Shikigami players?

[Elixir]

Okay, so how many of you fucks still play this. This game is great. If you're not playing it frequently, you are failing. Personally the gimmick of "bullet scraping" is a great idea. There's actually a story. There's abilities. There's alter-abilities.

I have it for dreamcast, and I play it on an 17" TATE'd Compaq 7500. I also have the cat figurine + original game for gamecube, which was incredibly expensive($90 NZD, $60 USD) as I basically bought the gamecube for the game itself.

..and I haven't even bothered to get past the third level. :<

[professor ganson]

Shiki II is probably my favorite game, period-- I like it more than chess! I took a week or so off, but plan to get back to it soon. My next goal is to get to level 4-2 on one credit. I can't wait to see the final three sections of this game, but I refuse to credit feed.

This is practically the only game I play on my Gamecube. Just bought an S-video cable to enhance an already incredible experience. I too have the cat figure and it is perched on top of my tated 20" tv.

I hope Shiki III comes out by the time I finish Shiki II. Otherwise the wait will be agonizing.

[BulletMagnet]

I've got both Shiki games on the PS2, and while lately I've been playing mostly my more recent acquisitions, they're definitely not just gathering dust. Shiki 2, in particular, is great; the scoring system, as was noted in another recent thread, is wonderfully open, as no single area is absolutely vital for scoring, and the player has the choice of playing for either survival or score at any given point in the game. I especially like the fact that separate scores are kept not only for different modes but also for different characters, since their scoring potentials are so different. The plot I've never really delved into, and the game, despite its strengths, isn't perfect, but it's definitely a worthy purchase, especially since you can grab the "greatest hits" PS2 version for cheap. If Alfa improves Shiki III as much as it improved Shiki II over its predecessor, then it ought to be great.

And if anyone cares, the farthest I've managed to get on one credit at defaults is 4-1...yay.

[sethsez]

Shikigami no Shiro sucks.

Shikigami no Shiro II, however, is one of the best games this gen. It's also one of the few games of the past five years that I can routinely complete on one credit.

[Jon]

Shikigami no Shiro sucks.

Shikigami no Shiro II, however, is one of the best games this gen. It's also one of the few games of the past five years that I can routinely complete on one credit.

I wouldn't go quite that far but the sequel does stand head and shoulders above its predecessor. I enjoy playing it a heck of alot more than some of Caves recent efforts although that is due to probably due to the more relaxed gameplay.

[professor ganson]

and the player has the choice of playing for either survival or score at any given point in the game.

I would agree, except for one point-- and this is my main criticism of the game: it seems to me that 1-1 and 1-2 of Shiki II are of no interest w. r. to playing for survival. They present some interesting challenges for high-scoring, but not for survival. A game like Gunbird 2 avoids this problem by making each level sufficiently challenging and by making it a matter of chance what stage you meet with first.

BTW, has anyone played either Shiki I or II on XBox?

[PFG 9000]

I only have the US PS2 version. I have 30+ PS2 games, and the only ones I play more than SnS2 are Gradius III/IV and Gradius V. This weekend I'll be meeting up with an old friend who introduced me to shooters via Gradius 3 SNES years ago. I've been raving about SnS2 to him for so long, and he'll finally get to play it...so I'm hoping I haven't overhyped it. Too much.

Oh, and I've never gotten to the third level on one credit...the boss of the second level always kills me, even with what I think are well-timed bombs.

[AAA]

i have sns 1 on xbox (plus LE sns 2 on gc)

i was actually quite disappointed with the version, compared with the ps2 version i couldn't notice too many differences

my main bugbear is regarding the presentation of your 'little helper'. in sns 1 it jerks all over the shop - surely the xbox can do better than this?

although perhaps it was a 'feature' in the arcade version (which i haven't played)


just feels a bit poor compared with the naomi-provided slickness of the sequel

[ArrogantBastard]

I used to play a lot of Shikigami no Shiro II for DC, but I've somehow lost interest in it because I got burnt out by trying to 1CC the damn game and shifted my focus on other games; i.e. Cave shmups.

I shall go back to it some day and try to 1CC it.

[professor ganson]

i have sns 1 on xbox (plus LE sns 2 on gc)

i was actually quite disappointed with the version, compared with the ps2 version i couldn't notice too many differences

my main bugbear is regarding the presentation of your 'little helper'. in sns 1 it jerks all over the shop - surely the xbox can do better than this?

although perhaps it was a 'feature' in the arcade version (which i haven't played)


just feels a bit poor compared with the naomi-provided slickness of the sequel

Thanks for your impressions, AAA. Too bad the XBox version didn't stand out quite as much as it might have.

[professor ganson]

I used to play a lot of Shikigami no Shiro II for DC, but I've somehow lost interest in it because I got burnt out by trying to 1CC the damn game and shifted my focus on other games; i.e. Cave shmups.

I shall go back to it some day and try to 1CC it.

I would also like to 1cc this game some day: Does the game get especially difficult in the last stages (in particular, 4-2, 5-1, or 5-2)? So far I found 3-1 the hardest to master. I actually find 3-2 and 4-1 a bit easier than 3-1.

Another question: Has anyone noticed what looks like a Target logo in level 1-1? Surely they don't have Target (the chain of stores familiar to us in the US) in Japan.

[crithit5000]

I really wish I had more time to spend on Shikigami 2 (1 is...okay at best). The thing I like the best is how vastly different each character is as you really can't use the same play style for any two characters. That's something I feel hasn't really been done right in a shooter until Shiki 2...

[system11]

If you like SNS2, see also Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night. Similar game style, but (IMHO) a better version of it.

[PFG 9000]

Another question: Has anyone noticed what looks like a Target logo in level 1-1? Surely they don't have Target (the chain of stores familiar to us in the US) in Japan.

No, I haven't noticed that! Where should I be looking? On one of the buildings? And which version are you playing?

[professor ganson]

Another question: Has anyone noticed what looks like a Target logo in level 1-1? Surely they don't have Target (the chain of stores familiar to us in the US) in Japan.

No, I haven't noticed that! Where should I be looking? On one of the buildings? And which version are you playing?

I noticed the logo in both versions I've played, i.e. GC and PS2. It is on one of the buildings. There are some logos I don't recognize early on in the level, and then maybe 1/4 of the way through the level there is something that looks just like the red and white Target logo. My guess is that this is the logo of some Japanese company distinct from Target, but that would be quite a coincidence.

[Damocles]

Shiki 2. The one game I still play after the 1cc. Probably because I love character shmups, but more likely because if yer having a bad day you can simple choose Kim B and destroy the hell out of everything.

[al138]

Damocles: A 1CC? I bow!

Shiki 2 is my favorite of the series, although all I have are the NA releases--needless to say that EVERYTHING story related is lost in translation. <Takes another stiff drink to forget about MLF>

However, I still take solace in the gameplay. In fact, I revisited the game last week, and I plan to give it some time in the next couple of days. I still have not completed it, but I am committed to changing that before the end of the month.

And to think...I still haven't bothered to beat R-Type Final or Gradius V...man I have some playing to do! Looks like a shooter exclusive weekend!

[Icarus]

I haven't played Shiki 2 for months. Might revisit it in the near future to either learn Roger or Niigi, or refine my old Kuga 1 strategies - what I can still remember, at any rate.

[icepick]

Here!

Starting out with new scroll shooting games, I found SNSII to be quite easy to get into--Of course due to the different characters and their styles, the bullet scraping, the relatively interesting levels and their progressions (modern-futuristic city, temple/sky palace place, skies and fields, and so on), and the two-player mode does make it even more accessible. Shikigami no Shiro III would be a reason for me to buy a PS2, if they didn't release it for DC. (Did I just say this somewhere?)

I would agree, except for one point-- and this is my main criticism of the game: it seems to me that 1-1 and 1-2 of Shiki II are of no interest w. r. to playing for survival. They present some interesting challenges for high-scoring, but not for survival. A game like Gunbird 2 avoids this problem by making each level sufficiently challenging and by making it a matter of chance what stage you meet with first.

This is true, but even for those games with interchangable level order, the levels can become as much of a breeze to go through--For example, I usually play Giga Wing exclusively as Isha, and as such, the lava/volcano stage has become a breeze, while Ruby's first level (that sky base) is noticably less comfortable for me, simply because I haven't seen it as much.

Overall, I'd rather see the first couple levels in a set-level-progression game to the point of almost becoming tired of them, since then, it does seem more like an actual journey instead of a music CD on "shuffle." Granted, once the journey has been completed, I like putting the CD on shuffle every now and then, but... in general, I like my level progressions to be linear.

Has anyone noticed what looks like a Target logo in level 1-1?

I've seen it too! I reference it every time that I'm playing with certain friends, to the point that they get tired of hearing it over and over.

Now, I'm getting excited about SNSIII. If it's indeed as much of an upgrade over SNSII as SNSII was over SNS, then it's going to positively explode my brain and nicely put it back together. On the other hand, a complete overhaul could also yield the condition where SNSII and SNSIII are both must-haves and must-plays. Can't wait to see!

[professor ganson]

Overall, I'd rather see the first couple levels in a set-level-progression game to the point of almost becoming tired of them, since then, it does seem more like an actual journey instead of a music CD on "shuffle." Granted, once the journey has been completed, I like putting the CD on shuffle every now and then, but... in general, I like my level progressions to be linear.

You make a good point that I hadn't thought about. There is less chance of boredom with the opening levels if the ordering of stages is random, but there are some real costs. First, you lose the sense that the game progresses in the way that an album, a journey, a story does. Second, in a game that requires memorization, as Psikyo games do, it makes the amount of memorizing needed somewhat unruly. For example, in Gunbird 2 you need to know how a given stage's boss will attack if you confront it at level 1-3 versus 1-2. This is perhaps more work than should be required. It makes mastering the first three levels a matter of familiarizing yourself with nearly a dozen bosses (since there are 4 stages that appear in the shuffle).

[alpha5099]

*cough*buyit*cough*

[Skyline]

It's kinda hard to get used to Shiki 1 after playing II a lot, unless you use only the Shikigami-1 type weapons. Myself being a Kohtaro player, a lot of potential points get thrown out the window because I'm so used to having at least marginal control over what targets I was going to hit, instead of just automatically wiping out whatever's closest to me.

Dosen't make it a bad game though. As a matter of fact, all of the G-Net shmups fall into that category: they're not bad games at all by any means, but they're not exactly classics.

[Elixir]

Wow, that's a nice amount of replies. I just figured seeing as how the hi scores for this game don't seem to be active, that it isn't taken seriously.

[BulletMagnet]

Nah, HS threads for lots of games go dormant for awhile when something else catches people's attention (atm methinks most players' focus is on Mushi), but they come back eventually.

[Icarus]

It's kinda hard to get used to Shiki 1 after playing II a lot, unless you use only the Shikigami-1 type weapons. Myself being a Kohtaro player, a lot of potential points get thrown out the window because I'm so used to having at least marginal control over what targets I was going to hit, instead of just automatically wiping out whatever's closest to me.

I used Kuga in both Shiki 1 and Shiki 2, and for both, he does have a tiny amount of control over his Shikigami. It's not complete control though, but you can influence where it goes by moving to the side of the screen where you want it to attack. The Shikigami will always attempt to stay as close to Kuga as it can get.

In Shiki 2, they gave you almost complete control by allowing you to "drop" the Shikigami at a location (using Kuga 2), and the drop location acts like a return point for the Shikigami to stick around.

[BulletMagnet]

Off-topic, great new sig, Icarus.

[freddiebamboo]

Okay, so how many of you fucks still play this.

Anyone else starting to find elixir's offensiveness kinda endearing?

On topic; never played a shiki before but always had the impression they were a bit "psyvariar" - which seems to be met with apathy from many here.

Having read above posts on the merits of 2, I may give it a whirl.

[Elixir]

Okay, so how many of you fucks still play this.

Anyone else starting to find elixir's offensiveness kinda endearing?

I'm sorry. I'll try with more feeling next time.

I really can't decide on tate or yoko for this game. I don't seem to have any problems playing either way, it's just that tate is more of a hassle as I need to 1. unplug monitor 2. unplug sound 3. haul dreamcast into living room etc etc.

[Icarus]

Off Topic:

Off-topic, great new sig, Icarus.

Heheh, thanks
Bored, at home on my day off work, so I decided to have a laugh and make a Paro sig

On Topic:

Having read above posts on the merits of 2, I may give it a whirl.

Shikigami 2 rocks my socks, and the best thing is, it's widely available. Import and localised PS2 versions, Gamecube ver, XBox ver, DC ver, and PC ver. If you want a quick way to try it out, I think the PC version has a demo floating around somewhere.

Seven characters, each with two different types to select (three if you count Child Fumiko). That's a lot of different playstyles to choose from, and a lot of replayability.

[professor ganson]

Wow, that's a nice amount of replies. I just figured seeing as how the hi scores for this game don't seem to be active, that it isn't taken seriously.

I think that there might be more activity on the thread if there were more slots for Kuga and Kim. These are by far the most popular characters and all 5 slots for Kim are taken up with 1CCs, and all but one for Kuga. I would suggest that we create a few more slots for these characters.

Anyone else care? Agree or disagree?