Xbox 360: Akai Katana Shin (May 2011)

[DragonInstall]

Should of had a katana as a special cave preorder.

[Jockel]

Yeah, you probably SHOULD HAVE had one.

[Elixir]

How is it that I'm capable of predicting responses before they're even made?

[Jockel]

They call it common sense.

[Frederik]

Yeah, you probably SHOULD HAVE had one.

People are going too make tie pose, weather you like it or not!

[cstle]

That box version is incredibly tempting, despite it being pretty damn expensive. Any idea how much it would cost to ship from Japan? Or should I go with ncsx despite the markup?

[Udderdude]

They're going full-on collector pandering mode with an arcade PCB box for a fucking 360 game.

[rancor]

...And they're gone! I tried to grab one for myself and another forum member, but they're already sold out!

[Elixir]

That box version is incredibly tempting, despite it being pretty damn expensive. Any idea how much it would cost to ship from Japan? Or should I go with ncsx despite the markup?

Just go with NCSX. Shipping from Japan would probably be more expensive or you'd have to whore out rancor, which is evidently not cheap.

For the record, it's: 10500 yen + 780 Sagawa Express (domestic shipping) + deputy fee + EMS of I don't know, because they didn't list the item's dimensions on their site.

Actually I'm surprised NCSX is even making a profit. I guess it's because they're group ordering, which also explains why a limited edition that's destined for bargain wagons within a month is sold out.

[Ganelon]

...And they're gone! I tried to grab one for myself and another forum member, but they're already sold out!

By the time NCS listed it, the 2 LEs were already sold out directly from Cave. If you were able to get the arcade box version from Cave using a reasonably priced deputy with EMS shipping, you'd probably only save about $10 total.

[ChairTax]

Looks like NCSX is already sold out of the Cave Shop LE. Glad I snagged one quick.

[StarCreator]

For the record, it's: 10500 yen + 780 Sagawa Express (domestic shipping) + deputy fee + EMS of I don't know, because they didn't list the item's dimensions on their site.

Actually I'm surprised NCSX is even making a profit. I guess it's because they're group ordering, which also explains why a limited edition that's destined for bargain wagons within a month is sold out.

It's more likely they've got a contract with UPS or some other shipping company since they do a lot of importing, so they probably get a much better deal on overseas freight than most people. And yes, it helps that they are likely getting a whole bunch of them shipped in one shot. I'm ordering another web-store specialty item through GP at the moment and just crunching the numbers, I think I would have come out ahead just going with NCS instead - PayPal's fees + unfavorable foreign currency policies (I'm pretty sure they flat-out lied about the value of USD against JPY when I made the payment) shot the costs way higher than the overhead NCS is charging. I think I'll just stick with them in the future.

[Elixir]

Demo announced

http://twitter.com/shmups/status/63152508297691136

[Sumez]

GREAT! This means even if I can never play the game on my X360, I'll at least be able to try the first stage.

[8 1/2]

Day 1: Outrage. How dare they try to sell me a cardboard box for an extra $80?
Day 2: Pondering. Well, it's kind of a sweet box...
Day 3: Acceptance. Gimme!
Day 3.1: Defeat. SOLD OUT

[Udderdude]

I never made it past Day 0.1: Pity. Some fuckers with too much cash to burn are going to waste $80 on a cardboard box (and probably never open it, either)

[drunkninja24]

I mostly wanted that set for the marquees. But then I figured it'd be a bit silly to put an "arcade" marquee that illustrates console controls into my Astro City...

[Phellan Wolf]

I never made it past Day 0.1: Pity. Some fuckers with too much cash to burn are going to waste $80 on a cardboard box (and probably never open it, either)

They're probably going to rape true Cave fans much more than 80$ on ebay, YAJ and so on. But how much will they rape??? More than those extra 80$ for sure.

[nuskool]

Demo announced

http://twitter.com/shmups/status/63152508297691136

Is there a release date for the demo? Are demos normally available around the release date of the game or earlier?

[Sumez]

Some times a few weeks ahead, some times much later than the actual game release. Some times one week later for non-gold members (like with the Bullet soul demo)

I'm guessing it will be around release date for this game, since they already announced there'll be a demo.

[nuskool]

Just read the demo will be out this Wednesday (the 4th!)

[yosai]

Demo is up

http://marketplace.xbox.com/ja-JP/Searc ... 4%E5%88%80

[Ghetto Tate]

Anyone else getting a weird letterbox display with the demo?
It's like a 16:9 slightly smaller than the full screen, so I get borders all around on my plasma.

[Sumez]

It's difficult for game developers to know exactly how much of the image is displayed on your TV, due to the safe area.
This is why a lot of modern games have that setting where you can stretch the picture to fit your display - all Cave ports I've played have had this (for better or worse - tends to make low-res 2D games look terrible because it's not a 1:1 aspect), surely Akai Katana must have it too?


I don't have Japanese gold, so can't play the demo until next week.

[Ghetto Tate]

Yeah but this game is supposed to be 16:9 so should fill the screen without stretching.
All options except setting the controls are disabled for the demo though.

[bcass]

Sounds like they're still using the incredibly fucking stupid display code from DSIIX, Guwange & PS/MMP.

[Sumez]

Making a game in 16:9 doesn't override the title safe area problem. It exists for all formats.
If they want the game to be able to fill the screen without allowing people to stretch the image, they risk some TVs not being able to display the entire play area (which is quite essential in a game like this).

[Elixir]

Yeah, I just played the demo. It isn't 16:9 full HD as advertised, which is disappointing. It looks good though.

The interface and GUI is way better than any other previous Cave release.

There's 3 preset control schemes which are configurable (thank god).

Pressing X on the menu screen toggles between normal and novice.

None of the sound or screen options are accessible in the demo either.

...uh, not much else to report. Feels like I'm playing Progear with Galuda's Kakusei mode.

[Zeron]

Screw your 16:9, 4:3 is where its at

[Phellan Wolf]

So can someone elaborate a bit more about this version??? Compared to the original and with the tweaks made how does it play???