DoDonPachi Saidaioujou coming to Xbox 360 (REGION-FREE!)

[Frenetic]

dang blackoak you are such a great treasure to the shmups scene

thank you thank you thank you

[Hagane]

Thanks for the translation blackoak.

I seriously hope you can turn off all the extra voice acting. It seems they are adding tons of stuff to attract casuals, which is good as long as it doesn't interfere with normal play. Didn't know Deathsmiles was so successful. 240,000 units worldwide is a ton for an STG.

[trap15]

*flips table* Screw you Asada, you've ruined CAVE. You don't need stupid gimmicky anime shit to tell a story. Just look at Taito STG for storytelling STG. I'll probably buy this anyways, but it's pretty unlikely that I'll be playing this arrange mode.

On a more positive note, Ikeda not making any more games? Maybe we'll get some more Yagawa then?...

[Trevor spencer]

Ikeda not making any more games? .

A sad day indeed

[trap15]

Sad to IKD fans, maybe. Quite a great day for some of us

[chempop]

I also want to add an illustration gallery mode, which we haven't really had in any of our games so far. Of course, you won't use real money in this shop, only coins which you're rewarded with in-game.

This is nice to hear. I liked the store in Mars Matrix, and while it's somewhat of a superficial illusion of progress I think it's a good feature. I miss the art galleries too which the PS2 ports had but 360 ports were sorely lacking.

[bcass]

So DS sold 200,000 units outside Japan, most of which were to Europe, dwarfing domestic sales. I bet Cave are kicking themselves that they didn't self publish for that one. That must easily be their best ever selling title, by quite some margin. They're barking up the wrong alley though if they think it sold so well because of the story...

[chum]

Cave have been trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator for a while, no news there. Like it or hate it, all the fluff is positive for them (as far as I know) and the "hardcore" crowd are content as long as the game plays well, so...

I still fucking hate Cave though since they refuse to make games appealing

[Tyjet]

The shop feature sounds great. Good thing that it uses "in game" money not real money.

[chempop]

Sad to IKD fans, maybe. Quite a great day for some of us

Are you assuming Yagawa will replace him? Keep dreaming sweet prince.

[trap15]

That's what I'm hoping. I know it won't happen, but I'll be glad to see something different either way.

[Hagane]

They'll stick to making more Deathsmiles.

[monouchi]

Wheres the 16:9 tate mode.

[dan76]

Thanks blackoak.

Asada is a dumb ass. Who the hell wants to play with constant talking in the background? Also, why cheer IKD not making games anymore - wtf?

Bleh to all these different modes... still looking forward to this though. Hopefully arcade/360 mode should be accurate.

[emphatic]

Thanks a lot for the translation!

[Squire Grooktook]

*flips table* Screw you Asada, you've ruined CAVE. You don't need stupid gimmicky anime shit to tell a story. Just look at Taito STG for storytelling STG.

Taito basically needs 2 words to make players shed manly tears.

"MISSION COMPLETE"

That is all.

[Weak Boson]

Thank you for the translation!

Personally I quite like what I hear. They're actually making a console game. I'm sure we'd have all been fine with them just slapping it on a disc, but things like variations in story, missions and extra options to dick about with will all let more people get more out of this game. That's a good thing.

"The last game developed by Ikeda and Shimura"? I wonder what this means.

And the team scoring? That would be super fun. I would love a an EU release so much! In fact:

I can confirm rising star will not be bringing it to US or Europe

How the devil do you know that?

[KAI]

Asada is such a fag, I hope he dies.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Asada never has good ideas. Ikeda never has bad ones. I wouldn't even follow gaming at all anymore if it wasn't for Ikeda. Don't care if I'm "a Cave fanboy". Woopideedoo.

He did say "I think" so it doesn't sound official. /hoping

[-S.L-]

Thank you for the translation!

Personally I quite like what I hear. They're actually making a console game. I'm sure we'd have all been fine with them just slapping it on a disc, but things like variations in story, missions and extra options to dick about with will all let more people get more out of this game. That's a good thing.

I play the game now on for two months almost every day, trust me, nobody would ever care of what's going on on the side with the "story", there is not one second off in this game, it's 100% focussing on the game, so the story thing is absolutly useless. I think.

[Special World]

None of this sounds bad to me except that Ikeda won't be making any more games. Dunno what all the Asada hate's for, but I guess I don't know too much about in general.

I'm sure Yagawa won't be big boss or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if he got a larger role in future games. So that could be cool, at least.

[Giest118]

I play the game now on for two months almost every day, trust me, nobody would ever care of what's going on on the side with the "story", there is not one second off in this game, it's 100% focussing on the game, so the story thing is absolutly useless. I think.

I would say it depends on whether the Arrange mode makes the game easier to compensate.

I won't care either way if the arcade mode is simultaneously untouched and badass.

[EmperorIng]

Taito basically needs 2 words to make players shed manly tears.
"MISSION COMPLETE"
That is all.

I'll argue that the Ray games have the best non-joke plots in all of shmup-dom.

/offtopic

Good to see that some folks at Cave are smart enough to see that they need to expand their userbase to stay in the game.

I think the art-style is just the hook to get people into the game, but once they're in, you can't scare them away with the usual Cave style (which is apparently why Deathsmiles did so well).

[BPzeBanshee]

So DS sold 200,000 units outside Japan, most of which were to Europe, dwarfing domestic sales. I bet Cave are kicking themselves that they didn't self publish for that one. That must easily be their best ever selling title, by quite some margin. They're barking up the wrong alley though if they think it sold so well because of the story...

I had a feeling Deathsmiles did well but didn't think it was that good. To date it's been the only shmup I've seen hit retail stores in my homecity in Darwin, and while I've heard other forum members say they've seen other PAL Cave releases in Adelaide I've not seen it here myself, ergo there must be a certain level of market penetration that Deathsmiles had that the rest didn't.

I'm not liking some of the stuff that Asada is mentioning. A shop for reducing bullet hitbox size and shit? Isn't that what broke the DOJ iOS port? Hopefully they at least know to make such modifications disqualify you from highscores.

[Squire Grooktook]

Taito basically needs 2 words to make players shed manly tears.
"MISSION COMPLETE"
That is all.

I'll argue that the Ray games have the best non-joke plots in all of shmup-dom.

/offtopic.

Yeah. To bring it back on topic, I think there's several ways story can be handled effectively in shmups.

You can do it like R-Type Final, bring an intriguing atmosphere, and litter the game with all sorts of lore (logs, beastiary entries, ship data), which the player will ultimately feel compelled to track down and piece together the big picture.

You can do it like Rayforce, and have basically a mute sprite puppet show, which ultimately tells a story through it's art, music, and set pieces.

Or you can do it like Dodonpachi/Raystorm, having it seem pretty standard and unremarkable right up till the end and hit you with a HUGE FUCKING TWIST out of nowhere that makes you feel bad about everything you just did.

And of course you can always fall back on cut scene's like Radiant Silvergun.

I think having non stop talking throughout the whole game could work, just as long as the voice acting and dialogue is good. And of course assuming it's handled with some restraint and isn't just constant gibber gabber in your ear as you play.

Just my 2 cents.

[trap15]

You can do it like Rayforce, and have basically a mute sprite puppet show, which ultimately tells a story through it's art, music, and set pieces.

Personally I think this is the best way to do it. Lots of Taito STG do it like this, and it really does impact the player.

Toss on an invulnerability cheat and play through Gun Frontier. You'll be moved to tears. Also epic wild-west showdown for a last boss? Fucking amazing.

[adversity1]

I think SDOJ will be the last game that is developed by Ikeda and Shimura.

Correction:

Shimura=Ichimura.
By the grammar I believe he's inferring that this will be the last time he works with Ikeda and Ichimura.

Revised:

I think SDOJ will be the last game that I work together with Ikeda and Ichimura to create.

Ah, one more: Nagira = Ryou Nagi, see here: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%87%AA%E8%89%AF

[pestro87]

The only thing that I can think of that's positive about the story/novice/anime mode is that maybe it will actually be possible to clear inbachi now :/

[Formless God]

Since the VA was nowhere nearly as ear-raping as Galuda 2 and Mushi I guess I could live with it. The lines sometimes match the pace of the boss fight and the music which I thought was neat. 400+ sounds pretty overkill though.

In the FPS genre, its a common feature that after you clear the game once, you unlock different modes, like no enemy mode
Thinking of ways to increase its appeal to non-STG fans is something we're continually exploring

asd pls

[AntiFritz]

Since the VA was nowhere nearly as ear-raping as Galuda 2 and Mushi I guess I could live with it. The lines sometimes match the pace of the boss fight and the music which I thought was neat. 400+ sounds pretty overkill though.

In the FPS genre, its a common feature that after you clear the game once, you unlock different modes, like no enemy mode
Thinking of ways to increase its appeal to non-STG fans is something we're continually exploring

asd pls

I honestly can't think of one fps that does this...