[AC] [360] Mushihime-sama Futari

[icycalm]

Tonight at Hey they had to pull the plug from the Mushi Futari cab to get me to leave. It was midnight and I had been playing non-stop for an hour and a half, my ears buzzing as if I had just left a club, and my brain swimming from the adrenaline. On the way home I decided that I just had to start a blog. (Yes, another one.)

Expect lots of details on the system, as well as pics and videos. For the time being enjoy the following while I get some much-needed sleep.


Stage 3 - Maniac mode (127 MB)

[JC Denton]

Cool video. I like how the guy yells *Uso!* when he loses his first life. And then stares in disbelief when he gets his ass handed to him by the boss.

By the way which mode are you playing?

[icycalm]

I am playing Original with Palm. I started playing Maniac initially, but went back to Original when I realized this game is quite a bit harder than the first one. I am currently one-lifing it to the third stage, and I occasionally make it to the fourth -- though I usually die at the third boss.

I must have played about 30 credits or so up to now, and my high score is around 22mil.

To be honest, though my first few days playing this were very exciting and enjoyable, I am now disillusioned with it. I wish I was playing Ketsui or Espgaluda II instead. Or even the first Mushi.

This could very well be the first mediocre Cave shooter.

I hope I change my mind about this. A second loop would help.

[JC Denton]

Are you making any progress on this? I played a few credits this weekend, but it seriously kicked my ass.

[icycalm]

Finally making some real progress, and enjoying myself a lot more. I am getting to the Stage 4 boss regularly, with a high score of around 36 mil, which is really not that bad. Sometimes I get the top spot on the machine, even late at night, after dozens of others have been on it. I can feel the 5th Stage coming any day now...

That's all in Original, of course. I've played Maniac a bit -- and the furthest I got to was the 3rd Stage boss. It's really enjoyable, but I think I'll go for the 1CC in Original first.

Hmmm.... It's a good thing I haven't sat down to review this yet. I seem to change my mind about it at least once a week.

[lock]

Hey Icy,
This is offtopic but anyway, do you know if its easy to find a "Mushihimesama the secret lover" in Akihabara?? I'm thinking to get it on internet and it cost around 11.000Y with the shipping cost & taxes included. Do you think is a good price or should I wait until december to buy it there?

Talking about futari, I saw a video of the 3rd stage in youtube and I loved the music so much. I hope it will be in PS2 soon!

[icycalm]

Hey Fran, I am glad you are enjoying shooters so much these days. When I see you in Tokyo I'll take you to the best arcades, and show you exactly what to do to become a master. It's not hard -- all you need are a few tips to get you on the right track.

I will look for the Mushi superplay DVD and let you know the street price.

So you bought the PS2 port of Mushihime? It's an incredible game -- much better than the sequel. And anyway, the sequel is too hard for you. By the time a port comes out you should be ready to handle it, though, if you practice regularly.

[lock]

Yeah, I'm playing shooters pretty much lately. I got the "Taito collection" Mushihimesama so it was just 31 bucks. I got it becouse I was a little bit bored playing only Espgaluda. And I don't like Ibara so much so, when I saw Mushihime in youtube I liked the music and the graphics so I bought it.

By the way, next week I'll have more free time so I was thinking about making a shooter pc game. I don't want make a big proyect, just something cool. I know you're always very busy but, if you want to colaborate in somehow (writing history, creating the play system, etcetc) your help would be welcome. If you want know more just let me now and I tell you by mail.

[icycalm]

Ok, so I found the Mushihime superplay DVD at Messe Sannoh in Akihabara for around 8,000 yen, so save your money and pick it up when you get here.

Your project sounds interesting, but to be honest I am swamped with work at the moment. I've got about a dozen articles/reviews coming up over the next week, and then I have to take care of a lot of things before I fly to Hong Kong on the 7th. Then I come back to Tokyo on the 16th, at which point I'll have to start writing tons of stuff again because the website will have gone without updates for that whole period.

So I can't really help, but I'll play your game when it's ready!

[zinger]

360 port announced.

Source and screens: http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1223648_1124.html

[El Chaos]

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/viewtopic.php?id=171

OK. Cave suelta el primer "sprite rip" de la versión remodelada para 3-60. Merece la pena pararse a calcular:



El segundo modelo lo he cogido yo mismo del sitio oficial de la versión original, que, suponemos, no está escalado en ninguna dimensión (se le puede encontrar en el min. 0:55 de este vídeo: enlace). Como se ve, linealmente es la mitad del nuevo modelo, por lo que el salto es el mismo que el que hicieron con Death Smiles 3-60.

No es una buena noticia, porque sigue sin ser "HD" (se queda en "alta resolución", tal y como apuntaban), y el escalado para pantalla completa es inevitable (aunque mucho menor si no vamos a voltear el monitor dado el formato original de pantalla en vertical).

Queda saber si al menos no harán la chapuza de preservar los escenarios en baja, como hiceron con DS. Y si se acordarán de las "scanlines" artificiales para el modo original (es en esto último en lo que tengo más esperanzas esta vez al estar M2 detrás).

Hala:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -3876.html

Difícil, resistirse a comentar la forma de dar la noticia en Siliconera:

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/09/ca ... -xbox-360/

El cantamañanas --que acostumbra, por cierto, a birlar las noticias sobre Cave de otros lugares de habla inglesa sin (acaso) mencionarlos jamás-- no solo se pierde que el "upgrade" es, de hecho, exactamente el mismo que el que sufrió la conversión de Death Smiles, al menos a tenor de lo mostrado, sino que su primera imagen no pertenece a la versión original sino a una versión sobreescalada de aquél y que, de hecho, estos "visual boosts" que llama no son más que un mal apaño.

Y así se escribe la Historia.

Primera captura en 3-60:



http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -8336.html


Gracias a Game Nyarth 1.0 [ > ].

OK. Cave releases the remodeled 360 version's first sprite rip. It's worth the trouble to stop and calculate:

I myself picked the second model from the original version's official site, which, we suppose, isn't scaled in any dimension (you can find it in this video at 0:55). As can be seen, lineally it's half of the new model, so the jump is the same as the one they did with Death Smiles 360.

It ain't good news, because it still isn't "HD" (it stops at "high resolution", just what they aimed for), and fullscreen scaling is unavoidable (although much smaller if we won't flip the monitor given the original vertical display format).

It remains to be known if at least they won't do the shoddy work of preserving the backgrounds in low [resolution], as they did with DS. And if they will remember the artificial "scanlines" for original mode (it's on this last point that I'm most hopeful this time since M2 is behind it).

________________

It's hard, to resist commenting on the way of announcing the news at Siliconera.

The trickster --who's in the habit, by the way, of pinching Cave-related news from other English speaking places without (perhaps) ever mentioning them-- not only misses that the "upgrade" is, in fact, exactly the same as the one the Death Smiles conversion suffered, at least in view of what's been showed, but his first picture doesn't belong to the original version but to an upscaled version of that one and that, in fact, these "visual boosts" he talks about aren't but a bad mend.

And so History is written.

[icycalm]

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 7406#p7406

Se ha contado ya en mil sitios de habla inglesa, pero aquí va:

El Cave Matsuri de este verano, celebrado el pasado sábado, ha servido para algo más que hacer caja con el merchandising, porque se ha hablado mucho de la 3-60. A la presencia de Ikeda, Inoue y Asada (programador de Death Smiles 360) se les han sumado miembros ilustres de Grev, Gulti, M2 y --cómo no-- Mihara. Este último anunciando que su proyecto de "shooting game" original se destinará a DSI (buuuh), está siendo desarrollado por el equipo de Ketsui DL y será mostrado en breve, además de confirmar que Dai-Ou-Jou Extra recibirá su parche corrector en cuestión de semanas y que se trabaja en una nueva versión a posteriori que satisfaga a los amantes de la fidelidad al original. No hay mención ninguna de cancelación de Ketsui Extra, por cierto, a pesar de lo que muchos por ahí creen haber entendido. Que el proyecto siga depende en realidad de Mihara, y está claro que éste no tiene intención de hundir aún más a 5 PB.

Futari 1.5 en su versión 3-60 fue la estrella de las presentaciones. Nos cuenta Famitsu Dot Com que se lanza en Noviembre, que irá acompañado de una clave de descarga de Futari 1.01 (una versión no comercializada que solo alteraba algún patrón de algún boss) en su primera tirada y una edición limitada (de ésas que luego no lo son tanto) con un álbum doble de versiones de las BGM de Mushi y Futari, ambos dos, arregladas por un montón de compositores entrañables.

También fue presentada la versión 360 de Espgaluda II, que se apellidará "Black Label" porque irá reforzada con un par de modos exclusivos programados por Ikeda y ¡Yagawa (Garegga, Ibara)! No la esperéis hasta la Primavera, me temo.



http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/ne ... 08992.html


Los dos gozarán del "restyling" gráfico que redibuja los sprites a alta resolución y deja los escenarios con un vulgar escalado. Aunque parece que en Espgaluda II será menos evidente porque los elementos únicamente de escenario son menos numerosos y visibles --es decir, toda la maquinaria terrestre, está también redibujada--. A tenor de lo que muestran las capturas en su resolución nativa, al menos (que solo nos ha colgado 4 Gamer y parece que nadie más se ha dado cuenta):

http://www.4gamer.net/games/089/G008991/20090817005/

Se impone un monitor VGA de tubo (y volteable, claro) para sacarles el máximo partido, aunque una TV RGB de 15 kHz probablemente haga la labor muy dignamente. A ver si hay suerte (no me canso) y se les ocurre esta vez simular scanlines para los modos "arcade"...


Tampoco he visto en ningún otro lugar una reflexión acerca de la cobertura sin precedente que el evento (o las noticias sobre Cave de estos días, en general) ha recibido en Famitsu Dot Com, que ha sido tan profusa, que resulta incuestionable el paso por caja previo de la compañía. La lectura que nos importa es que Cave apuesta con fuerza por el mercado de 360, por lo que la conversión de Death Smiles ha tenido que superar con mucho los mejores objetivos que se marcaran:


http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1226682_1124.html

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1226683_1124.html

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1226727_1124.html


Oh. Y se está preguntando desde Cave cuáles son los títulos que los fans desean ver en el servicio de descargas XBLA:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -622b.html

Parece que habrá más noticias a finales de mes.


Gracias por el pie y la recopilación directa de datos a http://sazanami.net/#20080215

A translation or a synopsis would be much appreciated, Chaos...

[El Chaos]

With pleasure.

It has been told in a thousand English-speaking sites, but here it goes:

This summer's Cave Matsuri, celebrated last Saturday, has served for something more than balancing the register with the merchandising, because there was much talking about the 360. Illustrious members of G.rev, Gulti and --how not-- Mihara summed themselves to Ikeda's, Inoue's and Asada's (Death Smiles 360's programmer) presence. Mihara announced that his original shooting game project will be destined to DSi (boooo), it's being developed by Ketsui DL's team and will be shown soon, besides confirming that Dai-Ou-Jou Extra will get its corrective patch in a matter of weeks and that there's ongoing work on a subsequent new version that will satisfy the fidelity-towards-the-original lovers. There's no mention whatsoever about Ketsui Extra's cancellation, by the way, despite what many around there think to have understood. That the project continues actually depends on Mihara, and it's clear that he doesn't have intentions of sinking 5pb. even more.

Futari 1.5 in its 360 version was the releases' star. Famitsu Dot Com tells us that it launches on November, it'll be enclosed with a key for downloading Futari 1.01 (an unreleased version that only altered some patterns of some bosses) in its first run and a limited edition (like those not-so-limited ones) with a double album of Mushi's and Futari's BGM versions, both of them, arranged by a lot of intimate composers.

Espgaluda II's 360 version has also been shown, which will have the surname “Black Label” because it'll be reinforced with a couple exclusive modes programmed by Ikeda and Yagawa (Garegga, Ibara)! Don't wait for it 'till spring, I'm afraid.

Both of them will enjoy the graphical restyling that redraws sprites to high resolution and leaves the backgrounds with a vulgar scaling. Although it looks like it'll be less evident in Espgaluda II because the background-only elements are less numerous and less visible --that's to say, all the terrestrial machinery, is also redrawn--. In light of what the captures show in their native resolution, at least (which only 4 Gamer has linked us to and it looks like no one else has realized it).

A CRT VGA monitor (and tiltable, of course) is imposed for taking the most advantage of them, although a 15 kHz RGB TV will probably do the job very appropriately. Let's see if we are lucky (I never get tired) and it occurs to them to simulate scanlines for the “arcade” modes this time around...

Neither have I seen in any other place a reflection about the unprecedented coverage that the event (or nowadays Cave-related news, in general) has received on Famitsu Dot Com, which has been so profuse, the company's previous safe passage turns out to be unquestionable. The reading that matter to us is that Cave wagers strongly for 360's market, so Death Smiles' conversion must have had to far exceed the best objectives that they have marked.

Oh. And Cave's asking which titles are the ones that fans wish to see on XBLA's download service.

Looks like there will be more news later this month.

Thanks for the footnote and the direct data compilation to Sazanami.net

[El Chaos]

Oh. And Cave's asking which titles are the ones that fans wish to see on XBLA's download service.

Thank you all for your mail.
Here are the results of our Xbox Live Arcade survey.

1. Guwange
2. Esprade
3. Dodonpachi
4. Progear
5. Pink Sweets
6. Mushihime-sama
7. Dangun Feveron
8. Muchi Muchi Pork
9. Espgaluda
10. Ibara

We have received many requests from our overseas users for region-free versions of our games.

"Death Smiles" was released only for Asia, but the region for "Mushi-hime sama Futari" has not been decided yet. I believe it will be decided around the time of Tokyo Game Show 2009.

We are very happy to have received so many e-mails from overseas.

Thank you.

09/01/09
Cave
Makoto Asada

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -cf28.html


Es sorprendente que Pink Sweets haya recibido más votos que Muchi-Muchi, ¿eh? Será que el Rose Garden tiene tirón...

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 7518#p7518

Recap's surprised that Pink Sweets had received more votes than Muchi-Muchi. Perhaps it's that the Rose Garden has quite a good bit of charisma...

[icycalm]

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 7543#p7543

Famitsu Dot Com nos enumera los nuevos modos. Las tres modalidades originales tendrán cada una su propia versión "arrange":



http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1227242_1407.html


...Y vídeo en HD (aunque con bastantes artefactos de compresión) para descargar desde el 'blog' de Cave:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog ... -9079.html

[El Chaos]

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 7614#p7614

Me la soplan, estas chorraditas, pero aquí va:

Tarjeta telefónica que solo conseguirán los prepedidos a la Cave Game Goods Online Shop [ > ], junto a una pegatina para el frontal de la 3-60:



http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1227578_1124.html

Preorders of the game through Cave Game Goods Online Shop will get an awesome and exclusive (lol) telephone card and a faceplate for their console.

[milkycha]

According to Play-Asia, release date is the 26th of November. Region is NTSC-J.

Funny how Ketsui's release is still TBA; wasn't it announced long before Futari?

[KarlCarlson3]

I guess no one ever posted this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG0pyFWlqxw

[icycalm]

Cool trailer. I watched it on a rather small screen (about 20" perhaps -- at an internet cafe), and at that size the graphics look pretty good, with the plasticky treatment only slightly bothering me. However, I am not so sure how my reaction will be if I play this on my 32" LCD, let alone on my 720p projector...

Color me impressed though.

[MjFrancis]

http://kotaku.com/5368190/bullet-hell-shooter-creators-cave-going-region+free-for-next-xbox-360-game

The Xbox 360 port will be region-free, according to Makato Asada.

[El Chaos]

The 360 port got its own official website.

http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/Xbox36 ... index.html

Via http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 8046#p8046

[El Chaos]

http://postback.geedorah.com/foros/view ... 8153#p8153

Un vídeo que muestra, entre otras, la inmensa colección de opciones de presentación de la versión 3-60 para los formatos HD. Nótese que corresponden únicamente al modo Arrange, por lo que aún no podemos saber si han incluido opción de 'scanlines' artificiales para el modo original:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/htmk73/archives/1164095.html



Y más desde Inside X-Box:

http://gamenyarth.blog67.fc2.com/blog-e ... =sm8863514

A pretty expansive array of display settings, indeed. Looks like you can even toggle between three different slowdown levels. This is one hell of a port job, I really hope they include scanlines for the original mode at least.