Recent Posts

81

Umihara Kawase Fresh! / Re: Umihara Kawase Fresh! First Week Sales Data for Japan

« Last post by KawaseFan on July 16, 2020, 02:07:04 PM »

And the rounds overstay their welcome by lasting MINUTES when Smash matches can be over in a few seconds.

To be fair, Smash matches could also last hours depending on the match rules.  How many people would actually want to do that is another matter entirely!

82

Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! / Re: Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! Western PC launch on May 28, published by Success

« Last post by KawaseFan on July 16, 2020, 01:59:31 PM »

Grim reading there, KawaseFan.

You know, I might have gone a little overboard.  Sorry about that.  I do maintain that BaZooKa's single player didn't hold my interest for long and, now that I've completed it, I don't see myself returning to it unless I get a chance to try out the online play.  But that's just me, and I absolutely hope that other people have a more positive feeling about the game and keep playing it.

Re: the general discussion about Sayonara being Sakai's goodbye to the series -- I agree with that.  At the same time, I definitely understand why, and am happy that, Studio Saizensen would still want to continue the series.  As I've stated before, I don't have any problem with the idea of taking the series in a new direction like they did with Fresh.  My previous post made it clear I did have some issues with Fresh, but I think if they continue in that direction, Fresh will prove to have been a good learning experience in terms of what worked and what could use some improvement (hint: remove the hunger bar, please).  I'm pretty sure I've said this in another post somewhere else on the forum, but the addition of the health bar is a welcome improvement, and the idea of a more open game world is great; Fresh made a step in that direction, but it felt a bit disjointed to me sometimes, particularly the transition between the ground and the sky area -- how good would it be if it was all one huge area and you could swing up there yourself?

There's an endless amount of possibilities that lay before us, but no matter where they go we'll certainly follow that road and see what they've got planned next.

Well said.

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Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! / Re: Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! First Week Sales Data for Japan

« Last post by KawaseFan on July 16, 2020, 01:21:26 PM »

This isn't too surprising to hear, given Fresh didn't sell that well either, and that it's basically a spin-off party game of a series that's never sold amazingly well anyway.  All I can say is, hopefully it still met Success's expectations.

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Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! / Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! First Week Sales Data for Japan

« Last post by sol-alpha on July 11, 2020, 05:40:46 AM »

I actually forgot to make a thread for this.

If I remember correctly, Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! Launched in Japan on May 28th 2020 for both PS4 and Switch at retail for ¥2800 or ¥3080 including tax.

Famitsu posted their Top 30 for the week covering May 25th to May 31st 2020. It was a week where the lowest ranked game was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX for Switch which sold 1,778 copies for the week.

Surely a new game releasing at a cheaper price focused on multiplayer which features a YouTube streamer and has an eShop demo available could get the game into the Top 30 of Famitsu?

No. Neither of the PS4 and Switch versions of the game could get into the Top 30 so they could've sold anywhere between 0 to 1,777 copies for the week.

Note that neither of those games appeared in the Top 30 in later weeks.

85

Umihara Kawase / Re: Umihara Kawase: No Spawns

« Last post by Canvas on June 27, 2020, 05:06:27 PM »

i cant give you a technical answer but i can say that i had that problem a lot and i mitigated it by exporting the offending levels and reimporting them through the menus. if that doesnt work you could try doing the same to a fresh rom

86

Umihara Kawase Fresh! / Re: Umihara Kawase Fresh! First Week Sales Data for Japan

« Last post by Princess Rescuer on June 25, 2020, 03:49:16 PM »

Ouch. Bare in mind, this is going from Vita to Switch, a huge jump in console popularity, ESPECIALLY in Japan. The Switch is much more popular than the Vita in all regions, but it's important to note that Japan favors handhelds, giving the Switch a commanding lead over everything else. The Switch's closest competitor, if we're counting devices mainly used for gaming and not smartphones, in fact IS the Vita, a last-generation handheld that the 3DS had already soundly conquered.

Glad to see the desire to return to form. I regretted Fresh and didn't even bother buying Bazooka. Tried the demo. Not appealing. At least Smash arenas have opponents with move sets and not just generic enemies that walk back and forth. And the rounds overstay their welcome by lasting MINUTES when Smash matches can be over in a few seconds.

87

Off-Topic / Re: Kawase style games

« Last post by Alc on June 20, 2020, 07:02:57 PM »

As soon as I saw Remnants of Naezith appear on the eShop I went to look for this post.

Anyway, Remnants of Naezith is releasing on the Nintendo Switch eShop on 12th of June 2020.

That's cool. I saw it run at a GDQ and bought it on the spot, but found myself getting into a masocore-esque "restart loop" with it almost immediately, where I'd restart a level over and over and over trying to optimise. It wasn't doing it for me, but I respect the game.

Let us know if/when Mochi A Girl arrives on Western store fronts, I can't be bothered to track down Nintendo points cards for the Japanese store just for that one game, but it looks interesting.

88

Off-Topic / Final Lap Twin Pro Tips

« Last post by Princess Rescuer on June 19, 2020, 01:21:49 PM »

Final Lap Twin is the sequel to World Court Tennis. It is a very hard game that requires peak driving skills at every turn. Here's how you can dodge the potholes and bumps in the road to becoming World Champion!

First off, when walking to each next town, make sure you have multiple fuel tanks from different stores and make sure they are all full (one $100 refill will completely fill all of the ones you have in your inventory). Set your equipped one to the smallest tank, then swap it out when it's low on fuel, and you'll have fuel to burn that you won't need to micro-manage. If you have three of these (or just two later in the game), you will have more than enough on your trek to the next town and will not need to buy Bodies at all. Also, memorize which ones have the lowest amount so you can sell them first to buy the next ones. You can only have one of each type, but there's a way around this- you can just get them from multiple towns and even get multiple tiers from the same store.

Another way to save money in this game is to always have equal or better tires than motors most of the time. Having a motor that's too fast hinders your ability to turn, and running off track or into signs will slow you down. Some later tracks have many turns, so you will need to be prepared for tight turns as much as possible. You can make up for this using the strategy mentioned above that constantly carries multiple fuel tanks.

The final boss is not as difficult as he first appears. You can maintain a good pace by just driving well, hitting the ramps, and not hitting other cars or going off track. You can even save the majority of your turbos for the final lap as well.

Onto the main, I mean secondary, I mean unimportant mode: F1 Grand Prix. The F-3000 mode is basically a tutorial for this mode. The true test of Final Lap Twin mastery is in the F1 Grand Prix, which has sixteen races and faster, harder to control vehicles. The Red Car is more aggressive in all races, but can be nudged into the signs on turns with practice, which doesn’t get rid of it for that race (it catches up), but does give you ample opportunity to gain some positions unhindered. You can also get small speed boosts off of bumping into the other cars from behind. Try bumping into cars during turns so you can maintain the speed and not veer off the turn. Also try to see if you can boost yourself into pushing the red car off.

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Off-Topic / Re: Kawase style games

« Last post by sol-alpha on June 07, 2020, 02:04:08 PM »

Finally, I left out Remnants of Naezith because it's a bit too close to being a clone and because I didn't really get into it, but I'd describe it as "Umihara Kawase meets N+", so it feels like it should definitely get a mention.

As soon as I saw Remnants of Naezith appear on the eShop I went to look for this post.

Anyway, Remnants of Naezith is releasing on the Nintendo Switch eShop on 12th of June 2020.

I'm waiting for Mochi A Girl to release on Nintendo Switch in the west since it released only in Japan in December 2019.

90

Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! / Re: Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! Western PC launch on May 28, published by Success

« Last post by sol-alpha on June 07, 2020, 02:00:36 PM »

I was actually thinking about this after I had typed the message.  It's highly possible that's what the sayonara part was for in Sayonara Umihara Kawase.  Either permanent, or temporary, and Studio Saizensen is simply exploring other potential directions in the series.  Which, I think a lot of us can agree on, we certainly don't mind them showing passion and interest in continuing the name of the series.

Really glad that Sakai has been so active on Twitter, and more importantly enjoying quite a few games too.  It's quite possible that this could be a sabbatical of sorts as well.  There's an endless amount of possibilities that lay before us, but no matter where they go we'll certainly follow that road and see what they've got planned next.

You can go and look at one of his past interviews which may explain things after he made Sayonara Umihara Kawase:
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/indie-before-it-was-cool-the-umihara-kawase-story

Kiyoshi Sakai said:

"I’m not sure if there’s a future for the series," he muses. "I feel like I’d be okay either way, if it went on or if it has to end here. I don’t have any regrets about the series. I’ve done everything I wanted to do with it. At this point, I don’t feel like, 'Oh, I have to make another game to accomplish this or that.'"