Japanese style shoot em ups on steam?

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n370zed

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
450
Does anyone know of any japanese shmups on steam? I'm excited about Ikaruga coming steam and I have an itch right now that I need to scratch in the meanwhile. Thanks guys.
 
eXceed bundle. The second part has polarity changing like Ikaruga.
 
Jamestown!!!
Satazius

Plenty of shmups on PC, just not on steam. Search the forums and you'll find several topics on this subject.
 
daemonmf said:
All the games in the Gundemonium Recollection Collection.
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Sweet. Thanks for sharing that one. Hadn't heard of it before. I grew up playing Hybris waaaay back many years ago. 20something years later and shmups are still my all time favorite genre. Loved the R-types. Played the hell out of Ikaruga. Sine's not bad, but never beat it. Didn't really hold my interest all that much. Douji are also fantastic.
 
I'm confused as to why all of these shooter games are infested by anime.
 
Megalith said:
I'm confused as to why all of these shooter games are infested by anime.
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Most of those are from Japanese doujin shmups which is very similar to the indie movement here. Some of them use straight up rips from common anime in Japan, but are never penalized for it, because it's seen as having a positive effect on the anime series. It's basically free advertising. The ones that don't rip something from an actual anime series just like that kind of art style.

If you ever really get into the genre, you'll notice two types of shmups basically. The ones that look more like R-type/Gradius with a little space ship/plane and the ones that use an actual person. Bullet-hell type shmups tend to use the latter type. They also tend to be more of the doujin shmups. The "spaceship" types tend to be less populated with bullets on screen and consequently easier to play. Doujin are more twitchy. Usually the spaceship ones also have more in the way of weapon upgrades as you progress through the levels. Doijin shmups usually only have a few different attacks that you start out with and usually can't upgrade.
 
Thanks guys. I sold my GTX 770 and now using my 4870 as a backup until I can snag an upgrade for $500. These games should do well with the 4870 for the time being.
 
n370zed said:
Thanks guys. I sold my GTX 770 and now using my 4870 as a backup until I can snag an upgrade for $500. These games should do well with the 4870 for the time being.
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Of the ones listed in here so far, Sine Mora has the newest graphics and best eye candy.

It's also the least favorite of mine. It's fun enough in a new-ish shooter kind of way. It's time based. You'll see if you watch vids of it.
 
Harkamus said:
Of the ones listed in here so far, Sine Mora has the newest graphics and best eye candy.

It's also the least favorite of mine. It's fun enough in a new-ish shooter kind of way. It's time based. You'll see if you watch vids of it.
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Watching the trailer of Sine More gave me goosebumps. It's like a spiritual successor of Steel Empire on the Sega Genesis.

I loved that game.

And, speaking of Steel Empire, they're releasing a 3D remake for the 3DS:
http://www.destructoid.com/a-3d-steel-empire-remake-is-coming-to-the-3ds-260682.phtml
 
Harkamus said:
Of the ones listed in here so far, Sine Mora has the newest graphics and best eye candy.

It's also the least favorite of mine. It's fun enough in a new-ish shooter kind of way. It's time based. You'll see if you watch vids of it.
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It's cause the pacing is all fucked up.
That game is too slow. I got to Koss' son's mission, made to the mid point(that plant/fish/flying/thing boss), but haven't played any further, I have to be stoned or something, just boring, it never speeds up. It's a gorgeous game, but there needs to be more everything going on. Even the music is minimalistic and boring, which is quite disappointing coming from Akira Yamaoka.

The time thing is cool, it sorta saves the game. I need more bullets, and stuff needs to go faster. That game frustrates me with its slow pacing.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
It's cause the pacing is all fucked up.
That game is too slow. I got to Koss' son's mission, made to the mid point(that plant/fish/flying/thing boss), but haven't played any further, I have to be stoned or something, just boring, it never speeds up. It's a gorgeous game, but there needs to be more everything going on. Even the music is minimalistic and boring, which is quite disappointing coming from Akira Yamaoka.

The time thing is cool, it sorta saves the game. I need more bullets, and stuff needs to go faster. That game frustrates me with its slow pacing.
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I've noticed that in the demo with Sine More. It's slower paced than Steel Empire and not sure how the Arcade Mode is yet. But, what I've seen so far, I like it already even if it is a tad slower. The story seems interesting and graphically it looks very good.
 
Oooooooh. :eek: A slow shmup? I'll have to get Sine Mora since I suck at the fast ones. :eek:
 
The weapons in Sine Mora are awesome. I think they tried too hard with being different though.
 
You guys, lol
I have to add, even though the game is a bit slow in my opinion, the boss battles are pretty fun. There is a boss attack mode which is nice. Arcade mode is weird, its not really the same stages, you go in some odd order, I haven't really figured out whats going on there yet... but it is challenging, more so than the main game. Boss fights are where its at, but that's exactly why the pacing of off. One minute its a single enemy or bullet on the screen, then bullet hell mid boss, then back to 3 bullets on the screen and the whole time you feel like you are flying through molasses..... it just feels off, all the time....
 
Sadly the PC is really not a good platform for quality schmups (or Japanese anything, unless you really like high school dating sims or games about molesting people... in which case the PC is the platform to be on). Steam has an even shittier selection than what you can buy in physical media.

Ikaruga should be coming out soon. It's by Treasure which is one of the better companies out there for this sort of game. Ikaruga is more loved by Western gamers though, it's not bad, but it's a bit gimmicky and doesn't compare to the godly Radiant Silvergun.

Soldner X- It's Euro but it's Japanese inspired. It's on PC and all consoles, there's not difference in the quality.

Castle Shikigami- IIRC most of the series saw a CD release at some point or another, it's solid.

If you don't mind going through the hoops of running android/googleplay items off your PC some Cave shooters are possible as well, and Cave is the king of Japanese shooters.


Probably not what you wanted, but in Japan PC is for dating and pervert sims.
 
Soldner-X was a disappointment for me. There's a Soldner-X 2 for Playstation.

I forgot about Shiki. I will have to pick up that one.
 
Harkamus said:
Soldner-X was a disappointment for me. There's a Soldner-X 2 for Playstation.

I forgot about Shiki. I will have to pick up that one.
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The Shiki's are good if you can find them. Some of the untranslated ones are just direct ports (the arcade hardware some of them run off was IIRC just PC guts off embeded win XP anyways).

Soldner is fine. I actually give them some respect for not trying to just make a pure knock off and having some originality. It's also highly polished, though the second one is much better.

I hope Ikaruga does well though, well enough for them to bring Radiant over. The PC is a ghost town for quality shmups. Though the community still keeps cranking out games on Dreamcast, Genesis, and Neogeo, and the Japanese keep porting to PSN and smartphones like mad.
 
acerbic said:
Sadly the PC is really not a good platform for quality schmups (or Japanese anything, unless you really like high school dating sims or games about molesting people... in which case the PC is the platform to be on). Steam has an even shittier selection than what you can buy in physical media.
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This is why PSX emu is pure gold. Einhander on PC is quite delightful! :D
 
acerbic said:
it's not bad, but it's a bit gimmicky
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Please remove that word from your vocabulary.
I cannot believe I just witnessed such a description for Ikaruga, of all games...

cBZt4tj.gif
 
Soldner X is all graphics, the game isn't very good. I heard the 2nd was better, but I haven't tried it.
If you really want the holy grail of shooters, google the emulator 'Mednafen' for some PC Engine emulation. There are GUI's available, it has built in graphical filters and shaders that look great in 1080, and it has the most accurate PC Engine Super CD Rom and SuperGrafx emulation that I have seen(It plays Strider and Art of Fighting perfectly, unlike ME).
Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Gradius 2, Super Raiden, Air Zonk, Super Star Soldier, Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade, R-Type CD, Rayxanber 2, Rayxanber 3, Spriggan, Nexzr Special, Sapphire.....from the top of my head, there's so many more. The ultimate shmup console, I'm telling you.
 
Have you tried using Desura?

Here are several games from it:

http://www.desura.com/games/tiamat-x

http://www.desura.com/games/quick-slick-deadly

http://www.desura.com/games/hangeki

http://www.desura.com/games/valkyrius (Recommended if you like Raiden-style shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/super-chain-crusher-horizon (Hmm, 2 player co-op and looks like it'll benefit from Nvidia Surround and Eyefinity, or just high resolution monitors.)

http://www.desura.com/games/cosmic-predator (Interesting looking game...)

http://www.desura.com/games/sloth-patrol (Reminiscent of twin-stick shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/danmaku-unlimited-2 (Very good representation of bullet-hell Japanese-style top-down/side-scrolling shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/procyon

http://www.desura.com/games/saviors

http://www.desura.com/games/compromised

http://www.desura.com/games/nordenfelt (Note: Alpha version.)

http://www.desura.com/games/orbitron-revolution

http://www.desura.com/games/really-big-sky

http://www.desura.com/games/alltynex-second (Another Raiden-style shooter.)

http://www.desura.com/games/reflex (Sequel to Alltynex.)

http://www.desura.com/games/kamui (Third and final chapter to Alltynex.)

http://www.desura.com/games/syder-arcade (Here's the Desura version. Steam version linked above.)

http://www.desura.com/games/leave-home (Hope you are not affected by bright graphics.)

http://www.desura.com/games/defenders-of-the-last-colony

http://www.desura.com/games/solar-struggle

http://www.desura.com/games/p-3-biotic

http://www.desura.com/games/arkhelom-3d

http://www.desura.com/games/ballistic

http://www.desura.com/games/opentyrian (About as old-school as they come; it's a remake of the original coded in PASCAL.)

http://www.desura.com/games/solar-wings

http://www.desura.com/games/starry (Looks like a simplified Star Fox without the quirky characters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/mactabilis​

Desura has mostly indie games, but you can find a lot of games on there that aren't on Steam. A few may be on Steam Greenlight if they aren't there yet. Since Desura hosts mostly indie games, quality varies significantly.

However, I second LeviathanZERO's reply above: Get a PC Engine emulator and the games he recommends, you won't be disappointed. There are also a few shooters available for PS1 (ePSXe emulator) and many only on arcade machines (emulated via MAME).
 
octoberasian said:
Have you tried using Desura?

Here are several games from it:

http://www.desura.com/games/tiamat-x

http://www.desura.com/games/quick-slick-deadly

http://www.desura.com/games/hangeki

http://www.desura.com/games/valkyrius (Recommended if you like Raiden-style shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/super-chain-crusher-horizon (Hmm, 2 player co-op and looks like it'll benefit from Nvidia Surround and Eyefinity, or just high resolution monitors.)

http://www.desura.com/games/cosmic-predator (Interesting looking game...)

http://www.desura.com/games/sloth-patrol (Reminiscent of twin-stick shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/danmaku-unlimited-2 (Very good representation of bullet-hell Japanese-style top-down/side-scrolling shooters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/procyon

http://www.desura.com/games/saviors

http://www.desura.com/games/compromised

http://www.desura.com/games/nordenfelt (Note: Alpha version.)

http://www.desura.com/games/orbitron-revolution

http://www.desura.com/games/really-big-sky

http://www.desura.com/games/alltynex-second (Another Raiden-style shooter.)

http://www.desura.com/games/reflex (Sequel to Alltynex.)

http://www.desura.com/games/kamui (Third and final chapter to Alltynex.)

http://www.desura.com/games/syder-arcade (Here's the Desura version. Steam version linked above.)

http://www.desura.com/games/leave-home (Hope you are not affected by bright graphics.)

http://www.desura.com/games/defenders-of-the-last-colony

http://www.desura.com/games/solar-struggle

http://www.desura.com/games/p-3-biotic

http://www.desura.com/games/arkhelom-3d

http://www.desura.com/games/ballistic

http://www.desura.com/games/opentyrian (About as old-school as they come; it's a remake of the original coded in PASCAL.)

http://www.desura.com/games/solar-wings

http://www.desura.com/games/starry (Looks like a simplified Star Fox without the quirky characters.)

http://www.desura.com/games/mactabilis​

Desura has mostly indie games, but you can find a lot of games on there that aren't on Steam. A few may be on Steam Greenlight if they aren't there yet. Since Desura hosts mostly indie games, quality varies significantly.

However, I second LeviathanZERO's reply above: Get a PC Engine emulator and the games he recommends, you won't be disappointed. There are also a few shooters available for PS1 (ePSXe emulator) and many only on arcade machines (emulated via MAME).
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Holy Balls thanks!
 
LeviathanZERO said:
Please remove that word from your vocabulary.
I cannot believe I just witnessed such a description for Ikaruga, of all games...

cBZt4tj.gif
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All of Ikaruga is one giant fucking gimmick! When it first came out it wasn't even liked all that much. Outside of people playing as both ships the game was easy, and one giant gimmick.

Then all of a sudden Americans who are stuck on a diet of shit shooters as most don't make it here found out that a game by the creators of Radiant Silvergun was out and started buying it up like hicks to country music and miller light and claiming it was the best thing ever.

It's not bad, but the entire game is one giant fucking gimmick from start to finish and Treasure was completely riding on Radiant Silvergun's reputation, the game also isn't all that liked with people who play a lot of shmups.
 
Can't believe I forgot to mention Tyrian. There's an open source one now that's awesome.
 
acerbic said:
All of Ikaruga is one giant fucking gimmick! When it first came out it wasn't even liked all that much. Outside of people playing as both ships the game was easy, and one giant gimmick.

Then all of a sudden Americans who are stuck on a diet of shit shooters as most don't make it here found out that a game by the creators of Radiant Silvergun was out and started buying it up like hicks to country music and miller light and claiming it was the best thing ever.

It's not bad, but the entire game is one giant fucking gimmick from start to finish and Treasure was completely riding on Radiant Silvergun's reputation, the game also isn't all that liked with people who play a lot of shmups.
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Where are you from then?
Cause this is the first I have ever seen anyone say what you did about Ikaruga. Even a few years on the shmups forum, have I never seen such a diatribe about this game. Not a single review, blog, forum post. You are the first.
 
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