Original message ([an error occurred while processing this directive] Views )[an error occurred while processing this directive]
| Spoon
111th Post
 
Regular Customer
   
|  "R-Type Final and continue mentality"
, posted Mon 9 Feb 12:19
If you played Ikaruga, remember how it gave you one continue for every hour of play until you hit 7 or so and then it just gave you free play?
R-Type Final gives you like 6 continues right off, brings it up to about 13 after a bit over an hour of play (or a whole lot of deaths... not sure which), and then around the 2 hour mark (or a few levels cleared, or a WHOLE lot of deaths or any combo of the aforementioned) just gives you damned free play.
I'm not sure if granting more continues faster (well, at the rate at which Final doles them out) is the best answer to the limited/unlimited continues debate; if anything, it seems just like a minor inconvenience to having unlimited continues. Now, R-Type sticks by its classic checkpoints system for governing respawns, and that being the case, unlimited continues is less of a detriment to challenge and fun than it would be in a game like, say, Ikaruga (if you're at the level where survival is a big issue).
Thoughts?
|
|
Replies:
|
| Juan 3819th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
     
     
 
| "Re(1):R-Type Final and continue mentality" , posted Mon 9 Feb 12:23
Ok, subtracting the continues part (im the kind of person that tries to only use one continue, then start over if all lives are lost.) How is the game over all? Worth picking up?
quote:
If you played Ikaruga, remember how it gave you one continue for every hour of play until you hit 7 or so and then it just gave you free play?
R-Type Final gives you like 6 continues right off, brings it up to about 13 after a bit over an hour of play (or a whole lot of deaths... not sure which), and then around the 2 hour mark (or a few levels cleared, or a WHOLE lot of deaths or any combo of the aforementioned) just gives you damned free play.
I'm not sure if granting more continues faster (well, at the rate at which Final doles them out) is the best answer to the limited/unlimited continues debate; if anything, it seems just like a minor inconvenience to having unlimited continues. Now, R-Type sticks by its classic checkpoints system for governing respawns, and that being the case, unlimited continues is less of a detriment to challenge and fun than it would be in a game like, say, Ikaruga (if you're at the level where survival is a big issue).
Thoughts?
|
| OmegaDog 1069th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member
| "Re(1):R-Type Final and continue mentality" , posted Mon 9 Feb 12:28:
For games that allows players to immediately pick up where the last turn left off, I'm not a big fan of free-play. Free play takes away a lot of the thrill of the game -- the will to survive -- by just allowing players to barge through a stage (if the goal is just to beat the game).
[ I remember, first time I beat Ikaruga, by the end I was on my last credit with my last life. I forget how many credits I had total then -- but I turned off the console with a feeling of accomplishment. ]
For a game that sends players back to a checkpoint whenever their turn is up, though -- I don't really mind as much. I still like the pressure from a limited number of lives, though, and I'd like some kind of penalty for continuing -- say, send me back the beginning of a stage (or another, more-major checkpoint, maybe a section after a tough/burdensome part), so that, if I have unlimited continues, there's actually some point to having lives. Admittedly, though, with a continue penalty, I'll probably have life count at max, if it's an option -- just so I don't go through the other burdensome extreme of redoing a larger portion of the game over and over just to get to one tough part.
ASIDE: Sure, I know a non-continuing "Game Over" sends me all the way back to the beginning, so I'd have to do the game all over again -- but at least, at that point, it's easier just to put the game down. With games with checkpoints and unlimited continues, I don't turn off the game until I'm frustrated with it, else I lose how far I've gotten.
ASIDE: Here's a tangent on side-scroll shooters instead of shmups, but... the continue penalty is what Megaman X5 and X6 lacked -- I forget if X4 also lacks it, and I haven't played X7.
[EDIT: Uh... dammit. This post became all big and bloated.]
"I must pay for my past sins... Let's fight!""I have no choice. You will lose!" | CCT: NEXT STAGE IS 16 |
[this message was edited by OmegaDog on Mon 9 Feb 13:02] |
| Holiday 2220th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):R-Type Final and continue mentality" , posted Mon 9 Feb 18:49
R-Type, imho, has always been more about pattern memorization and positioning rather than bullet weaving (someting like the Contra series).
Bottom line is, even if you're a shooter God who can 1 credit most shooters, there's no way you can pass R-Type in your first few goes, simply because if you don't know what's happening next or where to position your ship, you'll get killed (pretty cheaply too at times).
So unlimited continues isn't bad in special cases like R-Type because it helps you to understand and memorize the enemy patterns and when and where to hide when the big boss unleashes his mega optic blast sized lazers, and during this process you're bound to die many many times.
For me, at first a few parts of this game were unreasonably cheap and near impossible to pass, but once I scraped through it (using the proper ship), passing that part seemed like the day I was born: a day truer than any other and a miracle in itself, but just a vague memory. Eh?
Which means that: I have 1 credited R-Type final before, but if I play it again now after putting it down for so long (no thanks to Phantom Brave and Shikigami no Shiro II) I'll get killed again. Shows you how lousy my memory is!
|
|
|
