Update []:
Clear River Games has offered a statement to Time Extension over email, and publicly via social media, regarding the differences in timing between the R-Type Delta HD Boosted and the original game for the PS1
In the statement, the company confirmed what we already noted earlier this week, that the removal of slowdown was intentional, stating "Our goal was to produce the definitive version of the game — free from slowdown or original hardware limitations, and true to the original development team's stated vision".
However, it states the company is now "actively investigating [...] feedback" regarding player complaints about missing effects, desynced audio, and other issues stemming from the removal, and will provide an update shortly on how it plans to address these points.
Here's the statement in full:
"Thank you to the thousands of players who have jumped into R-Type Delta HD Boosted since its launch on November 20.
We are overwhelmed by the positive response and have loved hearing your stories and watching creators take flight. We are aware that some players have noted differences between HD Boosted and the original release. Bringing this title back to life through a native port, rather than relying on emulation, was a painstaking, multi-year process, requiring extensive work to complete the source code from what had been preserved.
Our goal was to produce the definitive version of the game — free from slowdown or original hardware limitations, and true to the original development team's stated vision. We are actively investigating your feedback and will provide an update shortly on how we plan to address these points."
Original Story: When Irem & City Connection announced that they were working on a port of R-Type Delta HD Boosted for modern consoles and PCs earlier this year, there was a lot of excitement online. And it's pretty easy to understand why.
The original game is frequently listed online for hundreds of pounds on the secondhand market, making this new version a potentially cheaper alternative for those who want to get their hands on the PS1 game, without breaking the bank.
Reviews for the game dropped on Thursday, November 20th (the same day as the game's release) and have so far been pretty universally positive, with our friends at Nintendo Life giving it a 9, while our other sister site, Push Square, awarded it an 8 in its own review. However, it appears there may be some issues that those reviews, and other reviewers online, didn't pick up on, with Japanese players now taking to social media to highlight issues with missing effects and desynced audio, which are reportedly caused by the new version's lack of slowdown (thanks, OhFivePro, for the spot!).
This appears to be most evident in a section before the end credits, in which there are a bunch of buildings onscreen that are supposed to slowly sink into space and vanish. In the new game, because the slowdown from the original has been removed, these buildings now simply fall off the side of the screen, with the audio then sharply cutting as the staff roll begins. There are also reports that the game is now harder too, with the third stage, in particular, proving "abnormally difficult" for some.
In a Gamespark interview from earlier this month, R-Type Delta HD Boosted producer Nobuhiro Yoshikawa shared a few interesting details with the publication about the creation of the game, which does go some way to explaining why the port may not be as accurate to the original experience as players may have wanted.
In the interview, Yoshikawa stated, for instance, that only "60 to 70 per cent" of the original game's source code has survived, with City Connection having to supplement what was already there. In addition to this, the team also made a conscious decision to remove frame lag, with the producer stating this decision was based on comments that R-Type Delta's original director, Hiroya Kita, once gave in an interview, in which he stated the PS1 game's slowdown was reportedly not an intended feature.
Yoshikawa acknowledged that the game would play differently because of this production choice, but did not refer to any changes to the way audio would be implemented to compensate.
As of right now, neither Irem nor City Connection have acknowledged the issue, so it's unknown whether they will attempt to address this with future updates. We've reached out to its Western publisher, Clear River Games, for comment.