long ass post coming up
The problem with Futari is that 1.0’s final boss was basically impossible, but my major gripe with upgrading is that it’s fucking expensive and I can’t keep up with it. They keep releasing “final” versions and everyone shifts to them - same thing happens with fighters. So what happens to those people who own the original version and can’t afford to upgrade? What about those people who aren’t sure if they’re going to make a mistake in purchasing a PCB when an upgrade could be announced within a month? I was going to purchase Death Smiles before the port was announced. I ended up selling Ketsui when the port was announced. The upgrades are nice, but they’re not free, according to EOJ:
That’s another problem entirely. I own a Futari 1.5 kit and I like it. From what I’ve played of a friend’s Futari BL board, I don’t like it as much. They’ve changed stuff to the point where scoring is different and more complicated, and God Mode was added because Ultra was “too difficult”. But they sacrificed availability by limiting characters, since in 1.5, you have Normal/Abnormal Reko/Palm. Sad thing is, people have moved to it, when 1.5 was perfectly fine to begin with. Basically, Futari BL isn’t necessary. MBL isn’t necessary. DOJ BL is actually pretty significant, because the second loop is far harder but the first loop is easier, making it way easier for people to 1cc the game. That’s more way more welcoming to people wanting to play the game.
But things like Ibara BL, I agree. They’re basically new games and for the better.
That strategy’s been around since the early 80’s. Capcom manuals tell coin operators to “increase the difficulty to shorten their time, so most people have around 3 minutes maximum” to maximize profits. A lot of the older games (early 90’s, late 80’s) are really fucking hard and done so on purpose.
If you think Cave games are made for fun and not profit, you’re wrong. This industry has defied logic and made little sense when people have tried to apply logic to it, but they’ve always been making games for profit. All of them. A very few make games for “fun” (ie. Katamari) but they’re arcade games for a reason. The console ports? Well, when the game becomes unpopular/old in the arcades, they try to maximize profit by porting their game to a console for even more profit.
Ecole did the same thing with AH2. 5pb did the same with DOJBLEX. Warashi did the same with Exelica for PS2. It’s all for the sake of profit. Funny thing is, all three of those games have shitty ports, but people are going to buy them thinking that they’re just like their arcade counterparts.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. That’s what I say. Since post-2002, Cave have been guilty of making upgrades that aren’t necessary, like MBL. I don’t know when the fuck to buy Cave PCBs any more, because they’re just as likely to announce a newer version. I’m waiting for Daifukkatsu BL.
On topic: Yeah, AH2 CS sucks.
