Battle Traverse

released on May 05, 2015

Bullet hell shoot'em'up developed by Naut Mark. Horizontal scrolling. The game bears similar mechanics to the CAVE titles Progear and Ketsui, with a system based on bullet cancelling with enemy explosions, as well as a proximity-based scoring aspect.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

I can't believe its not Cave! Seriously who the fuck made this?! One of the highest quality doujin/indie bullet hell shmups I've had the pleasure to play. Easiest way i would describe it is if Progear and Ketsui had a baby. Initially picked it up not expecting much but loved the game so much i put the hours in to 1CC Very Hard and Extreme modes. Gorgeous pixel art and patterns i only i can describe as purely Cave. Has difficulty for players of all skill levels, from easy/normal for those who want something novice friendly to the more intermediate Hard mode/Very hard and ending with the very different Extreme mode which adds slowdown, shrinks the hitboxes, puts the bullet count up, changes mechanics and adds a true last boss. BUT the real final challenge of the game is doing a hard mode 2-all. That loops into VeryHard mode but adds revenge bullets and ends with an even more evil TLB. Very obscure and underplayed but dripping with quality. if you like Danmaku its a must play.

If not for the game having the obvious doujin graphics and audio, one might swear this game was made by CAVE employees or former employees thereof. Imagine the scoring mechanics of Ketsui but with the isometric horizontal perspective of Progear or Akai Katana. Solid game if you want something relatively conventional, it doesn't do much to stray from the usual arcade bullet hell tropes.

Also yes, the game is not on Steam. It has only been sold as a Japan-only physical and as a DLsite digital. If you have a little time to set up an account there, the game does not have any DRM to worry about nor do you need to install some launcher app (just run the game straight from the executable), so it's absolutely worth the extra legwork.

Game recommended by Cold_Comfort on my Recommend me something pls list (1/39)

This one is not a surprise by any means - being quite a big fan of shmups and sitting in various communities of this genre, i've heard about this title a lot of times, being proclaimed as one of those "hidden dlsite gems" (if you don't know, dlsite is a japanese website where devs sell doujin games and porn), alongside stuff like Cambria Sword, ring^-27, Stellavanity (known also for various dramas i won't get into in this review, sorry) and Ikusaaaaaaan! (the number of "a"s is important, don't forget about that). Admittevely, the first look may be disappointing, because sprites look like you put RPG Maker characters into a shmup and the enemies are all various planes, drones, helicopters, etc. with some weird sizes comparing to main character.

But you kinda forget that once you play it (or at least look into the patterns instead of enemies). The game feels like Progear and Ketsui had a baby (a threesome with RPG Maker????), throwing at you loads of enemies shooting at you with either aimed shots or various interesting patterns. The scoring is basically using shot for getting items and lock-on for cashing with some proximity bonus (Ketsui), but also bullet cancelling (Progear). It has three characters to choose from - slow guy, fast guy and a girl (I played as a fast guy, but maybe you'll like one of the other two more) The pacing is also really good, there are almost no wait zones outside of just before the boss or killing the midboss. Boss fights aren't bad either, with fair, but not "free" patterns. Even has some stuff for more experienced players like harder difficulties if you thought Hard isn't easy enough (To be honest i cleared it with 3 lives in stock so maybe that suggests something) or second loop with TLB if you score enough (I didn't so maybe i'm still a scrub).

tl;dr It's just really fun to dodge through this and get a lot of points. Also, if Hard is too hard (hehe) for you, Normal is way easier and more approachable difficulty.

PS. Yeah, the music doesn't really fit much (even if I like boss theme a little), but what party is going on Stage 4 based on this theme?

Also yeah, I know, 9 months since i started that recommeding list and I started playing games from it just now. I hope I'll get through all the other ones faster (and of course, each one with the review).

Good news: Battle Traverse is a mechanically awesome STG with great bullet patterns, boss fights, stage design, and great pacing. An amazing tribute to Progear and Ketsui that in gameplay terms, almost exceed the games that inspire it whilst still feeling like it's own thing.

Thing is, it looks like shit.

Battle Traverse's art style is jarringly bad. Weird semi-chibi player characters fight against military aircraft and vehicles against boring backgrounds with a very weird sense of perspective. It's an art style that would have been far better if it was just generic (like say rolling gunner), but the weirdness and the way the sprites all clash is almost distracting. There's still charm to be had in the unusual tone, with some weirdly upbeat music and some good silliness thrown in. It would probably help if I could read the text, mind...

For the record, BT was primarily made by one person - including all the programming and art. Considering that, it's an astonishing achievement, an incredibly fun STG with depth and an awesome gameplay flow that matches some of CAVE's best.

Ultimately, the art style is distracting, and does stop it matching the absolute greatest in the genre for my money. But take that out of the equaton and my next biggest criticism is that you can't skip the arcade mode's 5 second long intro.

A hearty reccomendation from me, if you're into this sort of shit.