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Kinda funny a Japanese dev team made a better euroshmup than all of Europe.
I played this years ago, and I liked it. Then I replayed it some times, and hated it. Then today I was listening to an audiobook and needed to kill an hour while waiting for an online meeting and went, 'hm, whats a game i could easily 1cc in an hour' and got reminded of this. And I played it again, and like it... conditionally.
If you like your shmups on the best possible interpretation of the 'euroshmup' style, this is a solid one - not European-developed, but definitely in a similar spirit, with its slower pace, level-up system, fixed fire rate and a number of other quirks. The art and presentation is undoubtedly the centerpiece - warm parallax backgrounds setting stage for arduous warfare against dozens of giant steampunk battleships. Unfortunately this all comes with nonstop slowdown, bullet-sponge bosses, environmental hazards that feel impossible to dodge at points, a sluggish 50 minute runtime, and a couple repeated fights that drag it down. You have to go into this with the expectation of a slower comfort game, it's a far cry from the perfectly balanced bite-sized portions of Thunder Force games and whatnot.
If you like your shmups on the best possible interpretation of the 'euroshmup' style, this is a solid one - not European-developed, but definitely in a similar spirit, with its slower pace, level-up system, fixed fire rate and a number of other quirks. The art and presentation is undoubtedly the centerpiece - warm parallax backgrounds setting stage for arduous warfare against dozens of giant steampunk battleships. Unfortunately this all comes with nonstop slowdown, bullet-sponge bosses, environmental hazards that feel impossible to dodge at points, a sluggish 50 minute runtime, and a couple repeated fights that drag it down. You have to go into this with the expectation of a slower comfort game, it's a far cry from the perfectly balanced bite-sized portions of Thunder Force games and whatnot.
Really underrated shmup with killer presentation.
Has a sort of proto-euro-shmup content where you level up throughout the game and gain a permanent damage increase for your run.
Most of the level design is boss-oriented, so if you loved level 3 in R-type you're going to have a whale of a time here.
Has a sort of proto-euro-shmup content where you level up throughout the game and gain a permanent damage increase for your run.
Most of the level design is boss-oriented, so if you loved level 3 in R-type you're going to have a whale of a time here.
Decent little shooter, a little bland overall. The plane is so much better and more fun to use it almost seems pointless to have the blimp in it at all.
I saw a couple of reviews for this game that really praised it a lot so I thought maybe this will be some hidden gem, it looked like it had a cool style and I was excited to try it but unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.
For some reason this game just bores me to death, I can't really think of why outside of how repetitive and uninteresting the bosses are. When you're forced to fight the same boss three times and two of them being in the same stage, it gets old really quick. Even the weapons aren't cool like you're given up to 20 times to upgrade them and it still barely feels anything special.
You can at least play as two different aircrafts with one being a plane and the other being a blimp. I stuck with the plane for a lot of the game because I felt like it had a smaller hitbox but maybe I'm crazy. You also have a healthbar so that's nice so it's not too punishing. There's also bombs and idk if the game just screwed up but I one time grab the B item that gives you a bomb and then I looked at my HUD and went "Why do I have 13 bombs?" Seriously why did that happen. I only had like 5 before I grabbed it.
The game graphically I really like, it's apparently based off a novel according to the credits unless it's just lying to me. The music also doesn't sound too bad, I really like the last level's theme. Also idk if this bothers anyone else but I swear most enemy projectiles look lame in this game and I can't tell if I'm just trying to find the most minor nitpicks now.
Steel Empire isn't bad and I'm sure a lot of others could probably find more appeal in this game but it's just not for me. The game is just boring to me and there's so much more I'd rather be playing, maybe if the bosses were less damage sponges I'd like it more. I could see a sequel to this being good but that never happened so I guess it's just a case of what could have been.
For some reason this game just bores me to death, I can't really think of why outside of how repetitive and uninteresting the bosses are. When you're forced to fight the same boss three times and two of them being in the same stage, it gets old really quick. Even the weapons aren't cool like you're given up to 20 times to upgrade them and it still barely feels anything special.
You can at least play as two different aircrafts with one being a plane and the other being a blimp. I stuck with the plane for a lot of the game because I felt like it had a smaller hitbox but maybe I'm crazy. You also have a healthbar so that's nice so it's not too punishing. There's also bombs and idk if the game just screwed up but I one time grab the B item that gives you a bomb and then I looked at my HUD and went "Why do I have 13 bombs?" Seriously why did that happen. I only had like 5 before I grabbed it.
The game graphically I really like, it's apparently based off a novel according to the credits unless it's just lying to me. The music also doesn't sound too bad, I really like the last level's theme. Also idk if this bothers anyone else but I swear most enemy projectiles look lame in this game and I can't tell if I'm just trying to find the most minor nitpicks now.
Steel Empire isn't bad and I'm sure a lot of others could probably find more appeal in this game but it's just not for me. The game is just boring to me and there's so much more I'd rather be playing, maybe if the bosses were less damage sponges I'd like it more. I could see a sequel to this being good but that never happened so I guess it's just a case of what could have been.
The presentation of the game is this pretty adorable like, old-timey movie, and in fact the end credits are presented and set up as if they're movie credits, which I find super cute.
I also can't help but love that the final level is a 'From the Earth to the Moon' homage, complete with crashed bullet and all. Clearly the creators had a lot of fun and you can tell a lot of love went into this!
.....BUT, gosh. There's a lot of awful stuff in here. All of the bosses take WAAAAAAY too long, with really fiddly little hitboxes for stuff. Also gimme some more weapons ahhhhhh just the same boring little bullets was a bit obnoxious. It's interesting having played a bunch of shooters now because I don't often think about the varied weapons as something that keeps me interested, because I tend to pick one and stick with it. But playing a game with only the one weapon makes me realize how much I miss the possibility of variation.
In the end, it's cute, but not all that fun. Watch a VOD for a bit and you'll get a good enough sense.
I also can't help but love that the final level is a 'From the Earth to the Moon' homage, complete with crashed bullet and all. Clearly the creators had a lot of fun and you can tell a lot of love went into this!
.....BUT, gosh. There's a lot of awful stuff in here. All of the bosses take WAAAAAAY too long, with really fiddly little hitboxes for stuff. Also gimme some more weapons ahhhhhh just the same boring little bullets was a bit obnoxious. It's interesting having played a bunch of shooters now because I don't often think about the varied weapons as something that keeps me interested, because I tend to pick one and stick with it. But playing a game with only the one weapon makes me realize how much I miss the possibility of variation.
In the end, it's cute, but not all that fun. Watch a VOD for a bit and you'll get a good enough sense.