Espgaluda II -official-

Geezer · Post by **Geezer** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:47 pm

Is this on the same hardware as Ibara? (Also, was Mushi on the same hardware as Ibara?)

Geezer

parodius · Post by **parodius** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:29 pm

Yes Mushihimesama and Ibara were on the same HW.
And I don't see why ESPGaluda II shouldn't be, as it is also a 2D game and Cave's latest hardware has been in use for less than a year.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:49 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Better shot of the cardboard people. Call me a dope smoking asshole, but I think Ageha and Tateha are coming back)

An even better one (full group) is at http://kmc2ppm.sakura.ne.jp/joyful/img/1523.jpg
(I have this saved. If it goes down, give me a shout.)

Cave continues to update their AM 2005 page. Interpreting a machine-translation:

Masaki Hirooka (character artist for ESPGaluda II) visited the booth for some time, posed for pictures with the cosplay girls.
ESPGaluda II is the most popular shooting game/shmup at the show.
There is a massively long line to play the game. Many people walk inside the main doors and go straight to the ESPGaluda II machines :D

GaijinPunch is away in Japan, hoping to catch at least part of the show, but he was expecting to arrive at noon or later. I'm not fully understanding part of today's update, but it sounds like the doors were closed at 11:00am?
I hope he got a chance to play the game at least once. Fill us in when you get a chance, GP!

edit:

more footage -- from a video display:
http://uppp.dip.jp/src/uppp10598.mpg (9.31 MB)

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:59 am

Holy carp, the enemy/boss/stage designs in this look absolutely off the chain! I'm actually looking forward to this now.

velocity7 · Post by **velocity7** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:33 am

And not too long ago people were picking at this game's art and saying ESPgaluda (1) sucked, and 2 might not be any better...

Now who has the last laugh.

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:01 am

I took some pics while i was at the AM show yesterday. If anyone wants to help me, I'll post them on the internet for everyone to see. Let me know. Thanks.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:08 am

Hey bitches! Well, I made it. Where else but in Japan can you land and take a $125 cab ride that only lasts 20 minutes? The wife and I were pretty tired and didn't want to wait 90 minutes on the bus. Anyways, here's the scoop.

There were 6 cabs... all had a decent little line. Took about an hour. My wife actually queued for me while I went to check out some other goodies at the show. Her going to the show is unheard of, much less lining up for me.

The game feels much like the first one in many ways. Even the first stage boss is very similar to Seseri... but imagine something with Miss Gala (ESPRade) sized yellow trans-lucent wings. Beautiful. Anyways, they seem to have taken a lot of things from their other games. Stage 2 has a horizontally scrolling part (a la Guwange/Ketsui) and some bullets looked like they're ripped straight from Mushihime-sama. On that note, a lot of the patterns feel very Mushihime-sama (maniac mode).

Graphics are of course stunning, and the world feels very similar to that of the original. The sound, from what little you can hear, is good. It's got the same warning sound when you're about to kill a boss. The explosions are really loud this time, with more exploding sprites.

It's hard to say whether or not it's harder than the first. There's a lot of bullets flying around, but I only played once. My guess is that it'll be a bit more difficult.

Asagi: Ugggh.... I do not like using her. That might be why I only made it halfway through stage two. In normal mode, her attacks are pretty good, but her Kakusei weapon sucks, IMHO. You get one very thin laser beam, and the ghosts that surround her turn into... uh... options, and they orbit around the enemy, shooting him directly. There's of course a little delay until they go and attack. Not very user-friendly... at least not the first time.

Now, the good news. I have video of stages 1 and 2... almost in their entirety. My camera isn't fantastic so of course you see the dark sections of the screen due to the frequency. However, I think they're pretty good quality -- you can easily make out the bullet patterns. The bad news? I have absolutely no way to capture it until I'm back, so you'll have to make do.

Oh, yeah a couple of other things. There was a 'special guest' at the Cave booth. I'll post a pic later. Ad yeah -- I got one (only one

) of those little pendant things that Res-o-glass posted. It flashes blue & red. A girl dressed like Ageha was passing them out when you finished w/ the game. She was not bad to look at either.

As for it being the most popular game at the show? I'd believe it. The only other things that had longer lines (90 minutes total) were Psi-Phy... apparently b/c of the learning curve... nobody could do shit in that game. Other than that, the new 8-player (4 on 4) Gundam where you go in the Spaceship and shit. Metal Slug 6, Rajiruki, and Under Defeat all had very modest lines, although I didn't play (I got some video though).

I think I will buy this PCB when it comes out. I'm quite excited about it.

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:09 am

Gald to see you made it! What did you think of ESPG2's level/enemy design? From the video incognoscente posted, it looked really impressive. Is Asagi the one with the wave-looking shot?

Anywho, sounds like you had a good time, I'll look forward to the vids!

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:08 am

thanks for the update,GP! cant wait to see the new videos! maybe ill take the plunge and buy the pcb..but i heard rumored that it will be $1800!!!!

whitey · Post by **whitey** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 6:06 am

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP wrote:thanks for the update,GP! cant wait to see the new videos! maybe ill take the plunge and buy the pcb..but i heard rumored that it will be $1800!!!!

Probably more like $2300 to start. Ibara was $2315.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:59 am

Glad you made it, GP, and thanks for the impressions. It would have been nice to play again so you could see if there were changes to the other characters, but at least you got to play it. All I can do is look for media :)

The videos will be much appreciated, but no rush.

biocat: you can upload the pictures to http://www.imageshack.us if you have nowhere to put them. It doesn't require an account.

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:12 pm

incognoscente wrote:Glad you made it, GP, and thanks for the impressions. It would have been nice to play again so you could see if there were changes to the other characters, but at least you got to play it. All I can do is look for media

The videos will be much appreciated, but no rush.

biocat: you can upload the pictures to http://www.imageshack.us if you have nowhere to put them. It doesn't require an account.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:03 pm

I'm pretty sure the game will list for 240,000 yen (pre-tax). This is what Mushihime-sama, Ibara, and Mushihime-tama have listed for. I hope it's not more... it seems more anticipated than any of the others.

Level and Enemy design: I was quite impressed. While it still has that whole mechanical + feathers motif, the bosses especially and other big enemies are a bit more fluid, and more lifelike... kind of insectish. They definitely brought over some techniques from Mushi.

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:15 pm

biocat wrote:-Pure chaos
http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 4251up.jpg

Heh. Reko, both forms of Asagi, and Tateha cosplay ^_^

Thanks for the info GaijinPunch, and those cool pics biocat. Wish I was there -_-

WarpZone · Post by **WarpZone** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:35 pm

So anyone figure out what new twists there might be on the old gameplay system?

Thanks for the impressions/pics everyone.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:38 pm

The guy on the left in this pic:

biocat wrote: -espGaluda II
http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 3614mu.jpg

Has 16.4 million points already!

That's pretty good for sitting down and playing it for the first time. I'm wondering if Cave made the game more high scoring, like 100+mil as the optimal scores (instead of ~70 mil for the first game)? Or maybe the game isn't that hard and that guy is pretty good.

Also, the high score on that guy's machine is 39mil! An interesting point is the high score ends with a 5. Could this mean they switched to a Mushihimesama style scoring where points are also in the 1-9 range, filling up the last digit of the score normally reserved for number of credits used? In the 16.4 mil score it sorta looks like a 0 but it also sorta looks like an 8. Hmm....

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:55 pm

I didn't pay too much attention to score, but they seemed way higher to me. The high score on my machine was either 13.9 million, or 139 million. I think the latter, but was too buys keeping my boner down to pay attention to it.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:09 pm

Thanks for the pictures, biocat :)

WarpZone wrote:So anyone figure out what new twists there might be on the old gameplay system?

There is a mention of what may be an addition to the ESPGaluda system at kobayan. I'll leave it to those that can read Japanese without machine help.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:09 pm

Good find.

『エスプガルーダII』は基本システムは前作と同じですが、新たに「覚聖絶死界」が追加されました。これは覚聖するとき「Bボタン（覚聖ボタン）」を押し続けると使用できます。使用中は敵の攻撃が猛絶に激しくなりますが、うまく破壊できれば気絶的高得点のチャンスとなります。ただし、覚聖カウンタの減少が通常より速いです。

ESPGaluda II has the same basic system as before, but has added the Kakusei Zesshikai (or maybe Zetsushikai -- the original one is just Kakusei Shikai). To trigger this, when entering kakusei mode, continually hold down the Kakusei (B) button. By doing so, the enemies attack becomes more intense, and is a chance to score more points. However, the kakusei counter depletes faster than usual.

Raidenfighter Kirkov · Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:00 pm

Thank you very much for all the information.

I hope you had a great time at the AM show.

BTW:The promo item looks awsome !

Greetings
RFK

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:01 pm

Thanks for the better translation, GP. Excite wasn't too far off, except for names :)

There is also this, but it might just be a fluff piece:
http://game10.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/gam ... 5844808/19

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:54 pm

Looks like a very quick interview w/ IKD-san, conducted by a fan:

Me: Does the board this time use the SH3 as the core?
IKD: Yes.

Me: Will it end after the first loop like the prequel?
IKD: As of now, no comment.

Me: The [difficulty] selection in Mushihime-sama was fantastic. Will there be anything like this in ESPGaluda II?
IKD: No comment on that either. However, we have tried to make a game that will appeal to the beginners that enjoyed Galuda and the experts that played Mushihime-sama's Ultra Mode.

Me: Speaking of, it seems there are some people here and there playing simultaneously.
IKD: (Laughs).

Me: The first Galuda was a bit irregular with it's 4-button layout, and caused some confusion.
IKD: Last time we rushed it out so could only make the announcement in such a fashion. Of course, this time, if the game requires a 4-button layout, we'll make note of it on the instruction card and in the manual.

Me: Last time with the [closed?] location test, certain people got to play it. Now you can hear whispers of a location test for this one...
IKD: I'm not touching that (laughs). We rushed to get this version ready for the show, so any plans of a location test are completely undetermined.

Me: What would you say about the level of completion for this version?
IKD: Hmmm... maybe half or so? We've got a lot of work to do on the [Kakusei] Zesshikai. (The new kakusei mode, for those not keeping up w/ the thread).

Me: Finally... uh... will Seseri appear in this one? (laughs)
IKD: No comment (laughs).

Me: Thanks. Looking forward to further progress.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:24 am

Was IKD at the show?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:26 am

Yes. He popped in on the 2nd day for a bit. There's a little blurb about it on Cave's page. Look up in the thread as well... I make mention of it. He looks extremely tired.

Valgar · Post by **Valgar** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:48 pm

Did you talk to him?!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 1:09 am

Nah, he was there on the 2nd day. I was there on the 3rd.

incognoscente · Post by **incognoscente** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:14 am

A bit late from me, but thanks for the continued translations, GP.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:43 am

There is a cool video bundle of ESPGaluda 2 on hameko.net for download. It includes video footage of the Level 3 boss, as well as the ENTIRE Level 4 boss fight (albeit in a very, very narrow and small video). Still, better than nothing. You can download it here:

http://www.hameko.net/uploader/upload.php?page=all

It's file # 1855 (hame_1855.lzh)

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:30 pm

The last vid in the bundle gives a good flavour of the patterns in the game - seems very close to the original with a little dodonpachi thrown in. The new character looks nice too with that laser.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:29 pm

I think most of the video was Ageha, not Asagi... I could be wrong though. I didn't see anybody fully charged. I should have videos captured mid-next week. Roughly same quality I'd say.