Homura out in Japanese arcades

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:05 pm

Talk about timing. I'm leaving Japan in 2 days and Homura just came out. At least I got to try it.

System: You have two buttons: fire and blade. Fire... well, I think you can guess what it does. Blade does two things: it either reflects bullets near you or activates a "combo" that makes you kill all the basic enemies onscreen if you hit the button while -really- close to an enemy. Either use of the blade entails several seconds of recharge time. Hitting both buttons together makes you bomb - and your bombs are REALLY powerful.

You main weapon never seems to power up or down... which is a kind of a letdown. Your number of options can change, but I'm not quite clear on how.

Also, whenver you fire (yes, even just tapping the button) you move more slowly. This is kind of disconcerting at first, as you can't move around and just tap the button to move quickly while firing...

Visuals: Decent. It looks a bit more advanced than the average Naomi game, but not as good as Raiden 3 (this is also a Type X game, btw). The scenery varies in quality, from some very dull fields to awesome looking castles. Enemies look allright but a little low on the poly count. Bosses look quite good. The bullets are all sprites, you and all the enemies are polys.

Sound: Barely audible in the arcade I played it in.

I'm not sure if it's good or bad.

Homura feels a bit like a mix of Psyvariar and Giga Wing, but I'm not totally sold on it. It's not bad, but it's not quite great either. I've only played it three or four times now... but I'd give it a 7/10 offhand. Fun but not exceptional.

Edit: If I seem to be being a little harsh in the ratings, I just noticed I forgot to mention something fairly important. Your hitbox is supposedly outlined by a red dot on your character, but I could swear that your hitbox is actually a little larger than the dot is. Either that or the bullets have no "extra" pixels on them (like they do in many games) and touching -any- part of them is lethal.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:10 pm

Uhm, interesting to say the least...but giving a vote after a few plays?Aren't you a bit in a hurry? [/patronizing]

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:16 pm

Randorama wrote:Uhm, interesting to say the least...but giving a vote after a few plays?Aren't you a bit in a hurry? [/patronizing]

Since I won't get to play it again for a loooong time, I figured I'd toss my two cents out right now. Gotta seize the moment!

llabnip · Post by **llabnip** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:19 pm

Randorama wrote:Uhm, interesting to say the least...but giving a vote after a few plays?Aren't you a bit in a hurry? [/patronizing]

Yeah, he's supposed to rate it after just seeing a few screenshots. That's become the norm around here

Anyway, sounds interesting! There just isn't much in the way of new shooters in arcades around here... I guess I should feel lucky in that my local Papa Ginos pizza place had Strikers 1999 (aka Strikers 1945 III) for a year but they just got rid of it... but did put in a Street Fighter Alpha (original) cab in place! ... but some kids broke the 2P joystick so that will probably go and will be replaced by some crazy candy crane thingy.

D · Post by D » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:48 pm

hey Cthulhu

I don't know why the others are bitching.
Thank you for your preliminary report.

I especially was surprised to learn that there are no power ups for the main weapon; which just sucks. I am a power up junkie.

No power ups? How about a shmup without bullets or without enemies/just screens off bullets appearing from anywhere, or how about no backgrounds? Or how about an invisble main ship? All I am saying is that a power up to me is exciting. I'm very curious to see how a main weapon changes when one of these icons are collected, not to mention to do more damage to what is widely regarded as "the enemy". I also like the power down system like SWS. this way there is a strategic element in collecting a power up at the last possible time (before it dissappears) to have the power up in effect longest.

There seems to be very little interest in this title. I posted a thread about it before. No-one responded. I say this game is underrated from the start

Guts · Post by **Guts** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:21 pm

Possible to post some screenshots ?

Platypus[gEc] · Post by **Platypus[gEc]** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:55 pm

llabnip wrote:
Randorama wrote:Uhm, interesting to say the least...but giving a vote after a few plays?Aren't you a bit in a hurry? [/patronizing]
Yeah, he's supposed to rate it after just seeing a few screenshots. That's become the norm around here

No, no. The norm is to completely dismiss a game after seeing a few dodgy dark and blurry pics of the cab it's in

@D just havin' a laugh, hardly bitching

D · Post by D » Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:18 pm

Guts wrote:Possible to post some screenshots ?

As I said before I started a thread earlier.
In there you will find the golden link that will guide you to your screenshots..................and more...

Ramus · Post by **Ramus** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:30 pm

What's the thread titled? Can you possibly link it?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:34 pm

Cthulhu wrote:You main weapon never seems to power up or down...

One of the companies (Skonec, was it?) behind Psyvariar 2 is on the credits list for this game, right? If that's the case then it doesn't surprise me too much...what's the scoring system like, if there is one that you could see? Maybe powering up is dependent on how well you exploit the system, like in Psyvariar?

Post by **system11** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 8:33 pm

This is actually one of the games I'm hoping to see arrive in London so I can go and play it - it's nice for something different to come along.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:50 am

Okay, I played it a couple more times today. My feelings haven't changed much... but anyways, some more info:

Powerups (or lack thereof): You can "powerup" by getting more options. I don't know exactly what causes you to get more - the enemies drop icons that say "power" in Japanese on them when you kill them, and as you collect them a meter at the top of the screen fills up, but I'm not sure what that affects. Sometimes it clears when it hits the top, other times it doesn't.

I think that might be what gives you extra bombs or something. Your basic gun doesn't change in power no matter how many enemies you kill or how close you get to bullets (it's not like Shiki 2 where there are no powerups but you can powerup anyways).

Hitbox: I still feel I die unfairly sometimes. I think it's just the lack of border pixels on enemy bullets though, and not your hitbox on your character being larger than it seems to be.

Scoring: You get a multipier and tons of points when you do a "combo" during the levels and you get lots of bonus points (and a multiplier on said points) when you reflect bullets with the blade. As far as I can tell the combos give you more points than reflecting but you can't combo against bosses.

Slowing down even when just tapping shoot: Grr. Let me move fast when I want to. Then again, you move pretty fast when holding down shoot anyways. Annoying but not as big of a minus as I thought at first.

pixelcorps · Post by **pixelcorps** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:01 pm

the slow on 1 shot thing sounds more like a punishment than a feature..

surely the hold/slow concept got popular because it gave you constantly controllable dual speeds to AID you in playing??

sounds like the designer was trying to be clever for clever's sake...

RealBoutJake · Post by **RealBoutJake** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:22 am

I played this for the first time today. The arcade only had one cabinet, not much faith (it was a Taito owned arcade too!)

The game looks really bland. The concepts are cool, japanese houses and ghosts and stuff, but they arn't detailed enough.

The bullet patterns are really similiar to Shikigami no Shiro 2.

Overall I was unimpressed. The new TaitoX hardware has had a pretty mediocre run so far. I love Raiden III, but GWgenerations and this are not so hot.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:51 am

I'm worried, tell me more about the background textures.

RealBoutJake · Post by **RealBoutJake** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 3:26 pm

There was a desert looking background (which was just orange) with bland looking japanese houses. The backgrounds are just REALLY uninspiring.

They don't look as cool as the Shikigaminoshiro2 ones, but better than Gigawing Generations.

The 1st boss looked great though. Cool detail, good animation.

I was really looking forward to this and and was just a little let down. But who knows, maybe level 3 and onwards have cooler graphics.

One cool thing is that mid level you can choose your path, like G Darius.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:40 pm

the video on click bbs that was posted was really cool... and also really bloody, but i digress.

and this is made by skonec (or however you spell it) right? the team behind Psyvariar, if i am wrong on the name.

whitey · Post by **whitey** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:57 am

Just got this game for my type-x today.

For anyone else that has played it.....is the blood always green? I looked for a setting to make the blood red but couldn't find it.

I like the game so far. Bullet patterns remind me of Shikigami, atmosphere reminds me of vasara.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 7:03 am

The version I played had green blood, too.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:43 am

captain ahar wrote:the video on click bbs that was posted was really cool... and also really bloody

Yep, that Homura AOU Amusement Expo 2005 demo clip is still online at click-stick, demonstrating the lovely bullet patterns in this game (Skonec seem to be one of the masters of eye-melting patterns) and the uncensored red blood.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:48 pm

RealBoutJake wrote:There was a desert looking background (which was just orange) with bland looking japanese houses. The backgrounds are just REALLY uninspiring.

They don't look as cool as the Shikigaminoshiro2 ones, but better than Gigawing Generations.

The 1st boss looked great though. Cool detail, good animation.

I was really looking forward to this and and was just a little let down. But who knows, maybe level 3 and onwards have cooler graphics.

One cool thing is that mid level you can choose your path, like G Darius.

You completely missed the sarcasm

This game looks interesting. It seems that 100% of TypeX shooters now have ps2 ports, currect? Or at least the ones I've heard of. Gotta love Taito...

sffan · Post by **sffan** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:50 pm

pixelcorps wrote:the slow on 1 shot thing sounds more like a punishment than a feature..

surely the hold/slow concept got popular because it gave you constantly controllable dual speeds to AID you in playing??

sounds like the designer was trying to be clever for clever's sake...

Maybe it's a reward for not firing. Few games give you a reason not to fire constantly.

whitey · Post by **whitey** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:15 pm

Thunder Force wrote:
captain ahar wrote:the video on click bbs that was posted was really cool... and also really bloody
Yep, that Homura AOU Amusement Expo 2005 demo clip is still online at click-stick, demonstrating the lovely bullet patterns in this game (Skonec seem to be one of the masters of eye-melting patterns) and the uncensored red blood.

hmmm.....I wonder how you get the red blood. I can't read the japanese charcters on the test screen, but I thought I tried all of the settings.

shmups.system11.org

Homura out in Japanese arcades

Homura out in Japanese arcades

Re: Homura out in Japanese arcades