Ghost Blade HD (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and Steam)

[emphatic]

To be released on consoles 28th of February, Steam TBA
€8.99 / US$ 9.99
PlayStation™Store, Xbox Live, Nintendo eShop, Steam
Hucast Games (Germany)
2Dream (USA)

Story

Spoiler

"10,000 years ago an Artificial Intelligence known as Shira was built to protect the residents of Mars.

As time passed the AI became corrupted and Shira started to attack the Mars colonies.
With no way to defend itself against “Evil Shira”, Mars calls for help. The Earth Defense Force fleet fights
its way to “Evil Shira” and uses powerful lasers to destroy it. However, “Evil Shira” secretly had a backup
that flees into space and takes over an abandoned space station at the outskirts of the solar system.

When the EDF notices the escape they send their bravest fighter after “Evil Shira”. You are this pilot,
and your mission is to destroy “Evil Shira” before it can complete its new attack force and threaten
the existence of the entire universe."

Key features include:

• Beautiful, detailed HD Graphics
  5 Stages with HUGE Boss Enemies
  3 Player battle ships with different gun types
  Instant Re-spawn - No cutscenes!
  Practice Mode
  Score Attack Mode
  Fine tuned gameplay and balanced difficulty
  3 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal and Hard.
  60 FPS
  Arcade-style gameplay and addictive scoring system
  Auto-bomb enabled Easy mode for beginners
  2-player local co-op mode for addictive fun
  Tone down background brightness
  Online Leaderboards
  37 Trophies/Achievements (PS4, Xbox One)
  Platinum Trophy (PS4)

Graphic Modes

• 1080p Full HD (PS4, Xbox One, Steam)
  Wii U (720p)
  TATE/portrait screen option available

Music

• The Soundtrack is based on the heydays of Japanese shmups and arcade sounds.
  Composer Rafael Dyll has already scored several console games and returns to
  his signature sound with the music featured in Ghost Blade HD.
  Fusing J-Pop influences and typical 90s synths and with modern production values,
  Rafael provides an action-packed soundtrack with catchy leads and electronic beats.

Official Website: http://www.ghostbladegame.com
Teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diWykmWv38M
Lots of screenshots here

[Jonst]

Are people genuinely excited for this?

[z0mbie90]

I never played the original Dreamcast game after reading all the negative things about it, and that there was no Caravan Mode in the game. So I'm looking forward to try it out.

[emphatic]

Updated first post with retail price and more info in general.

[Sumez]

Score attack and hard mode. Seems to adress the major issue people had with this game.

[bikingjahuty]

Owning it on the DC I will probably wait to hear what others have to say about it before buying this one as well, despite it being a pretty solid upgrade from what I am reading. Unlike a lot of people, I actually thought it was an enjoyable game. I definitely liked it more than both Gigawing games and Gunbird 2.

[OmKol]

hard mode

This. Doing 1cc on second try is not fun.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Normal and Hard best be tougher than the DC version

[emphatic]

Normal and Hard best be tougher than the DC version

Expect lots of suicide bullets.

[TransatlanticFoe]

The main issue for me was bullets were slow and enemies were dead before you saw them. Suicide bullets are good but only if they're fast and you got to see the enemy that generated them.

[trap15]

Suicide bullets are the dumbest and laziest way to make a game harder.

[Shepardus]

Bullets are a lazy way of making a game harder, and difficulty is a lazy way of making a game more fun.

[KAI]

60 FPS

[Strider77]

Let's not give HuCast any more money... at all.

[Bar81]

Let's not give HuCast any more money... at all.

You said it.

[Bananamatic]

It's shit, right?

[emphatic]

This game's now coming to platforms where bug fix patches can be distributed quickly and easily through the digital stores, unlike the older games for the Dreamcast and so on. There's a real incentive here for Hucast to be making a game that really doesn't suck, because while physical copies would sell no matter how many bugs were in the final product, due to the sheep that are collectors, this is not the case with a game where non-existent bug fixes would mean word of mouth cock-blocking.

[EmperorIng]

I am reminded with this news that I contributed a track to Ghost Blade's arrange soundtrack for HuCast when it was released the first time. I will now shill it here:

Ghost Blade Arrange: Ectoplasma

I was never quite sure in what format the arrange soundtrack was released, if at all; I could never find it through lazy googling!

[Despatche]

Bullets are a lazy way of making a game harder, and difficulty is a lazy way of making a game more fun.

See, this guy gets it.

In all seriousness, what emphatic said is absolutely correct. Sad as it is, because of shithead collectors, there's little point to making an actually good game on old platforms unless you release it entirely for free, and so we get shady things like Ghost Blade. Hm... unless you find a way to release it through a con or Comiket or something. Actually, that'd be pretty cool, make a game that's exclusive to cons. Or, release the game for free/on Steam, and then release a physical version at cons. Piracy is going to screw you no matter what you do, so you might as well make something cool for fans.

Anyway, I'm actually pretty interested in this attempt to break out of that hell. I mean, even if it's "less than great", at least they tried to do better just by getting away from collectors. I'm also kinda impressed they're actually going to do a Wii U release. They really should have just put it on the Switch, but here we are with a Wii U release.

[Super Laydock]

Skipped this on the DC, because it indeed looked shady to me.

but for 9 Euro I'll definitely get this on PS4.
I don't care too much about difficulty, since I am an -at best- average player these days,
and it looks like fun.

If I like it enough I will buy it on my new Wii U too just to support the effort of bringing it to this system (which is seriously underrated)

[The Coop]

There were a lot of things addressed in the HD version of the game. I know the DC game left a bad taste in peoples' mouths thanks to the slow down, missing mode and whatnot, but this update isn't just a "patched" version of that game. It's more like a "Ghost Blade Redux" to me, as it strives to take the ideas that were there in the original game, make them work better in terms of visuals, gameplay, difficulty, framerate, etc., and add to them.

[DomitorInvictus]

I'm cautiously optimistic that this new version may be worth picking up at some point. Never played the original version, but visually it looks good enough for me to buy it if they've listened to be feedback and fixed the game's flaws. I want it to be good!

[mamboFoxtrot]

I haven't followed the HuCast/NG-Dev Team stuff, so I can't say I fully understand the immediate assumption that it'll be shit. Though, other than being one of the few shmup options available to the Wii U, I can't say it looks too interesting either. Danmaku #312463. But, the graphics seem nice, nothing seems immediately horrible based on the teaser trailer their,, and it's only $10, so... maybe?
I mean, it should at least be better than Ice Cream Surfer, right?

Though I'm wondering what I'd use to prop the Gamepad sideways if I wanted to play TATE using the off-TV mode... (assuming it supports it)

[pbsk8]

They removed the release date of february 7th

[z0mbie90]

Release date is announced February 7th

Released on consoles 28th of February and then released later on Steam.

[emphatic]

Release date is announced February 7th

Released on consoles 28th of February and then released later on Steam.

Thanks for the heads up.

[clippa]

March 8th for the pc version.

[lilmanjs]

If this truly is the upgrade this game needs, then I'm all for buying this. I've been assuming that if they are going to do digital release on modern consoles, they kinda have to make something worth playing. Trailer looks good though.

[CMcK]

Ghost Blade HD is up on Xbox store. I've downloaded it and had a quick look. Seems like a big upgrade over the DC version. Standard shot, focus and bomb controls with combo scoring and bonuses for pickups. Makes me wish I could use my HRAP SE on the Xbox One.
Probably not going to challenge hardened shooter fans too much but I suppose it has to be accessible to a wider market.
The game looks great and sounds good too. Has a good selection of options including an alternate soundtrack and yoko / Tate viewing too.
One of the sound fx for collecting the golden pickups sounds very like Sonic collecting rings. I can't recall that in the original.

[Puyopuyomayo]

60 FPS

Do shmups ever come at higher FPS rate? Like I have a 144hz monitor...