Dariusburst Chronicle Saviors Taito DLC Review
by Omar (@siegarettes)
- Ray Force, Night Striker, Metal Black add-ons
- Developer- Pyramid, Chara-Ani
- Publisher- Degica
- Steam, PS4
Dariusburst CS always presented itself as a celebration. A final hurrah to a storied, bizarre series of arcade titles. So it seems appropriate that they’ve followed that up with a series of new playable ships based on other Taito arcade games. What I didn’t expect was the games that they’d choose to bring in.
Available separately or in a set, the new ships are based on Night Striker, Metal Black, and Ray Force, and adapt mechanics from their respective games into the scrolling format of Dariusburst. Of the three Metal Black and Ray Force are familiar to me, and both are superb games in their own right. Metal Black in particular has both mechanical and thematic connections to the Darius series, carrying some of its aquatic designs and being the source of the series’ dueling lasers.
It’s not surprise that Metal Black’s Black Fly fighter feels right at home in Darius. Its new laser in particular proves formidable against bosses, effortlessly countering boss lasers and scoring massive damage without the timing required from the ships in the base game. This is balanced out by requiring you to absorb items (dubbed “Newalone”, which also appeared more recently in Space Invaders Infinity Gene) to power up the laser, rather than having you destroy enemies. It’s a natural balance, though it can be awkward to try to navigate the more enclosed environments and not crash in your attempts to recharge your beam.
The Night Striker fighter, by contrast, is gleefully overpowered. It uses a combination of homing missiles and a destructive shield that turns you almost invincible while it’s active. Boss lasers can even be countered by purposefully running into them while using your shield. There’s no drawbacks, and the absurd power of it makes it clear why these ships aren’t playable within the main game. It’d trivialize the challenge. That said, the levels included with the DLC pack (which it should be noted can be played separately with any ship) provide enough challenge that it won’t be a cakewalk.
The final ship of the pack, Rayforce’s X-Lay, is by far the weakest. Disappointing, as the original game is my favorite of the three games represented by far. The original game was a top down shooter that took the multi-plane design popularized by Xevious and ran wild with it, with enemies moving in between the background and foreground using some of the most gorgeous scaler effects seen in the arcade. Within the context of the flat planes of Dariusburst it feels unnatural. The lock-on lasers of the original return here, but Rayforce relied so much on staggered waves of telegraphed enemies that the rapid pace of Dariusburst turns them impotent. The lock-on tracks enemies in front of you, but you’ll likely shoot them down before being able to let off a volley. The lack of a charge beam also leaves you without tools to defend yourself from particularly large swarms of enemies or boss lasers. It essentially means you have a forward attack and a less effective, if cooler looking, secondary forward attack.
If nothing else, Rayforce does bring with it the soundtrack of the original game, which is as excellent as any of the other compositions in Darius. The whole lot of DLC, in fact, returns to another set of excellent tunes, each which are played within the respective new stages that come with each DLC. The stages themselves are more of the remixed approach of the base game, perhaps tweaked towards each of their respective ships, but being able to play through the game alongside these new tunes gives it a fresh energy.
There’s enough in this package to satiate Taito fans and those somehow not satisfied by the immense volume of the base game. I’m a bit more hesitant to recommend it to someone a little less enamored with the respective arcade titles these draw from, as they provide an experience that’s not radically different. If you’ve taken the plunge on Dariusburst you’re probably already here for the celebration, however, and we all know how a set of fresh new jams can liven up a party.