MAY YOU ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT
Wonderful to start the new year, after one filled with me delving into the lunacy of shoot-em-ups and becoming acquainted with them, with ZeroRanger; a meticulously crafted STG filled with love towards the genre and the general aesthetics of sci-fi anime; while it's common for me to be put off by references like these because they usually feel very surface-level, the wide variety of things it pulls from feels as if the devs know the variety in the medium and the core appeal, and are able to take these concepts and merge them together flawlessly while topping it off with undertones of buddhist mythology and philosophy.
But even outside of its parts, the sum shines even brighter; extremely well balanced, with a very forgiving continue system that also rewards committed players with its scoring systems, bosses that seem tough at first with complicated patterns but can be easily annihilated with knowledge of their kits, and a wide variety of weapons that lets players express themselves. When viewed outside of the pure mechanical judgement, it's also an audiovisual feast; an excellent soundtrack with perfect use of it and visuals to create setpieces that get you hyped, and visually beautiful with its green and orange palette. Extremely forgiving yet merciless in difficulty, created with so much love to the genre but crafted well enough to be great for newcomers, ZeroRanger is the definitive contemporary STG in a genre that's had less and less new, notable entries without feeling like a simplification of the titans it is inspired by.
I can forgive its Gurren Lagann reference but I can't forgive that Mido and Dori are sisters instead of gay, do better.
Wonderful to start the new year, after one filled with me delving into the lunacy of shoot-em-ups and becoming acquainted with them, with ZeroRanger; a meticulously crafted STG filled with love towards the genre and the general aesthetics of sci-fi anime; while it's common for me to be put off by references like these because they usually feel very surface-level, the wide variety of things it pulls from feels as if the devs know the variety in the medium and the core appeal, and are able to take these concepts and merge them together flawlessly while topping it off with undertones of buddhist mythology and philosophy.
But even outside of its parts, the sum shines even brighter; extremely well balanced, with a very forgiving continue system that also rewards committed players with its scoring systems, bosses that seem tough at first with complicated patterns but can be easily annihilated with knowledge of their kits, and a wide variety of weapons that lets players express themselves. When viewed outside of the pure mechanical judgement, it's also an audiovisual feast; an excellent soundtrack with perfect use of it and visuals to create setpieces that get you hyped, and visually beautiful with its green and orange palette. Extremely forgiving yet merciless in difficulty, created with so much love to the genre but crafted well enough to be great for newcomers, ZeroRanger is the definitive contemporary STG in a genre that's had less and less new, notable entries without feeling like a simplification of the titans it is inspired by.
I can forgive its Gurren Lagann reference but I can't forgive that Mido and Dori are sisters instead of gay, do better.