I've spent the past few days playing through a whole bunch of shmups. A big problem I have with shmups, as I do in life, is that I can't sit still for two seconds and take things in. Learn the patterns, only move when I need to? That's for dongers mate. Never stop rushing in and just instantly react to everything like a Real Gamer. The jury's out on life but in shmups this has historically led me to pretty poor results.
Ketsui is different. Ketsui wants me to rush in. Ketsui wants me to keep moving. Once the game really got going I felt like the threat of being overwhelmed was constant, that if I stopped fighting against the tide for those two seconds then it would waste no time in washing right over me. In most shmups I find it very easy to weather a storm, get cocky during a quiet moment, and then fly directly into the nearest bullet. That was a lot harder to do here because very rarely did I ever feel like the storm was not still ongoing. And it's good! It's absurdly fun! The game probably isn't quite as relentless as my perception of it in the moment was - there definitely is a clear difficulty curve as you progress - but man, I don't think I've played any others this past week that had me shitting it for such extended periods. Awesome.
The only real complaint I can level against it is that the colour palette and really the overall presentation is a bit bland compared to the other Cave stuff I've played, but I'm having way too much of a good time to really care. In a weird way this ridiculous onslaught has made me appreciate the other games I've played a bit more. Maybe I'll revisit those. Maybe I'll even try to play them properly!
None of this is to imply that I was inherently better at Ketsui than the rest, by the way. Finished it with 17 continues (EDIT: 14 on second run). Absolutely embarrassing. Great game though.
Ketsui is different. Ketsui wants me to rush in. Ketsui wants me to keep moving. Once the game really got going I felt like the threat of being overwhelmed was constant, that if I stopped fighting against the tide for those two seconds then it would waste no time in washing right over me. In most shmups I find it very easy to weather a storm, get cocky during a quiet moment, and then fly directly into the nearest bullet. That was a lot harder to do here because very rarely did I ever feel like the storm was not still ongoing. And it's good! It's absurdly fun! The game probably isn't quite as relentless as my perception of it in the moment was - there definitely is a clear difficulty curve as you progress - but man, I don't think I've played any others this past week that had me shitting it for such extended periods. Awesome.
The only real complaint I can level against it is that the colour palette and really the overall presentation is a bit bland compared to the other Cave stuff I've played, but I'm having way too much of a good time to really care. In a weird way this ridiculous onslaught has made me appreciate the other games I've played a bit more. Maybe I'll revisit those. Maybe I'll even try to play them properly!
None of this is to imply that I was inherently better at Ketsui than the rest, by the way. Finished it with 17 continues (EDIT: 14 on second run). Absolutely embarrassing. Great game though.