Psyvariar 2: The Will To Fabricate

[rjpageuk]

I dont quite understand your comments about there only being one way to play RS as opposed to Psyvariar...

If you want top scores there is only one way to play both.

If you are playing for fun you can play either many different ways, in fact RS has lots of scope for variation - for example see the amazing VTF sword play vids.

Plus I dont think anyone did say Psy lacks depth, and it is a great game. Obviously I missed out on all the anti-psy comments on its release as I didnt get into it until the PAL release, so apologies for missing this point.

[Cacophanus]

Radiant Silvergun is very limited in the paths on offer. Psyvariar offers many more, and with more than a little leeway for personal style. Moreover, the shot patterns and enemy waves, not to mention the general level design, is incredibly tight (more so than anything in the genre I should add) and that proves the fact that game is robust enough to support such personal versatility.

As for Treasure, I do respect them but I do detest the "carte blanche" fanboy empowerment (normally to subjugate others by proving that they clearly know more on gaming because they support Treasure). It's pathetic and detrimental to the truly individual nature of how the medium is experienced.

[baad bwoy]

Ikaruga is a quality title, and I would have to take peoples word for it that Radiant Silvergun is as well, (having hardly played it, despite owning it some years ago, before it became so collectable)
I have found that if a person wants to amass high scores with Ikaruga there is very little room for any mistakes as chains need to be got, and to have built up a decent chain just to let it break is a GAAAAAAAAAHHH
moment, and can be intensely frustrating,
I would argue that Ikaruga contains scope for a great deal of creativity and development of ideas in getting longer chains, and as skills are sharpened I have found out new and increasingly efficient ways of destroying the enemy fleet.
My point is (having not had the opportunity to play either Psyvariar or Psyvariar 2 (yet!) please could people refrain at least for the time being from making this thread a negative hateful one, I want to hear about Psyvariar 2's good points, not a slanging match about Radiant/Ikaruga not being as good. A debate is healthy but It would be nice for those lucky few, to build up the sense of anticipation of us players who are still waiting to play this game, rather than sulley our innocent minds with bitterness
So come on guys let go of the bickering, (just this once)

[Pij]

without putting more play time in i cannot confirm this but Psyvariar doesnt allow for any more personal style than the others, ikaruga for instance forces you to remember static patterns.

The difference with psyvariar is the shot patterns vary depending on where your ship is, this doesnt allow for more/better freedom all it allows for is a greater degree of error.

if 2 ships fire at you and your not in the right place to buzz all shots when you could be then you may aswell scrap that run and try again.

its no difference than missing a 16x in esprade or failing a link in ikaruga if anything its less forgiving.

Lets face it RS is media hype the game isnt all that.

its very much like how people say that esprade has a larger margin of error for scoring than dodonpachi, but thats rubbish a missed 16x is just as bad as a broken combo.

[Cacophanus]

I don't think Radiant Silvergun was hyped, just that opportunistic "me too" parasites jumped on the critical acclaim bandwagon.

I agree this thread should be on the positive aspects of Psyvariar 2, of which their are numerous, but I swear to God if anyone starts spouting Treasure propaganda I will blow their kneecaps straight off.

My personal fetish with Psyvariar 2, at present, is the stirling mechanical design. Whilst the game plays beautifully and looks utterly astounding, they got the mecha aesthetic utterly bang on. Admittedly I adore all things mecha as it is, but having the reward of upgrading mecha to look and play cooler is just too damn much.

[DaveW]

This game rocks.

I bought a Dreamcast a month ago for 17 dollars I mainly got it for 1 game: Ikaruga. Now my console exists to play two games: Ikaruga, and Psyvariar 2.

It doesn't replace Ikaruga, but it is a very good solid shooter, and will sit along Ikaruga in my game collection.

[Pij]

media hype wasnt really the best way of saying it, what i meant to say was that over the years its been hyped by peeps who have brought it, the price increased and peeps took interest and its snowballed from there.

same thing goes for battle garrega (maybe start a new discussion on all this)

on a brighter note, Psy 2 is a damn fun game, and i just love the entrance and mid animation on the spider mech.

The musics all good aswell, overall its a good improvement over the original and anyone into shmups would be daft to miss it.

DaveW you should get Gunbird 2 aswell, its another great shmup.

[Kirby]

I must admit i'm really not feeling it at the moment. It seems too slow (both your movement and the shot attack), too short and your attack seems pitiful even after powering up. Plus the ship/mecha seems awfully big.

I presume the 'buzz invulnerability' is when you get those little lightning bolts come out and hit the enemies?

I'll stick with it, but for now i definitely prefer SnS 2. I stuck that on and was grinning from ear to ear within 10 seconds...

Meh i have the flu so maybe i'm not in the right frame of mind at the moment...

[charlesr]

Ok. The graphics in this are beautiful. Truely sensational. Not just the definition, but also the use of colour. The music isn't a patch on the original, but music is so personal, others may love it.

The front end is presumably virtually arcade perfect. I.e. YOU GET NOTHING. Not even a ranking lookup. The only time I've seen the rankings is when you finish your credit.

People who found Psyvariar on the PS2 hard, may as well look elsewhere, cos this is tough. There is no spin button, instead relying on a deft flick of the stick to set your craft spinning. The instant you stop moving, your spin dies, which makes stopping and getting a high buzz from the bullets as they pass by very tricky. You are required to constantly keep moving and fly along with the bullets. This feature alone may be enough to put people off.

I started playing with the buzz mecha, thinking that would be the bad boy for leveling up, but found the repeated flicking motion needed to keep the spin going (for high buzz) a bit of a chore. In revision, once you found a tidy spot to let bullets go by, you could, quite literally, sit and spin. In this, if you sit still, the spin is lost, so you need to either vibrate the stick quickly to avoid too much movement, or move back and forth along the line of the bullets (not possible when they are coming from multiple angles). The buzz mecha has very low shot power, making increasing the level meter slow work when there are no bullets about.

The shot mecha has high shot power and levels up very fast with enemies shot. I've enjoyed this mode more so far because you can wait for a group of enemies to appear, wait for them to fire their bullets, shoot one of them, level up and then fly like a madman through the bullets and then through the enemies and then start over with the next wave. Bizarrely when you choose the shot mecha, the enemies seem to fire more bullets for you to buzz, or at least different types of bullets (seem bigger or pairs instead of singles or something?).

In Revision, the same tactic of flicking the stick/dpad to keep the spin could be used to advantage because it had no effect on craft speed, but if you held down the spin button, your ship would fly slower (often helpful in a tight spot). In Psy2, spinning does not affect craft/mecha speed, but does affect shot speed. Shots whilst moving slowly are less powerful or perhaps more diffuse (spread), whereas shots whilst spinning are very focused on the dead ahead.

Apparantly the rate of level up changes during stages and if anyone can confirm this and figure out when and why, it would help, cos I'm sure it's screwing me at some points. Just when I think I've got the time window of invincibility dialled, I die. No way it can be my lack of fierce skills

Bullet patterns are bordering on works of art. But the sort of art it takes a while to appreciate.

I don't feel it's taken the clear improvements of the Revision version and taken them forward. Graphically yes. Gameplay, no. In some respects it's a step back. There's no spin button. There's no replay mode. In fact there are no modes. This is purist stuff folks. And there's no concessions to the weak.

I wonder how my thoughts will change after a couple more days play.

Also, pad or stick, makes no difference.

[charlesr]

Kirby, the mecha's may be big, but the hit point is absolutely tiny. The buzz invicibility happens when the gauge at the top maxes out from the buzzing or shooting. You then have a fraction of a second to buzz everything in sight to try and keep leveling up for as long as poss. The lighting shows the start of the level up and then the circle of light shrinks towards your ship. Once the light's gone, you are back to normal.

[lucanvortex]

Anyone know if this works with the Utopia boot disk through a vga box?

[Kirby]

Been playing for another hour or so and i just got to the 3rd level on Normal.

I'm afraid i'm going to have to slightly disagree with most of the people here (oops)...

Still pretty underwhelmed though to be honest. It's not bad, just not the game i was expecting it to be. I think Ikaruga, Border Down and SnS 2 all look better, both technically and artisticly and SnS 2 for example (as the most recent shooter i bought) has far superior presentation. Gameplay wise it just doesn't feel, i dont know, meaty enough i guess. Something's just not clicking..And i still think the mecha's are too big, not gameplay wise just looks. I think they look rather stupid on screen *shrugs*

I'll keep plugging away at it, and who knows, this time tommorow i may have changed my mind completely

[Nisa]

When it comes to vertical scrolling shoot em ups I have to claim a fair bit of ignorance in regards to what is great & what isn't, at present I only own Gunbird 2, Gigawing, Ikaruga & Psyvariar Revision & in my opinion Psyvariar is by far the most enjoyable of those that I own.

Although I think that Ikaruga is an excellent game I have to argue against the chain system which I feel is far too restrictive when compared to Psyvariar's rather more flexible buzz system which allows for the player to play each level more "expressively" i.e. they can incorporate their own playing style into each level without fear of losing out on points etc.

Over the past few days I have been tormented by the decision of wether to buy Psyvariar 2 or wait till more opinions are expressed but thanks to Caco/Ollie's hyperbole I have caved (no pun intended) in and ordered my copy from playasia as well as a copy of Dodonpachi from yesasia and a copy of Mars Matrix from anotherworld, so if my craving for vertical scrolling acton is not satiated by these titles then Cacophonus, you are a dead man.

Bottom line I am gagging for Psyvariar 2 and I hate those who are enjoying it before myself.

[venom743]

Apparantly the rate of level up changes during stages and if anyone can confirm this and figure out when and why, it would help, cos I'm sure it's screwing me at some points. Just when I think I've got the time window of invincibility dialled, I die.

Yeah thats right, the rate of level up does change. The neutrino gauge(ie buzz gauge) changes from red to yellow to green to blue. The colour of the gauge indicates the rate of level up with red being the lowest and blue the highest. For example, if the gauge is blue the rate of level up is at its highest meaning that it will only take a minimum number of bullets to level up. In general, in places where there are lots of bullets the gauge will most probably be red like during the boss encounters. This new neutrino gauge system is fantastic and just shows how much more skill is required to get maximum buzz chains.

Here are the differences between the mechs:

Maitreya (Shooting type)

Neutrino gauge increases more easily with the number of enemies shot rather than shots buzzed.

The bombs destroy all onscreen bullets(basically a normal smart bomb)

The shot has a wide range.

Level up invincibilty is short.

Five ascetics(Buzz type)

This mech is the complete opposite of the Maitreya.

Neutrino gauge increases more easily with the number of shots buzzed as opposed to the number of enemies shot.

The bombs make the mech invincible.

The shot has a narrow range.

Level up invincibilty is long.

[Cacophanus]

I can see where you are coming from charles, but the roll button on the original Psyvariar was a concession towards the non-arcade players (as the arcade marquee for Psyvariar Medium Unit attests).



In that, the game was originally meant to be played "manually" so to speak. Moreover, the actual roll function in Psyvariar 2 has been improved. If you hold back whilst rolling, you can keep the spin as long as you remain moving. This adds a level of manual control that Revision lacked.

As for the minimalist layout, well it's testament to the game's arcade heritage and subsequent focus in gameplay (I am concentrating waaaaaaay more on Psyvariar 2 than I ever did on Revision). This is one deep shmup.