Xbox 360: Akai Katana Shin (May 2011)

[charlie chong]

i'm finding the levels easy but the bosses tough! i thought it was easy at first then i realised i had enabled novice mode by pressing x on the arcade title screen(it is the blue one right,the only reason i know it's arcade is cos it plays fullscreen) the way you can tell is that some extra japanese text comes up under the title.
it could be i have trouble with horizontal bullets or something.to me this feels more like the first wave of cave games in that the difficulty curve is more even than some of the newer ones.

[supergrafx77]

OH GOD!! Perhaps I've been playing novice mode too...(DS level 3 mode is much harder for me than AK arcade has been). Gonna make sure tonight when I fire it up. I think I've been pressing A though to start up since on the panel I have a and b and R mapped up top and x below a in the second row (for ninja mode). I remember fucking around w/ the setting a bit when all I had to do was turn the display option off to diplay proper 4:3 on the monitor. Perhaps I changed it to easy to.

[supergrafx77]

ok, think I've been playing it on normal mode as I indeed have been pushing A to start up, not x. Is Y button, yellow button, hard mode? BTW, didn't die at all until 5th stage twin sister boss. Then bullet patterns go real fast and killed me off really fast. That boss is difficult imo.

[chempop]

Yeah the Twins are hard especially because they have 2 different sets of patterns initially. If you can clear them and have a couple lives and bombs though you should be fine for Stage 7, his health depleats much faster than the other bosses.

[supergrafx77]

Cool..Got to the boss after the twins by bombing the twins when the bullets became too many to comprehend a maneuver around them of sorts. Had one life left for the boss after and I see what you mean, his health does seem to rapidly deplete compared to the others. Still didn't 1cc yet but very close. For some reason I'm finding ship number two the easiest to get through the levels since I can plan/stage where I want the laser beam to blast. My high score was around 9665, XXXX, after getting killed off by the boss after the twins. Does this seam like I'm scoring correctly, for getting around to this stage in the game? Also when I died on the boss after, my offline score rank says that the boss after the twins is "stage 6 boss." Is there a stage 7 in the game?

[moozooh]

In Shin and Zetsu, yes. In arcade mode, no.

[charlie chong]

MAN I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO SCORE
just seems super fiddly to me.think i'm just going to go for the 2 extends and a cheap clear.
my eyes don't like horizontal bullets at all

[charlie chong]

also i like the 4th level a lot.4th levels alway seem to be my favourite!.the spiky bullets littered throughout the game are cool as well and i find them fun and logical to dodge and pick my way through

[cools]

MAN I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO SCORE
just seems super fiddly to me.think i'm just going to go for the 2 extends and a cheap clear.
my eyes don't like horizontal bullets at all

Whoa, you mean I might actually be better than CC at a game?

[supergrafx77]

Just realized I WAS playing in novice mode in arcade after a few runs this morning (after reading the katakana for novice above the Akai Katana title/why I didn't notice this before is beyond me)...and button x was not to initiate novice mode but rather toggle it on and off. Went from making it to the 6th boss to just reaching the third level. At least I got to practice a bit with the patterns, although so much easier the last few days ofcourse with novice mode yet patterns seem consistent with normal mode so still good for practice I suppose. I really do love this game btw.

[Skykid]

Ok, I got to the stg 4 boss with 460mil today, creeping up.

I only really know how to squeeze decent points out of stage 1 and the stage 3 boss is a fucking rapist.

[charlie chong]

@supergrafx
i'm getting to the 4th boss too skykid but my score is only 38 million .even with 3 lifes i failed tho i lost a life with full bomb stock
i take it for acade first extend=20 million 2nd=50 million right?

[Skykid]

@supergrafx
i'm getting to the 4th boss too skykid but my score is only 38 million .even with 3 lifes i failed tho i lost a life with full bomb stock
i take it for acade first extend=20 million 2nd=50 million right?

You mean 380 million right? I keep making that mistake too.

Thing is it sounds like you're playing arcade - I'm playing Shin!

[dan76]

@supergrafx
i'm getting to the 4th boss too skykid but my score is only 38 million .even with 3 lifes i failed tho i lost a life with full bomb stock
i take it for acade first extend=20 million 2nd=50 million right?

Yep - 20 and 50 in Arcade mode, which is the mode I've been sticking to - Shin is too fiddly for me and Zetzu is easier than Arcade, even though it has that extra stage.

For scoring in Arcade it's important to let all the gold you've collected form a large circle around you before coming out of ninja mode. Once you hit 256 rather than continuing on with A shot, let the enemies bullets reflect off you to make the gold large as quickly as possible. Once done exit ninja, build up the energy and repeat.

I'd also say it's better to have a large circle of gold with a lower hit count (say 150) than a 256 hit count but with most of the gold in a small circle when exiting. Also, try and reach 256 as soon as possible, otherwise gold you collected early will start to turn red and disappear before the more recent gold has had a chance of making the large circle.

To get lots of gold in one go shoot some popcorn enemies with C to make more bullets (they're pink) then switch to A. Sometimes killing a couple of enemies this way will add 100+ hit points.

Later on if you've lost a life and have a larger Energy bar you can exit ninja mode and go straight back into it continuing the hit counter. I've managed to do this three times in a row on stage 4 getting the hit counter up to 800+ (though I'm still not exactly sure what the hit counter does...).

And lastly (!) shooting an enemy in ninja mode that is firing red lasers will automatically turn the lasers into large gold.

[Skykid]

@supergrafx
i'm getting to the 4th boss too skykid but my score is only 38 million .even with 3 lifes i failed tho i lost a life with full bomb stock
i take it for acade first extend=20 million 2nd=50 million right?

Yep - 20 and 50 in Arcade mode, which is the mode I've been sticking to - Shin is too fiddly for me and Zetzu is easier than Arcade, even though it has that extra stage.

Ah sorry CC, I didn't realise scoring between Shin and arcade was completely different - I've hardly touched arcade tbh.

[supergrafx77]

Thanks dan76! Much appreciated on those scoring mechanics!

[Elixir]

Xbox360 Akai Katana Shin First Release Limited Edition
Sale Price 5,980JPY 30%OFF!
Stock: Now on sale

http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english& ... splay.html

Even cheaper than Amazon.jp, wow.

[cools]

Later on if you've lost a life and have a larger Energy bar you can exit ninja mode and go straight back into it continuing the hit counter. I've managed to do this three times in a row on stage 4 getting the hit counter up to 800+ (though I'm still not exactly sure what the hit counter does...).

Not quite sure either, but from what I can tell the hit counter indicates the number of pieces of gold you've generated total. It's not used as a multiplier, just to indicate how much your scoring potential is from the currently gathered gold.

[Zeron]

Show how many units did this sell?

[MSZ]

Show how many units did this sell?

Around 6000 copies.

[DrTrouserPlank]

Show how many units did this sell?

Around 6000 copies.

They could have doubled that easily by making it region free.

Whilst being a Hori gives it some hope of getting a localisation I doubt it will, and region-free sales are worth more than the rights to license it to a publisher (especially if no-one is interested in picking it up.)

[Aisha]

Media Create reported about 5600 units moved during the game's first week, but as I understand it, they don't count online sales, so the actual number of sales should be quite a bit higher.

[BulletMagnet]

Not sure if any of our Japanese-literate members are interested, but I finally borrowed a camera and took some screenshots of (I think) all of the menus, in hopes that someone would be kind enough to translate 'em and provide a one-stop info source for the non-multilingual among us. I know that a hunk of the selections are pretty obvious, but I took a pic of everything just for the sake of completeness.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might do this, hopefully these are clear enough:

[Special World]

IIRC EOJ said he's translate the menus if anybody posted pictures, you might wanna post 'em on his site.

I would like to see a translation as well.

[BulletMagnet]

If anyone with an account at cave-stg wants to transplant these over there and then link/post the translations here, go for it.

[DrTrouserPlank]

If anyone with an account at cave-stg wants to transplant these over there and then link/post the translations here, go for it.

I've just copied them over.

[Deets]

aight got Japanese IME working again less go
Note: I don't actually own this game, so feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong.

From top to bottom:
1P出撃　-> 1P Start
1Pスコアアタック　-> 1P Score Attack
トレーニング　->　Training
順位　-> Ranking
リプレイ　-> Replay
設定　-> Settings


通常ゲーム設定 -> General Settings

操作方法 -> Controls
画面設定 -> Screen
サウンド -> Sound
ストレージ設定 -> Storage

メインメニューに戻る -> Main Menu


設定タイプ　＜Ｂセット＞ -> Setting Type < Setting B >

プレイヤータイプ -> Player Type: (character names above portrait)
ステージ -> Stage:
単独 -> Single stage

ミース　ノーミス　-> Miss/No Miss
エクステンド　-> Extend at...

ライフ -> Lives
ＭＡＸゲージ -> Max Gauge stock


バトルタイプ　-> Battle Type ("Fighter" in this case, as opposed to "Attack" mode, presumably)
ボム -> Bomb stock
祈導アイテム -> Item count (total, followed by sizes)
ダメージ -> Damage %
祈導ゲージ -> Item Gauge

[Back Button]1p/2pセレクト -> 1p/2p Select
[Start Button]1p出撃 -> 1p Start

[A Button]カスタム　-> Confirm Settings
戻る -> Return


配置タイプ <Ａ　式＞ -> Config Type < A >
ショット -> Shot
ボム -> Bomb
オートショット -> Autofire
念身 -> Transform


Ｘ座標オフセット　-> X Offset
Ｙ座標オフセット -> Y Offset
ゲーム画面拡大倍率 -> Overall Screen Magnification
横拡大倍率 -> Horizontal Screen Magnification
縦拡大倍率 -> Vertical Screen Magnification
スムージング -> Smoothing On/Off
壁紙設定 -> Wallpaper
壁紙輝度 -> Wallpaper Brightness
ワイド表示 -> Widescreen Display Yes/No


ＢＧＭ音量 -> Music Volume
ＳＥ音量 -> Effects Volume
ボイス音量 -> Voice Volume
ＢＧＭ選択 -> Soundtrack Selection
赤い刀真ＢＧＭ -> Akai Katana Shin -- アレンジ　-> Arrange Soundtrack
赤い刀ＢＧＭ -> Akai Katana -- オリジナル -> Original Soundtrack


オートセーブ　-> Auto-save on/off
リプレイ保存 -> Replay saving on/off

ストレージ選択 -> Select storage device
ＳＡＶＥ
ＬＯＡＤ

[BulletMagnet]

Thanks much, this ought to be helpful to a fair hunk of us.

[Casper<3]

Can someone help me with the scoring in Shin (red) mode.

Heres what I've learned from playing.

Fill E gauge with Laser, then fill the ring around your ship with using Rapid.

Flip to Ninja mode and use laser on a large target to change your energy balls into Katanas. Use spread shot to refill balls and rinse and repeat to create more katanas. Once katanas are full, use Laser until your gauge is almost depleted and Katanas turn red. Use laser to launch Katanas and then flip instantly into normal mode to score a massive amount of gold.

On bosses after launching your first set of energy balls you have to laser to score katanas from the boss upclose.

Is this correct? Is there anything more to scoring in Shin mode?

[MrFog]

Has anyone found settings to play arcade mode on a 4:3 display and fill the entire screen?

Turning off widescreen mode seems to make it even worse than it normally is, I now have a tiny box in the middle of my screen surrounded by 4 black borders.

Increasing the size with the option Overall Screen Magnification seems to hit a wall at the top and bottom for no reason.