Making it business to boycott sensible business practices, Treasure’s commitment to dying consoles once cemented it as Japan’s most revered boutique developer. A practice that gave rise to some of gaming’s most significant works, Radiant Silvergun is a product of both spectacular overachievement and unapologetic showboating.
Once the Sega Saturn’s most sought-after import prize, this Switch debut is actually a port of a port, cloned wholesale from the excellent 2011 Xbox 360 release. Lending itself well to the Switch's control scheme — and excellently so to a Pro Controller — an on-screen HUD details button functions, helping you get comfortable with your ship’s diverse arsenal. The training mode is indispensable and excellently configurable too. Sadly there’s no new content for Switch owners, though; some artwork galleries or similar would have been welcome, as would an in-game quick reset.
It does particularly shine in handheld mode, however, as this is a vertical-scrolling shoot-em-up in a horizontal format. That means you can keep your Flip-Grip shelved and enjoy a broader screen-estate while on the move. Elsewhere, options to customise and sharpen graphical assets are interesting, although the high-resolution settings do render the sprites somewhat plasticky-looking. For our money, pairing the authentic grit of LOW-RES 1 with ALPHA for clean transparencies provides the best overall aesthetic.
Even though director Hiroshi Iuchi cited Irem’s Image Fight as the motivation behind Radiant Silvergun, many consider its disregard for shooting game conventions to almost divorce it from the genre. Radiant Silvergun bravely abandons ideas of power-ups or collectable weaponry, and your ship is instead fitted with three fixed classes of weapon: Vulcan, Homing and Spread. Each has two variations, making for six shot types in total, the strength of each steadily increasing with use. Additionally, a craft-encircling sword allows you to sweep up special pink bullets to trigger a dramatic bomb attack. It's a complex system, even for those familiar with the genre. Knowing which weapon to use at each juncture is half the battle and, in a game riddled with lengthy boss encounters, keeping your resolve is a challenge in itself.
Arcade Mode, built on Sega’s ST-V arcade hardware, is a dazzling fifty-minute epic where chaining colour-coded popcorn enemies and disassembling bosses is imperative to increasing your weapon power. If you don’t get your ship up to spec you’ll struggle to put a dent in later adversaries and end up credit feeding with deflating regularity. Beautiful and brutal, it’s meant to be methodically chipped away at, dissected, memorised, and overcome. You begin with only three continues, but earn more the longer you play. Finishing Arcade Mode is so monumental a task, however, that Treasure’s president Masato Maegawa had to hire super players to debug the game’s final third. To augment this, an original Sega Saturn mode was created for 1998’s home release, here presented as Story Mode. A vastly extended one-and-a-half-hour marathon, palpably bleak and full of pathos, this mode comes retrofitted with a voice-acted and partly animated plot.
Unlike Arcade Mode’s optional stage routes, Story Mode makes you run the full gamut and then some, its irregular stage chronology leaping into the future and flashing back to the past. Where Story Mode differs fundamentally is that it offers no continues. Instead, you can save your game on death and start over with the weapon levels you left off with, as well as an increased number of lives. This masterstroke allows great players to beat the campaign on minimal attempts, and everyone else to enjoy the experience of levelling up, credit by credit until they’re cutting through the game’s early bosses like butter. Superbly conceived, it opens up Treasure’s masterpiece to a much broader audience — one that may not have the patience to chain their way across its serpentine roadmap.
In terms of artistry, Silvergun is one of classic gaming’s most accomplished works, exercising uncanny technical flamboyance on a console with infamously muddled architecture. The action opens with the player craft, a little four-pronged machine of fury, soaring through the skies above a great iron platform. A dramatic, Wagner-esque march rings out as you punch through the first wave of popcorn enemies to confront a giant, cannon-wielding warship. As it falls in flame, a vast and brooding sci-fi landscape is revealed beneath the cloud, spinning magnificently as you descend toward it.
Unlike the single planes of most shoot-em-ups, the scenery evolves through navigable passages, enclosures and obstacles. It’s a seamless, effect-laden gala, comprised of ribbed copper gangways and circuit board imprints. 2D layers are merged with dwarfing 3D industrial estates, all imbued with a luminous palette of light and colour. Far beyond Ikaruga — its stylistically bland spiritual sequel — Radiant Silvergun’s rich, dense forests, starry orbits, and incandescent cities are a shooting game spectacle yet to be bettered.
Where it goes graphically it follows aurally. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto (Gradius V) iced the cake with a scintillating soundtrack, a grand orchestral accompaniment perfectly married to Iuchi’s ruthless vision. Inspiring synth arrangements ebb and flow into climatic, bell-filled crescendos, while military drum beats and galactic themes footnote boss encounters and atmospheric vistas with supreme theatrical clarity.
The 32-bit era played host to a number of milestones, but few titles can claim such raw expertise — its scale is without peer, and it's the Ben-Hur of the genre, an undeniable master class in the colossal. Where modern games seek to thrill with join-the-dots action, in 1998 Treasure sought to drop jaws on entirely their own terms. Each stage is a journey: you speed up buildings, rocket out of Death Star-style trenches, and, in a particularly memorable confrontation, tackle an enemy assault in evocative retro wire-frame. Its deeply dynamic structuring is a primary example of Treasure’s reckless ambition, arguably to a fault. Pitting you in an inexhaustible series of altercations, needling through bullet fields, laser arrays, speeding chicanes and precarious mazes, its unremitting re-invention renders you breathless.
As if the sheer breadth and intricacy of these hurdles weren’t enough, the scoring system serves up an obsessive-compulsive level of complexity. While it’s possible to stick to, say, red-coloured enemies for a moderate chaining bonus and enough of a weapons boost to see you through, experts can exploit hidden strings and uncover bonus dog icons for a considerable online leaderboard advantage. But however you cut it, chaining equals power — a factor that can’t be ignored if you’re planning to go the distance in Arcade Mode.
In true Treasure fashion, Radiant Silvergun’s boss armada is as undyingly creative as it is imposing, where you can strip their armaments for a ‘perfect’ destruction bonus. As well as subtle tributes to the pantheon of shooting game greats, you’re assailed by everything from robotic reptiles to cylindrical fortresses. Xiga, an anthropomorphic deity that descends in a ring of burning light, is an awe-inspiring finale. A two-screen tall androgynous giant, the pre-battle warning “Be Praying” comes as judicious advice. Accompanied by a haunting choir, the inevitable bullet onslaught is pure, adrenaline-fuelled euphoria.
For some, Silvergun is perhaps layered a little too thickly, and although it endures as one of gaming’s most desirable titles, there is some division regarding its merit. In truth, Iuchi’s labour of love is fairly impractical; a work of stupefying excess, it’s too elaborate to appeal to the shooting game contingent en-masse. That said, slandering the willing pioneer is regressive; those who demand something more conventional have thousands of shooting games to meet their needs. In actuality, the real conflict lies with the gamer rather than the game, the sensibilities of the individual the deciding factor in whether it will ever be properly tackled. Yes, it’s treacle-thick, raucously ostentatious, and very nearly runs away with itself; but, to fall back on a hackneyed phrase, you get out what you put in.
Clarifying Radiant Silvergun’s place in the genre is trivial in light of its achievement. It remains, despite its uncompromising nature, deservedly celebrated. The game wears its hardcore credentials on its sleeve, and its depth in both technical and artistic terms is astonishing. As stimulating and rewarding as it is exhausting, it’s a labour that has transcended not only the genre but the medium to some degree. Regardless of its difficulty — and in that difficulty, its lack of immediate connection — those who learn to fell the game proper can say they truly lived Radiant Silvergun. That’s an experience worth fighting for.
Great review makes me want to give it ago. Will this be getting a physical? Seems like a game limited run would release.
Radiant Silvergun is a grail. Not a grail to be acquired, but one to be experienced. I'm ready!
Side note: Hitoshi Sakimoto is by far my favorite composer, and I can't wait to hear his work on this.
"slandering the willing pioneer is regressive"
Glad the game plays well, will have to get this
I have not played it but for graphics, I would choose NeoGeo's Blazing Star.
Nice! I'm excited to try this out. Never had a chance too before now. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out and back on the eshop
It’s $5 cheaper on Xbox…. Wait for a sale or take the plunge now for cheaper on different system?
I was going to write, if this is gaming's ben hur, what in the game is charles heston's wristwatch, but according to wiki apparantly the wearing future technology thing was a myth, stil..
bought the game immediately after the direct, conversion feels better than the xbox version, which for some reason i didn't like, according to electronic undergroud it add a frame to the input lag, but having this on the go is just brilliant... my sd card now so filled with shmp goodness... just Gradius V left....
@rockodoodle i have both and like this version slightly better (and having it portable is worth something to me), but youtube Electronic underground measured some extra input lag (i'm too casual a player to notice). It is exactly the same port though, as limewire has done with lots of shmups (donpachi resurrection, bug princess) last year... just converting the 360 version, so if you don't care about handheld play, then go for that version...(xbox series x/one via backwards compatibility),... Although the Xbone had the same lag problem... compared to the 360.
Treasure really were peerless. Ex Konami masters who brought us the magnificent Axelay amongst others.
It can't be relisted to the NA eShop fast enough. I've loved this game on the Saturn when I just discovered Saturn importing, loved it released on the XBLA, and now it has a great Switch exclusive: portability. Can't wait to get my OLED screen singing the joys of finding those little secrets in the stages.
And this is the rare occasion I also eagerly await news of a physical release and what goodies will be included.
I’m surprised there’s nothing about the vsync issues, I’ve noticed quite obvious tearing at the top of the screen in places and the backdrops have a strange wobbling at times.
It’s a great game, but there’s no way I’d want to dedicate the time needed to get genuinely good at it. I’ll just play it enough to unlock enough lives to bulldoze through story mode. If only we could get Axelay on the Switch…
Really excited for this. Can't wait to have time to sit down and play it.
Also, wonderfully evocative review, Tom! Some great wordsmithing.
I did 100% achievements on Xbox360. This game is insane replayability. It was my most non-fighting-game played in hours if i add saturn + xbox 360..i think i played more than 300 hours. On Xbox360 is 200 hours recorded on system.
Difficult. You can think this game is impossible. But if you try hard you get it!
Tips: FIND THE SECRET DOGS (use the "radar" weapon)...use the laser to destroy all parts (bosses) before kill the bosses....and don´t kill every random enemy on screen.....you need to kill making chain combos (enemy colors) to evolve enough to go to the last boss...
The last boss is the devil....especially when you face him in the second loop....the speed of the shots gets really crazy
The one Saturn game I've always regretted not buying... now made both entirely affordable and playable on the train!
Hopefully it gets a physical release soon.
I think the price is too high for a shooter like this (like any other with this price tag) ... the right one may be 10 imho.
@nkarafo agree, and plus... blazing Star costs only 7...
@CptProtonX It should be back tomorrow: https://twitter.com/LiveWire_pr/status/1571429540144222208
Great to see it finally getting a showing on the switch. That said, I purchased and played this years ago on xbox!! Still, if you haven't played it, then enjoy as you have one hell of shootemup!!
Radiant Silvergun has 200 hours of content, if you consider a person who has never played the game and will still need to find the secrets... evolve all weapons to level 33 (if I remember correctly), and manage to make the chain combos necessary to reach the end...and make everything on the 2 main game modes.
Big Brain Academy has 30 minutes content = $29 Captain Toad has 3 hours content = $39 Switch Sports has 1 hour content = $39 Cruis´n Blast has 30 minutes content = $39 Yoshi’s Crafted World™ has 5 hours content = $60 New Mario Bros Deluxe has 15 hours content = $60 Metroid Dread has 15 hours content = $60
I think Radiant Silvergun a cheap game. You´ll need 60-80 hours to make everything, finish and find all secrets in the easiest mode of the game.
any game can have 200hrs contents, what is the play time for 1 run in silvergun???
@BulkSlash This review came across as a sales pitch more than anything. I was surprised it didn’t talk much about the technical aspect of the game, too.
@Zanzox When I managed to finish 1 run for the first time I already had 40 or 50 hours of gameplay, and I hadn't found 5% of the secrets of the simplest game mode.
When I managed to do 1 run to the end in Arcade mode I must have had 100 hours of gameplay and I hadn't done any of the secrets.
When I managed to finish 1 run for the first time in New Mario Bros U Deluxe, I had 6 hours with all medals, 100%!
When I managed to finish 1 run for the first time in Captain Toad, I had 3 hours with 100%!
@Rykdrew I highly doubt a shooter took you 40-50 hours for a single run. Sounds like nostalgia goggles is blurring that number a bit. Even the toughest bullet hell shmups gave me about an 8-10 hour learning curve to beat. Ikaruga took me 4-5. I’ve seen playthroughs of RS and there’s no way you’re getting 40-50 hours and only covering 5% of the game in a shmup.
@konami1987 I loved Axelay, what a blast from the past 👌🏻😊
@BloodNinja I said that when I FINALLY managed to complete a run (with the second loop) I already had 40-50 hours of trying, because the game is difficult.
So to complete the game, it took 40-50 hours, because I needed that time to max out and evolve all weapons to max level and after many tries...finish that game mode. It was in Saturn era...and i was not very good in this kind of game.
You cannot save in mid level. If you die...you need to start all again. (Only one game mode you can get cumulative levels for weapons).
To do 100% of the New Mario Bros content, that is, to complete my first run with 100% of the medals, I had about 6 hours.
That is, it took much longer gameplay time to complete a single run in radiant Silvergun than in New Mario Bros U Deluxe.
@Rykdrew I saw exactly what you wrote, and it still makes no sense that a shmup is taking you 40-50 hours to find 5% of the content on the simplest level, as you wrote. It took me 40-50 hours to find and complete Elden Ring’s most obscure content FFS. I get that you probably like the game, but trying to mislead people with ridiculous playtime numbers isn’t very becoming.
@BloodNinja Sky Force Reloaded I have 60 hours on Steam and i don´t have all medals on main game mode!
Other game with incredible replayability!
I need to make levels 11 and 12 on insane difficult without any damage with the weakest ship of the game! I´m trying so hard!
@Beaucine Thank you for reading, that’s very kind of you to say.
@BulkSlash I’ve seen it. However I don’t think that’s a V-Sync issue, I think that ripple that occurs at the top third of the screen on occasion (normally when the section score appears) was present in the Saturn original. Could be wrong, but that’s how I remember it.
@Zanzox One run in this game averages about an hour.
Actually a pretty long start-to-finish for a shoot-em-up. Besides, this type of game is meant to be played and replayed continuously.
@nkarafo Not even in the same league. Blazing Star’s renders haven’t aged well.
@BloodNinja A print screen from Skyforce hours...(60 horas = 60 hours)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWSb9halisL7vkDO1kTycE4LUgaoW1Bt/view?usp=sharing
When I assemble the xbox 360 again I film the screen, with the achievements, amount of hours, etc...
The howlongtobeat I notice that many times the hours that are considered there are as if the player had done EVERYTHING in a single attempt....but I think it's completely impossible for someone to be able to do everything in Radiant Silvergun on the first try.
For example....Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R on howlongtobeat is 11 hours main + sides, and 38 hours (completionists)...but i know people with 100 hours + trying to beat Classic Survive Mode without success because the game is difficult...and you need to know how to evolve the stats in this mode. I needed more than 50 hours to complete Classic Survive till 999 level agains all golden enemies....it´s hard! And only one game mode. This game you have a lot of difficult game modes.
When I played Radiant Silvergun, there was no hint that I needed to, for example, chain combos to gain score and evolve my ship. The game was in Japanese on the Saturn... Of course, today with all the information and already knowing what to do....it's easier. But, own experience. Even though I've done everything in this game, I win a run every 20 tries or so...that's because I've played 300 hours of this game!
@BloodNinja I don´t understand what means "a bot", sorry.
I have the language barrier...so I can be "wordy" sometimes trying to be "clear"
We are talking about replayability. Took me 40-50 hours to beat Radiant Silvergun (complete run) first time! It was a lot of tries to get it!
And a lot of extra time to do it and get all secrets! (in the easiest mode...with cumulative weapon levels).
Single-Player PolledAverage Median Rushed Leisure Main Story 18 3h 33m 2h 1h 43m 9h
How can a shmup with timed bosses... takes 9 hours (leisure) for one person and 1 hour and 43 minutes (rushed) for another....on the same run.......?
I see. For you, it´s impossible a gamer play 40-50 hours a difficult game...to get it finished for the first time!
Ok you play shmups better than me! On Howlongtobeat every gamer finish Radiant Silvergun in the first try! Wow A lot of incredible skilled gamers!
But i´m proud i have 100% achieevements in this game. it was hard to get it! But so many fun!
Ikaruga: 1 hour and 30 minutes! main game
Every gamer in How Long to Beat finish Ikaruga in the first try! Incredible gamers!
Mushihimesama Futari https://howlongtobeat.com/game/6270
The all time most difficult shmup of the world... Howlongtobeat = 38 minutes!!
Wow, all gamers in How Long to Beat, beat this game in the first try! Absolutely incredible gamers!
@Rykdrew Yep, some people are good at video games. I'm blocking you, from here on out, because you're not making any sense and getting wildly off topic when I asked you to stop replying to me.
I did not understand Bloodninja behavior, but ok!! And just WOW.... In How Long to Beat website ....all gamers finish the most difficult shmup games ever ON FIRST TRY!!! I´ll call them...Gods of Gamers! =)
There is no "save state" or infinite continues in Radiant Silvergun.
I was lucky enough to grab this before it was removed for the rating error.
@Rykdrew, I'm not knocking your passion for this game, but some of your examples do no favors. Big Brain Academy only has 30 mins of content?! Switch Sports just 1 hour?! Maybe they were typos on your part...
It's the worst version (5 frames of input lag) of an amazing game. The 9/10 score is justified simply because one of the top shmups of all-time is now more widely available. Bring on the physical release. I'll take two copies; please and thank you.
It took 11 years to port the Xbox 360 version to another platform, maybe if we wait 11 more it will finally release on Steam/GOG?.
I really want to play it, but Nintendo won't sell it to me because I live in North America. What gives??? How could a freaking shmup from 20+ years ago run afoul of an ESRB rating? Sheesh.
I brought back a very neat Saturn copy of this from my last visit to Japan. It's superb! I still can't get past the third boss on one continue though. It really is the type of game you can play for years, just to come back for the occasional couple of hours of goodness. I'm glad more people will get a chance to play it now.
@NeonPizza RIGHT?! Don't get me wrong, I'm a shmup junky, but the most time I'll put into them across a week is something like 2 hours max.
@BloodNinja Same! 2 hours or even under seems about right to be able to finish an Arcade based Schmup that isn't too difficult. Why would one want to spend or dedicate their precious free time, and devote 60+ hours for one single schmup game, unless they're trying to master the game for an upcoming 1989 'The Wizard' Competion https://i.makeagif.com/media/3-02-2017/VNRqtH.gif
60 hours of free time, that was actually dedicated to Schmup videogames? I could of beaten like 25-30 different schmups
@NeonPizza You had me at the gif LOL
Agreed though, I don't think I even own enough shmups to put that much time in even if I played them all twice through!
"Too complex for some to handle"
this seems like an unfair 'con.' besides the fact that this could be said of literally any game in existence, and besides the fact that those "some" can probably read this review, look at images and videos of gameplay, and determine this for themselves, even the phrasing "some" implies that "most" will be happy with the level of complexity, and another set of "some" will actually delight in it! raises hand
how is that a con?
It's so hard. I'm playing on the easiest setting with max lives and still dying a lot XD
It's fun though. But it's a bit ridiculous how the "learning curve" basically is an on-switch. Also not too fond of the lack of upgrading... wish they wouldn't give you all abilities from the start. Levelling up your ship was always so satisfying in shmups.
@-wc- Because the amount of effort required to make serious headway in it won't appeal to everyone. Don't rely solely on the pros and cons, they're only a brief summary of content made in the review itself.
@Magician That's interesting. I didn't notice any input lag issues and I look out for these things, especially in shmups. I'm not saying you're wrong of course, it just wasn't really noticeable for me.
@NeonPizza Radiant Silvergun does not have infinite continues or save state in the middle of the game! And the game is difficult. You´ll need a lot of hours to beat this game....When you fight against the last boss...the game starts again and you play again (another route)....and so you´ll fight the true last boss form....Do it without infinite continues or save state! Yes...it will be a long training journey
@BloodNinja @NeonPizza I'm happy you both can derive some enjoyment credit-feeding your way across the finish line, but sounds like neither of you have a clear to your name. If you've never done it, you're not going to get the appeal.
If you feel your time is better spent grinding levels in your go-to serialized RPG, more power to you.
Here is a forum about shmup games and players.
Anyone can enter in this forum and make the question about how many hours of training a shmup player need to put to complete each game without "infinite continues" and save state in the middle of the game...
Mushihimesama Futari (Ultra), for example, is about 200 hours of training to complete.
All of us are gamers. And Shmups are one of the most technical games in existence. There are a lot of championships.
There are gamers that prefer story-driven games...and adventure games. And there are gamers that don´t like adventure games like zelda, Tomb Raider......and prefer another kind of games like fightings and shmups.
And in the end, we are all gamers and there is room for everyone.
The origin of video games are competitive games, like pong in the 70s and games for points competition, in Atari, Coleco, Odyssey... in which there was no story, it was pure gameplay. Shmups are closer to what attracts millions of people back to the origins of games! And this genre has evolved a lot.
Skyforce Reloaded has an online competitive mode with weekly survival challenges....and this mode is amazing. I put 60 hours playing...and going....Huge replay value. There's a new championship with different enemies patterns every week! It´s so fun to compete against a lot of people!
I don´t know how a great and fun shmup game can be so controversial when played for 60+ hours.
Shmup gamers play many more hours than this per shmup game.
My 60 hours: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWSb9halisL7vkDO1kTycE4LUgaoW1Bt/view?usp=sharing
I like this forum for the diversity of players...wow...I have already written 606 comments! I didn't even notice! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cP8MNXrITOrzIf78l87XDb4m7N39CEgb/view?usp=sharing
I'm just waiting for the NA version to come back. Live Wire's Twitter the other day said possibly Tuesday for a return.
I have it on the Saturn, so it would just be nice to play it in HD (and on the go)
@NintendoWife You need to evolve each weapon. Kill same color enemies to evolve weapons. Different enemies colors = different weapon upgrades. You need to do the longest chain combo you can to evolve. Without it...it will be ultra hard to beat the game! This game is HARD! But sweet!
@BloodNinja Brother, there's no need to blindly assume when you spell it out in your own comments. You share the same opinion as everyone else with a cursory knowledge of the genre without the focus to put out a clear. Sorry if I hit a nerve.
If you're getting hung up on my 'icon,' I'll make sure there's a little picture of Mario by my name next time I comment so I don't upset you.
@BloodNinja That is probably the most offensive comment I've ever received on a piece of work. :/ Pretty sure I covered the technical aspects at great length.
If you're playing a shoot-em-up as a credit feeder, the average game will take 25 minutes to finish. If you're playing it for a 1CC (one-credit clear) it will take days, months, weeks or years depending on the game's difficulty and the skill level of the player. Nobody new to the genre is going to be toppling Futari's Ultra mode without putting in a huge amount of hours.
Radiant Silvergun's Arcade Mode is a massively difficult undertaking and will take even a hardened shmup aficionado far more that 3 hours to finish, especially with the 3 continues it starts you out with. If you don't learn to chain you won't have the weapon power to face off against later bosses. All of this in in the review though.
Story Mode works differently, but will still require approximately 30 - 50 hours (depending on skill level) to raise weapon levels to the max (33) and to learn boss routines and junctures down pat, because it offers no continues at all. Regardless, it's still less of a task than Arcade Mode because you can save weapon levels.
If you're playing 2 hours a week Arcade Mode will take you about 3 years to clear because it needs more regular attention to memorise all of it. It's an incredibly dense game that changes its spots every two-minutes.
@Magician Playing again now, there's no way this has 5 frames of input lag. I can't identify any lag at all. Where did you hear this info, and are you using Game Mode on an efficient monitor? I tend to find this makes a big difference.
@Tom-Massey From an opinion video from another YT shmup lover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYBMt1WXDGM
@Magician Ok thank you. I trust the source. Original Saturn RSG is 3 frames and he claims this has 5. No reason to doubt him, but I promise you, it comes to almost nothing. I’ve been testing this afternoon and on one of my gaming monitors (with a great game mode and response time) and it’s barely perceptible. I think 5 frames is fairly minimal and quite common in a lot of 2D titles, including shmups, and I promise you if I had noticed lag affecting the game in any way I would have made a point about it. You can pick this up pretty confidently as long as your screen setup is respectable.
@BloodNinja you missed the point again Ninja, c'mon.
Yes, Barbie game is too complex for "some." get it? Read my comment again.
right, i understand that not everyone will like every game. that is the point of the review.
my problem is that complexity is not a "con." bad graphics, janky controls, bad AI, those are cons. being complex should not count against a game. i like complexity. that one could just as easily be a "pro." so it shouldnt be a "con."
CON "some people prefer 3d games" CON "some people might not like flying vertically, prefer horizontal"
JOY "some people love bad graphics" JOY "janky controls may be seen as implicit challenge by some"
these would also be bad choices.
you guys called it "joys (pros) and cons," but you use the section as a "reasons to buy/reasons to avoid" and act like we are all crazy for noticing.
i really think if you framed it "reason to avoid - complexity might not appeal to some" you would get no pushback from the comments.
@-wc- I understand totally, and I appreciate your feedback. If I'm honest RSG is a difficult one to find fault with. The way I perceived a potential negative would be a person buying the game on the back of a glowing review, and then finding it overbearing and too tough for them to take on. That's why I situated that particular note in that section. But I can see why one might think a 'con' would be something more distinct than a high watermark for entry.
@Rykdrew I agree with what you say generally and it sounds like you approach shmups with the correct perspective. To do them justice, a 1CC run and score chasing is optimal. Credit feeding tends to negate the broader experience. That said, 200 hours for Mushimesama Futari sounds a little heavy if you’re talking about the default mode. Futari default is one of CAVE’s easier titles. I had had prior experience with the genre, but that one fell pretty quickly. Futari Maniac or Ultra Mode on the other hand…
thanks! i appreciate the explanation, and I do realize Im not particulatly owed one 😊
i totally see where you are coming from. it must be said at some point in the review "hey this might be too hard for you," but punctuating the review by placing it at the end as a hard against seems a little harsh considering the challenge is a feature, not a bug. and for "some," it's a joy. 🙂
maybe the conclusion is the better place to put that info. and, maybe the conclusion should go below the joy/cons, above the score. like
"RSG is a classic, a titan of its category which has stood the test of time ... [yadda yadda] ... that may be too complex for some. if you are up for the challenge... [blah blah.]"
Isn't it a bit odd to not mention the 5 frames of input lag this version has over the original release? That's pretty important info to share in a review!
Some people here on this forum have responded as if all game modes or shmups you can push a button and generate infinite credits and infinite continues from start to finish.
In Radiant Silvergun, it is not possible to save the game (in story mode it is possible to save weapon levels), nor is it possible to get infinite credits.
They don't understand that it will be a huge struggle to get to advanced stages and memorize everything that is happening, because there are very difficult puzzles that can only be trained after being defeated. So... after dozens of hours, they'll reach a stage they've never seen and won't even know what to do. And..they will die. And they will have to try to get there again....dozens of tries... until it passes. The replay of this game is immense!
In this game, the scenario kills more than the enemies sometimes!
And to find the secrets in the background? You'll have, in the midst of the frenetic action, trying to find out with the radar, where exactly the dogs are... in advanced stages that took many hours to understand.... and find the secrets without die.... to do this, it will be 100s of game over....(and start all over again, from the start, because there are no continues and infinite credits, quite the opposite...).
It's exactly as you said.
Winning the game in Arcade with 3 lives (plus one or two throughout the game)..from start to finish....is an achievement that only 6% of people achieved. I am one of them.
But...after finishing everything, the game is still fun, because of the challenge....and I kept playing it again and again, as I can only finish this game 1 out of every 20 attempts....(20 attempts = ~25 hours of gameplay)
I have a lot of playtime on Radiant Silvergun...just for fun. I only got 100% of achievements when I had more than 100 hours already. I´m not a shmup master, i just have a lot of fun playing this kind of game. I don´t have fun playing Zelda, JRPGs etc. I love fighting games, shmups, strategy and multiplayer competitive games, like Rocket League. Now that it's all over, I plan on buying this game on Switch and doing it all over again, because it's so much fun. I love games that require skill and quick reflexes!
Thanks for the excellent comment!
@gojiguy The original had 3, and you won't notice the 5. Read the comments above yours.
@Rykdrew If you've finished arcade mode, hats off to you! That's a sterling achievement.
@Rykdrew the point seems to be that getting the clear on a 1cc run will take 60-70 hours. sounds about right. so you are right, it takes a long time to clear the game
This is incorrect, it does have switch extras.
@Tom-Massey did cotton boomerang & 2 get a patch or update that reduced latency by 1-2 frames? Those two were notorious for having horrendous input lag. I have both and they feel sluggish, but I don’t have a reference(aka a Saturn or actual games) to compare them to
@NeonPizza I’m assuming that it did, but I didn’t cover that one - I covered Cotton Reboot/Cotton Rock n’ Roll.
Honestly, for RSG, I’ve tested it over its 5 frame claims on a good setup (low latency monitor w/game mode on) and it’s pretty much unnoticeable. 3 frames would be nice, but 5 isn’t unheard of for the genre.
I wanted to buy it, but there's no difference between this and the Xbox One version with one more frame of lag over the 360 version, on my Series S already.
@NeonPizza I can't vouch for the Cotton Saturn Tribute games, but they did tighten up Guardian Force. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better.
@BloodNinja oh you beat Ikaruga in around 4 or 5 hours? Wow!! 1 credit clear I assume? Can you post a video so we can learn?
@Ishmokin It's not easy to 1CC RSG Arcade Mode on 50 hours tbh. Even that sounds a bit low to me, and I consider myself fairly shmup-seasoned. That's one of the aspects that makes Story Mode so great: it aids you in the pursuit of a 1CC by constantly powering you up. If you can't do it by weapon level 33 you won't do it at all, and I think that's a really clever augmentation.
Re: CAVE games, I actually think these have some of the fastest 1CC times if you're familiar with the genre. Dodonpachi, Mushihimesama and M.Futari, Deathsmiles, ESPGaluda can fall fairly quickly if you have prior experience.
RSG is very different: it's so much more complex and there's such an emphasis on chaining that it will take far longer to master.
@Ishmokin Why am I going to waste my life pursuing a 1CC of a shmup?
@BloodNinja LOL. I rest my case. Finishing a shmup = Credit feeding as per Shmup God Bloodninja. You don't need to say it. We just know . NINJA APPROVED!!!!!
@Tom-Massey Hi!yup I can totally see that. It even takes years for many people to 1cc shmups. It took me past 100 hours to 1-ALL Hishouzame! Haha! there are truly gifted super players who can 1cc any shmup in 4 days or less( shoutout to my buddy Giodyne), the average player really takes around 20 to 50 hours or more depending on which shmup.
In my case, 25 hours for me for Darius Gaiden. 40 hours for GG Aleste 3 ( people say it was easy but it was hard for me lol). Probably 15 hours approx or so for Batrider Normal course solo stawman. 35 hours for G Darius. 15 hours for DBAC BEI route.
For RSG i think it will take me hundreds of hours since I am not good in memo and Im just average in skill level overall imo. Started taking shmups seriously in 2020.
Battle Garrega and ketsui,had it since 2020 on ps4 and I dont know when i can ever 1cc them at my current level. Crimzon Clover im stuck at stage 3 boss.
So yeah I agree 50 hours of playtime for RSG and to 1cc it is a great feat for the poster above who did it. Mad respect and kudos to him.
Its just funny some people here act like shmup gods when clearly they just ninjas who approve LOL.
@Ishmokin Sure, some reasonable numbers there and some respectable clears. I know Giodyne is a certified super player and not many will achieve that kind of skill, but then it also depends on how much time you want to spend with the genre.
@BloodNinja It's actually a very rewarding experience, and certainly wouldn't take up too much more of your time than most modern story-based games. I'd recommend starting with something like Thunderforce III (which is really a cakewalk, but great fun to memorise and get through) or ChoRenSha 68k (DOS freeware) as good beginner fodder. Many people play arcade games for 1CCs (and not just shmups) because they were designed around that kind of play and the experience is superb fun.
@Tom-Massey I agree. Gio part of the elite players and many wont ever reach his level. I am content to do 1cc no matter how long it takes me to do it haha
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