Post by jeffx on Sept 13, 2009 21:33:25 GMT -5
A friend picked this up for me at C76. Listen to that music! Check out those graphics! Don't tell me you can't feel the deep Nihon Falcom influence.
Incredibly enough, this was made by a couple of old-timers who worked on Shining Force, Dragon Spirits and even Ridge Racer. Get this, their WHOLE website is available in an impeccable English translation. Furthermore the game is on sale from dlsite for less than 20$.
Oh, here's a link to a free demo. Level 3 only.
trial.dlsite.com/doujin/RJ047000/RJ046887_trial.zip
Here's my impressions of the FULL VERSION:
First of all, there are no installers or anything. Just an EXE and a DAT file. I installed the update from the website, which is just a replacement to the EXE file. Strangely enough, the 6.5MB executable can shrink to 600Kb? The DAT file itself is around 50MB.
The game can run in full-screen or windowed mode but the FS option won't work on my laptop. I mean, it runs the game, but it only occupies a part of my screen. Weird. never had that problem before.
I get to the title screen and am happy to notice my trusty old Sidewinder is detected when I press a button, but what's this?? NO MENU? You're shoved straight into the game when you press any button. No options, no time attack, no continue, NO NOTHING! How terrifyingly 8-bit of O-GAMES.
The first level (much like the rest of the game) is a total homage to Square Soft's King's Knight, except with much better graphics and a brisk pace. Meaning here the screen is continuously moving and if you get stuck behind a wall, you lose a life. Three strikes you're out, game over. Many chests can be found by shooting around randomly. Morning star weapon kinda sucks but is dealing major damage. Nothing hard here, I managed to rescue a soldier which now follows me much like an Option in Gradius. I also found a shield which surprisingly doesn't break even after taking multiple bullets. The mid-level boss sorta reminded me of Dark Fact. After he exploded in coins, I found these stairs that took me to a non-scrolling bonus room where I could regain parts of my armour which broke when I took hits.
I continued through more forest and rescued two more soldiers and a healer as I made my way to the actual level boss. It's the giant tree that can be seen in the trailer. Again the shield is making things easier but that tree is spawning a bunch of baby trees which shoot at you laterally. I noticed the healer is dead now, but the soldiers remain, so they can take a heck of a lot more damage. Once the boss dies, he explodes into coins but after less than 3 seconds, the results screen pops up and I missed out on a bunch of them. Still have no clue what all that money is good for... as there are no "upgrade" screens in between levels.
Second level is based in an aquatic shrine. Wait, where are my soldiers and shield? Gone with the wind it seems, every stage is a new adventure. I find another healer and I still don't know what good she is. This level forces you to choose between many branching paths, which is cool. But the ice-blocks instantly lead to DEATH upon touching them, not as cool. Fuct Clone is back for more action at mid-level point, with a new trick up his sleeves in the form of rotating ice orbs, which the shield isn't any good against. At this point I'm just curious to see what happens when you die.
Huzzah! There is a stage select on the menu screen now. Unfortunately, I'm running Windows 7 and it appears that the game crashes when attempting to close it so nothing gets saved to the INI file. AKA when I reload the game, I can't select level 2 anymore. Bummer. Maybe I'll contact the O-GAMES guys about this, or simply run the mode in Windows XP mode next time.
BOTTOM LINE: 8/10 if the stage select mode can be saved, 5/10 if not. With 13 levels and the first one taking me about 7-8 minutes to beat (seriously) there's no way I'm sitting down for the whole enchilada. But fans of Falcom games and SHMUPs in general absolutely MUST check this out. The soundtrack is adrenaline-pumping as can be expected from one of the original Ridge Racer composers and the graphics aren't too far off the Ys Eternal mark albeit with much less detail of course. Game runs not too fast, not too slow just perfect. This game is just one more concrete proof that doujin games are nothing to scoff at.
PS absolutely no Japanese required to play this game.
