Milestone release 'Karous' - Arcade 2006 / Dreamcast 2007

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:30 pm

hermosaguy wrote:I gotta say, I'm taking a serious liking to this game. My only complaint is I think I might need another credit (though an extra 2 wont hurt) to finish it. The game just gets too damn hard near the end.

You know you can timeout the stage 4 boss, stage 5 midboss, and stage 5 boss very easily?

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:24 pm

Is the OST out yet, by chance?

Cocoebiz's site seems not to work right now, but I suppose it hasn't been released yet...?

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:59 pm

Randorama wrote:Is the OST out yet, by chance?

Cocoebiz's site seems not to work right now, but I suppose it hasn't been released yet...?

No, MileStone haven't released the OST yet. And I just checked CocoEbiz's site and it was working fine.

And I gotta say... that Monster World Collection sountrack set is looking pretty sweet.

VeganZombie · Post by **VeganZombie** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:13 pm

I'm really digging this game, but I can't really find a good use for the sword except for destroying the flashing green enemies that pop up every once in a while, and beside that I don't think I get the weapon system much at all for that matter.

IE: What's the blue bar on the left supposed to be? I can't understand Japanese so it's all very confusing, even with a tutorial.

neoalphazero · Post by **neoalphazero** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:32 pm

Didn't like it the first few play sessions but damn I've done a 180, really enjoying it now. *-neo

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:27 pm

Re: Not being able to save scores.. I don't think this was mentioned on the thread before, but the filename on the DC memcard browser is labeled Settings & Ranking. It says a lot in-game on the saving screen it looks like, but I can't tell what it says-- maybe some info is in there?

hermosaguy · Post by **hermosaguy** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:37 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:
hermosaguy wrote:I gotta say, I'm taking a serious liking to this game. My only complaint is I think I might need another credit (though an extra 2 wont hurt) to finish it. The game just gets too damn hard near the end.
You know you can timeout the stage 4 boss, stage 5 midboss, and stage 5 boss very easily?

Yeah, but I cant sleep easy unless I get the kill on 'em. I think my rushing in is what keeps getting me. I'm usually in there slashing away, but I get taken out way too easily.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:25 am

VeganZombie wrote:IE: What's the blue bar on the left supposed to be? I can't understand Japanese so it's all very confusing, even with a tutorial.

The blue bar on the left is the DFS meter. When it's full you can perform the DFS barrier (C button). Another way to tell when you have a full DFS meter is to look at Karous... streams of blue and white sparkles will shower from her back.

Maikeru_Rocks · Post by **Maikeru_Rocks** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:46 am

Does anyone know how many credits can be open up on Karous?, also any bonus secrets in the game just curious?. It seems that it does save your hi-score for what reason please help!

Maikeru_Rocks
Later dudes!
Dreamcast...It's still thinking!

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:53 am

Maikeru_Rocks wrote:Does anyone know how many credits can be open up on Karous?, also any bonus secrets in the game just curious?. It seems that it does save your hi-score for what reason please help!

There do not appear to be additional credits. 3 is the limit. Reminds me of the AES days.

The bonus secrets would be the hidden MileStone logos (available in Normal and Hard) and the TLB (Hard Mode only). There's no additional unlockable content. This is a direct arcade port.

The save file only saves general configuration data. High scores are not saved.

Maikeru_Rocks · Post by **Maikeru_Rocks** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:58 am

Thanks Kiken for the information!

Maikeru_Rocks
Later dudes!
Dreamcast...It's still thinking!

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:07 pm

I cleared the game on normal by shielding through the last few bosses. My level is probably not that great: 180 with a score of 446695900. I take it I have to actually beat all the bosses to get 2nd loop

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:21 pm

louisg wrote:I cleared the game on normal by shielding through the last few bosses. My level is probably not that great: 180 with a score of 446695900. I take it I have to actually beat all the bosses to get 2nd loop

There's no second loop.

If you want a better score, you'll want to kill all of the bosses.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:58 pm

Have any videos been released?

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:28 pm

What genre music would the OST be considered?

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:55 pm

I can't WAIT for your Dreamcast shooting special, Kiken!

Are you waiting for that to put up some video footage?

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:11 pm

themachinist wrote:What genre music would the OST be considered?

Drum and Ass

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:33 am

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:49 am

You guys will probably kill the bandwidth on this, but I'm in the process of having these mirrored... at any rate, here's the video of Karous that I said I'd upload.

Karous, Hard Mode, All (No TLB), ~2.5 billion:
Intro
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Credits

Please right-click and save. Only D/L one video at a time. The largest one is stage 4, which is 38 MB... most of these are less than 30.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:28 pm

Thanks much for the videos, Kiken.

From what I've seen of the game I really dig its style, definitely moreso than Radirgy, even though I liked that (though I still say that the Vasara-esque "metal things that bleed" detail looks weird, heh heh). The gray-on-gray-on-gray thing has me pulling my hair out, though...I really wish they'd at least included an option to give yourself more visible enemy shots (not to mention the whole high score save thing).

A quick question while I'm thinking of it...while the game uses a Silvergun-esque system for the weapon level up, it seems that the level-up intervals are at least somewhat constant here, as opposed to RSG, wherein you'd gain levels very quickly early on and more slowly later...from your firsthand experience, is this more or less the case?

gavin19 · Post by **gavin19** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:02 pm

Very much appreciated Kiken. You use shot much much more than I thought. I was using probably 90% sword, 5% shot and 5% shield. I keep falling into the same trap as I did with Radilgy, ie not using the shield when I should be. For example, level 3 boss' first wave of 'balls', I have been trying to weave in and out of them instead of shielding them.
My scores/progress should definately improve after this. Cheers

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:16 pm

Thanks for more highly entertaining shmup videos, Kiken!

Looks like there's quite a few more bullets in this game then in Radio Allergy. The character hit-box does look larger (due to the wings), as well.

OST sounds pretty minimalist, but I love the sounds of the boss explosions!

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:03 pm

So has anyone else fought the TLB yet?

Also, I've tried to abuse the item-juggling... but the Change item (yellow triangle) is really rare. Unlike Radirgy where it's fairly easy to trigger, more often than not, point items will change into Exp items (the hexagonal icons), DFS refill items (the red icons) or Level Increase items (pink diamonds).

al138 · Post by **al138** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:18 am

Kiken, I know its been said quite a bit, but I wanted to say thank you for the videos as well. I'm not all that great at the game, but watching videos like yours helps to give insights into the scoring system. I might post an acceptable score yet...thanks again!

gavin19 · Post by **gavin19** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:36 am

Kiken wrote:So has anyone else fought the TLB yet?

In a similar vein to Radilgy I forget to get all 5 logos. Ironically (read foolishly), it's almost always stage 1 or 2 I forget to grab the logo ie the 2 stages I know off by heart.

Tigershark · Post by **Tigershark** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:15 pm

Just a quick question:

What is the difference between the orange and blue bullets? I assume none can be absorbed by the shield?

BTW, it's outrageous that you can't save your scores.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:08 am

Tigershark wrote:Just a quick question:

What is the difference between the orange and blue bullets? I assume none can be absorbed by the shield?

With colour, there's no difference. Circular vs square... there's a difference. All bullets can be absorbed by your shield (only solid lasers can't be). Square bullets can be destroyed with Shot and Sword while all round bullets can only be stopped with Shield.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:17 am

Just a heads up: Karous is now part of that 20%-off Play-Asia offer. If you order it within the next 3 1/2 hours you can buy it for $47 (€36).

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-x-4 ... -1s2a.html

Hurry if you want it.

nem · Post by **nem** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:39 pm

Superb

Thanks Ceph!

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:34 pm

nem wrote:Superb

Thanks Ceph!

You are welcome. I didn't initially plan to buy Karous, but for €38 including shipping it's hard to resist, so I just ordered it. Besides, there are not many new shmups coming out in the months ahead.

Offer expires in 1 hour and 27 minutes...