Konami brings Otomedius Excellent (Xbox 360) to U.S.

[Korszca]

Any idea as to when we can see that stuff stateside?

Eventually.*

*subject to various delays of several months to a year

[BulletMagnet]

Yeah, there is, she does double damage.

I guess that's something, though it's kind of rendered meaningless since her option count (and thus her offensive power) has already been halved, and that doesn't take into account the reduced screen coverage. Trollface costume DLC skin in the works?

[dieKatze88]

Yeah, there is, she does double damage.

I guess that's something, though it's kind of rendered meaningless since her option count (and thus her offensive power) has already been halved, and that doesn't take into account the reduced screen coverage. Trollface costume DLC skin in the works?

Well no not really, depending on the weapon option count doesn't matter, like Wave for example, the cooldown on Wave is enormous. Hyper Anoa with Double Damage will hit for more with 3 shots than Anoa will with 5.

[Estebang]

Any idea how well this has been selling? If Konami USA decides there's not enough of a market, they could easily skip town on the DLC. Gotta pay fees to Microsoft for every release.

[NeoStrayCat]

Well, for those who have the NA version, the first batch of DLC just released now, and here's what we got.

Kokoro Belmont for 400MSP, with Comp. Pack. (Free)

and BGM Packs 2/3/4, for Tron, Madoka, and Diol for 440MSP each.

Not bad, only interested in Kokoro for now, the rest (BGM) is too much though.

[Estebang]

Not surprised that they released Kokoro first here, considering Castlevania's popularity in the West.

[NeoStrayCat]

And then by next week or so I'm guessing, Straf, and then the rest of the BGM packs, then the Extra Outfits and Gamer Pics if possible.

[Korszca]

Kokoro's pretty good. Only downside is that she has 7 powerup slots.
Still not as bad as Hyper Anoa (sorry again, NSC).

[NeoStrayCat]

Nah, that's OK, I just need Hyper Anoa to get all her weapons to get the W.C.M. achievement and herself leveled up to Adam Kadmon to get my full 1000G though.

And for how its selling, dunno, you can check the leads, but that doesn't make the total count of people that bought it though, since most of that is Score Attack releated.

[mrsmiley381]

IGN Has A Feature Video

It's obnoxious. Prepare to rage.

[Korszca]

It's sad that we live in a world where you have to pay a lot of money to get any review that doesn't explicitly say "this is not a good game." Meanwhile they couldn't beat the first stage, so basically, "it sucks because we're bad at it so let's make fun of the graphics to mask our inability to play video games."

This of course is from the same caliber of people who say that Deathsmiles is too easy and offers no replay value because they beat it in 20 minutes on their very first try, without ever mentioning that they used 50 continues in the process.

I haven't read game review sites in a while, since I don't play FPS games and they're the only games rated positively.

[mrsmiley381]

My biggest complaints with the game aren't with the loli anime girls, but with the DLC. Bonus tracks and characters should be part of the damn game to start. Especially the Life Force tracks. I shouldn't have to pay for that. Konami should be thanking me for my purchase by making that the default soundtrack.

Image contrast drives me crazy too, but if I can get over it in Garegga I can get over it in this.

This is also my 200th post, so go me. I shall celebrate by agreeing with Korszca that game review sites are garbage. I probably should use something other than IGN for game news anyway.

[dieKatze88]

IGN Has A Feature Video

It's obnoxious. Prepare to rage.

I love the fact that we live in a world where people who are supposed to be professionals are allowed to act like 12 year olds on video, and because a game isn't going to be instantly popular with 95% of the console's installed base, that's totally OK.


Seriously, this is why I want to start a review site some days.

[Korszca]

Seriously, this is why I want to start a review site some days.

Go for it. I'd support that.

[Estebang]

Horrifying.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Hehe you guys will probably hate the Detoid review. In this case the reviewer is a shmupper, but just hates the game and is taking the piss out of it.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-otome ... 5924.phtml

Does the review belong in the Bad Shmup Reviews Thread? imo nope, he "gets" shmups but just doesnt like the game, I think thats all we can ask for from a reviewer

BTW as I commented in review, why do you guys like this game? From what I can tell from the odd vid ive seen its pretty much mediocre

[Estebang]

Strictly above-average.

[Shuurin]

Kokoro's pretty good. Only downside is that she has 7 powerup slots.
Still not as bad as Hyper Anoa (sorry again, NSC).

I regret grabbing her, and I was excited to use her being a huge Castlevania fan.

As a side distraction she is different than the rest of the cast and fun for the first hour or so. Once the new factor wears off her flaws are greatly apparent. She is simply terrible compared to everyone except maybe Fuuma. Hyper Anoa is better than her from at least having two options, although Belmont's burst is far better. Her damage is almost solely from the Triton at rank 3 and with only one option, a option that doesn't even follow your weapon property she ranks leagues below the other girls in damage and crowd control. I found it impossible to break down Tetron's barriers in stage 2 after several attempts, kind of kills her scoring potential in score attack. The Triton also does not shoot missiles/bombs and ranks back from a twin laser to a pea shooter when you die.

[Korszca]

Hehe you guys will probably hate the Detoid review. In this case the reviewer is a shmupper, but just hates the game and is taking the piss out of it.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-otome ... 5924.phtml

Does the review belong in the Bad Shmup Reviews Thread? imo nope, he "gets" shmups but just doesnt like the game, I think thats all we can ask for from a reviewer

BTW as I commented in review, why do you guys like this game? From what I can tell from the odd vid ive seen its pretty much mediocre

Honestly, I'd rather have the IGN review than what I just read. OK, he didn't like the game. That's fine. I fail to really see why he didn't like it and that would make the review interesting and meaningful. The crap he posted is going to scare away potential players; they will think shmups are for creepy, sexually deprived people with no lives and prison sentences. He seems to think the game is a console port (of what arcade game, exactly?), he complains about the game not having English voice-overs and awkward menu navigation, yet the review pictures are of the Japanese game (check the speech text). That wreaks of unprofessionalism, how can you be so lazy you don't take pics of your own game?
If this reviewer "gets" shmups reading the comments section, I surely missed it. He looks to be a poor player trying to pass himself off as an expert.
As to why I like the game, I don't play much of the single player but I enjoy playing coop. Deathsmiles coop never worked well for me (not sure if it was lag or I always played with bad players but it was never fun), but with OXE I find myself being able to have a full session in coop and enjoying myself. Without the online coop, the game I think would be a pass for me.

[Bananamatic]

at least the second review was an entertaining read

[Estebang]

Destructoid is seriously the worst major gaming "journalism" site out there.

Yes, worse than IGN, The Escapist and Kotaku.

I mean, could they at least try to make sure their writers display the tiniest shreds of professionalism and expertise?

[BaliBlast]

The IGN video has been "crashing" on me all morning at about the 1:30 mark. Tried playback in Firefox and IE with the same result. Bummer. The Destructoid review premise I actually find very amusing. I think this is a game that will sell to a known audience and those that weren't already in to the vibe won't be swayed by a review. Those that are don't care about the review, either. I think the Dtoid piece is humor as much as a review. And, while most sites rarely venture to the 3 range of their scale, I actually think Dtoids definition of a 3 ("Poor: 3s went wrong somewhere along the line. The original idea might have promise, but in practice the game has failed. Threatens to be interesting sometimes, but rarely.") isn't completely off-base from what I've heard in other impressions. My copy is in the mail, though...

[Korszca]

The IGN video has been "crashing" on me

That's just IGN's player. It sucks and rarely works. What you have to do when it freezes is click on the progress bar right after the current position and it will play another bit of the video. Repeat ad nauseum until the video is finished.

[BaliBlast]

Thank you, that worked.

[Bananamatic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDz-oE2 ... ture=feedf

here's the IGN video on youtube

the comments make me go into a berserker rage despite hating konami shumps and finding this one rather boring

[NeoStrayCat]

To me, I don't give 2 cents about reviews anymore, anything that I get/buy is already good for me, even if its bad or not.

[NzzpNzzp]

Hehe you guys will probably hate the Detoid review. In this case the reviewer is a shmupper, but just hates the game and is taking the piss out of it.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-otome ... 5924.phtml

Does the review belong in the Bad Shmup Reviews Thread? imo nope, he "gets" shmups but just doesnt like the game, I think thats all we can ask for from a reviewer

Actually yeah I think if a review of a Gradius game complains about there being a boss rush then it actually is a terrible review.
Same thing if the reviewer doesn't like slowdown but then starts talking up Deathsmiles.
Same thing again with the complaining about speed ups even though Otomedius is better than any other Gradius game in that department.


Being able to name two shooters while knowing nothing about them doesn't actually make someone an expert.

[dieKatze88]

The only kind of reasonable review that this game is going to get is from someone who likes it a bit, and realizes that there are some good things here. It's not a pile of slag game that it's been getting from everyone ever. Shooting games may be going through a resurgence, but it's pretty clear that Gradius was not part of that from the beginning, so nobody knows what to expect here. There's a whole lot less wrong with Otomedius G or X if you go in expecting Gradius, with Gradius references, Gradius mechanics and Gradius bosses. Of course, that's an expectation that most people don't have. Everyone harps on the great things about every other shooting game released in the past 5 years, but nobody seems to ever get past what they don't like about any game released by Konami ending in "dius". Even I'm guilty of this with my absolute refusal to play Gradius Rebirth because it's hitboxes are: 1. Multiple, and 2. Absurd.

It's pretty clear that this game isn't going to get a decent review, even if it seems to have had reasonably good sales considering what I was expecting, and what I'm seeing. That's fine. Lets hope that Konami pays more attention to the later, and less to the former, and keeps releasing games in the United States, because even if you're not a huge fan of Otomedius, you can't deny the very thought that seeing Otomedius on a shelf somewhere outside Japan isn't making other developers think that there's just enough market out there to bother releasing these games outside Japan. If Konami is willing to risk it, then there's probably a market for it.

[Shuurin]

Being able to name two shooters while knowing nothing about them doesn't actually make someone an expert.

This is why I don't follow any game journalists or reviewers. There is a serious lack of insight in the majority.

Otomedius Excellent is by no means a great game. It is a decent game and still fun to play, despite the kinks and I'm glad I own it.

[Korszca]

FWIW, I thought this was a great review:
http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/ ... llent-360/

Reviewer knows the material, can compare it to personal experience with relevant games (like the original Otomedius and other Konami shooters), and while there's one or two technical flaws (surprise at boss time-out, unlimited continues) he states what he likes and what he doesn't and I can appreciate what he wrote because he made an informed opinion on the game, even if I personally disagree.

Though it didn't read as a 2.5/5 but I can forgive him for that. Editors and such.