DARIUS BURST CHRONICLE SAVIOURS (STEAM/PS4/Vita)

[boagman]

Any of you playing on Vita? I'm posting from Thailand where it's been Nov. 30th for quite some time, and I'm just waiting for the NA PSN store to catch up to me (my Vita is still on NA region).

Not until my hard copy gets here.

[system11]

Having just seen the official prices, as a Darius series fan for many years I'm happy to say "fuck that, you must be joking".

$49.99 on Steam
$59.99 on PS4 (why is this more expensive?)

Taito are going to have to learn that people would stand paying $60 for an actual retail product in a niche genre, but for a downloaded title you can't keep and own? No. Not a chance. They're dooming it outside of Japan at those prices. I'll be waiting until a physical PS4 release happens (unlikely) or until the price has fallen significantly. See you in a year or two.

[AxelMill]

Having just seen the official prices, as a Darius series fan for many years I'm happy to say "fuck that, you must be joking".

$49.99 on Steam
$59.99 on PS4 (why is this more expensive?)

Taito are going to have to learn that people would stand paying $60 for an actual retail product in a niche genre, but for a downloaded title you can't keep and own? No. Not a chance. They're dooming it outside of Japan at those prices. I'll be waiting until a physical PS4 release happens (unlikely) or until the price has fallen significantly. See you in a year or two.

Holy sheet, are they serious? Yeah, they converted the Japanese price to $ (and it's also a digital-only release there), but when your fanbase is already really small, you can't hope to attract neither new people nor loyal Darius players with a price that high. Even worse, I know Europe is going to pay 50€/60€ for it.
And I'm sure they'll use the fact that no one bought their incredibly expensive digital-only game as an excuse to not port any more games in the West.

The PS4 version is more expensive because it's always been like this. For no reason at all, but still. Not only that, PC gamers get to play it dual-screen, which is a gigantic point in its favor. The PS4 version has Darius Odyssey, I guess?

That's why I want to know if we get to keep the beta or not.

[antares]

I have absolutely no problem paying this amount for a retail shmup. But for download only? Forget it!

I guess the PSN version is crossbuy? So buying it on the Vita will also cost 60$? Well, in this case I'll be heading to AmiAmi for the retail version.

[AxelMill]

I have absolutely no problem paying this amount for a retail shmup. But for download only? Forget it!

I guess the PSN version is crossbuy? So buying it on the Vita will also cost 60$? Well, in this case I'll be heading to AmiAmi for the retail version.

I'd have no problem, too, it is the biggest shmup ever made, but the most I payed for a digital game was 30€ (Persona 3 Portable), and I don't want that record to rise by that much.

Nope, no crossbuy. The Vita version will probably cost $40, or at least less than the other two, because, as I mentioned earlier, it's always like this.
The US Store didn't update yet, to know the truth, we'll need to wait a few more hours.

[GSK]

I guess the PSN version is crossbuy? So buying it on the Vita will also cost 60$? Well, in this case I'll be heading to AmiAmi for the retail version.

No cross-buy, but there is cross-save. The JP price for the digital Vita version is 4800 yen, for what it's worth.

[malc]

Having just seen the official prices, as a Darius series fan for many years I'm happy to say "fuck that, you must be joking".

$49.99 on Steam
$59.99 on PS4 (why is this more expensive?)

Taito are going to have to learn that people would stand paying $60 for an actual retail product in a niche genre, but for a downloaded title you can't keep and own? No. Not a chance. They're dooming it outside of Japan at those prices. I'll be waiting until a physical PS4 release happens (unlikely) or until the price has fallen significantly. See you in a year or two.

Nooooo! First shmup Ive decided to buy no matter what, for years. Was ready to drop maybe £20 on it. Will wait for actual real tangible keepable vita one. Or a sale.

Thinking that this ott price is on a cyber monday to....

[Aisha]

Nearly $70 for the Steam version is way more than I was preparing for. Unless there's a generous launch discount, it looks like this game will have to wait.

[antares]

I guess the PSN version is crossbuy? So buying it on the Vita will also cost 60$? Well, in this case I'll be heading to AmiAmi for the retail version.

No cross-buy, but there is cross-save. The JP price for the digital Vita version is 4800 yen, for what it's worth.

Ok, that's only 400 yen less than the retail version on AmiAmi would cost me (5200 yen, without shipping), so I'd say retail is still the much better value.

[Vally]

That'll make it much harder for me to triple dip, but I've spent more money than that on less awesome stuff.

If testers don't keep access, I'll still be buying on Steam on release at the least. If we do, I'll probably buy a gift copy to give away.

It's a really, really great game and it's a shame to see fans turning it down because of the price.

[AntiFritz]

I perfectly understand selling a game like this full price. A lot of shmups in japan are as well as most console releases of the last few years. But even so I won't be buying it at launch if it's gonna be 70 AUD. And the average gamer won't be either.

[system11]

I perfectly understand selling a game like this full price. A lot of shmups in japan are as well as most console releases of the last few years. But even so I won't be buying it at launch if it's gonna be 70 AUD. And the average gamer won't be either.

I have no disagreement with it being full price, but all those ones on the 360 were proper retail products - that's a significant difference, a download version is simply worth less. I feel the same about normal AAA games which is why I very rarely buy digital at all. With shmups it's an even bigger issue because these (unlike for example a Call Of Duty installment) are games people like to enjoy many years down the road.

I can't wait to see the EU prices, they're going to be a festival of stupidity.

[antares]

I fully agree with system11.
60$ for a download is just unjustifiable, it doesn't matter if it's a shmup or a AAA blockbuster, it's ridicolous in both cases to charge that amount for a software license.

[Icarus]

blah blah blah spendthrift blah blah blah disc/packaging fetishist blah blah blah entitlement blah blah blah

If you truly "loved" the series, you'd still buy it and play it to death. That's what I'm doing, regardless of how much it costs.
I've waited far too long for a decent port of an arcade game I am absolutely, totally in love with to skip out on it now. And considering I've been happy to pay more than double the asking price for Cave's LEs on release - many of which amounted to nothing more than an extra bit of plastic in the box, or a piece of card with a download code on it - I'm happy to let this one slide.

[GSK]

You don't have to let anything slide, you can just wait until the inevitable price cut. Game ain't goin' nowhere.

[cave hermit]

blah blah blah spendthrift blah blah blah disc/packaging fetishist blah blah blah entitlement blah blah blah

If you truly "loved" the series, you'd still buy it and play it to death. That's what I'm doing, regardless of how much it costs.
I've waited far too long for a decent port of an arcade game I am absolutely, totally in love with to skip out on it now.

I think the issue here is that whereas you've played the game before and know it's something you'd be willing to pay $60 for, most people here have not gotten a chance to play this before, and aren't willing to pay that much for a product they really don't know if they'll enjoy or not.

[system11]

Well you can refund on Steam, but not PSN. That one isn't really a big deal for me, I'll probably enjoy the game. I'm hoping we get a physical PS4 announcement before/around the JP release date.

[Icarus]

I think the issue here is that whereas you've played the game before and know it's something you'd be willing to pay $60 for, most people here have not gotten a chance to play this before, and aren't willing to pay that much for a product they really don't know if they'll enjoy or not.

And what's the difference between this and a console port of a Cave game most people probably wouldn't have played in its original environment either? I most certainly had never sampled Akai Katana or Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu in an arcade at that time (and never touched any of the CV1000 games in MAME) but still paid out full asking price to import their LEs, simply because I wanted to play them. I don't feel that "prior experience of a game" should be an issue if you desire to play it enough, and it certainly shouldn't give one company justification based on community popularity over another.

I'm amused that people are willing to pay $70 for a disc with literally 0.001% of DBAC's total content, just because it's a disc. I can tell you that there's so much to do in DBCS between bashing out an improved AC score, working through Chronicle Mode - which is basically thousands of little self-contained AC Modes rolled in one, including stages which are little nods to past games - and the new CS Mode, that it easily justifies the price its asking for.

The other thing is, we already knew how much they were expecting to charge based on the prices listed on the official Japanese site. Why is everyone surprised now?

[Squire Grooktook]

I am totally down for spending 50-80 bucks on a title like this.

Only thing that pains me is that others might not. I think with its intuitive gameplay, unique audiovisual presentation, classic legacy, and most importantly the HUGE amount of content, this might actually be a good shmup to break newcomers into. But I fear that won't happen if the price tag is too high.

[Zaarock]

I hope the game gets a playable demo. Regardless of how good a STG is it's going to be hard to sell to newcomers for 60 USD/euro (especially on Steam). Having played the beta I would definitely buy it for that price. Maybe they decided on this pricing because DBAC has a large dedicated fanbase in japan.

This is a super good game, but there needs to be a real way to prove to people new to Dariusburst that it's high quality and that there really is a lot of worthwhile content. Maybe a lot of hype and gameplay videos can help.

One very cool thing about CS mode is that the music in each mission corresponds to the ship you use. I'm not sure if 100% of the tracks in the main Darius series are used, but they tend to vary the music used between each mission. So you essentially get to experience most of the whole Darius series soundtrack as you play. Very impressively the old tracks still have a lot of sync on stages and bosses. Remember that stage in Darius Gaiden where no music plays for half the stage but it picks up when things get intense? That's still in.

[system11]

The other thing is, we already knew how much they were expecting to charge based on the prices listed on the official Japanese site. Why is everyone surprised now?

I didn't expect them to actually try to ask that much for a digital shmup release in the west, seriously. They must know it's going to barely sell, and the media are going to be all over it for that reason.

[CStarFlare]

That's basically my only complaint - I'd pay $60+ for it, but it's the kind of thing that I think WOULD have wider appeal if it weren't an obsolete genre priced on the same level of the new COD. It'll get more requests for a price drop than actual sales. If it were $20, I'd be posting about it on Facebook and other sites come release day. At $50 I'd just feel stupid suggesting that my mainstream gamer friends give it a shot.

A demo could help, but they'd almost have to have the entire maps visible in Chronicle and CS to show the magnitude of the game. (whereas they're slowly revealed as you place in the full game)

[Icarus]

The other thing is, we already knew how much they were expecting to charge based on the prices listed on the official Japanese site. Why is everyone surprised now?

I didn't expect them to actually try to ask that much for a digital shmup release in the west, seriously. They must know it's going to barely sell, and the media are going to be all over it for that reason.

I can understand that, but since when did we listen to the gaming media? :V
For the general consumer, that's another matter, but I've always felt that our genre existed on word-of-mouth publicity alone. And as someone who pretty much ignores every other arcade game in the building whenever I find a DBAC cab, I can safely say this game is an amazing experience that shouldn't be missed. More so if you have the set up to dual-screen & surround-sound the Steam version.

In any rate, I'll be buying this on PS4 day-one, and will stream it, bandwidth-throttling permitting.

[CloudyMusic]

That's basically my only complaint - I'd pay $60+ for it, but it's the kind of thing that I think WOULD have wider appeal if it weren't an obsolete genre priced on the same level of the new COD. It'll get more requests for a price drop than actual sales. If it were $20, I'd be posting about it on Facebook and other sites come release day. At $50 I'd just feel stupid suggesting that my mainstream gamer friends give it a shot.

Yeah, I agree. But perhaps their market research led them to believe that it just wasn't likely to bring in enough extra sales if they priced it at $20 to justify the price difference, so that a full-priced release was the only chance they had at making this port actually profitable. It's not like $10-20 shmups are even all that likely to sell well either.

---

In any case, $50 for a new full-featured PC release is typical. Actual "physical releases" on PC are all but extinct these days, with boxed copies of games usually just containing a Steam/Origin code and maybe an install disc if you're lucky. While I realize that many in this community are more sensitive than others about game preservation and the ability to continue to play games we've purchased even 50 years after the fact, I think that even for the length of time that PS4 hardware will be readily available at retail and PSN is basically guaranteed to still be up (let's say ten years to be extremely conservative), to me that's still a completely justifiable price to be able to play a quality product for that span of time. Even if we say that Sony disappears and you can't play your digital copy anymore in 2035, the PC version will undoubtedly still be floating around for the sake of preservation.

But then, even on consoles, I've never really been a "physical copy or nothing" diehard. I often appreciate the convenience of digital distribution, and sometimes buy digital copies of full-priced games even when a disc version is readily available. The benefits of not having to constantly walk across the room to switch discs or fill up space in my house with bookshelves full of game cases is a tangible benefit to me, and I'm willing to knowingly accept the tradeoffs in exchange. Not everyone is, and I understand that. (And hell, even with old physical games that I do own, I'm generally not interested in cluttering up my house with ancient consoles just to play them; I'd sooner just run those games on an emulator on my PC.)

Anyway, whatever. I've never actually played any version of Darius Burst before, but with all of the praise that it gets, I'm excited to try this out and it'll be nice to play something that's not just a straight arcade port for once, with some nice extra content. Looking forward to the PC version in a few days.

[qmish]

I was sure that Kadokawa is publisher so it's pricey...

...but Degica? Can't they prove that such price tag won't sell the game?

p.s.

Guys, is there a mode with original PSP version MUSIC in DBCS? I don't like Photosynthesis Suite of DBAC yet i love original DB ost.

for a new full-featured PC

not in the eyes of 90% of gamers. Shmups are "little games" + overal presentation still pretty budget (they improved textures a bit etc. but lighting is still Dreamcast era and it's basically ships and enemies over painted backgrounds).

[Skykid]

That is a pretty surprising Steam price, but I'm good. I'll play the Vita for the new stuff and if I want to play on twin monitors... I'll walk 5 minutes to the arcade and throw 10p in it to get 2 credits.

(You know you jelly motherfuckers!)

[Icarus]

Guys, is there a mode with original PSP version MUSIC in DBCS? I don't like Photosynthesis Suite of DBAC yet i love original DB ost.

The Photosynthesis Suite only plays on the Easy route (A, DE, HIJ) - and is perfectly synched to the stage transitions, by the way - while the original PSP soundtrack plays on all other routes.

[Xyga]

Extremely appealing but I'll wait a bit for drop/discounts.

[Satan]

That is a pretty surprising Steam price, but I'm good. I'll play the Vita for the new stuff and if I want to play on twin monitors... I'll walk 5 minutes to the arcade and throw 10p in it to get 2 credits.

(You know you jelly motherfuckers!)

Two bob for two credits? Sure that's great so it is, isn't it?

[Durandal]

Newcomers to SHMUPs will probably give DBCS a wide berth due to its $50/60 pricetag when there's cheaper beginner-friendly alternatives available. Not many people are prepared to invest big bucks into a genre they don't have much experience with. Maybe a demo could help alleviate these doubts, but barely any developer releases demos anymore. The closest thing you'd get to a demo would be emulating the original Dariusburst on the PSP.
Not to mention that there's a Steam Sale going on at the moment. Many people's wallets are exhausted.