Wasn't going to bother with posting but I didn't see any impressions around (I imagine Casino haven't bothered with this?), and I know there are a fair few Cave/Raizing fans here. Plus I'm in love with this game and thought I'd share
First things first, this is a big Raizing tribute, a real labour of love and Cave have really let however many ex-raizing peeps that were involved loose. If it wasn't for the Cave logo you'd think Raizing have never been away. That said it has Cave's current flawless art design and addictive gameplay throughout. I think this could be a Garegga beater, that's what I'm getting at.
Initial impressions however, weren't without doubts. First thing I noticed is that the BGM is (almost severely) drowned out by all the explosions going on. Perhaps not something I'd notice if I hadn't come straight from Mushi, Cave always seem to get the balance right, but I guess with everything going off on screen it's almost inevitable.
My second niggle rears it's ugly head as soon as you hit a boss. The ranking system.
As in some previous Raizing shmups, the game ups the difficulty if you’re armed up to the teeth and doing well. This works near perfectly during levels, merely adding a few more shots from certain vehicles or replacing turrets. If you hit a boss from L2 onwards on a winning streak though, God help you.
That said you do get used to it and there’s a real old school fear about the bosses. Building bombs becomes very important.
The last of my niggles I find barely worth mentioning now. As with Garegga, a bit of time is needed to adjust to the sheer amount of carnage on screen. Bullets are generally purple or blue but amongst the vehicles, explosions, debris, pick-ups you’ll find yourself in a few “What killed me?” moments at first. I can testify this does pass, it’s just not your usual Cave pink-blobfest and that’s something that puts people off unfortunately.
While we’re talking carnage, the game looks spectacular. There’s an insane amount of animation on screen with very little slowdown - Imagine Battle Garegga 2 using the Mushi hardware.
It’s perhaps not as "pretty" as Mushihimesama, with its gritty Garegga style looks but the levels are certainly varied enough, with superb enemy design throughout. You start out in an industrial area before moving on to a valley then the obligatory train level, which might I add is superb, a real smash and grab. Haven’t seen past the L3 boss yet >_< but the demo implies there are 3 more, set in city gardens, above the clouds and at a castle.
Gameplay wise, it’s a familiar Raizing affair also. Deceptively deep however.
Two buttons, shot and bomb. No Cave lasers or slowed movement. By releasing the fire button and holding it again with a direction you can set one of your weapon options to fire slightly left or right. You can carry three – one either side and one behind. Once you’ve got 3 you can replace any of them by picking up a different weapon on the near side. So far I’ve had machine gun, gattling, 5-way, rockets, burner and napalm. Unfortunately when you’ve got 3 weapons you like the balance of, accidentally picking up a machine gun is a bit of a power down anywhere past the first part of the first level and can be a pain.
You can also collect special power ups that give one of your options homing ability. This can be VERY handy.
The Raizing bomb building returns. Collect so many of the small bomb icons to get a power bomb. The standard bomb is activated by pressing the button and power depends on how many small bomb icons you have. Power bomb is activated by holding then releasing. This fires a rose like explosion forward which sticks to large enemies for a few seconds doing major damage. These also leave a bullet proof fading red trail that you can take shelter in.
As well as weapon and bomb pick-ups there are small and large power ups for the weapons and various bonus points in the form of roses etc.
Scoring seems very simple. No complex chaining or the like. Your highest score seems to almost always be linked with your greatest progress and I like that. Leads to very addictive gameplay. You simply get points for blowing shit up with powerful weapons and picking up as much as you can. Risking a pick-up near enemy bullets turns the bullets into bonus points too.
Overall then, I love Ibara. You can almost see why the Japanese Cave otaku have rejected it slightly from the off, what with the lack of large Cave-esque bullet patterns, the simple scoring, the ranking, the carnage (and those bloody machine guns). That and the fact that it’s very different to recent Cave shmups. I guess Raizing are all but forgotten in competitive play
Still, I can wholeheartedly say if you liked Battle Garegga, you’ll love Ibara. It’s old school non-stop carnage with that one more go quality. I can happily sit and play this for two hours straight and there aint many shooters I can say that about. Here’s hoping for a PS2 port
Linear Mode
