Waking up on a sunday and finding that Team Ladybug, out of nowhere, have released a brand new shooting game, is quite a nice surprise. And what's more it's really, really pretty, with an excellent combination of 3D and 2D sprites that works so well.
And the game's gimmick is pretty good - it's effectively Gradius meets Mars Matrix, with the player having a rechargeable shield that absorbs bullets and releases a blast the more is sucked. It's pretty fun and works particularly nicely with the bosses, but it's extremely lenient. Even un-upgraded it comes with about twice the energy you will ever need.
Though, in general, the game is really easy all around. Not easy by shmup standards, mind, just by game standards. The shield suck ability alone is overtuned, but on top of that, instead of dying when hit, you only lose power ups (unless on the unlockable "ridiculous" difficulty which still isnt that bad) on hit, which can allow you to take upwards of 25 hits per 4-5 minute level, even on hard and the also unlockable Arcade mode. Easy and Normal are outright insultingly easy outside of some occasional spikes in boss fights.
I've no objection to easy game, but Drainus' sheer lack of challenge feels contrary to it's other design principles - hell, after you max out your upgrades, you can get a shield like the Gradius games which feels very pointless on top of the sheer beating you can already take.
I almost feel it's an overreaction to this game's horrible feedback and some occasional visibility problems. It is often very unclear when you are actually hit, when invulnerability from your shield actually ends, and especially which parts of stage backgrounds are collidible terrain and which you can fly by freely. When actually playing on that "ridiculous" difficulty, it's sometimes hard to tell what exactly killed you at all.
The other key issue is the game's weird upgrade system. It's a fine idea on it's own, allocating resources to whatever thing you're most into is a fine evolution on the Gradius formula, but the upgrades are exceptionally poorly balanced (Laser+bits+hurricane bomb completely trivialises the game even more than it already was), and the game bizzarely doesnt constrain this upgrade system to a natural place like stage end, but lets you upgrade and reconfigure your ship at any time in the pause menu. This absolutely murders the flow of the game, but if you want to min-max you'll want to! It's a good job the game is so easy you can basically just use it at stage end but wow its a bad idea.
As mentioned, the game's core strength is its aesthetic. Boss sprites in particular look fantastic, embodying the look of something like Battle Traverse with the intricacy of Radiant Silvergun's bosses, folding and contorting as they're broken apart. The boss fights themselves are also quite good, especially the final boss and a very blatant shoutout to Gradius.
But overall the game is more a well of potential than something actually fulfilled. It's very pretty, sure, and the mechanics have good prospects, but that doesn't quite cut it. I actually think of Team Ladybug go through the effort of refining it, increasing the difficulty for some modes and sort out the issues regarding visibility, it could be a very good game. For now though, I can't reccomend it.
And the game's gimmick is pretty good - it's effectively Gradius meets Mars Matrix, with the player having a rechargeable shield that absorbs bullets and releases a blast the more is sucked. It's pretty fun and works particularly nicely with the bosses, but it's extremely lenient. Even un-upgraded it comes with about twice the energy you will ever need.
Though, in general, the game is really easy all around. Not easy by shmup standards, mind, just by game standards. The shield suck ability alone is overtuned, but on top of that, instead of dying when hit, you only lose power ups (unless on the unlockable "ridiculous" difficulty which still isnt that bad) on hit, which can allow you to take upwards of 25 hits per 4-5 minute level, even on hard and the also unlockable Arcade mode. Easy and Normal are outright insultingly easy outside of some occasional spikes in boss fights.
I've no objection to easy game, but Drainus' sheer lack of challenge feels contrary to it's other design principles - hell, after you max out your upgrades, you can get a shield like the Gradius games which feels very pointless on top of the sheer beating you can already take.
I almost feel it's an overreaction to this game's horrible feedback and some occasional visibility problems. It is often very unclear when you are actually hit, when invulnerability from your shield actually ends, and especially which parts of stage backgrounds are collidible terrain and which you can fly by freely. When actually playing on that "ridiculous" difficulty, it's sometimes hard to tell what exactly killed you at all.
The other key issue is the game's weird upgrade system. It's a fine idea on it's own, allocating resources to whatever thing you're most into is a fine evolution on the Gradius formula, but the upgrades are exceptionally poorly balanced (Laser+bits+hurricane bomb completely trivialises the game even more than it already was), and the game bizzarely doesnt constrain this upgrade system to a natural place like stage end, but lets you upgrade and reconfigure your ship at any time in the pause menu. This absolutely murders the flow of the game, but if you want to min-max you'll want to! It's a good job the game is so easy you can basically just use it at stage end but wow its a bad idea.
As mentioned, the game's core strength is its aesthetic. Boss sprites in particular look fantastic, embodying the look of something like Battle Traverse with the intricacy of Radiant Silvergun's bosses, folding and contorting as they're broken apart. The boss fights themselves are also quite good, especially the final boss and a very blatant shoutout to Gradius.
But overall the game is more a well of potential than something actually fulfilled. It's very pretty, sure, and the mechanics have good prospects, but that doesn't quite cut it. I actually think of Team Ladybug go through the effort of refining it, increasing the difficulty for some modes and sort out the issues regarding visibility, it could be a very good game. For now though, I can't reccomend it.
Reviewed on May 23, 2022