Akai Katana Shin Review

[Super Monkey Balls]

Same DD bug here. I'm going to email Cave about it.

Amazing package this, in every way. GOTYTBFH!!!1

[Blade Runner]

I recall Blade Runner having what appeared to be comparatively godlike Ketsui skills at Casino

lol it was beginners luck, I didn't have a J360 at the time.

[Goemon]

These katanas will **** stuff up. Big time. Anything they touch will drop coins with a proximity effect. Point blank as much of these coins as you can, as the closer you pick them up, the more value they're worth. This right here is your main source of score.

So a recap.

• Fill both gauges in plane mode, as high as you want to.
• Go into person mode.
• Hold shot to fire orbs, turning them into katanas.
• Switch back to plane mode to fire the katanas, picking up as many coins as possible in the process, as close as you can.

It works really, really well and I'm already getting seriously hooked on it. Will be purchasing as soon as I can

Nice write up Silvergun, I just came here to write the exact same thing! (I didn’t get the demo, so I haven’t been in the thread)
I actually had exactly the same thought in mind! ‘Let the katanas loose, watch them **** things up and see all the gold fly!!’

I got the full game mid week but only managed to sit down with it this morning.

Other things I wanted add to what you’ve said…

Once you’ve let the orbs loose in Person mode and you get your katanas, you can power them up by continuing to shoot things while in lock shot. The more you shoot the more red they become (akai katana – red sword) so it pays to hold the lock shot for a while in person mode and build up the katanas.
Don’t wait too long tho otherwise you run out of energy and you automatically go back to plane mode and the katanas disappear.

When in Person mode and firing the lock shot all bullets slow down, so you can start to get big build ups of bullets on screen – the katanas also destroy bullets.

This game has me totally hooked at the minute. It reminds me of espgaluda 2 where I wasn’t playing to get further, I was playing to greed points! I freakin love doing that!!

Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face when I’ve actually just weaved INTO a mass of bullets and unleashed my katanas through them and the mid boss for massive points!

Just got the achievement before for getting a 3000 hit chain.

You have to be careful because you can’t continue your chain with Plane mode lock shot, so you have to remember to switch your shooting after you’ve fired your katanas.

Haven’t tired the other modes yet, just sat with this one until I got an idea of how it worked – love it now!


Edit: on further review I'm not sure what makes the katanas you gain turn red...I have seen them go red turn red tho, so something does it!!

Just got a 6200 hit chain (another achievement) which I was really chuffed with although top scorers are getting 20000+!!

[fuse]

Really, really, loving this. Shin mode is where I've spent most of my time, trying to figure out the best points to switch and start building the katanas. It is insanely satisfying to have a huge number of bullets on screen, then have a midboss appear, only for you to fire off everything at once and just flood the screen with gold.

Not had this much fun with a Cave game since Death Smiles.

[fuse]

Just got a 6200 hit chain (another achievement) which I was really chuffed with although top scorers are getting 20000+!!

Start playing score attack and posting some replays, you! I just got a 269M/St5 run which I'm pretty pleased with - nowhere near a 6000 combo though - but the only other people on my friends list are mentalists off Cave-STG that are already tearing it up...

[Goemon]

You're already in excess of my score at 269m.
Most I've done is like 200m, and that's getting to St5, yet that's only half what's needed for the lowest highscore achievement!!

It's one thing I actually find quite unusual and makes me think I'm missing something...

There's a 400m, 600m and 800m point achievements and I can barely get 200m by stage 5...!?!

Shin mode looks like the mode to play tho! From what I've played of Arcade mode and the other mode (can't remember the name) they are a lot more run of the mill.

Shoot enemies to get Es in plane mode, switch to person mode, everything you hit with lock shot turns to gold.

There is some finer points but this appears to be the general jist. I find Shin mode far more rewarding. You just can't beat a massive fat set up of the katanas for big bucks!!

Also I noticed that your Katanas go red after you take a hit in person mode...? Not sure hot this changes them...It may just be indicating that you E energy is about to run out.

[fuse]

Anything turning red, be it gold or katanas, seems to indicate that they're about to expire - not sure if it gives any extra properties other than just serving as a warning?

In terms of scoring, proximity seems to be quite important - in ship mode you seem to get more orbs from point-blanking things, so when you switch your initial lock-shot fires more, giving you an instantly massive array of katanas. I find if I play super-aggressively that I score much better, but obviously get hit a lot more too.

Most of the replays at the top of the table show off some insane stage 1 scoring tactics.

[Goemon]

Ahhh that makes a lot of sense!
Watching a reply I noticed the guy sitting at the front of the screen all the time and following the katanas across the screen after he'd shot out.

That's one thing I've definitely NOT been doing!!

Man, knowing this makes me wanna play it right now!! but it ain't gonna happen this evening >_<

[Silvergun X]

That's the biggest part of scoring. Gold depletes in value the longer it stays on the screen. Point blank ALL the gold drops.

[Goemon]

:facepalm:

Doh!

Does this affect hit counter too? So the closer you are the higher you get the counter?

Man between this and the new SSFIV AE I don't know where to put myself!
There aren't enough hours in the day!!

[Atticus]

I haven't really touched this since picking it up but ready to put some time into it. Can anyone break down the basics of Arcade mode (assuming this is the most straight forward of the 3 modes)?

[Destrukticor]

Akai Katana

OK first first play so don't murder me for it.

This arrived yesterday from shopto and i have played about an hour or so, so fairly brief impressions.

Firstly massive props to rising star games for doing a bang up job with this. The manual is in 4 languages, full colour and 88 pages! Full of little hints and tips of how to play. Very well done indeed.
How does it play? Well it looks a lot like progear, and while i haven't got to grips with the scoring it seems there is plenty there for the scorers among us.
For scoring you build up energy with the A shot and what i call "Ghost time " when you hold the shot down, then you can flip into ghost time and unleahed the orbs you have collected if they hit stuff they turn into giant swords which can then be released into enemies for massive points.
Sounds complicated, i have explained it poorly , but it is easy to get to grips with i promise. Difficulty wise it doesn't seem to be too bad, though i have been playing a lot of MFBL lately.
If you like cave games (and i'm sure plenty on here do) then it HAS to be brought both to support cave and the fantastic work rising star continue to do with cave games in this country.


BUY it you fools!

[fuse]

I got my PAL copy last night, with a medium-sized t-shirt that I will never, ever fit into. Ah well.

Original thread for the Japanese release is [now merged with this one] with some of the real basics about gameplay and so on. Will be interested to see what changes have been made! I love the name entry music in this game so much.

[englishbob]

Spent an hour on it so far and think its great, its going to be played long into the evening tonight, seems olenty deep.

Great work from Rising Star, hopefully soon they will annonce the new Mushi re-release is coming over here, otherwise it looks like they have logically reached the end of Cave games to release (I can't see them going back to Ketsui, although quite why Deathsmiles II hasn't reached over here on games.on.demand is a bit insulting).

[Destrukticor]

well, im climbing the leaderboards but i think without practice i won't reach higher than 6th. the game is a TON of fun though. Katana gold oblivion is soo much fun.