racketboy.com

I always thought it would be cool to go through one of the more expansive guides on the site and give brief thoughts on each game (and open the floor to discussion should people agree/disagree with me).

I've chosen "The Sega Saturn’s Explosive Shmups Library" article as I enjoy shmups and need an excuse to check out the Saturn's offerings. I also have one of those Sega Saturn usb controllers now for a more authentic experience.

My plan is to play each game about 15 to 30 minutes to get a "feel" for them. Really, I just want to see which games hold my interest and that amount of time should be sufficient for whether or not you like a shooter. Each post will be a screenshot and some quick thoughts (probably a likes/dislikes or something like that).

Here's the list of games from the article: I think that's 55 games if I counted correctly (however, some of the titles are collections so it's actually more than that). It's going to take a hot minute to go through these but it should be a fun excuse to play some games.

That's awesome -- I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback and see how your "rankings" compare to the order I have them on the guide.

Neat! I have a lot of these in my physical collection (27 games on the list), personally. Spent a healthy bit of time with most of the above in the past, and have also played most of the other stuff on the list on burnt discs. I definitely like some of them more than others, to be sure, but I'll be interested in what you come away with when you play them.

Radiant Silvergun



When you think of Saturn shmups Radiant Silvergun is probably what pops up in your mind. For good reason! It's a lot of fun. Your ship has a variety of weapon choices. You have the standard shoot-forward laser, homing lasers and projectiles, side-bombs, and a freakin' sword! The sword is really cool because after it "picks up" enough of the pink bullets you get a charged up slash attack that destroys everything in your path.

I played Ikaruga first so I kind of understand how RS goes (scoring built on chaining enemy types/colors). Treasure shooters seem to be about memorization and utilizing your strongest attacks when appropriate. Side-bombs and homing lasers for tight corridors; Regular lasers for straight-up fights.
One thing I wound up doing is pairing the laser guns with getting really close to enemies and doubling up with the sword attack to make short work of them. Not sure if this is the "best" strategy but it quickly reduced the enemy count.

Likes
-Weapon variety
-a freakin' sword
-Dog bonuses (just play it to see)

Dislikes
-Sound/music is really low / not well-equalized
-I don't know Japanese so the voice-over for story is lost on me and doesn't add to my experience
-Music isn't really good compared to other shooters

Verdict: Recommended

opa wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 9:53 pm -Music isn't really good compared to other shooters

I'm going to let this brazen slander against Sakimoto Hitoshi slide, but just this once, because I probable agree the the audio mix in the game isn't great (it's been quite a while since I last played RS). This is almost certainly not your introduction to Sakimoto--most of his soundtracks are classic--but you'll hear him again when you get to Soukyugurentai.

The story in Radiant Silvergun is mostly irreverent, slapstick, and silly nonsense. It's kinda fun, but not a big deal to miss out on.

racketboy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 3:38 pm That's awesome -- I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback and see how your "rankings" compare to the order I have them on the guide.

I'm not sure that I'll do a final ranking for all 50+ games. Seems a bit daunting and not really my goal. This is more of a "what games would I want to play more of" type of list. Maybe I could do a "Top 10" favorites post or something along those lines to compare to the original ranking.

pierrot wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:47 am I'm going to let this brazen slander against Sakimoto Hitoshi slide, but just this once, because I probable agree the the audio mix in the game isn't great (it's been quite a while since I last played RS). This is almost certainly not your introduction to Sakimoto--most of his soundtracks are classic--but you'll hear him again when you get to Soukyugurentai.

The story in Radiant Silvergun is mostly irreverent, slapstick, and silly nonsense. It's kinda fun, but not a big deal to miss out on.

No disrespect is intended! lol
I played a few different Saturn titles just to compare thinking "maybe this is an emulator thing". No, Radiant Silvergun definitely sounds muted to me. A lot of shooters I've played over the years have really strong intro music for the first stage to get you into it. Just wasn't there for RS. Next time I play it I'll see if there's an options menu to make sound adjustments.

The whole synth patch orchestra thing Sakimoto has going on for the RS soundtrack doesn’t really do it for me, either. His Souky tracks are much stronger, IMO.

Also, Racketboy, some of the text coding in the article is messed up. Might be worth fixing the apostrophes.

opa wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 7:00 am

racketboy wrote: ↑Wed Jul 03, 2024 3:38 pm That's awesome -- I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback and see how your "rankings" compare to the order I have them on the guide.

I'm not sure that I'll do a final ranking for all 50+ games. Seems a bit daunting and not really my goal. This is more of a "what games would I want to play more of" type of list. Maybe I could do a "Top 10" favorites post or something along those lines to compare to the original ranking.

Oh yeah, I guess I meant it in a more casual way -- not expecting you to do a full ranking -- just if your impressions matched roughly

opa wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 7:00 am No disrespect is intended! lol
I played a few different Saturn titles just to compare thinking "maybe this is an emulator thing". No, Radiant Silvergun definitely sounds muted to me. A lot of shooters I've played over the years have really strong intro music for the first stage to get you into it. Just wasn't there for RS. Next time I play it I'll see if there's an options menu to make sound adjustments.

NP! Only joking, of course. This is all honestly making me want to fire up a bunch of games on my Saturn, also. I do recall RS having sort of weak sound, but I don't really know if that's a false memory, or not.

marurun wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 11:01 am The whole synth patch orchestra thing Sakimoto has going on for the RS soundtrack doesn’t really do it for me, either. His Souky tracks are much stronger, IMO.

Also, Racketboy, some of the text coding in the article is messed up. Might be worth fixing the apostrophes.

I definitely don't prefer the RS soundtrack out of his catalog, but it does still carry his signature style; So I do like it, personally. Even if the instruments don't sound all that great, some of the tracks for later stages of the game have a more dynamic/bombastic feel, and are nicely composed, I think. Space Battle Ship 130 33KI being the main one I think of. It's kind of tough, because stages in Radiant Silvergun are so relatively long, I think the compositions are largely more subdued to attempt to stave off ear fatigue, kind of like Sugiyama Koichi's approach to composing for Dragon Quest.

Soukyugurentai's soundtrack is definitely more immediately catchy, though, and sounds a little more like his work on earlier stuff like the Ogre games, Verytex, Gauntlet IV, etc, in most places. Some of it kind of reminds me of the Panzer Dragoon Zwei soundtrack, too, which is always good.

marurun wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 11:01 am
Also, Racketboy, some of the text coding in the article is messed up. Might be worth fixing the apostrophes.

It's in a lot of the posts -- I think it's an encoding issue that happened in the server migration.
It's on my investigation list