Broken Thunder The Game: Released?

[gaMEthuselah]

At the risk of talking about a load of hot air, here goes...

Broken Thunder PV

I'm telling nothing new when I say Broken Thunder is obviously related to Thunder Force. The wave shots, the ships, that seemingly indestructible TF4 robot, it's oozing TF all over. I'm sure everybody has seen it at least once.

Now, sarion5963's comment below the video has caught my eye, however. In his statement it says that Broken Thunder is/will be released in Japan this month. Being a shoot'em up lover, this sounds to me like great news. The mere thought of the Thunder Force franchise being reborn is music to my ears to me.

Now, there's a lot of bullshit going around on the Internet, and similarly about Thunder Force 6/Broken Thunder/whatever. The result from searching on the key words "broken thunder toranoana (the store sarion5963 mentioned)" was a page from the site of that shop with a lot of Japanese and a photo of what looks to be the promotional CD instead.

Now, while I am doing a course in said language, the text was, well, Japanese to me. I couldn't discern whether I was looking at the game CD or the promotional one. The same goes for when I was browsing the site of Factory Noise, one of the developers.

The question is: Is Broken Thunder really (going to be) released, or am I getting my hopes up for nothing? Hopefully one of you could provide the answer. Would make a lovely addition to the Forgotten Franchises article.

If not, well, Thunder Force Forever/Thunder Future/whatever is coming along slowly but steadily (It seems that Garow, develooper of that game, also did some 3D work for Broken Thunder, according to the Factory Noise).

gMt - æ

[Joe Redifer]

The whole reason that it is called "Broken Thunder" is because it was Thunder Force 6, which was in development (probably for the PS2). The music was composed and pretty much finished, but the game itself never got far from what I hear. Soon it was canceled and Tecno/Techno Soft ceased to exist forever. The musician was able to release his music and it was called "Broken Thunder" at that time, since the game itself was "broken" forever. The game itself never had the word "Broken" in it.

[Melf]

Source.

I don't know about this. Some things look very TF-like, but overall it comes across as a PC homebrew game.

Wait and see, I guess.

[Joe Redifer]

Notice no company or copyrights on the title screen. This game was built around the "Broken Thunder" music CD release. I agree about the homebrew aspect.

Also what game would have a "Quit" option if it wasn't PC?

[gaMEthuselah]

Judging from the pictures Melf posted, I'd say you're both right. It looks a bit too homebrew to be called a real Thunder Force release. It's also unlikely we'll ever get to see it outside of importing it from Japan.

Nevertheless, it would be nice to see what it plays like. I mean, it's been long wait to see something (really close to) TF again. Hopefully, this takes off.

gMt - æ

[Joe Redifer]

Since it's homebrew, you'll likely be able to download it without a hitch.

[gaMEthuselah]

Don't say that too quickly. The Touhou shoot 'em up series are also homebrew, and while you can download demos of these games, you still got to purchase the full versions in a hobby shop or somewhere on-line. I think this one is going the same way.

Unless of course we're talking about the shadier kind of downloading.

gMt - æ

[Zebbe]

Also what game would have a "Quit" option if it wasn't PC?

Popful Mail for the Sega CD has a "Quit" option. Let's hope they release Broken Thunder for the Sega CD!

[gaMEthuselah]

I think putting Broken Thunder on a Sega-CD is a little optimistic but I sure hope it'll make its way to the consoles. Let's just hope this marks the revival of the franchise. We've been denied TF-goodness for (too) long.

gMt - æ

[Mr Smith]

I think putting Broken Thunder on a Sega-CD is a little optimistic but I sure hope it'll make its way to the consoles.

If not the Sega-CD, I'm confident it'll get a 32X release.

It looks like one of those games where the background is so detailed it draws your attention from the gameplay.

[Joe Redifer]

Actually I just talked to the chick who provides the voice for the powerups in all of the Thunder Force games. She assured me that this game will only be released as a Sega CD 32X game. She took my preorder.

[David J.]

Haha, that looks like most all of the japanese homebrew shumps for the PC that are all complete crap.

[gaMEthuselah]

David, can you give an example of a few homebrew shooters you think are crap? Is it perhaps the manic shooter style that's all the rage right now that puts you off?

Bar a very few, I've almost always liked the freeware homebrew shooters I've seen, like Warning Forever or some games from ABA Games/Kenta Cho. Granted, the graphics style in those is an acquired taste, and the Touhou characters aren't that well drawn, but I do have spent quite a lot of time playing with those.

gMt - æ

[David J.]

I love maniac shooters. There was this site years ago... well more like four to five years ago and it had a whole bunch of 'em for download and they where all awful.

It wasn't the graphical style, it was rather they where "halfassed" compared to any respective console arcade shump.

[gaMEthuselah]

I see. Well, I think most've gotten a lot better over the years. And a lot more experimental too. One minor critique with me is that so many of those shooters are of the manic type. I rarely see the more adventurous shooters anymore like TF or R-Type: less bullets, and more hazards.

Back to Broken Thunder: one thing I notice is that in the first two screenshots Melf posted, the backdrops are pretty barren. It's probably just the first level or something, but I do hope they make more of a graphical feast than this. More environmental hazards wouldn't hurt either.

gMt - æ