Trigger Heart Exelica for Naomi/Dreamcast

dai jou bu · Post by **dai jou bu** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:26 am

I think I shouldn't have read this thread. Now I'm curious enough to get it.

The DC port doesn't have Trizeal-like loading times, does it?

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:28 am

dai jou bu wrote:I think I shouldn't have read this thread. Now I'm curious enough to get it.

The DC port doesn't have Trizeal-like loading times, does it?

no, it loads pretty quickly actually.

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:21 am

jpj wrote:eretsua does a massive write-up on the overall package, but of course...... let's nit-pick one thing (which we then claim to be not important) to derail the thread into an argument...

welcome to shmups.com !

a dvd-case game may or may not be important to you. that doesn't mean it wont be important information to someone.

Snore. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

As far as the DVD case issue goes, I'm in the "put up or shut up" camp.

Whining on a forum won't get noticed, particularly by a Japanese company.

Play the game, enjoy the game. Mine arrived today, and is apparently sitting in my games room on my candy cab control panel waiting for me after work. The DVD case will the be LAST thing I care about.

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:39 am

Im really enjoying the game. I also dont have a problem that its in a DVD style case as I think it looks great.

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:50 am

regarding dvd cases: my line in my first impression of the game was there simply to inform you. i didn't see it mentioned anywhere earlier in the thread (it may or may not be there, i just didn't see it) and like jpj said:

jpj wrote:a dvd-case game may or may not be important to you. that doesn't mean it wont be important information to someone.

now as far as i'm concerned the matter of the dvd-case is done. let's move on and get the thread back on it's feet again and discuss the actual game again, thanks.

nZero wrote:
eretsua wrote: - music is very midi!
Music is very oldschool, definitely has that late80's~early90's arcade feel. Probably one of the best VGM-styled soundtracks I've heard in a while, really matches the pace of the game. People who don't like VGM as a genre will absolutely hate it... it's not cinematic, it's not techno-y, it's very much 16-bit in origin.

spot on! yes.

most shmup music is sequenced / tracked but on top of that Warashi also chose to use pretty much standard General Midi sounds. and it does indeed add to the late80's~early90's arcade feel of the game.

the compositions vary a bit in strength from what i heard so far but there are certainly some nice tunes in Triggerheart.

Kiken wrote:I'm still coming to grips with timing the release correctly so that I actually toss the enemy where I want it to go (instead of off the side of the screen somewhere).

same here. anyone who can give us a pro-tip on this?

rtw wrote:Thank you for the review eretsua. Much appreciated:D

you're welcome!

eretsua

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:22 am

Kiken wrote:I'm still coming to grips with timing the release correctly so that I actually toss the enemy where I want it to go (instead of off the side of the screen somewhere).
same here. anyone who can give us a pro-tip on this?

It has to do w/ velocity and timing. You just gotta get used to it. I've found that not waiting until I'm at max speed to throw the small things helps a lot. Also, I think Exelica rotates faster than Cruel Tear.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:14 am

Fucking bullshit. Last boss, I'm on my last remain. I kill it, it starts to explode, I get hit by a fucking bullet. Game over. So lame.

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:12 pm

After an utterly arse day at work I finally got an hour to put my feet up and play this.

And to think I almost skipped buying this game! It took me 5 minutes to get the hang of the spin-and-chuck, but was well worth the practice. This is lots of fun, and I can see it sitting permanently in my console for quite some time. Move over Shiki 2 and Under Defeat.

SuperPang · Post by **SuperPang** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:42 pm

For the DVD haters

FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

SPINE CARD

©Yakumo @ segagagadomain.com

Tigershark · Post by **Tigershark** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:57 pm

Yes, yes. You will soon be mine my precious......

dementia · Post by **dementia** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:33 pm

those CD covers are nice. Is there one for Under Defeat?

SuperPang · Post by **SuperPang** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:42 pm

He did a set but I'm not sure where they're hosted.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:48 pm

So how's everyone doing on this. I see nobody's made an HS thread. I actually got the clear, but w/ a worse score than my almost clear by about 20 mil. End bonus sucked dick.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:20 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:So how's everyone doing on this. I see nobody's made an HS thread. I actually got the clear, but w/ a worse score than my almost clear by about 20 mil. End bonus sucked dick.

Yeah, not activating those additional boss formations (as well as FainTear) can really screw up your score. I'm still busy working on improving my score in stages 1 and 2 at the moment (and trying to come up with a good pattern for getting through the box gauntlet at the end of stage 4).

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:30 pm

(and trying to come up with a good pattern for getting through the box gauntlet at the end of stage 4).

I can do it easily w/ 2 bombs. I generally find it easir to stay on one side, and know if you're not going to kill everything in a horizontal row. If not, when it explodes, go up before the bullets going sideways make an annoying wall that will most likely kill you.

Post by **nZero** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:49 pm

I've been waiting for an HS thread, too. I guess you finally got your adaptor, GP?

There was an end bonus? Cleared story mode with Crueltear, but only ~155m. Over 1/3rd of that was from Stage 1. Going to take a shot at it with Exelica today when I've got time

I've been cheesing my way through the box section. Made my way through most of it by grabbing the largest enemy around and 360-ing it until it exploded and then picking up the next one.

Have fun with that section in arrange mode, by the way. It's not in a grid pattern any more.

Edit - Konami-th post!

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:09 pm

most shmup music is sequenced / tracked but on top of that Warashi also chose to use pretty much standard General Midi sounds. and it does indeed add to the late80's~early90's arcade feel of the game.

I like the buzzy leads in general and the sync-y sounds on st2. I have to agree-- it's nice stuff. I'm not sure it's GM, even if it uses lots of slap bass and has a cheap sounding piano.

Though, what's with the coin-approved melody? Gah!

D · Post by D » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:13 pm

This might be a noobs percepion, but could it be that one fighter is made for scoring and one for survival? I forgot which is which, but some might relate to this. With one fighter it is easier to clear the game, but with the other fighter you will get a higher score by not even entirely clearing the game because it is harder with that player due to? the shot type perhaps?
I think that this is a great concept. You could first try to complete with one character and when you have completed the game you can select to other fighter to compete in scoring competitions perhaps.
I'm probably just talking $hit.

Reluctant Hero · Post by **Reluctant Hero** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:20 pm

Kiken wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:So how's everyone doing on this. I see nobody's made an HS thread. I actually got the clear, but w/ a worse score than my almost clear by about 20 mil. End bonus sucked dick.
Yeah, not activating those additional boss formations (as well as FainTear) can really screw up your score. I'm still busy working on improving my score in stages 1 and 2 at the moment (and trying to come up with a good pattern for getting through the box gauntlet at the end of stage 4).

Yeah I was playing through Stage 4 last night and I was having Ikaruga flashbacks. Not fun. I need to work on that stage tonight.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:40 pm

nZero wrote:I've been waiting for an HS thread, too. I guess you finally got your adaptor, GP?

No, I cleared w/ the DC controller, on my flat screen in Yoko (can't TATE it w/o it being on the floor anymore, so didn't bother. Against all odds, eh?

There was an end bonus? Cleared story mode with Crueltear, but only ~155m. Over 1/3rd of that was from Stage 1. Going to take a shot at it with Exelica today when I've got time

Very, very small one. Mine was a million or so.

Tigershark · Post by **Tigershark** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:25 pm

My LE copy arrived today and I'veplayed it for about 40 minutes. I have to say I love it. Great graphics and the music is spot on. Would have liked to have had a rumble option though.

I'm slowly getting used to the grab feature but am in two minds about it. It seems clear that the biggest scores are to be had by grabbing and throwing but to me that really isn't "shooting" in a true shmup way. It's more gratifying for me to shoot all stuff in sight.

I'm not continuing but playing on normal with 5 lives and three bombs.

All good so far.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:55 pm

Tigershark wrote: I'm slowly getting used to the grab feature but am in two minds about it. It seems clear that the biggest scores are to be had by grabbing and throwing but to me that really isn't "shooting" in a true shmup way. It's more gratifying for me to shoot all stuff in sight.

Actually...not really. The path to big scores involves less throwing than you'd think. Killing things with thrown enemies reduces the multiplier. Which means you save your throwing for very specific places.

Take the 1st stage: the way to get 100M+ points on this stage is to do a bit of throwing in the 'intro' (before you descend through the clouds) to get about 1M points from the flying enemies.

Then after this you just shoot everything and milk all the items as best you can. Destroy nothing with a captured enemy. (the big one you just capture and discard off the side of the screen immediately)

Then you destroy all boss forms at strategic times to maximize item gathering. Trigger the Faintear battle and then capture one of her 'shields' in her second form and toss into into her thick bullet pattern. Repeat at few times and then her+her shields will die to your tossed item, cashing in the massive multiplier you have at this point. (I've seen videos where the multiplier is 800+ at this point).

Most of the game is spent holding the fire button down as long as possible to get bigger items. Although you do get more opportunities to throw things in later stages.

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:39 am

Wow! Thanks for the analysis. I had assumed throwing was the key to high scores, too.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 4:23 am

louisg wrote:Wow! Thanks for the analysis. I had assumed throwing was the key to high scores, too.

Well, it is... but you have to control it.

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 4:52 am

GaijinPunch wrote: Well, it is... but you have to control it.

Ok, cause doesn't it generate many more medals when you execute a good toss (e.g. tossing an enemy and destroying a huge group) rather than just using the guns? And that seems to pump the multiplier back up... under what conditions in your estimation is it unwise to toss?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:41 am

Yes, it does, but on average it will take away more from your multiplier than you get back. The multiplier is raised via the little pieces of cheese (they look awful). It is lowered by throwing things. Just gotta figure out where to jack up the multiplier, and where to throw.

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:50 am

Hmm, does throwing big ships into enemies ruin your multiplier more than small ones? When I watch the video on super-play.co.uk, it seems that when the player picks up the large enemies that he uses them to block shots for a while, then throws them away without hitting anything.

There has to be a way to use that large ship on stage 1 and come out ahead-- it's just too fun to throw it into that huge group of tanks! =)

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:38 am

louisg wrote:Hmm, does throwing big ships into enemies ruin your multiplier more than small ones? When I watch the video on super-play.co.uk, it seems that when the player picks up the large enemies that he uses them to block shots for a while, then throws them away without hitting anything.

There has to be a way to use that large ship on stage 1 and come out ahead-- it's just too fun to throw it into that huge group of tanks! =)

I'm not entirely sure how multiplier reduction works. My gut tells me it may have more to do with the size of the enemy destroyed, not the one tossed; but I have no real evidence of that.

Feel free to toss that big enemy, you just won't be able to get stupidly high scores in the first stage. Using it to block lots of shots and then destroy all the tanks there (although you don't toss it so much as let it explode over them) you can still get nearly 70M on that stage if you do everything else right.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 4:13 pm

dementia wrote:those CD covers are nice. Is there one for Under Defeat?

SuperPang wrote:He did a set but I'm not sure where they're hosted.

Just looked it up again and they can be found on Yakumo´s FTP server:

Download information (FTP)

IP Addres - segagagadomain.serveftp.com
Login - under
Password - defeat
Port - 21

The files are quite big in size - FRONT = 23.3 MB BACK = 28 MB SPINE = 10.5 MB

low-res pics (real ones are much better quality! 600dpi BMP), courtesy of Yakumo:

Front
Back
Spinecard
CD and DVD version's fronts together
CD and DVD version's backs together

ubersaurus · Post by **ubersaurus** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:50 pm

Got my copy today. Only had enough time before going back to work to play for a few minutes, but I got through the first stage. Seems pretty fun so far, but I'm hoping to get more time into it later this weekend.