played:
α -> β -> ε -> θ -> μ
α -> γ -> ζ -> ι -> ν

Another banger, though it's hard to say whether or not I prefer this over Darius Gaiden. They're a lot closer in quality than I was expecting, although this one is harder imo and has limited continues.

Objectivity is stupid as hell but if it wasn't these two games would still be super close together. It ultimately boils down to a matter of preference from person to person, and I'd imagine you would hear a similar amount of both answers.

Fourth in the series and first to have 3D graphics, still manages to look really good which can be a rarity for the early series jumps to 3D. Plays in a similar way to the former game but now replaces your bombs with capture orbs that can grab an enemy, once hit they will be pulled to you and fly along with your ship firing off their own attacks along with yours. This gives you a lot more variety with weapons than the former game. You can hit the bomb/capture button again to create a pitiful looking explosion compared to the awesome bomb of the previous game, but what you can also do is hold down the attack button to fire a long lasting and powerful wide beam attack that will destroy enemies and bullets, and can even be used to duel and power up from hitting enemy boss beam attacks. Great looking stages and backgrounds, and some of the more involved and interesting boss fights in the genre. Additional route splits inside of stages can change your path in a level or the approach on large enemies.

Having to hold down fire to use the beam attack now means you have to hit the button every time you want to shoot. Not as bad is it can be since every press will fire about three shots so it is easy to keep a fast and stead rate of fire but still annoying over the course of a game and a likely deal breaker for some, worse is having to quickly mash the fire button while in duels with boss beam attacks. Enemy attacks are so numerous, coming from multiple angles, at times seeking you, and can be so unpredictable that I pretty much had to just give up on even trying to survive after the second stage (which had seemed fairly challenging but fair at that point). The third stage on also ended pretty much any chance of me mashing the button fast enough to beat any of the bosses if I was going to try to counter the beam attack.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1468865375399919617

It's alright. Didn't hit for me nearly as much as Gaiden, and seemed to take steps back and forward at the same time not unlike from 1 to 2. Still fun for the most part, though.

While the levels have become significantly easier than Gaiden's and they've finally figured out a good balance of punishment and forgiveness for dying or using a continue, the bosses have somehow become even more of a mixed bag. They tended to be a lot tougher for me than I would have liked, even going on what I assumed was the easy route (top line). Granted, I didn't use the Alpha Beam nearly as much as I probably should have, but even so the bosses came across as ridiculously spongy, especially toward the end. The half-a-level-long boss in Eta was particularly unfun, with far more trial-and-error feeling attacks that lacked much of a sense of intuition or strategy as opposed to just blind-dodging various beams and patterns that seemed to go on forever.

The sound design in this one also seemed to be a strict downgrade from Gaiden; I found that the music wasn't quite up to Gaiden's par, and while it was still great I do find that that's something of a blemish here. Also of note is that the boss warning noise is annoying as fuck in this game despite being just fine in 1/2/Gaiden, so I have no idea what happened there. The sound effects in G-Darius also seemed to overpower the music a weirdly high amount, bringing me to manually adjust the audio mixing which I didn't have to do for any of the previous games.

In any case, the main levels were fun. I tried a few of the ones I hadn't played in my main run and generally they retained the engaging design the series has had up till now as well as the snappy and fitting movement Gaiden generally had, though somehow I felt even more mobile in this one -- definitely a plus. The missiles felt more intuitive in this game than in Gaiden in particular, and while I missed the over-the-top main fire that upper level Gaiden had, I think this game achieves a pretty good look for the projectile you'll see on screen most often. It being more compact also helps make it easier to see enemy bullets which is valuable as both 2 and Gaiden tended to have backgrounds or firing that made some enemy bullets blend in too much for comfort. I suppose it also helps that with G-Darius' new 3D style bullets were easier to see than ever. The 3D may have made it a bit more annoying to fight some bosses when their hitboxes came in and out of focus during their animations, but that wasn't too big a deal in the long run.

G-Darius felt like a generally positive yet mixed bag, but it's one I'm willing to give another chance sometime. Like I said, I probably could have used the enemy capture and Alpha Beam more than I did (I was left with 3 or 4 unused Capture Balls by the end of the game), but I do wonder just how much that would impact the experience overall. I'll be sure to come back to this one, though!

Eu não saberia dizer qual eu prefiro entre Darius Gaiden e G-Darius, sinceramente. Quando se trata de STGs, ambos são divertidos e rejogáveis demais.
Artisticamente, ambos são lindos, embora eu prefira o visual de Darius Gaiden, mas é claro, G-Darius é mais belo justamente por usar um hardware mais potente.

Musicalmente eu prefiro Darius Gaiden, a banda Zuntata é fantástica e conseguiu trazer algo misterioso, profundo e belo, mas em contrapartida, G-Darius traz uma gameplay muito melhora e a adição das Capture Balls são muito boas e satisfátorias de se usar - os Power Ups neste também são superiores.

Acho que, pra resumir, Darius Gaiden me satisfaz mais como experiência e G-Darius como um vídeogame, mas ambos são pináculos artísticos que eu rejogo de tempos em tempos.

Things about G-Darius that own:

- you can capture basically any non-boss enemy in the game and have them fight alongside you, and each has a different shot pattern or defensive ability, leading to tons of interesting experimentation on how best to progress through levels

- captured captains (midbosses, sorta) can do hidden moves with fighting-game-style controls, and they can also shield you from enemy fire

- zuntata music, ofc

- alpha beam boss counters (firing your giant BLUE laser into a giant mechanical sea creature's giant RED laser, thus powering it up to deal massive damage)

- boss names: tripod sardine. lightning coronatus. need i say more

- 3D silverhawk + fully powered up wave = best and coolest ship/shot combo in any STG maybe

Things about G-Darius that do not own:

- Fucking goddamn homing lasers and other cheap barely-dodgeable bullshit. there's too much of it

That's it. Wonderful and extremely unique game. (played on the excellent G-Darius HD Switch port)

It is no surprise to me that the same developers of Power Shovel made this game, they both ooze a quantifiable amount of Japanese.

This is the second game I'm tackling from my Obscure Games List, and I would like to give a massive thanks to JaxMagnetic for recommending this because holy fucking shit.

Before I go more indepth, I'm just gonna come out and say it: This game is pure unfiltered kino. Everything about it just screams cool, and honestly I think the Fifth Generation graphics only amplify that feeling for me. I also suck balls at the game, but that didn't remotely hinder my enjoyment because it is just a complete blast to go through.

Story wise to this game, well there isn't much of one that the game tells you. Based on the opening cutscene what I can infer is that you are a part of a space military and you're combating an enemy military that likes to primarily fly around in sea creature inspired space vessels. To be honest, this is a type of game that doesn't really need to have a deep narrative, and honestly it helps it because piecing the puzzles in your head for all of the weird shit that happens is far more entertaining.

Gameplay wise this game is some of the most hype shit I've ever seen. You have your typical side-scrolling shmup for the base setup, but what lies within has so many layers it's like the hidden Shrek Badge on this website. As you defeat certain enemies, (which you'll noticed based on if they're a solid color of Red, Green, Blue, or Purple) they will drop orbs. The orbs upgrade your weaponry and defenses. For example, you start off with missiles. Over the course of the first level you'll start shooting two streams of missiles, and then three, before eventually upgrading to a laser beam. The gradual progression of strength is something I have always liked in games, and seeing you start from zero and then becoming a lord of death as you rain endless fire upon your enemies is peak satisfaction.

Then, to add even more nuance, you can use these things called Capture Balls, to take enemies and add them as side pieces to your vessel, giving you either more fire power, or protection. I don't know if this is just a staple of Darius or if it's just in this game, but this mechanic is just... so good. and it makes combat I already like even more engaging and experimental.

There's also Star Fox type level progression, where you choose the path of where you want to go next, which I think is pretty neat. It even comes in the individual stages where you'll be asked to pick a zone within the area that slightly changes how the level progresses from that point.

The music in this game is baller as fuck, please listen to it, I'm begging you.

The biggest draw in my personal opinion is Beginner Mode. It's a mode with infinite continues and allows you to get practice for Arcade Mode. I tried Arcade Mode first and got my ass squarely kicked because I haven't played many Sh'mups before this point, but I still had a great time. I'll probably beat Arcade Mode some day, but for now I'm satisfied with what I experienced.

If you haven't played G-Darius, please, please try it out. One of the best games I've ever played, and one of the most interesting. Now I think it's time I do some meditation.

psa: g-darius hd as part of "cozmic revelation" includes the ver. 2 update, making it the definitive edition of the game

however, if you don't have a ps4 or switch, what people seem to forget is that the ps1 port is also the 2nd version, and i would recommend it over the ps2 port (included in taito legends) for this reason despite most people saying otherwise, provided you're ok with slowdown

edit: nvm let's go https://store.steampowered.com/app/1640160/GDarius_HD/