How does this new show compare to the last few AM or AOU shows? From the pictures and reports on game sites it seems bigger than the last few. More games, more people, etc. How does it look from the floor?
It was an excellent show. Merging AOU and AM was the right call. The arcade industry has shrunk, but they still can get enough people out to have a solid event if they just focus resources.
This year the most impressive line-up was definitely Square-Enix/Taito. Consistent lines for NESiCA new games, 2.5 hour wait to play the Groove Coaster arcade version, lots of new shooters (and even adventure games!), and Lord of Vermillion III seemed to be really populer. They seem to have their arcade strategy in place.
In general it was an encouraging year for shooters despite no CAVE release. Under Defeat and Caladrius on All.net plus Multi, Ikaruga and Crimzon Clover on NESiCA. At the very least, shooters now have a home in the arcades again, whereas for about a year or two there it was looking grim.
I only tried Judgement Silversword on the WonderSwan, and it didn't do anything for me. I disliked the bullet patterns, since bullet trajectories felt random, and it was sometimes impossible to dodge with skill, and I needed to use the shield. How are the patterns in Eschatos and Ginga Force?
The shield is an integral part of the game in all three games, so there are definitely patterns that are undodgable.
Personally I like the somewhat messy patterns in Ginga Force because they give a lot of room to improvise. They can be a little frustrating in Eschatos since there's a lot of 3D screen flipping and whatnot happening in the background that can confuse you when you're trying to dodge. I am also not a huge Silversword fan although I really liked Cardinal Sins.
-----------------------------------------------------
So about that Ginga Force...
Wow.
I am very impressed. This is definitely an A class game. It may not look like much, and watching it may make it seem a little boring, but Ginga Force is very fun, very engaging, well balanced and tight in presentation.
Whereas Qute turned a lot of heads with Eschatos in Japan and abroad (thanks to the region-free release), Eschatos now seems like a warm-up run for what they were really trying to achieve with Ginga Force. All the rapid perspective changes that made Eschatos hard to play at points now add a lot of drama and intensity to Ginga Force's stages. Whereas some of Eschatos' Hard bullet patterns seemed a bit sloppy and unfair, Ginga Force is in general more balanced. You will get overwhelmed at points in the Normal or Hard difficulties, but it seems like there are ways around these deaths and plus you now have the wide framework of over 100 different equippable items to work with. There are some really cool weapons here, like a sub-weapon that tracks everything on screen and attacks, and a defensive shield that after absorbing bullets will fire them back as homing shots. Unlocking and trying out new weapons in different stages is a lot of fun.
Since all the weapons and equippables are in Japanese, there's liable to be a lot of trial and error here for those who can't read the language, but I think it's manageable.
The stages in general are really well built, and the penultimate stage is some exquisite torture. Long and involved, enemies change in behavior and rank according to what route you select during the stage. It's almost like a branching version of Mushihimesama stage 3.
Some of the boss battles get very intense and it's satisfying once you figure out how to get past them.
The story and 2d illustrations are servicable, but the voices do grate, especially in the last boss battle where the characters just scream back and forth at each other. I had to turn down the voice volume after clearing the Easy difficulty.
This game also for some reason has some of the best UI of any of the 360 shooters. It's snappy and ultra-quick. They could have cheaped out there but they didn't, and the care shown there shines every time you boot up the game.
What's most impressive to me is how Qute has created a shooter that is truly optimized for the console playstyle. Tons of unlocks that build replay value, more stages than a normal shooter, Judgement Force Tiger and Dragon as super fun hidden games, AND you've got a solid score attack mode for competing online. System-wise they've built the perfect console shooter IMO.
I played Eschatos up to 875/1000 achievements, which means mostly doing everything except clearing Hard mode and some of the other intensely difficult challenges. Even though I liked it, I hated the cheap deaths often caused by perspective changes and found the game slightly bland overall. I also didn't like the radical difficulty shift from Normal to Hard (where Hard was basically Futari Ultra level difficulty). Overall it was definitely a solid shooter, but I wasn't a big advocate for it. Ginga Force is in my opinion of very much higher quality. It's actually a shame a game this good is coming out on a dying console in Japan. Something like this deserves an XBLA or PSN, or Steam, or something release. People should play it. You should play it.
One other thing that amazed me when I beat the game today: Ginga Force was basically built by three guys. Three programmers, M-KAI, Mach and another dude. They had a little bit of graphical help this time but the core team was these three. Grev and CAVE also have very small dev line, but Qute is exceptional in terms of the quality of their games versus the amount of people that actually work on them.
If Qute had graphics like Sine Mora and illustrations like CAVE or Vanillaware or something, they would be a force to be reckoned with IMO. Given the step up in quality from Eschatos to Ginga Force I'm excited to see what they do next.
The game is already selling well too. On 2ch there are reports of it selling out in shops, and my local spot sold out too which surprised me. I dunno man. The 360 is dead, long live the 360?
