finally opened my karous - defected edition box!
it arrived a few days ago, though didn't get the time to spend with it until recently. it has the game, a soundtrack CD, and a 64-page full colour setting material booklet.
if the "karous" name rings any bells, that's because this is a new port of the NAOMI game released nearly 20 years ago. karous is mostly known for being the last-ever official dreamcast game, made by former COMPILE staff at mikestone, which its surviving members have now become RS34.
i played it for several minutes, it's something to get used to being a non-traditional STG. i'll continue getting a feel for it as time goes on. what makes karous interesting is that your options (shot, sword, and shield) level up as you use them. the shield appears quickly after not using your shot or sword, and it does damage + negate enemy bullets, thus encouraging you to play aggressively whereas other STGs may have you avoiding enemies. lives also work dofferently; karous in her DEFECT only has one stock, and it's represented by a HP bar. the game ends if it depletes to 0! over time, another bar will fill to use DFS, which clears bullets in a wide area (akin to BOMB fundtions in other STGs), and can net crazy amounts of EXP when used efficiently. the game does give you plenty of hints on how to proceed, should you glsnce at shigi's messages!
as for the experience itself, i am playing it via nintendo switch in YOKO mode (my TV cannot rotate for TATE!). latency is low, and i'd like to say it's around 2F at most? it may actually be none at all and this is just general TV delay. it looks really good overall! feels very nice to play, i LOVE watching the option level and score numbers go up. soundtrack's also extremely good. there's options for either the original (by k.h.d.n.) or an all-new arrange (by shinji hosoe and ayako saso @ supersweep, and daisuke nagata). i kept flipping through each as i restarted a playthrough, and it's hard to say which i prefer more as both are, again, extremely good.
i haven't gotten around to the CD contents as im having difficulty with opening it and i don't want to accidentally break the CD jewel. what i CAN talk about though is the material booklet! alrhough it's paperback, it has a glossy finish and feels very sturdy to hold. i thought it'd cause More questions i have about the game's lore, though turns out it gave quite a lot of answers. i spent maybe 2 hours reading through every detail in there. sadly, i do not have any good way to scan the booklet for preservation and archiving's sake, so im hoping others have gotten around to doing so. when i have time to, i'll make another post going over the interesting tidbits provided by the booklet. it won't be anything proper, but i'll do my best to explain what's all in there.
all that aside, there are some things to know about this port: there's still some rough areas here and there, but nothing that severely impacts the gameplay (in my experience). others have pointed somewhat strange enemy behaviour in some stages, network ranking having a bug (this has been fixed as of v1.0.2), a stage BGM not looping properly, and small visual blips. thankfully, RS34 are listening, and they've stated these small bugs will be patched out at later dates! masubuchi has also talked about a steam version coming soon, which is great news if you have neither a switch nor PS4.
if you don't mind these small disturbances (at the time of writing, the visual, music and behaviour ones are still present), i recommend it, especially if you're new to STGs or videogames as a whole. your experience will improve anyway as updates come through. it definitely beats dumping a fortune into either the dreamcast or wii versions, especially if digitally downloading it, and ot's a good way to support RS34 if you like their works.
