I decided to stop doing stuff like this, since it's more trouble than it's worth really. Between finding photogenic locations (say hello to my couch), taking the actual pictures in a manner that wouldn't look like complete crap, uploading them, making thumbnails, and writing up the blog entry, the whole process sometimes took longer than the time I actually would spend with the game. I decided to make an exception in this case. After all, it isn't every day that Cave drops a DoDonPachi on us. Now that Raiden* is gone, I don't have much else to look forward to in the shooting space. I decided to pick up the Limited Edition, for the reasons mentioned above, but also because the cover artwork is super nice. The Cave nerds weren't happy to see the boss ships transform into moe girls for this instalment, but they can go fuck themselves. This one piece of art has more character and weight than the entire shooting genre combined (save maybe Gradius V).
The cover girl is the first level boss, AI, looking up at the sky where the contrail of the player's fighter can be seen. The scene depicts the moments immediately before the first boss battle takes place. While the player is busy blasting his way through relentless hordes of enemies, the boss is sitting back, in a rather peaceful and serene setting, contemplating the upcoming battle. Try sticking that in your chainsaw gun.
The extra included with this package was an arranged soundtrack CD. After a few pack-in soundtracks, I was pleasantly surprised to find this an actual album, in a jewel case, with art work and everything. The mixes were not what I was expecting, but it is definitely a cool extra to have. The mixes border on the ambient genre, but have enough melody and instrumentation to not induce a coma. The piano rendition of the boss theme is eyebrow raising in particular (and matches the cover art nicely). On some of the other tracks I'd swear these guys stole Nobuo Uematsu's synthesizer. Good stuff all around.
The real kick to the head with this package is the horrible disc art on the game disc itself. Ever wonder what a $100+ game disc looks like? This is your answer, and it ain't pretty. Every time I see a single color disc I immediately have flashbacks to the PSX port of Samurai Shodown III. I can understand the vanilla version getting the red-headed step child treatment, but the LE? C'mon.
The game itself was a wake up call as well. After playing through the iPhone version several times, I was worried about some of the design decision Cave took in this instalment of the storied series. Thankfully, they turned out to be iPhone exclusive. One of the biggest differences between the iPhone version, and the series as a whole was the movement of the ship when the laser was activated. In previous games, the speed of the ship was halved, while in the iPhone port, the speed remained constant. This eliminated the biggest reason to alternate between weapon systems, and indeed the easiest way to get through the iPhone version was to switch the laser on, and keep it on for the duration of the game. (To my great surprise I was able to one-credit-clear the iPhone Arcade mode, where in any other shooting game I can make it up to level three or thereabouts during the first week.) None of that crap here. Not only is the laser weaker than the main shot, it also slows the ship down considerably, making it troublesome to use while dodging bullets. This is called game design. Take notes kids.
In addition to the sexed up high-res arcade mode, the disc also features two Arrange modes, as well as a ver.1.51 mode, made exclusive to the first print run and Cave Festival attendees, which throws past DDP bosses into the DaiFukkatsu main game. In addition to crafting excellent arcade games, Cave has lately been highly experimental with their arrange modes. DaiFukkatsu certainly lives up that tradition. The first mode, ver.B is an abstract melding of DDP with Tron. If that sounds out there, it definitely is. Most of the background graphics are replaced with grid patterns, while the enemies have neon highlights and numbers attached to them. I don't even know what the hell was going on, but the point is to exploit whatever system is in place for maximum score. This is a pure score chase mode.
The second arrange mode, ver.L is more mysterious. The "L" stands for Lei-yan, the Chinese dress robot girl from DaiFukkatsu and Dai-Ou-Jou, and the theme is definitely "pink." Original Dai-Ou-Jou artwork is even used during the score screen and the wallpaper behind the game screen. The player isn't given a choice of aircraft, instead they're given a ship not found in the main game*. The weapon and scoring systems seem to resemble Dai-Ou-Jou much more than DaiFukkatsu as well. The ship moves much quicker than the standard ship, and fires the "shot" laser from the original DDP. If that DOJ patch never materializes, at least we'll have this mode to tie us over, I suppose.
A slick package, for a slick game. Cave not only can create intricate games that challenge all players, they've also learned to make those same games inclusive to newcomers, and wrap the whole thing in a style of their own. A Novice mode makes this game very similar to the iPhone port, as well as the myriad of game options and modes means that the player can customize the game to their style. Easily worth the price of admission.
*The ver.L ship looks an awful lot like the Raiden fighter. And more then one location in this game make me think of the Raiden series. I wonder if Cave absorbed some ex-Seibu Kaihatsu and/or Moss staff. Can the return of Raiden Fighters be not far off?
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