Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411196 Posts in 69314 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: feakk

March 19, 2024, 02:51:10 AM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsHiddenThe DromeValley of the DeadGame ClubTIGS Game Club: Umihara Kawase
Pages: [1] 2
Print
Author Topic: TIGS Game Club: Umihara Kawase  (Read 6167 times)
Alevice
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« on: July 12, 2012, 10:43:21 PM »

What are we playing?

UMIHARA KAWASE


When?
July 13th - August 12th

Description

Umihara Kawase is a short series of games about the eponimous japanese schoolgirl in control of a rubbery fish line  that she has to use in order to complete the levels full of walking fish enemies and some decorative... school materials. As you might have guessed, the rope is pretty much a more elastic version of Super Metroid's Grappling Beam and Bionic Commando's arm: Umihara uses her rope to swing around, stun enemies, climb walls, among other things.

The games were officially released for the SNES and Playstation, but there are some fan ports made for the PSP and DS, mostly based on the PS release. The PS release was originally intended to be a remake, but in the end, there were a few notable differences: While the SNES release has a very loose rope and usually has far more enemies during the levels, the PS release focuses less on surviving fish hordes and more on puzzle solving, having a notably tighter rope.

Unless you still own the original consoles, both games require obviously an emulator to play. For the SNES, I can recommend either ZSNES or BSNES; for the Playstation, there is epsxe and pSX. Due to legality concerns, I can't link to the respective ROMs and ISOs, so you will have t look them on their own. For console owners, game is available on ebay at some steep prices, in case you are interested.

The game features little to no text, so it doesn't have a need for a translation patch.

SCREENSHOTS
SNES
PLAYSTATION



Images "courtesy" from Hardcore Gaming 101
Logged

crowe
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2012, 03:04:34 AM »

I actually used to play this with infinite lives, because there's so many secret levels that it's fun to be able to just explore without the danger of a game over lingering over your head. I have never, however, beaten either of them. Wish me luck
Logged
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2012, 04:16:44 AM »

I got to Field 7 (with the octopus) before I perished. Those guys are rough! It looks like I can't even stun them or backpack-stuff them.

The rope is really bouncy, and it's taking me a while to get used to retracting the line. It doesn't seem like it retracts consistently.

The animation for when you get crushed by a moving platform is unexpectedly hilarious.

Gonna give this another shot later today, and see if I can get further.
Logged
Alevice
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2012, 05:32:56 AM »

The retraction is consistent, but the bouncing doesnt make it trivial.

I have only finished this game once, and well, I didnt even expect to finish on that part. From what I have read, after a given amout of levels, you magically get credits. Also, I must inform you that there are multiple paths to take on some levels, but damn if I ever kept track on what path I took.
Logged

Alevice
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2012, 07:35:08 AM »

And now I just remembered that i beat i because of svae state abuse. Anyway, my God, stupid tadpole boss isad will remain being a fucking pain in the ass.
Logged

rdein
Guest
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2012, 02:04:33 PM »

you can skip the tadpole boss for a better path in the snes version..
Logged
noah!
Level 6
*


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2012, 04:49:48 PM »

Playin' the SNES version. Prior to this, I watched the GCCX episode to get pumped for the game.

This game is fun but it gives me a headache.

The octopodes are like Ichiban Worst Way To Introduce A New Game Element.

I don't have time to spot for the tadpole as it does its daily calisthenics.

Part of me wants to just find the most tears-free way to beat it just so I can say I did, but apparently that way involves hanging from a pole for a half-hour until the final level shows up.

Enemies always appear right at the single most inconvenient time. It reminds me of middle school and it makes me very sad.

At least the difficulty feels like the old-school console kind where, once you do it a few times, you got it for life.

No wait I somehow can't get past Field 10 anymore and does this game have rank or something?! The enemies won't stop spawning!

I'm kinda writing this as I play the game, over the course of a few hours, and it's kinda growing on me. Right now my best play ended at Field 24.

Maybe later I'll try out the PSX version; I've heard it is less of a dick.

Maybe later I'll try to find some of that Umihara H online. It's probably mostly tentacles, but who knows? Some of it might be good...
Logged
paste
Level 6
*


BARF!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2012, 01:00:01 AM »

Oof, this game is tough. I'm playing the SNES version. I must've found a "secret" level or maybe just a different path through the game, but unfortunately, each, say, "Field 4" is called Field 4, so it's hard to know which is the alternate path or whatever. I got as far as the tadpole guy, but I didn't figure out how to beat him. Attrition?
Logged

Alevice
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2012, 05:40:38 AM »

Actually, each field has its own name. You can skip field 4 and go stright to field 10 (and then eventually go back to field 8 ).

Most bosses on this game are just about surviving a sequence like 10 times or so and then just watch how the boss flees.
Logged

Udderdude
Level 10
*****


View Profile WWW
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2012, 06:36:54 AM »

This game is crazy and makes my brain want to escape from it's container. >_>
Logged
Alevice
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2012, 10:31:40 AM »

Working as intended then. ANy progress, anyone?
Logged

noah!
Level 6
*


View Profile
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2012, 10:58:38 AM »

Haven't really felt compelled to play this since my last post, sorry. I'll try to pick this one back up when I can (in a day or two maybe)

BUT I was searching out Umihara Kawase fanart the other day, and I found the best use of Pixiv I've seen to date:

Logged
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2012, 07:28:33 PM »

So it looks like both paths lead to the tadpole boss, unless maybe I take the door on the sinking platforms.

The Tadpole boss is pretty brutal. It seems like the only way to avoid his right-to-left movement is to dangle under the left side of the platform until he starts jumping again. It seems like the only efficient way to kill the frogs is to stuff them in my bag as fast as I can, but when he gets to four (and five?) of them at once there's not enough time before he comes barreling back at me.

Maybe I just need to get good at climbing walls with the hook. I can get the backpack on the bottom platform, but I can't climb back up from there. Going up walls seems impossible!
Logged
cystem glitch
Level 2
**


wack


View Profile
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2012, 01:18:10 AM »

Goddamn this is a bastard of a game. I got to the end by taking the very hardest door to get to every time, and I never met tadpole boss on this path. I cheated though using save states so I'll have to play again to really beat it. I just couldn't help myself, when I was afraid of losing a life I wouldn't try the ballsout crazy stuff you have to do to take the hardest path. Once you are on the hardest path ridiculously absurd manipulations of the cord become mandatory not optional.

There are so many weird things I saw and did, and so many things I can't explain - there was this one weird bit where there were 3 extra life shells up in some ice blocks over head (the blocks are clear and slippery and you can't attach the fish hook to them). They had cracks where you could get a straight up shot into them and hang off the extra lives, and they slid around while you swung, but you couldn't actually get the lives out and you couldn't swing off of them to get to any new areas, at least not that I was able to do. It appears like they were there just to fuck with you.

There was a really nifty bit where there was a platform that falls due to weight and an extra life in a little nook off to the side and a part of me was like "wouldn't it be cool if you had to hook the life shell and then jump off the other side of the platform to counter balance the weight / momentum of the shell in order to get the life?" As it turns out, not only is it possible to do that but it's the only way of getting it. If you leave the platform you get stranded. There were so many times when they took the craziest and most ridiculous use of the hook and made it required to do something, or even to just proceed as you get farther into it.

SirNiko, one of the tricks to wall climbing that you will have to learn is scaling sheer walls. You have to give it a bit of slack then take it back immediately to surge up a bit, then shoot again diagonally up to gain a bit of ground.
Logged

You told me, never to limit myself to one style...to use any move that works...TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND!
Yougiedeggs
Level 1
*



View Profile
« Reply #14 on: July 20, 2012, 11:29:46 AM »

Can't figure out what to do with the tadpole boss. I save stated there, so I'll spend a little time today dicking around with it.
Logged
rdein
Guest
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2012, 11:55:54 AM »

the only thing you can do is hang around the ledge and dispose of the small tadpoles

after a while the boss leaves
Logged
cystem glitch
Level 2
**


wack


View Profile
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2012, 12:25:39 PM »

Ok so I was playing without cheating / save-stating this time and I went the regular way, and beat tadpole boss

Tadpole boss does his little routine, laying a shit-ton of frogs. The first time I fought him I was hanging off the side to avoid him and I just knew they hid something over to the right from playing through the 1st time and learning the sensibilities of the game. So I swing over there and there's an extra guy, but I took awhile and by the time I wanted to swing back there were like a million frogs and I couldn't fish them all out of the water so I died while swinging back. But, good news, I saw the door unlocked so I knew it was a waiting game. Tadpole guy jumps off the thing at 2:00 on the clock. So anyway, the routine is shoot down so you stick the hook and then jump off the side with a little bit of slack, then swing, then pull up (press down) when you are still swinging to the right to get the crazy velocity to swing back up. Then try and kill ALL frogs laid every time, rinse and repeat. If you take too long killing the frogs you will have to do a death-defying leap and shoot a diagonally up and backwards shot while jumping off the side, which is really fun but also risky. Finally, if you make it past the 4 or 5 reps he does he will jump off into the lake, just be sure to not be swinging to far when he does cause that it would suck to die to that.


Ok, so then I continue playing and I get to a field that has smasher columns, field 15, and there is a fork at the top where you can take the easy door or the hard door. I try to get to the hard door because "hey, I already beat this game once, this should be easy it's only level 15." I try fruitlessly to get over this recessed edge for like 15 minutes, I break down and start cheating again and use save states so I don't have to climb back up if I fall. Still no dice. So, I break down further and look on youtube and there is a video about getting past this one stupid edge. I watch the video and the magic the guy performs, then try to replicate it and am still unable to do so. This is where I rage quit
Logged

You told me, never to limit myself to one style...to use any move that works...TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND!
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2012, 04:57:46 PM »

Woo I got past the tadpole boss. Twice now, the second time without losing a single backpack. I'm getting good at this.

Around level 14 the game starts getting twisted, with the smasher columns. I took the easy door (I don't even know how you'd get over that ledge) and then I died in the next room when you have to do this thing where you grab a wall across from some razor spikes, then do this jump/reel thing to spring over them. And there's a respawning enemy on the other side. I made the first jump, the got killed by a goldfish when trying to do the next, easier looking jump.

Throwing out your line to save yourself when you get stunned is actually pretty clever.

The respawning enemies are kind of awkward, though. They don't seem to follow any particular pattern, they respawn really quickly, and sometimes you get into this thing where an enemy starts to spawn, then you get close and they stop spawning, and then when you turn your back they spawn again and kill you. It would have made way more sense to have a much longer spawn animation, and/or don't respawn until the timer count gets pretty close to 0 (or maybe just start random spawns at zero? Do you die when you run out of time?). The only purpose I see for the random respawns is to punish players who spend too much time trying to make a really ridiculous jump, and... why would you do that?

I really like how I can suddenly do some cool shortcut moves. In level 14, I skip all the smashers by just climbing the vertical shaft on the left. It's a little trickier, since if you miss a swing you fall and start all over, but it's faster and actually more fun.

I still can't climb single, vertical walls yet.
Logged
cystem glitch
Level 2
**


wack


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: July 31, 2012, 10:49:30 PM »

Around level 14 the game starts getting twisted, with the smasher columns. I took the easy door (I don't even know how you'd get over that ledge)

I did finally do this when I loaded the game next, the trick is to attach the hook to the top pixel of the corner and then make your line as absolutely tight as you can while still able to just barely jump over to the ledge on the right, and with it really tight it gets extra springy, and a jump while sliding backwards will land you right on the corner so you can pull yourself up. It's hard as shit though

I still can't climb single, vertical walls yet.

Ok so if you are on a wall that keeps going straight down (so you can't swing under it I mean, that makes it harder) pull the line all the way in so you are just kind of bobbing there right were the hook is attached. press up to slide down a bit then immediately hold down so you jet back up. There is a certain rhythm / timing to it. Then you shoot diagonally up at the peak and reattach the hook slightly higher than you were. You have to do it repeatedly gaining a little ground each time.



So after playing the game some more I got into some more nearly impossible situations, a bit where you have to swing up the side of a ledge from underneath but the ceiling you have to swing on is blocks that rapidly retract so you can't take your time at all, you have to do it in some crazy perfect leap (I never did).

On my next playthrough I got to some seahorse boss and it was maddening. She covers the "good exit" with her big dumb head and shoots the same clouds of ink that the octopus did, and you have to try and swing down beneath to get to other side every time to make another attempt at getting into the door. I finally got in by sort of cheating it and getting hit in such a way that I was knocked in front of the door while she was still a few pixels away.

On another playthrough I was treated to a more difficult version of the tadpole boss - she does the exact same routine, only the layout of the level is slightly different and some frogs fall in the water through cracks every time, and the water is just high enough that if you leave a single frog in the water you aren't likely to survive swinging down there to avoid the boss. So if you liked the tadpole boss wait till you try this shit

This is probably the most sadistic game I've ever played, it's so ridiculously demanding
Logged

You told me, never to limit myself to one style...to use any move that works...TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND!
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #19 on: August 01, 2012, 06:18:22 PM »

Made it to level 23ish, where you find ice/glass blocks and the game asks you, politely, to swing over a pit on moving platforms that recede into the ice and unceremoniously drop you to your death.

All the while increasingly bizarre fish creatures continue to spawn around you while the world becomes filled with lego bricks.

This is like some nightmare scenario where this little girl descends into madness. Slowly the last vestiges of her sanity melt away and only raw fear of anthropomorphic fishes is left to drag across her exposed, vulnerable synapses. Did she eat some bad sashimi before bed? Maybe her lover drowned in a koi pond. This game is ripe with narrative interpretation.

I need to start working on those hard to reach doors, to try and ferret out some shortcuts. Is this like Kid Chameleon where you have all sorts of alternate paths, or are these just warp zones that push you ahead to later fields? It's really hard to tell whether I should just keep trying to get the hardest doors, or if I'm just making my own life more miserable.

What do all those options on the menu mean? "Replay" sounds promising, but I'm not sure if it's a death cam, sound test, or what.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic