Treasure

[necromaniac]

Jun 18, 2008 18:53:49 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

Jun 18, 2008 18:30:14 GMT -5 necromaniac said:

You should make a short comment on how the translated version of Bangai-O features intentionally (?) hilarious engrish.

Yup, I'm pretty sure I mentioned it. Put some pics up too. That sheep guy is one of my favorites.

I'm glad I got NullDC working, the pictures of Bangai-O and Ikaruga look gorgeous.

Arrr, teaches me to skim over articles while half asleep. Sorry Kurt.

[ReyVGM]

Jun 19, 2008 12:17:00 GMT -5 @megatronbison said:

I have to say Marinas "Shake Shake!" sound sample was enough to put me off Mischief Makers for life- but I am happy to see this much content!

But that's one of the best things about Mischief Makers... "shake shake" and "Help me Marinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa".

[YourAverageJoe]

Fucking awesome. My only gripe is that the "&" character is a bit overused in these articles and Ikaruga gets a bit more praise than I feel it should, but overall this is pretty great stuff.

[Smithee]

I'd like to see more of these mass company things soon! It'd so awesome to have all of the Cave games on here!

[Allie]

Jun 19, 2008 16:21:21 GMT -5 YourAverageJoe said:

Fucking awesome. My only gripe is that the "&" character is a bit overused in these articles and Ikaruga gets a bit more praise than I feel it should, but overall this is pretty great stuff.

Better Ikaruga than Overrated Silvergun.

[YourAverageJoe]

...okay...

[zzz]

What was this, like a year and a half in the making?

[anothergamer]

As far as Gunstar Super Heroes is concerned, this part could use some further elaboration:

"On another, you need to blast downward through various blocks before you're crushed by a gigantic tombstone."

In the Japanese version, if you end up here by overshooting the final square in Black's stage, a warning flashes on the screen which says that if you die at this part, the game will delete your savefile and if you don't think you can do it, you should either softreset the game or turn it off.

In the end, no such thing actually happens even if you die regardless of which version you're playing. Treasure has a weird and sadistic sense of humor.

[Smithee]

That's absolutely hilarious. I mean wouldn't you love to have seen that in say... Vile's stage or something.

[Strider]

I note that all the shots in the Ikaruga article come from the Dreamcast version- would it be possible to get some comparison shots with the 360 and GC versions?

- HC

[Smithee]

Seconded, even though the difference will undoubtedly be miniscule.

[Discoalucard]

Jun 19, 2008 16:21:21 GMT -5 YourAverageJoe said:

Fucking awesome. My only gripe is that the "&" character is a bit overused in these articles and Ikaruga gets a bit more praise than I feel it should, but overall this is pretty great stuff.

& character? I'm not sure what you're referring to..maybe it's an HTML screwup?

Jun 21, 2008 12:08:33 GMT -5 anothergamer said:

In the Japanese version, if you end up here by overshooting the final square in Black's stage, a warning flashes on the screen which says that if you die at this part, the game will delete your savefile and if you don't think you can do it, you should either softreset the game or turn it off.

Really? That's awesome! So that didn't make it to the English version? I gotta try that.

As for screens - yeah, Ikaruga is stuff from the DC version. The problem is (if you could call it that) is that I used an emulator, and any screens from the GC version (which I also don't own) would have to be taken through my capture card, which would look worse. Ditto the 360 version, although that suffers even further because I would have to take standard def pics...my capture card won't work with HD. I'm pretty sure that the DC and GC versions are pretty much identical though, at least visually.

[cj iwakura]

I was always confused about why I never had any idea about Shinra or the story of Ikaruga.

And I have the DC version.

[sixfortyfive]

The focus of the new company, christened Treasure, would be on making original, compelling, complete games; unique software that was removed from the repetitive world of franchise-milking sequels and spin-offs. Though this unspoken, if not incorrectly attributed "policy" would later change, and it could be argued that many of Treasure's "innovations in play mechanics" are gimmicky in practice, it was a grandiose, yet admirable notion that has resulted in some great software.

The wording here is kind of ambiguous. It seems like you're still implying that they had a "no-sequels" policy of sorts at one time. This was never the case and it should be explicitly stated that way.

EDIT: You've got some Alien Soldier artwork linked from your Gunstar page.

EDIT x2:

each character has three guns at their disposal, which can be switched at all. Red carries a Force gun, a Flame thrower, and an energy Chaser, which is basically just like a weaker version of the Laser+Seeker weapon from the prior game. Blue also has a Flame thrower, but his other two weapons are a lightning gun and a regular homing Chaser gun.

"can" looks like a typo.

The weapon configurations in GSH are Force (Red only), Laser (Blue only), Force+Fire (both), and Laser+Chaser (both).

Also, I don't know if this is worth mentioning, but Red's gender in GSH is strictly a localization decision. It's purposefully ambiguous in the Japanese version, and when asked about it before the American version was published, HAN said there was "no official comment."

And I've only glanced at most of your articles so far, but they seem to be very comprehensive. Pretty good job.

EDIT x3:

There's a brand new prologue stage that has the heroes running through a base, before saving their sister (and commander) Yellow from a gigantic flame monster.

Yellow and Green are siblings, but there's nothing that implies that they're related to the other two heroes. (Fanboy nitpicks, I know...)

Another worthwhile thing to mention regarding Super Heroes is how much it was obviously rushed. One of the preview videos released for it (which you might be able to track down on Youtube or elsewhere) shows that at one point during development, Pink's robot on Moon 1 actually had attacks. There's also a screenshot up at SF Kosmo (I think) that shows a cut Altered Beast-esque boss or something. Neither of these made it into the final product, and combined with the general rough and uneven feeling that the game has--where it's absolutely stellar in some cases (controls, graphics, Seven Force) and completely lackluster and barren in others (the Destroy Them All stage, most notably)--really makes me think that they just shoved it out the door before finishing it.

They come frequently, and are almost always pretty cool. A recurring foe is a car/bear thing called Trouble Bruin (Maruyama in the Japanese version) which shows up a variety of crazy contraptions to wreak havoc.

Cat/bear. Or just bear.

The fan translation patch for Dynamite Headdy might be worth a link on the article.

OMNIBUS EDIT OMEGA:

The Japanese cover for Alien Soldier is listed as the "American Cover."

As for the release dates for their last MD games (source):
Alien Soldier: Feb 24, 1995 (Japan)
Light Crusader: May 26, 1995 (Japan)

Guardian Heroes is not technically related to Gunstar Heroes - it does, however, share the same spirit, where "spirit" is defined as "the incredible feeling one gets from causing extreme amounts of destruction with relative ease. (The final boss from Gunstar does make a cameo appearance in one of the penultimate conflicts, although that's more for fan service than anything else.) The characters were also designed by the same artist - per usual Treasure standards - but that's where the connections end.

There's a little more to it than that. The main villain in Gunstar who aims to revive Golden Silver is Emperor Gray, and the assistant at your command center is named Dr. Brown. In Guardian Heroes, the main villain and creator of Golden Silver is Kanon G. Grey, and the name of Randy Green's wizard NPC mentor (and supposed rival of Kanon) is Brown. In AGH (as you mentioned), the guy who develops the training program and collects crystals that you acquire is also named Brown. Still more fan service than anything, though.

Since Guardian Heroes is Treasure's first CD-ROM game, it gave the NON, the composer, the change to graduate from the staticy Genesis sound chip.

Nazo2 Suzuki composed the music for Guardian Heroes, along with his band Nazo2 Unit (I think). NON did the music for AGH.

In the Japanese version of Guardian Heroes, Randy's pet is named Edward (or Ed/Edo for short). The fact that Randy's doppleganger in AGH is named Edo and has pointy ears underneath his hat is probably not a coincidence.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite seem like the N64 owning populace felt the same way, and Mischief Makers went mostly ignored.

I'm not so sure about this. Frogacuda of SF Kosmo has said that Mischief Makers is without a doubt their best-selling original title to date, primarily because it was released in the middle of a huge drought for the N64. It was mostly panned by the press, but it had strong showings on rental charts and is generally well-regarded by people who aren't even familiar with Treasure.

There's some interesting info about RSG at Silver Translations. Apparently, the game's neverending loop of a story is somehow a metaphor for the death and rebirth of the video game industry (1) (2), but I can't really follow their translation that well. Point is, Hiroshi Iuchi is a bit nuts and maybe more than a little pretentious, but I think it's kind of neat.

There is still a color chaining system in Ikaruga, although it's a bit changed from Radiant Silvergun. If you kill three enemies of the same color, you're awarded a chain. However, you can switch between colors and keep building up your chains, as long as you kill enemies in sets of three. Mechanically, it makes a bit more sense, but it's lacking a sense of reward. In Silvergun, keeping your chains up rewarded you with more powerful weapons. In Ikaruga, it only affects your score and end of level ranking, and the requirements to get extra lives are far too high to make it worthwhile. It's excellent for hardcore gamers that play for score, and seeing it in motion in superplays is a thing of beauty, but it's a bit useless for everyone else. There should have been some better way to integrate the rewards into the actual game, but it's a minor shortcoming.

You have this completely backwards, IMO. Integrating the scoring system into RSG's weapon system was its biggest flaw: it requires the player to play for score to some extent in order to survive. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the game is incredibly unbalanced as a result. Ikaruga still encourages you to play the game "the right way" by chaining properly, but only as far as score is concerned, and the game is much better off for it.

Sin & Punishment:

Plus, while the visuals are generally pretty fantastic when you're actually playing it - it requires the Expansion Pack to run - the angular, low polygon character models just can't accurate portray Yasushi Suzuki's artwork.

Are you sure that it requires the Expansion Pak? I have no way to double-check this myself anymore, but this is the first time I've heard that.

The Classic Controller makes it a bit easier to control, and the enhanced resolution makes this the definitive version of the game. The menus are translated, although the subtitles are still in Japanese and can't be turned off.

I'd argue that the N64 controller is still the best way to play it (mostly due to the differences in the shoulder buttons between the two controllers), but it's not a huge difference. I think the subtitles in both the N64 and VC versions can be turned off in the OPT+ menus, which are unlocked after beating the game.

[/nerd]

[anothergamer]

Jun 22, 2008 20:32:21 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

Really? That's awesome! So that didn't make it to the English version? I gotta try that.

Well, yes, that's why I specified it was Japanese only. Makes the name of the square which might or might not also be the name of the boss (File Crasher) more relevant.