Ketsuipachi - Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Ketsui Arrange - Stages 1 & 2 - XBox 360

If you haven't been paying attention, Cave, somehow, for some awesome reason, decided to release a stand alone disc release of Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Arrange mode, which players are referring to as Ketsuipachi. It's a mix of DFK and Ketsui, using the a-type ship with 6 (!) options, an arrange soundtrack and 1/2/3/4/5/10 chips though the same mechanics as Ketsui.

Unbelieveable.

I have been putting off getting a Japanese XBox 360, but it's time to pony up and go for it. This game looks damn near orgasmic.

Dodonpachi DFK for X360

Looks fantastic and I am really sorry that I do not own an XBox yet! Ketsui, Mushi Futari, Deathsmiles, Guwange and now DFK. Yup, it's about time to own one...

I have never been a big fan of console ports, but this system is really making me change my mind! After playing Ketsui at gunbird18's meet a while back, I was impressed by how true to the pcb it was. And seeing as how I can't just go out and buy DFK, Deathsmiles and Mushi Futari, never mind shelling out a healthy chunk for Ketsui, I might be tempted to pick up a 360 and go with the flow. Cave certainly seems to be very interested in pushing the colsole port format. Some have even said that it looks like they are using the arcade to test for the home market.

In any case, it's hard to argue that a $200 system and $60-$80 games are a bad choice when pcb's are easily double or triple the cost of the system + game in any instance.

Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu high score #2

I played about 50 credits last night, working on getting consistent in activating the Ura bosses, which is not easy to do! I'm also working on chaining the stages once driving up the counter, which is not nearly as hard as previous DP titles.

It's a pretty easy technique to scoring, which follows this basic pattern: 1) Use a hyper at the beginning of the stage to drive up the hit counter. 2) Kill stuff the second half of the stage to get crazy points. Your multiplier from your hit counter will only kick in if your hyper meter is full, so you need to fill that as soon as possible after that counter gets jacked up. Bees give you big boosts to your hyper gauge and it also charges while cancelling bullets in Boost mode, but not Normal mode, which just increases your hit counter more rapidly. You end up flicking back and forth from Normal to Boost to Hyper, to laser to rapid fire pretty often, making it inperative to learn and get comfortable with the button layout. More than once I have dropped an awesome hit counter from hitting the wrong button. Mostly when I get excited - like heading into the second stage Ura boss and needing to hyper right off the bat to continue the chain.

The game is pretty forgiving and amazingly awesome. I haven't been into a game this much in a long time. I really hope to lay down an actual good score (5x what I have here) soon and I'm using this high score post as more of an update on my progress more than anything.

Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu 1.5 pcb - review, high score #1

Rarely do I get a chance to play something which totally stuns me. The only games that have knocked me off my feet similarly would be playing Star Wars in the arcade in 1983, the first time I played Super Mario Bros in 1987, and more recently, after five credits of Ketsui over at Dave's house when I got the pcb in the mail during lunch at work.

DFK already has a hold on me so tightly that I am thinking of selling off my prized Cinelli Supercorsa pista to try and cop a pcb! Not only is the game fun and graphically beautiful, but the scoring system, chaining and music are all top notch.

The first few credits I played I just blindly choose a ship, shot type and went to town. I made it halfway through stage five on my first credit - then I noticed brentsg had set the pcb to difficulty 1 with the max ship stock (5). I reset the system to default settings and started playing ship C, power type and just fell in love. The lack of bombs is a little disconcerting at first and you hate the autobomb right off the bat, but the truly amazing thing is that you can play this game anyway you want.

Each ship type has good and bad, just like previous DDP titles, each shot type - bomb, power and strong - have their benefits. Unlike older DDP titles, the chaining is fluid and fun and becomes addictive like any good scoring system. It requires less memorization and allows for more seat-of-the-pants chaining, which helps you to learn and enjoy the game right off the bat.

I have enjoyed learning this game more than any other STG in recent memory, including Ketsui.


I set this high score at 968,405,432 after playing it this afternoon, trying to play for distance more than score and died off about a third of the way through stage 4.

It is an easier game than previous DDP titles, but more fun as well. I really do hope the port this to the 360. It'd certainly give me a reason to buy one!

DoDonpachi Daifukkatsu gameplay footage, reviews and pics

The responses on the boards have been fast and furious as more information leaks out of the 2008 AOU Show. Both Cave-STG.com (formerly Danmaku Dreamer) and Shmups! Forum have the best information as well as video footage and pics.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=18372&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=240

http://www.cave-stg.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=86&p=3

GP, aka Gaijin Punch on the forums and site guru over at Gamengai.com was at the AOU show and posted a fantastic review of DoDonpachi Daifukkatsu and a bit about the show in general. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?type=article&id=1717

From early game play footage, it looks like the dolls are actually the stage bosses this time around rather than pilots and they pop up on the screen when the boss ship is destroyed.

The gameplay is fairly reminiscent of Dai-Ou-Jou and the bullets patterns don't look too far removed from those difficult spreads. It does remind me a bit of Mushihimesama, though and I would hope that the difficulty isn't set too high to get more players interested.

Gigazine has some good footage and pics, though I'm sure if you stay tuned to the two previously mentioned forums as well as Gamengai.com, you should get new stuff fairly frequently.

http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20080215_dodonpati_daihukkatu/

EDIT: There is also a FIVE-MINUTE video on youtube with some really good footage here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFuS9E1ndtY

Rumor has it that the guy with the beard is none other than GP himself. You can see whoever it is knows DOJ well as they are feathering that shot to keep the hit counter up.

Damn, I'm so stoked for this game.

2008 AOU Show- Dolls Unveiled for Daifukkatsu

A French maid and a ...schoolgirl? Possibly Reco's distant cousin? Who knows. OK, well, not the best of news, but we have yet to see the gameplay.

Dolls aside, I'm stoked (as I know probably everyone who has checked this blog is) and I cannot wait for footage to hit the internets this weekend. The 2008 AOU show will have a few shmup forum members in attendance, so I'm sure we will see some good footage.

I'm expecting (and this is just wild speculation) that the game will have a few different difficulty settings like Mushi as the last DDP (Dai-Ou-Jou) proved very difficult even for seasoned Cave shmuppers. It would only make sense to try and appeal to the greatest number of people and Mushi's settings seem to have been quite popular, as did those of the Espgaluda port to PS2.

Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu - Cave 2008 (aka DDP V)

Cave's next game was announced early this Monday morning and it will be (drum roll please) a sequel to DoDonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou, entitled DoDonpachi Daifukkatsu, which roughly translated, means "great revival."

I couldn't be more stoked! Well, possibly, if Cave had done a Ketsui sequel. But they have one game left to announce this year, so here's to hoping...

Here are two threads going about this new release, one on Danmaku Dreamer and the other on Shumps!

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=18372&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

http://www.danmakudreamer.com/viewtopic.php?t=86

Page down on the Danmaku Dreamer thread to see the rough translation of the text from the show flyer. Thanks to GP for the translation.

The composer for the game is my favorite by far, Manbu Namiki. His work is excellent, with only a few mediocre soundtracks to date (Futari, bit of a dissapointment there) and as long as it takes after the Ketsui, Mushihimesame and DOJ soundtracks, we'll be in for some aural delights.

I have asked myself plenty of times what new games I might want to buy in kit form, what games would get me excited enough to spend that kind of dosh, and a sequel to DOJ was on that list, so, maybe...

Truthfully, the cash outlay is huge for a new release, so if I bought it new, I'd have to spend a few months with it and resell to recoup most (if not all) the cash and then get it again at a later date if its good enough to warrant a second purchase. Although, Bee Storm aside, I can't think of a series that has had more solid games than DDP.