Platinum Games announces Sol Cresta, Sequel to Terra Cresta

[jehu]

Couple more reviews for y'all:

Destructoid (8/10): https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-sol-cresta/
Videogames Chronicle (4/5): https://www.videogameschronicle.com/review/sol-cresta/
Videogames Chronicle Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpdv4473QsU

[harborline765]

I’ll def be getting the regular JP physical when it gets released.
Like most adults, I’m over the LEs (mostly…)

I would extend this to just being over 90% of physical releases in general. It's just not worth keeping around all this clutter in the name of "preservation" as most people seem to make the excuse of, when there are sites that have every game ever released on Switch and PS4 already archived and available to play on modded consoles. We don't live in the 90s anymore and digital preservation actually tends to be more reliable than physical nowadays (by fans, not platform holders,) especially with how inflated and priced-out the physical market is getting.

You're right.
I'm in the 10% that values the ability to resell my games, as the type of games I'm into typically have high re-sale, and I don't like throwing money away when I don't have to.

Count me in, I regularly shift games I'm not bothered about keeping - only keep games I know I'll go back to or regularly go back to ("forever games" as I like to call it). In the case of the Switch the console reads directly from the game card media, too, so I've got a library much bigger than I have any right to.

I got burned going mostly digital with the Vita. My 64GB memory card corrupted itself a year after I bought one new, taking the ability to actually store games with it.

[Skykid]

Someone seemed to think the game would benefit from a scanline filter to make the visuals more bearable, but in an epic misstep the filter actually makes the game borderline unplayable at any of its offered intensities. Imagine a broken CRT monitor with a failing tube and vaseline smeared all over the glass, resulting in a blurring of detail to the point where it becomes a handicap.

A review from nintendolife is out: https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/sw ... sol-cresta
I guess the CRT filter really is as bad as it looked on the stream.

Yeah that’s my review.

Sorry fellas, it’s not exactly a resounding success, but you might get something out of its mechanics. It’s fairly interesting despite its flaws.

[Ghegs]

What I wanna know:

• How long does a full run through the game take?
• What are the unlockable modes hinted at in some of the reviews?

[Skykid]

What I wanna know:

• How long does a full run through the game take?
• What are the unlockable modes hinted at in some of the reviews?

In my playthrough I got to the end of the fifth of seven stages twice. It’s not inordinately long, but I’d say that’s around or just under the 25 minute mark. I didn’t achieve a 1CC in the course of the review, but I feel like it’s mid-range for default difficulty. Learning to execute the formations in a strategic way will improve your chances, but unfortunately it’s not very obvious in how you can take advantage of specific formations. Learning to increase score helps a lot, because there are a lot of point-based life extends and you can stockpile shields regularly.

I unlocked a sound test mode in achievements. Nothing else. There is a dramatic DLC available for $10, but frankly at $40 the game is already very overpriced considering the options out there.

[Skykid]

My two-bits (on top of the full review) is that Platinum aren’t that well-versed in the genre, and there are some problems. But it’s not a terrible first effort - it just might not meet expectations of the hype.

[Rastan78]

Yeah that’s my review.

Sorry fellas, it’s not exactly a resounding success, but you might get something out of its mechanics. It’s fairly interesting despite its flaws.

Ah cool, thanks for the review. I was a little disappointed to hear the framerate has some issues on Switch at least. Saw a clip where there's a massively noticable freeze as a boss loads in. Just odd.

If the game is fun it doesn't seem like it will be that big of a deal. But coming from Platinum at 40 to 50 bucks in a game that doesn't look like it would tax even the Switch in any way? Maybe they should've held off on the storyline DLC and all that stuff and done a bit more polishing.

I'm still looking forward to trying it, especially for the music, but maybe ill have to wait til it's on sale. I mean that brown rocky stage with cliffs on the sides? Looking at the clips that's one of the worst looking stages I've ever seen in a shmup. It's like you're playing Life Force and there's a diarrhea stage lol.


Roger that Eagle 1. It's pretty backed up down here. We'll need some heavy firepower to cleanse this colon.

[Zaarock]

Big fan of platinum games and kamiyas output. But don't have high hopes for this just a decent first game..
Curious how it compares to GG Aleste 3, Senjin Aleste and Aleste Branch as those are the main competition in my mind.

If most people prefer GG Aleste 3 over this that seems like a failure, that game also had a strange pricepoint (if main reason for buying the Aleste collection) and was simple but solid.

I haven't noticed hype around the game but a decent amount of marketing. Can see a lot of non shmup players give it a shot because of the developer name. That's a little sad if it fails to grab people and is more just for 'retro game' nostalgia (with probably less polish or intent to keep making such games than M2's work)

[pablumatic]

That brown stage and many other screens I've seen of the game remind me of the 32-bit Saturn/Playstation prerendered era. Another recent example of that style is Actraiser Renaissance. Not partial to that look, but I'll be picking this up anyway.

[jehu]

Yeah that’s my review.

Sorry fellas, it’s not exactly a resounding success, but you might get something out of its mechanics. It’s fairly interesting despite its flaws.

Thanks for the review. Not the most hopeful tone, but I'm glad there's a little more information out there.

It's an interesting situation when you have an STG reviewer as an actual aficionado of the genre. I assumed you were just some guy, and the 'I got through 5 of 7 stages quickly' was a red flag. But, given that it's you, and that this release's default difficulty looks to be aimed towards a more general audience, that doesn't sound so bad.

I thought you did a nice job framing the game within its genre and not letting yourself get too technical. It was an absolute shitstorm in the comments when you had a previous resident reviewer waxing poetic about fixes to 'boss milking' for paragraphs at a time in the ESP.Ra.De review.

I'm really curious about the unlockables. Another reviewer mentioned that there are unlockable modes with leaderboard support among other things. The achievements system is an interesting way to address the 'how do we get new players acclimated to the genre' question. I'm sure it'll be controversial in our community, but we'll see what it's like for those outside our bubble. I read there is no continues - a curveball with the concession that there's a stage select. Hopefully it'll be intuitive for players diving in for the Platinum name that the grand-daddy goal is the 1CC. Though I still can't tell - and am a little doubtful - if the game will grab enough attention to even warrant a discussion of these heathen, uninitiated players.

[BIL]

Roger that Eagle 1. It's pretty backed up down here. We'll need some heavy firepower to cleanse this colon.

Jesus Christ



Someone needs to radio Titanic Lance to ram some of that loose, that'll sort the bastard out

[Skykid]

Yeah that’s my review.

Sorry fellas, it’s not exactly a resounding success, but you might get something out of its mechanics. It’s fairly interesting despite its flaws.

Thanks for the review. Not the most hopeful tone, but I'm glad there's a little more information out there.

It's an interesting situation when you have an STG reviewer as an actual aficionado of the genre. I assumed you were just some guy, and the 'I got through 5 of 7 stages quickly' was a red flag. But, given that it's you, and that this release's default difficulty looks to be aimed towards a more general audience, that doesn't sound so bad.

Aficionado of the genre I most certainly am. NLife have me doing most of their shmup reviews of late, which is good for accuracy’s sake - but sadly most of the readers/commenters seem to assume I’m a hack who doesn’t know anything about shmups, generally speaking. Occupational hazard.

If they want to drop $40 on it regardless, that’s their call. Personally, I think that’s a price tag beyond the quality on offer, but it doesn’t mean they won’t reap some fun from the effort. It’s certainly playable, just lacking certain refinements.

I didn’t review ESPrade, although I am aware of the meltdown in the comments section there. I think the reviewer was more shmup aficionado than seasoned writer, so there were lapses in communication that may have confused the average reader.

Saw a clip where there's a massively noticable freeze as a boss loads in. Just odd.

That’s a very real and very unusual semi-issue. I don’t know why the game needs to pause that long: it’s a 3+GB download and there’s no real excuse for not being able to seamlessly introduce a boss in this day and age. At least it’s a non-problem where play is concerned; more critical is the Phoenix formation getting hidden under the boss sprite layer. That’s a programming/play testing issue that actually causes some problems.

[Sumez]

Aficionado of the genre I most certainly am. NLife have me doing most of their shmup reviews of late, which is good for accuracy’s sake - but sadly most of the readers/commenters seem to assume I’m a hack who doesn’t know anything about shmups, generally speaking. Occupational hazard.

I'm glad you're out there doing the good work. When every "notable" outlet out there panned Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection for being too hard or oldschool, while your review was mostly praise, I knew it would be a fantastic game.

[Tim James]

Aficionado of the genre I most certainly am. NLife have me doing most of their shmup reviews of late, which is good for accuracy’s sake - but sadly most of the readers/commenters seem to assume I’m a hack who doesn’t know anything about shmups, generally speaking. Occupational hazard.

I see like all angry gamers, they go completely starry-eyed when you come down to their level and give them attention in the comments.

I have to give them credit for pushing the envelope on the 7-9 scale though. Come on, you could brought out that 6!

[Skykid]

I'm glad you're out there doing the good work. When every "notable" outlet out there panned Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection for being too hard or oldschool, while your review was mostly praise, I knew it would be a fantastic game.

Funny thing with that one, was that I knew exactly how other reviewing publications would respond to it. I loved that Tokuro Fujiwara also knew, but didn’t care and just upped the ante.

I see like all angry gamers, they go completely starry-eyed when you come down to their level and give them attention in the comments.

I have to give them credit for pushing the envelope on the 7-9 scale though. Come on, you could brought out that 6!

Yeah, well, I’ve been breaking my own rule of not replying in the comments section too often recently. But if I think it will provide added clarity to future readers referencing a title, sometimes I’ll try to re-correct the lopsided sentiment that a lot of commenters band together to create.

I’m not here so often these days fellas, but I stop in now and then. You can find me on Twitter quite easily (hellhole that it is). Handle is: @supercancelhgj

And my other work stuff is mostly all on muckrack: https://muckrack.com/tom-massey

[BIL]

Good to see you're still fighting the good fight out there, bud.

[Skykid]

Good to see you're still fighting the good fight out there, bud.

Still sticking to my Skykid guns, BIL!

[m.sniffles.esq]

Yeah, well, I’ve been breaking my own rule of not replying in the comments section too often recently.

Just don't
Let the review speak for itself and move on. Don't even read them. If there's something major that warrants a response, someone will let you know.

</freeadvice>

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's an interesting situation when you have an STG reviewer as an actual aficionado of the genre. I assumed you were just some guy, and the 'I got through 5 of 7 stages quickly' was a red flag. But, given that it's you, and that this release's default difficulty looks to be aimed towards a more general audience, that doesn't sound so bad.

I'm really curious about the unlockables.

One of the big things Platinum has in many of its games is a plethora of unlockable difficulty modes and extra content. It's entirely possible (if it's like other releases they've done) that the default difficulty is meant to be tame, and there's like two additional difficulties on top of that or something.

[Skykid]

It's an interesting situation when you have an STG reviewer as an actual aficionado of the genre. I assumed you were just some guy, and the 'I got through 5 of 7 stages quickly' was a red flag. But, given that it's you, and that this release's default difficulty looks to be aimed towards a more general audience, that doesn't sound so bad.

I'm really curious about the unlockables.

One of the big things Platinum has in many of its games is a plethora of unlockable difficulty modes and extra content. It's entirely possible (if it's like other releases they've done) that the default difficulty is meant to be tame, and there's like two additional difficulties on top of that or something.

The default difficulty is fine, really. It doesn’t have to be shockingly hard, just decently challenging for the average player. There are another two difficulties available above that anyway. The problem is, in the event new modes opened up that significantly changed the fundamentals of the game (which isn’t really necessary to be honest) I’m still not sure how that would improve the flaws present: things like stuttering, frame drops, glitches, boss pauses, and horrendous visuals. It might, at best, make the bullet patterns more interesting or possibly create a more detailed scoring game.

Honestly though, the core game isn’t at all unplayable. It’s just weirdly lacking polish and refinement.

People here will have their hands on it soon enough, so it will be interesting to see what they think. It’s costly though.

[EmperorIng]

I very much enjoyed the review Skykid, and despite your qualms I'll probably look into the steam version when it comes out next week. Time to roll the dice!

[Skykid]

Do it, will be interested to hear your thoughts!

[EmperorIng]

Maybe I will leave a comment on the NL review to drive up engagement

An honest to goodness 'dadshmup' retro throwback is kind of rare at the moment (R-Type Final2 and Cotton Reboot don't quite count, though neither are bullet hell) so I am kind of mostly interested to see one studio's take on what an "old ass shmup" is like.

I bet you dollars to donuts the performance will be better on PC as well so that might mitigate some of the technical flaws which will allow me to put up with its design flaws, ha.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm pretty puzzled why the graphics are... what they are. This is a small game. There's no reason for it to look so rough.

[Skykid]

I'm pretty puzzled why the graphics are... what they are. This is a small game. There's no reason for it to look so rough.

If you think that's weird, it was a 3+ GB download on Switch, the same as the forthcoming Mario Strikers: Battle League.

[DietSoap]

I know the switch is weak and all, but I really don't think something that looks this terrible should be having technical issues.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm pretty puzzled why the graphics are... what they are. This is a small game. There's no reason for it to look so rough.

If you think that's weird, it was a 3+ GB download on Switch, the same as the forthcoming Mario Strikers: Battle League.

A 3GB shmup that looks like that... hmmm...

[banjoted]

Forum vet and one of my favourite humans spadgy is also working on a review of this. Am very interested to hear is always learned thoughts.

[Rastan78]

I noticed that 3GB download size and thought it was strange as well. Thought I saw on one of the streams that Kamiya spent a lot of time working on this huge database that expands on all the lore and the enemy types and stuff?

Might partially explain the bloated file size along with the story DLC more than likely being part of the basic download. Buying the DLC might just be an unlock for data that's already there?

But still this game already seems to be full of . . . interesting choices. Like they nail it with the soundtrack, but then prioritize story and "lore" over polishing the graphics and performance? People are just used to Paltinum representing a certain level of polish. Astral Chain has to be right up there with the best looking games on the Switch.

Oh well, it looks like it may still be a decent start, and if Platinum can build off this and release more of these classic arcade games some good stuff will come out of that for sure.

[harborline765]

Press +/- on the game icon on the Switch home screen and go to "Intellectual Property Notices".

Me suspects the Unity engine and third party library bloat.

Just a reminder:

- Pac-Man on PS4, a Unity engine port of the 16KB arcade game, is almost 1GB.
- La Mulana's PS4/Xbox One/Switch Unity engine port weighs in 2.5GB(!). The original game had to fit in WiiWare's 40MB filesize limitations, and the Vita director's cut was only a couple hundred MB.

Hopefully it's on its own engine, though, Platinum is one of the few developers left that prides itself on its own home grown technology made to suit the games they specialise in.