Raiden V: Director's Cut Limited Edition w/ Original Soundtrack CD - PlayStation 4

Raiden V: Director's Cut Limited Edition w/ Original Soundtrack CD - PlayStation 4 My wife bought me this for the wedding anniversary, so goood. This is the first Raiden I played, I can say that the soundtrack is really good, the graphics are great and it's very challenging. As any other shoot em up that I know, Raiden V it not too long, story mode has 8 levels and you can choose between three ships and three weapons. I beat it normal, and hard level, the good thing is that Raiden V has different endings and other missions so that help replayability. Awsome game.

I've been a fan of the Raiden series since playing the original in arcades many years ago. UFO and Moss did a great job of modernizing this game for the PS4. Raiden V differs from the danmaku/bullet-hell branch of shmups by having fewer dense bullet patterns than you'd expect from a typical CAVE shooter. Instead, it throws fast enemies (and faster bullets) at you from all directions, leading to lots of surprising deaths. While aggravating, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It merely requires you to pay attention and learn a good route through the stage. Since many of the shots are aimed, you can tap-dodge through most of it and survive. Still, the wide variety of bullet shapes and color can sometimes cause you to not "see" the bullet until it is too late. Levels are thoroughly detailed and bosses have a ton of destructible parts. I've not experienced any stutters or frame drops while playing through the game so far. The graphics are good for a shmup but aren't going to win any awards compared to your average AAA blockbuster. That said, it's a very colorful game. Raiden V (or RDV, as it says on the loading screen) offers more customization than most other shmups: three ships and three weapon types (9 weapons total). Each ship differs in its movement Speed, it's Armor (or Shield, as it appears in the actual gameplay), and Attack. Players choose their ship, the sub-type for each of the three weapon categories, their starting weapon, and off you go! Three ships and 9 weapon sub-types might seem like a pathetic number of customization options, but when it comes to shmups this is actually quite a bit. I've played around with a few of the different ship+weapon pairs and I've already found some combinations that I enjoy. This bears well for the longevity of the game. So far, I like the Moulin Rouge + Blue Laser combo (reminds me of Type A + Laser from DoDonPachi), the Dragon + Wide Vulcan (insane screen-clearing damage), and the classic Azuma + purple "Toothpaste" laser. You can upgrade -- and change, if it's different than -- your current weapon by picking up a gem (Blue, Red, or Purple) from a certain type of enemy. Enemies drop Medals which float around, or you can cease fire for a brief moment which will attract any Medals or weapon upgrades to your ship's current position. Controls handle beautifully. For the genuine arcade experience, make sure you plug in an arcade stick. A major wrinkle: there's no Tate mode. Tate mode is where you can rotate your screen to Portrait orientation and play that way. It's considered a standard feature for any vertical shmups so the exclusion of the option is very bizarre, especially for a big-name release like this. The developers added a glut of options into the "sidebars". On the left side of the screen, you can cycle between several types of information. 'Cheer' is a new mechanic where you can press Triangle to boost other players and they can do the same for you. Build up enough 'Cheer' and you can unleash a randomized Cheer attack that swipes away bullets, unleashes a salvo of missiles, and so forth. The next sidebar option provides tutorial hints. These hints are surprisingly good and will definitely help players who aren't familiar with Raiden or shmups in general. This will go a long way to introducing players to the genre, and if you're new to shmups I think Raiden V would be a good game to help you learn. The last sidebar shows general stats including kills, playtime, and so forth. On the other side, there's a story unfolding in the form of a dialog between you (the pilot), your commanding officer, and his assistant. It's totally unnecessary and kind of annoying. Shmups have never been about story, and I can barely pay attention to the dialog while I'm focused on dodging shots and destroying waves of enemies. The voice acting isn't particular good anyway. I suppose it's something new for the series, though, so I won't rag on the inclusion of a storyline too much. There are 8 stages -- with several different versions of each Stage -- and two Bonus Missions. Each stage is lengthy and unique, with its own assortments of enemies and bullet patterns. You start off in a modern city, then move to a desert town, explore caves with giant purple crystals, attack an ocean fleet of enemies, and go into space (and more)! Compared to most other shmups, Raiden V boasts a lot of content and replayability. A significant number of shmups invest all their efforts into bosses and bullet patterns but neglect to make an interesting backdrop for the action. The result? Cool bosses and bullet patterns, but snooze-worthy scrolling maps. Raiden V did the opposite by making some very detailed Stages and regularly zooms in and out (in a non-intrusive way) to expand or contract the playing field. The soundtrack is exceptional. Every stage song matches the stage perfectly and plays a big part in my enjoyment of the game. In fact, part of why I got so annoyed by the Cheer system and the ongoing story dialog is that they distract from the soundtrack. From my perspective, the three aspects holding the game back from perfection are the story voiceover, the intrusive Cheer system, and the lack of Tate (sideways) mode. These issues -- especially the lack of Tate -- are aggravating enough to keep me from giving a full 5 stars. Other than those issues, Raiden V is solid. I'm impressed with what Moss has done with the series and I'm expecting to sink many, many more hours into the game as I try to 1cc (1-credit) the game and explore all the various routes. Kudos to UFO and Moss for bringing this title to a modern platform. Special note for the 'Limited Edition': this version includes a full soundtrack CD. The soundtrack is excellent, so I only see this as a win.

Such a fun game! Some people don't like how the story/missions continue to unfold as you play and in the middle of the action. It makes me feel like you are in the action and you are flying a ship in combat and have to pay attention to everything!! Music is awesome, but all of the Raiden games have great music! If you enjoy shooters then this game will not dissappoint!

It looks dated and isn’t as good as the PS3 Raiden 4: Overkill Edition, I feel. The tempo is too rapid for my tastes and is kind of hard to notice every single enemy including its projectiles. I’ll have to play it in depth, hopefully my opinion will alter some. It’s worth $20 at best despite the soundtrack c.d. being a nice bonus.

This game was terrible. Let's start with the audio. The music in the background makes it so difficult to hear the dialogue in the foreground. There are no power ups, so there is no real character progression or weapon progression. Feels like you were just tossed with so much going on but nothing to bring you in to the game. There is no difficulty settings. Your airplane is over powered and the game presents no challenge. Raiden guys check out, SkyForce R. on iOS. Can you guys make something like that with no micro-transactions. Rainden was the best back in the day but not this round.

The game play is mindless. The backstory is on par with a cartoon for children. The graphics are mediocre. The soundtrack is grating. Even if your expectations are much lower than mine, or you are a longtime fan of the franchise, the $30-$40 price point is borderline criminal. I could see investing $4.99 for a download via PSN. Maybe.

This is basically a shoot-'em-up from the blast of the past. It is nearly a worth getting game in this time and age because shoot em ups nowadays are really rare and it's Story in the raiden series has been very consistent and honestly it's very challenging. That's what really stands out plus most the graphics are great but with unpolished edges. No joke the soundtrack is amazing!!!! No freaking way people put this much effort in a soundtrack nowadays or at least in many games today. Hands down it's worth my time.

Not quite as good as Raiden IV. Music is good but not fantastic like IV as well. The borders with all the text and voices are kinda dumb. Other than that the game plays great. I do like the shield mechanic. Changes it up a little. Still a great Shmup on PS4.

Product was delivered a day early, very fast. Game discs are in very good condition. Game case is a little dirty and worn, but nothing out of the ordinary for a used game. Price was decent and product came with everything as advertised. Game itself seems fun, but haven’t had much time to really dig in yet.

Me gustan mucho estos juegos desde el Raiden III, este Raiden ya lo había comprado en la XBox One de forma digital, pero ahora que salió en formato físico no podía dejar pasar la oportunidad. Es un juego muy adictivo con varios niveles de dificultad y continues ilimitados para que hasta los más casuales puedan terminarlo, se acabaron los tiempos de Gradius, y R Type donde eran prácticamente imposibles terminarlos si no se tenía mucha dedicación y habilidad.

Awesome game

El juego es bueno, te entretiene en todas las misiones. Al inicio te mareas un poco porque el escenario se mueve muy rápido u es fácil perder de vista las balas que tienes que esquivar, pero después de un rato te acostumbras.

Excelente Shooter. Trae mecánicas muy distintas a los demás. Se pueden crear muchas combinaciones de armas. Además de que corre a 60fps estables. Es uno de los shooters más rápidos qué he jugado, las balas de los enemigos te siguen. Si hace falta tener buenos reflejos porque este juego te hace picadillo.