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Ikaruga se mostra como uma anomalia quando se trata em game design sendo todo construído dentro de uma regra de três que dita o jogo e sua performance. Ainda existe um teor filosófico em sua narrativa que admito que ainda não adsorvi totalmente e talvez seja um bom motivo pra novas runs no futuro. O jogo me agrada demais esteticamente e então entendi do porque a Sonic Team usa desse jogoi pra finalizar o seu titulo. Um otimo jogo está por trás desse caminho árduo até o final.

Como um grande fã de jogos de navinhas fodas, sempre tive vontade de me aprofundar mais nos mais falados do genero. Ikaruga era uma das minhas prioridades, e quando descobri que ele tem na steam, fui logo fazer minha primeira jogada.

Ikaruga é, com certeza, o tipo de shoot'em up que mais gosto, porque ele é ÉPICO. Exala um clima tão épico com essa trilha incrível e PRINCIPALMENTE com o visual.

O jogo é em 3D e usa muito bem as perspectiva para trazer momentos muito únicos, espero que os futuros que jogar também sigam no mesmo molde. Mexer com perspectiva é a chave pra fazer momentos mais irados ainda em jogos desse estilo.

A dificuldade também não decepciona, acho que ela exagera demais em muitas partes lá pro final do jogo, mas pra isso que existe os continues infinitos.

Confesso que não estou no momento pra começar uma nova saga, mas já escolhi o próximo estilo a me focar em minha próxima maratona

I suck at this game so much but it's still really great

I love the polarity system the game has with the constant switching between the black and white color ship so you can absorb bullets of the matching colors and fire off these cool homing beams at your enemy and having your attacks being the opposite color of whatever you're facing dealing doubled damage is a cool detail too. all the bosses look pretty cool too, especially that first guy or thing it's like some kind of cool super robot thing.

I have no idea what the story's about it's probably some deep and philosophical story about humanity and cosmic entities in an post-apocalyptic world or something that's just my guess from what little I know about it, yes I'm rating a game that I had no idea what it's about four and a half stars what are you gonna do about it

that music though. there's not that many tracks in this game, but they're all winners, not a single miss here. it's a dang shame the composer for this game hasn't really composed any other music since this one, though I suppose it'd be pretty hard to top this so leaving off on a note like this is nothing to be ashamed of. go out and listen to this soundtrack yourself you can find it online and finish it in like 40 minutes just leave it on the background or something just please check it out and admire it. the graphics are good too each Chapter has its own unique locations and vibes and the 3D look has not aged at all it's wonderful.

if you're only going to play one bullet hell game in your life, make it this one. despite its short length, it will take you on a crazy ride and I'm sure that you'll be thinking a lot once you've make it to the end.

btw I love how the average rating for this game looks like a middle finger it's the perfect image describing this game's difficulty lol

Full disclosure: a few years ago I was exactly the person who’d blasted through this on freeplay, then dutifully nodded to myself, “this is the best shmup ever made,” and then proceeded to never play anything else in the genre.

I don’t know if getting a 9CC admonishes me of that, but it’s certainly forced me to see the game in ways I never had before. And I totally get why it grates on people: it’s setpiece-heavy, memorization-intensive, and each of the five stages pulls in wildly different directions- sometimes an intense bullet-hell, sometimes an infuriatingly slow crawl through the box factory.

And the scoring system! Every screen ends up being this order of operations puzzle to chain every trio of colors as quickly and precisely as possible- miss a few and you’ll lock yourself out of the chance to spawn extra groups of enemies. All this is to say, it can be maddening for the first few hours as you get a feel for the rhythm of the game, trying to keep in step with the rigid dance of the whole thing.

The feature that made me really start to love the game was the way you can play levels without firing a shot, what the game calls “Dot Eater.” While it’s cool on its own that you can play entirely as pacifist (and a daunting challenge in its own right), it’s the way this feature intersects with standard play that I’ve found really helpful; if you happen to miss one of your targets when trying to complete a combo- you can wait a bit, survive, and then re-enter the fray when you’ve regained your composure. It’s definitely made replaying the levels more enjoyable- of course going for the S++ rank requires near-perfection, but you’re given a little more flexibility as you strive for mastery, stretches where you neatly chain through everything on screen, take a moment to take a breather, and then pick the chain back up.

The bosses themselves also really open up thanks to being scored by time instead of chaining, your strategy evolving as you try to shave off just a few more seconds with each attempt. I thought the first boss, Eboshidori, was a complete slog initially, but go for the best possible time and suddenly the fight is transformed, frantically switching between polarities to get some extra energy and maximize your damage, weaving between attacks that originally seemed so harmless.

I also want to take a second to acknowledge that, with a bit more context, this is probably one of the nichest shmups I’ve played. Credit-feed through something like Dodonpachi and you’ll have a good time blasting through hordes of enemies, and likely leave with a decent sense of what the experience is like. In contrast, so much of enjoying Ikaruga only comes with time; that first playthrough shuffles you right along, no chance to prolong your survival with any sort of i-frame granting bombs or hyper-mode, missing big portions of the game as the bullet patterns reset each time you die, meaning you don’t really have a chance of getting into any sort of flow state. And as mentioned before, this is a very setpiece heavy, memorization intensive game- hard to intuit what parts of the screen are just instant-death or when some boss will materialize behind you on a first playthrough.

But maybe that’s okay, and it’s more a indication of how stellar the aesthetic and thematic qualities are that even those fumbling initial attempts end up feeling so epic- thrown into the climax of a spectacular battle that you know is vital, even if you can’t quite articulate why. Even now, the game’s focus on perseverance in the face of adversity has been strangely reinvigorating for me, a reminder to fight for the good in the world, even if reality itself seems to be pitted against you.

"Is this what we wished for?
Don't worry, we will understand each other some day.
And the life is succeeded into to the distant future."

Maybe I wasn’t totally off when I first played it.

Light and darkness

Ikaruga's reach has no bounds as someone that has barely got a toe into the shmup genre has heard it. For some godforsaken reason, I thought this would be a good entry into getting my bearings on the genre and build upon some muscle memory to use in the future for the genre, this game destroyed me on my first run through on unlimited lives on normal. I "beat" Ikaruga but I was battered and bloodied that it almost felt hollow, anyone can win with unlimited lives and I enjoyed my time but I had to go again until I got a victory that felt earned.

The heart and soul of Ikaruga is the gameplay and it might seem simple at first glance but there has never been a more betraying impression. The main mechanic is being able to switch polarities to eat bullet rewards timing with charging your special homing lasers and extremely important to survival as well. The game starts easy enough and then throws some disgusting patterns that almost feel hard to predict until you memorize them and it all finally seems possible. The game doesn't throw a lot of bullets at you more than gives you these unique situations that require you to remember what to do and how to do it while dodging those said bullets. First run, I was legit dying every 9 seconds and then very quick improvement on my second run as I was remembering where enemies come from and naturally figuring out what to do to the point it was starting to feel like a puzzle game. The game's extremely short run time lets you know that you have to come back, you will get your ass kicked but you can always return and do better.

Something that fascinates me about Ikaruga is the general art for the game, it's some of the most beautiful art I've seen for a game of this genre with pieces such as this and even this character piece. This is official art and despite not seeing most of it despite the imagery and themes. Games like these aren't as exciting without an amazing fast paced soundtrack to accompany them and Ikaruga is no exception, surprisingly my favorite theme is the one you hear at the very end with the credits rolling and the imagery I refuse to spoil feeling like a period to a very hectic experience.

Despite Ikaruga's devastating difficulty (can easily say this is a personal skill issue too), the game's very first poem tells you to not give up which I feel is very accurate to the experience. To never give up, being strong means you will have more obstacles you have to overcome and so forth. Don't regret living, don't regret not giving up and maybe we will learn to understand each other for who we really are. The achievement might never happen but I only hope existing within the people close to you is more than enough.

Played on the gamecube and I suck total ass at this game but god it is so fun, so much hectic energy in every second and every time you swap your colors to catch bullets and have to dodge opposite color bullets it will influence the next three hundred micro decisions you're going to make in your playthrough!

Phenomenal soundtrack, incredible amounts of polish making the shoot em up scroller type of game to damn near perfection!

Let's you play however you want: You want infinite lives? Here ya go! You want pain mode? Here's 3 lives to do the WHOLE thing, you masochist!

The soundtrack, presentation, and the wacky ass story that legit hurts my brain to remember is some of the most pure fun you can have with a game!

I suck at logging my games on this site but I have been playing this in between playing Runescape and Brutal Legend, and everything else I need to play but I just have to keep playing Ikaruga!

The funniest part of Ikaruga is that there's ongoing lore that the game just never tells you. The less funny part is when the game goes straight for your jugular right away.

This game starts balls hard on Stage 1 and it only gets harder from that point on. If I wasn't playing on infinite continue mode I would have never been able to beat this, but holy shit it is SO much fun to look at when it's going.

I was dying constantly but it was the kind of death where you can't help but laugh while it's happening, you know?