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Shoot the Core! - Gaf Shoot ‘em Up (aka Shooter/SHMUP) Reference Thread

T

ThePeoplesBureau

Member
Battle Garegga premium edition:

20160908_72a0b38dpg5.jpg


The bad news? The disc you see is for the OST. No game disc, download code only :(
 
Y

Yes Boss!

Member
Bummer about no disc. Still getting anyways. Hopefully Amazon.c.jp puts it up. The real happiness comes from the M2 port anyways. Retail would have just been icing.
 
P

professor denim

Member
Augemitbutter said:
don't hate on my music cds. in a better world there would be game disc in there as well.
Click to expand...

I understand, who am i to speak? I still buy a lot of phisycal music releases...but in this case i would sacrifice one for the other. Its supposedly a retail version of the game, not its soundtrack album. Any way i'll be there for the shooting.
 
H

Hubbl3

Unconfirmed Member
Every time I see a new post in this thread, I foolishly think it's going to say "Surprise! Battle Garegga is actually getting a physical release."
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
JP said:
Has there been any word on a western release yet? It's easy enough to download the Japanese version but I do prefer to get the local if possible.
Click to expand...

None yet - but I could see it happening. If a game like Soldier Girl Amazon can get a U.S. release, anything can.

I just put my Garegga PCB back in my cab today - man, this game is so awesome. I'll buy the JPN release just to see that rank meter in the upper right corner. ◕‿◕
 
J

JP

Member
gunstarhero said:
None yet - but I could see it happening. If a game like Soldier Girl Amazon can get a U.S. release, anything can.

I just put my Garegga PCB back in my cab today - man, this game is so awesome. I'll buy the JPN release just to see that rank meter in the upper right corner. ◕‿◕
Click to expand...
Hopefully it gets a release over here. Like I said though, it's hardly a major issue if it doesn't but I'm going to do best to resist for a couple of months or so, as much as I want to play it it's not as if I'm short of stuff to play at the moment. It'll be nice to see some reviews when it;s out though.
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
KDR_11k said:
I haven't heard anything beyond the name about this game, what's it about? I mean, beyond obviously being a shmup.
Click to expand...

I think it's relatively safe to say it's considered one of the BEST in the genre.


shmups.com has a ton of great info on the game if you want to dive deeper.


EDIT: I'm talking about Garegga BTW. Just noticed you were referencing 2 games.
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
Has anyone here been playing Steredenn on PS4?

This game is amazing - I know I'm probably lttp on this one since it was out on Steam for a while, but those who have a PS4 and have not played this game yet - DO IT NOW!

Love the idea of a shooter with rogue-like elements. The random levels make it tough to do any sort of memorization, but I feel like it becomes a true test of skill in that regard.

The music is FUCKING AMAZING. Reminds me of Thunder Force IV or the Lords/Gate of Thunder series.

And the weapons... I havent seen them all (they're are a LOT), but once I found the chainsaw, I knew this game already won the Best Weapons in a Shooter award.

Anyway - more people should be talking about this game!

S6QUwPy.gif
 
depths20XX

depths20XX

Member
Will definitely be getting Garegga. Wish the other release was Dodonpachi instead of Dangun though. Shit, even ESP Ra.De. would have been a better choice.
 
C

ChryZ

Member
gunstarhero said:
Has anyone here been playing Steredenn on PS4?

This game is amazing - I know I'm probably lttp on this one since it was out on Steam for a while, but those who have a PS4 and have not played this game yet - DO IT NOW!

Love the idea of a shooter with rogue-like elements. The random levels make it tough to do any sort of memorization, but I feel like it becomes a true test of skill in that regard.

The music is FUCKING AMAZING. Reminds me of Thunder Force IV or the Lords/Gate of Thunder series.

And the weapons... I havent seen them all (they're are a LOT), but once I found the chainsaw, I knew this game already won the Best Weapons in a Shooter award.

Anyway - more people should be talking about this game!
Click to expand...
Gotta second this, such an overlooked gem.

I cleared the PC release a few days ago. Well, it's endless ... but the first loop counts as clear, no?

My completion notes: I got roped in by the stunning sprite work, animation, thrashing metal soundtrack and stayed for a ball busting roguelike bullet hell SHMUP with permadeath. It's one of those games, that will make you work for every inch of progress, but once you learned its ways, everything snaps into place. Weapon drops are random, so are power ups, enemy waves are procedurally generated and so you never know how each run will turn out. The only constant is the bosses and their behavior. The bosses are finely tuned and allow very few mistakes. Thankfully the player can train for specific bosses from the main menu's arena mode. Your ship can only take a certain amount of hits, there aren't health drops within the level, only after each boss the health gets fully restocked. This results in lots of nerve wrecking drama and close calls. Steredenn is insanely polished and balanced. The game is never unfair, but odds can end up not being in the players favor. There were plenty of soul crushing runs, but Steredenn is so much fun that I always ended up coming back for more (punishment).
 
SOME-MIST

SOME-MIST

Member
depths20XX said:
Will definitely be getting Garegga. Wish the other release was Dodonpachi instead of Dangun though. Shit, even ESP Ra.De. would have been a better choice.
Click to expand...

I personally love that they dug up their old effort on the previously scrapped dangun port. dangun is a top 5 cave game from me and really plays unlike anything else in their catalog
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
SOME-MIST said:
I personally love that they dug up their old effort on the previously scrapped dangun port. dangun is a top 5 cave game from me and really plays unlike anything else in their catalog
Click to expand...

plus it's great they're releasing something that has never had a home console port. ESP Ra De would be great too.
 
D

Dambrosi

Banned
BOTEC said:
12/15/16 release for Battle Garegga 2016. ¥3,700 regular, ¥8,800 for premium.

http://m2stg.com/battle-garegga/

"Blood Brothers are back?" I'm not up on Battle Garegga's lore I guess.
Click to expand...
Well, appaently the story of Garegga goes like this: two inventor brothers discover an amazing new power source which sparks a technological and industrial revolution. However, certain countries around the world, being what they are, use the new technology to amass vast armies of conquest, and soon, war is everywhere. Horrified by the genocidal arms race they indirectly caused, the brothers decide to take responsibility by taking to the skies in their ultra-souped-up warplanes packed with weaponry designed to destroy the encroaching armies one by one. At least, that's how I heard it.

SOME-MIST said:
I personally love that they dug up their old effort on the previously scrapped dangun port. dangun is a top 5 cave game from me and really plays unlike anything else in their catalog
Click to expand...
Me too. Gotta feel the groove, baby! For serious, tho, here's hoping for more Toaplan and Raizing stuff next.
 
K

KDR_11k

Member
gunstarhero said:
Has anyone here been playing Steredenn on PS4?

This game is amazing - I know I'm probably lttp on this one since it was out on Steam for a while, but those who have a PS4 and have not played this game yet - DO IT NOW!

Love the idea of a shooter with rogue-like elements. The random levels make it tough to do any sort of memorization, but I feel like it becomes a true test of skill in that regard.

The music is FUCKING AMAZING. Reminds me of Thunder Force IV or the Lords/Gate of Thunder series.

And the weapons... I havent seen them all (they're are a LOT), but once I found the chainsaw, I knew this game already won the Best Weapons in a Shooter award.

Anyway - more people should be talking about this game!

S6QUwPy.gif
Click to expand...

I bounced off, kept trying for a while but it didn't gel with me. While it has the slow start of a roguelite it doesn't seem to escalate as much as, say, Isaac where the gameplay can drastically transform based on the upgrades you get. 20% on some situational thing just doesn't change the game feel much, even worse that it has a lot of score-only things that won't help with survival at all, sucks when your few chances at getting upgrades get impacted by that.

Also am I the only one who cannot stand this modern pixel art style?
 
R

Remembrance

Member
KDR_11k said:
I bounced off, kept trying for a while but it didn't gel with me. While it has the slow start of a roguelite it doesn't seem to escalate as much as, say, Isaac where the gameplay can drastically transform based on the upgrades you get. 20% on some situational thing just doesn't change the game feel much, even worse that it has a lot of score-only things that won't help with survival at all, sucks when your few chances at getting upgrades get impacted by that.

Also am I the only one who cannot stand this modern pixel art style?
Click to expand...

It does not feel like it's balanced to make many different upgrade routes viable. It makes no sense to upgrade anything other than weapons, health, and firing rate, since all enemies basically turn into bullet sponges by level 4.

Contact weapons seem like they should be high-risk, high-reward - especially since you can get a 50% boost to damage - but in actual practice, just having any ranged weapon outweighs however much damage you can deal in "melee."

On the flip side, the developers clearly thought that the homing missiles are low-risk, low-reward. But being able to hit enemies from anywhere on screen turns out to be so much more important than anything else you can do with a weapon.

Pixel art can be good, but I'm not so keen on this game's pixel art. In the Steam news, the developers were showing off this as an example of "pretty" background art:

1.3.0-03.jpg
Click to expand...

Still, you can have some fun runs if you get any of the "fire and forget" weapons - homing missiles, flamethrower (only with the range increase), any laser, any of the rapid-fire bullet weapons (except the one that slows you down) or the shotgun.
 
S

SmiteOfHand

Member
At least the pixel art is uniform and cohesive, which is more than can be said of a lot of "its retro, whatever, fuck you" games that come out lately.

It looks like the movement is analog? Which I'd have to try it before passing judgement but... you know.. is usually a red flag.
 
B

Battlesmurf

Member
KDR_11k said:
I haven't heard anything beyond the name about this game, what's it about? I mean, beyond obviously being a shmup.
Click to expand...

Dangun Feveron/Fever SOS. One of the best shooters out there (very unique). You get 1pt added to a multiplier for every enemy pilot you collect. They fall out of things you blow up. If they fall out and you miss them, your score multiplier goes to zero. Heavy disco theme.

Essentially super fast paced shooter dancing. Very fun, can be tough if playing for a good score.

Essentially a must play if you have a curiosity in the genre. (Next to Garegga/Bakraid/etc)
 
C

Cthulhu_Steev

Member
SmiteOfHand said:
At least the pixel art is uniform and cohesive, which is more than can be said of a lot of "its retro, whatever, fuck you" games that come out lately.

It looks like the movement is analog? Which I'd have to try it before passing judgement but... you know.. is usually a red flag.
Click to expand...

Even for Gradius V? I don't it.
 
G

galvatron

Member
gunstarhero said:
Has anyone here been playing Steredenn on PS4?

This game is amazing - I know I'm probably lttp on this one since it was out on Steam for a while, but those who have a PS4 and have not played this game yet - DO IT NOW!

Love the idea of a shooter with rogue-like elements. The random levels make it tough to do any sort of memorization, but I feel like it becomes a true test of skill in that regard.

The music is FUCKING AMAZING. Reminds me of Thunder Force IV or the Lords/Gate of Thunder series.

And the weapons... I havent seen them all (they're are a LOT), but once I found the chainsaw, I knew this game already won the Best Weapons in a Shooter award.

Anyway - more people should be talking about this game!

S6QUwPy.gif
Click to expand...

I actually tried it for a little while on steam and I put it down to play some Lightning Force and M.U.S.H.A. Just felt like I was playing an uglier knockoff of better games that I own...
 
C

ChryZ

Member
SmiteOfHand said:
It looks like the movement is analog? Which I'd have to try it before passing judgement but... you know.. is usually a red flag.
Click to expand...
The controls are analog per default, but the PC release allows to disable analog with the launch option "-rawinputs". I never had any issues with the default setup after a brief adjustment time, it's really well tuned.

I think the game looks best in motion:

small-gif06.gif
small-gif04.gif


small-gif07.gif
small-gif05.gif


Some of the weapons are horrible in the final stages of the game, but still useful in earlier parts, e.g. the drill (contact) I'd totally use it in the first 3 levels, it's almost like a shortcut, dodge well, maintain health and then take a few hits while ending the boss in 5 seconds.
 
C

ChryZ

Member
Could it be that people are more put off by the fat pixel presentation than the art itself?

16 bit like 320x180
wrMfxNh.png


32 bit like 640x360
2az5EVr.png


32 bit like 640x360, crude scanlines
xb37Xr0.png


Scaled 3x with nearest neighbor and crude scanlines
GatTmFl.png


Default, scaled up 3x with nearest neighbor
1.3.0-03.jpg


I don't mind it that much, but the lack of dithering is surely highlighted by the nearest-neighbor interpolation.
 
gunstarhero

gunstarhero

Member
Personally, I love the style of Steredenn. I get that some might be tired of the modern pixel style, but I think this game does it really well. I love chunky!
 
S

SmiteOfHand

Member
ChryZ said:
Could it be that people are more put off by the fat pixel presentation than the art itself?

I don't mind it that much, but the lack of dithering is surely highlighted by the nearest-neighbor interpolation.
Click to expand...

I think it is a general lack of noise to accompany that sort of style, yeah. It isn't leaning hard enough into a toon look, but also isn't leaning into realism so it falls flat. (Not to suggest pixel art exists on this slider, just seems to be where this particular style is trying to fall between)

I don't think it looks bad, though! The color selection is on point. Could probably even benefit from reducing the palette even further. Contrast is good though and that is usually the biggest thing you run into when color selection is high. It has a bit of style to it in motion as the gifs show, but even though the explosions and particles are snappy, they suffer the same sort of flat, lifeless look.

small-gif04.gif


This one in particular: the lazer blast is just a few color bands with a bit of pixel wiggle. Again, it doesn't look bad, just lifeless.
 
K

KDR_11k

Member
Old pixel art tried to look detailed and make the most of its restrictions, modern pixel art seems to be about making the least of the restrictions you have and inventing new ones.

io_04.gif


The system has a palette of 16 colors, only 3 of which can be used in one sprite (with two of them shared between all sprites so each sprite has only ONE color to itself). I believe the background (non-sprite stuff) have the same restriction but the game probably switches the two shared colors between the level and HUD rows of the screen. And mind you, the C64 wasn't exactly a meeting ground for great artists, most of the stuff on there was programmer art. We're not even talking In The Hunt or something like that here.
 
S

SmiteOfHand

Member
I dunno if it is worth bumping the OT so I'll drop it here. Looks like Degica is starting CAVE Strategy Sessions on their blog with Mushi leading it off.

http://blog.degigames.com/shmup/cave-strategy-sessions-mushihimesama-part-i-the-basics/

Welcome to the first article in our CAVE Strategy Sessions series! This series will feature strategy articles on our CAVE games, written by the people who know scoring tricks the best: The fans who score those obscene scores on the leaderboards!

Our first run of articles will be focused on Mushihimesama and has been written by Per “pestro87” Strand & Luke “Aquas” Schirmer! Through 5 articles, they will walk you through how to change your score from acceptable to fantastic. So let’s get started with our first article: The Base Mechanics.
Click to expand...


(I dunno if Degica is paying attention here, but you are of course welcome to use the gifs I made for the OT, and lots more there. I mean they are ripped out of your own game anyway. I worked hard on the goddamn things! Blurry crops hurts my soul.)

HwSQNYd.gif
K9B91Mw.png
2FyMsRK.gif
x40sQ92.png
MM4jiVs.gif
jfQbIY9.png


q8JRbIZ.gif
vQGmMdC.png
0yxzswT.gif
59Y2QnQ.png
 
C

Coda

Member
SmiteOfHand said:
I dunno if it is worth bumping the OT so I'll drop it here. Looks like Degica is starting CAVE Strategy Sessions on their blog with Mushi leading it off.

http://blog.degigames.com/shmup/cave-strategy-sessions-mushihimesama-part-i-the-basics/




(I dunno if Degica is paying attention here, but you are of course welcome to use the gifs I made for the OT, and lots more there. I mean they are ripped out of your own game anyway. I worked hard on the goddamn things! Blurry crops hurts my soul.)

HwSQNYd.gif
K9B91Mw.png
2FyMsRK.gif
x40sQ92.png
MM4jiVs.gif
jfQbIY9.png


q8JRbIZ.gif
vQGmMdC.png
0yxzswT.gif
59Y2QnQ.png
Click to expand...

All about that S-Power myself. :)
 
S

SmiteOfHand

Member
SOME-MIST said:
I wonder how it's gonna set itself apart from stgweekly..
Click to expand...

It will probably rehash the same info. That is fine by me. Not everyone is going to want to watch an hour video, and you can't search video content. It's good to spread it around in different ways.

Speaking of, STGWeekly really deserves a lot more love around here. If anyone hasn't checked them out then do so. Approaching episode #100.

https://www.youtube.com/user/STGWeekly/
 
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