Continuing a trend of making everything old new again, DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours was released in December last year on PC as a continuation of the DARIUS series that Taito has been making for over 20 years. DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours was an updated and enhanced release of the 2009 Playstation Portable DARIUSBURST and came to the PS Vita, Playstation 4, and PC. The Playstation 4 and PC versions each had some unique co-operative multiplayer, a new story mode, 9 different ships, and over 3000 stages in the arcade style shooter.
With it being a recent release, publisher Degica has sent out some information on DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours' future, which looks quite promising. The smallest detail of the bunch is that on January 14th the game will be releasing in Japan, taking the game back to where the series began. Also on that day, the Darius Odyssey art book will stop being a PlayStation 4 exclusive and will be available as DLC on PC as well for $14.99. Players will be able to purchase it in conjunction with the base game for a bundled price of $59.99. One key thing to know about the art book is the writing in it is in Japanese only and it is a digital copy as one would expect.
However, the big news is the announcement of 3 DLC packs forthcoming based on some of the developer's past games. Taito is taking inspiration from past games RayForce, Night Striker, and Metal Black to give each one a unique DLC pack. Each pack will have a new ship, unique levels, and remixed music all based upon the eponymous game for the DLC. Additionally it will be in 16:9 resolution and not arcade set as they try to transport the ideas and feel while keeping to being DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours. The special DLC ships will only be usable in the DLC levels, however you'll also be able to use the core game ships in the levels potentially adding a good amount of replayability.
There is no price yet announced for these DLC packs nor a release date. However we'll keep you up to date for when you can expect to see ships based on the RVA-818 X-LAY from RayForce, the Night Striker car, or whatever ship makes it from Metal Black.
Quick Take
While the art book seems like it's expensive, the DLC support using their older games for inspiration is pretty nice to see and that an enhanced re-release isn't getting abandoned here. Interestingly, it is including Night Striker, which has never gotten a western release in the past making this possibly the series official English debut here (I may have missed something but it does appear that way to me looking around as the compilations its in never left Japan either).
I also get a bit of a chuckle seeing the series releasing in Japan this time after the West given that it is a Japanese developer on a game series on arcades, which normally means Japanese first, second and third. The growing market of Shoot'Em Ups and such that succeed on PC and other platforms may have helped prompt this release.
