Aleste Branch

[KAI]

souky2 hype, im seriously more hyped about this game being a new razing shmup than a compile one.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Did I see a TFV-style "free range" weapon in that footage? Hmmm...

[BIL]

Did I see a Soukyugurentai-style "net" weapon in that footage? Hmmm...

Did I see a TFV-style "free range" weapon in that footage? Hmmm...

If it's the only weapon worth using it's Free Range, if it stops you from using your other weapons in order to score it's Web

Wait, fuck, doesn't FR bone the scoring too? >_> Or was that just WD Fuckery™... hmm, it's been a while. Fuck! Crumbs! Mods pls delete. Mods pls!

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Well, to be fair, the damage and scoring are both just add-ons for that weapon. The core concept was always neat, and a nice evolution from tfiv's badass but highly dysfunctional iteration. What I'm saying is one could just tweak the weapon and have it be fine, which is hopefully what I was looking at here.

Wait, fuck, doesn't FR bone the scoring too? >_> Or was that just WD Fuckery™... hmm, it's been a while. Fuck! Crumbs!

Yea. It's oppresive. Something to do with which of its segments you kill things in if I recall right. Imagine playing tfv for score lmao.

[BIL]

Oh absolutely. TFV Free Range is a neat concept. Souky's Web, the classic children's novel about talking animals and scorching death from above, is fine too, just needs balancing against shot for score purposes (aka just needs Kamui ).

I play TFV for the Box Factory stage, it changed my life and made me say "TFVI better have one of these" and TFVI did have a Box Factory stage too

Oh Christ every time I knock TFV I remember something that legit does rock, in this case the feared Commandant Of The Box Factory GUARDIANS KNIGHT (For whom is the sword drawn?) and his ROCKIN CHOONZ TFV is actually vry good lmao Jammin 2 soulfully wanky CYBER CAVE just b4 that too

Ahh, Christ, man - that first cut to Guardian speeding through his ruined box factory all "WHO THE FUCK KNOCKED OVER ALL THE FUCKIN BOXES?! WHAT THE F- OH YOU LITTLE SONOFABITCH IMMA CUT YA" The cyber fury!

MAD AS FUCK & READY 2 KILL (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

[To Far Away Times]

Thunder Force V is really good.

Thunder Force III, IV, and V makes a really great trilogy.

I might even like V better than IV. The free range is one of my favorite weapons in a shmup.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

I see we've successfully hijacked the thread.

After all, who could stop us? Xxx1993? The police?

[BIL]

You could almost say it died three times and was reborn twice

[Bassa-Bassa]

As mentioned in the above article, the game has been completely reworked and it looks much much better for it.

Key-art of pilots and ships are way less amateur looking than the OG (now vaporware…?) version of the game we’ve seen.
Backgrounds look much less static and awkward.
Looks like there’s some decent camera dynamism now since it’s all polygonal.

Game looks far improved…
BUT even with the complete re-working of the style, you’d think they’d have a bit more to show us by now?

The new footage
https://youtu.be/dI2gT9-qyOU

Vs.

The old footage
https://youtu.be/4cAHDOUXC34

It looks less different than I thought.
Crazy.

That's just the same thing. The 2019 build they referred to in the misleading article is not that, likely they're just disregarding everything they showed in 2021 because that has been for Japan only. And after discussing this elsewhere, I don't think this is even "all polygonal" at all, but a mix between polygons and 2D CG graphics with more of the latter, a la S. Gurentai and R. Silvergun.



https://www.famitsu.com/images/000/234/ ... 68a7e.html

[BIL]

Aww nice, it's the classic P-Chip scatter Mahou Daisakusen and Souky inherited. Thought it was an attack at first. I wonder if there's some mechanic to catch 'em all like BITD.

Oh duh. I bet you catch all those P-Chips by overlapping their container for the classic body-ram pointblank, having held your fire accordingly. I hope so anyway! Christ doing that gives me beast wood in like six different games.

[DietSoap]

I'm not sure what the secret sauce is, but the visuals are looking really nice. Not just that, but they look fun and exciting in a way most recent shmups haven't. Can't wait to watch people play it in arcade in 2026 and then finally play it for myself when it's ported to PC in 2033.

[soupbones]

The lack of any Aleste news - Branch or a home port of Senjin - is really pissing me off!


That is all.

[xxx1993]

Same here. This isn't the only thing that's been on my mind lately, so is Ubusuna and Radirgy 2. I mean, what is M2 planning?

[DMC]

Did I see a Soukyugurentai-style "net" weapon in that footage? Hmmm...

Yep. Soukyu has a fair bit of Aleste DNA in it, so I guess it's fair game as a nod. It clearly functions/handles a bit different here, and it looks to just be the one ship that has it. I also see a meter winding down in the circle around the ship, so maybe it's some kind of mini-hyper?

That lock-on web gives me tears in the eyes. Haven't been this excited for a new STG since Ibara.
By the way, the movement of those blue enemies reminds me of a similar enemy in Brave blade, they charge in a similar way, it seems there are some references to that game.

Aww nice, it's the classic P-Chip scatter Mahou Daisakusen and Souky inherited. Thought it was an attack at first. I wonder if there's some mechanic to catch 'em all like BITD.

Oh duh. I bet you catch all those P-Chips by overlapping their container for the classic body-ram pointblank, having held your fire accordingly. I hope so anyway! Christ doing that gives me beast wood in like six different games.

Guys, the proper question should be "how do you avoid all those power ups?"

[BIL]

Betraying my Zanac Neo-loving noob roots there

[kid aphex]

(Sorry, but I realized there’s no OT for Senjin Aleste, and I see most of the discussion regarding it is taking place in this thread)


Can anyone in this forum explain to me what the deal with Senjin Aleste is…?
It seems like M2 put a decent amount of effort into this retro-style Danmaku, released it to a very small audience in arcades, and then forgot about it.

It’s been TWO years since its release and not a word.
Does anyone have any insight as to why they simply haven’t released this digitally?
It seems like it’s been completely forgotten about.
Even here on these forums it doesn’t have its own OT… what’s the deal?

I’ve watched a full play through of the game and it looks pretty fun and well-produced.
So… why ignore it?

[Sengoku Strider]

Can anyone in this forum explain to me what the deal with Senjin Aleste is…?
It seems like M2 put a decent amount of effort into this retro-style Danmaku, released it to a very small audience in arcades, and then forgot about it.

Someone else can feel free to add info if they have any, but I think that's what the deal with Senjin Aleste is. I know it got a mixed reception, so maybe it's on the back burner's back burner for some tweaks before a home release? Or as an extra for a future compilation release? Or maybe M2 are content to just let it fade into STG lore as the lost Aleste game, and focus on Branch as the full-blown brand renewal instead.

[kid aphex]

New footage : !!!!

https://x.com/bimbofortuna/status/17066 ... 72165?s=46

[Sengoku Strider]

New footage : !!!!

https://x.com/bimbofortuna/status/17066 ... 72165?s=46

HHYYYYPPPPE!!!!!

Thomas Nickel @BimboFortuna
A few days ago, @dark1x and me paid the fine folks at @M2_game a visit and these wonderful people actually prepared a new build of their #shmup #Aleste Branch for us to play - and they explicitly allowed us to make videos and take pictures and share them. So...

Thomas Nickel @BimboFortuna
...we believe, programmer Yamaka @my17031703 is about to deliver a masterpiece. Compared to the build I played in 2022, this is an incredible step forward. The stages, the bosses, the formations... it's all lovingly crafted and seeing Yamanaka-san play it is videogame-poetry.

Thomas Nickel @BimboFortuna
Here's a few more facts.
- playable from start to finish - we both played the whole game
- expected to hit beta-status in three months
- ships 2024
- smooth performance
- runs in Unity
- comes to console
- amazing music
- three playable characters
- placeholder-gadgets
- Aleste


I'm not familiar with Nickel (Eurogamer writer?), but dark1x is John Linneman, the Digital Foundry guy. One of those rare "knows what he's talking about" folks in games media.

[soupbones]

It's really....real.

So ready for this!

[kid aphex]

Yup… looks awesome.
Author also mentions to have info about a Senjin Aleste release….

[DMC]

Great to see some updates, thanks for sharing!

[Zeether]

Console only? No PC despite the fact that Unity is PC based?

[gradiusscrub69]

Console only? No PC despite the fact that Unity is PC based?

It's like they don't want my money.

[Sengoku Strider]

Console only? No PC despite the fact that Unity is PC based?

M2 barely releases stuff outside of Japan unless it's contract work for someone like Sega or Konami. It's just not a thing they consider worth the time & investment. We're lucky we even get PlayStation versions these days.

[Zeether]

Console only? No PC despite the fact that Unity is PC based?

M2 barely releases stuff outside of Japan unless it's contract work for someone like Sega or Konami. It's just not a thing they consider worth the time & investment. We're lucky we even get PlayStation versions these days.

It doesn't make sense though that they would use a platform for PC to make a game that's not coming to it.

[cfx]

It doesn't make sense though that they would use a platform for PC to make a game that's not coming to it.

Because supporting a game on PC where there's 10203496593856830 hardware variants can be a big support nightmare for a small company like M2 and likely not worth it for the number of sales they'd get?

I get that everyone wants everything on their platform of choice, but the constant PC elitism and port begging cluttering up seemingly every game announcement gets REALLY irritating.

I don't have a Switch and will never buy one and I don't play on PC and yes it irritates me when a game I'd like such as Razion EX is only on one or both of those, but I don't go posting and whining about it and being a general downer in threads for the games.

[xxx1993]

I really can't wait for this any longer. I've been waiting for this since 2018.

[Sabretruth]

Super stoked for this game. Would love a Steam port but definitely happy with a PS5 version regardless.

[xxx1993]

Oh, it HAS to come out for the PS5, Switch, Steam, and Xbox Series S and X.