Famitsu posted a few direct feed images of Thunderforce VI earlier today.The game seems to be heavily inspired by Thunderforce V with the graphic quality somewhere between Border Down and Gradius V. There are a few places that the textures look a little rough, but the color palette is nice and vibrant and the stages are already showcasing some interesting visual touches. If only the game's music can live up to the standards set by Thunderforce III (and continued through the next two games), we may have a winner on our hands since from the sounds of it, the development team has the game in very good hands.
According to the article, Thunderforce VI is being planned with six stages in mind. The article showcases a quick preview of the game's first three which include a ruined city, a volcano run, and an ocean level. The screens also confirm the return of Thunderforce V's 'controversial' free range weapon. I'm going to wager a bet though that it and perhaps a few other weapons may end up seeing some drastic rebalancing prior to Thunderforce VI's release.
The actual development team behind the game is still a bit of a mystery, but there are already rumors circulating that some obvious connections between the game's director and Treasure could hint at just a portion of Sega's plans. If Treasure is behind Thunderforce VI, it may end up giving the game a lot more attention than it otherwise would receive based on name recognition alone with a lot of media who usually only focus on Treasure's shooters...
