Best Psikyo Shoot Em' Up? Dragon Blaze Review!

Best Psikyo Shoot Em' Up? Dragon Blaze Review! At last, time for some more Psikyo talk on the channel! I don't say it often, but Psikyo is among my fav shoot em' up (shmup) devs of all time and today's game, Dragon Blaze, is easily one of their best. Dragon Blaze is a later title in their library, released in 2000, and obviously influenced by CAVE, especially Mushihimesama! This game is the total package, great patterns, awesome visuals, strong stage and score gameplay, a cool second loop, and engaging boss fights. Really I can't see much fault with the game and is peak Psikyo shmup formula. The character balance even seems really strong. Right now you can get Dragon Blaze (and the other Psikyo shmups) on Nintendo Switch, PS5/PS5 and Steam! HOWEVER, I strongly recommend getting the Steam versions of these ports because the PS4 version is laggy and the Nintendo Switch version is a laggy pile of garbage. Avoid Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha and Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo. My review of the Switch version may have gotten me booted from Nintendo life, but that is the truth my friends.
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[@wabbyleg]

The feedback when you smash enemies with your dragon and the shower of coins spilling out is insanely satisfying. I haven't played every Psikyo game but this one so far is hands down my favorite.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely the coin 🪙 rewards is excellent in game feedback! I m really glad psikyo started to add stuff like this in their later games

[@julianseph842gamez5]

One of the greatest Psikyo games ever, using the same Technical Bonus mechanism from Strikers 1999

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah the technical bonus system is so fun

[@ACT879]

Technical bonus et apparu dans un shmup des années 90 en arcade ce n'est pas p sikyo qui l'a inventé .. a vous de chercher 😉

[@realmiltonbradley8365]

I'll translate : Technical bonuses appeared in an arcade shmup somewhere in the nineties. It's not Psikyo who invented it.. Yours to discover (can you find which shmup I'm talking about ?) [Wink-wink face]

[@misteradam3458]

Gunbird introduced me to shmups some months ago and even though it kicked my ass hard, I loved everything about it. If this was made by the same people, I have to try it.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

If you like gunbird, you gotta play dragon blaze, no doubt about it!

[@Junier-Hussein]

One of my favourite shmups 🔥 Great video, my favourite shmup is called Sengoku Blade (Tengai) from the music to the artistic visuals, to the superb gameplay it's just amazing.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Fantastic! My next vid coming up is a psikyo tier list and we talk about that game :-)

[@davy_K]

Still have the PS2 port of this and will hold onto it!! No save state but it does have a level select for training - even lets you train on the 2nd loop. It also lets you set the level sequence if you want. 😀 I love the graphical style and the soundtrack too. Overall Dragon Blaze is likely the pinnacle of the Psikyo style of shooter.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh that is interesting about the PS2 version, I ll have to try it out sometime :-) I wonder how accurate it is

[@subjago4236]

Without a doubt one of my favourites. Still like it even though I was never able to 1CC it - still going for it. The game gives you a great sense of accomplishment when you play offensively, using the dragon attack to destroy the stronger enemies as fast as possible. Love psykio and think it's a very underrated shoot'em up.

[@mushihimesarna728]

I'll never use a savestate in my life. Back in the day we got good playing over and over again, and I still do that. I have played this one for a while years ago, but I mostly forgot about it. Will try again.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Start using them :-) you ll improve much faster and learn games quicker

[@drlight6677]

For the PS4 Psikyo ports, CC and Zerodiv announced back in April 2021 that the games would receive a Training Mode where you could select the stage, difficulty, ship, and then upon completion of the stage the game would give you various stats of your results. The PS4 ports finally came out late Spring of 2022, let's hope the Training Modes for each game are patched in by this time next year! Also, I don't think the Switch ports even had leaderboards lol.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah a training mode would be a fantastic addition, sorely needed and would really improve the quality of the ports.

[@Neobelmont1]

This is why I am SO glad to have met you, well online lol. Always a learning experience mark!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you very much my friend!! I'm glad you enjoyed the vid, dragon blaze is a really awesome game.

[@chasepalumbo2929]

Holy shit they did you dirty lol. It’s crazy that the people witch hunting small independent and passionate critics is the game review industry itself

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah the port is awful, especially on switch. Psikyo deserves better for sure

[@Gure_Shimo]

Been playing dragon blaze pretty much since it was released on switch and I never knew about the weak spot mechanic. Going to try that out.

[@MURD3RWAVE]

Because of this chan I just purchased my 32nd STG for my Switch. Nintendo should send Mark a gold switch or something.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha yeah I do cover a lot of switch games lol

[@then1533]

Psikyo are maybe my favourite dev overall.Just love the graphical style, stage variation every play, the crazy speed of the bullets and the fact that they want me to bomb as well alot.Its like toaplan perfected imho.

[@thefractalcactus]

Also wanted to mention that (and I can't remember if you brought this up in the video, sorry) but it's cool how the dragon's magic changes when you're mounted and when you're not. Sonia, for example, has this incredibly wide ice shot when on the dragon. When she's off of the dragon however, the magic is a focused shot where the options home in on enemies like Miyamoto in Garegga. The game has so much depth which I really appreciate.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah I did mention the unmounted vs mounted magic where the unmounted is really good for point blanking bosses! Whereas the mounted seems more for screen control, really clever design!

[@mikaelandersson1288]

@@TheElectricUnderground There is a Deathsmiles game on Steam that is alone as in without the sequel and it was ported by CAVE Interactive Co. Could you test the input lag on that version, please?

[@zhukov2116]

Nice review! I really enjoy Dragon Blaze and all Psikyo games so it's great to hear your thoughts. The scoring is pretty fun in the game, and the coins are extremely satisfying to pick up. Watching your play footage I can't help but wonder how you can just play around them without risking your life for every silver coin. Gunbird 2 was my first proper introduction to shmups, and one thing I think you unfairly give to Psikyo is their difficulty for new people, since I am terrible at the genre but have found Gunbird/Strikers/Dragon Blaze to be very playable. At least on consoles I can always have a challenging but fair time as a baby/monkey. Not the easiest, but also not worth ignoring because of it!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

gunbird 2 is a sneaky one because for the first four stages or so the game doesn't seem too difficult compared to other psikyo games, but then it flips on the kill switch and the last few stages and the 2nd loop are evil ha

[@psymagearcade]

Love this video, been waiting for this one for quite some time. I did a 1-ALL with Ian last year so I have to defend his bomb lol. It's extremely damaging if you're willing to "ride the lightning" it up to the boss and spam your dragon attack at the same time, which is the quickest dragon attack of the four characters like you mentioned. However, you have to plan it like you would with Ash in Gunbird 1. I cheesed my way through the last boss of the first loop because I had four bombs going in and I used them all. His unmounted magic attack, the wheel, is also pretty powerful and can make some parts trivial and save a bomb. Also, this game feels wildly different if you play with Sonia or Rob instead of Quaid or Ian. Sonia and Rob are much slower in terms of movement and dragon attacks, so they need to micro dodge more and rely on their magic shots. Rob is actually recommended by some for beginners because his unmounted magic shot is extremely useful in certain situations and he does fill up his magic bar quickly. His dragon shot, though slow, is very powerful in terms of DPS as well and even his mounted magic shot is solid. I liked him more than Sonia.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh that s awesome stuff, congrats on the 1 all! The ian bomb seems good for bosses, but if you are corner or need to reclaim screen control it s really limited. Still having a weaker bomb balances the character so it s ok :-)

[@StevenSchlottman]

I love that little laugh Sonia does when she collects power-ups.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

she is a really cool character!

[@karolytakacs214]

I waited for this video. Now I know what i was curious about. Thanks you!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you for tuning in my dude!

[@jackylee5850]

Ian is definitely a strong one, never mind that his beam attack cuts through anything real quick, that bomb of his is a killer. He's essentially a high fantasy version of Aine, anything that bomb touches dies near instantly, even bosses (it's launched out by two scythe wielding skeletons for a reason)

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It s strong in a focused scenario, but is a bad as a safety measure as it doesn't give a screen cancel or many s. So if your cornered your going to get owned. It s alright though, the bomb being meh is a balance choice so Ian isn't op

[@jackylee5850]

That's true, the lack of screen clearing makes this bomb quite limited in terms of utility, and this is really meant for fighting bosses the normal way, it becomes a moot point if one is aiming for the technical bonus (because the boss will not reveal it's weak point anymore if it becomes too heavily damaged)

[@Bulletzen1000]

​The first PCB board I ever bought!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Great find my friend! It seems to be expensive these days, which is crazy

[@thommccarthy1139]

Looks great. I find most bullet hell to have bad aesthetics compared to earlier shmups but this one is beautiful!

[@hooksnfangs6006]

I recall playing this as a kid and was blown away by the visuals! It's so pretty with DRAGONS! I'm pretty sure Psikyo got inspired by Sorcer Striker lol

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah the visuals are excellent, also can never go wrong with dragons :-)

[@michielkroder4031]

That and Namco's Dragon Spirit and Dragon Saber, I would say.

[@hooksnfangs6006]

@@michielkroder4031 Oof! How'd I forget those two as well

[@HUNborgi]

cool vid again man, great stuff! this looks lot more bullethelly than gunbird lol, in my mind i did not consider psikyos danmaku until this point :D

[@TheElectricUnderground]

it basically is ha! it's also more polished than gunbird though, with better hitboxes and stuff like that. I do like gunbird a lot though

[@dingo535]

Nice review, Dragon Blaze does look really sick. I’ve actually played more Cannon Spike (mega man player) than any other Psikyo game.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thanks dingo! I do plan on covering cannon spike at some point as well

[@noisyether9211]

Really cool to find out about this one.

[@RewdanSprites]

I would say Dragon blaze and gunbird 1 are my favourite psikyo shoot em' ups. I was playing gunbird the other day and thought the stage shuffling is pretty cool although a little brutal when going for that 1cc 🤣. Don't know why it never occurred to me to just re-roll the stages 😅. You've got me in the mood to play Dragon blaze again aha.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Gunbird 1 is also a fav of mine! Wish someone made a hack of it to move the hitbox more to the center ha, rather than having it on the character's head.

[@PikaStu666]

Woah hold the bus… you were dropped from working with review sites because you were honest about input lag?! Wtf?! If it wasn’t for you and ShmupJunkie etc pointing out these flaws, we’d just get lazy ports?! Keep up the honest work dude 🤘

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I was indeed. I had a short run doing reviews for NL and I stopped getting hired to do shmup reviews after I reviewed these ports and talked about how bad the input lag was lol. It was quite a firestorm a few years back. These days I've been around long enough and complained about lag enough that people get it. But back then people couldn't even understand how high lag could lead to a bad port.

[@PikaStu666]

@@TheElectricUnderground that’s unbelievable! Keep up the awesome work man 🤘

[@UltimateNinja-fe6yh]

New subscriber here. I had watched a few of ur videos a few days ago. Just saw that u uploaded dragon blaze!! So i had to sub!!! You and shmupjunkie r my favs on yt, on the shooter genre.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That s great to hear :-) thank you for subscribing my dude!

[@orbajo]

Bro all this time I thought any of the Psikyo ports across any platform were all bad... I have wanted to try this game over any other Psikyo game, great to know it's fine on Steam! Also, great review as always Mark!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah performance wise the steam ports are solid, they still are barebones but if you want an official release they are the clear winners 🏆 also thank you orb!

[@WildDogGamerBoy]

I subscribed just because of your nintendo life story. Screw them for firing you for being an honest reviewer. I despise shill reviewers so much. Cyberpunk was the game that woke me up to shills like skill up and yong yea.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah that moment was a really bad look for yong, I remember him years ago when he covered mgs5

[@thefractalcactus]

Love this game. I can clear it (on the easiest difficulty, lmao). Love all the mechanics and the ship variety. Definitely underrated.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely my friend! I also recommend trying out the normal difficulty, it s a really fun one to practice. If I have time I ll go for a 1 all myself

[@thefractalcactus]

@@TheElectricUnderground I actually started trying it out after watching this. It's definitely easier than, say Strikers 1945-2. Maybe with a little (or a lot, lol) practice I can clear it...

[@JoshCzoski]

That's funny, since I played just a few Psikyo games, Dragon Blaze was easily the one I was enjoying playing the most (including the Strikers and Gunbird 2). I didn't know how to articulate why, really. The bullet patterns seem more fun and I do like the visuals/setting. I didn't think of it being much of a Cave game though but I dunno. I'd be really interested in a list of what shmups you think are the most memorization-heavy vs not . . . I prefer the latter, generally speaking. I guess Battle Garegga is less memo-heavy, except for the ridiculous bomber jets that instantly have a bullet pattern on-screen with no chance of reacting in time. Console games in general are probably less memo-heavy.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That is a cool topic idea! What makes a shmup memo heavy or not! Let me think about that one.

[@lunaria_stg]

The dragonshot is such an awesome mechanic! That's why I use Ian, since he has the fastest dragonshot (well, technically only the return time varies). The homing shots and low bomb coverage makes loop 2 harder though. Also, the main advantage of Ian's bomb is that it does a TON of damage. Really useful against bosses, but it's really meant to be a weapon more than a panic button. I've tried the Steam port myself, and it is actually pretty competent. But yeah, you'll really want save states to practice this game, which the port doesn't have. And if you want to be lazy and only learn 1 version of each stage, emulation will allow you to reset the ROM so you get the fixed stage order of swamp - ocean - desert - jungle. The port's SFX also sounds a bit different to me. One last thing, if you're going to use autofire, 15-20Hz is more than enough. If you go too high, the game will bug out and your shots sometimes won't come out.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah Ian is my fav for that reason as well! His bomb is great against bosses, but a bad screen control and reversal which in psikyo I think is key

[@lunaria_stg]

​@@TheElectricUnderground Agreed. When I started playing loop 2, I was considering if I should go back to using Quaid. Ian's bomb can trivialise bosses (assuming you don't care about technical bonuses), but it can't be relied on for the stage sections. When I return to Dragon Blaze for the 2-ALL in the future, I'll probably ignore loop 2 technical bonuses, so that clearing with Ian is more doable.

[@vidyergaemenjoyer447]

Excellent video for an excellent game! Dragon Blaze has been on my backlog for a while, so maybe it's time I finally put the effort in to learn it. I also think it's probably Psikyo's best, though I'm still personally partial to Sengoku Blade because I'm a hori-loving weirdo.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you my friend! Sengoku blade is really cool too. It s also crazy how difficult that game is, probably psikyo s hardest overall!

[@vidyergaemenjoyer447]

@@TheElectricUnderground Haha for sure! 2-1 still absolutely murders me, I'm nowhere near good enough for the 2-all. You're right that Dragon Blaze seems like a nice compromise in difficulty compared to the harder Psikyo stuff (at least what I've played of it)

[@UltimateNinja-fe6yh]

And dragon blaze runs really good on the PS5

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Good to hear! I don't have a ps5 so I have no idea how it performs on the console

[@MeguhFan]

I hope you don't mind me asking, how did you get the chance to write for Nintendo Life? Did they reach out to you?

[@eltonbormes]

Hope we will see a steam sale for this beast eventually. But, yeah, emus first!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah I am sure we ll see it on sale on steam, also it looks like there is a psikyo bundle on steam :-)

[@xtlm]

I would really like to hear a review on Sol Divide. It's such a strange short game but It's fascinating, to me at least. There is nothing else like it.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely!!! I do want to talk about that game at some point!

[@aidanhardy8877]

Great video as always. As someone who only got into shmups in the last year, I'm always curious to hear veteran's reasons for preferring different titles within a franchise. Is there an easy way for you to rank the 3 Psikyo Strikers games? Obviously for you, II would be on top, but why exactly is that the case? I'm still rubbish and inexperienced with this genre so when I played 1945 and 1945 II, I wasn't able to see a huge difference, at least not one that would make me prefer one over the other. Especially because so many Psikyo games follow a template with levels and character attributes. I'd be very interested to hear your ranking of the three of them, and your reasons why. As an aside, since it looks like we won't be getting the M2 port of Battle Garegga on steam for the foreseeable future, is there a steam alternative that comes close to it gameplay-wise? I desperately want to play that game more but those damn bullets are so hard to see sometimes.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I have really good news for you my friend, I have a psikyo tier list video in the works right now with an expert player as guest, so you can hear us hash out what makes one title better than another! So stay tuned for that :-)

[@ScarletDeath]

One of the few games where I don't mind doing a few loops.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

agreed! The loops feel just right :-)

[@D-A-K]

Best psikyo shooter and one of the only fantasy shmups. I wish there were more!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

absolutely! It feels like psikyo were onto something with this one :-)

[@scienceandmatter8739]

Now we know most reviews are always copy paste types. Real Reviews are not wanted just advertisement. Didn't knew this game thanks for the review

[@TheElectricUnderground]

they really are, go look at the other nintendo life reviews for the same ports ha, they gave them 9/10 for no particular reason.

[@fazares]

i have this one on the alpha collection (switch).. i m not that good at spotting 6-7 frames of input lag (never played the original PCB either) but for sure DB is one of the best psikyo shmup i ever played...and one of the most unique too!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah funny enough if you run it on arch on your switch, you can get 3 frames :-) so even on the hardware you can get better emulation performance

[@lerimusurelu6908]

There are so many games with this title!

[@zuffin1864]

See every time i think "i wish panzer dragoon had a spinoff shmup" i just play this game. I still think my idea would be cool, rayforce + ancient panzer dragoon asthetic is what it would probably play & look like, but dragon blaze is here and it's awesome

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That is a fun comparison! Yes if you want panzer dragoon style in a shmup, this is close :-)

[@HieronymousLex]

Wow Mark, I can’t believe you committed the heinous crime of giving a 5/10 to a game with a ton of input lag. On the real though, it is crazy how you can go out of your way to test lag and make a consumer-minded review and the industry will frown at that.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it was a big no no to discuss input lag it turned out lol 😂 I'd give the steam ports a much higher score but Nintendo life is switch only ha

[@deus_nsf]

Hey buddy, sorry for the off topic discussion there but we've got a serious case of "this is not a drill" situation, at a hefty price of $999, LG is planning to release soon-ish a 240Hz 1440p OLED gaming display, not TV, display, that can reach as low as 0.03 ms of gray to gray pixel response time (probably with the most aggressive overdrive panel mode but still). This would in theory make this almost indistinguishable from a CRT like experience, but on a non CRT modern panel. Do you plan to cover this? It's an expensive monitor but I'd love that you get your hands on one, as we can theoretically have a CRT like experience for shmups for the first time in the history of modern displays. John from Digital Foundry already talked about that sort of stuff, but that was for TVs and with Black Frame Insertion from 60 FPS to 120 Hz, here we're talking about a Monitor and NO Black Frame Insertion... Imagine yourself playing Do-DonPaChi or Ketsui at 60 FPS -> 240 Hz (4 frames duplication which is amazing already on modern displays) AND with a 0.03 ms pixel response time for motion... Hyped to hear you on that!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That sounds really awesome my dude!! I'd love to cover it, it just comes down to if I can afford to lol XD I'll def keep my eye on it and if it seems like the real deal I'll try to save up the cash to try one out :-)

[@travleefree]

I noticed in your assessment about input lag you recommend the Steam version over the console versions with a caveat. The caveat was dependent on the setup of the game. What is the best settings and setup for the Steam version of the game to get to the 3 frames of input lag? Right now I have my gaming PC hooked up to a 4K 55 inch LG C1 Oled. The input is set as PC and I am running it in game mode. My PC and TV are also capable of Freesync. I don't have a wired controller, but I recently ditched the standard XBox Series X controller for the new 8bitdo Ultimate Controller with Bluetooth and 2.4 ghz USB. I use the 2 4 ghz mode for PC and it seems snappier than the typical Bluetooth mode. Would my setup be laggier than yours?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes I m afraid your setup sounds fairly laggy Zero, if you can get yourself a gaming monitor that rotates you will have a lot less lag. Also be sure to disable v sync in the settings of the steam version :-)

[@theconsolekiller7113]

Great to see input lag addressed. Completed some insanely difficult parts in shooters on the saturn before realising all Saturn emulation is pretty much plagued with input lag. Waiting for the Mister to get Saturn support. Any word about the Mister and Saturn yet? Still waiting before ordering. Havent tried this one. Seperating from the dragon and using it as a point blank attacker looks very unique. Looks great.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I've heard the saturn core is in development! I still think the mister is worth it even without a saturn core though :-)

[@theconsolekiller7113]

@@TheElectricUnderground Always appreciate the feedback. I saw that it was in development but didnt keep up recently. Can Saturn core be added later even if I purchased it now? My good friend sets up all my emulation shit, ha ha, so despite having an emulation focused PC, the technical shit alludes me. Do you notice significant lag reduction even on SNES,NES and systems like that? Or is there another benefit, like more accuracy you like. Lag reduction is one of the biggest things for me as I rarely submit speedruns and am more about beating games, not so much accuracy. Input lag is a huge thing for me though. Always trying to reduce that.

[@deepstrider]

Great review for a great game! Does anyone know how good the PS2 port is? Wonder if it’s worth picking up over the other physical ports. On that note, has anyone made a list of shmups with all the different ports graded in terms of accuracy and extras? That’d be really handy for reference if we could start it as a project.

[@NL_the_Godfather]

Just play this on the playstation 2 itself where it got released initially! Much better then any port or emulator

[@MasterNinjaFighter]

Very cool that you talk about this gem. I discovered it some years ago via em***tion and I played very frequently since then, always trying to do my best with one coin (never finished yet). I like all characters except the dwarf too! ^^U This game looks specially good in retroarch with a good crt shader. The graphics are very detailed and allows to see the bullets with peripherical view without problems too... it's amazing.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah psikyo really out did themselves graphically on this bad boy! Also yeah emulation on arch is absolutely the way to go ha! The Sonia character design is really great, wish they used her more outside of just this game

[@MasterNinjaFighter]

@@TheElectricUnderground Sonia is my favorite character here. Her design looks pretty much like a mature version of Maria from Rondo of Blood for me. I like the 2 type of charged shots (with and without dragon), and I'm not sure, but I think that maybe her magic recover time is faster than others(?). Btw, this of that kind of games that I enjoying failing constantly... I think that I never go through act 1-5, but everytime I try to break my record is a pleasure.

[@dankhill6851]

I've been trying to convince my friend this is the best psikyo game for months, thats for the confirmation!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Hell yeah!! Glad to help!

[@okuu_utsuho]

Tbh Dragon Blaze is the hardest Psikyo shmup I’ve played. But the mechanics are really cool like the dragon mounting. I first played it on mobile (there are mobile ports of Psikyo shmups by Mobirix).

[@miltiadiskoutsokeras9189]

Meanwhile in a bank near you: I would like to apply for a loan... Real estate or business growth? Dragon Blaze PCB....

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah I was shocked at how expensive the dragon blaze PCB was, most psikyo PCB are pretty cheap, around $200

[@SuperLlama42]

Wait, the Psikyo Collection is on Steam? Time to wishlist a bunch of games.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes individually, but apparently you can buy them as a bundle which is cool

[@ESRohner]

Mark, I heard the Psikyo games on Switch had a patch to reduce input lag. Did you try Dragon Blaze on Switch again for this review? Anyway, fun video. This game looks great, but it looks so difficult with no training modes! This is further down my list after I'm a little better at shmups...

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I actually did retest the switch ports a few months ago, so unless that patch was super recent it's still going to be very laggy. Also at best I think what you can hope for on switch with the current setup would be 5 frames (since the ps4 is 4), and that's really pushing it, if that patch even managed to chop out the extra frames.

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

My favorite ship in Dragon Blaze is Kagura 2 aka Ecliptic Chariot..... Now that I think about, Dragon Blaze is pretty bit advanced in terms of playable characters to the point that Kagura 2(a ship inspired by Dragon Blaze) doesn't feel out of place in Hellsinker.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah dragon blaze has a lot more going on mechanically than most psikyo shmups :-)

[@aoffydosy1530]

Bombs from characters or aircrafts in Psykyo's series are identical, some of them do tons of damage but have limited area and some of them do little damage but cover all screen. These bombs also have some effects like playing characters from shonen and shoujo fantasy anime or something such as Spitfire from Strikers 1945 cover itself as ray of flame or Zero Fighter calls hails of comet.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

The bombs in psikyo games tend to be very different from one another in terms of effect and even animation. I'm thinking in the strikers series in particular

[@dankhill6851]

Wait wait wait, you forgot sol divide? It's a tie between sol divide and dragon blaze

[@kici5777]

Sadly still didn't release on Xbox.. Zero Gunner (2) too.

[@skoopiecheckecheaks]

This game would seem perfect with roguelite element mechanics imo… also this game character design and style is literally ripped from a moba MLBB granger character that I play.. I’ll check this one out now even though I passed over it before

[@hi_tech_reptiles]

6-7 frames is huge. I have a low latency monitor and even emulators have very little input latency. It's weird tho, these days many seem to not be bothered by input latency, and honestly many games I can get by if it's consistent latency under about 80ms. But if it shifts around, even 40-60ms (3-5 60hz frames) is unplayable. I've been considering getting a used Switch, are many games like that? Half of what I'd want are collections I can't get on PC and stuff. I'm even running out of room for ROMs even til I buy another 4-6TB HDD lol

[@TheElectricUnderground]

6-7 frames of lag in shmups is crazy high. the only other group that seems to get it as much are speedrunners, cuz a lot of older games require super precise timing, so speedrunners also pay real close attention to input lag. They are basically the only other group that does, them and fighting games.

[@futureskeletons66669]

I bought all the Psikyo games individually on Switch and I think it's looking likely I'll prob get them on PS5 in a sale too. I bought Dragon Blaze the day it came out on PSN to see if it was more responsive. I found it on a par with the undocked Switch version which is OK by me, but docked you can definitely feel a difference. I don't mind double dipping, the Switch comes everywhere with me.

[@c2ironfist]

My favorite Psikyo game so far 🥰 Originally played it on the PS2 and thought this must of been Cave inspired as well Bought it both on Switch and PS4 Glad to hear the input lag is reduced on PS4 Not that I'm good enough at the game to tell 🤣

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I do want to try out the PS2 version, I m curious how good it is :-)

[@c2ironfist]

@@TheElectricUnderground Would be awesome if you try it out. Not hard to either ;) 480i was the biggest downer I had with it back in the days but it downscales and upscales with scanlines really nicely without the interlaced flicker!

[@dingo535]

Man I started messing around with this game over the past few days and it is a mean boy. The speed and relatively tight patterns with your big hit box is pretty rough. Still really cool game though, I’ve been trying with Sonia mostly. But damn they just snipe your poor ass right out of the air with those devious little bullets. Slowly getting the hang of it though, at least through the first few stages now. You gotta be really aggressive and proactive with your dodging or you will be walled in before you know it.

[@michielkroder4031]

Dragon Blaze came out on the PS2 in Japan and Europe as well. I can't speak to arcade accuracy, but on my CRT it feels zippy and responsive enough.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I've never played the ps2 port so I have no idea how laggy it is, I'll try it though soon when I do a vid about a bunch of ps2 input lag tests :-)

[@AKTANEARCADE]

Waaaait a minute I didn't know the Gunbird hitbox was so whack... Maybe that's why I can't play that game 🤣 but I doubt that is the issue ...

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It is hella wack, it s right on her head and you will get owned until you get used to it

[@markcollins2704]

Hey on a topic unrelated to the video, have you done any testing on Nvidia reflex and if it's latency reduction settings have any effect positive or negative?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh i have never head of it! I'd love to try it out though!!!!! Hopefully my gpu supports it, sort of an older nvidia gpu

[@realmiltonbradley8365]

Off topic but Mecha Ritz just landed on Switch. You think you're gonna check it ?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Indeed! Yeah that s the vid this weekend

[@76mmM4A1HVSS]

I love this game! I used to play it on a multicab at GK in downtown PDX every weekend. The dragonshot is so f†††ing fun. One of Kagura's shot types in Hellsinker is an homage to this. Commenting before I watch the video in case you said it already. Anyway, the music kinda sucks unfortunately.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh that's interesting, having played hellsinker myself I'm surprised I never made that connection between the two games :-)

[@76mmM4A1HVSS]

@@TheElectricUnderground Then you must play more Hellsinker =)

[@GameBoyGuru]

"I'm not saying it's easy, I'm saying it's EASIER." LOL, so are you saying Dragon Blaze only kicks you in the groin 5 times, instead of 6 or 7? 😆

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Exactly ha. It takes your lunch money and makes you cry, but leaves you a quarter for a gumball :-)

[@mikaelandersson1288]

@@TheElectricUnderground There are two different Deathsmiles game packs on Steam... one ported by City Connection which contains Deathsmiles 1+2 and then there is this other one which was ported by CAVE... so my question to you is... are you aware of that and does the input lag differ between the two?

[@debanjandatta3407]

Did you play the android version of this game called ' Dragon blaze classic' released by mobirix. It has got psikyo license & it came in 2020. I feel that game by mobirix was done much better than their other games on android. Strikers 1945-2 & strikers 1999 has bullets moving too fast plus too many even in lower difficulties. Dragon blaze is perfect i think. Its highest rated mobirix ported shump game of psikyo in play store. If you dont mind can you give a review of that. The technical bonus thing was in strikers 1999 too. Do play & tell how u liked it? Btw in android unlike arcade which have loops we have got easy, normal, hard & very hard difficulty. It try to push to in app purchases & ads true but its a good game i think. The other two higher difficulty unlocks after beating normal & hard difficulty. Android isnt a platform for shumps unless we have big phone but i think this is perfect. I love aka to blue too. Great review.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh that's interesting! No i've never played that game. I have played the mobile version of gunbird 2 though, and honestly I enjoy that version more than I should ha!

[@debanjandatta3407]

@@TheElectricUnderground i enjoy the bullet hell aspect of shumps a lot.They have all characters & dragons, different shots. I like how bullets move at different speeds & then you have a wide shot where you have to navigate between them which is followed by fast moving lighter coloured purple bullets immediately. Even in android u can mount or dismount dragon. Stage reshuffling, scoring system is same too. They only changed the loop thing by putting difficulty & acc fixed how numerous the bullets will be & its speed. Plus ofc to push in app purchase they put the thing that to continue u need increasing no of gems which u can only get through in app purchases. Also players who want to part with their money wont mind constant bomb spamming but after a time u need huge amount of gems if u exceed the amount of bombs u have used. Its well balanced if u see it like that.

[@Moddeang123]

Love this game, I'm a big fan of the sprite art and animation in this game. The best of Psikyo's games for me. Still one thing hold it back are the soundtrack... It's pretty bad in my opinion D:

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah the ost is kinda meh, hence the reason I swapped it out as background music for the vid ha.

[@bio_cat]

Thanks for reminding me I own the PS2 version of this game. How is the input latency on that port?

[@RT-qi7rn]

You never talked about the scoring! system!

[@dbnpoldermans4120]

I wonder what the lag is on the ps2 port ps2 port cam be forced to 480p. Would that add lag, no right? It should be better since the second interlaced part is drawn at the same time.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah I will test the PS2 version in a vid soon where I test a bunch of PS2 games input lag. Swapping to 480p shouldn't add lag I wouldn't think

[@BuzzaB77]

I just got a bunch of shmups running on my atgames pinball. Has anyone measured the mame latency on that thing?

[@jonaspersson4438]

City-connection release port is that same version psykio collection on switch ?

[@musclemark2710]

🔥 this game is super great!!!!!

[@cookiemint8439]

I play this on mobile I’m not sorry… Anyway tho great review Your audio is off btw

[@miltiadiskoutsokeras9189]

Yes, probably best Psikyo game.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Just so well made and balanced, nothing that stands out as an issue. Plus the dragon attack is amazing mechanic

[@rockrollarc9792]

When u mentioned playing on mame for lag..... How does the antstream ver compare. Just so you know antstream is a retro arcade app on android

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh I m not sure, never tried antstream before

[@ominojaku1069]

Got this on my switch..fantastic game..rock solid though

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I def recommend hopping over to the steam version :-) the lag on switch is going to be hell in the later levels and loop

[@Mingodough]

Love this game!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Me too :-)

[@darkridearts]

I love this game!!! 🔥🔥🔥

[@PedroFerreira-sx2gd]

Great game. Psycho games have a inconsistent degree of quality (raging from bad to great) Their games are hard. Those fast bullets are even worse than raiden. I fell that psycho games , lacked one fundamental rule of the arcade games (stealing money and encourage the player for one more go). There are harder shootemups out there , they just don´t fell so to cheap to the player . That design philosophy prevented from being more recognizable. In that perspective i feel that most of their games did not reach full potential. For me strikers 1945 2 was their high point(a perfect shootemup). The neo geo version, altough worse. was the game that got me into shootemups, as it was very rare too shopotemups in the arcade houses. dragon blaze is also good. I know Gunbird 2 is highy acclaimed, but i don´t like só much.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes the top 3 psikyo in my book are strikers 2, gunbird 2, and dragon blaze. Personally I'd lean more towards gunbird 2 or dragon blaze, but it s such a toss up as all of them are fantastic

[@MURD3RWAVE]

Bought it for switch for $2. I'm guessing 6 to 7 lag frames. After playing a low lag STG for a hour then go play this is pure frustration. One of those shooters I can only handle for less then a hour before I just turn it off and play something else. Looks good, I don't care for the music. Still in my unplayable graveyard. Shame.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes switch version is pure garbage, swap over to steam or emulation :-)

[@kirkcavenaugh758]

I love this game

[@TheElectricUnderground]

such a good game, cannot go wrong with some dragon blaze in your life.

[@michaelharrington5860]

This is a banger

[@TheElectricUnderground]

For sure!!

[@UToobUsername01]

I try hard to get good at bullet hell shooters but I'm bad at them. Regular shooters like Raiden 1 and 2 I can handle.

[@ScanlineCity]

Anyone know if the PS2 port is any good?

[@guilhermearaujo2243]

tks !!

[@coderkind]

What's the lag like on Xbox Series X?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I d say the same as PS4, 4 frames

[@coderkind]

@@TheElectricUnderground thanks for replying. Didn't realise until recently that a number of Psikyo titles are on the Xbox.

[@aegisreflector1239]

How can we buy this game???

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Steam is the best version currently

[@beebot]

I really detested this game for a long time. Hahaha - I like how it looks, but man... for some reason I find it super tough.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It's probably the psikyo formula that is throwing you, as they have a specific feel. Essentially you want to try to macro around most of the patterns rather than micro through them, that will really help I think :-)

[@beebot]

@@TheElectricUnderground Haha - yeah those Psikyo patterns and the fast bullet/slow bullet layering get me after playing a lot of Cave. I'm out of the habit. Have to get used to the depositing the dragon and dragging it along the screen. It is useful for routing for sure. The random gen stages always throw me off. But... I just booted up and died after level 3 boss with Quaid. Will keep at it and try to get the feel (I already wish I could map a turbo button). My favourite Psikyo offering is definitely 1945 II (lots of nostalgia with that) but you posting this made me plug it in to the cab and give it a chance, will keep it up for a while and practice the macro dodging.

[@randallk6812]

Is this game decent on the series x?

[@ivojankov7811]

Cyvern is maybe a little better

[@shanecorning5222]

This looks REALLY really hard can I just play RAIDEN instead? .... . .. . xD ... . . ;-D ... xD

[@roberttorres5318]

I wanna be completely honest with you I think these ports on modern consoles aren’t meant for you your a purest and there’s nothing wrong with that but it seems like your always finding something finding the littlest issues and your trashing it I think you need to stick with Actual PCBs Boards to fulfill your needs on what your looking for here I guarantee once Akai Katana comes out next month for the switch your go back and find some minor issues and trash on the port your wasting your time my dude just stick with actual hardware that’s just my opinion 👍

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Why is it a problem?

[@TheZ92]

There are plenty of ports that he's given good reviews for. Please up your standards.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I would try my best to dissuade you from that manner of thinking. Whether you are a new player or a veteran player, basic features should be expected in a port. Newer players suffer from high input lag and lack of training options as well