Mushihime Sama Ps2 impressions

[CVM]

Well, they tried to deliver it this morning. I was up waiting for a different package for another family member, and I must've fallen asleep on the sofa. Somebody obviously didn't knock very loudly, I'm not a heavy sleeper. Anyway, I now have to go collect it from the post office (with a customs charge, I think they must've stopped a large number of these going through). The catch is that I can't go collect it right away because I'm left waiting on somebody else's stuff that may not actually be delivered today, otherwise I'd be out the door already.

Hope your luck changes today too, Ord.

[Ord]

So far.....nothing! I'm glad you recieved yours, hopefully **figers AND toes crossed** i'll get mine tommorow, however I can't shake this gut feeling that mine has gone AWOL.

[SAM]

So far.....nothing! I'm glad you recieved yours, hopefully **figers AND toes crossed** i'll get mine tommorow, however I can't shake this gut feeling that mine has gone AWOL.

I really think you should contact the seller and asked for the tracking number. Hope that would help.

[brokendivide]

Ord, I just got mine via cheap shipping, (with customs charge of £11). Seems they're still filtering through slowly...wouldn't give up hope just yet.

[BulletMagnet]

if there's a VISUAL gap, I know my hitbox can get through it, but , hitboxes on bullets... nah.. not my bag...

Heh heh, RSG did that too, if you turn on the "visible hitbox" option you see that each bullet has its own little square or whatnot inside...the general rule in my experience is just to stay as far away from the center of the thing as you can, heh. I agree that "invisible gaps" can mess with your head a bit, but I tend to think that the main reason it's in there is just to make things look more impressive...itty bitty bullets just aren't as intimidating as having 95 percent of the screen covered in neon globs, heh.

[Valgar]

Honestly the reason the game shows you the hitbox is because that blue light stays on a layer above bullets, so when she is covered with bullets you can actually still see where you are!

[Dylan1CC]

Ultra aside, there is no luck in the game in dodging bullets, it just feels that way now and then because some of the bullet clouds deceptively spread out. As an example, in stage 2 there are those medium sized bugs with the pastel rainbow colored wings. They shoot out dark pink waves that appear as though they will engulf your ship, but the key is to notice that gaps in the cloud appear at the last second and remember where the gap will appear the next time. Some may decry this as a little bit of annoying memorization but I like it myself.

[Dave_K.]

my only major quibble is the solid bullet clouds..

in my books.. no gap means NO GAP..

it seem just by luck i dodge through SOLID masses of bullets.

its rather silly really..

if there's a VISUAL gap, I know my hitbox can get through it, but , hitboxes on bullets... nah.. not my bag...

Cave has had this since DoDonPachi. DDP Level 3 boss' final pattern, you can squeeze inbetween bullets even when there is no visual gap...I was just practicing this last night. Its also mentioned in BER's beepreying guide.

[Stormowl]

just got the game this week. lovin' it.

pros:

- fast bullets.
- you can turn off the annoying voices. yay!
- arrange mode.
- smallest hitox yet. and the bullet hitboxes are incredibly small too.

cons:

- stutter slowdown
- no lo res

[Ord]

Well, my LE mushihime-samma, finally arrived! The post date said 26/7/05, so Play-Asia lied about posting my item on the 20th, and it's been in customs since the 5th which hacked me off. £11 charge!
I'm glad I finally got it and I think it's fab, but seriosly it's the last time I use Play-Asia. I only hope Yes-Asia is a bit better with my copy of Raiden III.

[ThirdStrike]

If this game was Crack I would SMOKE it ALL NIGHT

400 POSTS!!!!!!!!!!!

[BulletMagnet]

Sorta OT, but did anyone else who ordered from YesAsia have this happen? I've broken down and ordered Mushi (along with a few other games), and according to the "order tracking" page on YA's site, my order shipped late last week. However, ever since then when I check for the tracking number, it says it hasn't been updated yet, and to check back in 24 hours. I'm not exactly worried or anything, but I wonder if anyone else had delayed (or non?) access to their tracking number.

[EOJ]

Sorta OT, but did anyone else who ordered from YesAsia have this happen? I've broken down and ordered Mushi (along with a few other games), and according to the "order tracking" page on YA's site, my order shipped late last week. However, ever since then when I check for the tracking number, it says it hasn't been updated yet, and to check back in 24 hours. I'm not exactly worried or anything, but I wonder if anyone else had delayed (or non?) access to their tracking number.

This happened to me. It's not really a tracking number, it's just a delivery confirmation number. So at least for me it didn't show anything until I actually received the game and the postman scanned it on delivery.
Did you order the free shipping or priority? Priority took 5 business days for me (they say 2-5 so I can't complain), the 'free' shipping is probably sent media mail or 4th class (don't know if those are actually the same or not), and arrives in 5-9 business days (1-2 weeks basically).

Anyway you'll get it and the most you'll have to wait is 9 business days. Yesasia seem to be pretty good about shipping.

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, being the cheapskate I am I went for free shipping...it's estimated to arrive (IIRC) sometime next week. And actually I went back to the site the other day and it (finally) had the tracking number there, I was able to plug it into the UPS website and see where my package was at. Weird that it wouldn't show up for a few days after the thing was shipped though.

[greg]

I ordered my LE version off Amazon JP. I wasn't planning on buying the LE, but it's actually cheaper than the regular version on Amazon JP! The reason is that the regular game has a 15% discount, but the LE has a 30% discount. So it comes out to be a 46 yen cheaper. Plus free shipping within Japan to boot. I'm having it sent to my sister-in-law in Tokyo along with one of the new "ceramic white" slim PS2s (free shipping on that too). She will bring it when she visits America next week.

After playing Mushihime-sama and Espgaluda a few weekends ago at the last AZ Shmupmeet at Undamned's place, I decided that I really ought to get a PS2. Well, now I will soon have one! Finally I will be able to play my Card Captor Sakura Tetris game, since it won't work with my modded PSX. Neat-o mosquito. I'll soon have Mushihime and Espgaluda in my posession, and my next purchase will likely be Gradius V.

Still haven't listened to the Mushihime soundtrack yet, though.

[GaijinPunch]

Off Topic:
I've read mixed reviews on those slim line PS2's... at Amazon.jp of all places.

Still haven't listened to the Mushihime soundtrack yet, though.

On topic: It's bad.

[EOJ]

After playing Mushihime-sama and Espgaluda a few weekends ago at the last AZ Shmupmeet at Undamned's place, I decided that I really ought to get a PS2. Well, now I will soon have one! Finally I will be able to play my Card Captor Sakura Tetris game, since it won't work with my modded PSX. Neat-o mosquito. I'll soon have Mushihime and Espgaluda in my posession, and my next purchase will likely be Gradius V.

[Still haven't listened to the Mushihime soundtrack yet, though.

Nice! I have one of the new white Slim JP PS2s, and it works like a dream, I love it. Seems more reliable than my old 50000 model brick PS2.
But I'd rethink that Gradius V purchase. I really didn't enjoy that game. Try DDP DOJ or something else, unless you're a big fan of Gradius.

[greg]

Guys, since we're getting into a tangent on slimline Playstation 2s, I've decided to be a bit proactive and create a thread in the off-topic forum:
http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=72584

That way we wont' clutter up this thread with the PS2 console discussion.

[New Age of Aces]

Wtf!!! No Digital audio.

I was just about to buy Mushihimesama until I read that.

Is this 100% confirmed???


~NAOA

[EOJ]

Wtf!!! No Digital audio.

I was just about to buy Mushihimesama until I read that.

Is this 100% confirmed???


~NAOA

yup. Taito doesn't love you.

[New Age of Aces]

Wtf!!! No Digital audio.

I was just about to buy Mushihimesama until I read that.

Is this 100% confirmed???


~NAOA

yup. Taito doesn't love you.

[Jedah Doma]

Man, loving the game through and through. I picked up Dodonpachi Dia Ou Jou as my first Cave shooter. It was very nice, so I then picked up Mushi a couple of weeks later. I got this game and I was blown away. I'm not sure why I like it better at the moment, but the atmosphere and graphics are killer in every way. So, it inspired me to just go out and get ESPGaluda a couple of days after I got this in. This way I can complete the Cave trifecta of shmup goodness.

For me, arrange mode is my favorite by far. I like normal arcade, but arrange let's you actually focus on dodging bullet patterns. I find myself doing better in this mode because I don't depend on my bomb. I just fly and try and make it through. There are a lot of times that I would have used a bomb (had it been arcade mode) and had I have used it, I would have wasted one bomb all because I was afraid of getting killed. With the auto bomb feature, it let's me worry about getting better. Also, the parent and child counter system is just amazing. I love the numbers popping above the head of a boss with a row of child counters. Plus it's nice to get a fatter score at the end of a level because if you get hit once or twice because you're not technically dead. Ah, pure shmup goodness.

[Thunder Force]

For me, arrange mode is my favorite by far. I like normal arcade, but arrange let's you actually focus on dodging bullet patterns. I find myself doing better in this mode because I don't depend on my bomb. I just fly and try and make it through.

I'll be the first to agree with this - as I'm of the apparent minority that isn't fond of the idea of bullet-clearing smartbombs in videogames, never have been... probably part of why I'm often drawn to horis or games which use bombs as attacks instead of panic buttons. But I didn't even give "Arrange mode" in Mushi a second glance when it was mentioned in the feature list. Ignoring it and expecting something like the unsatisfying "Training" mode in Batrider which similarly tried to remove bomb management, by autobombing for you when you were in danger. But that Raizing game didn't execute the idea well at all, as it seemed IIRC to detonate your bombs aggressively when it felt you were close enough to a bullet but hadn't hit it yet, even if you were going to dodge it. Combined with a shortened stage order (necessitated by its arcade coinage requirements) the Batrider Training mode was blah...

But Mushihimesama's "Arrange mode" has the advantage of being designed for the home player only since it didn't appear in the arcade, so coin intake is not a factor, meaning we get a well crafted game mode that stands in its own right - removing bomb management but only actually triggering bombs when you are literally hit by a bullet. And not restricting us to a subset of stages like Batrider did. It's really extremely entertaining and playable, and certainly worth checking out for non-Cave purists who might otherwise think this game doesn't interest them... With the multiples and the exact autobomb trigger acting like a shield system here, you can almost play Mushihimesama has an imaginary improved sequel to Namco's Phelios (minus that game's charge beam or crashing into walls features )

This is one of the only modern games where the music has drawn me in like the old ones did, along with Gradius V.

yeah I'm with bloodflowers on this point, the melodic retrosynth here certainly has its appeal, to me more so than energetic Cave OSTs like DDP or Espgaluda had.

[Zweihander]

Well I got my hands on Mushihime Sama for Ps2 and must say this is one magnificent port.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........

[Nei First]

This is one of the only modern games where the music has drawn me in like the old ones did, along with Gradius V.

yeah I'm with bloodflowers on this point, the melodic retrosynth here certainly has its appeal, to me more so than energetic Cave OSTs like DDP or Espgaluda had.

Agreed. Especially for me the third stage music, it has a real early 90's nostalgic melody that I love.

[chtimi-CLA]

i just got my copy, i'm quite disappointed. the slowdown is not good cave slowdown, it feels more like shikigami2 with wait on, where everything slows to a crawl then brutally speeds back up. that's probably the port, but overall the game doesn't seem that exciting either.
maybe i'll like it more later, we'll see but something is missing. i didn't like galuda either and ibara doesn't sound too great so i hope cave can get their shit together after galuda2 because all their post-ketsui games don't appeal to me that much.

[BulletMagnet]

maybe i'll like it more later, we'll see but something is missing.

I didn't like it a heck of a lot at first either for some reason, but it's grown on me a bit since then...I'd agree that it's not one of Cave's best (though the overall graphical design and presentation, even with the incorrect resolution or whatever, is perhaps my favorite out of all their games), but at least in my case I had to presevere a little.

[Nei First]

i didn't like galuda either and ibara doesn't sound too great so i hope cave can get their shit together after galuda2 because all their post-ketsui games don't appeal to me that much.

You do like DOJ though don't you?

[chtimi-CLA]

maybe i'll like it more later, we'll see but something is missing.

I didn't like it a heck of a lot at first either for some reason, but it's grown on me a bit since then...I'd agree that it's not one of Cave's best (though the overall graphical design and presentation, even with the incorrect resolution or whatever, is perhaps my favorite out of all their games), but at least in my case I had to presevere a little.

you're right, i'm willing to give it a chance and i'm not saying it's a bad game, but "the new cave" used to be something else.

You do like DOJ though don't you?

doj was before ketsui, but yes i like it, and after average first impressions (but the difference is doj has more guts and always had a strange appeal, mushi feels a bit hollow).