Astebreed (new from Edelweiss)

[Ghegs]

The guys that made Ether Vapor are finally working on a new shmup, called Astebreed.

Official site

Gameplay footage

It has a mech-type thing in space with a sword. That's pretty much enough to sell it to me. The switches in camera angles and gameplay from horizontal to vertizontal are very Ether Vapor-esque. The subweapon seems to have several different behaviors, I spot at least homing, directional and straight-forward. The contrast looks to be a bit on the dark side, though. Hopefully the final game will have more interesting enemies than just cubes.

There was apparently a trial version sold at Comiket 81.

[Estebang]

Impressive 3D graphics for a doujin game, though I too hope those cubes are just placeholder enemies.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Impressive 3D graphics for a doujin game, though I too hope those cubes are just placeholder enemies.

My thoughts exactly, if theres one thing worse than fairies its cubes. Other than that im very impressed with it.

[Observer]

It feels a bit like Cloudphobia minus the racing/super-speed boosting component.

Pretty nice! Agreed on the great graphics for a doujin game.

Same deal about the cubes. But I'm sure those are placeholders. Ether Vapor had textureless enemies and cubes too.

[Ghegs]

The site's been updated, the screenshots now show enemies proper. Still looking pretty.

And a (new?) trial version of the game has been released! But only in Comitia 100, some sort of event not unlike Comiket, I imagine. Why they wouldn't put the trial up for download at their site is a mystery, but Edelweiss did do something similar with Ether Vapor back in the day.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Thats much better! I bet in a couple of years this game will be great

[Ghegs]

Found a gameplay video of the latest trial version here. Despite the less-than-stellar quality it shows a bit more how the subweapon works and that there's a lifebar, but only one life.

[Zaarock]

Looks nice apart from the parts where it moves the camera behind your character and you have to dodge projectiles and shoot at a weird camera angle.. guess edelweiss is just really into trying "cinematic" camera angles in shmups huh? :p

[Observer]

Found a gameplay video of the latest trial version here. Despite the less-than-stellar quality it shows a bit more how the subweapon works and that there's a lifebar, but only one life.

Well, it looks like it doesn't have inertia and the same could be said of Ether Vapor where you have a shield bar you can replenish through score extends.

I guess they went for that approach due to all the melee and lolSwording just so you don't get a cannon shot in the lower rear and get a sudden game over out of that.

The site graphics show some really badass models, this could get pretty damn awesome once it's finished! Plus, mechs. So you know I'm gonna be all over this when it comes out.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

That vid looks really good! I'm digging how the camera changes while shooting bullets

[Vyxx]

That vid looks really good! I'm digging how the camera changes while shooting bullets

Somewhat ruins the game for me unfortunately

[BPzeBanshee]

I can see that perspective change while bullet action is happening being quite a problem if handled incorrectly, but the rest of this looks damn amazing.

My only criticism besides the perspective weirdness is the explosions of the boss. Seem a bit mediocre for its size. If they're going into all the 'cinematic' fanciness you'd think they'd take a bit of Michael Bay influence in that department surely.

EDIT: Also, widescreen, but that's just me being pedantic.

[Observer]

It's the same engine as Freesia, I'm pretty sure it supports 4:3.

But, yeah, it needs Psyvariar 2 level of explosions, that one is indeed pathetically underwhelming.

However, this is closer to a system test version than a trial. I also wish for a change they could use male "system" announcers if they are using female pilots. (Kind of like the Armored Core V dude.) It's as if male voice acting in Japan became taboo or went the way of the dodo...

I'm guessing they are going to opt for a horizontal/Strania-like approach, which makes me wish G.Rev could port Strania to the comp too, argh.

[Ghegs]

New video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hW9cOjlmy8

WANT

[z0mbie90]

Oh my god That looks so cool, is that really doujin the graphics and all looks so professional.
Can wait for a demo or the release.

Edelweiss really makes good things, dosnt matter that they are a doujin dev, but man would be cool to see this on Xbox or something.

[SuperSoaker360]

New video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hW9cOjlmy8

I'm actually beginning to wonder what the story is in this game. Does anyone have any info?

[Observer]

Looks like it's gonna be Omega Boost with loli pilots?

I mean, saw that machine towards the end and instantly thought "Time Shaft activated by the Alpha Core", lol.

I'm not too fused about the story as long as we get over the top missile barrages and all that stuff I love so much. Looks like it's going to take the meleeing from Cloudphobia one step further?

Now, this makes me wish they could've brought Strania to PC too... (With Mechwarrior Online, Hawken, Strike Suit Zero, Air Mech and now Astrebreed, the PC is seriously getting the mech revival!)

[EmperorIng]

should have kept the cubes.

Am Excite. The twirling spiral laser attack looks positively sexy, and the whole thing is looking super slick and polished.

[SuperSoaker360]

New video on Astebreed.

The game looks to be taking on a really cinematic form where perspectives play a central role in the gameplay and I'm really liking how it's turning out.

[BPzeBanshee]

I do hope there's a thing to turn off the voices. And also make sure the perspective-changing has some kind of consistent control scheme that doesn't make it fucked to play.

Other than that I'm really digging how it looks so far.

[Aleksei]

You know the guys who made Ether Vapor right?

Well Asterbreed is their new game and it look awesome! Skip to 6:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSRBKK185eY

*edit - just noticed someone posted this an hour before me, well in my link you get to see other cool games being developed so I'm not deleting it.

(merged with main Asterbreed thread /mod)

damn you mod *edit.

[z0mbie90]

CANT WAIT.
That looked so awesome, I have said it before and I say it again. It really dont look like Doujin!

[Observer]

It looks even better when you realize the programer is just one guy, Nal, who seems to be going all out with this in a take-no-prisoners fashion. I think only Revolver360 RE:ACTOR looks as good and 3D awesome as Astebreed.

I'm really digging what I'm seeing but I'm also on the turn-off-the-voices side. Hoping there will be a mode where it all flows swiftly like Remaster mode in Ether Vapor. I guess he's trying to improve the multi-perspective approach as well, let's see how that works out. A lock-on weapon becomes essential when the camera shifts so much and those wisps look a bit like they clutter the screen.

Btw, if you want to support the guy all of you go get freaking Ether Vapor and Fairy Bloom Freesia on Steam, it's 50% off right now until the end of the winter sale. There, I spammed a bit

[Ghegs]

Astebreed trial ver. C83 is out and has three playable stages.

Not surprisingly, the game plays very similarly to Ether Vapor. But there are some differences as well. I especially liked how now, when the perspective is behind you, you automatically lock into a target in front of you, and can then move around freely while still shooting at said target. If there's multiple targets, you lock into a target that's most in front of you (I guess?) and the target switches if you move around. It seemed to work alright, if there's more than one target in that perspective they're popcorn enemies that die quickly anyway.

The mech has five weapons at once - four mapped to different buttons and the sword slash that happens when you tap any attack button. So it's quite easy to switch between them. The trial has two different weapon sets to choose them, I imagine more will be made for the final game. Instead of a traditional lives system, you only have one life and a health bar. I'm not entirely sure how it worked, I seemed to be getting health back every now and then.

There are two new gameplay features that weren't present in Ether Vapor - one are the swirly wisps that circle around you, they're the ones that basically shoot your desired weapon. When you hold the "Locis Remote" button down, they stay in place and and keep firing while your mech is free to go elsewhere on the screen. This way you can have two angles of attack going on at once to cover more of the screen. The other is the dash, which quickly moves into the direction you push while hitting the button. It's not a teleport though, if there's a big rock in the way you won't be going through it with the dash. After learning the boss attacks and when they're most vulnerable, you can use the dash to quickly close in, slash them with your sword a bunch of times and then dash back out just when they start a more dangerous pattern. Very fun. You're clearly meant to use the dash a lot, since the mech's standard moving speed feels a tad slow. The dash has a heat-based limit on how much it can be used, not doing it for a while cools if off quickly.

The scoring seems simple. Hit everything and kill bosses fast. At the end of the stage you get bonus points based on the percentage of enemies destroyed in that stage (I don't know if there's an extra bonus for 100%) and how quickly you killed the boss.

The end of the trial reveals the saddest bit - the release is scheduled for August 2013. Still a long while to wait.

[z0mbie90]

The end of the trial reveals the saddest bit - the release is scheduled for August 2013. Still a long while to wait.

Could have been worse! Not tried the trial yet, but can't wait for it.

Now it's just the guy that made Crimzon Clover I need to look into.

[EmperorIng]

As long as the character art and story aren't as amazingly bad as Ether Vapor...

This looks to be a fun little doujin. It looks a whole lot better than Ether Vapor as well - the 3D models look quite nice.

[Zeether]

Crossing my fingers for Nyu Media to get this.

[Aleksei]

The trial was awesome, visually striking, on par with ether vapor.

[EmperorIng]

Crossing my fingers for Nyu Media to get this.

Hopefully under the same deal they had with Ether Vapor Remaster - I'd love to be able to buy directly from their store again!

EDIT:
As long as they have an option to turn that awful incessant VA off!

[Ghegs]

There's a trial out now!

Interestingly, it's quite different from an earlier trial I played - this one is just one stage and there's a multiplier-based scoring system introduced, that wasn't there before. I think you're supposed to increase the multiplier by killing enemies with the normal and homing shots (getting hit lowers it), while killing enemies with the sword applies that multiplier to the destroyed enemy's base score.

The weapon system also behaves differently. The sword is still its own button, but now the subweapons are controlled by the main shot button - tap it to fire, hold a direction and hold the button to get a Soukyugurentai-esque targeting cone, enemies caught in it will suffer the wrath of homing attack. Holding the button down while not moving will make a circle around the mech, and enemies caught in that will be the targets of the homing attack.

It's quite cool, really. Even the dev says (beware of Google Translate):

Komi edition winter, but it was one that was trimmed with the form of trial and error, as a result, did not you feel not good enough to be felt by
I have significantly altered the game system boldly.
Because I want to see the user's feeling, I decided to for a moment, we will publish on a trial basis.