chempop wrote:After a solid few days with the game I have some thoughts I might as well share. This isn't about the port's quality, more about the game in general, I play ArcadeHD mainly.
+ Great overall presentation. SDOJ looks crazy. I particularly like the colorful bosses.
+ Music is fitting and far better than my initial opinion led me to believe.
+ The mechanics are simple and addictive, nothing like activating a lvl10 hyper and crushing the stage3 midboss.
+ Difficulty is daunting, in a good way. I'm not used to having challenging patterns on a stage2 boss.
- Some questionable designs: backgrounds and effects tend to make things difficult to see what is going on.
- The hyper icon under the ship is too big and distracting, it makes identifying hitbox location VERY troublesome.
- The stages all look the same and lack a certain uniqueness seen in DOJ.
- Difficulty is going to turn away less experienced fans.
Do you guys agree, disagree, have any other thoughts? I see plenty of positive comments about the game, but people I've been chatting with are getting very aggravated with the game.
Just speaking about arcade mode only, I never had any beef with the graphics
But doesn't everything look better at 240P?
Of all the games that could benefit from scanlines I cant help but think this one would take the cake..
Often with Cave games they do. A lot of their earlier "HD" is actually half HD like ships and whatnot being redone in HD while backgrounds stay in low res which looks as ugly as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Actually worse. You can fix it by having it all reduce down to 240p on a crt tv. This doesn't apply to all their games though and actually I think SDOJ and Akai Katana from the pics I've seen look pretty damn good in HD. It's when they rerender low res up and make an end mix of low and high res that it looks like shit to me.
A lot of their low res arcade games, the graphics look to me like they started with varying higher res models and then reduced everything down so what you end up with is incredible *and equal* detail on everything (for 240p), and with everything the same res it looks really tasty and artistic on the right monitor. Looks divine. But if you halfass redo some parts at higher res, or you used mixed resolutions per graphics parts or wind up with something like Deathsmiles 2 arcade which looks like it was all supposed to eventually be rendered down to 2D 240p CV1000, you get some ugliness. That's my take anyway. Cave 240p looks awesome on the right monitor/tv.
But for SDOJ I thought the HD graphics snaps looked quite tasty.
Special World wrote:It's so easy! But I can't get into the zone because there's alternate periods of everything and nothing going on.
I'm kinda curious what you mean here, because it feels to me like SDOJ keeps the pressure on pretty close to constantly, even on the easier settings (which, of course, are the only ones I can get anywhere on, though I've yet to clear any of them).
You know, that thing where pressing the bomb button during the end of stage score tally is almost certainly intentional. You can let the score tally appear and start adding up, hit the bomb button, and then watch the score tally fade out. It's completely intentional, and I suspect is meant to let you look at the background if you're more interested in that than the score tally.
Yep, definitely intentional. Hit the bomb button again and the score tally will re-appear. Not a bug.
Last edited by BareKnuckleRoo on Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Special World wrote:It's so easy! But I can't get into the zone because there's alternate periods of everything and nothing going on.
I'm kinda curious what you mean here, because it feels to me like SDOJ keeps the pressure on pretty close to constantly, even on the easier settings (which, of course, are the only ones I can get anywhere on, though I've yet to clear any of them).
I mean novice novice. The pressure's definitely not on for the first 2 levels, imo. Things start getting more interesting in level 3.
Muchi Muchi Spork wrote:Often with Cave games they do. A lot of their earlier "HD" is actually half HD like ships and whatnot being redone in HD while backgrounds stay in low res which looks as ugly as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. Actually worse. You can fix it by having it all reduce down to 240p on a crt tv. This doesn't apply to all their games though and actually I think SDOJ and Akai Katana from the pics I've seen look pretty damn good in HD. It's when they rerender low res up and make an end mix of low and high res that it looks like shit to me.
A lot of their low res arcade games, the graphics look to me like they started with varying higher res models and then reduced everything down so what you end up with is incredible *and equal* detail on everything (for 240p), and with everything the same res it looks really tasty and artistic on the right monitor. Looks divine. But if you halfass redo some parts at higher res, or you used mixed resolutions per graphics parts or wind up with something like Deathsmiles 2 arcade which looks like it was all supposed to eventually be rendered down to 2D 240p CV1000, you get some ugliness. That's my take anyway. Cave 240p looks awesome on the right monitor/tv.
But for SDOJ I thought the HD graphics snaps looked quite tasty.
I actually agree with just about all of that = )
My nec xm29 does strange things to cave games - it's almost as if there's a cartoon type filter placed over them (It actually looks pretty cool on some of them!)
I havent tried Saidaioujou on any other screen yet but am now really curious to see it on a plasma and generic crt at 480i
BareknuckleRoo wrote:You know, that thing where pressing the bomb button during the end of stage score tally is almost certainly intentional. You can let the score tally appear and start adding up, hit the bomb button, and then watch the score tally fade out. It's completely intentional, and I suspect is meant to let you look at the background if you're more interested in that than the score tally.
Yep, definitely intentional. Hit the bomb button again and the score tally will re-appear. Not a bug.
That's what I thought. Considering the score tally graphic fades in and out as you spam the button, it certainly looked intentional to me and not like a glitch at all.
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But why would Japanese people want to look at pictures of young girls in swimsuits without loads of text and numbers obscuring the view? Oh wait, it's Japan. Intentional confirmed
05pro wrote:But why would Japanese people want to look at pictures of young girls in swimsuits without loads of text and numbers obscuring the view? Oh wait, it's Japan. Intentional confirmed
Someone needs to explain this to Caladrius. Oh well, at least they gave us a gallery to stare all we want.
kathy wrote:
I actually agree with just about all of that = )
My nec xm29 does strange things to cave games - it's almost as if there's a cartoon type filter placed over them (It actually looks pretty cool on some of them!)
I havent tried Saidaioujou on any other screen yet but am now really curious to see it on a plasma and generic crt at 480i
They look excellent on my XM29, just make sure you leave the zoom at 100 and adjust the monitor properties. You get terrible scaling artifacts if you have odd zoom numbers.
Stage 5 of this game is bullshit. Complete bullshit. Even on novice, it is hilariously ridiculous.
I can URA loop DFK ffs and I can't do this game on novice shot mode. This is because the hitbox is too big, the bullets are too unforgiving in size, and the bullet patterns are the worst kind of "know exactly how to move every split second and memorise a route or automatically die" kind of patterns. Is this a CAVE game or a Psikyo game? Right now I'm not sure.
Sod it I'm not done, edit: How many of the patterns in this game just rely on bullet speed instead of actual pattern design? A lot. A whole lot. The game decides to throw a pathetically basic pattern at you that is only threatening because of the speed of the bullets. You know what the best pattern in the whole game is? It's the crystal pattern on Kouryuu, because the design of it is actually interesting, and not just "LIGHTSPEED BULLETS, HO!!!!" The entire game feels like a cointrap, and after playing Akai Katana, I'm not really surprised as that game's bosses are the same.
I got to stage 5 once and it was nuts. First midboss seemed in a hurry to kill me.
I'm starting to think that using shot with auto-bomb OFF might be the most logical way to clear, those extra bombs late game might be key. I use C-L-ON right now.
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Having them off in your early practicing and more in stock might get you into some bad/unnecessary prebombing habits. The best way would probably be practicing with it on for a while then moving to off. I didn't even realize that you got more with it off until after the port came out. I thought it just offered different ex bosses or something. Or else I would have moved to off.
Then again if you're planning out a strict rank lowering attack you might want to turn them off sooner rather than later because bombs are key to keeping the rank down.
People have been reporting that the new character Saya produces more slowdown. On the pcb I think Type A Shot produces more slowdown than other characters/combos.
Watching some video of a replay I just noticed that the shadows of enemies and such are directly underneath them, instead of offset to the right somewhat as is usual for other Cave games. Small detail, but kinda makes me wonder why they did this.
For people having an issue with the hitbox size isn't there something you can buy in the shop to reduce it? I'm away from home at the moment so can't check this. Someone could always start a dedicated hi-score thread...
Personally I also think its too big - and laggy. This is the only cave game where I feel like I have to correct myself. Dense patterns that are normally fun to dodge through have to be avoided completely, so yeah, reflexes aren't enough to get through.
ptoing wrote:Watching some video of a replay I just noticed that the shadows of enemies and such are directly underneath them, instead of offset to the right somewhat as is usual for other Cave games. Small detail, but kinda makes me wonder why they did this.
Some overzealous fan somewhere complained that, according to a leaked Matsuri pamphlet circa 2006, the interdimensional alignment of the DonPachi universe with the Dangun Feveron reality plane during that period, as juxtaposed with a long-lost designer interview most famous for an ambiguous reference to an alternate Espgaluda timeline, CLEARLY indicates that the eighth sun rotating the applicable artificial planetoid at the time of SDOJ's second boss battle would be DIRECTLY overhead, and that correlating wormhole fluctuation irregularities (as confirmed in a Cave-sanctioned fan fiction contest entry) would UNDOUBTEDLY have spread its superficial effects across the rest of the intercranial combat simulacrum. DUH.
ptoing wrote:Watching some video of a replay I just noticed that the shadows of enemies and such are directly underneath them, instead of offset to the right somewhat as is usual for other Cave games. Small detail, but kinda makes me wonder why they did this.
It is to save some little processing time it takes to offset the "vertical" (horizontal for us) position.
That s the only explanation i can imagine, because it looks naturally worse.
I like the difficulty. It reminds me of when I was first picking up bullet hells and could rarely even make it to the final stage. It's been a while since I've felt the same sense of accomplishment at clearing a game as when I first 1-all'd DoDonPachi... and I think I'll be getting that from this game. :V
MOSQUITO FIGHTER wrote:This game is hard as hell. It's the video game equivalent of banging your head against a brick wall over and over.
I think that's how most of the outside world views the entirety of our beloved genre. My friends sure as hell can't understand my masochistic determination to defeat these games. Kind of like Giest118 said, I think this game is just giving us long time shmuppers a reminder of what it felt like when we first decided that banging our heads against a brick wall sounded like a good idea for a hobby.
Seriously, this has got to be the toughest Cave game by a long shot. It's going to take forever to get even remotely good at this. Stage four seems so far away. Then there is the swimsuit type after that which is even more absurd.
MOSQUITO FIGHTER wrote:Seriously, this has got to be the toughest Cave game by a long shot. It's going to take forever to get even remotely good at this. Stage four seems so far away. Then there is the swimsuit type after that which is even more absurd.
I'm pretty sure 1cc-ing Inbachi in swimsuit mode legally entitles you to a blowjob from Cave's executives.
Illyrian wrote:Right, let's get the trouserplanking going here.
Stage 5 of this game is bullshit. Complete bullshit. Even on novice, it is hilariously ridiculous.
I can URA loop DFK ffs and I can't do this game on novice shot mode. This is because the hitbox is too big, the bullets are too unforgiving in size, and the bullet patterns are the worst kind of "know exactly how to move every split second and memorise a route or automatically die" kind of patterns. Is this a CAVE game or a Psikyo game? Right now I'm not sure.
Sod it I'm not done, edit: How many of the patterns in this game just rely on bullet speed instead of actual pattern design? A lot. A whole lot. The game decides to throw a pathetically basic pattern at you that is only threatening because of the speed of the bullets. You know what the best pattern in the whole game is? It's the crystal pattern on Kouryuu, because the design of it is actually interesting, and not just "LIGHTSPEED BULLETS, HO!!!!" The entire game feels like a cointrap, and after playing Akai Katana, I'm not really surprised as that game's bosses are the same.
Meanwhile I think novice laser was my first 1CC! (...although I have come agonizingly close in a few others). And I hadn't played stage 5 much at all before that. I've been primarily playing single credits through 1.5 and getting to stage 3 pretty consistently at this point, occasionally getting to 4 now.
