Good news: Battle Traverse is a mechanically awesome STG with great bullet patterns, boss fights, stage design, and great pacing. An amazing tribute to Progear and Ketsui that in gameplay terms, almost exceed the games that inspire it whilst still feeling like it's own thing.
Thing is, it looks like shit.
Battle Traverse's art style is jarringly bad. Weird semi-chibi player characters fight against military aircraft and vehicles against boring backgrounds with a very weird sense of perspective. It's an art style that would have been far better if it was just generic (like say rolling gunner), but the weirdness and the way the sprites all clash is almost distracting. There's still charm to be had in the unusual tone, with some weirdly upbeat music and some good silliness thrown in. It would probably help if I could read the text, mind...
For the record, BT was primarily made by one person - including all the programming and art. Considering that, it's an astonishing achievement, an incredibly fun STG with depth and an awesome gameplay flow that matches some of CAVE's best.
Ultimately, the art style is distracting, and does stop it matching the absolute greatest in the genre for my money. But take that out of the equaton and my next biggest criticism is that you can't skip the arcade mode's 5 second long intro.
A hearty reccomendation from me, if you're into this sort of shit.
Thing is, it looks like shit.
Battle Traverse's art style is jarringly bad. Weird semi-chibi player characters fight against military aircraft and vehicles against boring backgrounds with a very weird sense of perspective. It's an art style that would have been far better if it was just generic (like say rolling gunner), but the weirdness and the way the sprites all clash is almost distracting. There's still charm to be had in the unusual tone, with some weirdly upbeat music and some good silliness thrown in. It would probably help if I could read the text, mind...
For the record, BT was primarily made by one person - including all the programming and art. Considering that, it's an astonishing achievement, an incredibly fun STG with depth and an awesome gameplay flow that matches some of CAVE's best.
Ultimately, the art style is distracting, and does stop it matching the absolute greatest in the genre for my money. But take that out of the equaton and my next biggest criticism is that you can't skip the arcade mode's 5 second long intro.
A hearty reccomendation from me, if you're into this sort of shit.