Akai Katana - 25% off - $29.99 shipped

Great deal on a great shooter. Nice to see Amazon is limiting sales to 3 max per account, to avoid hoarders/flippers.

EDIT: I also ordered a UK copy of Akai Katana, but haven't opened it (already had the North America version). I noticed something strange; the UK copy is much heavier than my N.A. one. I assume that Rising Star put some extra flyers in the UK copy, or a catalogue of their games. Anyone who got the EU version, did it come with more than the nice little color manual?
 
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[quote name='chimpmeister']Great deal on a great shooter. Nice to see Amazon is limiting sales to 3 max per account, to avoid hoarders/flippers.

EDIT: I also ordered a UK copy of Akai Katana, but haven't opened it (already had the North America version). I noticed something strange; the UK copy is much heavier than my N.A. one. I assume that Rising Star put some extra flyers in the UK copy, or a catalogue of their games. Anyone who got the EU version, did it come with more than the nice little color manual?[/QUOTE]

The Region 2 manual is HUGE. Simply gigantic
 
[quote name='chunlirocks']The Region 2 manual is HUGE. Simply gigantic[/QUOTE]

Wow, it must be, the weight difference between the N.A. version and EU version is really noticeable! Keeping my EU version sealed for sure, though it would be nice to see its manual.
 
Every HUGE manual I've ever seen is bilingual so it's probably just all the made up languages you yuropeens love to have.

Anyway, shumps are more rehashed than cover shooters but this one's gimmick is entwined really deep in its gameplay, and yet is more intuitive than the average stuff Cave seems to muster, so I'll give a quick rundown just so you can differentiate it from generic bullet hell shump 3,421.

First, difficulty-wise, it's not hugely hard. I look at it and a 1cc might be feasible for me if I could avoid all those accidental deaths. But I can't, so it isn't. Still, this game is not viciously hard, but there's a lot of excitement still for anyone who likes dodging neon dots. Pacing wise, you just hit the ground running. The first two stages aren't gimmies at all unlike certain other shumps.

Main meat here, there are three modes. Original Arcade, Remake of Original Arcade with better graphics and the extra stage, and then the main actually good mode. They have weird Japanesey names like Slash, Origin, and Climax and I can't remember which one is which but you can figure it out. In the actually good mode, the basic Cave standard of "Fill meter, unleash full meter, turn all bullets into gold, repeat forever." is expanded to about three different meters. Shoot your heavy shot to get enemies to give you transform energy, which lets you transform for a brief period of time. While transformed, you can take a bullet and get knocked back into normal state without dying. Shoot rapidly to get point items that build up your orbs. If you transform, those orbs will be deployed. Shoot heavy in your transformed state and those orbs will fire, cancelling bullets and becoming swords if they hit an enemy. Keep shooting heavy to build up swords without worrying about orbs, but you are limited by your transformation time. Swords hover around you and can be fired by transforming back to normal. Swords do massive damage, give massive points, and cancel bullets. Firing a full array of swords is truly UNLEASH THE FURY power.

So, in short, shoot fast for orbs. Shoot hard for energy. Transform with energy and orbs. Fire orbs while transformed to get swords. Transform back to fire swords for jackpot. Start again.

It's sounds like a mouthful but it is quite intuitive in the actual game, except for all the times you get hit or run out of energy or misfire orbs and swords or accidentally bomb or whatever usually happens.

The original arcade mode is stupid, with an energy only thing. Catch energy pickups with your familiar and let boolets pass over them to grow them. Transform and you become INVINCIBLE while shooting fast, reflecting all boolets only to have them converge elsewhere. Shoot hard (Dropping your invincibility) and kill an enemy to cancel all the boolets around him, so you are herding the boolets to where you can cancel them safely. It's as hackneyed as it sounds.
 
Good price. If I hadn't already picked it up on day one I'd absolutely get it now.

For those on the fence, it's a horizontal scroller like DeathSmiles (the other Cave game to get a U.S. release). Slightly more challenging, but nowhere near as hard as, say, Mushihimesama Futari. Surprisingly easy for me to figure out how to do well at it, usually I have a difficult time figuring out all of Cave's gameplay rules. There's an on-disc tutorial vid that I'd recommend watching. Got to the end of the 5th stage this past weekend without continuing.
 
What are the odds that this will be dropping to $20 anytime soon? I know Deathsmiles is super cheap now but I'm worried this could possibly become harder to find.
 
Any confirmation that the EU manual is just bilingual and has no extra artwork or anything? Even US manuals are mostly bilingual now too, they just have no content. I keep waiting for the UK one to drop in price again, but it's held pretty solid around 18-20 GBP, which is around $30 anyway. For the same price I'd rather have the better manual.

Although I do have some Amazon credit that I have no use for since Best Buy stepped up their game so much on preorders...
 
Is there any reason to think this one won't be sub-$20 like every other SHMUP this generation? I've been keeping an eye on this, but $30 still seems a bit high.
 
[quote name='AkariK']Any confirmation that the EU manual is just bilingual and has no extra artwork or anything? Even US manuals are mostly bilingual now too, they just have no content. I keep waiting for the UK one to drop in price again, but it's held pretty solid around 18-20 GBP, which is around $30 anyway. For the same price I'd rather have the better manual.

Although I do have some Amazon credit that I have no use for since Best Buy stepped up their game so much on preorders...[/QUOTE]

Should just buy the US release to promote future domestic releases.
 
[quote name='heybtbm']Is there any reason to think this one won't be sub-$20 like every other SHMUP this generation?[/QUOTE]It's tough to say with just about each shmup being released by a different publisher. Usually as consoles reach the end of their lifespan the hardware companies reduce the barrier to entry to entice publishers to continue releasing games. One such option is that the requirement for the minimum number of copies that must be manufactured is lowered, thus this game may end up being a bit rarer than previously released shmups. Radiant Silvergun and Mars Matrix are a couple examples.

Edit: Just to clarify, I don't want to make it seem like this game will be going for $150 in a few years (because it probably won't be). It's just that at this point in the 360's lifespan there's a small chance this game won't hit $20.
 
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[quote name='Thrinn']It's tough to say with just about each shmup being released by a different publisher. Usually as consoles reach the end of their lifespan the hardware companies reduce the barrier to entry to entice publishers to continue releasing games. One such option is that the requirement for the minimum number of copies that must be manufactured is lowered, thus this game may end up being a bit rarer than previously released shmups. Radiant Silvergun and Mars Matrix are a couple examples.[/QUOTE]

That and the fact that the other SHMUPS dropped quickly in price. This seemed to have held on for a long time before it jumped down in price.
 
Best SHMUP released on the 360 in the states period. It was well worth $40 at launch and well worth this $30 now. Honestly if you are interested buy it now and enjoy it while the blockbuster drought is upon us.
 
As much as I enjoyed this, it's just as likely to drop as any other shump. The newbie publisher makes it a bit of a wild card though so we cannot really be sure.

Still, past performance says you are a nut to buy any shump over $20. Do I think this is worth $30? Yes if you aren't counting pennies. True CAG mode? Probably should wait. Timeline wise we aren't quite at the "should have dropped by now oh no it will never go down!" threshold yet.
 
[quote name='Gosha']Should just buy the US release to promote future domestic releases.[/QUOTE]

Pass. I don't care if stuff makes it domestic or not because I am willing to import. I'd rather have better stuff included, which we don't see in the US compared to other versions - look at Arcana Heart 3, which got an awesome retail LE in Japan, a decent retail LE in UK, and a psn-only release in the US.

Edit: I'm still upset I missed the 12.95 GBP sale for it on zavvi, but I think I'll just wait for them to have it on sale again.
 
Definitely intend on picking this one up, but I've got to wait a while longer.

I have $330 tied up already over the next two months in games I've pre-ordered.
 
[quote name='AlphaConqerer']Thanks OP, picked it up.[/QUOTE]

Ditto. Thanks, OP.

Too many niche titles recently have been playing the I don't wanna drop in price game, and unless I wait 3-6 months and luck out and get it cheap at Bestbuy during a buy 2 get 1 free sale (as I did with the Raiden games, it's not worth my time to wait that long. Plus RSG deserves my support for being the go to company for shmups in the US. (and the UK when they didn't come out here)
 
[quote name='technicalstylez']just picked this up along with espgaluda ii. :lol:[/QUOTE]

How much was Espgaluda II? Been keeping my eye on that and Mushi, can't pull the trigger at $50 each though.
 
[quote name='jesusthecarpenter']Does this game come recommended to shmup neophytes? I want to pick it up, but not if it's rape my mouth hard.[/QUOTE]

There's a novice mode that's a lot less mouth-rapey.
 
[quote name='chimpmeister']How much was Espgaluda II? Been keeping my eye on that and Mushi, can't pull the trigger at $50 each though.[/QUOTE]

I ordered it and Mushi a few months ago (along with Chrono Gear, a fellow CAG) from yesasia (with a $3 off coupon, not sure if its valid anymore) both were the platinum hits versions and both play perfectly fine on a US 360. Also $38 a piece was a lot easier to swallow then $50 a piece, which wasn't going to happen as far as I was concerned.

Links and code from my PM to CG.

http://www.yesasia.com/us/mushihime...n-japan-version/1023470948-0-0-0-en/info.html

http://www.yesasia.com/global/espga...n-japan-version/1024202659-0-0-0-en/info.html

(apparently play asia has it in stock again as well) (no idea how this link got in the original post....anyway)
http://www.play-asia.com/Mushihimes...m_Collection/paOS-13-71-br-49-en-70-3yu5.html


NEWTWITTER3 at yesasia for $3 off so up to you, but hope this helps. (No idea if this still works anymore)
 
There is no easy entrance to boolet hell shooting games if you've played only Galaga and Gradius. It's not very hard (All of them have infinite continues these days, so there'[s that.) but none of them seem so easy when you're starting out.

There are many cheaper intros to boolet hell shumps though.
 
$55 fulfilled by amazon/prime elgible. i just used bb gc's to buy a $50 amz kindle card and paid the $5 difference. seems pricey at first, but considering that $50 bb gc came from tradeins of games that cost me maybe $20 total, in the end its like paying $25 for it. plus prime elgibility means its here in 2 days instead of 2 weeks from hk. did the same thing when i wanted to pick up mushi, and again when i picked up akai katana. bb gc's rule.

[quote name='chimpmeister']How much was Espgaluda II? Been keeping my eye on that and Mushi, can't pull the trigger at $50 each though.[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='uncle5555']I ordered it and Mushi a few months ago (along with Chrono Gear, a fellow CAG) from yesasia (with a $3 off coupon, not sure if its valid anymore) both were the platinum hits versions and both play perfectly fine on a US 360. Also $38 a piece was a lot easier to swallow then $50 a piece, which wasn't going to happen as far as I was concerned.

Links and code from my PM to CG.

http://www.yesasia.com/us/mushihime...n-japan-version/1023470948-0-0-0-en/info.html

http://www.yesasia.com/global/espga...n-japan-version/1024202659-0-0-0-en/info.html

(apparently play asia has it in stock again as well) (no idea how this link got in the original post....anyway)
http://www.play-asia.com/Mushihimes...m_Collection/paOS-13-71-br-49-en-70-3yu5.html


NEWTWITTER3 at yesasia for $3 off so up to you, but hope this helps. (No idea if this still works anymore)[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info; $40 is a little better than $50 for these games. The code didn't work, I may look around for some other codes for a small discount. Been wanting to try Mushi and Esp II for some time, but was hoping for more in the $25 range each. I've been spoiled by recent releases by RSG, like DDPR and Akai Katana!
 
[quote name='technicalstylez']$55 fulfilled by amazon/prime elgible. i just used bb gc's to buy a $50 amz kindle card and paid the $5 difference. seems pricey at first, but considering that $50 bb gc came from tradeins of games that cost me maybe $20 total, in the end its like paying $25 for it. plus prime elgibility means its here in 2 days instead of 2 weeks from hk. did the same thing when i wanted to pick up mushi, and again when i picked up akai katana. bb gc's rule.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the quick reply, not bad but I'm holding out for some cheaper prices. May go with Yes Asia for Mushi at least, Esp II is out of stock there.
 
$40 for each of those is very tempting. That's definitely the cheapest I've seen either one of them. If I had to pick one, would Mushihimesama be the general consensus?
 
if u have an idevice -iphone/itouch/ipad- u can get mushi for cheap and try it out -the ipad version is really good- til the console version price drops.

[quote name='chimpmeister']Thanks for the quick reply, not bad but I'm holding out for some cheaper prices. May go with Yes Asia for Mushi at least, Esp II is out of stock there.[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='technicalstylez']if u have an idevice -iphone/itouch/ipad- u can get mushi for cheap and try it out -the ipad version is really good- til the console version price drops.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, no i-devices for me (all Android or PC). I'll keep my eye out for the import platinum versions of these two games, at a great price.
 
[quote name='chimpmeister']Thanks for the info; $40 is a little better than $50 for these games. The code didn't work, I may look around for some other codes for a small discount. Been wanting to try Mushi and Esp II for some time, but was hoping for more in the $25 range each. I've been spoiled by recent releases by RSG, like DDPR and Akai Katana![/QUOTE]

If you collect shumps (which I know you play quite a few) don't count on it, the market is there that the collectors don't re-sell, period. Unless you get Hastings or Best Buy and luck out with a buy 2, get 1 is the only way you're going to get the price you'd want, but due to the fact that those are JPN only releases already in limited availability and have to be imported, unless you find a 3rd party seller or a copy at Ebay someone wants to offload cheap, the chances of getting it cheaper than the $38 I posted are pretty slim to none.

RSG didn't price Akai Katana at a discount price (like most Shmup releases) so as you see it didn't go down until Amazon wanted to clear some stock and make some sales. But the other two games, when I ordered they had to special order it for me, so unless there is a US importer who has stock and wanting to offload....

see here...

http://www.japanvideogames.com/region-free-shooters-s/1907.htm

yeah not going to happen...here's another well known importer

http://www.shopncsx.com/mushihimesamafutari-3.aspx

http://www.shopncsx.com/espgaludaiiblacklabelregularedition-2.aspx

Buying direct from JPN is literally your only other option, but due to shipping might be cost prohibitive in the long run.

Not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but you were interested in Futari because of the black label DLC that was cheap (which spurred me to buy the game and start my hunt to begin with)

I think I exhausted all of my links to show you price comparisons and hope you understand what I said about pricing for it, my recommendation if you really want it, is to bite the bullet and get it from yesasia (check their facebook / twitter for a code and then buy'em) either that or check the buy, sell, trade section of shmups.com and see if someone has some copies they can part with cheaper than $38 a piece.

Good Luck. ;)
 
[quote name='Auburn']$40 for each of those is very tempting. That's definitely the cheapest I've seen either one of them. If I had to pick one, would Mushihimesama be the general consensus?[/QUOTE]

My recommendation is to watch a level play through of both, depends if you want to play a game with psychic fighters or a game about killing dinosaurs with guns. :lol:

As far as specifics, I'd let the experts over at Shumps.com take that one, since I'm far from an expert on these (I enjoy them, but its not solely the only genre I love) and they'll detail specifics that you're asking for.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=15512

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=6281

[quote name='chimpmeister']Thanks for the quick reply, not bad but I'm holding out for some cheaper prices. May go with Yes Asia for Mushi at least, Esp II is out of stock there.[/QUOTE]

Yesasia has both in stock, unless you meant playasia, then yeah they are out of one of them.
 
Akai Katana (EU) is on sale at Play-Asia for $22.90 right now. I picked up that and Mushihimesama with their free shipping promo ($25+ order) for a total of $63.30. Unfortunately, since Akai Katana is on sale, you cannot use any $5 off coupons.
 
u can dl the black label version of mushi for 1200 ms pts from xbox marketplace.

[quote name='chimpmeister']Thanks for the quick reply, not bad but I'm holding out for some cheaper prices. May go with Yes Asia for Mushi at least, Esp II is out of stock there.[/QUOTE]
 
Looks like Akai Katana is now $19.99 through Most Wanted or Shark Dist. Seems like a worthy buy price, just need something for FSS.
 
[quote name='Auburn']Akai Katana (EU) is on sale at Play-Asia for $22.90 right now. I picked up that and Mushihimesama with their free shipping promo ($25+ order) for a total of $63.30. Unfortunately, since Akai Katana is on sale, you cannot use any $5 off coupons.[/QUOTE]

Have you gotten it yet? I picked one up from Zavvi a month or so ago, and the sealed game weighed MUCH more than the U.S. version, but I haven't opened the UK copy (and don't plan to). Is it just the multi-lingual manual for UK that makes the whole thing weigh a lot more?

The U.S. manual wasn't bad (full color and nicely done, no complaints in this day of cheap to no manuals), but it certainly wasn't very thick either. I assume the weight difference for UK vs. U.S. is due to a multi-lingual manual, but I'm not opening my UK copy just to find out.

And BTW 19.99 for Akai Katana is a great price, well worth picking up.
 
For those who have played both - compare this to Sine Mora. I did not really like Sine Mora (I tend to suck at shmups) - but this game looks pretty awesome...


EDIT: As somebody stated on page 2, MOST WANTED, fulfilled by Amazon has it priced at 19.97. I have ordered from them before via Amazon - and it was normal and legit.
 
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