Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype Landing on PS Vita March 17th

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Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype Landing on PS Vita March 17th

Hi everybody! This is Marcus from SideQuest Studios with some good news for PS Vita fans and shmup lovers! I’m excited to announce that we are launching an updated version of Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype along with the “The Last Chapter” expansion for Vita and PlayStation TV tomorrow. For those of you unfamiliar with the Söldner-X 2 series hopefully this trailer will get you up to speed.

While some of you are eager to face the challenge, others might be worried that Söldner-X 2 is one of those insanely difficult bullet hell shooters. We love shmups and wanted to make the genre a little more accessible to new players.

Söldner-X 2 includes a unique feature we call the Play Rank System, which automatically adjusts the game’s difficulty level while you are playing. This even occurs mid-level so inexperienced players are likely to encounter less enemies, fewer bullets and take less damage. On the other hand, when your skills improve the game will become more challenging to match your ability and reward you with much higher scores.

Speaking of high scores, every run can be uploaded to our servers meaning that replay files from other players are available to be downloaded and played back on your PS Vita. That way instead of wondering “How did they get such a high score!?” you can now watch their run and find out.

Söldner-X 2: Final PrototypeSöldner-X 2: Final Prototype

To make things more exciting for existing fans, (And a bit fairer on new players!), the PS Vita version will have a completely fresh high score table and added tracking for additional stats. Ever wanted to know how many total enemies have been killed or see a detailed breakdown of your friends’ activity? Head over to www.soldner-x.com/sx2/ and check it out. There is still an active battle for high scores on the PS3 version so we’re really excited to see who will rise to the top of the leaderboards!

We put a lot of effort into making Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype look as great on PS Vita as it did on PS3, and we worked really hard to ensure the game runs at a constant 60 frames per second without compromise. Even with hundreds of bullets and enemies on screen, you will be able to enjoy the game without any slowdown. We also want to say a big thank you to the guys over at PlayStation for their support during our tricky engine optimizations.

Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype

The game will be available tomorrow for $9.99 with the DLC priced at $4.99. You can also pick both up in one bundle for $12.99. Söldner-X 2 is cross buy, meaning that if you already own the game on PS3, you can download it for free for PS Vita and PlayStation TV.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and for checking out our game. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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23 Comments

11 Author Replies

  • looks fun but i’m not a big fan of shooters since i suck at them but i tell you what,i’m looking forward to rainbow skies any news on that front?

    • There is a dynamic difficulty system, that adjusts the game to your playing style, just in case you might give the game a chance.
      Regarding Rainbow Skies, we’re working with full power on this project now, but unfortunately I can’t give you a release date now.

  • Awesome! Been waiting for this.

  • It’s nice that this is crossbuy. I bought the game last year, but my ps3 broke a few weeks later, and haven’t the chance to play again… But I just have to wait for the vita version now

    Thanks for showing some vita love

  • Awesome. I loved this game on PS3 but haven’t had the chance to play it in years. I’m pretty sure the music was really really good on this one too… especially the title track.

  • Thanks for bringing this to the Vita. It is a great shmup and I look forward to checking it out! The dynamic difficulty mechanic should be interesting.

  • Looks interesting… I’m a fan of shoot ’em ups. Will check it this out… but wish it was Cross-buy on Vita/PS4. Either way, it’s nice to have more games to play on my Vita.

    • Thanks for your feedback. A PS4 version of this title is very unlikely, I’m afraid. So at least we’re glad we can offer cross buy for PS3 and Vita.

  • Loved Soldner 1 & 2, Marcus !
    But what are you guys doing ? Any chances of Soldner 3 for PS4 ? :)
    We need more shoot-em ups !

  • We need a third installment or more DLC now this new Vita version is out. Anything currently in development?

  • I’m very excited for tomorrow. Porting a game on the PS Vita without major graphics quality compromises that runs at 60fps is a hell of an achievement. I have seen some footage of the first two levels from some YouTubers you gave early access on and I really like this game. The music, the action, the bosses, the extra features… I’ve never played a Söldner game before, but I’m definitely gonna buy this game when it comes out tomorrow on the PSN Store.

    My only problem is with the only 2-3 ships you’ve got to choose from. This wouldn’t stop me from purchasing the game but, are there more ships to unlock? Does the DLC brings in new ships.? Thank you for you time and yous passion. Again, congratulations on releasing a solid PS Vita game. Can’t wait to see more from your next game: Rainbow Skies.

    • Many thanks for your reply.

      There is one additional ship you can unlock, but there are many additional weapons you can unlock for every ship. And I think this is what brings most variation in gameplay.

      Hope you’ll like the game and thanks a lot for your support!

  • Looks good, I’ll have to try it out.

  • So happy for this, I thought I wasted my money on PS3 for this game because never had a change to play it, but on vita that will be a different story :D

  • The support for PS Vita is still there what people don’t understand is that not everything of what you want to see on the handheld will be on there.

  • Sniff I’m so happy that the Vita gets high quality games like this that are only possible on the Vita, but I really miss the PSP classics ie Kingdom Hearts I heard its really good but I have no way of playing it. Would you guys please make it happen.

    • I also love the Kingdom Hearts series. However, it’s a Square Enix franchise so we’re definitely the wrong address for this petition:)

  • Thanks for the crossbuy and all the hard work to support vita. Will buy the DLC as thanks! Oh and thanks for 60FPS!!

    • Many thanks for your support! And we’re very glad you guys appreciate our technical effort we put into this title.

  • Any Vita owner that cares about old school shmups owes it to themselves to pick this up. It was awesome on the PS3.

  • The downloadable replays are a *great* idea, thanks for adding value beyond just porting the existing features! Even if it weren’t cross-buy, I’d be buying it again on my Vita.

    Can you go into detail on some of the engine optimizations you made to get 60fps from the Vita? I’ve heard from other developers that copying between main RAM and the VRAM can be quite a bottleneck, as can streaming I/O. Everyone says to avoid alpha layers as much as possible (even PixelJunk Monsters/Shooter on Vita have chugging framerates when too much “smoke” is on screen). It would be great if more Vita devs shared their low-level optimization strategies so more games could take better advantage of the hardware.

    • Not the proper site here to discuss this, but briefly worded, the PS Vita doesn’t have the same hardware power as the PS3. I especially missed the SPUs that I used extensively on PS3 for ultra fast realtime data decompression and other stuff. Alpha was another big issue, because all our edges are smoothly antialized and we hardly using non alpha stuff. And there have been far more problems to solve, including sound, slow memory card access and the overall limited performance of the Vita.

      But despite minimal restrictions in sound and loading speed compared to the original game (and I doubt anyone will notice without an A/B comparison) I’m very happy and proud with this version and some details are even better than in the PS3 build.

      That was the main reason for the massive delay we had with this title by the way. We really hate to make compromises in quality.

  • Would it have killed Sony to do a limited physical release for this?!

    • It would have probably killed us:) Joking aside, a physical release requires a dedicated publisher in each territory/country which is something that we don’t have at the moment. The whole distribution complex is much more complex than for digital distribution. That’s why we go for download only at the moment.

  • Will the DLC be cross-buy as well, or just the base game? I love X 2 and can’t wait to give it some time on Vita.

  • This game looks awesome, I like a lot shmups, and I love Rainbow Moon (56hrs and counting). Thanks for this great games, I’m really looking forward for Rainbow Skies, keep up the good work.

  • So excited, when I opened the PSN Store to see the PS-Vita Bundle FREE. Then at the moment of purchase my joy was snatched away. Added to MyCart the price switched $12.99. Ugh!!! Thought I missed Spring Fever Week 2 Deal. But maybe I am not too late, so I seached and found this post. Wait..can it be true? YES…. CROSS-BUY. The phrase can bring a tear to the eye of this old disabled USMC Vet. No $$$ with gaming limited mainly to the PS-Vita, finding Soldner-X2 on it & FREE = Today a good day!!! Well, except that $12.99. I fear owning the Soldner-X Bundle: Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype + Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer PS3 Bundle is the issue. It must be D/L together as the parts still cost. This issue is why can’t play it, the PS3 to full & the kids have priority.(Haven’t yet infected them w/Soldner-X addiction) Must contact Customer Support when able. If there is anything you can do to fix it so PS3 Bundle owners have access to the PS-Vita release….

  • COOL!!! You fixed it. I humbly thank you for everything done to bring Solner-X2 to the PS-Vita. Someone checked the right box so owners of just the X & X2 Bundle are credited for the Cross-Buy.
    .:.
    While writing my post (which takes me a bit longer than some), gutting my post to under 1,250 characters and double checking my information, the PSN Store continued its updating. Now the Soldner-X2 (PS-Vita) Standard and Bundle both list as FREE. I’ve purchased both to verify nothing changes like earlier and succeeded. YEA!!! It is downloading to my PS-Vita as I type this post.
    .:.
    One issue yet to clear up: The PS-Vita versions are not listing when searching for “Solnder” on the PSN Store. The best way to find them is under the PS-Vita listing for All Games.
    .:.
    Again, thank you for getting me a game this week. It means a lot.
    .:..:.

    • My apologies, it was probably a setup problem which has now been ressolved. Glad it works now for you!

  • Have this game cross-save? This would be great.

    • The trophy set and high score tables are not shared with the PS3 version. You can earn all trophies again and this is the reason for cross-buy only, I’m afraid.

  • this is incredible, and I would like to enjoy more games like Bionic Commando Rearmed, HardCorps Uprising, Rush’n Attack Ex Patriot, Matt Hazard BBB in Vita, hopefully not forget these games! now I’m enjoying Soldner X2

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