No one ever talks about Soukyugurentai anymore

LoneSage

A Broken Man
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I bought this game in 2004, seven years after it was released. At the time it was always mentioned on lists of Saturn must-haves. I got the Okuyo version which came with a demo of Battle Garegga.

I didn't like this game and I honestly can not remember a single thing from it other than being put off by playing a shmup (ugh fuck why did i type that instead of shooter) that's vertical but in 4:3.

Talk about this game, reminisce, even feel free to talk about price. IIRC I paid something around $35.

edit: arcade release september 1996, saturn release february 1997
 
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andsuchisdeath

General Morden's Aide
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Hmm well let's see where to start.

For one, I'm surprised no one talks about it, because AFAIK, it still doesn't go for much more than $35 today.
I think indeed many "saturn collectors" own it. It has high class presentation, it's affordable, but never comes off like a common/ trash game.

I think I bought my copy in 2006, non-otokuyo version. I still have it. However, I don't play it a lot, and I've never really
gotten the hang of it. Anything Raizing, no matter the game, I just fall apart.

Now what I do know about the game is that solely relying on your web/lock-on shot is the safe way to play. It's use won't increase rank, where everything else does. Oh, and the default on the saturn port isn't the same difficulty as the arcade. You have to bump it up to one increment.
 

Massive Urethra Chode

Disciple Of Orochi
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I had it when i was a kid. I sold it to buy some other game i cant remember now... in retrospect that was a horrible idea. Now i have a burned copy and i enjoy it more now than i did back then.

I think i paid $60 shipped for it or something.. i had the standard non otokuyo version
 
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The_Chosen_One

Buriki One Master
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Feb 4, 2003
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This was our shmup of the month recently, and I had a great time with it. There are times where the graphics feel a bit clunky, but as a whole I agree with it as a must in a Saturn collection. I really like how each ship has two wire forms too, it surprisingly changes gameplay tactics for me
 

sylvie

NG.COM TEMPTRESS
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i bought it once with plans to play it, never did, sold it for $50 on ebay
 

Jeneki

Enemy Chaser
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I picked up the STV cart around 4 years back. I often wonder why this game has powerups at all since it clearly wants you to avoid them, just replace them with more bullets lol. I would think that being a vertical scrolling game on a horizontal screen would enforce the use of lock-on enough already, without having to penalize upgrading the main shot (all good verizontals need a good way to deal with enemies on the opposite side of the screen, and the lock-on accomplishes this nicely).

The Raizing game no one ever talks about is Brave Blade. It's full of transforming mechs and cool stuff, but not many like Twinbee-style medal juggling.
 

TWE

Zero's Secretary
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I owned this game at least once 10+ years ago. I didn't think it was too good so I sold it off. You don't hear people talk about it much because it's nothing special.
 

ShootTheCore

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I'll vouch for Soukyugurentai. I picked it up back when it first came out, and it's on my Top 10 list of Saturn shooters. The soundtrack really gets me on this game. That third level, where you are dropping down through the cloud layers down to the planet surface ... the atmosphere that builds with the the music matching up to the action on that level is one of those cornerstone memories for any shooter - it's seriously one of my favorite levels in any game.

Otherwise, I agree that it's no Radiant Silvergun in either game design or technical achievement, but Raizing still did a lot of fancy spritework, and overall it's a challenging but fair game. There's definitely much, much worse.
 

Massive Urethra Chode

Disciple Of Orochi
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Otherwise, I agree that it's no Radiant Silvergun in either game design or technical achievement, but Raizing still did a lot of fancy spritework, and overall it's a challenging but fair game. There's definitely much, much worse.

Theres a few things i dont like about radiant silvergun though, like how reliant on chaining and weapons upgrades you have to be, otherwise the game seems literally unbeatable. Very unforgiving difficulty, i’ve never come anywhere near beating it without credit feeding, and even then theres one particular boss i’ve NEVER destroyed completely.
 

oliverclaude

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The rank will kill you. Like literally. Entering the atmosphere of that planet in stage 3 with Sakimoto's pompous synths in the background is iconic, though. The little toy cars you smash over afterwards, using your blatant web of course, are leaving dust behind -- dressed in that trademark Saturn dithering transparency. Classy. And then, well, the rank will kill you. Like literally.

...poor player.
 

Hasuki-san

Igniz's Servent
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another excellent Raizing Shmup with perfect music, manic shooting patterns and amazing atmosphere. Definitely worth playing. I am not sure if the Playstation version has some benefits, but anyway I would prefer the saturn original one (or STV)
 

oliverclaude

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I am not sure if the Playstation version has some benefits, but anyway I would prefer the saturn original one (or STV)

I played both one night and it's rather the opposite, the PS1 version has graphical drawbacks, like in the scene I described (#12), there's one cloud layer less. It also appears flatter, like so many disemproved Thunder Force V backgrounds on the PS version did. What you get added is another ship and a very cool Data East jingle at the beginning. Not worth the trouble IMHO.
 

Jeneki

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The PS1 version was my first experience with the game. It has some extra bits of voice acting and cutscenes, if anyone cares about that stuff.
 

tacoguy

Rasputin's Rose Gardener
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I picked up my copy about 3 years back. It's a solid shmup.
Good gameplay, I do like the lock on mechanics, and the graphics look nice. And the music is fantastic. At first I was playing it without using the lock on as much but pretty quickly i realized how powerful it was to use.
 
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