I've started writing this review on Darius Gaiden 3 times now. And I havent finished them not because I don't know what to say, but because every time I end up in a rabbit hole of listening to music from Zuntata, Taito's sound team, and by the time I'm done this page has timed out.
Gaiden's soundtrack is really special on it's own. A wild, weird soundtrack that sets this ethereal, almost dream-like tone, as well as just being very enjoyable listens. VISSIONERZ and SELF in partiuclar are great bookends to the wild concept album that Gaiden's OST basically is.
And the kindest thing I could ever say about Gaiden is that listening to this music on it's own is a disservice to it. Because the game is so entwined with it and rises to meet it on it's own, and the combined experience is brilliant.
Gaiden was made partially as a showcase of Taito's F3 arcade hardware, and they went all out. Absurd parralax effects, some very effective looking 3D models (particularly for a number of the bosses) which surprisingly fit in very well with the rest of the visual design.
And the cherry on top is the gameplay. Truth be told, it's not a particularly special shmup purely down to it's gameplay - though still pretty solid, thanks to it's great bosses. But it's fast, tough nature that arcade shmups inherantly possess helps you fall into the flow state and pull you along into the experience that everything in the game is building up.
And it all comes together so well. Director Hidehiro Fujiwara worked very closely with lead composer Hisayoshi Ogura to create a truly dreamlike, wild experience, including timing a number of the stages to the music tracks and vice versa. The way the game achieves it's surreal vision so well is a testament to some incredible game direction.
Gaiden is both more than the sum of it's parts, and made with amazing parts. It's one of my favourite shmups and one of the finest early examples of great game direction with an eye towards presentation. Even if you're not a shmup fan, I heavily reccomend giving it a shot. It's 30 minutes long and there's very little like it.
Gaiden's soundtrack is really special on it's own. A wild, weird soundtrack that sets this ethereal, almost dream-like tone, as well as just being very enjoyable listens. VISSIONERZ and SELF in partiuclar are great bookends to the wild concept album that Gaiden's OST basically is.
And the kindest thing I could ever say about Gaiden is that listening to this music on it's own is a disservice to it. Because the game is so entwined with it and rises to meet it on it's own, and the combined experience is brilliant.
Gaiden was made partially as a showcase of Taito's F3 arcade hardware, and they went all out. Absurd parralax effects, some very effective looking 3D models (particularly for a number of the bosses) which surprisingly fit in very well with the rest of the visual design.
And the cherry on top is the gameplay. Truth be told, it's not a particularly special shmup purely down to it's gameplay - though still pretty solid, thanks to it's great bosses. But it's fast, tough nature that arcade shmups inherantly possess helps you fall into the flow state and pull you along into the experience that everything in the game is building up.
And it all comes together so well. Director Hidehiro Fujiwara worked very closely with lead composer Hisayoshi Ogura to create a truly dreamlike, wild experience, including timing a number of the stages to the music tracks and vice versa. The way the game achieves it's surreal vision so well is a testament to some incredible game direction.
Gaiden is both more than the sum of it's parts, and made with amazing parts. It's one of my favourite shmups and one of the finest early examples of great game direction with an eye towards presentation. Even if you're not a shmup fan, I heavily reccomend giving it a shot. It's 30 minutes long and there's very little like it.
PishJuice
3 years ago
I will say this though, bollocks to Zone M. Titanic Lance is always a grim affair where I lose all my power ups and somehow emerge victorious, a hunk of scrap metal with a single pea shooter intact.