Raiden III - PS2 version

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:03 pm

First day...

i don't want to talk about the graphics and the sound. Well, the BGM improves on the space levels, cool funky beats, not unlike Dangun Feveron.

Gameplay is, well...

It's 2005. Now, in 2005, games with complex gameplay like in the second half of the '90s, the era of great complexity, wouldn't sell a lot. Taito wanted to make a sequel to Raiden according to the latest trends. This, in short, meant that they had to make a simpler engine than Raiden DX, or the Fighters series.

Raiden DX was a precursor of a phase of deep engines, which is more or less gone. In the last 5 years or so, shmups have been less complex than the late '90s.Hence, a sequel done in 2005 of Raiden DX had, for reasons of trendyness, to be simpler than DX itself. It is simply not the time for games with one gazillion secrets or ultra-special tecniques. Raiden III, in this regard, is pretty solid and well done. It is still obviously Raiden, but without some of the more elaborate aspects that could have been successful in the past.

Solid title, i'd say. worth its price, let alone for the quality of the port.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:14 am

bloodflowers wrote:Given that it fits nicely on a CD why in the world would you ever want it on the far more fragile DVD format?

Maybe because DVDs are quieter and apparently put less stress on your PS2 (hence the CD's nickname of "the blue disc of death")?

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:36 am

Just got mine today as well. As others have said, it does not quite live up to Raiden 1,2,DX which does not mean it isn't a good title. I'm certainly not dissapointed with it the way I was with Mushi (I think I'm the only one who didn't like Mushi), but rather, it does not blow its predecessors nor Trizeal out of the water (at least on my preliminary plays). That said, this is much more to my liking than most of the modern shmups, so bully for Raiden III! Could have definitely gone for better music, but other than that seems a good investment so far!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:42 am

Certainly better than Trizeal.

Masamune · Post by **Masamune** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:10 am

not only does it come on a laser destroying CD, it isnt compatible with HD loader.

its a pain to play hearing the ps2 whizzing and buzzing when trying to load.

Post by **system11** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:00 am

Except that the laser problems were IIRC related more with the 'being chipped' aspect. I'm still waiting for the glorious day when they achieve -perfect- copy protection, but also abolish regioning.

I will be waiting a long time.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:56 pm

Masamune wrote:not only does it come on a laser destroying CD, it isnt compatible with HD loader.

I don't know what you're talking about, Raiden 3 plays fine on my hdloader.

Texhnolyze · Post by **Texhnolyze** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:30 pm

Masamune wrote:not only does it come on a laser destroying CD, it isnt compatible with HD loader.

its a pain to play hearing the ps2 whizzing and buzzing when trying to load.

What kills your chipped PS2 are poor-quality, poorly-burned CD-Rs and scratched CDs. As long as your keep the bottom of your Raiden III disc pristine, it won't damage your PS2. I've had my chipped PS2 for the last 2.5 years and have had no problems with it by following sensible rules of no scratched media, no poor-quality media (Princo), and burn media slowly.

Guardians Knight · Post by **Guardians Knight** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:02 pm

it seems to me like after collecting say 3 or 4 power ups the game moves up a rank in difficulty then the last 2 make no difference.

damn the level 3 boss is hard, there is points where i can see nothing other than a smart bomb to sort him out.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:37 pm

Guardians Knight wrote: damn the level 3 boss is hard, there is points where i can see nothing other than a smart bomb to sort him out.

Yeah, it really kicks my ass. I hope in the next week or so to figure out how to get through that boss without emptying my stock of bombs and ships.

Recap · Post by **Recap** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:08 pm

Rob wrote:Certainly better than Trizeal.

That's not saying much, thoe.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:55 pm

Dave_K. wrote:
Masamune wrote:not only does it come on a laser destroying CD, it isnt compatible with HD loader.
I don't know what you're talking about, Raiden 3 plays fine on my hdloader.

It works fine with my hdloader too. Maybe it doens't work with the retail version and you need the patched version of hdloader? My ps2 sounds awful when reading blue discs. It is really loud. I haven't modded it or used any bad media.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:26 pm

Recap wrote:
Rob wrote:Certainly better than Trizeal.
That's not saying much, thoe.

Ahhh...when I said it, I was referring to MY opinion (I quite like trizeal). Again, I'd take both these games over Mushi.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:53 pm

CMoon wrote: Ahhh...when I said it, I was referring to MY opinion (I quite like trizeal). Again, I'd take both these games over Mushi.

Yeah, I'd at least take Raiden III over Mushi, though Mushi does have such a nice variety of different play modes and so perhaps more replay value in the long run.

MOSQUITO FIGHTER · Post by **MOSQUITO FIGHTER** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:22 pm

Got this last week along with raiden DX. I think DX is the better game. The ship speed in raiden III is kind of bugging me. Seems like the one in DX is faster. I guess it will just take some getting used to. Those bullets are very fast. I can see how the ship speed is well intergrated into the game in level 5 of raiden III when the scrolling speeds up while collecting the orbs. Also enjoying the clean looking graphics even though they do come off as a bit bland. But this sets it apart from most recent shooters i've played. I think the fast bullets will give most people a challenge also.

A very solid port with short loading times. Faithfull throwback to old style shmups. I've played Trizeal and while I do think it has it's moments I would rather play raiden 3. Worthy purchase to me.

Texhnolyze · Post by **Texhnolyze** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:43 pm

I agree. I'd rather play Raiden III than Trizeal. I had fun with the Dreamcast Trizeal but have no plans on buying the PS2 version aka Shooting Love: Trizeal.

I like the slow ship and fast bullets. It keeps you on your toes. I play in the original mode in Mushihimesama with its fast bullets.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:59 pm

The Raiden III ship seems slower than DX to me as well. Although it may be partly due to the much faster bg scrolling.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:39 am

The game is on a CD?

Bleh. What Randorama said.

And the mind boggles at people complaining about the speed of the ship per the standard of the series.

Anyways, after my next paycheck it is either this or Taito memories 1.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:19 am

My copy finally arrived from yesasia. Took a while, but hey, the base price was $10 lower than play-asia, shipping was free, and the customs value was declared at $5 so no taxes. Three big pluses and one small minus, and that's enough for me to have pre-ordered beatmania IIDX 10th Style from them 5 minutes ago :]

Post by **nZero** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:32 am

Yes, the ship is probably slower than either of the ships in DX, each of which got a slight boost on one axis compared to Raiden/Raiden II. Raiden III's ship was develocitated back to previous speeds, most likely. I haven't found the ship speed to be a big source of frustration.

I really wish they would have kept the continuous feel of the previous Raiden games intact. It's jarring to just be seemingly teleported from area to area, and my god does space combat come early in this game.

The slightly leaned back perspective is a bit unwelcome too, considering the amount of objects and enemies the game places on the side edges of the playfield.

Hmm... speaking of that, what happened to the horizontal scroll of the playfield? No wonder I've been having to rely on homing missiles so much later in the game...

Skyline · Post by **Skyline** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:48 am

I REALLY WISH I COULD SEE THE FUCKING BULLETS

That is all.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:14 pm

Skyline wrote:I REALLY WISH I COULD SEE THE FUCKING BULLETS

That is all.

Yeah, I've experienced some cheap deaths and on runs that would have otherwise resulted in high-scores for me. That's frustrating, obviously, but gradually you come to recognize which parts of the game are going to involve hard-to-see bullets, so you can prepare yourself for them. The problem may be more acute if you're not playing in tate mode, I don't know.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:00 pm

Wow, so level 1 & 2 are pretty easy, but I really feel that by level 3 the bullets are approaching the speed of original mode in mushi, which is to say they are really getting fast to the point you can only memorize where they will be. Raiden 1 & 2 are very hard and cheap sometimes, but I feel by level 3, when I am alive, it is only by chance (that and now I see in level 3 tanks will come on the screen and point blank you--blah!)

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:27 pm

Those really tiny bullets are really annoying. I miss the slightly larger, more visible yellow orbs of older Raidens. And obscuring them against bright, fast-moving backgrounds is a really, really bad idea.

The game itself is good fun. But hey, if the bullets are moving that fast, I'd at least like a chance to see them before I'm killed by them.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:28 am

CMoon wrote:Wow, so level 1 & 2 are pretty easy, but I really feel that by level 3 the bullets are approaching the speed of original mode in mushi, which is to say they are really getting fast to the point you can only memorize where they will be.

For some reason I've had more trouble with level 2 than level 3. At least tonight level 2 was annoying me to no end. If I lose a life in level 2, then I start over, and tonight I kept screwing up over and over. Perhaps when I get rid of this cold, I'll be in a better position to master level 2, but for now I just suck at it.

sffan · Post by **sffan** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:41 am

Level 2 kills me too. Fast bullets out of nowhere. I've just been trying to bomb randomly where I usually get hit, but even that hasn't been working for me tonight. I just wanna get to level 3 on my first life, but it's damn hard in Arcade mode.

Frustrating game.

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:00 am

I have to say I'm surprised to see so much complaining about bullet visibility. I didn't have any trouble with it. If you know where bullets are being fired from (enemies) and you know they are firing at you is not that hard to adjust accordingly.

One thing to remember in Raiden is that you should almost always be moving (since shots are fired at your ship). Learn the spots in levels 2 and 3 where the tanks will come in from the sides of the screen and prepare for that.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:31 am

bullet against backgrounds: no problem.
It´s the transparent explosions obscuring bullets that become a problem, especially when point-blanking enemies (to kill them quickly), because then you see a swarm of bullets coming toward you, disappear into a cloud of explosion immediately in front of you. Knowing where to be is of course something that can be learned (like with the disappearing bullets in Battle Bakraid), but it´s not really fun to learn, as you find your performance not gradually improving, but depending on a sizeable portion of luck.
That´s actually the same thing which bothered me about Raiden DX, too: Kiai bonus is sort of unpredictable, yet can outvalue your conscious effort when starting out with the game.

Tony Gradius · Post by **Tony Gradius** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:23 pm

Anybody in knowlegde here, if there will be an european version of Raiden III?

zyloj · Post by **zyloj** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 9:36 pm

Tony Gradius wrote:Anybody in knowlegde here, if there will be an european version of Raiden III?

At this moment, no. In a future, who knows?