Instruction Manuals

[n0rtygames]

Weird question.. has anyone here actually sat and read the instruction manual for a shmup before playing? I think I might have read Akai Katana's out of boredom once or twice - but for the most part gameplay knowledge seems to get absorbed via t'interwebs..

Reason I'm asking - a bit of feedback I had lately is that the game I shall soon be releasing doesn't actually tell the player at any point that they need to hold the laser button to push back lasers. I don't think DFK told me during gameplay either. I just knew from watching videos and reading posts.

So, before home ports and forums - before STG communities.. how did most of you learn how to play effectively? Trial and error? Reading the instructions on the cabinet?

I simply must know!

[emphatic]

You should do an instruction video and have it play before the game starts (after character select).

[AntiFritz]

As a fan of instruction manuals in general; I have, yes. Most game manuals are trash though.

[Jeneki]

I'd estimate maybe 5% of my shmup instruction manuals are in a language I can read, so I generally don't use them to learn to play. I mostly use websites or faqs found online.

[n0rtygames]

You should do some work instead of looking for quick and cheap ways out you lazy coder bastard...

FINE.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Weird question.. has anyone here actually sat and read the instruction manual for a shmup before playing? I think I might have read Akai Katana's out of boredom once or twice - but for the most part gameplay knowledge seems to get absorbed via t'interwebs..

I read the instruction manuals for most games before playing; I know I did with Deathsmiles, DoDonpachi Resurrection and Akai Katana. I agree that a lot of the in-depth tricks you read about online, but I am a firm believer that games should come with, at the very least, a text help file with the instructions on how to play, as not everyone is necessarily always going to be able to go online to search for them (and it's convenient to look up and have).

I don't think DFK told me during gameplay either.

Actually, DFK does 'tell' you in two ways: the first is the demo sequence. If you simply watched that in the arcades you'd see lasers being pushed back. The second is that none of the enemies in the first level that use lasers use them in a very threatening way (i.e. they're mostly fired off to the sides to make a pattern pretty or straight ahead where you could simply avoid them easily). By the time you get to the Stage 1 boss, you'll know that lasering is stronger and it's natural to laser during the boss (at which point you should notice her lasers being pushed as she fires a number of them downwards). Even if you never laser, the lasers in Stage 1 can be dodged by moving out of the way anyways. You're bound to notice it in DFK eventually.

The problem with Chronoblast (when I tried the beta demo) was that Stage 1 uses DFK Stage 5 style horizontal lasers right at the beginning, hence, if you don't know what to do (and aren't lasering) then you die, period. No chance to even move out of the way of the laser (they were also a bit less distinct visually than DFK's I think), so when I showed off the game to someone else, he didn't understand what was killing him or what to do at that segment until I realized that there were blockable lasers at the start.

[Quantium]

Just a little off topic, but does anyone happen to have a scan or translation of the akai katana manual? I just picked up the NTSCJ version, and I'm still learning to read Japanese. Seems like there's a lot of game play talk in there.