So, Klon. They have the rights to Milestone shooters after that company went tits up due to some financial scamming. I'm starting to believe that someone important at Klon was scammed by Milestone, and now Klon only exist to do very bad things to any Milestone franchise they can get their hands on.
So far, Klon published Karous The Beast of Re:Eden, Radirgy DeGoJaru (a.k.a. Radirgy DGJL), and Illmatic Envelope Dillinjah (a.k.a. Illvelo Dillinjah), all for the 3DS, the latter two as downloadable titles only. And they were bad. Textbook examples on how not to do shooters.
Now Sakura Flamingo Archives for the X360 is here, a collection of Chaos Field, Radirgy, Karous, Illmatic Envelope (a.k.a. Illvelo), and Radirgy Noa. All these games already received ports, with Radirgy Noa being available on the X360 as Radirgy Noa Massive. All of these games are also available in previous collections, so what are exactly Sakura Flamingo Archives' selling points? HD resolution, the ability to easily get this collection rather than digging old ones out, and original modes.
Tremble you weakings, cower in fear, Klon are about to unleash not one, but two, of their shooters.
The initial impressions aren't particularly good: the main menu is very shallow, with vast portions of the screen empty. Checking the options only brings up sound and controller configuration, but as Chaos Field uses a horizontal screen, additional configs like lives and screen must be set for each game; I still have to play the Wii ports of Radirgy Noa and Illvelo, but a quick scan through the manuals reveal that they might have been thought for horizontal screens as well (though the original Radirgy used a veritcal screen).
The first two main menu entries are Mixture and Death mode, the two new modes; the third entry, Revision, leads to a submenu with the "old" games.
Games load very fast, although you are sent to the splash screen each time you quit one. Conversions seem good, with no slowdowns and the celshaded graphics of Karous, Radirgy, and Illvelo looking very nice in HD. Chaos Field looks decent as well, but some background textures seem to suffer due to the higher resolution. The only slowdowns are in Radirgy, when textboxes pop up at the start of the stage and before bosses, and it seems more a loading-induced slowdown than anything else, even if the disc is constantly spinning in the X360 (and I forgot how noisy a X360 can be). Have Klon come up wih a decent anthology? Is this possible? Is this a miracle?
No.
First, the control options in the main menu are for the two new modes, controls for the "old" games have to be reassigned; how to reassing buttons changes between the main menu and the games, but this is a minor thing. Biggest thing? Hugest thing? Biggest huge thing? No screen rotation in any game, not even for the two new modes. Now, I'm not familiar with the Wii ports (either stand-alone or from the various Milestone Shooting Collections), screen rotation might not have been present in those as well and Sakura Flamingo Archives might be based off these ports, but Radirgy and Karous on the DC had screen rotation, as well as Radirgy Noa Massive on the X360 did. Either way, I find the lack of TATE mode inexcusable. Add to this that the collection is bereft of any extra (gallery, extra wallpapers), and the whole package now doesn't exactly sells itself, especially if you have the games available on other formats; if you don't, the collection might be of interest, but it still features inferior ports...and I know that not everyone can pivot their TV/monitor, but to those who can and have the original games, this collection is essentially irrelevant.
That leaves us with the two new game modes, Mixture and Death. Both modes can be played by two people, and in both you can select from all ships featured in the "old" games; every ship retains their special gimmicks, but you don't expect that enemy patterns or stages change based on the selected ship.
Mixture mode sees you ship going through stage fighting against enemies taken from the other games, in a very basic shoot'em'up that ahas nothing to do with any of its inspirations. New assets for this mode are taken straight from Illvelo Dillinjah, and Mixture mode is just as dull as the 3DS game. Comparing this mode to any of the other games creates an almost exciting discrepancy in quality, even when using your least favourite as a comparison. Mixture mode develops on what should have been a vertical screen, just to make the lack of TATE mode even more painful...if I could care about this mode at all, it's now evident that Klon don't have the slightest idea on how to develop shooters.
Death mode...eh. It's Radirgy DGJL. It's a tower defence game. It's more lively than DGJL (as in you actually have to dodge bullets during the first two minutes) and doesn't slow down like on the 3DS, but it's you defending the bunker from Radirgy from a collection of enemies from other games. And with patterns not customised to the ship you're piloting, the ships from Radirgy and Radirgy Noa have the highest chance of survival, thanks to the ability to spam bombs and use shot+sword at the same time.
In the end, Klon were able to screw up a game collection; it's neither the first nor the worst, but surely not a must buy. Your mileage with the games featured in the collection might vary a lot, so if you have a console hosting one of the old ports, I'd say to go for those instead.
I will update this thread with some more detailed X360 VS other ports some time later.
So far, Klon published Karous The Beast of Re:Eden, Radirgy DeGoJaru (a.k.a. Radirgy DGJL), and Illmatic Envelope Dillinjah (a.k.a. Illvelo Dillinjah), all for the 3DS, the latter two as downloadable titles only. And they were bad. Textbook examples on how not to do shooters.
Now Sakura Flamingo Archives for the X360 is here, a collection of Chaos Field, Radirgy, Karous, Illmatic Envelope (a.k.a. Illvelo), and Radirgy Noa. All these games already received ports, with Radirgy Noa being available on the X360 as Radirgy Noa Massive. All of these games are also available in previous collections, so what are exactly Sakura Flamingo Archives' selling points? HD resolution, the ability to easily get this collection rather than digging old ones out, and original modes.
Tremble you weakings, cower in fear, Klon are about to unleash not one, but two, of their shooters.
The initial impressions aren't particularly good: the main menu is very shallow, with vast portions of the screen empty. Checking the options only brings up sound and controller configuration, but as Chaos Field uses a horizontal screen, additional configs like lives and screen must be set for each game; I still have to play the Wii ports of Radirgy Noa and Illvelo, but a quick scan through the manuals reveal that they might have been thought for horizontal screens as well (though the original Radirgy used a veritcal screen).
The first two main menu entries are Mixture and Death mode, the two new modes; the third entry, Revision, leads to a submenu with the "old" games.
Games load very fast, although you are sent to the splash screen each time you quit one. Conversions seem good, with no slowdowns and the celshaded graphics of Karous, Radirgy, and Illvelo looking very nice in HD. Chaos Field looks decent as well, but some background textures seem to suffer due to the higher resolution. The only slowdowns are in Radirgy, when textboxes pop up at the start of the stage and before bosses, and it seems more a loading-induced slowdown than anything else, even if the disc is constantly spinning in the X360 (and I forgot how noisy a X360 can be). Have Klon come up wih a decent anthology? Is this possible? Is this a miracle?
No.
First, the control options in the main menu are for the two new modes, controls for the "old" games have to be reassigned; how to reassing buttons changes between the main menu and the games, but this is a minor thing. Biggest thing? Hugest thing? Biggest huge thing? No screen rotation in any game, not even for the two new modes. Now, I'm not familiar with the Wii ports (either stand-alone or from the various Milestone Shooting Collections), screen rotation might not have been present in those as well and Sakura Flamingo Archives might be based off these ports, but Radirgy and Karous on the DC had screen rotation, as well as Radirgy Noa Massive on the X360 did. Either way, I find the lack of TATE mode inexcusable. Add to this that the collection is bereft of any extra (gallery, extra wallpapers), and the whole package now doesn't exactly sells itself, especially if you have the games available on other formats; if you don't, the collection might be of interest, but it still features inferior ports...and I know that not everyone can pivot their TV/monitor, but to those who can and have the original games, this collection is essentially irrelevant.
That leaves us with the two new game modes, Mixture and Death. Both modes can be played by two people, and in both you can select from all ships featured in the "old" games; every ship retains their special gimmicks, but you don't expect that enemy patterns or stages change based on the selected ship.
Mixture mode sees you ship going through stage fighting against enemies taken from the other games, in a very basic shoot'em'up that ahas nothing to do with any of its inspirations. New assets for this mode are taken straight from Illvelo Dillinjah, and Mixture mode is just as dull as the 3DS game. Comparing this mode to any of the other games creates an almost exciting discrepancy in quality, even when using your least favourite as a comparison. Mixture mode develops on what should have been a vertical screen, just to make the lack of TATE mode even more painful...if I could care about this mode at all, it's now evident that Klon don't have the slightest idea on how to develop shooters.
Death mode...eh. It's Radirgy DGJL. It's a tower defence game. It's more lively than DGJL (as in you actually have to dodge bullets during the first two minutes) and doesn't slow down like on the 3DS, but it's you defending the bunker from Radirgy from a collection of enemies from other games. And with patterns not customised to the ship you're piloting, the ships from Radirgy and Radirgy Noa have the highest chance of survival, thanks to the ability to spam bombs and use shot+sword at the same time.
In the end, Klon were able to screw up a game collection; it's neither the first nor the worst, but surely not a must buy. Your mileage with the games featured in the collection might vary a lot, so if you have a console hosting one of the old ports, I'd say to go for those instead.
I will update this thread with some more detailed X360 VS other ports some time later.
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