Caladrius - Xbox 360 shmup from MOSS

[chempop]

If 20 minutes includes all the talking, cinemas, and loading, then it could be closer to 15 minutes of gameplay - that's mere speculation, but if the case, certainly reason to complain imho.

[ratikal]

For a game that is meant to be played hundreds and hundreds of times, I think 15-20 minutes is a good time. That's about how long a Psikyo loop is or how long Restart Fighters Jet IIRC.

[Skykid]

I just watched a playthrough on YT and the game is mega short.

They spent the extra on tits.

Tasteless and underinformed, underinformed and tasteless.

What, tits? Tasteless and underdeveloped?

That won't do.

[VixyNyan]

A VixyNyan-chan to the rescue~ :3

Thank you May I ask how you got the links, I tried to take a look on the source code but found nothing ?

Since they were media files, I used Video Download Helper add-on with Firefox to download them. You could probably use DownThemAll add-on to scan for their URL address too.

[westtrade]

Here are my Day 1, 1st run videos for Caladrius. And Yes I know I messed up alot of things, but I had fun playing the game.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... AyvKrmE0yW

[rtw]

Since they were media files, I used Video Download Helper add-on with Firefox to download them. You could probably use DownThemAll add-on to scan for their URL address too.

Thanks for the heads up!

[emphatic]

I hope this game is much harder than it looks. Up until the third boss, it looks like a novice mode.

[TLB]

I hope this game is much harder than it looks. Up until the third boss, it looks like a novice mode.

There are difficulty settings, emph. Arcade players are often expected to turn the difficulty up on home console ports (much less console-developed games) because they are defaulted to lower difficulties for the supposed benefit of being a better fit for newer players. Not to worry! :)

Also, note that there is at least one known extra stage that can be played after stage 5 if some requirements are met. If it's not a right-away buy, I recommend waiting until more reputable sources come up with a more complete summary and feature list. ~_^

[AntiFritz]

Arcade players are often expected to turn the difficulty up on home console ports (much less console-developed games) because they are defaulted to lower difficulties for the supposed benefit of being a better fit for newer players. Not to worry!

I'm having trouble thinking of any modern shmup port that does this.

[TLB]

Arcade players are often expected to turn the difficulty up on home console ports (much less console-developed games) because they are defaulted to lower difficulties for the supposed benefit of being a better fit for newer players. Not to worry! :)

I'm having trouble thinking of any modern shmup port that does this.

You primarily play CAVE games, no? Anyway, modern shmodern. The period with greatest part of all shmup releases ended like 15 years ago (and even then, plenty of easy shit since). It's a matter of opinion. If you still find this opinion violently offensive, we can put together a list of ports/shmups with shit-easy default difficulties...

[emphatic]

I hope this game is much harder than it looks. Up until the third boss, it looks like a novice mode.

There are difficulty settings, emph. Arcade players are often expected to turn the difficulty up on home console ports (much less console-developed games) because they are defaulted to lower difficulties for the supposed benefit of being a better fit for newer players. Not to worry!

It might also be because of "that vertizontal thing" not allowing bullets to be that fast, or, me for some reason kinda missing the SEIBU sniper bullet speeds I was expecting. I'm still waiting to hear about 4:3 fullscreen before even considering a buy though. Watching those credit feeding videos I actually wanted to play Raiden IV again, because they sure know how to make pretty high res shooters.

[chempop]

From watching those videos, I have to agree with Emphatic. It looks snail pace, novice, and an all around snooze fest.
Too bad too, I actually like the setting and design a ton, reminds me of a cross between Deathsmiles and Dimahoo (two of my favorites).

Eager to see some hard mode replays before I completely forget this game exists.

[trap15]

^ My feelings summed up, sadly...

[Special World]

IMO the problem is not so much that the game is (supposedly) easy, but instead that it looks like the complete antithesis of what fans would want out of a Seibu/MOSS game. I love Raiden's manic pace and frantic bullet clusters, and it's sad to see what looks like a sluggish pseudo-bullet hell from MOSS. I love bullet hell, and I love slow-moving clusters of dense shots, but I really think that the genre needs more good alternatives, rather than a slow drift towards one style.

[sscamaro2010]

Just played my copy and I like this game. The music is good and the visuals are excellent in my opinion. The gameplay is actually pretty good. Give it a chance.

[BulletMagnet]

It appears that NCSX knew that none of you could wait one more second for my impressions, and delivered the game a day earlier than I expected: here are my initial thoughts.

--------

- For whatever it's worth I like the overall presentational style of the game, as the "neo-Gothic" (or whatever you want to call it) theme sets it apart from most other shooters; a bit of a surprise coming from the same guys that made Raiden, which revels in thematic generic-ness. Off the cuff, I liked how the pattern in the default wallpaper glows when you use your elemental attack in-game; a nice detail I wasn't expecting to see. Otherwise, I'm personally not a huge fan of the Devil Survivor guy's character designs, but they're easy enough to tolerate. Music is kinda cheesy, but considering how silly the story and whatnot are it fits.

- Load times are short, and most cutscenes can be easily skipped with the Start button. One small annoyance was that occasionally the vestiges of some special effect or other will "bleed" into the action a bit, i.e. when the first boss gets ready to battle the screen blurs...and it starts shooting before the effect has faded! Not a major detriment, but keep alert in a handful of spots to make sure you're not caught off guard. Otherwise, bullets are neon-colored and generally easy to see; while not everyone's a fan of that route, I much prefer it to the occasional "the ?!@$%ing yellow bullet got hidden by the explosion!" thing in the more recent Raidens.

- Each character's "elemental" attacks are indeed mapped to a different button, and each have their own energy meter which will drain as they're used (and gradually replenish when given a break). Attack "1" is usually a fairly straightforward extra weapon, "2" is a trickier-to-use but handy means to clear out remote parts of the screen, and "3" is a close-range ability that can damage enemies but can also absorb bullets if used correctly. Your "main" shot doesn't really get powered up (the only collectibles you regularly see are to partially refill the elementals' gauges), but you can use "ether chips" (gold) collected from enemies to build up each elemental shot between stages (giving the game a vestige of Silvergun syndrome). Separate buttons are also mapped for "bomb" and "burst" (a screen-filling attack which will completely drain all your elemental power if you have 50% or more of all three available)

- On that note, in true Seibu fashion neither bombs nor bursts offer invincibility upon activation, so don't expect them to save you at the last second (or even a second or two before that). Also in Seibu fashion characters' movements are a bit on the slow side, but for a more bullet-heavy game like this it feels more natural when it comes to the type of dodging you'll be doing, as opposed to the constant insta-sniping you'll face in Raiden.

- Still trying to figure out how scoring works...the "rate" in the bottom left corner of the screen seems to increase when you kill enemies with your "elemental" attacks (need to see if "bursts" do the same), but I'm not sure exactly how/if it affects scoring. Offhand I'm wondering if things work a bit like Dragon Blaze, setup-wise...i.e. do you make sure to focus your special attacks on major threats to keep things manageable, or do you spend them on minor targets to boost score at the expense of added risk? This all needs confirmation, of course.

- The already-infamous "Cut-In Break" does not happen every time you finish a boss phase; it appears to only happen if you do so quickly enough (which would also explain the timer when you play Score Attack mode). This seems to present something of a choice during boss battles, as it offers you the option of focusing either on speed killing the boss (which awards extra gold...and fan service) or taking out all its extra parts (for extra points and purple gems, which make a 1-up appear once you've collected enough of them). Speaking of purple gems, certain "regular" enemies throughout the stages have them too, though they're often parts of easy-to-miss enemy formations, so you'll want to "explore" a bit and make a mental note of where all the gems are hidden: they tend to fall off the screen fairly quickly, too, so you'll likely have to hustle once one appears.

- I'm still not sure where the D rating comes from; sure, you've got the goofy torn clothes on the characters when they get busted up, but the results are still no worse than any of the Otomedius girls. At least the stuff I've seen so far, anyways...on a semi-related note, I did get a chuckle out of the cover art, which shows the two female pilots all shreddy and vulnerable, while the lone guy stands in the background with a "...yeah, I'll just be over here" look on his face (for the record, in-game he does show a little bit of skin when he dies too). By the way, you can turn off all that stuff by adjusting the "Illust" option in the Options menu to the right-most selection, though you'll need them on to unlock parts of the gallery and a handful of cheevos.

- Those worried that the game is too easy ought to note that westtrade's videos appear to have been played on a lower difficulty level: many of the patterns I saw on Normal were considerably tougher. For a not-so-skilled player like myself things start heating up considerably in Stage 2; some of the boss's later patterns can get rather tricky, at least compared to a majority of other Stage 2 bosses I've encountered. On that note, separate score tables are kept for each difficulty level, so you can feel free to practice without messing up your "legit" scores (though you may still feel Undeserved Achievement Guilt).

- Playing Stage 1 of Score Attacks I once somehow activated a weird bug in which the first boss ends up facing off to the side once its second phase starts. Not sure what made it happen, or if it's reproducible.

- Only got the standard edition, so can't comment on the extra stuff in the LE.

- No sign of Snuffleupagus, unfortunately.

Need to play some more, that's about all I can speak of at this point.

[AntiFritz]

Arcade players are often expected to turn the difficulty up on home console ports (much less console-developed games) because they are defaulted to lower difficulties for the supposed benefit of being a better fit for newer players. Not to worry!

I'm having trouble thinking of any modern shmup port that does this.

You primarily play CAVE games, no? Anyway, modern shmodern. The period with greatest part of all shmup releases ended like 15 years ago (and even then, plenty of easy shit since). It's a matter of opinion. If you still find this opinion violently offensive, we can put together a list of ports/shmups with shit-easy default difficulties...

I don't remember saying that I found your opinion "violently offensive", Just that I had trouble thinking of any examples of games like that.

[Kiken]

Ok, so the systems at work are the following:

Using your Elemental weapons to destroy enemies increases the multiplier gauge (each one raises the meter at a different rate). Elemental weapons steadily recharge when not in use and recharge faster when the player is using standard shot and collecting the gold circlets. The gold circlets raise a meter that each time it maxes grants a power-up crystal (the crystals can be used at the end of a stage to increase the various elemental weapon strengths). Hidden throughout the stages are 3 golden statues which are revealed by shooting at a certain location (at least, that's how many I've been able to find in the first 3 levels)... collecting these recovers a bunch of elemental weapon usage meter. Extends are triggered by collecting 9 Soul Shards (little glowing purple scales), these are tracked in a counter at the bottom-center of the screen... certain enemies and some boss parts will drop these when killed/destroyed (as far as I can see for the 20 or initial plays I did, their placement doesn't change). Additional bombs are triggered by reaching score goals (I'm not sure of the values yet)... also, each time you die, one more bomb is added to the total stock (you don't lose your bombs when you die.. similar to Homura).

And score attack mode functions the same as Ginga Force's score attack.

I've been maining Maria thus far... just prefer her homing shot (Elemental 1) and her placement options which function like Ki-84 Hayate's Shusui charge attack (Elemental 2).

Also, a little disappointed/annoyed at the lack of replay saving/viewing.

[Tucker]

Well,ive just played it and don't like it at all. BTW i was the person that complained that the game was too short and now that i've played it i stand by that 100%

If you like a short, under 2 minute level and a 3 minute boss battle you will probably like it but i personally dont like boss battles.That's the trouble,there is too much emphasis on the boss battle rather than the level itself.That's the reason a never bought Bullet Soul because of the never endind boss battles.The game turns into dodge,rather than shoot durind a boss fight and i just want to get it over with as quick as possible.I know people like to play for score and milk boss battles but its just not my thing.

My favorite games are the Toaplan shooters like Truxton and the Raiden series with decent size levels and a short-ish boss battle but this game plays nothing like them.Also,because of the vertizontal ratio,its impossible to shoot everything on screen as the ships move too slow to reach far left and right of the screen.
I'm sure a lot of people may like it and there seems to be lots of hidden features and scoring techniques but its just not for me,i play to blow shit up.I just don't like the gameplay and it plays nothing like Raiden iv.It doesn't even look as good as Raiden iv let a lone play like it.

[Soft Otaku]

My crappy 1st time gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzQ8HRaGI8I

Do you have to unlock the Caladrius character? Don't see it on the select screen in your video.

Yep. I only noticed today that I had unlocked it. I'm not sure how. EDIT: I see that pestro87 has posted that finishing story mode with all three original characters does the trick.

I've also just discovered that I've also unlocked the ability to customize the elementals. Now I can choose which three I want to use from the human characters. So far the Caladrius character is not customizable.

I just managed to reach Stage 6. I'm not sure what the exact requirements are but I did a no-miss run on the easiest difficulty.

I finally got there too, but not without a few stupid misses. I didn't use any continues, though, so I guess that's the key. After beating Stage 6 a whole bunch of graphics and stuff were unlocked. Voice test mode was enabled, too.

Also thanks BulletMagnet and Kiken for the detailed posts.

[emphatic]

Thanks for the write-up, guys. No word still on if it'll run fullscreen on a 4:3 display?

[Kiken]

Thanks for the write-up, guys. No word still on if it'll run fullscreen on a 4:3 display?

I tested this last night (S-Video in on one of my 4:3 CRT TVs). The game does NOT support 4:3 aspect ratio (it will run 16:9 letterboxed). The best solution I can think of is for those running RGB SCART into a low res monitor or running VGA into a CRT monitor, set your console to anamorphic widescreen and then once in game, stretch out the horizontal using your monitor's display settings until the character frames are in the left and right overscan (sadly the menus are going to suffer as a result).

[VixyNyan]

So I bought the 8bit BGM DLC, just in time before the game arrives. I feel like recording the music as well and sharing later. :3

(sadly the menus are going to suffer as a result).

He's used to playing shmups on PCB boards with minimal or no menus available, he'll be fine. ^^

[emphatic]

@Kiken: Thanks for checking. I'm using a downscaler unit for my cab, so I'm running my 360 in 480p. Is there a demo for this game on Xbox Live yet? This way, maybe I can find out myself.

[VixyNyan]

Is there a demo for this game on Xbox Live yet?

No...

[NeoStrayCat]

Would have been nice if it did had a trial. >_>

[Yes Boss!]

@Kiken: Thanks for checking. I'm using a downscaler unit for my cab, so I'm running my 360 in 480p. Is there a demo for this game on Xbox Live yet? This way, maybe I can find out myself.

I followed Kiken's technique. It works but my broadcast monitor has a limit to how much I can stretch the image horizontally and it stops quite short But on a cab it should be very easy to stretch the full-length using the knobs. Not ideal but can be done. There are no in-game image manipulations other than a standard zoom.

[emphatic]

:/ Pass.

[Zaarock]

someone playing for score on normal with the first ship: http://livetube.cc/窒素/【こんな感じで】STG配信【服を破く】

Looks pretty fun and agressive played for score, seems to be about using all the weapons as efficiently as possible to increase the multiplier. leveling up the screen control attack seems important

[CStarFlare]

Does this game have dual play scoreboards like the Raiden games? I notice there seems to be an option to play that way.