Assault Suit Leynos Reboot for PS4

[ExitPlanetDust]

Good going, marked for index! kitten has some good documentation up too.

Thanks for this. I’ve seen kitten’s play and it’s masterful. Their Arcade play helped me work out some tricks for the later parts of the game. That write up is great.

My stack of games finally came in from Play-Asia so I’m struggling with the decision to crack some of those open and drift off, or if I should shelve them and work on this some more.

That gif is so good.

[BIL]

That gif is so good.

Unleashed Upon The Hellish Battlefield ™ © Nobuya Nakazato

Is it known whether Namco's Finest Hour was a direct influence on the Leynos/Valken games? It predated the original Leynos by a year, and the aiming controls, boost jumping and weighty physics are remarkably similar.

With Hamster's customarily excellent Arcade Archives port landing almost nine years hence this post, I can finally comment! Finest Hour definitely feels like an arcade Leynos Alpha. (short review, 24hrs on) More cool than great, but definitely warranting a look for patient fans of the subgenre. While it's a very simple game - crouching while slugging it out with heavy mechs is integral! - it legitimately has a unique angle: you're not a walking tank, but a sprinting one. The dash is vital, for gutsy zako-mowing raids, bolting through meatgrinders, and invading enemy aces' range, before digging into the dirt for a healthy 10/90 exchange of fire. Super gritty.

Only one stern caveat: the brutally unforgiving final boss. It's bad enough he's essentially three near-instakills in rapid succession, but what really gets me is the disabling of continues. Typing this, I suspect it was balanced for players who'd dropped a credit in the preceding stage, and regained their HP+time... even then, it'd be rough. It's a very short game, maybe 10 minutes per 2ALL, so perhaps Namco balanced it around that.

For me, it's one of those things redeemed by the home release's state practice. The surrounding 99% is cool, although the obligatory Subterranean Death Maze isn't its strongest suit. (nor is it for Leynos, Valken, or Ranza, imo) I left it at the brink of 2ALL, recording my final boss strat for future reference. (spoiler, ofc!) Being a Saigo no Nindou fan, I'm used to triaging 11th-hour pratfalls in otherwise outstanding games. Enjoy the good, neutralise the bad, that's what I say.

What really leaps out at me, re: influence on Leynos, is the "heat gauge" lifebar. You don't have conventional hitpoints; rather, damage builds the gauge, with your mech totalled at 100%, heat dissipating if you can avoid damage. I used to find MD Leynos's regenerating HP slightly un-aesthetic, headcanoning it as a recharging force field. This is way cooler! I wonder if Masaya were directly inspired, or perhaps it's just a touchstone of JP mecha lore.

This is the second mecha-themed title I've seen with stages named after a famous Western rock band's songs; Rush for Finest Hour, Joy Division for Cloudphobia.

Distant Early Warning ~ Middletown Dreams In A Lonely Place

Spoiler

Good taste, Nihonjin brothers in arms.

[ExitPlanetDust]

After several classic mode hard difficulty attempts I decided to drop it down to normal. So here's the clear. In some ways it was more difficult than an arcade mode hard difficulty clear. In some ways it’s easier.

I think the trick to unlock everything at the beginning of the game by only destroying the ship in the first level might be required in classic hard. It’s incredibly difficult to get past a couple of sticking points without unlocking extra armors. I can’t boost the score enough without unlocks to carry me through the game.

I would be interested in any scoring techniques if anyone has suggestions.

[ExitPlanetDust]

I think I might have found a path through stage 6 that could lead to a classic hard 1cc. The hovercraft mini boss is a huge hurdle for me.

While watching Iconoclast’s classic normal clear I noticed that the enemies in the beginning can be killed back and do not continuously spawn if they are cleared before the hovercraft appears. I assumed that they infinitely spawned.

Clearing the herd might give me a fighting chance to preserve that precious armor stock if I only have to watch one side of the screen. The BB launcher might be useful in blocking the plasma orbs too.

Also, I think I’ve worked out that an additional armor stock is rewarded after 300,000 points. I don’t think it’s possible to achieve this before the final stage. I just need to find an area or two to milk enough points to make it into the final mission with 2 armor stocks. The final battle with the rival mech is very aggressive.

Edit: Adding some score bonus notes.

Bonus objectives per stage:
Stage 1: Enemy ship distance traveled
Stage 2: Allies saved
Stage 3: Time taken
Stage 4: Time taken
Stage 5: Enemies routed
Stage 6: None?
Stage 7: Enemies routed
Stage 8: None?

[Klatrymadon]

TIL the Humble version of the Dracue remake comes with an art book full of interviews which isn't available as Steam DLC. I've only perused it briefly so far but it seems to have almost Darius Odyssey volumes of interview material, so it's well worth the current sale price:

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/assa ... al-edition

(I want to talk about the remake itself soon. I cleared both modes for the first time recently, despite having the game in my Steam library for almost a decade. It's a beaut.)

[BIL]

Oho, nice! Thanks for the heads up!

EDIT: What a strange little epoch this thread spans. Seems like yesterday I was going WTF at a Leynos remake even happening, let alone for a then brand-new console. A resounding killer app in hindsight, much as the original is for MD.

[BurlyHeart]

TIL the Humble version of the Dracue remake comes with an art book full of interviews which isn't available as Steam DLC. I've only perused it briefly so far but it seems to have almost Darius Odyssey volumes of interview material, so it's well worth the current sale price:

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/assa ... al-edition

(I want to talk about the remake itself soon. I cleared both modes for the first time recently, despite having the game in my Steam library for almost a decade. It's a beaut.)

Great info, thanks! I have the game already but sounds well worth it for less than $2

Bonus content for Special Edition owners! Enjoy the 23-track soundtrack and a 75-page art and interview book with the original devs, Masaya!

[ExitPlanetDust]

Always nice to see this thread bumped. I can’t wait to read your impressions, Klatrymadon.

I should take pictures or video of the physical Japanese release I have. It comes with a sizable game manual tucked in the box. It’s a far more premium package than the western disc versions. For some reason this version has climbed in value.

I’ve obviously abandoned my hard classic playthrough, but I intend to return. I could only take so many beatings from the hovercraft boss before I just needed to play something else.

Edit: I didn’t realize my links on the previous page were broken. I fixed them and the playthroughs are available again.

[Shelcoof]

Really appreciate the in depth review of this game by all the contributors!
Love it!

[Wata123]

Sort of a silly question, but does this game have leaderboards? Based on YT vids, doesn't seem like it.

[ExitPlanetDust]

I guess one could play for score. Score seems to mostly exist for unlocks however. If strats to deal with some of the chaos in the higher difficulties are developed, then yeah Leynos remake would open up for score runs.