11 comments

1. beylita wrote:

   Kind of tangentally, I have to note with amusement, that while it is the melding of flesh and technology that is presented as abomination in the Bydo, the player avatar is a fully mechanical spaceship. And that the experience is mediated through (in my home in any case) and LCD monitor and d-pad.

   The act of playing the game requires the gamer to project her identity onto the representation of a mechanical entity through and impose her will via an electronic mediation.

   We are all cyborgs now, but it falls to us dryborgs to deliver blazing wrath on all the rest.

   7/9/2007 at 9:22pm | permalink
2. dessgeega wrote:

   the game itself is an electronic construct conceived by human beings outside of the biological processes of reproduction that figure so monstrously in its themes!

   7/10/2007 at 4:53am | permalink
3. kirkjerk wrote:

   By coincidence, I saw this entry the day my prepublished entry on video games (mostly about hardcoregaming101, which is a pretty decent site) came up:
   http://kisrael.com/viewblog.cgi?date=2007.07.12

   The R-Type name now strikes me as profoundly cool; (most?) humans and other critters that will invest larger resources into caring for a smaller number of young are K-type, and insects and others that use a more scattergun approach are R-type.

   I googled a bit, but couldn’t find too much more information, like if there are any other dominant types, or if every species will fall neatly into one category or the other.

   7/12/2007 at 5:25pm | permalink
4. dessgeega wrote:

   the idea of an r-type species as the antagonist of a shooting game just fits the dynamic so well: that force of weak, expendable enemies that use their sheer numbers to try and overwhelm the solitary player in her experimental most powerful ship in the galaxy.

   7/12/2007 at 7:08pm | permalink
5. CosMind wrote:

   conjures thoughts of ender’s game :)

   r-type is such a wonderful shooting series. such a unique game design within the genre (much more focus on well-paced-strategy and level navigation than the vast majority of others).

   and, the a/v aesthetic is powerful icing on the cake. the concept and presentation alone do so much to motivate me. very rare for a shooter to compel me with it’s ambiance as opposed to nuanced scoring systems.

   7/13/2007 at 3:00pm | permalink
6. Dominic White wrote:

   A fantastic little dissection, this. I was just talking with a friend last night about games playing heavily on reproductive symbolism (indie gem La-Mulana also uses similar themes, which is where we started). I ended up mentioning R-Type, and was considering doing a writeup like this.

   On a tangential note - R-Type Final probably has two clear themes. That of the obvious human/bydo body horror, but the very tone of the game is… elegaic, for want of a better word. The pacing, the music, the museum of ships atop pedestals - it’s a truly sad farewell to a stalwart series.

   Now.. Here’s wondering - will R-Type Tactics, the strategy-RPG spinoff - have more plot?

   7/16/2007 at 9:15pm | permalink
7. dessgeega wrote:

   yeah, r-type final is very impressive in terms of tone. so many games are left open-ended in the hopes that, if the game sells well enough, the publisher can turn out a sequel. final is a testament to how well a developer can send off a series if they go into the project knowing this episode will be the last.

   which is why r-type tactics is such a cop-out. i’m kind of curious about what it does with the source material, though.

   7/16/2007 at 10:51pm | permalink
8. randomguy wrote:

   @KIRKJERK

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory

   incidentally, r and K are parameters in an equation.

   7/17/2007 at 3:50am | permalink
9. Dominic White wrote:

   r-Type Tactics, a cop-out? Hrrm, perhaps. I find myself not as irked by its tangential ressurection as I might be. I’d likely be grumbling if they’d just gone straight back to the shooter series though.

   What I’m particularly interested in (beyond the obvious concerns of them keeping the style and tone) is just how much they’ll expand on the r-Type universe.

   Until now, we’ve been told that there’s this grand war being fought between humanity and its errant creations, but everything so far has been from the limited perspective of a scrolling arcade game, with plot being limited to little snippets of text (primarily in Final), and the post-mortem explanations and histories in said same game.

   Will they be covering it all in more detail? If so, then one particular reservation springs to mind. Named characters with faces and personalities - will they go that far? If so, I fear they could lose a lot of the atmosphere. However, a compromise also springs to mind as I write this - they could let the story play out in the style of, say, an Armored Core game, where the player takes the role of a dispassionate, faceless outsider, capable of changing the fates of the similarly mechanical factions involved in the war.

   I can imagine a cold, clinical approach like that working - the story being told in terse after-action reports, R&D reports, and notes on dissected Bydo creatures.

   One can but hope. Heh - odd that I’ve written this much. I’ve never even considered myself a fan of the series.

   7/17/2007 at 7:28am | permalink
10. dessgeega wrote:

    well, that’s why it seems like such a cop out. it seems like a way to further cash in on the popularity of the series without violating the self-imposed edict that final be the last SHOOTING game in the series. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. it could very well be a good game, and a good opportunity for insert some backstory. players who follow the series will probably be looking for just that, in fact.

    7/18/2007 at 1:54am | permalink
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One trackback/pingback

1. Wii Game Players » The VC Advantage: One ship on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 12:36am

   […] R-Type (TG16) More continues: Today, we’re going to help you learn two surprising things about R-Type. First: you can give yourself more credits by holding select and jamming on the I button at the title screen. Here’s the second thing. […]

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