New G.Rev shooter (Strania XBLA)

[Remxi]

Yeah that's what I thought haha, in reality though it's a bit disappointing/frustrating.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I hate to do these late bumps but I'm putting some finishing touches on a Strania review for one of the sites I write for.
First off I want to make sure credit is given properly for the explanation of the scoring system. Other than that any comments
about accuracy of the review and other aspects are welcome.

I know it seems pointless now as the game has been out for quite awhile and we all know it's awesome but assignments are assignments
and I never settle for less than 101%.

Review is up:
http://www.pwnem.com/t-strania-review

Please let me know if there are any issues.

[defected78]

Im not good enough to finish hard mode yet. Is there seriously no ending sequence to this game though?

[DMC]

I hate to do these late bumps but I'm putting some finishing touches on a Strania review for one of the sites I write for.
First off I want to make sure credit is given properly for the explanation of the scoring system. Other than that any comments
about accuracy of the review and other aspects are welcome.

I know it seems pointless now as the game has been out for quite awhile and we all know it's awesome but assignments are assignments
and I never settle for less than 101%.

Review is up:
http://www.pwnem.com/t-strania-review

Please let me know if there are any issues.

Very good review! Perhaps the weapon levels/Dan/Kyu could be explained more clearly. The remark about memorization was a bit muddle, and Mushi Futari as a counterexample(?) relies heavily on memorization as well, especially Ultra which is extreme memorizing. But memorization was just discussed in another thread here.
Claustrophobic was a good descriptive label by the way.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Very good review! Perhaps the weapon levels/Dan/Kyu could be explained more clearly. The remark about memorization was a bit muddle, and Mushi Futari as a counterexample(?) relies heavily on memorization as well, especially Ultra which is extreme memorizing. But memorization was just discussed in another thread here.
Claustrophobic was a good descriptive label by the way.

Yeah it's as I said. In the long run 2D shooters tend to rely heavily on memorization to get the most out of them. But on a moment by moment basis I just find games like Futari to be more entertaining.
And I don't play Ultra...fuck that.

Oh and I got a response from G. Rev regarding my review:

"Thanks for the comments and the kind words in the review. We
appreciate that the reviewer was open to discovering the good
qualities of the game despite, as he mentioned, that he or she is not
particularly fond of the game.

We will have a title update soon that will fix existing bugs and also
help explain some of the scoring confusion that the reviewer mentioned
in the post (weapon leveling will be shown in English, for example).
Further explanation will be posted on our Facebook page."

[adversity1]

List of bug fixes for the patch is up:

http://www.grev.co.jp/str/update.html

Changes

1 The training mode has been adjusted to allow gamers to select specific areas within a stage.
2 The training mode has been adjusted to allow gamers to select specific areas within a stage.
3 An option to change the screen mode has been added to the Options section of the menu. Support for 4:3 format has been added.
4 The maximum number of armor that can be selected within the Options section has been increased from 5 to 9.
5 The length of the Demo Play video has been shortened to 90 seconds. It previously showed game play through an entire stage.
6 The player's offensive power for physical attacks (actually hitting enemy characters with the mecha) has been reduced by half.
7 The power of the "Bomb" weapon has been slightly weakened, but has been adjusted to include a napalm burst that erases enemy fire upon collision.
8 The "Missle" weapon has been adjusted to shoot a greater number of missles in one burst, the power of each slightly weakened to conform with the higher volume.
9 English translations have been added to the weapon leveling panel (appears when a player increases the level of a given weapon). The translated graphics will appear for all users that do not have their language set to Japanese.
10 The color of the cross that shows the center of a player's collision detection has been changed (from green to orange).
11 Users that play the trial version then immediately purchase the full game will be able to create save data for the portion played in the trial. Upon purchasing the full game, such users will be directed to the Title Screen where save data can be created.
12 The maximum volume that can be selected for sound settings has been reduced from 25 to 15.

Bug Fixes

1 Fixed bug that stopped or froze the game in Stage 6.
2 Fixed bug in which the game freezed when users accessed the leaderboard.
3 Fixed bug in which scores achieved in Hard and Expert difficulty settings were not accurately recorded.
4 Fixed bug in which the boss of Level 5 would not appear during online play over LIVE.
5 Fixed bug in which users were awarded the achievement for clearing the game without continuing despite using one or more continues during online multiplayer.

[MrMonkeyMan]

I'm guessing the leaderboards will be cleared if they're going to change the gameplay around that much.

I am glad they're changing the color of you hit box markers. It's really annoying when a laser hits you because it was lined up perfectly with the lines of your hit box and you couldn't see it.

Nice to see they're making the missile useful too.

[adversity1]

Yeah, great changes all around. Nice job, Grev.

I do wonder why they chose to weaken the Bomb at all. It was my least-used weapon to begin with.

If the leaderboards get reset, that's a bummer for you since you've got such great scores across the board. : /

[Phellan Wolf]

Whoa that's a huge update then. I really wish Cave do tha same with his games. It looks like G-Rev is always loyal to the fanbase. I really hope that they finally release versions of Under Defeat and Border Down for X360.
By the way seeing the good results of the game sales does anybody think that they'll probably launch it on DvD format following the recent DvD versions of some of the latest XBLA releases like HD Trials or the recent dreamcast collection??

[Klatrymadon]

Fantastic update! On a much less significant note, does the game's "cover" show up on the Game Library tab for you guys? I just get an Xbox logo.

[TodayIsForgotten]

Fantastic update! On a much less significant note, does the game's "cover" show up on the Game Library tab for you guys? I just get an Xbox logo.

Nope.

[Zaarock]

It's weird, in the last year or so few new games actually get those covers to show up.

I wonder when the DLC will come out, on their facebook page they were saying that they expect the patch to be up a week or so before the release. The 2nd gamerpic pack is already on the marketplace now.

6 The player's offensive power for physical attacks (actually hitting enemy characters with the mecha) has been reduced by half.

I wonder how this came up.. I can only imagine it being useful on the TLB

5 Fixed bug in which users were awarded the achievement for clearing the game without continuing despite using one or more continues during online multiplayer.

I thought that was intentional, heh. Expect to see some more people trying to do co-op before the patch comes out now :p

[defected78]

So does this game have an ending.

[MrMonkeyMan]

Yes, beat it on hard.

Don't expect too much.

[NeoStrayCat]

BTW, guys, the Update is tommorrow 5/3, I'm also working on the Ach. Guide over @ x360a and in corresponing with the update stuff too. And also, the Leaderboards will be wiped clean, so, MrMonkeyMans and others will have to get a fresh start again, and I was looking foward to my top score in Hard now going to waste, but at least I can do it over.

No info on Side Vower just yet. And about the Ending, its just plain text, just all about the Stranian's Victory over the Vower forces. You can even read it again if you missed it on Training, unless they would not display it again due to the update though.

[nZero]

Patch is live. 4:3 support confirmed for awesome, I thought I'd miss having the extra FOV but it works just as well without. I kind of wish the hit-cross indicator color was an option, though. I never had trouble dodging lasers with the green one, but it's harder to keep an eye on your hitbox during e.g. the St.4 boss's final attack now.

[deexor]

You don't need to 1cc to get the Court Martial + other achievement. For Court Martial I believe you need to time out all the bosses, destroy every part of the ship you are trying to protect, and fail to destroy the generator things in Stage 5. For 10th-dan, I'd imagine you need to 1cc just cause you won't get a high enough rank without killing the Stage 6 boss (not sure on this one though since I'm not gonna bother with that achievement).

EDIT: Well, I was wrong on this one. Maybe you do need to get 1cc for Court Martial cause I just did a playthrough then and failed everything I could but didn't get it. Anyone else able to shed some light on this?

For Court Martial:

• on stage 3, destroy everything you should defend
• on stage 4, do not dock to the booster
• on stage 5, do not destroy anything you should attack
• clear the game, continues are allowed

I tried all kinds of different variations for this (1cc, time outs, hard) until I learned about having to skip the docking...

[TodayIsForgotten]

Patch is live. 4:3 support confirmed for awesome, I thought I'd miss having the extra FOV but it works just as well without. I kind of wish the hit-cross indicator color was an option, though. I never had trouble dodging lasers with the green one, but it's harder to keep an eye on your hitbox during e.g. the St.4 boss's final attack now.

That part is weird anyway. Sometimes you can see and sometimes your guy gets lost and green, blue, orange, aqua...don't matter.

[Remxi]

http://www.grev.co.jp/blog/

Side Vower DLC preview up. 400msp. Lookin' good.

[antares]

Loving it, can't wait for it to go live

[adversity1]

Hyped for the DLC. Looking dope.

[TodayIsForgotten]

lovely "another" shoot em up for 5 dollars. I was hoping it would be a whole new game and not the levels backwards. Looks good.

[Danza]

Side Vower should be ready for purchase tomorrow according to G.Rev' Facebook.

[mjclark]

So you can level up all the weapons for points by destroying enemies with them but you can only power up the blue weapons by collecting more of them on the same side right?
Seems a bit one-sided. I wanna power up the reds and purples too eh?
Really really enjoying this though and it's gotta be the best original shooter on XBLA. (Got Omega Five last year but found it to be a bit cumbersome). It's got that excellent G.Rev heritage too so it's not some imitation or homage, it's the real deal.
Only bought this yesterday and already there's going to be some new DLC to buy tomorrow.Oh well, this is one shooter I'm happy to pay for

[nZero]

So you can level up all the weapons for points by destroying enemies with them but you can only power up the blue weapons by collecting more of them on the same side right?
Seems a bit one-sided. I wanna power up the reds and purples too eh?

The red weapons are the enemy Vower weapons, so they'll be stackable in the DLC released tomorrow (and the blue Strania weapons won't be). Too bad about purple, eh? Of course, there's always double-wielding the sword to power it up! In the meantime, you can try out any and all of the weapons in practice mode.

[mjclark]

So you can level up all the weapons for points by destroying enemies with them but you can only power up the blue weapons by collecting more of them on the same side right?
Seems a bit one-sided. I wanna power up the reds and purples too eh?

The red weapons are the enemy Vower weapons, so they'll be stackable in the DLC released tomorrow (and the blue Strania weapons won't be). Too bad about purple, eh? Of course, there's always double-wielding the sword to power it up! In the meantime, you can try out any and all of the weapons in practice mode.

Thanks- this is getting better and better.
Where can I read the full back story?
Will have a look at the G.Rev site and see

[Zaarock]

Of course, there's always double-wielding the sword to power it up! In the meantime, you can try out any and all of the weapons in practice mode.

Actually you swing the swords slower if you dual wield :/ hopefully the vower mechs have better special attacks for doing it

[NeoStrayCat]

Yep, pretty much you can use any weapon in Training without exceptions to LV.2 weapons besides the Main Game though, 400MSP is a steal, its half the game, but they could have released it entirely as 1200MSP at launch, so yeah...

Although, the tracks for the first 2 stages are awesome, I wonder if the soundtrack for the Vower Side will be better than the Stranian Side, since that's my opinion though.

[Magicpies]

One thing about this game I especially love is the music, it's fantastic. I am looking forward to that DLC to.

[mjclark]

Just got the Side Vower pack and it's awesome! The Vower ships seem very restricted in movement at the start though.Also managed a game of online co-op (though they're very thin on the ground at the moment). It was loadsa fun but there was no result- we just kept on playing and then it was game over, not even a score summary at the end but maybe this was cos continues was on.
Also the only scoreboard that's working seems to be ALL but I'm sure this'll get ironed out.
This really is turning out to be a fantastic PAL Xbox experience