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[Cagar]

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[Paradigm]

Let's talk about the game, I haven't seen ANY topics or discussions about it as long as I've been here.

Well you've only been here just over two months, try the search function.

Here's a thread discussing the game and its autofire.

[Cagar]

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[ChainsawGuitarSP]

The learning process will be painful, yes, but once you know what you're doing (which a lot of people don't) you really don't have to strain yourself nearly as much as the autofire users say you do. Just make sure that when you have your waveshot to get white bullets on it ASAP, otherwise you're not killing much of anything. Also, certain enemies spawn on the opposite plane you're on so you'll have to position yourself ahead of time to get them.

[R79]

One of the first shooters I ever bought, circa late '90s, cuz, hey it was cheap But even so, the graphics and sound just blew me away. I found it pretty hard though, but a few years later I found out that the auto-fire 'cheat' was legit. Made the game even cooler! Nice cover art as well of course (on Saturn).

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

the auto-fire 'cheat' was legit.

In a way, this is true.

Made the game even cooler!

This is wrong no matter how you look at it.

[Hagane]

Game is not too hard if you get the wave shot and stay at least a that power level. It goes through everything and lets you kill annoying enemies before they get close to do anything.

I think it's a nice game, a bit broken scoring wise though. And contrary to pretty much everyone, I hate the soundtrack.

[R79]

Well, inputting the code for the rapid fire made the game cooler for a basic player like myself, as it enabled me to see much more of the game without pressing continue

I guess the visual style with the mechanical fishes has a kind of a Marmite factor, in you either love it or hate it. I personally thought it was awesome, and would still like to play the 3d one that was on PS1, even though I've read back on here it's a bit rough round the edges.

[Estebang]

I guess the visual style with the mechanical fishes has a kind of a Marmite factor, in you either love it or hate it. I personally thought it was awesome, and would still like to play the 3d one that was on PS1, even though I've read back on here it's a bit rough round the edges.

It's specifically the PS1 port of G-Darius that's rough around the edges, due to the copious amounts of slowdown, although the graphics are retained. If you can emulate the arcade version or play it on Taito Legends 2, it's arguably the best Darius there is. It can also be considered G.Rev's first shmup and a precursor to Border Down.

The graphics are still mind-blowing if you have any affection for 32-bit polygons, and it's balanced far more fairly than Gaiden.

[louisg]

I've been playing darius gaiden on mame recently, and I'd really like to ask your opinion about this game..
Do people consider it as a good game overall, or just unfair random crap like I do?
I remember someone mentoning that completing this game without cheating is "rare footage", is this true? Is the game just rare, or bad? In what way It's rare footage?

My take on it is that it's a very entertaining game with a lot of variety, great art and music, good enemy design and placement, and lots of different boss patterns. But, the powerup/powerdowns are poorly balanced and using the autofire cheat makes it much more playable (given that the default rate of fire is too slow to do anything with).

[Estebang]

Regarding autofire, the same is very much true with Taito's Gun Frontier, which is brutally difficult without autofire but well-balanced and playable with it.

Let's not even talk about Irem's Thunder Blaster.

[MathU]

The natural firing rate works well with the game. If you're having trouble with long, repetitive attack sequences for any bosses but Great Thing, then you're either powering up your main shot weapon at the wrong time, or not making full use of your missiles (which are generally much more damaging). The autofire cheat in the Saturn port utterly breaks a game that is already a bit on the easy side when you understand and manipulate its underlying mechanics. You really are missing out on much of the depth--part of the thrill that the game was originally designed around--when you use autofire in Darius Gaiden.

At the very least, you're missing some cool boss attacks when you blow most of them up before they can even switch to them. You can do this to a few bosses while not using autofire, but not nearly to the same extent.

[Herr Schatten]

It's a mediocre, yet somewhat entertaining, game with excellent presentation.

And contrary to pretty much everyone, I hate the soundtrack.

You're not alone.

[Captain]

get mame++

if has an autofire function.

[evil_ash_xero]

Let's talk about the game, I haven't seen ANY topics or discussions about it as long as I've been here.

Well you've only been here just over two months, try the search function.

Here's a thread discussing the game and its autofire.

In all fairness, I have to use Google to find threads on here. The search function on this board is...umm...lacking.

[louisg]

The natural firing rate works well with the game. If you're having trouble with long, repetitive attack sequences for any bosses but Great Thing, then you're either powering up your main shot weapon at the wrong time, or not making full use of your missiles (which are generally much more damaging). The autofire cheat in the Saturn port utterly breaks a game that is already a bit on the easy side when you understand and manipulate its underlying mechanics. You really are missing out on much of the depth--part of the thrill that the game was originally designed around--when you use autofire in Darius Gaiden.

At the very least, you're missing some cool boss attacks when you blow most of them up before they can even switch to them. You can do this to a few bosses while not using autofire, but not nearly to the same extent.

Point blanking bosses with powered up missiles and shot, at the default autofire rate, some of them still last long enough to cause the Saturn's music track to have to rewind I agree that the autofire cheat is a little too fast. It's too bad there's no in-between setting.

I think it's more broken without the cheat though.

[MathU]

I wasn't even referring to point-blanking except for those ultra-quick boss kills that let you outright skip some of their patterns. It's not so much that as just making sure one of your missile streams hits. When you upgrade to homing missiles you can just hold back against the edge of the screen and they'll arc back and then forward to precisely target damaging points in a steady stream, making short work of most of the remaining bosses in the game while you safely keep your distance. The game is very manageable--without ending up with monotonous looping patterns--by just learning where to attack a boss and what stage of shot power-up is most effective against it (usually a combination of piercing and white bullets). Do this with autofire and it becomes a total joke.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

On Tatio Legends 2 PS2, I set the square button and circle button to fire, X is set to bomb when I play Darius Gaiden. There is apparently no autofire code. But alternating fingers on the two fire buttons is plenty fast (then hold the button when the boss pauses for the next attack for a brief rest before manually quick firing again) and the X button is close enough that either finger can hit it.

Soundtrack, it's different, but I like it a lot. Some tracks are mellow and melodic, but the best tracks (I think) are the more dissonant sounding rock or techno sounding tracks.

[louisg]

I wasn't even referring to point-blanking except for those ultra-quick boss kills that let you outright skip some of their patterns. It's not so much that as just making sure one of your missile streams hits. When you upgrade to homing missiles you can just hold back against the edge of the screen and they'll arc back and then forward to precisely target damaging points in a steady stream, making short work of most of the remaining bosses in the game while you safely keep your distance. The game is very manageable--without ending up with monotonous looping patterns--by just learning where to attack a boss and what stage of shot power-up is most effective against it (usually a combination of piercing and white bullets). Do this with autofire and it becomes a total joke.

Yeah, autofire is a little too fast. I think it's a valid way to play that particular game though without getting carpal tunnel!

[MathU]

You can play through the game just fine in the manner I described without ever mashing actually. It does help a bit though. Imagine mashing the button during a relatively safe period and holding it down during a tricky attack while you focus on dodging. That's an extra little layer of tension it provides the game, should you choose to mash.


And I don't want it to seem like I'm just being argumentative now , but... It is a common misconception that you can get carpal tunnel syndrome from button mashing, or mouse overuse for that matter. While it is true that carpal tunnel syndrome is typically associated with tasks that put stress on the median nerve (possibly involving the index finger, but forceful thumb activity would be more likely to play a role), it tends to come from repetitive strenuous wrist activity, and there have been no studies with evidence linking video game activities as factors leading to it. You might end up with a raw hand after some intense sessions, but it's not the same thing as carpal tunnel syndrome.

[louisg]

You can play through the game just fine in the manner I described without ever mashing actually. It does help a bit though. Imagine mashing the button during a relatively safe period and holding it down during a tricky attack while you focus on dodging. That's an extra little layer of tension it provides the game, should you choose to mash.


And I don't want it to seem like I'm just being argumentative now , but... It is a common misconception that you can get carpal tunnel syndrome from button mashing, or mouse overuse for that matter. While it is true that carpal tunnel syndrome is typically associated with tasks that put stress on the median nerve (possibly involving the index finger, but forceful thumb activity would be more likely to play a role), it tends to come from repetitive strenuous wrist activity, and there have been no studies with evidence linking video game activities as factors leading to it. You might end up with a raw hand after some intense sessions, but it's not the same thing as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Haha, gotcha. Yeah I've played it in the manner you described. It can be fun, but also tiring.

[davyK]

The Saturn version has no high score save which really pisses me off.......

[R79]

Pen 'n' paper bro You'll enjoy the entire Mega Drive STG back-catalogue

[hashiriya1]

Quick question. I was playing with this game tonight and I realized my final score ends with a "4". Why is that? All the Darius Gaiden scores I see end in "zero". I didn't continue. What gives?

[Herr Schatten]

Quick question. I was playing with this game tonight and I realized my final score ends with a "4". Why is that? All the Darius Gaiden scores I see end in "zero". I didn't continue. What gives?

You probably used more than one credit. A lot of games store the number of used credits in the last digit of the score, so those scores are easily identified.

[Deca]

He directly stated in his post that he did not continue.

[gs68]

rank system wwww

if you've mastered the fine art of not dying it's simple

if you haven't, brace for futility

[Mordecai Walfish]

Darius Gaiden is great, I particularly enjoyed playing through the game with 2 players my 1st time through. Psychedelic fish robot battles to the zany music of Zuntata.. who speaking of which is one of the prime reasons that G-Darius is better than Gaiden (besides the improved balancing). Both games are by far my 2 favorite in the series.. my first was Darius Twin, I think I got that the week it came out on SNES (and Gradius 3)


I played Darius Burst on PSP recently too and that is extremely good as well.. shorter than normal but more longevity added with the missions, different ships, and burst mode.

IF you haven't tried the PSP one yet and you're a fan of either Gaiden or G-Darius, you seriously owe it to yourself to give it a try. It's an easier, more casual outing, but excellent all the same.. it carries the feel of Darius Gaiden more, I'd say, but with a similar (but much better looking) 3d presentation, compared to G-Darius.