Well guys, its finally here, after about, I suppose, 4-5 years in delays, Natsuki Chronicles is finally being released, on Christmas, no less, making it a Christmas miracle. However, be aware that the game is digital only, but is available to purchase worldwide depending on your regions currency.
While yes, I know that the character Natsuki appeared in Ginga Force as a boss character, I've no idea of the story, though translations are on the forum here somewhere about Ginga Force, I'm wondering where the game takes place overall.
Either way, I already have it ready once its out.
Last edited by NeoStrayCat on Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Same here, I mean Eschatos and its wonderswan games did hit PC eventually, wish I could say the same for Ginga Force. Natsuki Chronicles would be nice also to have a PC release too.
Ginga Force was awesome and everyone should play it. Sadly... I don't have an Xbox One. Glad to see this finally being released.
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Alright, now that its out, all I can say is this game is good for its merits.
Controls are as follows...
A=Main Weapon / X=Sub Weapon (A and X buttons let you fire both, but the shots are weakened)
RB=Speed Settings (You can change this in the options menu to toggle speeds settings by button press or hold.)
RT=Special Weapon (Usually used for offensive and defensive capabilities, but more useful to block bullets.)
Playing this gives me serious Border Down vibes, in some sense (and possibly hints of a few other hori STG's). Without going into spoiler territory, Chronicle Mode is mostly the main story mode giving Natsuki backstory, that and playing the mode will mostly reward you with points that you can use towards other weapons within different levels and varying point values. Some weapons you'll have to unlock be filling out pre-requisites first. You can also change the "Body Color" of your ship too. Plus also earning Ex Shields via gameplay as well.
Arcade Mode though is mostly the main game without the story, but lets you pick up various weapons, which also acts as bonus shields if you get hit, however, you'll lose those weapons if you do get hit. You unlock extra credits via gameplay (similar to that of other STG's where you unlock extra credits either from gameplay or time.)
Both modes go over the course of 10 stages (a little more in Chronicle, but mostly side stages.) 4 difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme), and various options to toggle your speed setting, spawn marker, and bullet display/sound.
Last edited by NeoStrayCat on Wed Dec 25, 2019 3:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
I have Ginga Force, and I want to know if this game really does take place before Ginga Force. Considering we didn't see Natsuki until her boss battle, and that we knew very little about her other than being a former friend turned rival to Margaret, the heroine, it's very likely that Natsuki Chronicles is a prequel. I don't know how she got popular enough to get her own game, though. Spoiler
The game looks more like it takes place DURING the events of Ginga Force... Maroon is Natsuki's true archenemy. The boss battle with between Natsuki and Margaret shows up during this game, apparently, which takes place in Natsuki's point of view this time. And of course, it's revealed that after Alex shot her down, she survived somehow. And while Alex and Margaret are dealing with Viridian, Natsuki has to deal with Maroon. So this game is actually an interquel?
Last edited by xxx1993 on Wed Dec 25, 2019 4:14 am, edited 3 times in total.
By the way, I just made a TV Tropes page for Natsuki Chronicles as well. If anyone around here are tropers, I hope someone adds in a better description and some tropes. I already know what tropes to include.
I would say it's necessary considering how many in the past have linked to websites instead of copying and pasting any relevant info to the forum itself. Would be pretty nice to have a dedicated place for strategies.
Having a lot of fun with this so far. I just finished Chronicle mode and am still fully grasping the play systems, but I love the customization of options and weapons, it makes for so many different types of runs through each stage. I can't wait to unlock all weapons to really be able to maximize on score and no-damage runs eventually.
I'm feeling a lot of influences from a lot of different shmups throughout the history of Hori's, including a lot of R-Type, Gradius, some of the Neo Geo horis like Blazing Star/Pulstar, and even some old school stuff like Konami's Scramble.
Also, the OST is done by Yousuke Yasui, the guy who did the Mamoru-kun OST, and god damn is it great.
As some others have said, it's also a really nice looking game and runs extremely well on the One X. It keeps a simplistic art style but always looks sharp even when zoomed in, unlike something like Raiden V.
Can't wait to keep digging in here and hope others are having as much fun as I am.
blossom wrote:I would say it's necessary considering how many in the past have linked to websites instead of copying and pasting any relevant info to the forum itself. Would be pretty nice to have a dedicated place for strategies.
I meant lore specifically. Gameplay stuff would be great on a wiki but I think there's a lot of value in a forum where people can toss in their questions or or requests for clarification in a forum thread. I wonder if there's a way to make first posts of a thread in Strategy editable - wiki-style, but maintaining the conversational aspect and keeping it on the forum is probably the way to go as wikis get abandoned on a daily basis.
Bought it as soon as it became available, and I'm having fun with it so far. I'm glad that it's much more challenging than I thought it was going to be. The shield mechanic is taking me a while to get used to, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I've mostly been playing arcade mode, but the story mode is neat too from what I've played so far. I've managed to get to stage 7 on normal in arcade mode, and I think I'm about half done with story mode.
It seems like a lot of people are reporting crashes. I've personally only experienced one crash so far, and it was during story mode, hasn't happened again though. For reference, I'm playing on an Xbone X.
Last edited by Cuilan on Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
MachineAres 1CC wrote:I'm feeling a lot of influences from a lot of different shmups throughout the history of Hori's, including a lot of R-Type, Gradius, some of the Neo Geo horis like Blazing Star/Pulstar, and even some old school stuff like Konami's Scramble.
Yes I got that as well. Watching the first stage I thought, "Whoa, is this Air Buster?"
So much cool stuff in this game. I'm really glad it got finished.
Sturmvogel Prime was right. Even though this game is good, it feels like it could have been better off as a DLC expansion pack or add-on for Ginga Force. Instead of almost becoming the next Thunder Force VI due to the amount of delays it's been getting. Besides, we already know this game is a side story to Ginga Force than an actual sequel.
Jeneki wrote:Watching the first stage I thought, "Whoa, is this Air Buster?"
I caught that part too. Also, Stage 3 and 4 are very reminiscent of U.N. Squadron and Border Down. From my perspective, is an ode to old-school shooting.
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Cuilan wrote:It seems like a lot of people are reporting crashes. I've personally only experience one crash so far, and it was during story mode, hasn't happened again though. For reference, I'm playing on an Xbone X.
Weird, I've been playing around 30 hours or so and not had one crash. Also on XB1X.
I'm a few hours in, I like what I've seen. Thoughts:
- I'm on a One S, no crashes so far.
- Game really needs an instant restart option. having to quit and go through a few different menus and load screens after a bad start is dumb.
- Lock on weapons sometimes lock onto pointless things (like Stage 3 boss's missiles)
- Arcade mode snowballs out of control very quickly if you take a hit or two. Lose your wall piercing and shield on stage 4 and survival becomes absurdly hard.
- bullet patterns arcing off screen is also dumb, but memorization will address that
No idea why they chose the XB1 for this release but I gave them my cash to support the cause. Universe is very clearly Ginga and the visuals/colors/framerate are crisp and smooth. The “bullet trajectory” nonsense clutters the screen and is super unnecessary, luckily it can be turned off. Really like the speed and variety in the enemy bullet patterns. Certain sections remind me a lot of Dariusburst (enemy ship designs especially). Feels like Darius and Thunderforce had a baby.
Overall a decent challenge. I wish they would have put it out on different systems but that’s life. Nice to see a new Qute release regardless.
