Even though you are not the best player, as you say so yourself, I do appreciate the obvious passion and appreciation for the genre. The little tidbits that you uncover and effort you put into your videos is appreciated.
For anyone wanting the Switch port, it seems the price has gone down. I managed to snag one from playasia for like $50 still a lot but definitely cheaper than the price mentioned in the video
Brief funfact: The Otogi Matsuri manga has Yusuke, Irori and J-B. Exactly the same face and look, but different family names. How Junya Inoue didn't get sued by Atlus is a miracle :P Also in the PS2 port of ESPGaluda, the arrange mode features 2 brand new characters that are basically Irori and J-B. No Yusuke, though. Poor Yusuke.
Regarding how Inoue came back to his crew at CAVE from his time at Toaplan... Toaplan was THE most influential second wave shmup company and almost everything came out of them... we're talking about Tamsoft, Eighting, CAVE, Gazelle, and Takumi Corporation, some former members later joined to other studios such as Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Square Enix and Taito. Joker was a cofounder of Gazelle nad you could start seeing his absurd focus on backdrops and game art (air gallet) as well as his desire to create more character oriented games (a step up from what Toaplan managed with Batsugun). ESP RaDe ended up being massively influential to the genre as well as people gravitated towards these kinds of character ships and gave them personalities (later interviews from people at CAVE mention this influence in games such as Mushihimesama and interviews from Touhou's ZUN mention ESP RaDe as a big influence... so there you go) You did manage to cover most of the interesting tidbits I wanted to be covered in a video to be honest. You can check all the characters' back stories in the manual and several websites which cover all the backstories for the characters more in-depth. Inoue ended up going into manga to better tell stories and elaborate on characters to his heart's desire, Otogi Matsuri is basically a manga with his CAVE characters, I'd recommend it if you liked ESP RaDe if only for curiosity's sake. I love the Akira/cyberpunk vibe early 90s late 80s manga/anime style in this one. Looking forward to your next vid. Keep it up.
My goal in these videos is to keep it brief, to scrape the gold nuggets, so I’m sure I want be able to get all the info with my set limitations. I try to take a lot of information and condense it, but I did notice I didn’t elaborate the scope of Toaplan, maybe even throwing Batsugun footage in the background while mentioning it could have helped, but I guess I thought it was implied they were an arcade company. But visuals help illustrate a clearer picture. Maybe one day I can dedicate a video about the rise of Cave. Also, just to be clear, what was the mess up about Inoue? I recall reading about gazelle, did I mess up or glaze over it?
@@cat-pat8310 I have to rephrase that in my original comment. I meant to say that he wasn't at Raizing necessarily (which would also later merge with one of Toaplan's offshoots, Eighting), but was rather with Gazelle (another Toaplan offshoot). I saw no mention of Gazelle so it came out as if he was on a sabbatical or something. You certainly deliver the important stuff and show everything that's important to elaborate on your points, don't mind my overly long comments (which are meant to highlight my appreciation for your work and might come as minor nitpicks worst). I hope you keep going with this series, take my comments as extra info for people who will find these videos in the future (because Im sure they will) and just as a fellow fan just wanting to share about something I like (CAVE). ESP RaDe was huge in trying to appeal to bigger audiences and changing the genre from being only shmup hardcore gamers to something bigger (it succeeded IMHO), I appreciate that it now gets some recognition.
@@dr_ubo No no! I love it! I'm just a filthy casual trying to learn more LOL! Then I take what I learn and attempt to make it palatable. I appreciate the info, It's what makes my videos better, and as you said, your comments give further context for everyone else that wants to learn more! If I came off as defensive I apologize! I'm just making sure I'm not giving out incorrect info, so your comments certainly help! Appreciate you and yes there will be more after the 5th chapter, but that will take some time to get ready!
@@dr_ubo I can confirm as a rando (also filthy casual that loves Cave shmups since he got a MiSTer) that I only took your comments a complement of information ! I actually think the videos and your comments work very well in tandem 👍💜
That was an awesome video man. I discovered this game while looking for arcade exclusive shooters on MAME and Final Burn Alpha years ago. I'm very glad it finally got a home release back in 2019. Such a beautiful and insane difficult game. Looking forward to more Cave retrospectives :)
Oh yeah, I've discovered a ton of games thanks to emulation over the years. The people that decide to dump those pcb boards are saints, because I can tell you right now, 70% (or higher) of the games available on mame, I would have NEVER come across in the wild. Anyway, Thanks for the supportive comment. I appreciate you, I appreciate the flattery, You sir have a excellent week 🫡
Awesome work Pat. The visuals in this game are just stellar. And compared to the previous games, I think there's distinctly more color in the bullet patterns for this game, making it easier to determine which enemy shot what, which pattern each bullet belongs to, what the role of those patterns are, what direction they're traveling and how they're spreading... all leading to much better readability. I love those details in Cave's bullet patterns!
Fantastic editing and prospective to go alongside an incredible game. You can feel the difference in prospective Inoue brought to this title with the character art/ themes and playing this at home has been a great experience. Keep up the good work!
Just a clarification for 1:25. They used prerendered 3D graphics here. 3D being the key difference. They used prerendered 2D graphics for all their previous titles as far as I know. They are still prerendered, just not 3D.
These have been really fun, and Esp Ra. De. is a personal favorite. Unmatched vibes. Tho the reason the story seems a bit convoluted is that a lot of the English information on Cave stories appear to be poorly sourced or just outright... made up. Like, Yusuke's friend (well, acquaintance) doesn't die at the beginning. He's kidnapped for his psychic potential then loses control of his powers and becomes a boss. Or how Gara is meant to be someone with psychic powers ironically clamping down on Espers because her fiance died from psychic crime. It's honestly super straightforward, but often gets overcomplicated in English summaries. Gamengai had direct translations of the japanese stories, and was probably the best source for figuring things out. Though it's currently down. Hopefully it goes back up, tho a decent amount is still in the wayback machine. Cave games don't put focus on story, and it's meant to be more set-up to get you in the mindset for playing the game. Which is why I figure there's not much pushback to all the unsourced theorizing. Oh, well.
I've actually noticed this. Iori is an orphan in one source, but a daughter of an aristocratic family in another, I just chose one that seemed to fit better but yes, kind of a mess with the English translations.
@@cat-pat8310 Lol it won't let me post the link but I just checked, and the Gamengai site is back up. There's some formatting issues (missing spaces and weird line breaks) but it's the best source by virtue of being human translations of the Japanese sites
Even though you are not the best player, as you say so yourself, I do appreciate the obvious passion and appreciation for the genre. The little tidbits that you uncover and effort you put into your videos is appreciated.
For anyone wanting the Switch port, it seems the price has gone down. I managed to snag one from playasia for like $50
still a lot but definitely cheaper than the price mentioned in the video
Brief funfact: The Otogi Matsuri manga has Yusuke, Irori and J-B. Exactly the same face and look, but different family names. How Junya Inoue didn't get sued by Atlus is a miracle :P
Also in the PS2 port of ESPGaluda, the arrange mode features 2 brand new characters that are basically Irori and J-B. No Yusuke, though. Poor Yusuke.
Regarding how Inoue came back to his crew at CAVE from his time at Toaplan... Toaplan was THE most influential second wave shmup company and almost everything came out of them... we're talking about Tamsoft, Eighting, CAVE, Gazelle, and Takumi Corporation, some former members later joined to other studios such as Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Square Enix and Taito. Joker was a cofounder of Gazelle nad you could start seeing his absurd focus on backdrops and game art (air gallet) as well as his desire to create more character oriented games (a step up from what Toaplan managed with Batsugun). ESP RaDe ended up being massively influential to the genre as well as people gravitated towards these kinds of character ships and gave them personalities (later interviews from people at CAVE mention this influence in games such as Mushihimesama and interviews from Touhou's ZUN mention ESP RaDe as a big influence... so there you go)
You did manage to cover most of the interesting tidbits I wanted to be covered in a video to be honest. You can check all the characters' back stories in the manual and several websites which cover all the backstories for the characters more in-depth. Inoue ended up going into manga to better tell stories and elaborate on characters to his heart's desire, Otogi Matsuri is basically a manga with his CAVE characters, I'd recommend it if you liked ESP RaDe if only for curiosity's sake.
I love the Akira/cyberpunk vibe early 90s late 80s manga/anime style in this one. Looking forward to your next vid. Keep it up.
My goal in these videos is to keep it brief, to scrape the gold nuggets, so I’m sure I want be able to get all the info with my set limitations. I try to take a lot of information and condense it, but I did notice I didn’t elaborate the scope of Toaplan, maybe even throwing Batsugun footage in the background while mentioning it could have helped, but I guess I thought it was implied they were an arcade company. But visuals help illustrate a clearer picture. Maybe one day I can dedicate a video about the rise of Cave. Also, just to be clear, what was the mess up about Inoue? I recall reading about gazelle, did I mess up or glaze over it?
Just looked it up, I glazed over Gazelle. That was in between Toaplon and Cave.
@@cat-pat8310 I have to rephrase that in my original comment. I meant to say that he wasn't at Raizing necessarily (which would also later merge with one of Toaplan's offshoots, Eighting), but was rather with Gazelle (another Toaplan offshoot). I saw no mention of Gazelle so it came out as if he was on a sabbatical or something. You certainly deliver the important stuff and show everything that's important to elaborate on your points, don't mind my overly long comments (which are meant to highlight my appreciation for your work and might come as minor nitpicks worst). I hope you keep going with this series, take my comments as extra info for people who will find these videos in the future (because Im sure they will) and just as a fellow fan just wanting to share about something I like (CAVE). ESP RaDe was huge in trying to appeal to bigger audiences and changing the genre from being only shmup hardcore gamers to something bigger (it succeeded IMHO), I appreciate that it now gets some recognition.
@@dr_ubo No no! I love it! I'm just a filthy casual trying to learn more LOL! Then I take what I learn and attempt to make it palatable. I appreciate the info, It's what makes my videos better, and as you said, your comments give further context for everyone else that wants to learn more! If I came off as defensive I apologize! I'm just making sure I'm not giving out incorrect info, so your comments certainly help! Appreciate you and yes there will be more after the 5th chapter, but that will take some time to get ready!
@@dr_ubo I can confirm as a rando (also filthy casual that loves Cave shmups since he got a MiSTer) that I only took your comments a complement of information !
I actually think the videos and your comments work very well in tandem 👍💜
ho man , you have to mention , the boss music , still stuck un my head each time i heard about this game .
That was an awesome video man. I discovered this game while looking for arcade exclusive shooters on MAME and Final Burn Alpha years ago. I'm very glad it finally got a home release back in 2019. Such a beautiful and insane difficult game. Looking forward to more Cave retrospectives :)
Oh yeah, I've discovered a ton of games thanks to emulation over the years. The people that decide to dump those pcb boards are saints, because I can tell you right now, 70% (or higher) of the games available on mame, I would have NEVER come across in the wild. Anyway, Thanks for the supportive comment. I appreciate you, I appreciate the flattery, You sir have a excellent week 🫡
Awesome work Pat. The visuals in this game are just stellar. And compared to the previous games, I think there's distinctly more color in the bullet patterns for this game, making it easier to determine which enemy shot what, which pattern each bullet belongs to, what the role of those patterns are, what direction they're traveling and how they're spreading... all leading to much better readability. I love those details in Cave's bullet patterns!
This series has been fantastic so far. Thank you for digging in to these titles
And thank you for watching my content! Means a lot!
Love how superhero vibey this one is
Huh, I guess you're right! Never really considered that 🤔
Fantastic editing and prospective to go alongside an incredible game. You can feel the difference in prospective Inoue brought to this title with the character art/ themes and playing this at home has been a great experience. Keep up the good work!
Absolutely, I'm glad you've been enjoying it buddy! 🤟
Loving the Cave retrospectives. Good job man keep it up!
Thanks for the support!🙏
I love the audio in esp ra. De. It was my first introduction to cave.
It's honestly become my favorite Cave shmup.
It's a banger forsure 🤟
Just a clarification for 1:25. They used prerendered 3D graphics here. 3D being the key difference. They used prerendered 2D graphics for all their previous titles as far as I know. They are still prerendered, just not 3D.
These have been really fun, and Esp Ra. De. is a personal favorite. Unmatched vibes. Tho the reason the story seems a bit convoluted is that a lot of the English information on Cave stories appear to be poorly sourced or just outright... made up.
Like, Yusuke's friend (well, acquaintance) doesn't die at the beginning. He's kidnapped for his psychic potential then loses control of his powers and becomes a boss. Or how Gara is meant to be someone with psychic powers ironically clamping down on Espers because her fiance died from psychic crime. It's honestly super straightforward, but often gets overcomplicated in English summaries.
Gamengai had direct translations of the japanese stories, and was probably the best source for figuring things out. Though it's currently down. Hopefully it goes back up, tho a decent amount is still in the wayback machine. Cave games don't put focus on story, and it's meant to be more set-up to get you in the mindset for playing the game. Which is why I figure there's not much pushback to all the unsourced theorizing. Oh, well.
I've actually noticed this. Iori is an orphan in one source, but a daughter of an aristocratic family in another, I just chose one that seemed to fit better but yes, kind of a mess with the English translations.
@@cat-pat8310 Lol it won't let me post the link but I just checked, and the Gamengai site is back up.
There's some formatting issues (missing spaces and weird line breaks) but it's the best source by virtue of being human translations of the Japanese sites
This series is really great. I'm glad I found it.
Glad to have you here!
Another great video - cave rules.
Thanks for the support 🙏
Is this game available for digital download for either Switch or PS4?
Physical only I believe.
@@cat-pat8310 thank you
"Enough with the fighter jets" lol no such thing as too many fighter jets, there should be a video going through every fighter jet game
I wished they continued this series with Esprade 2&3. I'm not a big fan of the look they went with for Espgaluda 1&2.
Espgaluda was one of the reasons Junya Inoue came back to cave. He thought some of games cave released didn't seem to thematically fit with the game.