Xbox 360: Akai Katana Shin (May 2011)

[TonK]

I'm assuming, for the most part, it plays something like this.

- the "E" pick ups charge your "Ninja Meter"

- your plane has orbs that appear in a circle around it depending on the amount of orbs you collect.

- while the ninja meter is fully charged and you have max orbs...switch into ninja mode and tap shot as long as you can until a larger boss appears with some dense patterns. Switching back releases the Katana shot and picks up gold as it digs into the enemy.

I realize this isn't how to correctly play the game, but if anyone has a different, less complex example on how to play Shin, lmk.

Seems I'm hit or miss on my strategy.

Hit 50m on the first 2 stages.

Please help out if you can.

[Dronevil]

- while the ninja meter is fully charged and you have max orbs...switch into ninja mode and tap shot as long as you can until a larger boss appears with some dense patterns. Switching back releases the Katana shot and picks up gold as it digs into the enemy.

What i think i know:
When you enter that "ninja mode" you will see the blue orbs you've collected floating around you. If you hold the shot button for like one second you will "throw" your orbs against the enemies.. and they will come back to you in the form of katanas. Then you press the ninja mode button again and you will throw the katanas.. and if you do it in the right places it will give you lots of gold.
With that basic stuff i'm stuck at 140 million. Using the katanas once in stage 1 and 3 times in stage 2. You get the first extend at 100 million.
There is a hit counter i have no idea what role plays.
I have no clue on how to score properly on bosses.

So i don't really know how to play.. but i'm having fun with it.

[nZero]

Video of 133M in the demo with the type-1 ship/character: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm14366085

edit - actually Cave's own high-level demonstraton is better

I can't really get into the demo aside from the music.

[Phellan Wolf]

Video of 133M in the demo with the type-1 ship/character: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm14366085

edit - actually Cave's own high-level demonstraton is better

I can't really get into the demo aside from the music.

Thanks dude. Looks like the game and game modes included have a lot of potential. I guess that we'll have to wait a bit more if someone can finally sort out the score mechanics in shin mode.
By the way it is just me or music is terrific??

[Dronevil]

edit - actually Cave's own high-level demonstraton is better

Way better!
now that's a really good scoring video. Great stuff.
Thank you!

[TonK]

- while the ninja meter is fully charged and you have max orbs...switch into ninja mode and tap shot as long as you can until a larger boss appears with some dense patterns. Switching back releases the Katana shot and picks up gold as it digs into the enemy.

What i think i know:
When you enter that "ninja mode" you will see the blue orbs you've collected floating around you. If you hold the shot button for like one second you will "throw" your orbs against the enemies.. and they will come back to you in the form of katanas. Then you press the ninja mode button again and you will throw the katanas.. and if you do it in the right places it will give you lots of gold.
With that basic stuff i'm stuck at 140 million. Using the katanas once in stage 1 and 3 times in stage 2. You get the first extend at 100 million.
There is a hit counter i have no idea what role plays.
I have no clue on how to score properly on bosses.

So i don't really know how to play.. but i'm having fun with it.

Thanks - I knew I was doing it right, but not executing it correctly.

I think the right place is the larger boss clusters/mid bosses.

I'm gonna try your tips later and see if I can do anything.

Played a few credits and 49m was the best I could do.

Got 22m on stage 1.

Notice the end stage bonuses play a large role.

Its a decent game, I'm definitely getting the port.

[Dronevil]

From the great video that nZero posted above I realized that:

- point-blanking is really important. Gives you a lot more items. Bosses included. More items let you do the katana stuff more times in a stage.
- you shouldn´t always wait to have the ninja and shin meters completely full to unleash the ninja mode.
- when in ninja mode, once you have your katanas ready, if you shoot with B button (normal shot, not rapidshot) you will get some pink slow suicide bullets when killling enemies. That makes more stuff to throw your katanas at, and more gold.
- in the video when the guy unleashes the katanas, he "follows" the katana attack, like almost pointblanking it. I've tried to do the same (and firing at the same time) and i feel i get more points. Not 100% sure.

One thing i didn't like: i can´t aim properly the katanas.. for example, when trying to shoot them from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the screen. I usually end shooting them straight forward or too vertically. Maybe it's just me, or it's the stick.. i don't know.

Except for that i'm really liking the game. More than i expected.

[BulletMagnet]

in the video when the guy unleashes the katanas, he "follows" the katana attack, like almost pointblanking it. I've tried to do the same (and firing at the same time) and i feel i get more points. Not 100% sure.

IIRC the gold is automatically collected, but becomes smaller (and worth less) the farther away you are, so cuddling right up to the place it spawns from (the swords) will get you the most points.

[Dronevil]

IIRC the gold is automatically collected, but becomes smaller (and worth less) the farther away you are, so cuddling right up to the place it spawns from (the swords) will get you the most points.

Thanks. That makes sense

[StarCreator]

"Bullet cuddling" totally needs to be added to the glossary thread.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

It's almost laughable how concoluted and over-complicated the scoring sounds... I'd wish for nothing more but an ultra-brutal mode where you just play as a plane and try to survive as long as possible without any stupid gimmicks. Well, I'll buy it anyway...

[BulletMagnet]

"Bullet cuddling" totally needs to be added to the glossary thread.

It'd probably take me awhile to come up with an appropriately-worded definition that truly does it justice.

[Udderdude]

By the time you're bullet cuddling, it's too late. You've already got CAVE syndrome. :(

(I will pay CASH DOLLARS for a CAVE syndrome definition)

[Special World]

It's almost laughable how concoluted and over-complicated the scoring sounds... I'd wish for nothing more but an ultra-brutal mode where you just play as a plane and try to survive as long as possible without any stupid gimmicks. Well, I'll buy it anyway...

Surely you should be familiar enough with Cave by now to know that their games have complicated scoring "gimmicks."

It's like me going into a Mario topic and complaining that he jumps too much.

ED: Also, bullet cuddling is rad. Consider it adopted.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

It's almost laughable how concoluted and over-complicated the scoring sounds... I'd wish for nothing more but an ultra-brutal mode where you just play as a plane and try to survive as long as possible without any stupid gimmicks. Well, I'll buy it anyway...

Surely you should be familiar enough with Cave by now to know that their games have complicated scoring "gimmicks."

It's like me going into a Mario topic and complaining that he jumps too much.

ED: Also, bullet cuddling is rad. Consider it adopted.

That analogy doesn't really work, though; after all, I didn't complain that there's too much shootin' and blowing shit up but that I have to jump through too many hoops to score. Besides, scoring works amazingly well in some of Cave's games, even when it takes a while until you get it (see Mushi Futari). I'm not opposed to scoring systems at all, it's just that there should be limits. Akai Katana almost seems almost like a cross between a shmup and a Lucas Arts adventure game.

As I said before, I will get the game anyway, maybe scoring is fun, who knows... some people seem to like it. We'll see when we play it.

[Special World]

It's almost laughable how concoluted and over-complicated the scoring sounds... I'd wish for nothing more but an ultra-brutal mode where you just play as a plane and try to survive as long as possible without any stupid gimmicks. Well, I'll buy it anyway...

Surely you should be familiar enough with Cave by now to know that their games have complicated scoring "gimmicks."

It's like me going into a Mario topic and complaining that he jumps too much.

ED: Also, bullet cuddling is rad. Consider it adopted.

That analogy doesn't really work, though; after all, I didn't complain that there's too much shootin' and blowing shit up but that I have to jump through too many hoops to score. Besides, scoring works amazingly well in some of Cave's games, even when it takes a while until you get it (see Mushi Futari). I'm not opposed to scoring systems at all, it's just that there should be limits. Akai Katana almost seems almost like a cross between a shmup and a Lucas Arts adventure game.

As I said before, I will get the game anyway, maybe scoring is fun, who knows... some people seem to like it. We'll see when we play it.

I think reading about Cave scoring systems for any game is mind-boggling if you haven't played the game. While I was waiting for Futari, I remember reading up on Maniac mode, and it sounded so much more complicated than it is. Stage counters, overall counters, chaining bar, green and red gems, blue gems, getting your chaining bar into the red, letting it drop to zero to cash in: it was a lot to process when I didn't have the game in my hands. I'm sure this scoring system will end up being more complicated than Futari's did, but I'd be amazed if it approached the levels of complexity in ESPgaluda II. And you could always ignore the scoring and just blow shit up...

[Dronevil]

I think reading about Cave scoring systems for any game is mind-boggling if you haven't played the game.

I think that's the point. Shin's scoring system is like many other cave's games. Complex at first sight. But when you play for a couple of hours, it starts to feel natural. And then the fun begins.

[TheSoundofRed]

Managed to hit 200mil with the leftmost ship type in the demo. The scoring isn't too crazy until you start to think of it out of context.

It's so satisfying to see the insane amount of gold pouring out of the mid bosses when you deploy Katanas. I was able to get 50 mil from the stage 2 mid boss alone. GOLDGOLDGOLD...

I love gold!

[Remxi]

Will the demo make it to JP Silver marketplace eventually, or do I need to bother creating a new JP account for free gold month?

[evil_ash_xero]

It's up for Silver members on the 11th.

[Dronevil]

Managed to hit 200mil with the leftmost ship type in the demo. The scoring isn't too crazy until you start to think of it out of context.

It's so satisfying to see the insane amount of gold pouring out of the mid bosses when you deploy Katanas. I was able to get 50 mil from the stage 2 mid boss alone. GOLDGOLDGOLD...

I love gold!

I think some people have a soft spot for Gold involving games.. me included!

I hit 230M the other day, with the green plane (the girl character in the middle). Still no idea on how to score bosses (maybe you just can't get big points from them, who knows..)

SIN has gone a bit further, though

みなもの日々

[InsaneNutter]

Why hasn't someone just posted this up on Media Fire or a torrent?

Here is the demo for anyone with a Jtagged Xbox 360: http://digiex.net/downloads/download-ce ... nload.html

Enjoy

[Elixir]

Skin, something they're raffling off from the Akai Katana box set for the upcoming Cave Matsuri.

For those wondering, it comes with a Cave box (w/ logo), tapestry of Nazuran, two t-shirts, illustration set and glittery Sumire sticker. There's also similar box sets (all with Cave boxes, lol) for most of their games.

Peace out, Cave box value. I'm pretty sure these are the same size as the actual arcade boxes.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm jealous. If I had $1000 I'd totally get someone to buy that for me even though I dont have anything to do with Akai Katana.

You mention there being packs like that for other games. Is there a list somewhere?
EDIT: Not like I didnt check the link, but looking at it under Google Translate didn't show anything and then I got sidetracked looking at ESPRade posters.

[Elixir]

http://www.cave-shop.jp/fs/caveshop/c/stylishbox

All 5000 yen each. They all have different stuff per bundle. Galuda II's set comes with a toresetsu, glitter sticker, tapestry and 4 B2 posters for example.

[BPzeBanshee]

x2

That shit is amazing Elixir. Thanks for the heads up!

[moozooh]

I've made a high score thread. You can post the demo scores there as well if you want.

[Nick420]

No way!! I want that ketsupachi bean bag lol!!

[SuperPang]

Peace out, Cave box value. I'm pretty sure these are the same size as the actual arcade boxes.

They're Annex kit boxes without the inserts.

[DragonInstall]

Oh wow! I really want that skin badly. Wish they could just sell that or if it was part of the LE.