Philosoma...Not Bad

I just recently picked this little talked about shooter for ten bucks, and am pretty impressed. It looks pretty good for a early ps1 game. I like the changing perspectives. I can't imagine this one did too well in stores.

I always get Nanotek Warrior and Philosoma confused; in any case, they're OK for awhile, and add some new tricks to the Tempest-inspired gameplay.

Every time I'm in the local gamestore looking for a bargain and chatting to he owner, shmups inevitably enter the discussion at one point and even though he says he doesn't play many of them, (he did play Gradius V in the store), he maintains that Philosoma is the best /funnest shmup he has ever played.

All his praise made me curious and I'm still on the lookout for a copy (along with In the Hunt and Einhander) but haven't been lucky so far.

Hope to hear some more impressions though.

Shibusawa said:

Every time I'm in the local gamestore looking for a bargain and chatting to he owner, shmups inevitably enter the discussion at one point and even though he says he doesn't play many of them, (he did play Gradius V in the store), he maintains that Philosoma is the best /funnest shmup he has ever played.

All his praise made me curious and I'm still on the lookout for a copy (along with In the Hunt and Einhander) but haven't been lucky so far.

Hope to hear some more impressions though.

Click to expand...

Yeah, a complete copy of non-import Philosoma is pretty hard to find. I just lookes on ebay and there was just a few "disc only's". I can't imagine it would go for that much if one did go on there.

Weevus said:

Yeah, a complete copy of non-import Philosoma is pretty hard to find. I just lookes on ebay and there was just a few "disc only's". I can't imagine it would go for that much if one did go on there.

Click to expand...

The US version came in the classic, obnoxious large plastic box (you know, the few that had the front label glued to the front of the case). They were so prone to breaking. Granted, the Japanese version comes in the almost-impossible-to-replace Sony wide-case.

Philosoma is ok... although I find the constantly switching viewpoints to be really annoying... it breaks up any gameplay flow that the game may have had.

Philosoma is to this day one of my all time faves. I didn't have a problem actually with it's changing POVs, I just never cared for the packaging job that was done to it (Domestic Version). It's one of those shooters that just fell between the cracks and is largely forgotten is all. Hell not too many ppl remember or even know of the RGS Gunstar Heroes rip off of Gunner's Heaven.

Good to see someone in 2005 actually knows of Philosoma as well as likes it.

GK

Man, that was one of the first games I bought for my old PS1. I thought it was a pretty good game and the intro was fantastic. I liked the switching views but I thought the underbelly view was a little doofus. Still a good game if you can grab it.

Jeff

Yeah, if it just switched between top-down and side-scrolling that would have been good enough.

One of my first PS1 games that I rented.

If I can recall there are some boards that play like Magmax for NES.

it's been years since I played this one

can't remember if it was good or not

Shibusawa said:

All his praise made me curious and I'm still on the lookout for a copy (along with In the Hunt and Einhander) but haven't been lucky so far.

Click to expand...

I have a complete,long-boxed, US version of Philosoma for sale/trade,if you're interested.

B-

Yeah that was the second game I bought for my PS1 back then. I like it since it had many views and great CG for its time.

The only thing that kept it from being one of the best shooters ever for me was that you could not speed up your ship any. That was the only thing that bothered me.

I think I traded it in along with Fox Hunt back then. I kinda wish I still had both.

I own Philosoma for the PS1 which had a cardboard box and manual and the box art had the title & a space ship on the front cover. The game was fun and a little short, but I enjoyed this shooter game through. I could only get to the 2nd level because it is a hard game & so I had to use a Gameshark to finish the game. hehe


I wish that they made a sequel to Philosoma. I like that japanese girl with the long black hair who you seen on a big huge TV on top of a building while flying by it & you only can seen her on hard mode though. That japanese girl was so beautiful! & hot!.

Spoiler.... alert,

At the end of Philosoma an alien bug is hiding attached one of the fighter ship while the 2 to pilot's who had survived were heading to the main space ship. They failed to stop the giant alien egg which had fertalized & the whole planet got consumed & all the human's were dead & were being hosts for the aliens. They should've never made a conlony on an unknown planet digging deep in the planet's crust with a huge! drill.


Nice! game though & we need a sequel to Philosoma & have it made for either the PS2 or for the PS3 someday.

i really liked philosoma too, sure it had a couple of flaws but overall it was good, i thought the changing perspectives thing was done quite well..

one of my first PSX games too so theres lots of nostalgia in it for me