Any of these budget PS2 titles worth the purchase?

[Erik]

Before picking these up for a low price, I would like to have some opinions if these games are worthy. Reviews on the net do vary a lot, so obviously I would need some advise from the real experts

It concerns the following:

- Dragon Blaze
- Gunbird Special Edition
- Steel Dragon EX
- Silpheed
- XII Stag

I shouldn't ask even about Castle Shikigami 2 : it gets recommended a lot and I was surprised about the low price. So what about the rest of the list?

[professor ganson]

Dragon Blaze a budget title? Anyway, it's one of the best shooters of all time. Psikyo's masterpiece.

[LFO]

i cannot comment on the quality of the pal version of dragon blaze, but the game itself is definitely the best psikyo-game and in the all-time top 5 of shooting games imo. pure awesomeness!!
and apart from the different resolution the ps2 ntsc-j version is arcade perfect iirc.

edit: beat me

[Dragoforce]

Dragon Blaze is really good, but hard as nails. The same goes for the gunbird collection, although they're a little easier. Steel Dragon is actually two diffrent games. Steel Dragon evolution is too easy and quite boring. The other game (an old game called Shienryu, called Steel Dragon for some reason) is quite fun. I reminds a lot of the earlier Raiden games and gets really hard on the later levels.

Silpheed and XII Stag is just plain boring.

[bucklemyshoe]

Castle Shikigami 2/Shikigami no Shiro II isn't worth the less than 10$ I paid for it. Stay away.

[FIL]

- Dragon Blaze - very yes
- Gunbird Special Edition - yes
- Steel Dragon EX - not really
- XII Stag - yes if it's cheap

Castle Shikigami 2/Shikigami no Shiro II isn't worth the less than 10$ I paid for it. Stay away.

Is there something particularly bad about the localisation? the game itself is amazing.

[professor ganson]

Castle Shikigami 2/Shikigami no Shiro II isn't worth the less than 10$ I paid for it. Stay away.

Fighting words.

[Dale]

XII Stag looks damn good and has a very unique scoring system and play style. Feels like an awesome late 90's hi-rez arcade shmup we never got. Level design is like something out of a Raizing, Gazzel or Pskyo shmup. Nice change of pace from modern Danmuku(although it's still very twitch) find it for 40$ or less I'd pick it up.

Have you looked into Homaru?

Edit:Dragon Blaze is awesome but I immensely prefer Gunbird2. One of the greatest shmups ever made, you'll always come back to it.

[Danbo]

I didn't even know the Shikigami games got a ps2 release... I thought they were doujinsoft at first :/

[professor ganson]

I didn't even know the Shikigami games got a ps2 release... I thought they were doujinsoft at first :/

Are you being serious? They were arcade titles that got console and pc ports.

[jonny5]

I didn't even know the Shikigami games got a ps2 release... I thought they were doujinsoft at first :/

oh man.....that is sig worthy

[Dale]

The bottom line is though it's japanese Danmuku shmup with a domestic council release for less then 10 Bucks it would be foolish not to try it. SNS2 is very good if you ask me, the first one is good too but I'd try Castle Shikigami2 first and if you love that it will be worth getting the Mobile Light Force2 release of Shikigami No Shiro1. Mobile Light Force1 is Gunbird1(so many levels of irony here its unfathomable).

[FIL]

Forgot about Homura, a great game and you should be able to get it pretty cheap.

[Jon]

I always thought Homura was one of the more underrated shmups for the PS2. Definitely worth picking up.

Shiki II is also wonderful.

[professor ganson]

I'd rank priority as follows

1. Shiki 2
2. Dragon Blaze
3. Gunbird pack
4. Homura

[ZOM]

Castle Shikigami 2/Shikigami no Shiro II isn't worth the less than 10$ I paid for it. Stay away.

You're kidding right?

[BIL]

+1 each for Dragon Blaze and Shiki II. Two very well-executed deviations from straight shoot-em-up territory.

[Danbo]

I didn't even know the Shikigami games got a ps2 release... I thought they were doujinsoft at first :/

Are you being serious? They were arcade titles that got console and pc ports.

I only played the PC versions and while they were indeed polished, they just had a real doujinsoft feel about them.

[Rozyrg]

Shiki 2 isn't my cup of tea either; but it's still worth having... especially for that price.

[cj iwakura]

Shiki 2 is wonderful.

R-Type Final is also solid insanity, if you can find it.


I like Silpheed for what it is, but I haven't played it in years.

[Mero]

It concerns the following:

- Dragon Blaze
- Gunbird Special Edition
- Steel Dragon EX
- Silpheed
- XII Stag

?

I'd say pick them all up as they're all dirt cheap except for Dragon Blaze which will cost you about £20 (something like 25 euros). Well apart from Silpheed as it is reputed to be total gash.

Also be aware that the PAL version of Shiki 2 runs in 50hz only I'll be investing in a NTSC-J copy in the near future myself. Steel Dragon EX is also only 50hz but i cant be bothered buying it again

[Ruldra]

Silpheed is boring as hell IMO, don't bother.

[Kaiser]

Steel Dragon is actually two diffrent games. Steel Dragon evolution is too easy and quite boring

Try it someday on Hard Mode, it's fun and it actually gets annoying by stage 7/8 but that i mean. Very tight patterns. Shitload of BIG PURPLE bullets at you etc. it's insane

[louisg]

I only played the PC versions and while they were indeed polished, they just had a real doujinsoft feel about them.

I have to agree.. it felt like that I think because it's so slow and doesn't seem to have all that many different bullet patterns, and then there's the graphics. You might try Shiki 3, which had a US Wii release. It feels a bit more polished, it gets more interesting sooner, a little faster too iirc.

[Danbo]

The pace of it and the detachedness of the backgrounds (no ground targets that I can recall) just make me think "Touhou, but with some more polish and less good music"

[Kollision]

The pace of it and the detachedness of the backgrounds (no ground targets that I can recall) just make me think "Touhou, but with some more polish and less good music"

Your words have just nailed my exact feelings about it.
You know, I played shiki 2 for a while and I always thought something was not right about it - the game wouldn't click with me no matter how hard I tried or how long I played.

[clp]

The pace of it and the detachedness of the backgrounds (no ground targets that I can recall) just make me think "Touhou, but with some more polish and less good music"

sorry are you actually suggesting touhou has better music than shiki 2? holy fuck that is the most retarded thing ive heard all year .

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The original Alfa Systems produced Taito G-Card cartridge of Shikigami No Shiro running on the Taito G-Net mobo setup still retains that early yet quite not as polished as it's latter sequel of SNS-2 along with it's true low-res aestethics. Still an interesting game to play in it's own right. You can even play with the "hidden" extra character as well...how cool is that for a bonus? ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Danbo]

The pace of it and the detachedness of the backgrounds (no ground targets that I can recall) just make me think "Touhou, but with some more polish and less good music"

sorry are you actually suggesting touhou has better music than shiki 2? holy fuck that is the most retarded thing ive heard all year .

[professor ganson]

The pace of it and the detachedness of the backgrounds (no ground targets that I can recall) just make me think "Touhou, but with some more polish and less good music"

The slow pace of Shiki 2 is a change of pace for the series. It was intentional, to draw people into the scoring system. You are given time to focus on how to maximize score for each wave of enemies without worrying about survival. Basically levels 1-3 or so play like a puzzler. Survival gets a bit more hairy on levels 4-5, at least for me.

Detatchedness of the backgrounds? That's mostly true in the first two levels, but that changes dramatically after that. I'm afraid you're misremembering. Go back and play 3-1, for example.

Less good music? The music in Level 2 is some of my favorite in any game. I'm afraid your remark here betrays very poor taste.