Bullet Soul - (STG/5pb/Xbox360)

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I just watched that YT vid, wow those graphics are 3D and look better then what the 2d sprites i originally thought they were. Dont get me wrong i love sprite work but these 3D graphics look good aswell specially the bosses.

Somebody earlier said that it would be daft to include score to collecting souls for a proximity based system. I disagree as Exceed 3rd Black Package is very proximity based as you need to pre-empt the baddies to kill them asap, it too has grazing which charges the special ikaruga like special. This gives the player the choice of playing point blank which is the main way of scoring and pulling back and grazing but still having an effect on score.

So like ive said, even if the differnt score mechanics dont compliment each other well, it gives the player a choice in how he wants to play for score rather then been trapped into a system he / she doesnt like. DDP kinda did the same aswell where the player could ignore chaining but still access the 2nd loop by hoarding bombs or going for the bees.

[burgerkingdiamond]

picked this up a the post office today. It's as hard as any other shmup I've ever played. I credit fed like a sumbitch to get to the end. The game expects you to point blank the game due to how fast the bullets come at you and if you suck at dodging, you WILL die, alot.

Seriously conflicting messages here.

the game was made to point blank. the bullets are fast and that discourages playing at the bottom of the screen because you have to dodge more stuff. I'm no good at point blank dodging (even though I try because it should eliminate the bullets faster). Thus I die alot.

I'm sure it'll get easier when I memorize the enemy patterns but I'm not playing the "pathetically easy" game everyone else seems to be playing.

The game is only pathetically easy if you don't try to point blank every second. If you hang out at the bottom of the screen you will cancel 90% of the bullets before they ever get close enough to kill you.

I just played for about an hour and had a lot of fun. It can be a fun game if you play suicidally aggressive. I don't know how long it will last though. Once I get another 1CC while playing it "correctly", which I don't think is that far off, I don't know what would keep me coming back.

I really do love the graphics and the music is just awesome. Especially the intro track. I'm even starting to like the Jap singing. I'm humming it to myself as I type this. I'm pretty much leaning towards a purchase right now.

[stryc9]

Yeah, as far as TATE verts go this one has pretty refined 3D.

It all looks really quite tight (if a little generic) and lacks the boxiness to the enemies as was common in low budget shooters from the last generation (Trizeal anyone)?

Some of the backgrounds are very detailed and are interactive, counter to what the EOJ review claims about them being like FMV - the Destruction Bonus is about taking out certain targets and not others on the ground, which of course means you have to switch up tactics and put your current strategy on hold for a few seconds.

This really is the game of the moment for me, although I know all that is set to change when Eschatos arrives - Which, despite earlier impressions, looks to be even better.

I love all the Cave shooters, but its great that they aren't the only thing to play on your J360. Actually I'm thinking of starting a thread titled 'Which Cave STGs is Bullet Soul better than' and watch the shit start to fly. (Just jokes I promise)!

although colour me crazy but I think this has longer scoring interest than DS and IMO the ship control is tighter than say, ESPy II.

[BulletMagnet]

(Just jokes I promise)!

I think I speak for the entire staff when I say "It'd better be."

[stryc9]

Ha! I don't think it is better than Cave so no worries there.

But I like to think that if for some reason I did I would be able to voice my opinion without fear of getting assassinated

[TrevHead (TVR)]

But I like to think that if for some reason I did I would be able to voice my opinion without fear of getting assassinated

You think Touhou fans are bad when someone bashes the games or ZUN on their forums. Cave fans are much worse as they actually have the cash to hire an hitman
EDIT: Plus I see youve made use of the forums trade section, that green letter 1 means youre a marked man. You should of stayed 0 0 0 like me, I can say whatever I want without reprisals (just the occational post from Elixir telling me to fuck off or that im an idiot who talks out of his arse)

[emphatic]

I had a friend over last night and he really loved it (except for the sound fx).

[Sumez]

I had a friend over last night and he really loved it (except for the sound fx).

Hur hurhh

[chempop]

I had a friend over last night and he really loved it (except for the sound fx).

Were you able to talk him into buying it off of you

[henry dark]

Stage 5 is where the game finally gets fun. It's the only stage in the game that understands how to utilise the cancelling mechanic well- i.e they give you tons of bullets and some undodgeable looking patterns and have you sweat a bit as you try to destroy enemies before you're taken out. It's a bit like those enemies on Mushi that pop all the bullets on the screen a millisecond before you're killed, but all the way through the stage.

That stage has a nice mix of popcorn and tougher enemies too.

I understand that the whole game couldn't be like that, but it made me think the mechanic has potential enough to make a purely survival run fun too, if only they had put more real thought into bullet patterns and enemy placement.

[emphatic]

I had a friend over last night and he really loved it (except for the sound fx).

Were you able to talk him into buying it off of you

He has a J-Tag 360, so no. I know I can sell this right now if I'd wanted to, I'm just gonna wait to see what that DLC is all about first.

Things get lots more fun in the loop btw.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Stage 5 is where the game finally gets fun. It's the only stage in the game that understands how to utilise the cancelling mechanic well- i.e they give you tons of bullets and some undodgeable looking patterns and have you sweat a bit as you try to destroy enemies before you're taken out. It's a bit like those enemies on Mushi that pop all the bullets on the screen a millisecond before you're killed, but all the way through the stage.

That stage has a nice mix of popcorn and tougher enemies too.

I understand that the whole game couldn't be like that, but it made me think the mechanic has potential enough to make a purely survival run fun too, if only they had put more real thought into bullet patterns and enemy placement.

Totally Agreed.

[burgerkingdiamond]

what is the loop requirement?

[emphatic]

what is the loop requirement?

Finish every stage with at least 5 or 10 of those bonuses finished, I don't remember. Quite easy to do if you play for survival IMHO.

[burgerkingdiamond]

what is the loop requirement?

Finish every stage with at least 5 or 10 of those bonuses finished, I don't remember. Quite easy to do if you play for survival IMHO.

Thanks. I've only cleared it once, but I didn't get the loop. I could clear again for survival but it's pretty boring, so I'm gonna stick it out and keep to point blanking. It shouldn't take too long. The only times I'm dying is when something appears on screen from nowhere and I get hit by some bullets that I never even saw coming. It's just a matter of memorization to keep out of those particular spots at the right times.

[emphatic]

it's pretty boring

[drunkninja24]

I gotta say, I'm curious to know what the Famitsu 360 reviewers comments on the game were, what with the pretty high scores overall.

[burgerkingdiamond]

it's pretty boring

only if you don't play the game on it's own terms.

Were you agreeing w/me or being sarcastic? What are your thoughts?

[emphatic]

it's pretty boring

only if you don't play the game on it's own terms.

I use this argument a lot myself, so I know what you mean. But most full price games at least offer alternative modes, this doesn't.

Were you agreeing w/me or being sarcastic? What are your thoughts?

My thoughts about the game play:

* Proximity scoring is fun when it's pulled off in a fun way - alas this is not the case here
* To get some fun action from the game, you need to make it to stage 5 or the loop - tedious crap
* Most times I get killed, it's by going into a sleep-like state due to under-stimulation, then failing to shoot an enemy fast enough
* Some boss patterns are actually hard to dodge as the mix of slow and fast bullets make you crash into shit, too bad that these patterns don't have some sort of build up first. It's like going from easy to expert in a second without any middle ground.

Final verdict - it's pretty boring, so yeah, I was agreeing with you.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Yeah, everything you said sounds about right.

[henry dark]

I wonder why they give you so many power ups when the power of your weapon barely seems to change after the first stage.

Anyway, just finished the last 1CC with all 3 characters. If this DLC is crap I'm selling it.

[8 1/2]

I wonder why they give you so many power ups when the power of your weapon barely seems to change after the first stage.

Anyway, just finished the last 1CC with all 3 characters. If this DLC is crap I'm selling it.

I had the some question. Is it like a Psikyo game where you level drops over time, or do they just feel the need to pollute the screen with them? I tend to keep collecting them just do something. I'm expecting a flood of these in the trading station soon. I may have get mine in before it comes.

[8 1/2]

Damn, I keep missing the second loop. I usually can get golds in 2 and 4, but it's usually silvers in the other stages. I keep getting dicked in stage 5 on medals completely. I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong in stage 1 to always get silver.

[emphatic]

Damn, I keep missing the second loop. I usually can get golds in 2 and 4, but it's usually silvers in the other stages. I keep getting dicked in stage 5 on medals completely. I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong in stage 1 to always get silver.

Do you get the Secret bonus at the midboss? I only got the loop once (my last credit unless the DLC is miracle material) with auto-bomb and the girl pilot.

Btw, anyone know what triggers the chain-like popcorn enemy score popups? I've tried to let them pump out some bullets before killing them (with C-shot) and have gotten about 19K a piece at the most IIRC.

[Remxi]

Found some nice info, courtesy of A47A47:

The condition to go to loop-2 is to earn 7 or over stage-clear-stars and to 1CC loop-1.

Silver stage-clear-medal: 1 star
Gold stage-clear-medal: 2 stars
Platinum stage-clear-medal: 3 stars

The condition to earn a stage-clear-medal is surmised by Japanese 2ch BBS.
http://yuzuru.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/gamestg/1301913894/

(1) You miss 1 or less times.
(2) you get a certain number of bonuses.
(3) You miss 0 times and soul-gauge (multiplier-gauge) attains certain level.

To earn a silver medal, you need to meet (1).
To earn a gold medal, you need to meet (1) and (2).
To earn a platinum medal, you need to meet (1), (2) and (3).

Stage-1
Required bonuses: 8 of 10
Required multiplier: x30

Stage-2
15 of 19
x40

Stage-3
11 of 14
x60

Stage-4
9 of 14
x40

Stage-5
not identified

Weather auto-bomb is on or off has nothing to do with the condition to go to loop-2.

Now just need to find out what triggers all the bonuses.

[stryc9]

I was wondering when someone was going to post this.

Thanks, very informative

Oh and yeah, what does trigger the score popups on the popcorns? Ive hit a wall with this one.

[drunkninja24]

Finally got my hands on this game. I think there's definitely a stark difference in difficulty when you play purely for survival and when you try to point-blank everything for the proximity bonus. I can die pretty easily by Stage 3 if I'm not paying attention. But ignoring that, the game is pretty easy. I'll have to give it some more time before I have a solid opinion on it, but I'm actually quite liking it so far.

[Kiken]

It's good to know that bombing does not effect the bonus medal acquisition.

I've managed to obtain Platinums in the first two levels. Still working on the third and fourth stages (not bothering with trying to perfect stage 5 yet). I did manage to trigger the loop on my last play-through and it does get really rough.

[BulletMagnet]

Today I hooked up my system to Live for the first time in awhile and a patch downloaded for this game: apparently upgraded it to "Version 1.1". Not sure what the changes might be, anyone have any idea? There's nothing on the official site that I can find about it, though it is teasing upcoming DLC as including "New Fighter, New Character, New Stage, New Mode, New Achievement, and More..."

Also, not related to the game, but 5pb is apparently being absorbed into a larger group of corporations, much as Atlus recently was...supposedly this won't have much actual effect on what they're doing, though.

[emphatic]

Today I hooked up my system to Live for the first time in awhile and a patch downloaded for this game: apparently upgraded it to "Version 1.1". Not sure what the changes might be, anyone have any idea? There's nothing on the official site that I can find about it, though it is teasing upcoming DLC as including "New Fighter, New Character, New Stage, New Mode, New Achievement, and More..."

This was released on day 1 or something like that, so not something that just appeared.