"Raizing" shmup may have turned out to be an ornery Bakraid clone?

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:22 pm

The boss design is inexcusable. I am sure the internal game testers at cave were told every single trick to killing the bosses. For people outside "the know," the bosses are plain silly.

When you die, you don't have enough small bombs for a super-bomb. The bombs you have will stop a boss attack for about 3 tenths of a second. This means you can easily lose all your men against a difficult boss attack sequence. This may be fun for some people, but I would rather play some other game.

Soldato J · Post by **Soldato J** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:53 pm

Only chance I have of ever seeing this thing in action and playing will be if they ever do a port...

I hoped and hoped for a Mushihimesama port, and now I am just waiting for it to arrive from Play Asia.

Moral: It's ok to dream...

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 6:22 pm

Heh, I like a challenge.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:03 pm

Glad I didn't shell out the money for it. I'm heading to Tokyo for a week in the fall... I'll play it there and make my decision.

If ESPGaluda 2 pans out, I will very likely shell out full price for that bitch.

Post by **system11** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:34 pm

zlk wrote:The boss design is inexcusable. I am sure the internal game testers at cave were told every single trick to killing the bosses. For people outside "the know," the bosses are plain silly.

When you die, you don't have enough small bombs for a super-bomb. The bombs you have will stop a boss attack for about 3 tenths of a second. This means you can easily lose all your men against a difficult boss attack sequence. This may be fun for some people, but I would rather play some other game.

Aha - nobody else mentioned this before, it would explain why I've heard someone who owns it being most upset with the bosses and the game in general, yet in some vids I saw, it didn't look as extreme as people say. If you had a large bomb stock, would it throw some of them around as tokens for recollection? I was actually being tempted into buying this seeing the vids, although the mixer volumes are totally screwed up.

Raidenfighter Kirkov · Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:43 pm

Sorry to interrupt you folks, but i have finished the game with one credit today.

I earned about 5 extra lives (4 with points and one secret extra life).

Greetings
RFK

Post by **system11** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:55 pm

Raidenfighter Kirkov wrote:Sorry to interrupt you folks, but i have finished the game with one credit today.

I earned about 5 extra lives (4 with points and one secret extra life).

Greetings
RFK

Hah - well timed and well done. Could you answer the question above please? Also, would you recommend it to someone who enjoyed garegga and bakraid? From the vids, I get a real feeling that this game has a LOT of the old Raizing engine code in it - maybe even an aborted or unfinished sequel that Cave have revived along with the team, and put new graphics on. Any opinions on that?

Raidenfighter Kirkov · Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:10 pm

Hi !

If you like Battle Garegga you have to buy this game. BTW: I "hate" Garegga

...ok i dnt really hate garegga (i really like bakraid btw and batriders is one oft the best shooters out there...ahemm...ok back to the topic).

In my opinion this game is like battle garegga 2. It seems that is was programmed from the raizing team.
But cave gave the game the perfect touch...the collisiondetection is similar to all other cave shooters.

If you die , you gain all the bombs you have left before you kissed the floor. And you gain additional small smatbomb items (half of the icons you need to get a full bomb).

I hope this informations will help you

Greetings
RFK

BTW: My high score is now around 4,5 million points (i have to make a screenshot of the high score list)

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:27 pm

Yeah! I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this. It was the Raizing influence that clinched it for me. I really love Cave, but this is like a brand new Raizing game, and for me that is immense!

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:29 pm

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:33 pm

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP wrote:
Ord wrote:Ah well, i've just bought the kit including the snazzy poster at excellent.com, so roll on next week!
Seriously though this is the most I've EVER spent on a game.
what happen to your sick father story that you couldnt pay for galuda from japhei? im no friend of japhei but yeah..none of my business but seems fishy..OK nevermind

Check out my selling thread and my ebay auction to try and fund the Ibara board. And please understand that i don't want to read that the fact that my father has prostate and bowl cancer, sounds fishy to certain fucking forum members.

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:53 pm

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:55 pm

Then why mention it you idiot?
You have a pm!

Post by **system11** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:15 pm

Ok break it up guys.

PM sent.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:20 pm

Can I get a PM too?

On Topic: I'm curious to hear what Icarus and the other (if there are any) people that bought the board. I hate ranking though. The only game I like w/ it in there is Border Down, and even that doesn't make me pull my pants down.

Post by **system11** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:29 pm

GaijinPunch wrote: On Topic: I'm curious to hear what Icarus and the other (if there are any) people that bought the board. I hate ranking though. The only game I like w/ it in there is Border Down, and even that doesn't make me pull my pants down.

Cave games have ranking too. I'm not a fan when it encourages such insanity as suicide tactics however.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:39 pm

0.3 seconds on the bombs? Good grief, and good luck!
Nice 1CC, Kirkov.

It's good to know Ibara is possible.

$1300 sounds good for Ibara and I could manage it if I were willing to sell of some of my Saturn stuff. I'll likely wait until it goes to $400. If a PS2 port hits, I'm right there. Ibara may warm up more in Japanese arcades once some of the secrets are let out.

Those who say bosses are "pointlessly hard to kill" may have raised the rank too high during their game.

I think initial prices for PCBs may be a bit raised considering the original business-use intentions. Honestly it'd be nice to see home-use versions sans coinage options (freeplay only) if they could be made at a somewhat lower price. These would probably be limited in number though ala NGHC titles.

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:49 pm

Raidenfighter Kirkov wrote:Sorry to interrupt you folks, but i have finished the game with one credit today.

I earned about 5 extra lives (4 with points and one secret extra life).

Greetings
RFK

Why not make a video showing how it is done? You would after all be the first person to release a 1cc video to the net and I am sure many people would like to see it.

Post by **Icarus** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:57 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:On Topic: I'm curious to hear what Icarus and the other (if there are any) people that bought the board. I hate ranking though. The only game I like w/ it in there is Border Down, and even that doesn't make me pull my pants down.

I already called for shipping from SMJ early this week, and if all goes well, I should receive the PCB kit and the poster tomorow. Then I need to either fix my NGCD pad for my supergun, or solder up an old UK Saturn pad

I'll pop up some impressions once I get a few credits under my belt. But you know me of course, if it looks like Garegga, plays like Garegga, kicks your arse like Garegga, and encourages you to do some dumb shit like Garegga, I'm all for it

bloodflowers wrote:I'm not a fan when it encourages such insanity as suicide tactics however.

I reckon that Cave intentionally attempted to balance the play system to give you two options: you suicide a load of times to score past the 10mil mark; or you can play carefully and on survival skills, and gain a low scoring ALL. If RFK has already proved that you can beat the game in one credit with 4.5mil points, then it's entirely possible to play the normal survival way.

BTW, if you haven't already seen them, there are two clips from stages 1 and 2 here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~fw9a-ootk/mkn/movie.html
They show good scoring technique within these stages. Little to no suicide tactics involved.