Shogun: Rise of the Renegade (iOS)

[genjuro]

"Upcoming Bullet Hell Shooter 'Shogun: Rise of the Renegade' Hitting iOS Soon"

http://toucharcade.com/2012/01/25/upcom ... -ios-soon/

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/O4LzFRYe-1c


Looks interesting. Most excited about the iCade support.

[Estebang]

Doesn't look awful (just uninspired), but what's the point when so many legitimate Cave games are already available on the platform.

[Skykid]

This looks alright, I'll check it out.

[genjuro]

Doesn't look awful (just uninspired), but what's the point when so many legitimate Cave games are already available on the platform.

iCADE.

when will cave embrace it?

[Udderdude]

"When you're playing .. shumps .. on a telephone .."

I feel that 'pause and select from the menu' thing could easily be abused to give yourself more time (even if you can't move during the menu time).

And of course .. full screen bullet cancelling with apparently no limit. Pointless to add zillions of bullets when you can just build up a meter with a tiny bit of scraping and clear the screen before you even have to dodge anything.

Rabble rabble.

[Demetori]

I'll get it, once we get feedback on the controls.

[Udderdude]

From the looks of it, it's your standard 'move instantly wherever you move your finger' deal.

[Enemy]

Well it's out, you download it with the first level for free and then pay for the rest of the levels.

Movement is like the standard touch and move cave affair, not sure what to make of the weapon selection it seems to slow the flow of the game. Also hate the shield bar.

Would be interested to see what others think.

[astroid]

I think its a very good game with awesome ddp-style sprites and dynamics! Weapons switch is unusual, but they can fix it up and make an option to change button layout

[astroid]

I am the lonely one who playing it?? Guys, its a VERY good shmup inspired by Dodonpachi. Try it for FREE, I like this way of distribution! And it costs its money (Only two bucks!)

[Avatar Ignis]

gave this a try-

It is an okay game. I just wish there wasn't such a short limit to multiplier (x16). So far I just max the multiplier and play it safe to do well with the occasional emp's to ensure safety

[SuperGrafx]

Seems ok for two bucks.

[Skykid]

Not feeling it unfortunately. Don't like the music and the graphical styles jar. But that's just superfluous. It's really the weapons system: it's just too intrusive and constantly kills the flow of the action. It also leaves you always having to realign your finger placement after you use it, since you touch right on the ship to change the weapon.

I think there's potential in the scraping idea, but it doesn't seem to work well because the patterns aren't conducive to the system. You want to get grazing, but you sort of have to chase tiny bullets and the ship is so small you can't tell if you're grazing or losing energy sometimes. It's a hitbox issue I think, everything is too small.

It feels a little too convoluted for its own good tbh, I think if it lost all the bells and whistles it could be ok.

[spadgy]

I am the lonely one who playing it?? Guys, its a VERY good shmup inspired by Dodonpachi. Try it for FREE, I like this way of distribution! And it costs its money (Only two bucks!)

I do like it quite a bit.

It's easy to criticise, as it has some floors:

• The movement with finger control is a bit imprecise, and the fact that there's sections where you have to get to the top of the screen and negate patterns coming from below makes your hand's obstruction on the screen a right pain
• The clash of graphical styles is a bit odd
• Too often you stop firing as you move near the side of the screen and it thinks you've taken your finger off
• It's got the life bar thing going on, and the whole 'tackle levels separately' emphasis (that should be a separate mode, as you can still play this as a 1CC game)
• Skykid is right; the hitbox needs fixing. Needs to be clearer.

However, it's Psyvariar-meets-Raiden IV-meets-Trizeal was enough of what I like to make me put some extra time in.

And actually, it's got some great points too:

• The flow of bullet grazing and rapid rank increase for more bullet grazing is perfectly pitched
• The life bars do work (graze to refill the bar; trade in one full life bar for a weapon upgrade or bomb), and the increased lives that gives allows for some pretty tough bullet patterns for iOS
• With a bit of practice the weapon switching system is pretty quick, and choosing when to do it and when to upgrade is all part of the strategy
• There's some lovely combinations of different bullet pattern styles that encourage some good thoughtful, strategic play
• There's some lovely pixel art and sprites too

In short, it feels like a prototype of something excellent. I reckon Shogun II could be ace.

It really deserves stick control though (mainly for accurate bullet grazing). Has anybody got any feedback on the iCade with regard to this game?

Oh... and...

Doesn't look awful (just uninspired), but what's the point when so many legitimate Cave games are already available on the platform.

Because variety in the genre is a great thing (as is giving new shmup devs a chance!)

EDIT: That final boss pattern where the bullets stop and crowd you; is that possible to get through? It must be, but I can't work out a strategy.

[archagon]

I'm really enjoying this! It feels a bit too easy, but it's nice to have a native iOS bullet-hell shmup that's so polished.

I tried it with iCade and couldn't play nearly as well as with touch controls, but maybe that's just because I suck.

[Skykid]

It's easy to criticise, as it has some floors

Ha ha, skyscraper criticism.

[spadgy]

Apparently I'm a journalist!

[gameoverDude]

Doesn't look awful (just uninspired), but what's the point when so many legitimate Cave games are already available on the platform.

iCADE.

when will cave embrace it?

I hope seeing another developer put iCade support in their game pushes Cave to it. A patch for DDP DFK especially will get me sold on an iCade pronto. It would probably take one of their team at most 10 minutes to throw in.

[spadgy]

I'd certainly pay up for an iCade if Cave added support.

[Kaspal]

I'd certainly pay up for an iCade if Cave added support.

i'd have to get an iPad2 (or 3) 1st b4 getting the iCade... and so far, im not really interested on the iPad (overpriced and shit, if you ask me), but it might happen in the non too distant future.

[gameoverDude]

Hopefully the iCade Jr. will not be too far behind. Can't wait to put my iPod Touch 4G into that.
Uncrate's iCade Jr. story

[Marc]

I kind of miss the point of the iCade Jnr. Isn't it then just a PSP/DS/Vita, but even more bulky?

[spadgy]

Shogun just got an update, and it's a huge improvement!

You can now:
• Turn a 'visible hitbox' on or off (previously there was no visible hitbox)
• Switch the weapon select system to 'static' mode (moving your finger away from the screen still activates bullet time, but now you can just change weapons by touching tabs on the side of the screen. Amazing improvement!)
• Add an adjustable deadzone to the bottom of the screen!
• Claim your score at the point of your final death on a given run (not just at the last successful boss battle, as before (I think))
• You can change the ship's colour (surprisingly helpful for my eyes!)

There's other minor tweaks too.

It really feels like they've listened to player feedback and really improved things (they directly address some of the issues me and Skykid raised, but inspired by other foums I think!). Almost every weakness it had has been bolstered.

If this game underwhelmed you last time, really do update it and try again. It just got great!

And I just 1CC'd it! Onto the second loop...

[Skykid]

Shogun just got an update, and it's a huge improvement!

You can now:
• Turn a 'visible hitbox' on or off (previously there was no visible hitbox)
• Switch the weapon select system to 'static' mode (moving your finger away from the screen still activates bullet time, but now you can just change weapons by touching tabs on the side of the screen. Amazing improvement!)
• Add an adjustable deadzone to the bottom of the screen!
• Claim your score at the point of your final death on a given run (not just at the last successful boss battle, as before (I think))
• You can change the ship's colour (surprisingly helpful for my eyes!)

There's other minor tweaks too.

It really feels like they've listened to player feedback and really improved things (they directly address some of the issues me and Skykid raised, but inspired by other foums I think!). Almost every weakness it had has been bolstered.

If this game underwhelmed you last time, really do update it and try again. It just got great!

And I just 1CC'd it! Onto the second loop...

Wow, sounds like a great improvement. Thanks to the dev for acting on the FB, I'll take another look when I get the chance.

[spadgy]

Do it; just activate deadzone, switch to static weapon selection, turn the hitbox display on, and enjoy!

I'm not saying this is the perfect iOS shmup, but I'm getting a lot out of pleasure out of playing something quite distinct with loads of score maximising opportunity.

[Skykid]

Do it; just activate deadzone, switch to static weapon selection, turn the hitbox display on, and enjoy!

If it improves the game as much as I imagine, they should make those options default.

[Vexorg]

Hadn't seen this one before now. If I recall correctly, these would be the same people who did Darklaga on the old Windows Mobile platform which was a fairly reasonable manic, but never quite got the controls right. I'll have to try this out now.

[genjuro]

Speaking of iCade...

Phoenix HD just got updated with iCade support.

http://www.firigames.com/

Somebody with a twitter acct should tweet at CAVE about adding iCade support to their games, with these recent examples of other popular iOS shmups supporting it.

[astroid]

New update! Mission 2 is FREE for a limited time =)

[spadgy]

I'm still playing this, but I've hit a wall with rank.

I used to hit about 80 million by the start of the second loop. Now I'm hitting that by level three in the first loop, but pushing rank so high I can't get the 1-ALL that often anymore. I'm finding rank management really tricky to do with any control!

My high score is currently 107 million (game ended at 2-1).

I still want a 2-ALL!