Ghost Blade: New Shooting Game for Sega Dreamcast

[Enemy]

Pretty gutted tbh.

Waited so long, and had massive hopes for just a decent shmup.

I received mine a few days ago, fired it up on my New Astro City with viletims adaptor, was greeted with a very laggy half arsed game. 1cc'd it on my 3rd credit and didnt enjoy a moment of it tbh. the lag and framerate issues made it unplayable for me. repetitive enemies and half arsed bullet patterns, unimaginative design, and a game that feels like nowone gave a crap, and after waiting all that time.

Its nice to support homebrew and a cool system like the dreamcast but I think this is the last straw for me tbh. As for the argument that what the developers tried was too much for the system to handle I just dont buy that. There are quite a few great tate shmups for the DC, and besides that I can fire up 1942 on a board that was made 31 years ago and it feels right, handles smoothly, looks appealing, has longevity, difficulty.

I genuinely wanted to receive it and love it and write a post saying how cool it was, but its a disaster imo, and a real shame.

Fully agree

[louisg]

I just fired this up for the first time and, yeah, I am shocked at how badly it performs. Even when it runs full speed, which isn't very often, it seems to have little hitches (like it's not quite synced with the display). Yikes. How could they let this out the door? It makes GigaWing Generations on PS2 look smooth! Very disappointing.

[Enemy]

I just fired this up for the first time and, yeah, I am shocked at how badly it performs. Even when it runs full speed, which isn't very often, it seems to have little hitches (like it's not quite synced with the display). Yikes. How could they let this out the door? It makes GigaWing Generations on PS2 look smooth! Very disappointing.

Yeah ... never smooth and as said in my other posts should never had been released in this state. Makes you wonder how on earth the team tested this game and said yep thats ready to go!

[soniq-man]

You can win one of three sealed games (two copies of NEO XYX for Dreamcast and the other one is The Ghost Blade for DC) which I will sign and also include a digital soundtrack. To qualify for the draw, like my page over on Facebook and the post to let me know you've take part.

https://www.facebook.com/soniqfactory

Winners will be drawn on 31. October! Good luck!

[emphatic]

Makes you wonder how on earth the team tested this game and said yep thats ready to go!

Who say's that's up to the testers?

[D]

Makes you wonder how on earth the team tested this game and said yep thats ready to go!

Who say's that's up to the testers?

I don't think that's quite what he meant.
Not talking about Ghost Blade, but in general:
Software testers get a bad rep in general. Probably about 94% of all bugs you will ever encounter (unless you really purpously do freaky shit) have been identified by software testers. The management will then just say: "SCREW THOSE PESKY CONSUMERS". The software testers are like: "...BUT? ...WHY?". I does not matter if a product sucks. The only thing that matters is if it will sell. Building a good name or satisfying gamers in this case is a really low priority. It's a business after all. That reminds me. I played Project Cars yesterday on ps4. Wow! I played it for like 15 minutes. The control sucks. if you do a little movement on the analog stick, your car will dive to the left or right. Ridiculous. Also, there was a lot of tearing and stuttering. Then I got into a weird drift and the system just crashed! WTF black screen for like 20 seconds, then the ps4 went back to the dashboard.
Is this 2015? But my cousin had bought the game, so profit was made. Onto the next moneymanking project. I'm happy games are made, but there's so many heaps of shit out there. Be careful!

[Enemy]

Makes you wonder how on earth the team tested this game and said yep thats ready to go!

Who say's that's up to the testers?

I meant the actual programmer of the game not the beta testers.

[Stevens]

I had this shipped to my job and since I was out of work for five weeks I just got it home today.

I put it in the DC and......nothing.

Wash, rinse, repeat three times.

Put in Fast Striker and it works.

Hmm..

Although from what I have read here it doesn't seem like I'm missing much.

Edit - In the music menu there are no tracks. I'm pretty sure every Dreamcast game Ive ever played has tracks in that menu. Did I get a disc with no data?

Can anyone confirm?

[Tigershark]

Keep it. It'll be worth a fortune in a gagillion years - the shmup no one could play.....

[Stevens]

That is what I am going to do. To be sure its the game and not my DC I will test it at my local game shop, if it still doesn't work I'll email them.

As far as civility - I learned at a young age being a dick is the best way to not get what you want:D

[louisg]

Did I get a disc with no data?

It happens from time to time. Came across a Halo 5 that way. Just contact HuCast (but be civil!) and I'm sure you'll get sorted out.

Yeah, for all their other faults, they were really good support-wise. I got sent the wrong game and he said to just keep it and he'll send out the right one ASAP. I have to give them props for that at least!

[The Coop]

I had this shipped to my job and since I was out of work for five weeks I just got it home today.

I put it in the DC and......nothing.

Wash, rinse, repeat three times.

Put in Fast Striker and it works.

Hmm..

Although from what I have read here it doesn't seem like I'm missing much.

Edit - In the music menu there are no tracks. I'm pretty sure every Dreamcast game Ive ever played has tracks in that menu. Did I get a disc with no data?

Can anyone confirm?

If it's like the dud Limited Edition disc I got, the data is there, but the pressing was bad and resulted in it not booting (my disc actually has a strange appearance on the data side of it... like it was rubbed by something until it formed an odd ring around the disc face). I eventually got my bad disc to boot up, but it crashed back to the DC menu just as it was about to go to the title screen due to part of the data on the disc being corrupt. So yeah, bad pressing. But I was given a replacement with the regular version, so I still got to play it.

[Stevens]

Cleaned the DC lens and that did the trick.

On to the game: It is pretty hard to give an unbiased opinion on something, especially after reading the experiences had by the people here, but I will do my best.

The good:

Love the backgrounds, especially stage 4
The green ship (possibly why the game only grinds briefly for me?)
Scoring is straight up shoot shit and don't die
Game is accesible to everyone

The bad:

Midway through stage 3 shit grinds to a halt, but only for a few seconds.
Bomb animation
Explosions could be a little more robust
Game is accesible to everyone - another difficulty level ala Fast Striker would have been great.

Jury is still out on:

The music. I usually like Dyll's stuff (Gunlord/FS/Neo), but not sure how I feel about this ost yet.

Overall:

As is it is an OK game that needs of a coat of polish and some tweaking.

I will be curious to see what changes are made if and when there is a revision (I think there will be), and or it gets ported to a current console with a little more horsepower (I think the 360 would be a nice place for it). I would actually purchase it again if was an improvement and the price was reasonable.

That said I will not be buying anything new from Hucast in the future until the verdict is in. Had I waited and read this thread I would not have bought it, that said I am not sorry I have it either.

I could see it becoming my go to when I am stoned due to the difficulty.

[Gamer707b]

This is exactly why I rarely get games day one. I was SO tempted but my better judgment told me to hold on. Im glad, cause I would have wasted 50 or 60 bucks or whatever. As a grown adult with life and finacial obligations, I really have to "pick my spots" on what to buy and what to pass. For those that got it and don't like it, you can always ebay it. Im sure others still want it. Devs think that can pull a fast one and put out crappy games. Truth is they screw themselves over. With the internet in this day and age, someone like me reads the overwhelming negative feedback and I skip buying it. Worse for these companies is, I'll be super wary and on alert before I even consider getting a game from these guys. Moral of the story is, as a consumer it pays to be patient and wait before you "jump" on something.

[NAVVARR]

I'm waiting on the CE version - when is it being released? I was told November- is there a date?

[TransatlanticFoe]

A ballpark of 2 weeks. Announced on Facebook. Not comms unique to Hucast, it was similar with Sturmwind.

[Enemy]

This is exactly why I rarely get games day one. I was SO tempted but my better judgment told me to hold on. Im glad, cause I would have wasted 50 or 60 bucks or whatever. As a grown adult with life and finacial obligations, I really have to "pick my spots" on what to buy and what to pass. For those that got it and don't like it, you can always ebay it. Im sure others still want it. Devs think that can pull a fast one and put out crappy games. Truth is they screw themselves over. With the internet in this day and age, someone like me reads the overwhelming negative feedback and I skip buying it. Worse for these companies is, I'll be super wary and on alert before I even consider getting a game from these guys. Moral of the story is, as a consumer it pays to be patient and wait before you "jump" on something.

never done it before and now ...... will never do it again on such a high price point, you speak the truth game706b!

[Strider77]

I learned this lesson with Redux.... never again.

[LSU]

Finally got the CE yesterday. After playing it all evening with my son, some initial impressions:

The cardboard sleeve that houses the two DVD cases is a little flimsy, it would have been much better to get some more durable heavy grade card for that. Mine arrived dented in transit and one of the inner DVD cases completely smashed apart. Thank you as always, postal service...

IMO the game is actually quite decent aside from the big two (already mentioned) really immediately obvious problems: (1.) that it's clearly quite easy and (2.) the frame skipping performance issues can get quite extreme and intrusive. Playing two players with fully powered up ships by stage 3, it got so skippy that it was quite difficult to keep track of everything on screen and all too easy to die simply because of that. Not every game is DDP DOJ - nor should it be - and this certainly isn't (not by a mile) - but perhaps there's a place for some easier, more relaxing STGs. My ten year old son absolutely loved playing it with me, since it's not nearly as intimidating as a lot of shooters that he sees me play. Beyond that, I'd say some of the enemy patterns can get a little repetitive.

Visuals and art are of a high enough standard and the music is really nice. Cool to see my name included as a supporter in the art book.

The superplay DVD actually was a pleasant surprise in that it not only contains a video for Ghost Blade (courtesy of Plasmo), but also two more captures - one for Dux 1.5 and one for Redux 1.1 (both by Acrid). However, none of the videos are captured at the full frame rate of 60fps (they're more like 30fps) so the motion is constantly a little jerky, and for some odd reason the Redux video isn't even presented fullscreen (it's scaled down somewhat so has borders). The art book has some nice images for sure, but there's some repetition (much like the patterns in the game).

Overall I feel there's a pretty good, simple 'shoot and survive' game inside here that's just itching to get out, if only the difficulty balancing, pattern variety and performance issues could have been resolved before release, but who knows how much longer that could have taken. As it stands, it's a decent enough doujin standard release. Beyond the long release delays, I'm certainly not too upset that I backed it, as it will give me and my son some hours of two player enjoyment I am sure. For purely expert players however (i.e. most of you reading this), you might want to look elsewhere if you're expecting a good/fair challenge.

Edit: Oh yeah, and the bomb effects are really bizarre, they look a bit cheap tbh and hide all the action on screen for what feels like way too long.

[D]

Well, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this title. I only have one big major blocking gripe, more on that later.
Wow, this game's music is incredible.
Playability is excellent, DDP control scheme
Nice graphics and animation
2 player mode
Score attack
Quick navigation through menu's/options. Also in-game change of control is possible


My only really big issue is the DC's performance running this title.
I'm not quite sure what happens. Normal slowdown as we all know is not what is happening here.
Seems like there is some kind of frameskipping going on. This will result in deaths. Slowdown generally makes the game easier.
The game wil run at a slower speed with a framerate of 15fps, or something like that

Other minor complaints.
The smart bomb is a either an animated gif or some kind of video file being played over the screen. After the vid, all enemies are gone.
The graphics and bullets look a bit incoherent. Like it's a mix of 2 completely differen games.
Some backgrounds look like heavily compressed jpg files


I really hope that there will be an update version that runs a stable 60fps without any frameskipping and/or slowdown.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Finally got this today after, it would seem, my original went for a walk at the post office. It's actually not far off being a good game, it's just incredibly easy (1 CC on third credit and my reflexes are 15 years past their prime) and has a few "hilarious" quirks.

- Small enemies have low HP so die the moment they appear on screen
- Small bullets sometimes go under larger ones but at *slightly* different speeds
- Inconsistent bullet cancelling gets confusing
- Suicide bullets after bombing, WTF?! That's a fun "clear screen" then "lol immediate barrage, u mad?"
- Suicide bullets from OFF SCREEN after bombing
- Stages 3 and 5 are Psikyo short without having epic Psikyo bosses, and indeed end when they just seem to hit a stride
- Stutter stutter stutter in stage 3
- Novice mode appears to be the same as the main game, just with autobombing? In fact the final boss actually pulled a different attack out in novice mode and unexpectedly murdered me in the face
- Sloooooow bullets
- Disappointing bosses have limited (and slow) patterns, only challenge is when their destructible parts are still there (often turrets with low HP)
- Joint high score table (I played novice once and now it's my top score noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo)

There are good points though...

- Stage 4 enemies that park up, shoot a stream of large bullets at you then try to kamikaze
- Big blue planes that shoot a huge green ring of suicide bullets
- Stage 5 opens with some cool walls of enemies
- Some great backgrounds, sprites and general art direction
- Enjoyable, even if unchallenging
- I haven't had the DC out in ages but I *really* like the stick on the official arcade stick

Faster bullets. Proper bomb screen clearing. No stutter. Everything needs more HP.

[emphatic]

Ghostblade HD is coming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diWykmWv38M

Discuss.

[The Coop]

Huh.

This is news to me

[Ebbo]

I sure hope that trailer music indicates a new soundtrack. I assume it's composed by Gryzor87 of Hydorah and Crimzon Clover Arrange fame, sounds very similar and that's a very good thing.

And what you know, a new game release for Wii U... in the year 2017!

[rtw]

Water effects are back and based on the video ending it's available for STEAM as well.

[Shadolf]

I hope they implement a 640x480 tate mode for those of us who want to play at a 31khz CRT in a cabinet.
And I hope that the gameplay is fluently this time, those terrible slowdowns made the game unplayable
Wasn´t there t a caravan mode anounced for the Dreamcast and then removed?

They should also do a NeoXYX release on PC and PS4, with optional difficulty modes and new play modes.
It needs a little polish, get a easier and it´s a fantastic game. I really like the graphics.

[CStarFlare]

Was wondering what happened with this - glad to see it's coming!

[bikingjahuty]

Aside from a few very noticeable frame rate dips here and there I thought this was a great game overall. It isn't as good as Mars Matrix, but it definitely held its own against Gigawing or Gunbird 2 imo.

[emphatic]

I hope they implement a 640x480 tate mode for those of us who want to play at a 31khz CRT in a cabinet.

We are getting TATE for many resolutions.

And I hope that the gameplay is fluently this time, those terrible slowdowns made the game unplayable

The gameplay is quite polished this time.

Wasn´t there t a caravan mode anounced for the Dreamcast and then removed?

A Score Attack mode is included. i'm not a big caravan mode connoisseur, so I can't say it's what you're after.

[emphatic]

As the game's coming out on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PC release platforms, and now also is quite heavily revised, should a new thread be made, since the creator of this one seems to have been banned, and can't change the thread title?