Although this game tries pretty hard to be a tight RPG with an interesting skill based system it fails at establishing a punishment for those who abuse certain mechanics, which probably everyone had fun with. And while there's nothing wrong with a broken game it kinda defines Dark Messiah in the "kicking" game that it kind of is, there's more to it but kicking is just way too strong. The story is also somewhat unbearable at times, the two women who fall for you are completely obsessed in many non subtle ways and it kind of builds up something that doesn't exist. Overall though it's pretty tongue in cheek and cheesy so I guess it gets a pass. It's still very fun so I'd recommend it but don't expect anything too deep

Extremely interesting conceptually, with a really nice soundtrack to boot, but most of my playtime is probably just doing the dungeon crawling and puzzles rather than actually fighting enemies: the enemy encounters after you've learned how to fight them become fairly simple to deal with so they just become a bit of a nuisance as they do not drop any resources at all (if not stuff to unlock extra gear but eventually even that stops being useful). There's also no levels, most of your power ups will come from skills/armours/potion slots and knowledge of the game, which in itself is alright but I think it could've been done better. There is a new game+ to explore which changes up things to be harder but generally speaking the game is fairly easy, the combat can be somewhat cheesed with the skills which make you totally invincible and healing potions. The heals work in a way that they slowly heal you up over time but if you get hit you lose the health that it didn't heal. You can kind of go around this problem by healing up and then immediately using a skill, you'll be invincible during the whole time and heal up fully, so it really kinda cheeses it up a bunch. It doesn't help that parrying is very easy to do after you've learned the timing of it and it makes healing pointless.
At the very least the bosses are pretty cool and different, they're definitely the peak of the gameplay because they challenge your dodging and blocking skills.
Regardless of all of that it's a very unique game and I'm looking forward their next project and I hope despite the current controversy this game does pretty well.

"Alas, Ikaruga is going . . ."
Considering what Treasure had done with Radiant Silvergun it was hard to top and I'd say that they really tried: they ended up refining the chaining formula to a point that high level play will manage to kill everything on the screen while still chaining, something that it wasn't possible in Radiant Silvergun. The new mechanic, color switching, is the most important tool to master as it lets you absorb projectiles rather than having to dodge them. And you will need to absorb them because they give you power for your bomb. The bomb in this game doesn't give you i-frames but it's a super effective tool to clear out a room or to do massive damage. You can also partially charge it and still use it, although it'll be really weak.
Just like Radiant Silvergun the game rewards your knowledge of the game's patterns but this time there's no EXP to worry about: this is a purely arcade experience and it shows since it's concentrates on being efficient and killing everything in order rather than killing only a certain type of enemy.
Mechanically speaking, the colour gimmick is basically an evolution of the sword in Radiant Silvergun, but it's done in such a smart way that it obviously made Ikaruga one of the better SHMUPS of the era.

Infra is exactly what I didn't expect, an exploration game that isn't just a walking simulator. You go through a lot of places, all fairly different from each other and also all of them are extremely atmospheric. I think they did it on purpose to make the various levels seem like they're devoid of life but at the same time there's always an impending danger that could pop up at any time (and maybe it just might?). My only complaint is that sometimes the puzzles are extremely obtuse in ways you also don't expect but it's nothing that can't be solved by looking it up. I wouldn't really call it euro jank because there's really not much jank to it, but it's definitely a fairly good game with some very weird stuff. The humour is pretty hilarious at times and genuinely brings the game up a notch for me.

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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...

Frankly at first I was weirded out since there's basically the deep of night everywhere like a fog of war and you're supposed to be sneaking but obviously you're gonna get jumped again and again. I think the knowledge of the level's enemy placement would be the best way to deal with this, or you can just yolo it and win regardless. There is something to master, but the only "feel good" thing about it is ranks. Apart from that, the combat is stiff but it works, although it's somewhat abusable and the music is really interesting; some really odd picks that end up being very cool.

This isn't the worst thing I've played, but it's also being aided by the fact that I can save state in the safeness of my emulator, playing this back then on actual PS2 or even playing the PC version (which goes by another name) and without being able to skip the cutscenes I would probably just grab the disc, put it in a blender and snort its powder to instantly die. The combat is braindead, the AI is braindead, the sneaking is braindead and the events sometimes can break, which basically can softlock you from continuing. It doesn't even have the charm to make it come through as at least a passion project, so the case of Daemon Summoner is a very simple one: it just sucks plain and simple.

The way they localized this for EU/NA is completely hilarious and without any sense, it's truly insane but it kinda does add to the appeal of it; an adventure you go through and make your own. The scripted bits are kind of annoying at times, but they're usually very easy, you just need to figure out what to do (usually just holding onto something or running)
Overall it's a game that is very unique and somewhat tragic in its stories, and the characters meeting each other in small ways is very neat and definitely not overdone like some other games with multiple characters.