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It's funny how Treasure managed to get it so right on the first try: this isn't to say that they didn't already have experience making other types of games, but all of the previous challenges brought them to this point and with probably quite a bit of inspiration and a new outlook at things they ended up making one of the most tight shoot em ups I've played in a while. I haven't been able to 1CC this whole thing as of yet, but story/saturn mode is plenty possible for beginners and more experience players alike. The cutscenes and story are engrained in my brain for how memorable the lines are, and also for how pretty they are; GONZO handled these perfectly (even if they overused some stock sounds a bit too much at times)
The gameplay seems overwhelming at first but as you learn to use every weapon you'll find a use for everything, the radiant sword especially is one of the game's core mechanics and is necessary to get the usual SHMUP bomb. You don't start with a bomb and to obtain one you need to delete a certain amount of pink bullets with your sword, but when you get the bomb it's honestly worth it because the animation is quite lengthy and the damage is pretty significant at least at first, later on the important bit is the i-frames.
On a small note the sword is also a weapon by itself and it's pretty fun to master too; for example if you spin in place you can basically make a small shield for the pink projectiles, or if you hold it in place on a boss it deals constant damage.
Something that RS does very uniquely though is that the weapon levels (which are obtained with EXP instead of pickups, and you get exponentially more exp the longer the chain of same coloured enemies that you've killed) carry over through Story Mode, along with your total score and the amount of lives you've unlocked with the score and that's how it makes it more accessible but still quite a challenge.
As for arcade mode... It's an entirely different beast and requires you to know not only the patterns but also how to level up your weapons correctly. Thankfully there's only three main weapons and one subweapon for each main weapon. The sword has no levels but that makes sense because the damage is already pretty good on it.
But therefore this game rewards your knowledge way more than actual dodging skill, which are still required. Eventually I'll try to finish arcade mode but for now I'm happy to have played this beast of a game and I highly recommend it.
Be attitude for gains...
WARNINGWARNING
WARNINGWARNING
WARNINGWARNING
WARNINGWARNING
WARNINGWARNING
WARNINGWARNING
It's funny how Treasure managed to get it so right on the first try: this isn't to say that they didn't already have experience making other types of games, but all of the previous challenges brought them to this point and with probably quite a bit of inspiration and a new outlook at things they ended up making one of the most tight shoot em ups I've played in a while. I haven't been able to 1CC this whole thing as of yet, but story/saturn mode is plenty possible for beginners and more experience players alike. The cutscenes and story are engrained in my brain for how memorable the lines are, and also for how pretty they are; GONZO handled these perfectly (even if they overused some stock sounds a bit too much at times)
The gameplay seems overwhelming at first but as you learn to use every weapon you'll find a use for everything, the radiant sword especially is one of the game's core mechanics and is necessary to get the usual SHMUP bomb. You don't start with a bomb and to obtain one you need to delete a certain amount of pink bullets with your sword, but when you get the bomb it's honestly worth it because the animation is quite lengthy and the damage is pretty significant at least at first, later on the important bit is the i-frames.
On a small note the sword is also a weapon by itself and it's pretty fun to master too; for example if you spin in place you can basically make a small shield for the pink projectiles, or if you hold it in place on a boss it deals constant damage.
Something that RS does very uniquely though is that the weapon levels (which are obtained with EXP instead of pickups, and you get exponentially more exp the longer the chain of same coloured enemies that you've killed) carry over through Story Mode, along with your total score and the amount of lives you've unlocked with the score and that's how it makes it more accessible but still quite a challenge.
As for arcade mode... It's an entirely different beast and requires you to know not only the patterns but also how to level up your weapons correctly. Thankfully there's only three main weapons and one subweapon for each main weapon. The sword has no levels but that makes sense because the damage is already pretty good on it.
But therefore this game rewards your knowledge way more than actual dodging skill, which are still required. Eventually I'll try to finish arcade mode but for now I'm happy to have played this beast of a game and I highly recommend it.
Be attitude for gains...
Reviewed on Nov 28, 2021