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Thunderforce VI (PS2) - Sega's grace has brought us all hope
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
DaCocoBrova
Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
Looks good
Barkley's Justice
Member
jiji said:
am want.
â Narayan
Member
Tamayo Kawamoto is a woman. She made the music for all of the RAY series games. In my opinion, her best work is RayForce (Layer Section/Galactic Attack/Gunlock) -- the first and best game in the series.kazuo said:
R-Gear looked as though it had promise both in visuals and audio. It was supposed to be the sequel to RayForce, but was replaced by the very inferior RayStorm.
You can check out the true sequel of RayForce (that was never released), over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Dp1tSV36M
â Narayan
Member
I know. It kills me whenever I think about it. I wish we got R-Gear instead.drohne said:
â Narayan
Member
I personally felt that Darius Gaiden's soundtrack was pretty tame. Now, G-Darius? Creepy as Hell.andymcc said:
A Black Falcon
Member
U K Narayan said:
For some reason, that description of the soundtrack made me think of Bio-Hazard Battle...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wybq9qOym-s
Absolutely amazing and unique soundtrack, if only more games had music like that...
*Listens to some of Darius Gaiden's soundtrack* Woah, awesome stuff. Not really like Bio-Hazard Battle, I think, but awesome... so G-Darius is even better? I remember playing that game once, but can't remember anything about the soundtrack... going by videos, it does sound interesting.
Damn... that would've indeed been sweet. I liked RayStorm quite a bit (never really played RayCrisis all that much), but I would've taken R-Gear without question. The soundtrack(s) in RayStorm were fantastic, IMO.U K Narayan said:I know. It kills me whenever I think about it. I wish we got R-Gear instead.
TheSonicRetard
Banned
neo2046 said:
HOLY SHIT, they're including Thunder Force III and IV stages in this?!
Also, I hope they change the music. That trailer's music didn't sound anything like a thunderforce game. Thunderforce is the GOD of synth rock.
adversesolutions
Member
Death to synth rock. Trailer music was gdlk
edit: am reserving this at sofmap TONIGHT
edit: am reserving this at sofmap TONIGHT
adversesolutions
Member
allies, to my side
Infernal Monkey
Member
Gawd, I should have pre-ordered this ages ago. With the Aussie dollar being a heap of shit now, this'll cost a bazillion dollars.
TheSonicRetard
Banned
adversesolutions
Member
TheSonicRetard said:
long-hair
adversesolutions said:allies, to my side
No U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avkLXG4ojEU
Need more of this and crazy data filled boss warnings.
adversesolutions
Member
Here are the reviews from the latest Famitsu (translated by moi)
adversesolutions
Member
Found a place willing to sell early today. Will post some impressions of the game tomorrow. For now, the opening cinematic/music is really nice. Think early Aphex.
sixteen-bit
Member
nm
adversesolutions
Member
Some brief impressions of the game after playing last night:
Music is awesome. I could do without the buttrock, but there are thousands of long-hairs who will be pleased. The ambient/techno almost aphex-ish tracks are really great. Shit, I really want that soundtrack!
Opening FMV is really nice too.
I was able to get to level 5 without any real trouble, and it's on level 5 where you really have to start changing up your weapons, as you'll have enemies below and behind you that can't be dealt with in any other way. Game is not very hard, and there are 1ups in levels 3 and 4.
Music is awesome. I could do without the buttrock, but there are thousands of long-hairs who will be pleased. The ambient/techno almost aphex-ish tracks are really great. Shit, I really want that soundtrack!
Opening FMV is really nice too.
I was able to get to level 5 without any real trouble, and it's on level 5 where you really have to start changing up your weapons, as you'll have enemies below and behind you that can't be dealt with in any other way. Game is not very hard, and there are 1ups in levels 3 and 4.
adversesolutions
Member
Haven't played the other TFs seriously so I can't say.
Still, there is a Hard mode and Maniac mode, and I believe that the faster you get your speed up the harder the game gets, so certainly there's plenty of challenge there for people that want it.
Still, there is a Hard mode and Maniac mode, and I believe that the faster you get your speed up the harder the game gets, so certainly there's plenty of challenge there for people that want it.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Torgo said:
Fantastic post.
Hero of Legend said:
A number of shmups?
I came up with SnS III and a handful of Milestone games. Compare that with the PS2's or 360's shooter library and well it just ain't fair.
If anything Sega went the PS2 route because that's where their biggest "hardcore" fanbase in Japan is at the moment. And by hardcore I mean the hardcore Sega fans who have purchased their Sega Ages releases and so on.
Cause really at this point it's not about the userbase or the money cause if Sega actually cared about either they wouldn't have greenlit TFVI in the first place cause this game won't sell for shit.
Hero of Legend
Member
Why not Wii?
The console does have a number of shmups, and a polished port with added 16:9 and whatnot would be fine with me.
Why is it only the crappy PS2 games that end up on the Wii? Minus Okami and a few others I'm not recalling at the moment.
The console does have a number of shmups, and a polished port with added 16:9 and whatnot would be fine with me.
Why is it only the crappy PS2 games that end up on the Wii? Minus Okami and a few others I'm not recalling at the moment.
Baron
Member
I doubt my copy will arrive before the weekend. New York to California shipping times always suck. But come Monday or Tuesday I will have this game.
Someone mentioned the Fantasy Zone collection above also - just bought that last week, and it is awesome. Well worth the $30. A Japan-region PS2 is a no-brainer for anyone who loves games.
But come Monday or Tuesday I will have this game.Someone mentioned the Fantasy Zone collection above also - just bought that last week, and it is awesome. Well worth the $30. A Japan-region PS2 is a no-brainer for anyone who loves games.
sixteen-bit
Member
I can't wait for my copy to arrive.
adversesolutions
Member
spoiler:
:lol
http://sazanami.net/nikki/200810/081031_001.gif
:lol
Baron
Member
Well, surprisingly, my copy arrived in the mail yesterday! Spent some time with it yesterday afternoon playing with my Hori HRAP2 SA - I like it, a lot. The ocean level is just a remake of the ocean level from TFV from what I can see. I'm having trouble finding a good button layout with the stick, as I need instant access to all the buttons, including speed up and down, and it's quite trying to find a good layout that works. Not disappointed at all.
So yesterday, my buddy brought his copy into work, and I took it home to check out last night. I only had about an hour to spend with it, but that's about all I needed. As a bit of background, I grew up with this series on the Genesis. TF2 was the first game I had (along with Ghouls 'n Ghosts and the Altered Beast pack-in), and it left quite the impression on me. When TF went 3D on the SS/PS1, it took me a couple years to warm up to it. I hated that it went 3D, and in such an ugly way. After the 2D craftmanship of TF4 especially, seeing TF5 on the SS, with all the framedrops and choppy animation, was a hard pill to swallow. The music was phenomenal though, so I think that's what kept me coming back. Eventually it clicked and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. My expectations were pretty high with TF6, although I kept them in check because realistically, I knew it wasn't going to be a series topper.
The intro is pretty cool. Nothing mindblowing, but it's accompanied by a nice remix of a very familiar TF tune, done in an ethereal vocal style. Interface and menus are straight out of TF5, although they are missing some of the stylistic touches like the Reffi OS and commandline transitions. Load times are very short (playing this on a v2 non-slim PS2).
The music is all over the place. Much of it sounds understandably Zuntata-like, except here it sounds half-assed. Some of it sounds like it came from Darius, some of it sounds like it came from Layer Section and RayStorm, but it just sounds like a mish-mash of stuff they threw together with no inspiration. There are some synth rock tunes, but again, very uninspired, and hell if I can remember any of the songs. I think the underwater level had one of the more decent tunes, but none of it touches what we've heard in the rest of the series. Rememeber the opening tune and the stage 1 boss music in TF4? How about Gorgon and Hydra in TF3? Or Steel of Destiny of TF5? Holy crap. Yeah, none of that here. I don't think it's unfair at all to expect that level of music here. Music is one of the most defining aspects of the TF series, and it frustrates me that it's so lacking in TF6.
Graphics are OK. I would say, though, that they aren't even as varied or detailed as TF5, and that was from over 10 years ago. The game runs at 60fps most of the time, but slows down considerably whenever the screen is full of enemies or bullets. The backgrounds look really flat and dead, although there are some cool scenes of space battles off in the background (conversely, these scenes can completely obscure what you should be paying attention to in the foreground). I think a game like Silpheed TLP on the PS2 from about 8 years ago looks better than this game. It's really unfortunate. It's certainly nowhere near the levels seen in Gradius V or Ikaruga... R-Type Final looks better, too. Again, this is frustrating to say, just because the TF series has had some of the most memorable scenes, like the line scrolling fire in Gorgon (TF3) or the parallax insanity of TF4's opening stage. Damn. Here, there's very little that stands out or even comes off as original. Everything that catches your eye is because it is an homage or recycle of something from a past TF. That being said, the animation feels pretty smooth overall.
Control is crisp. That's something the TF series has always had, and thankfully, it's still intact here. Your ship seems to have a pretty large hitbox, which takes a little getting used to if you've been playing mostly Cave shooters for the past decade.
Scoring system seems almost identical to TF5... the faster your destroy an enemy, the higher the point multiplier. Pretty straightforward fare, although I don't remember seeing that multiplier countdown thing that was in TF5. I liked that little visual cue to let you know how you were doing.
Weapons are all taken from past TFs... wave, hunter, free range, etc. Kind of a bummer that there isn't even one new weapon. What sucks IMO is that you get everything at the beginning, and the only pick-ups are 1-UPs and shields. You even start with claws from the get-go. I've always liked the TF system of collecting weapons, and when you die, you only lose the weapon that was armed. This is a good and fair system (vs. shooters that start you off with nothing and set you back earlier in the stage), and I have no idea why they got rid of it here! Compounding the problem is that free range feels even more powerful in this game. The cone rotates so much faster than it did in TF5, taking what little strategy that weapon required in TF5 and makes most of these stages a cakewalk. And as I said, if you die, you don't lose the weapon. So if you have free range or any other weapon armed and you die, hey, no worries... you come back with them intact.
Overall difficulty? I think it's easier than TF3. The first half of the game is way easy. I got to stage 5 (of 6, I believe) on my first credit the first time I played. So that's roughly 85% of the game cleared without continuing, which is much further than I got with TF3 back in the day. Much like TF3, most of the bosses are complete pushovers, and can be dispatched in a few seconds. I don't know why this type of boss design still exists. You barely have enough time to look at them, and before you know it, they're going through their death throes.
Anyway, I might sound overly harsh on this game, but it's hard not to be when you've been waiting so long for it. It has its critics, but Konami did the right thing by giving Gradius V to Treasure. I think Technosoft/Sega should have done the same with TF6. As it stands, it's almost impossible for me to recommend TF6 to anyone but the most hardcore of fans, particularly at the $60 + shipping asking price to import it.
I think Famitsu's 26/40 score is pretty accurate, although I would say for me personally it's closer o a 24/40 (6/10 overall).
The intro is pretty cool. Nothing mindblowing, but it's accompanied by a nice remix of a very familiar TF tune, done in an ethereal vocal style. Interface and menus are straight out of TF5, although they are missing some of the stylistic touches like the Reffi OS and commandline transitions. Load times are very short (playing this on a v2 non-slim PS2).
The music is all over the place. Much of it sounds understandably Zuntata-like, except here it sounds half-assed. Some of it sounds like it came from Darius, some of it sounds like it came from Layer Section and RayStorm, but it just sounds like a mish-mash of stuff they threw together with no inspiration. There are some synth rock tunes, but again, very uninspired, and hell if I can remember any of the songs. I think the underwater level had one of the more decent tunes, but none of it touches what we've heard in the rest of the series. Rememeber the opening tune and the stage 1 boss music in TF4? How about Gorgon and Hydra in TF3? Or Steel of Destiny of TF5? Holy crap. Yeah, none of that here. I don't think it's unfair at all to expect that level of music here. Music is one of the most defining aspects of the TF series, and it frustrates me that it's so lacking in TF6.
Graphics are OK. I would say, though, that they aren't even as varied or detailed as TF5, and that was from over 10 years ago. The game runs at 60fps most of the time, but slows down considerably whenever the screen is full of enemies or bullets. The backgrounds look really flat and dead, although there are some cool scenes of space battles off in the background (conversely, these scenes can completely obscure what you should be paying attention to in the foreground). I think a game like Silpheed TLP on the PS2 from about 8 years ago looks better than this game. It's really unfortunate. It's certainly nowhere near the levels seen in Gradius V or Ikaruga... R-Type Final looks better, too. Again, this is frustrating to say, just because the TF series has had some of the most memorable scenes, like the line scrolling fire in Gorgon (TF3) or the parallax insanity of TF4's opening stage. Damn. Here, there's very little that stands out or even comes off as original. Everything that catches your eye is because it is an homage or recycle of something from a past TF. That being said, the animation feels pretty smooth overall.
Control is crisp. That's something the TF series has always had, and thankfully, it's still intact here. Your ship seems to have a pretty large hitbox, which takes a little getting used to if you've been playing mostly Cave shooters for the past decade.
Scoring system seems almost identical to TF5... the faster your destroy an enemy, the higher the point multiplier. Pretty straightforward fare, although I don't remember seeing that multiplier countdown thing that was in TF5. I liked that little visual cue to let you know how you were doing.
Weapons are all taken from past TFs... wave, hunter, free range, etc. Kind of a bummer that there isn't even one new weapon. What sucks IMO is that you get everything at the beginning, and the only pick-ups are 1-UPs and shields. You even start with claws from the get-go. I've always liked the TF system of collecting weapons, and when you die, you only lose the weapon that was armed. This is a good and fair system (vs. shooters that start you off with nothing and set you back earlier in the stage), and I have no idea why they got rid of it here! Compounding the problem is that free range feels even more powerful in this game. The cone rotates so much faster than it did in TF5, taking what little strategy that weapon required in TF5 and makes most of these stages a cakewalk. And as I said, if you die, you don't lose the weapon. So if you have free range or any other weapon armed and you die, hey, no worries... you come back with them intact.
Overall difficulty? I think it's easier than TF3. The first half of the game is way easy. I got to stage 5 (of 6, I believe) on my first credit the first time I played. So that's roughly 85% of the game cleared without continuing, which is much further than I got with TF3 back in the day. Much like TF3, most of the bosses are complete pushovers, and can be dispatched in a few seconds. I don't know why this type of boss design still exists. You barely have enough time to look at them, and before you know it, they're going through their death throes.
Anyway, I might sound overly harsh on this game, but it's hard not to be when you've been waiting so long for it. It has its critics, but Konami did the right thing by giving Gradius V to Treasure. I think Technosoft/Sega should have done the same with TF6. As it stands, it's almost impossible for me to recommend TF6 to anyone but the most hardcore of fans, particularly at the $60 + shipping asking price to import it.
I think Famitsu's 26/40 score is pretty accurate, although I would say for me personally it's closer o a 24/40 (6/10 overall).
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
Depressing. Guess it's a good thing I pulled out at the last minute. =/
sixteen-bit
Member
so basically TFV is kusoge?
Not sure if that was a typo, but they're not the same game. It borrows heavily from TF5, but it's like TF5 with the memorable stuff taken out and the balance even more out of whack._dementia said:
There are some homages to games like RayStorm in there, but again, RayStorm did it so much better (space battles, transforming mechs, etc.).
Buy it and they'll make Space Harrier!
http://www.seganerds.com/2008/11/05/sega-buy-thunderforce-vi-and-well-make-a-new-space-harrier/
http://www.seganerds.com/2008/11/05/sega-buy-thunderforce-vi-and-well-make-a-new-space-harrier/
A Black Falcon
Member
D-X said:
Edge?
... Will there be a US release of this so we can buy it and also help try to convince them to make a new Space Harrier too?
Hmm... I don't know whether that's good news or bad...
TheSonicRetard
Banned
I got this game in the mail last night. I now have 2 japanese PS2 games, and man this is disappointing. I picked up Fantasy Zone Complete Collection with my japanese 2 and it blew me away, so that might be why Thunder Force VI is a letdown.
As mentioned above, the music sucks out loud, and I hate the new weapon system where you don't lose any powerups. The whole package just feels... rushed. Very rushed. By the numbers, bare bones, etc. Like I said, I might be biased because I played he FZCC which is phenomenal and about as non-bare bones as you can get, but TFVI was a major disappointment to me.
As mentioned above, the music sucks out loud, and I hate the new weapon system where you don't lose any powerups. The whole package just feels... rushed. Very rushed. By the numbers, bare bones, etc. Like I said, I might be biased because I played he FZCC which is phenomenal and about as non-bare bones as you can get, but TFVI was a major disappointment to me.
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