Bullet Soul - (STG/5pb/Xbox360)

[Udderdude]

Bullet Soul cancelled so much, I cancelled my preorder.

http://instantrimshot.com/

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

[third_strike]

It doesn't have any lolis.

X mode for the inevitable 360 port will feature an extra level and supply us with a loli and shota playable characters. Wouldn't be a modern shmup without em!

Using this avatar and writing things like this.
Now I have got curious.

[HamidoOs]

Who knows, maybe it is something like: some enemies have another bullet pattern, too. They fire the less dense one at first, but if you dodge that, the enemy starts its crazy-like bullet pattern, which leads to more score. (Something like ESPGaluda II)
Nice speculation, eh?

[Udderdude]

That would be nice, but I doubt 5pb has the sophistication to pull something like that off and make it not suck. Especially with enemies that fly down the screen and are gone before they have a chance to fire two different patterns.

[PixelDharma]

No tate? Huh?

I'm not some hardcore cab-owning niche SHMUPpper... I actually just got into the genre a couple months ago.. But being interested in TVs turned on their side (and such) seems intrinsic to any interest in this genre.

It's like releasing a PC FPS and not allowing keyboard and mouse control.

Seems... powerfully dumb.

If this wasn't a tate arcade game... why present it as such? I get that it's going for vertical gameplay, but why not put the HUD into the margins of the screen instead of ugly, static wallpaper that just begs you to get a tate setup?

[E. Randy Dupre]

The HUD *is* in the margins of the screen.

[PixelDharma]

The HUD *is* in the margins of the screen.

Just barely! There's a lot of screen real estate that is basically wallpaper.

I guess it's doujin shmup style...

But those doujin shmups should have had tate too!

[Special World]

The more I think about this game, the more excited I get.

I really can only imagine it being either completely amazing or completely lacking in substance.

[Jeneki]

On the bright side, this will give me a reason to play Radirgy Noa again, since I'll be moving the 360 to a non-tated display. While I do have a proper storage system for all my consoles, these days I move them around so much it just turns into a mass of stuff on the floor.

[-SD-]

I'm really hoping that Bullet Soul and Phantom Breaker both end up region free. C'mon 5pb, you know it's for the best really.

[MachineAres 1CC]

I'm really hoping that Bullet Soul and Phantom Breaker both end up region free. C'mon 5pb, you know it's for the best really.

Not necessarily from their end. If they feel either game has the potential to be licensed for overseas publishing, making the games not-region free is much more profitable and in better interest for them. Especially with Phantom Breaker being a fighting game, a genre that's much more popular than shmups in America, i see the potential there. Only problem with Phantom is that it's full of characters from other games that Americans don't know the slightest thing about.

[-SD-]

I totally agree with you. I'd love to see both games get US and UK releases, but I really can't see that happening. If that's the case, then making the Japanese version region free means they will at least get a few extra sales from crazy western folks like us that are willing to import.

[Elixir]

New tutorial vid up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvfEhWc- ... r_embedded

[moozooh]

So you jack up your multiplier by point-blanking and then there are the Seibu-style bonuses. Seems challenging so far.

[Udderdude]

Seems challenging so far.

Midboss being destroyed in 5 seconds w/o getting a single shot off and Dangun style sitting at the top of the screen blowing shit up before it can even fire, with even less precision.

[moozooh]

That's the first stage… Dangun is no different.

[Special World]

Hm, not sure that proximity business is gonna cut it for me. One would think they'd implement a system of letting bullets fill the screen and then canceling them. Seems to me that would allow for more intense gameplay and a lot of different scoring opportunities on bosses. Maybe I'm missing something; I can't read Japanese.

But, I guess I haven't played the game yet. It certainly looks fun otherwise. Let's hope 5pb know what they're doing.

[moozooh]

One would think they'd implement a system of letting bullets fill the screen and then canceling them.

Like most Cave games released since 2004? Not making another clone for a change is a wise decision.

[Special World]

One would think they'd implement a system of letting bullets fill the screen and then canceling them.

Like most Cave games released since 2004? Not making another clone for a change is a wise decision.

I guess that's a point, but proximity's more restrictive as far as scoring potential goes, and a lot of Cave games do proximity too.

[moozooh]

Fair enough. Though that still feels more oldschool without being demonstratively oldschool.

[Annoyboy]

Did they confirm whether this has tate or not yet?

[DragonInstall]

Hmm is that the music for the stage? I like it.. gives a very retro feel. I hope the music is nice in this game.

[BulletMagnet]

I wonder if point-blanking will be as important for the other two characters as this one - it looked like there was some kind of spinning blade at the front of the ship, do they all have something like that?

[Special World]

Fair enough. Though that still feels more oldschool without being demonstratively oldschool.

True. I'd just like them to actually do something with the bullet souls, though. Proximity based scoring is somewhat anal and one dimensional, and it seems like a lost cause to not utilize the souls to some effect.

I can see how the souls are a good idea even if they serve no scoring purpose. People just easing into the game will be served by staying towards the bottom and firing shots, making their lives easier by canceling bullets. Adept players would rush up top and still get a rather challenging scoring experience (on later levels, at least). I just think that a point bonus for canceling bullets would serve scoring interests, or perhaps if the souls could be collected for a minimal amount of points in order to eke out that last bit of scoring difference in high level play.

The graphics and art style are fantastic though, and the game does look very solid from a non-scoring perspective. I think the game will be fun even without added scoring intricacies, but I hope it's solidly built enough for endless play rather than just a 1CC and a couple runs after that. I think it'd be cool if they added an arrange mode right from the get-go, or a Futari style difficulty/scoring selection, but I'd imagine they're spending all their energy making sure the main game is as polished as it can be. It's baffling in that regard that they wouldn't include a tate option, though. It's not a huge deal to me, but I know it'll be a big deal for a lot of buyers, who wouldn't trust a scrolling shooter developer that doesn't even have the foresight to include a standard feature. I don't know how hard it would be to just move those gauges over, but I think it would be in their best interest to present an air of professionalism to soften the doubts that their handling of the DOJ port surely created.

At any rate, I hope I'm just being a huge speculative ass and that the game plays as well as it looks. Because it looks like a hell of a fun time.

ED: Not confirmed that Bullet Soul doesn't contain tate mode. My bad!

[balp]

Part where he dodges bullets looks fun. I hope the later stages involve more gameplay like that.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I really hope this is going to have Tate (and is Regoin Free) For anyone thats like me and doesnt have a large high def TV and uses a small TV or PC monitor and relies on Tate to have that arcade like experience.

Due to that show your TATE setup in the hardware thread and the high number of folk that were pissed over Guwange fullscreen problems, ild hazzard a guess that there is still allot of ppl shmupping on small CRTs or PC monitors. 5pb would be utterlly stupid to not bother including it, especially as the game is in 3:4 anyway.

[Vyxx]

Did they confirm whether this has tate or not yet?

oh FFS

*facepalm*

[Annoyboy]

What's your problem?

Apparently this game doesn't have Tate. Their reason is that they view this game as a consumer's product and not as an arcade game player's product. Stupid reason, but, yeah. Disappointing if true.

No source, never confirmed or denied, like a few other people have done I was just asking if 5pb actually announced anything regarding this, or if a beta tester has talked about it in some dark corner of the Internet.

[hirounder]

Boxart

[Special World]

Those are the best fucking characters.