Review - RAIDEN V - Director's Cut - Great, but not as good as Raiden IV!
| Store | Platform | OVERALL RATING: 87% |
| Buy it on GOG Buy it on Amazon |
PC |
+ THE POSITIVE
+ Good old classic Raiden gameplay with a new twistand an impressive selection of weapons + EPIC MUSIC!!! + Multiple paths => good replayability
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THE NEGATIVE
- A lot of content from the previous Raidengames is strangely absent - Story feels useless - The screen looks too busy, lots of unneeded information |
| Buy it on Amazon Buy on Playstation Store |
PS4 | |
| Buy it on Amazon Buy on Microsoft |
Xbox One |
RAIDEN V - BACK TO THE FURY OF 90s BULLET HELL SHMUPS😎💫Raiden V is a vertical shmup (or shoot'em up, like we said in the good old 90s😉).
The core gameplay is the same as 99% of shmups:
Choose one of the 3 available ships and blast away in a selection of vertical stages with either Vulcan, Laser, or Plasma cannons and powerful bombs while avoiding countless waves of enemies and fast-moving projectiles.
Each weapon has 3 variations, so there are essentially 9 weapons to choose from, which is rather impressive.
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| Believe it or not, the number of people who tell us that they don't know what a shoot'em up is is astounding. Let's have a minute of silence for these fools.😁 |
Some might say that it doesn't look like a true bullet hell game, but the last insane levels prove them wrong. You'll see.😉
Raiden V can be as easy or as hard as you want, thanks to its SIX different difficulty levels.
If you're used to shmups, or even if you're just a good player, avoid the very easy and practice modes or you'll be bored.
Start with the easy or normal mode, at the very least.
Leave the hard modes to aliens and Asians. Or alien Asians.
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| It looks easier than these bullet hell shmups in which bullets cover completely the screen, right? WRONG. Because these bullets are FAST. Like, REAL FAST. |
Note!
This game is supposed to have a 60FPS cap but apparently, some people don't have it at all, and this makes their game so fast that it's unplayable.You can use Steam built-in FPS display to check. (or any FPS application, really)
On our side, even if it was definitely 60FPS, the game still felt very fast though.
There are only two modes in Raiden V:
- STORY MODE - Keep in mind that there are multiple paths that you can discover depending on how well you play, forcing you to replay the game many times if you want to discover them all. It'll take over an hour to just play this mode once, which is rather long for a shoot 'em up.
- BOSS MISSION MODE - It consists of a big list of dozens of challenges, which are actually quite fun to master.
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| Who has the time to read these tips on the sides of the screen, really? Maybe you need a copilot like in a rally game, to tell you everything which is going on on the screen? |
GAMEPLAY - GOOD OLD RAIDEN😍
Enemies bullets patterns reminded us of "Armed Police Batrider".
Why?
See, in games like Crimzon Clover: World Ignition(for example), most enemies bullets specifically target you.
Be very careful to adjust to the peculiar Raiden gameplay, because here, it's completely different.
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| Believe it or not, NONE of these bullets were targeting our ship. They were just passing by. |
The vast majority of the bullets are actually not aimed at you.
And make no mistakes, it doesn't make the game any easier!
If you focus too much on avoiding the few ones which did target you, you'll end up being destroyed by a sneaky bullet you didn't see coming from the side.
Enemies patterns are definitely not as easily predictable as in a Cave game. (the Dodonpachi series)
On the other hand, sometimes, just try to stop moving at all for a few seconds, and you'll notice that most bullets don't even touch you.
The massive bosses, on the other hand, are much more familiar in this aspect, and this is when Raiden becomes a true bullet hell game, especially in the latter levels.
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| Bosses are actually easier than regular enemies, thanks to more "traditional" and predictable patterns. |
TIP!
On the version we tested, we couldn't assign the gamepad to player 1 if we used the keyboard in the menu. Keyboard was automatically assigned to player 1 and the gamepad to player 2.Since it's impossible to change it once the game has started, just restart the game and use your gamepad ONLY if you want player 1 to be assigned to it.
Another thing which adds to the difficulty is the questionable color palette, especially the bullets.
Despite being gorgeous, these colors don't necessarily work well in a shmup.
Some enemies bullets(only a few though) are the same color as the little yellow bonuses you have to pick up!
Oh, and one last detail about bullets: some of them are FAST. VERY FAST.
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| I sneezed and unleashed by mistake dozens of missiles at the same time! Sorry, guys! |
There's a little "cosmetic" change compared to the previous Raiden III and IV.
The lives are replaced by a shield. If you lose all your shield, it's game over.
Every time you lose a shield "point", the ship is "disabled" for a few seconds only, which is faster than the previous games in which you died and had to wait for your ship to reappear, so this is an improvement.
Also, when you lose a shield point or die, you don't loose your weapons rank, which is nice, because power-ups items are RARE.
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| While I'm fighting for my life, morons keep having a conversation in the right panel and won't shut up. "You're sure you won't have a sandwich?"😏 |
The true value of Raiden V lies in the great replayability, like most shmups.
Learn enemy formation strikes, bosses patterns, improve your high scores, and have fun!😁👍
GRAPHICS - ACTUALLY DISAPPOINTING😓
Developers managed to make Raiden V look a bit WORSE than Raiden IV!
The VERY strong bloom(which can't be disabled!) causes the graphics to seem way less sharp than in Raiden IV.
And sharpness and clarity is one of the key gameplay features in shmups.
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| Very good example of terrible blur and bloom, along with very bad colors... |
We like how the game is constantly zooming in and out on the action and it feels very dynamic overall. The zooming effect is not extreme, so don't worry about eye strain or becoming nauseous. 😅
Although, a few times, it zoomed out so much that the ship looked a bit too tiny, as much as bullets/lasers.
Finally, enemies are sometimes difficult to spot because they blend in with the backgrounds.
(again that bad color palette problem!)
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| When you focus on all the bullets in that fast-scrolling level, you don't necessarily notice the enemies, like these big cannons shooting bullets swarms. |
On a brighter note, some levels have the fastest background scrolling we've ever seen in a shmup! 😱
Good luck avoiding the fast bullets, which ALSO blend in with the backgrounds, in a few levels.😁
MUSIC - A MONSTER OF A SOUNDTRACK!!!😋
As usual with Raiden games, we were expecting a lot from the music too and it delivers.
It is still as EPIC as ever and does have some memorable melodies, although we prefer the OST of Raiden IV, which is a bit easier on the ears, with more "traditional" dancey or rock titles. This one is STRONG.
Compared to Raiden IV, Raiden V music sounds more metal in general, while preserving some incredible melodies with Hans Zimmer-like strings. Just listen to the Stage 4 to convince yourself.
Stage 5 sounds like a pirate ship battle in Pirates of the Carribean or something.
And from there, it keeps getting more and more epic AND metal each new level, to a point that the last levels sound like a crazy orchestrated mix of Dragonforce and Rhapsody.
Just listen to the epic epicness of Stage 8, there are no words to describe it. =>
SFX - JUST MUTE THE DAMN VOICES😒
The average SFX are nothing to write home about. As it's often the case in similar games, at least, they do blend well with the music and are therefore neither annoying nor tiring.
Before starting the game, you can choose between English, Chinese and Japanese voices.
As usual with games and mangas, when you have the choice, it's usually better to go for Japanese voices, because they're more convincing, everybody knows this. (there are a few exceptions, like this anime called "Golden Boy"... Check it out, it's the best dub ever.)
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| Aaaw isn't it cute? My death lasers form an upside down heart!😊❤️️ |
Note!
Apparently, the Japanese voices are ONLY in the GOG version, which we used for this review, not the Steam one!Unfortunately, you WILL want to mute the annoying voices completely though, because the boring characters are blabbering CONSTANTLY(yes, really) throughout the gameplay and it could ruin your experience.
(Seriously, can anybody actually pay attention to dialogues and TEXT while playing a SHMUP??)
There are WAAAAAY too many dialogues, and 99% of them are boring and useless.
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| Aaaand the ENDLESS dialogues continue on the right panel. "Oh hi Mark! How's your sex life?" |
Although voices are not terrible, they're just totally unnecessary and become very annoying FAST. People who decided to add voices in a shoot'em up - maybe the ultimate genre which requires the most concentration in the world - are clueless.
TIP!
If you do decide to mute the voices, do it BEFORE starting to play,
because once you start a new campaign/level, it's impossible to change
any options in-game, including the voices and music!
RATING BOX
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VERSION TESTED: Director's Cut v1.01
Publisher:
Developer:
Release Date:
10 October, 2017
Genre: Shoot'em up
1/2 players (offline)
Difficulty: Normal
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| GRAPHICS: 79% | |||||||||
| Beautiful colors, but it looks average compared to Raiden IV and feels a bit outdated in general. Some 90s shmups looked better than this.(Batsugun, Dodonpachi, Guwange...) Everything is fluid and moves very fast on the screen, without any slowdowns! | |||||||||
| MUSIC: 97% | |||||||||
| Nothing describes "epicness" as well as Raiden OSTs. They're popular for a reason. Mix Radiant Silvergun vibes with Ace Combat, and you get some timeless epic orchestrated metal. | |||||||||
| SOUNDS: 70% | |||||||||
| Nothing special, sound effects do the job. Nothing more. MUTE THE ANNOYING VOICES THOUGH. |
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| GAMEPLAY: 90% | |||||||||
| Like they say, "easy to learn, difficult to master". This should apply to all good shmups. Raiden V is longer than most shmups, and the numerous weapons and three ships will give you a lot for your money. |
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| OVERALL RATING: 87% | |||||||||
| Without a doubt a top-of-the-line shoot'em up, Raiden V does have a few minor issues(useless dialogues and busy UI, for example), but the satisfying old-school gameplay makes it up for it, and you won't regret investing your time in beating your high scores in this great gem! Overall, we do consider it's not as good as Raiden IV, which is still the best of the series! |
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