XYXZYZ
08-15-2005, 07:36 PM
I've never played a CAVE shooter before, and this one looks interesting. How does it compare to say, a Psikyo title?
roushimsx
08-15-2005, 09:08 PM
The game is far more manic than a Psikyo game and the hitbox is far smaller. There's more slowdown as well, which is pretty much a Cave trademark.
I'd say the gameplay is better overall than most Psikyo games, though I'm a bit biased since I'm not huge on their work (I like Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1999, Gunbird, and Dragon Blaze, but I very much prefer Cave and Takumi's bullet hells and Raizing's ranking systems).
If you want to see what it looks like in motion, I recorded two videos real quick the other week:
Not so great quality video (http://www.roushimsx.com/shmups/videos/Mushihimesama_Arrange_Mode.avi) of the arranged mode. Your hit box is smaller in this mode than it is normally, so it makes it easier to dodge through those swarms. Great mode to play when you want to relax. Recorded in Yoko and cropped down.
this video (http://www.roushimsx.com/stoofoo/videos/Mushi_Arrange_Stage1_Tate_test.avi) is arranged mode again, but this time recorded in Tate. Ended up just flipping my display via the drivers so i wouldn't have to rotate my monitor (with my glass desk, i don't think moving the monitor around too much would be a good idea :( ). Nice change in quality, though I still probably could have done a better encoding job.
I think I used Xvid for the first one and x264 for the second, but i really can't remember. Either way, is you grab the latest Matroska Splitter and FFDshow (http://x264.nl/) you should be golden :)
On a related note, I strongly recommend you check out Dodonpachi, Guwange, and ESPRaDe in MAME. They give you a nice sample of what Cave's work is like and if you like them then you'll find a lot to love in Mushihimesama (though the soundtrack probably won't be one of the things you love...i understand they were going for a more retro sound with it, but man..it just didn't work :( )
Hmmm, hope this helps. Sorry if it didn't :(
The game is quite the investment if you decide to import it, but it's squarely between ESPGaluda and Dodonpachi Daioujou in terms of difficulty and it falls quite short of either one in features. I still love it.