The first ESPGaluda is great for beginners to the genre, with the kakusei mechanic introduced and integrated as both a means to adjust to the shmup modus operandi and as a simple yet effective scoring system. All things considered it’s not a particularly difficult game to learn or finish.

ESPGaluda II on the other hand raises the difficulty to a point where it seems like a 1cc or at least a level of knowledge and comfort with the mechanics of its forebear is required to do well. (Makes it a bit more confounding that this game has seen numerous rereleases without the other one?) Or at least that was my first impression upon opening the game and proceeding to get thrashed by everything thrown my way. With patterns much denser and faster, I’d say that the game is objectively “harder” at a baseline level. However, like most danmaku their bark is worse than their bite, and practice definitely does help. I think it’s still fair to say it’s a hard game – it took me a solid 2-3 months of on-and-off practice to eke out that 1cc.

Entering the flow state while playing this game feels really nice, with the patterns shifting in speed and color as they fly by or crumble into gold and the ethereal techno pounding in your ears – basically what I’m trying to say is that CAVE games are my version of baby sensory videos. While playing I was reminded of what Sakurai has said about risk and reward in games, and I think these games have a really good feeling of push and pull – enough resources for playing it safe, but also just enough resources to keep you trying to see how much more you can cash in for score (and those sweet, sweet cancels).

The kakusei mechanic too has developed an additional layer of challenge. In addition to regular kakusei there is now kakusei zetsushikai mode, which drains gold and gems when active, often makes patterns more difficult, causes enemies to create homing suicide bullets, all for the reward of quintupling the maximum multiplier on cancels. When used right it can exponentially increase score, but it is also very easy to use wrong. While for myself (and others I’m sure) it usually only acts as a “make the game harder for no reason” button, I appreciate the additional level of challenge it can provide. Again with the risk and reward, I found myself trying to incorporate it more and more into my runs just on the basis that “maybe I can pull it off in this part,” which speaks to the excellency of its design in terms of replay value.

While kakusei gems have always been somewhat scarce, with the denser patterns I felt it really wanting here… until I discovered a hidden mechanic in how kakusei over mode works. When staying in kakusei mode with zero gems, bullets continually speed up. After staying in this mode for a few seconds, it increases the number of gems dropped by enemies. This can be maxed out right at the start of the game with practically no score detriment and makes the rest of it noticeably more forgiving on timing cancels. I was completely unaware of this mechanic and don’t get why it’s something so hidden when you probably want it active for the most part (one could argue that the faster red bullet speed is too detrimental, but for survival purposes seeing the bullets turn red in any case is grounds for a miss/bomb). This was in the first game as well and I had no idea!

I feel the one other misstep in design here is with the very last pattern in the game. The final pattern of ESPGaluda feels like a fair challenge: you’ve had the whole game to learn how to dodge, and now the training wheels are taken off – by force. The last hurdle of ESPGaluda II feels more like it was tacked on to run you a life or two. Having an absurd final pattern that you have to conserve resources for is routine for CAVE games, but the TLB bomb shield here feels unnecessary.

All in all, not a huge deal. Still a very fun game! I’m curious about what the console port(s) bring to the table so I think I’ll pick those up some time.

Somehow managed to 1cc novice on my first try - and I thought I was bad at games.

I really dig the slowdown mechanic here - there's a nice risk / reward of slowing bullet patterns down to avoid damage but lose gems vs tanking damage and maintaining your resources. Speaking of tanking damage - this is a bit different than the other Cave shmups I've played so far insofar as you have a visible health bar rather than instantly falling to a single shot. This combined with the slowdown makes Espgaluda II much more accessible for those learning shmups and looking to dive in further.

The Switch version runs great, this feels like a great game on the go - if you're a real freak you can pick up a flip-grip to play portably in vertical mode.

Been playing this game on the regular for more than half a year, and finally 1CCed, and still feel like I fucking suck at it. It's that hard, that long, that dense an STG.

In these ways it's a step down from the all-around comfier, simpler Espgaluda, adding another scoring mechanic on top of an already very good one (here, you can still go into Kakusei mode to slow down and cancel bullets, and collect gold ingots; but you can also go into Zetsushikai mode to slow down bullets AND create a shitload of revenge bullets for every enemy you kill, in exchange for amping up scoring five-fold). I mostly skirted cautiously around this system, trying it on occasion for survival, ultimately feeling like it was just one layer deeper than I wanted to plunge. It's certainly appealing to an STG fan who would want to make this their "main game" (not me!).

It's beautiful-looking, the arrange soundtrack is really nice, and there are tons of different modes with different mechanics on the Switch/360 ports if you need a change of pace. It's great! I'm just... done with it, having scraped up against the ceiling where exhaustion from the difficult grind obscures the fun.

(Forgot to mention: I don't like stage 4 in this. It's one of the only stages in a Cave game I've played where I've actively dreaded it in runs, not just for its general difficulty but for the specifically annoying nature of its clusters of suicide bomber enemies and the way they force you to stream very slowly or die. I like to play fast and frenetic and you just can't do that in Stage 4. However -- the BOSS of stage 4 is awesome, and has some of the most crazy-unique patterns you'll see in a danmaku).

that gif of patrick bateman listening to his headphone with his eyes closed
Avoid the arcade release at all costs and go for the xbox 360 release (xenia) or the switch version. while the original Espgaluda was a great entry level shmup, it also felt very drawn out and the soundtrack also felt weak. Espgaluda II ends up being a very challenging shmup despite still having the slowdown mechanic that made the original so approachable. but this means it's also a lot more intense and engaging. also this has the best soundtrack out of cave games by far.
I don't think I'm scoring a 1cc on this game anytime soon but I sure am enjoying my time a lot with it.