Espgaluda II

[Krondelo]

Yes PA is in HK. But I'm not sure being in NY will matter or not. Because Mine seemed to go from Hong Kong to Anchorage, then ontario. But It would make sense that if it was going to NY it would land on the East Coast first. Its going to be a gamble either way, but if you ship Air Mail/EMS don't expect it anytime soon.

[honorless]

Yeah but I mean that's because PA is in Hong Kong right?

Bingo. My slow air-mail deliveries from P-A have traditionally taken 1-3 weeks. UPS/FedEx delivery will be there within 2 days or so but you have to pay $16 for it. EMS has comparable, if not better delivery times than courier but costs even more.

You can also use USPS Priority Mail shipping at NCS instead of UPS like yyr suggested. It's slightly cheaper (estimating about $6 as opposed to $8 or $9, depending upon where you are in PA) and it'll get you your item just as fast since you're so close. I estimate within 2-3 days.

"Economy" aka Media Mail is quite slow because it's really low priority (pun not intended)...even when the distance is short. I live about 8 hours from NCS, within the same state, and Media Mail estimated delivery time for Futari was around 6 days. Switched to Priority Mail for about $3 more and it was here within 2 days. Your call, obviously.

I went with NCS because if this turned out to be region free and I didn't get that first print soundtrack, I would flip my fuckin' shit. I love the Galuda 2 music and for years have regretted not buying the soundtrack while it was still readily available.

[Special World]

Alright thanks guys, you've been really helpful. Think I'll get Priority after all.

Waiting for Futari was KILLER. I think it actually caused me to do worse in school because all I did was think about Futari. Then once I got it I did great because I was in a mindset of "Okay I'm gonna do this shit right now so I can play Futari all night."

[Krondelo]

Alright thanks guys, you've been really helpful. Think I'll get Priority after all.

Waiting for Futari was KILLER. I think it actually caused me to do worse in school because all I did was think about Futari. Then once I got it I did great because I was in a mindset of "Okay I'm gonna do this shit right now so I can play Futari all night."

Wow thats great man, I wish I was like that growing up. I never was very good in school even though I'm highly intelligent. I just always cared more about video games, and I would always play before I worked. Bad I know.. just saying, keep it up. Now Mushi is killing me, Its sitting at home right now... and I;m over 3,000 miles away until the end of December.

[Special World]

I suppose I might wait till Cave's event on the 27th before I pre-order. I dunno. We'll see what happens.

[Krondelo]

I suppose I might wait till Cave's event on the 27th before I pre-order. I dunno. We'll see what happens.

And what might this event be...?

[Special World]

Dunno, Cave holds events.

The event name has Zoo in it or something which is leading people to believe they're gonna make an announcement regarding Muchi Muchi Pork.

Don't take my word for it though, that's just what I hear.

[StarCreator]

Gwyrgyn Blood, thanks for the explanation. It sounds tough but I can't wait to try it =)

Yeah, NCSX ships out of NY via either UPS Ground or Next Day Air. UPS Ground's speed differs depending on where you are...I don't know how they are in PA, but it's not that far away so I don't see why it should take more than 2-3 days, at worst.

I live in MD, and out of the some 10 orders I've placed at NCS, all but one arrived the day after shipping. Only Mushihimesama Futari didn't make it the next day, and that was only because UPS was closed for Thanksgiving.

I just have a US 360, so no Death Smiles for me. Although I have played it (very briefly) at an anime convention, so I know what you mean. It's very different, but quite fun!

Which convention? I had my copy of Deathsmiles (among other things) running at Anime USA. I have no idea who brought it to Otakon though...

[Exarion]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... &rl=0&p=49

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and see what's there. It looks to be doing at least reasonably well, so I think galuda 2 will be getting a US realease, or at least be region free.

[Lawfer]

What's that?

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... 2435a07d7/

1200 Points for something that is 264 MB, what is that?

[Van_Artic]

that's the Black Label patch, it's not a stand-alone download, you need the Futari 1.5 DVD

[Special World]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... &rl=0&p=49

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and see what's there. It looks to be doing at least reasonably well, so I think galuda 2 will be getting a US realease, or at least be region free.

It's in the same general area as a bunch of games I've never heard of. If I had a number I'd be a little bit more optimistic.

I think Cave are really just pessimists, and here's what I predict will happen:

They'll region lock ESPgaluda II
They will POSSIBLY give it a local release
Nobody will buy it because Cave won't market it well and people who don't already want it will see some transsexual fairies and not want it
Cave will region lock and won't try and localize any of their shmups that would actually appeal to western audiences (DDP DFK)

That's probly completely wrong but it's how I feel things will turn out.

IMO their best course of action would be to:

Make their games region free until they decide to port/localize DDP DFK
Price it at $40 and/or include one or two of the older DDP games with it

That's probably (definitely) gonna be a lot more work than I make it sound like, but I feel that DDP would have the most appeal. DeathSmiles may have some appeal too, I'm not sure. But I feel like they'd need to go the extra distance in order to let people know they were getting their money's worth, and eastablish in the west that they offer a high quality game. But what the hell do I know? It might be better to just keep everything region free and not localize anything. I just feel like if they're going to experiment with one game localized, it would be best to do it either the route of XBLA or DDP. They've said some stuff about XBLA and seeking other venues for their games, so here's hoping on that. I think a digital download style venture would work better here than releasing full priced games on discs.

All I know is that I wanna be able to buy the damned things. I'll easily pay $100 for any of them, so long as they're available in some way that isn't buying a jap 360.

Feel free to criticize this post because it just came off the top of my head and I'd like to hear your opinions.

[Lawfer]

that's the Black Label patch, it's not a stand-alone download, you need the Futari 1.5 DVD

Futari 1.5 DVD? You mean Mushihimesama 1.5 the game, right?

[Krondelo]

that's the Black Label patch, it's not a stand-alone download, you need the Futari 1.5 DVD

Futari 1.5 DVD? You mean Mushihimesama 1.5 the game, right?

Yes. Its just DLC for Black Label, not stand alone sorry.

[Van_Artic]

I think a digital download style venture would work better here than releasing full priced games on discs.

All I know is that I wanna be able to buy the damned things. I'll easily pay $100 for any of them, so long as they're available in some way that isn't buying a jap 360.

IMO Cave shouldn't go XBLA for their mainstream titles, for something old like Guwange and DDP and minor titles like the already rumored Muchi Muchi, it's all right, but with the newest releases, the game sizes will prolly surpass the XBLA standards, that would mean to sacrifice arrange modes and all the rest that makes the game valuable to 50 bucks as a DVD retail

still, region free is the best way Cave should go from now on

[system11]

Make their games region free

Any other course of action is self defeating and not in the interests of their customers.

If they region lock and localise, Europe will get screwed. Again. Anything region free will get bought by the people who care about their games anyway.

I have a horrible feeling they won't 'get' it though.

[Special World]

Oh, I agree with everything said above. Their smaller/older titles should go to XBLA where they'll thrive, and they should not region lock their newer games.

I get the feeling that they plan to do something special with ESPgaluda II given how much content it has. Arcade/360, Arrange, Black Label, Novice, and a soundtrack CD? That's pretty ballin. But yeah I dunno, really. I'd prefer they just make everything region free so I can buy it as soon as it comes out. And yeah, it would really suck for Eurogamers if they region locked it for USA -_-

I think for both Cave fans and Cave themselves, region free is the way to go. They should definitely make a point of letting non-Japanese gamers in on any XBLA title, as I feel that's where they'll make the most money.

My friend assures me that Ketsui (should it ever get finished in the first place) won't be available to US consumers, which fills me with

[Exarion]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... &rl=0&p=49

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and see what's there. It looks to be doing at least reasonably well, so I think galuda 2 will be getting a US realease, or at least be region free.

It's in the same general area as a bunch of games I've never heard of. If I had a number I'd be a little bit more optimistic.

I think Cave are really just pessimists, and here's what I predict will happen:

They'll region lock ESPgaluda II
They will POSSIBLY give it a local release
Nobody will buy it because Cave won't market it well and people who don't already want it will see some transsexual fairies and not want it
Cave will region lock and won't try and localize any of their shmups that would actually appeal to western audiences (DDP DFK)

That's probly completely wrong but it's how I feel things will turn out.

IMO their best course of action would be to:

Make their games region free until they decide to port/localize DDP DFK
Price it at $40 and/or include one or two of the older DDP games with it

That's probably (definitely) gonna be a lot more work than I make it sound like, but I feel that DDP would have the most appeal. DeathSmiles may have some appeal too, I'm not sure. But I feel like they'd need to go the extra distance in order to let people know they were getting their money's worth, and eastablish in the west that they offer a high quality game. But what the hell do I know? It might be better to just keep everything region free and not localize anything. I just feel like if they're going to experiment with one game localized, it would be best to do it either the route of XBLA or DDP. They've said some stuff about XBLA and seeking other venues for their games, so here's hoping on that. I think a digital download style venture would work better here than releasing full priced games on discs.

All I know is that I wanna be able to buy the damned things. I'll easily pay $100 for any of them, so long as they're available in some way that isn't buying a jap 360.

Feel free to criticize this post because it just came off the top of my head and I'd like to hear your opinions.

It's actually in front of both final fantasy 11 and guilty gear X2, and tomb raider anniversery is at the top of the page, so it has a few big name games it beat. I agree with you on the marketing though, that will the hard part of a US release. They can't market it as a "shooter" because everyone automatically thinks that means first person shooter. We had an XBLA release of ikaruga a few years ago, so it can't be called a new genre. The only way I can possibly think for the game to succeed is for them to alert the major US gaming press sites and get them to do something special for it.

But then we have the problem of dealing with reviews. Compared to the average game, shmups as a whole are hard, and bullet hell are some of the hardest shmups. Even the easier ones, like the touhou series on easy mode, are still well above what the average gamer can handle. Most reviewers will simply dismiss the game as impossible unless they difficulty is watered down(bad), or they tell the reviewers it will be hard. But if they say it's hard, Xx_I_pWnZ_U_xX who has just won his 1000th game of Call of Duty will probably see the marketing promising a hard game, start out with the top difficulty of black label mode, get obliterated, and then complain on the internet about how the game is impossible. Then everyone will avoid it. On top of that, most shmup reviews are done by just credit feeding through the game once, and most of the time they pretty much state "game is terrible, just hold down the fire button and press the continue button when the prompt come up, and it lasts 30 minutes", though some reviewers are starting to be able to see past that and actually start playing for score. This will still be a problem with those that don't

Assuming we somehow get positive reviews for the game, we still have to deal with reviews from phony ubergamers who think they can handle anything. We also have to deal with homophobic/xenophobic people (sadly, there are quite a few of these) automatically passing it because of the aforementioned transsexual fairies and the general "obviously japanese" feel of the game. We also have to deal with the way that game stores will handle it, because it certainly won't get top level attention from most game stores, if they even carry it (with the possible exception of gamestop, because they also run a review magazine and would give it in store attention if the magazine promoted it). Really the only way I could think of for a successful marketing campaign of this game would be for us, the shmups forum, to go to the other game sites and promote it, at least enough to generate some attention and get some people to try it. But alone, that won't work.

If they can get a successful marketing campaign, it will probably sell reasonably well, but creating such a campaign is the issue. Maybe the tactic here is "it's a weird thing that's popular in japan"? I really don't know. As for regioning, they would most likely do best to region lock the US release but keep the japanese release region free so that european players aen't locked out (region free US releases apparently cause people to import the US version and have it cost less than the japanese version).

[Krondelo]

All is this talk about region locking got me thinking, what ( if any) advantages are there for Cave to keep something Region-Locked. Do they have to pay some fee's to make it region-free or something? If not I really don't see the drawback.

[StarCreator]

I'm pretty sure the region lock is just a couple flags they set when they put the disc together, so there would be no costs associated with making it whatever they wanted.

Region locking exists because in making Japanese games only work in Japan, the companies can license their game out to distributors in other countries, without fear of people importing copies across regions and cutting into their profits. American/European publisher doesn't have to worry about the general public importing copies from Japan before they can finish localizing, and Japan doesn't have to worry about people in their home country waiting for what will most likely be the cheaper overseas release. Same thing with games originating in America/Europe, just rotate the point of views a bit.

So basically put, if Cave decides to license their games to an American/European distributor, they would probably region lock the game so that potential distributors don't run the risk of bringing over a game that the majority of the customer base has already imported.

IMO it's an antiquated system that needs to go away, and if the popular story is true, MS shouldn't have bowed to publisher pressure to implement a regioning system on the 360.

[Schrodinger's cat]

I went with NCS because if this turned out to be region free and I didn't get that first print soundtrack, I would flip my fuckin' shit. I love the Galuda 2 music and for years have regretted not buying the soundtrack while it was still readily available.

This is exactly the same reason I'm going with NCS this time as well. I love the soundtrack, most of which is better than Galuda 1 IMO (except for the boss BGM and a few stages here and there) and was amazed when Cave announced that they were including it with first print copies. There's practically no reason for me to shell out the extra money for crappier cover art and a pretty bad looking faceplate.

I think Cave are really just pessimists, and here's what I predict will happen:

They'll region lock ESPgaluda II
They will POSSIBLY give it a local release
Nobody will buy it because Cave won't market it well and people who don't already want it will see some transsexual fairies and not want it
Cave will region lock and won't try and localize any of their shmups that would actually appeal to western audiences (DDP DFK)

I actually feel optimistic about Cave making ESPGaluda II region-free. I mean from a business standpoint, since there's probably no chance of the game widely appealing to a western market due to it containing spontaneously transgendering anime fairies, the most profitable route for them to take would be to have a region-free Japan only release. It just wouldn't make sense for them to invest the extra money into foreign marketing, voiceovers, and translations for localized versions of the game. They would either have to go the Raiden Fighters Aces route and lower the price tag just to get enough copies to sell and meet Microsoft's minimum regional sales quotas, or they could sell the game at full price and probably not make the quota while making less money as well. If they made it region-free, they wouldn't have to worry about any of this and they would sell a few extra hundred or thousand copies to Cave fans outside of Japan. Region-free is the only win/win choice Cave can make.

Interesting point about DFK though, I agree it has potential western appeal and *might* be as popular as Ikaruga if they're really smart about marketing and localization.

[evil_ash_xero]

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

At Cave's blog, if you scroll down, there is a pic of Guwange. Anyone here able to tell me what it says? I used Google Translate, but I didn't get much from it.

[Elixir]

I forgot to mention, but Amazon.jp started retaking orders for the limited edition yesterday. I see today that they're presold again..

[Van_Artic]

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

At Cave's blog, if you scroll down, there is a pic of Guwange. Anyone here able to tell me what it says? I used Google Translate, but I didn't get much from it.

Asada said that the game is "up the 360 and running"

anyway, back IT, Arrange mode of ESPII looks great, as well as the arrange music, really upbeat

[Special World]

Christ I can't wait till Cave decides to release a deluge of XBLA titles on the unwitting populace.

[apple arcade]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games ... &rl=0&p=49

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and see what's there. It looks to be doing at least reasonably well, so I think galuda 2 will be getting a US realease, or at least be region free.

It's in the same general area as a bunch of games I've never heard of. If I had a number I'd be a little bit more optimistic.

I think Cave are really just pessimists, and here's what I predict will happen:

They'll region lock ESPgaluda II
They will POSSIBLY give it a local release
Nobody will buy it because Cave won't market it well and people who don't already want it will see some transsexual fairies and not want it
Cave will region lock and won't try and localize any of their shmups that would actually appeal to western audiences (DDP DFK)

That's probly completely wrong but it's how I feel things will turn out.

IMO their best course of action would be to:

Make their games region free until they decide to port/localize DDP DFK
Price it at $40 and/or include one or two of the older DDP games with it

That's probably (definitely) gonna be a lot more work than I make it sound like, but I feel that DDP would have the most appeal. DeathSmiles may have some appeal too, I'm not sure. But I feel like they'd need to go the extra distance in order to let people know they were getting their money's worth, and eastablish in the west that they offer a high quality game. But what the hell do I know? It might be better to just keep everything region free and not localize anything. I just feel like if they're going to experiment with one game localized, it would be best to do it either the route of XBLA or DDP. They've said some stuff about XBLA and seeking other venues for their games, so here's hoping on that. I think a digital download style venture would work better here than releasing full priced games on discs.

All I know is that I wanna be able to buy the damned things. I'll easily pay $100 for any of them, so long as they're available in some way that isn't buying a jap 360.

Feel free to criticize this post because it just came off the top of my head and I'd like to hear your opinions.

While we probably won't get a ESPGALUDA II release over here I could see DFK working. People know Raiden and DFK could easily be referenced as Raiden on crack.

I think cave best course of action would be to keep games region free. Besides, the majority of us will import titles even if they do eventually get a US release.

according to my playasia email the limited edition is going to cost 119.90

Following closely behind Mushihime-sama Futari is another vertical shooter - Espgaluda II Black Label. Beautiful and colorful graphics mixed with popular characters, the sequel to Espgaluda will once again guide you to the exciting and fascinating fantasy world.

Besides Ageha, other popular characters such as Asagi and Ceceri are joining in the fun, choose your favourite girl as your player character. The developers have added more play modes. Novices, train your shooting abilities and then take up simple missions. Veterans, challenge the ultra hard stages and win rare items.

Decorate your console the Espgaluda way. The package comes with a Ceceri face plate drawn by Hirooka Masaki, the character designer. The shooter is coming in late February:

http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-a12 ... -3nyv.html

[Special World]

People know Raiden? That's news to me.

[AraraSPAMWitch]

People know Raiden? That's news to me.

I think Raiden is one of the more well-known STG series outside of Japan. I've been surprised at the number of random people I've run into who know the Raiden series. A friend of mine who works at a GameStop has also confirmed this; a lot of folks played Raiden at some point in their childhood, so the newer games have gotten a fair number of people on the nostalgia factor. Compare that with Cave, where the only people who know about the games besides hardcore Japanese gaming enthusiasts are nerdy otaku.

The more I think about it, the less I feel that Cave will localize their games for the western audiences. Futari has confirmed this for me; their games, while acclaimed among shooter fans, are just too niche and don't have enough brand appeal for American, and I'd assume European, audiences. There's never been a better time to import that 360, I have a feeling those wanting ESPII are gonna need it...

[TodayIsForgotten]

IMO Cave shouldn't go XBLA for their mainstream titles, for something old like Guwange and DDP and minor titles like the already rumored Muchi Muchi, it's all right, but with the newest releases, the game sizes will prolly surpass the XBLA standards, that would mean to sacrifice arrange modes and all the rest that makes the game valuable to 50 bucks as a DVD retail

still, region free is the best way Cave should go from now on

At this point it really doesn't matter. No one knows theoretically what the actual size limit is on XBLA. I mean fucking christ, xbla now has UNREAL engine games clocking in at 1.5+ gigs. Unless there is something drastically different with the 360s and compression...judging on certain sites it seems like there is no compression at this time to make games that shouldn't be 4+ gigs, smaller in regards to hacking. Keeping in mind not all games have padding and games like futari's, death smiles (which probably would be relatively big just by its art) and any other shoot em up would probably fall well under 2-3gigs if padding exists on a 360 and compression can be done without affecting quality.

Again, if such a method exists to make wii games 50-80% their size by scrubbing out padding. I don't see why CAVE couldn't do the same for XBLA.

And yea raiden was huge(as far as shmups go) in the early 90s. I remember seeing and playing raiden and raiden 2 in the arcades.

[GaijinPunch]

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

At Cave's blog, if you scroll down, there is a pic of Guwange. Anyone here able to tell me what it says? I used Google Translate, but I didn't get much from it.

Says nothing about Guwange. :/