Review Project Sylpheed. Xbox 360 conquers space

Once upon a time, in the distant 1986, a game called Silpheed was released . This is a cosmic jut-em-up, made in 2d. At that time-the genre is extremely popular, and the game itself is not bad, so it went out on various eight-bit Japanese computers, on an 16-bit machine from Apple, went out for computers under the MS-DOS system and even on the Sega CD in 1993. The main feature of the game was the change of weapons for our spaceship between the missions, while in most “shmaps” the player caught a temporary buff of weapons.

Silpheed (1993, Sega CD)

It would seem, well, the game came out and came out. The genre is quite specific, the game has not earned a cult status, but in the 2000s the Capcom publishing house helps developers with the publication of sequel-the games Silpheed: The Lost Planet, exclusive PlayStation 2. In essence, the sequel used the old formula of the cosmic “shmapa”, adding a kat-scene between missions to it. Well, the picture was updated by making a kind of pseudo-3D, although the gameplay was still limited by 2D space.

In the 2000th, the Shmaps were no longer surprised, but something except the successful formula of the original Silpheed: The Lost Planet did not offer. Assessments of the game received modest, and judging by the data on sales that there are on the Internet, the financial successes of the game are negative (70 thousand copies sold, without taking into account the Japanese market).

It seems to be everything, it’s time to close this story, but then two loneliness met. Microsoft And Square Enix We agreed that Square Enix will publish some kind of Japanese exclusive for the freshly mentioned Xbox 360. Everything is in the plus – small -laws get exclusive, also with the specifics of the Japanese market, where they were inferior to Sony and Nintendo, and Square Enix will potentially expand the audience of their fans with a new game for Xbox 360. But it was not about the fact that Square Enix would release something themselves, and Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or something else eminent, will be released on the Xbox. No, Square Enix will simply publish something … Well, for example, they will dig up the developers of the same Silpheed, tell them-we will make the game on your behalf, but by the forces of another studio, and sell it to Microsoft. The plan is reliable, like a Swiss watch with a Made in China engraving. So Xbox 360 received a rare type of exclusive-Arcadny 3D Shoot-Em’up Project Sylpheed . The name is consonant, but it is written differently.

The developers of the original dilogy participated only as advisers. The game was created by the efforts of the studio Seta Corporation, which in 2009 closed after absorption Universal Entertainment Corporation. This is not a studio of American cinema, but a Japanese corporation associated with various gambling games. SETA at one time developed games for Nintendo consoles, but the game will be the finish for X360.

In fact, another studio helped to make the game. A company with the speaking name of Anima drew all the cut-scene in the game, so that Project Sylpheed is an alloy of gameplay frame from SETA and Anima storylines from Anima. Or not alloy, but the monster of Frankenstein – here is how to look.

On the one hand, the developers are well done, because they managed to move the original gameplay of the arcade 2D “shmaps” in 3D. This is the same Silpheed, but instead of moving from the bottom up the screen, we are invited to shoot dozens and hundreds of enemies in three -dimensional space. Not just move in a straight line, but move along the free arena. But this is a controversial achievement.

Was the novelty the movement https://nodepositbonuscasinos.co.uk/review/lucki-casino/ of the ship in the 3D space? Of course not, in 2007, in order to stand out with such an idea, it was also necessary to add role -playing elements or an open world, and similar flying shooters in 3D were still on the PS2 in the game Defender, and even in the PS1 era there was a game of “Cowboy Bibop»With similar capabilities.

Cowboy BeBop (PS1)

Of the 16 missions in Project Sylpheed 14, they are the shooting of enemies either in certain quantities or during a certain time. Two remaining missions (one in the middle of the game and one at the end) – the battle with the boss. On average, the mission takes about 20 minutes, so the game is held in about 5-6 hours.

Will the gameplay somehow change during this time? New guns will open, but the essence will be unchanged. There are main weapons and three auxiliary. All guns are divided into those that shoot straight and we need to aim manually, and on guns with self -confusion. There are still support modules, in the spirit of strengthening the shield or treatment due to the use of a slot with weapons. It is possible to sacrifice the gun for the sake of treating a cannon if you wish – the ammunition here is essentially endless, because it is restored when approaching the union support ship, which is on every mission, except for bosses. Together with the ammunition, the armor is restored, which is spent if you were shot down by the shield. The shield is restored itself in a couple of seconds without shelling.

For diversity, the authors came up with three special receptions that work due to the energy of the shield. This is a salvo of all guns, ram and a slowdown in time. You can’t use them together – there is only one button of the special detention, and the longer you hold it, the stronger, theoretically, the reception will be. The strongest, according to the logic of the game, is considered a slowdown, and the weakest – a volley of everything on the ship.

There seems to be many enemies, judging by the names, but there are three types: huge heavy ships, small flyers, dying of one rocket, and such fighters, something in the spirit of our ship. Over time, we will have allies who can give the team to attack the same goal as we, freely attack enemies or attack the enemy that attacks our ship. There is little use from the allies. Unless they get a trifle sometimes knocked down.

Everything would be good for the game with the gameplay part if it were not for one important moment for the genre. The fact is that, despite the mark on the box with the disk about the support of 60-stage screens, the game in large-scale battles hits so that it is not only about 60, even about 30 frames per second you do not have to dream. And if you manage to make a “barrel” next to an enemy heavy ship and immediately activate a salvo from all the guns, then the FPS becomes almost negative. And before us is not Forza Horizon or the third part of GEARS of War. The picture here is modest, and we are talking about gameplay, and about separately drawn cat scenes.

Generally gameplay and plot here are two parts of one whole. In battle, negotiations in the walkie-talkie are heard, but all dramatic ups and downs are held in 3D anime, which is shown to us during the break. It would seem that since the KAT scenes made a separate studio, then the picture will surprise there! And at the same time, the plot, because it was not for nothing that this part of the game praised in her old two -minute review “Country of Games”.

The plot gave the developers an occasion to call their own project with a space “soap opera”

Review Project Sylpheed, “Country of Games”

Soap opera … yes, you can’t say better. I will explain why. The Xbox 360 DVD drive, so games with well-drawn cat scenes are held by several discs. Lost Odyssey, for example, reached 4 DVD. Project Sylpheed went out on the same disk and, apparently, KAT scenes had to be “jackaling”. In statics, you can try to find a couple of good shots, but everything is very sad in the dynamics.

Well, okay, maybe if the form did not work out, then the content will surprise?

Here we have a story about the colonization of space. There are no aliens, therefore it is not entirely clear why there are so many warships to people … Probably, they were going to fight with each other. And yes, it turns out – one of the independent colonies attacks central forces. On the one hand, the reason lies in the fact that the government once quietly destroyed the whole planet in order to prevent the revolution, or at least the uprising. There the father of the leader of the same rebellious colony died there. On the other hand, this daughter turns out to be a psychopath who wants to destroy the planets.

The scriptwriters tried to throw various plot lines simply for them to be. Here, for example, our hero has been in the same detachment with a girl named Ellen for several years. There is no hint of romance in their communication, but at the end of the game they show us how the girl was desperate and tired of the war, against which she rushes to kiss the main character. Until the end of the game, there are only three missions, after which these uninhabited relations reach Catharsis: Ellen is waiting for the hero after the suicidal mission inside the cabin of his ship and was almost desperate, when the protagonist appears, and they jump out in open space into a hug ..

Or here our detachment commander is injured and now cannot pilot. Suddenly, during one of the battles, he smells with his heart that the main character is in danger and sits in the ship to … ram the enemy ship and die. Obviously, the shooting was scheduled for the pedal in the ship, and the commander of the leg is gutted, so he could only ram the enemy.

Against this background, it is a sin to complain about the beginning of the game, where the death of one of the members of our detachment, whom we saw 5-10 seconds, show. Well, how else do you show that the enemy is a villainous villain? Yes, then it turns out that you are fighting for those who are able to destroy the planet with civilians, but this is when it will be!

These spiritualized faces of our team. The guy in blue is the main character of the game. No, Ellen is not a busty lady behind, but a red schoolgirl

If a gameplay is quite a tohratic arcade cosmo-player with fps, then here is a plot … let’s say if you could remove the KAT-scene from the disk and due to this to make stable performance, it would be much better.

Project Sylpheed is another indicative result of Microsoft’s expansion to Japan. We want an exclusive game so that the samurai is bought, it is desirable that the samurai themselves do something there. The game seems to understand that not everything is perfect with her, so if suddenly you died a couple of times at the level, then he will simply be offered to miss him on the third. How else to explain such a fit from the developers (precisely miss the level they created, and not reduce the complexity) – I don’t know. As I don’t know what else can be added about this strange, exclusive.