As much of a "beginner's shmup" as I have ever seen, but it's a little too much probably. I'm an almost complete beginner at shmups and it was too simple even for me.

It's incredibly lenient with a full health bar, incredibly generous money to buy a revival potion for instance, infinite lives, a shield that blocks most bullets... but also fails to change stuff up or just be very exciting. I think one of the appeals of the genre to me is the ever-changing arsenal/power-ups during the level., and the great feeling you get when you fully upgrade your ship and get a huge beam of destruction or something.

In Magical Chase, you just buy your beam from a shop, and can maybe buy another type in the next shop, which appear once per level I think? There are no "upgrades" to your shots really.

The last level also features a boss rush, which is one of the gaming tropes I personally detest the most.

The most interesting thing about this game is that it was developed by some GOATs of the JRPG genre - it was directed by Hiroshi Minagawa, with music by Hitoshi Sakimoto, art director and composer respectively of the Ivalice games, among other credits.