I adore Progear. Incredible background art, unique aesthetic, and YES the boss art. Easily overlooked for being horizontal and Capcom branded. Thank you for giving the flying kids some shine! I posit the "dead parents cheering on their progeny to finish the war" theme as seen in here & Star Fox 64 is a Japanese societal trauma of WWII, also depicted in Grave of the Fireflies.
Let's also put some focus on the fact that CPSII needed to gain more real estate in arcades so they were actually the ones to look for other developers to create games THEY wouldn't do. That's why we received Dimahoo and 1944 from Raizing, Progear from CAVE, Giga Wing and Mars Matrix from Takumi (ex-Toaplan devs) and a few puzzle games as well. That's also the reason for the tight development schedule, but to be honest, CAVE always had really tight development schedules, Progear wasn't the first nor the last to be developed in 6 months. There's some Ghibli influence in this game too, I quite like it. I also struggle with the patterns in this game. You should've also mentioned the differences in the second loop too, this is a great vid as always, good quality, good editing. Take care!
Man, I think these videos might just be my favorite English-language coverage of Cave shmups I've seen on TH-cam. They really examine every aspect of these niche masterpieces in great detail, which I really appreciate. I especially like how you delve into the often overlooked story backdrop/context behind these games because I've always felt that that was something that Cave particularly excelled at compared to their peers. I'm going to be watching all of these. Thanks for making them.
Finding the story elements for these games can be cumbersome occasionally. Finding Japanese web pages with the way back machine and then translating them with google translate is how I got some progear info.
Nice video! Progear's my personal fav Cave shmup, I similarly didn't think much of it at first but the ring/jewel system eventually won me over. Learning the best routes to get the biggest chains in each level has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had with a game, I could play this shit forever. Anyway glad this channel randomly popped up in my feed, cool stuff :^)
I recently dive into Progear to do a 1cc, and I have o say that even tho patterns and general gameplay is not on par with previous vertical cave's shooter, I really enjoyed the whole experience, the pastel look and the Gibli studio's vibe are really something nice and different for this genre and the atmosphere was great! I would say this can also be a good intro to the genre: it is difficoult, sure, but much less demanding then other titles. In the end I got there with Bolt & Nail after about a week! It was a lot of fun! Also the scoring system is very addictive and fun adding to the replayability.
thanks for mentioning Junya, its good to learn about the staff and creatives involved in these games as it deepens understanding. Its like when people talk about Street fighter but dont bring up Begus, Akiman, Nishimura or Ikeno.
I have Progear in that Capcom arcade collection. It's okay. The quanity of enemy bullets really do ramp up fast. Ultimately, Cave makes my favorite shooters, but I don't care for their horizontal games nearly as much. Though, I like Progear more than Deathsmiles.
The bullet quanty DEFINITELY ramps up fast in progear. You can tell it was their 1st time attempting that format. But I think I'm with you, the vertical titles seem to hit me more.
I recommend using and abusing save states for practice, it's one of the best tools to learn how to 1cc a game also, use bombs frequently, most cave games you lose them all when you die
Very true. Getting better is essentially using an emulator for practice, other than the M2 ports of shmups that have save state features and easier modes to start out with.
I personally would love to see Progear get an M2 treatment. But regarding ports Capcom has close to no relationship with M2 compared to with SEGA (Probably why it was possible to do so with ESP Ra.De.) so even if it's within their plans, it's in their bottom list. The Capcom Arcade Stadium port is very much playable, but returning to the CAS port after playing the M2 CAVE game ports... the acceptable 5 - 6 frames-ish input delay become very much noticeable 😅
Thanks for the video! I'd love to script a version of the item collection on weapon/button switching into my game Interstellar Sentinel (SciFi/Fantasy horishmup with some bullet hell flavoring).
@@letsstartapeaceriot When I made my first Polymega video that got a lot of traction. But I was very sporadic with uploads. Some time passed since then and I asked myself what would happen if I was actually consistent? People liked my content well enough. So yeah, it's definitely new territory for me to have a (although disfunctional) schedule for myself. I appreciate your comment!
I remember the last video I watched was of you talking about responsibility in collecting and then I'd check back and nothing. But very nice to have more chill gaming content again to watch or listen to. You should do another livestream someday. You're welcome and appreciate the response.@@cat-pat8310
The interviews and translations only were worth watching the end of the video. While the effort put into Google research and video editing are praise worthy, from the perspective of a hardcore player getting into shmups though these clips are very lacking. You talk about "how many bullets there are on screen even from the very beginning" ignoring that the meta core of this shooter in particular lays in the bullet cancel mechanic. Beginners and those who haven´t even tried to learn or 1CC Progear indeed dodge all the time, whereas experienced players cancel the bullets and dodge only the strictly necessary ammount of them. And that´s only an example. You missed too the different option configurations for the three canoner girls, which doubles the game´s depth. Or what about the hidden extend and how to get it? How do the extends, gem system and score work? Do you know the conditions to unlock the second loop (or that there is a second loop whatsoever)? Don´t take it personally (this is as a matter of fact a constructive critic) but until you can 1CC the shmups you´re reviewing your videos will be informative only from a very casual and superficial point of view. You use the word "completed" to refer to a run where you reach the end credits using more than 9 continues. That´s no completing a shooter, that´s coin feeding your way through the game.
I admit I'm a filthy casual, I have since the beginning of this series lol. Most of what you have stated is true. (I did know about the second loop in Progear. I regrettably failed to mention it.) In fact, it was my fear going into these games that hardcore fans would shred me. But thankfully, most of them have been very welcoming. My explanation of the mechanics are from a beginner's perspective so yes, I agree if I 1cc these titles, I would be able to explain the gameplay with more accuracy. I don't pretend or act as if I'm the arbiter of shmups (Not that you claimed I believed that.) But what is true is that I enjoy them regardless, and that's the spirit I'm trying to portray, so again, yes, I'm not surprised that a high level player such as yourself, isn't going to find much use from that realm of my content. I'm sure one day, I'll 1cc one of these titles, maybe I'll even cringe at some of my previous content after learning more (and to be fair, that already happens lol.) That being said, I believe that stating my videos will only be informative in a casual sense isn't entirely true. I'd agree with that statement if we're talking about the mechanics specifically. That's definitely The Electric Underground's or other pro player's domain. But as you stated, there's merit in my coverage about the dev history. I appreciate you for at least crediting me for that, that's why I try to cover as much as I can, so that even hardcore players can take away something. (Despite potential frustration if details, gameplay or dev history-wise, were missing. Which isn't my goal). Overall, I believe what I can take away from this criticism is that I can let these videos cook in the oven a bit longer during the editing process so to speak (On that note, you'd really hate my earlier episodes lol). Because as I stated in this video, when I ran through the game a second time after more research, I died less and my appreciation for Progear elevated. But I don't know if I can promise 1 crediting every game continuing forward. At the end of the day, I believe I can improve, but probably not to your standard (or potentially, other expert's standard) during this series. My tentative idea was to get through this series and pick my favorite Cave title to 1cc. You may disagree with that approach, but that's the route I've chosen. Sorry for this long winded response, Thanks for having the patience to read it. And I hope you have an excellent new year. Take care 🙏.
You too! Have a great new year! The problem with Cave shooters is that they are so deep in so many levels that one could talk for hours and still miss a lot of info. And as I said, ad the fact that getting to know them craves thorough play, time and effort. The closest to a complete review are those STG Weekly clips where they even show a complete run, both loops and everything. But in order to do that they invite pro players. I don´t know personally someone who knows everything about every shmup and besides has the time and patience to create review videos. Your vids are cool but you could maybe focus on grinding those shmups you want to 1CC. In the long run it will benefit you. It all depends on how much you enjoy creating clips and playing shooters. Mushi original was my first 1CC and the run leaves a lot to be desired (I lacked experience in the genre, I played in a small and laggy tv, and what´s worse, with a Sanwa with extra long shaft that had the longest throw and slowest return to neutral ever). And it shows: the run is full of wacky and lucky dodges. It was almost a miracle hahah. Mushi is one I should come back and focus in maniac mode. For route and positioning my run could help you a little bit but there are much much better runs out there, honestly. Keep it up with the great work! @@cat-pat8310
I can't tell if the omission of Deathsmiles II from 0:44 is on purpose or not 🤣
Honestly forgot about it haha! We don't talk about DeathSmiles II 😂
I can't imagine putting together a game with the detail level of progear in just 6 months.
I adore Progear. Incredible background art, unique aesthetic, and YES the boss art. Easily overlooked for being horizontal and Capcom branded. Thank you for giving the flying kids some shine!
I posit the "dead parents cheering on their progeny to finish the war" theme as seen in here & Star Fox 64 is a Japanese societal trauma of WWII, also depicted in Grave of the Fireflies.
Honestly, that "spirit of your precursors" trope explanation makes sense. Definitely a strong architype.
Let's also put some focus on the fact that CPSII needed to gain more real estate in arcades so they were actually the ones to look for other developers to create games THEY wouldn't do. That's why we received Dimahoo and 1944 from Raizing, Progear from CAVE, Giga Wing and Mars Matrix from Takumi (ex-Toaplan devs) and a few puzzle games as well. That's also the reason for the tight development schedule, but to be honest, CAVE always had really tight development schedules, Progear wasn't the first nor the last to be developed in 6 months.
There's some Ghibli influence in this game too, I quite like it.
I also struggle with the patterns in this game. You should've also mentioned the differences in the second loop too, this is a great vid as always, good quality, good editing. Take care!
Good feed back! Thank you 🙏
The gamble the devs took working on this game, and still it highlights the quality and vision in Caves Studio repertoire.
Excited for more!
Appreciate you 🙏
Hearing the DOJ music start is always just instant goosebumps
You and me both 🤟
Man, I think these videos might just be my favorite English-language coverage of Cave shmups I've seen on TH-cam. They really examine every aspect of these niche masterpieces in great detail, which I really appreciate. I especially like how you delve into the often overlooked story backdrop/context behind these games because I've always felt that that was something that Cave particularly excelled at compared to their peers. I'm going to be watching all of these. Thanks for making them.
Finding the story elements for these games can be cumbersome occasionally. Finding Japanese web pages with the way back machine and then translating them with google translate is how I got some progear info.
6:00 what did you use for the Vita? Retroarch with a MAME rom?
I used retroarch with the final burn alpha 2012 cps-2 core! I had to whip the vita because I didn't remember 😅.
Nice video! Progear's my personal fav Cave shmup, I similarly didn't think much of it at first but the ring/jewel system eventually won me over. Learning the best routes to get the biggest chains in each level has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had with a game, I could play this shit forever. Anyway glad this channel randomly popped up in my feed, cool stuff :^)
Hey thanks for commenting and watching! It's nice to know the algorithm is working!
I recently dive into Progear to do a 1cc, and I have o say that even tho patterns and general gameplay is not on par with previous vertical cave's shooter, I really enjoyed the whole experience, the pastel look and the Gibli studio's vibe are really something nice and different for this genre and the atmosphere was great! I would say this can also be a good intro to the genre: it is difficoult, sure, but much less demanding then other titles. In the end I got there with Bolt & Nail after about a week! It was a lot of fun! Also the scoring system is very addictive and fun adding to the replayability.
It definitely isn't their most polished mechanically, but it's still solid! Thanks for watching!
thanks for mentioning Junya, its good to learn about the staff and creatives involved in these games as it deepens understanding.
Its like when people talk about Street fighter but dont bring up Begus, Akiman, Nishimura or Ikeno.
Nishimura is my one of my favorite artists. Love her work.
These Shooter videos are OUTSTANDING! Please do these type of retrospectives for other developers other than Cave.
That's the plan! 👍
They really are outstanding
Yuppie, new Cat-Pat Cave vid dropped!
🙏
Front mission shop music at 10:00 earns an auto-like from me. Great retrospective!
I love it when people pick up the ost 👌
Thanks for watching!
Very informative! Can't wait for the rest of the season :)
❤️
so great to see you upload
There should be more to come!
@@cat-pat8310 seeing that doj teaser at the end has me so pumped. December is gonna be awesome
@@bop7901 Oh yeah, I'm definitely snagging the m2 port.
I have Progear in that Capcom arcade collection. It's okay. The quanity of enemy bullets really do ramp up fast. Ultimately, Cave makes my favorite shooters, but I don't care for their horizontal games nearly as much. Though, I like Progear more than Deathsmiles.
The bullet quanty DEFINITELY ramps up fast in progear. You can tell it was their 1st time attempting that format. But I think I'm with you, the vertical titles seem to hit me more.
These are amazing vids about an amazing series of games! Great work!
More to come! Spread the word!
Loving this series! Next episode will be perfect prep for the M2 port in Dec
Absolutely. I think a lot of us are pre-ordering that one!
Holy shit i flip out when i notice FF8 music in hobby videos im interested in. It happens often.
FF8 has a killer OST
Great work! Thank you.
Thank YOU!
Let’s get you to 1k!
Cool video about a great Cave game.
I recommend using and abusing save states for practice, it's one of the best tools to learn how to 1cc a game
also, use bombs frequently, most cave games you lose them all when you die
Very true. Getting better is essentially using an emulator for practice, other than the M2 ports of shmups that have save state features and easier modes to start out with.
I personally would love to see Progear get an M2 treatment. But regarding ports Capcom has close to no relationship with M2 compared to with SEGA (Probably why it was possible to do so with ESP Ra.De.) so even if it's within their plans, it's in their bottom list. The Capcom Arcade Stadium port is very much playable, but returning to the CAS port after playing the M2 CAVE game ports... the acceptable 5 - 6 frames-ish input delay become very much noticeable 😅
Thanks for the video! I'd love to script a version of the item collection on weapon/button switching into my game Interstellar Sentinel (SciFi/Fantasy horishmup with some bullet hell flavoring).
nice use of Front Mission shop music
There are certain tracks I'll semi frequently slip in, and thats one of them, It just fits!
Nice!!! Enjoy the vids!!
Thanks! I enjoy this comment! 🙏
this game always reminded me of porco rosso
I could see that! This did have Ghibli inspirations.
Thanks for the reply, this is a cool retrospective you got goin here! im looking forward to the next episode@@cat-pat8310
Hell yeah Discordance Axis!
Who knew making a video on Progear would introduce me to a sick thrash metal band? 🤟
It was through listening to them that I found out about Cave and Treasure shmups haha. Love your work dude, keep it up!
hell no. antifa terrorists can go to hell.
loved this
I appreciate it 🙏
@@cat-pat8310 glad you’re back to doing content full time.
@@letsstartapeaceriot When I made my first Polymega video that got a lot of traction. But I was very sporadic with uploads. Some time passed since then and I asked myself what would happen if I was actually consistent? People liked my content well enough. So yeah, it's definitely new territory for me to have a (although disfunctional) schedule for myself.
I appreciate your comment!
I remember the last video I watched was of you talking about responsibility in collecting and then I'd check back and nothing. But very nice to have more chill gaming content again to watch or listen to. You should do another livestream someday.
You're welcome and appreciate the response.@@cat-pat8310
I got this for 2 bucks on xbox, died a bunch, kept asking if I want to continue, and then just resigned myself to the fact I don't know how to play it
Don't worry, neither do I 😅
The interviews and translations only were worth watching the end of the video. While the effort put into Google research and video editing are praise worthy, from the perspective of a hardcore player getting into shmups though these clips are very lacking. You talk about "how many bullets there are on screen even from the very beginning" ignoring that the meta core of this shooter in particular lays in the bullet cancel mechanic. Beginners and those who haven´t even tried to learn or 1CC Progear indeed dodge all the time, whereas experienced players cancel the bullets and dodge only the strictly necessary ammount of them. And that´s only an example. You missed too the different option configurations for the three canoner girls, which doubles the game´s depth. Or what about the hidden extend and how to get it? How do the extends, gem system and score work? Do you know the conditions to unlock the second loop (or that there is a second loop whatsoever)?
Don´t take it personally (this is as a matter of fact a constructive critic) but until you can 1CC the shmups you´re reviewing your videos will be informative only from a very casual and superficial point of view. You use the word "completed" to refer to a run where you reach the end credits using more than 9 continues. That´s no completing a shooter, that´s coin feeding your way through the game.
I admit I'm a filthy casual, I have since the beginning of this series lol. Most of what you have stated is true. (I did know about the second loop in Progear. I regrettably failed to mention it.) In fact, it was my fear going into these games that hardcore fans would shred me. But thankfully, most of them have been very welcoming. My explanation of the mechanics are from a beginner's perspective so yes, I agree if I 1cc these titles, I would be able to explain the gameplay with more accuracy. I don't pretend or act as if I'm the arbiter of shmups (Not that you claimed I believed that.) But what is true is that I enjoy them regardless, and that's the spirit I'm trying to portray, so again, yes, I'm not surprised that a high level player such as yourself, isn't going to find much use from that realm of my content. I'm sure one day, I'll 1cc one of these titles, maybe I'll even cringe at some of my previous content after learning more (and to be fair, that already happens lol.) That being said, I believe that stating my videos will only be informative in a casual sense isn't entirely true. I'd agree with that statement if we're talking about the mechanics specifically. That's definitely The Electric Underground's or other pro player's domain. But as you stated, there's merit in my coverage about the dev history. I appreciate you for at least crediting me for that, that's why I try to cover as much as I can, so that even hardcore players can take away something. (Despite potential frustration if details, gameplay or dev history-wise, were missing. Which isn't my goal).
Overall, I believe what I can take away from this criticism is that I can let these videos cook in the oven a bit longer during the editing process so to speak (On that note, you'd really hate my earlier episodes lol). Because as I stated in this video, when I ran through the game a second time after more research, I died less and my appreciation for Progear elevated. But I don't know if I can promise 1 crediting every game continuing forward. At the end of the day, I believe I can improve, but probably not to your standard (or potentially, other expert's standard) during this series. My tentative idea was to get through this series and pick my favorite Cave title to 1cc. You may disagree with that approach, but that's the route I've chosen. Sorry for this long winded response, Thanks for having the patience to read it. And I hope you have an excellent new year. Take care 🙏.
Also, great job with 1 crediting Mushihimesama Futari, that's the one I want to 1cc. So maybe when the day comes, you can give me some pointers! ;)
You too! Have a great new year!
The problem with Cave shooters is that they are so deep in so many levels that one could talk for hours and still miss a lot of info. And as I said, ad the fact that getting to know them craves thorough play, time and effort. The closest to a complete review are those STG Weekly clips where they even show a complete run, both loops and everything. But in order to do that they invite pro players. I don´t know personally someone who knows everything about every shmup and besides has the time and patience to create review videos.
Your vids are cool but you could maybe focus on grinding those shmups you want to 1CC. In the long run it will benefit you. It all depends on how much you enjoy creating clips and playing shooters. Mushi original was my first 1CC and the run leaves a lot to be desired (I lacked experience in the genre, I played in a small and laggy tv, and what´s worse, with a Sanwa with extra long shaft that had the longest throw and slowest return to neutral ever). And it shows: the run is full of wacky and lucky dodges. It was almost a miracle hahah. Mushi is one I should come back and focus in maniac mode. For route and positioning my run could help you a little bit but there are much much better runs out there, honestly.
Keep it up with the great work! @@cat-pat8310
#pewpew