Episode 629: Darius
Added 2024-07-29 11:00:11 +0000 UTCKevin: Perhaps unsurprisingly for an avowed arcade rat for myself, we’re heading back into the proverbial game center to discuss Taito’s seminal shooter franchise, Darius. Pronounced Da-rye-us (according to the Japanese kana), the series is a collection of aquatic-themed horizontally scrolling shooters (or shmups or STGs, depending on where you’re from), Darius has primarily been a platform for Taito to show off its technical prowess, combining the play itself with masterfully weird soundtracks and graphical showcases.
Back at Magfest 2024, proprietor of OneMillionPower Brian Clark and I presented a panel on the history of the series, and while it was well-received and a fun time, we weren’t able to touch on everything we’d intended. I realized that the podcast format gave us the perfect opportunity to dive back in on the subject, and also feature more about some of the games that had to be cut for time. Joining us is Sound Retro Co’s Christa Lee, composer, console repair expert, and a shooter fanatic in her own right. Together we dig into the whole series and just what makes it so fascinating. You’ll never look at a giant mechanical squid the same again!
Edits by Greg Leahy. Art by Nick Wanserski.
08:22 - Groove Coaster 2: Captain NEO -Confusion Mix-
16:48 - Darius (Arcade): COSMIC AIR WAY
25:43 - Darius (Arcade): REQUIEM
34:20 - Darius Plus: The Sea
41:57 - Darius II (Arcade): OLGA BREEZE
50:21 - Darius II (Arcade): Boss 2
59:18 - Sagaia (SMS): ALL CLEAR | Darius Twin: A Flashing Dual Hawk
1:08:47 - Darius Force: Spiral Snail
1:13:53 - Darius Gaiden: VISIONNERZ (Arrange ver.)
1:22:47 - Darius Gaiden: INDUCTION
1:30:34 - Zuntata Live 1998: FAKE | G-Darius: A d a m
1:40:52 - G-Darius: KIMERA II
1:47:01 - Darius Cozmic Revelation: Phantom Records chapter THREE
1:58:24 - Dariusburst: Hinder One (Iron Fossil)
Closing - G-Darius: Future Perfect from 7 (Staff Roll)
Comments
Oh it's Duh-RYE-us, not Dare-e-us. Just like it's Grah-dee-us and not Gray-dee-us like I've been saying for decades. I knew a few guys named Darius growing up and it was always a little weird that some game had the same name as a kid on the school bus.
PurpleComet
2024-08-22 20:54:33 +0000 UTCThis was really fun. I want to thank whoever came up with the virtual arcade machine thing for Dariusburst's two PS4 releases, because I got to be the first person to clear a fuck ton of missions in both Chronicle Savior and Another Chronicle.
Quin Adams
2024-08-11 19:44:35 +0000 UTCI was the sole English translator for the Darius Cozmic Collection when it came to the in-game content. Very small project that took all of like two days for obvious reasons since it was mostly just the UI and game summaries. But I tried to do extra research to flesh out the game summaries to go into a little more detail about each game/version's historical significance since I had plenty of space available, way more than the Japanese used, and I remember the Extra version of Darius one being a bugbear to fact check for the reasons Kevin describes because of its murky release and whatnot. I think I ended up relying on that exact Famitsu article he mentions because I could hardly dig up any other factual sources for it. So if nothing else, it's nice to hear all these years later that it wasn't just me who's had trouble figuring out what that thing was, ahaha. Fun project overall, though! Would love to work on another collection like that if the opportunity ever presented itself. 😌
Tom James
2024-08-09 19:53:39 +0000 UTC
