Bring BACK 3D Shmups! Terra Diver / Soukyugurentai Review (PS1, Sega Saturn)
532Bring BACK 3D Shmups! Terra Diver / Soukyugurentai Review (PS1, Sega Saturn). Raizing Shoot Em' Ups have returned and today we are talking about what has become of one my favorite Raizing games, Terra Diver! Specifically in today's review I spend a lot of time discussing what I think is the game's strongest feature, it's incredible 3D presentation - not only when it comes to the player and enemy designs, but also in terms of the beautiful background work. What I think Terra Diver does so well that even modern shmups need to learn is how to make the backgrounds more dynamic through the use of sprite scaling or 3D camera or whatever is going on under the hood of this game. The background is something that I think modern devs and players tend to take for granted, but I think it's a very under-explored area of shoot em' up design and I think it was during this early PS1 / Sega Saturn era that devs were looking into these ideas the most, likely because 3D tech was new and they were jazzed to play around with it :-) Not only does Terra Diver look great, I also think it's lock on system is really interesting and a very clever way to address the screen space problem when it comes to the vertizonal (horizontal that scrolls vertically) aspect ratio that remains popular to this day. These lessons modern devs could also learn from!
Overall I solidly recommend Tera Diver and even though the Sega Saturn version is the definitive version in terms of accruacy to the arcade, I think the PS1 version is under-appreciated due to it being more accessible and having some cool extra modes. It's a massive shame that this game is trapped on these older consoles because it would be fansastic to see a QUALITY port of the game come to PS4/PS5, Xbox, Steam, or even Nintendo Switch. Also the OST of the game is fanstatic and composed by the same guy who worked on Treasure's Radiant Silvergun (as well as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story).
If you want to learn more about the game's scoring mechanics and history, def check out this awesome episode of STG Weekly! https://youtu.be/Fh6ExmxqLi4
Awesome thumbnail created by @boghogSTG
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