[Version Played: PC, English, EU Steam Market]
[Modes played: Arcade Normal + Stage select]
[Stage Content played: Stages 1-7]
[Player content played: Used all weapons]
[Disclaimer: As always, these are merely first impressions. The formatting is messed up because writing it on this site is a pain in the ass so I write it in word]


Andro Dunos II is a sequel to an old horizontal Arcade/Neo Geo pixel art space themed shmup with traditional linear stage progression as its structure and format.
The things that make this shmup stand out and fun are also the same things that kind of bother me about it. Some of these features you can kind of ignore, but if you do it's just not as much fun. I have never played Andro Dunos 1, so I can't really say how this compares other from the fact that this entry does not have co-op

First off, most enemy waves and some strong enemies will drop orbs. There are 30 orbs to collect in the stage. ,At the end of a stage, you'll get extra points per orb, and every 10 orb gives you an upgrade point for your weapons. This is a neat and organic way to tie micro character progression, macro character progression AND scoring together. This system is a great way to incentivize you to kill entire waves for reasons other than score or a direct powerup drop or getting score for an extend, and it presents it in a way that makes for some tense buildup where you can see all the orbs on the bottom of the screen and as it builds you slowly hope to collect them all giving a sort of ''collection'' and ''completion'' feel. It also makes it less boring to replay stages as you're more incentivized to try to kill all the necessary waves, while leaving some extra room for waves that don't drop orbs for extra points. The countdown at the end tallying up the score is quite satisfying. On a macro level, the game has a very nice rhythm/flow and loop because of this orb and upgrade system.

The problem is that as far as I know, you seem to need exactly 30 orbs, and every 10 orbs gives an upgrade point. This means that getting 20 is usually pretty easy, while getting that last point for 30 is really damn hard and sometimes you'll frustratingly end up with 29 or 30 just because you didn't pick up 1 orb on time or something.

Instead of using a gradius/r-type style weapon system, this horizontal shooter uses a loudout based left or right weapon switching system with exactly 4 weapons to switch between and that's it, so you're encouraged to switch between weapons when the situation suits it.
Presentation wise you will see what weapon you have equipped on the top of the screen and the weapon next or behind it and you can pick the order of the weapons in the options screen. I kind of find this questionable. Given that this is a modern game..Why not just map the different weapons to different parts of the controller? Because now unlike in lets say a PC first person shooter, switching takes concious time and effort to the point I often am kinda lazy and stick with switching back and forth between 2 weapons right next to eachother, or switching in 1 direction between all weapons. I do not find the effort it takes to master the switching itself rewarding enough to justify its existence, I'd like to focus on easily being able to switch but just needing to at the right time. Besides, I don't see why the fourth weapon can't be shown on screen, there's enough screen size.

The powerup system is quite nice though. Some special enemies drop either a powerup for your main weapons, a powerup for your back weapon which is fired with the same input (usually missiles) or a powerup for your more passive front weapon (usually shields in a particular formation that can make bullets disappear). Each main weapon has a different variation for these secondary/tertiary weapons. There is some what I call ''forced concurrency'' for these secondary weapons like in Gradius that as always can make for some interesting dynamics of decisions for timing and positioning. Each main weapon gets its own slot of power, you have to power them up individually, while you don't need to for the others. I think they made the right decision there, cause it's interesting to pick a build for your main weapons while also having to separately fill the secondary weapons would be overkill. Whenever you die, you lose 1 point for the main weapon that is currently being used. This means that if you are alert you can switch to a different weapon right before dying so you don't lose a point in the one you're using. It also means that the game does not have any significant ‘’gradius syndrome on death’’, and you respawn in place upon death plus your hyper shots stay strong. It’s easy to bounce back from a loss, but it also means that you’re slowing down how quickly you can fill up all your weapons and it also means you’ll likely miss an orb so everytime I die I feel a little disappointed on the inside so it’s punishing enough even though my chances of survival are still very reasonable. Also, you will not lose anything for your secondary/tertiary weapons, so again it’s not overkill on filling them up especially as they use a different pickup item, and you can use that for planning your build.

The weapons themselves feel unique and fun enough, with 2 of them being focused on the front, 1 of them having a weak shot on the front but a strong shot on the back, and another being more useful in multiple directions (except for its low level version). They have their own unique quirks and the secondary/tertiary weapons make it interesting. In terms of the general roles though, The blue one is kind of your generic focused strong shot, the purple one is your wide shot, the 2 directional Is your tail shot, and the other is your slow firing, smaller multi directional. As usual your missiles are important for hitting ground enemies, especially because this game uses the ‘’terrain kills you instantly’’ system, but given that your missiles are weaker, it rewards you for being risky and shooting these ground enemies normally whenever it’s worth giving up the positioning, and otherwise you will try to time your position to at least hit with your missiles.
The stage design is definitely accommodated for these weapons and it adds to the routing. Sometimes there’s parts where it’s ambiguous or preference what to use or dependent on your setup.
But they also make sure to sparsely use simon says style parts where they obviously convey to you that you for example should switch to your tailspin weapon, where enemies will suddenly move to the other side of the screen (make sure to immediately dodge that ‘’charge’’ attack when you see the telegraph prior, you should assume that when you see a telegraph to make a run for it). So while there is some ambiguity, I think it’s good there’s also some non ambiguity, without necessarily forcing you to switch either, it’s just more tedious if you don’t switch as it takes longer to kill the enemy, also potentially leaving more bullets on screen.
Anywho, this ensures that most people will at least switch weapons sometimes, while good people will switch between them often, though I suck too much to know if this is actually well balanced enough to cause that effect at a higher level.
This is all fine and dandy, but then we get to the hyper shot system. You have your regular way of shooting, and another input for a strong ‘’hyper’’ shot (each main weapon has its own hyper shot) which is tied to a cooldown, after the shot there’s a few recovery frames, and during the cooldown the main weapon you were using goes back to level 1, which is another way the game forces you to switch weapons. It’s actually pretty smart because instead of feeling like I’m punished, I feel like I’m maximizing my damage by thinking of switching to the right weapon after. Though it unambiguously discourages you from using that weapon for a bit, it’s not necessarily a downside to the hyper shot, it’s more just an inherent part of the style of the game. It also makes the weapon switching more interesting, because now you may also switch to a weapon simply for the hyper shot.

Outside of being the ‘’’periodic special attack hard hitter’’ as a primary role, On a secondary level, The hyper shot also serves the role of bombs as they aborb a lot of enemy bullets like your shield does, so it’s a unique twist in that regard, and the hyper shot is probably the main twist/gimmick mechanic of the game the game is built around in terms of gameplay themes. While the orb system is something I would like more with a little tweak, I genuinely like and both dislike this hyper shot system at the same time. On one hand, it can be quite satisfying to just wreck this bullet spongy enemy, and it can be nice to come up with a good way of routing/timing your hyper shots at the best spots In the game. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s as satisfying as it should feel game-feel wise, and I genuinely do NOT like the micro level rhythm this game has because of it, and it also kind of forces me to memorize the stage for routing if I want to make sure I’m using it right. Your cooldown recharges quite quickly. If you don’t want to waste the shot, you’ll have to keep using it as soon as it’s available, unless that Is too detrimental for what’s coming up. This means that rhythm wise you’ll constantly be going back and forth between regular and then hyper shot, intending to be a build up to reward release buildup to reward release kinda thing, though your main shot definitely isn’t weak. Once this happens, you can not switch weapons, even during the recovery frames after it ends, yet you have to switch because it powers down, so to me, it feels super sluggish and kind of annoying. On top of that, as the hyper shot absorbs so many bullets, half the time I’m not even really dodging anything and I end up getting quite careless only to get hit by something later.

To top it all off, while in early parts of the game it feels like you can get by without the hyper shot much and instead are simply rewarded more for using it, in later stages things start to feel bullet spongy to me to the point it just feels kind of monotonous and tedious. It especially doesn’t help that there aren’t any health bars, it’s only conveyed through some part damage sprites.
The normal difficulty curve was fine. The different stages all felt distinct and recognizable with nice pacing/flow and decent dynamics, though there wasn’t much cohesion. The enemy types are fairly standard. The level design style is fairly standard arcade shmup style stuff where there isn’t much building on past challenges in a progressive/cohesive manner like action platformers tend to, it mostly just moves on from moment to moment. The player and universal mechanics are pretty cool, but the stage/enemy/situational unique mechanics don’t stand out much, it’s pretty standard, but that also means it’s not all that gimmicky. There’s not a lot of environmental hazards despite all the touch damage, though there is a part where you have to weave between opening/closing pillars. The bosses do have different parts with different weapons to shoot, which at this point is pretty standard. The graphics, game feel and atmosphere are quite nice. On PC the controls are responsive, and while there is no speed powerup in this game, the standard speed and switching directions all works fine and snappy for what the game throws at you. Everything is presented in a pretty relaxing pace, though around the end it gets quite hectic with tons of enemies all over the screen.

Quality of life features and technical stuff wise, I didn't notice any input lag and the frame rate was fine. the option menu is a little barebones, but there’s nice functional gameplay settings for your weapon order and firing buttons. The issue is that any technical setting outside of a hotkey for fullscreen (enter), it’s done outside of the game itself. There’s only three difficulty modes (normal, easy, hard), so to me that lessens the replay value. Outside of the main mode and it’s three difficulty submodes there’s another functional game mode. When you’ve finished a stage, you can select them from a stage select menu to practice, and you can pick between a single stage run or continuing after said stage ends. I think it’s crucial to have this in a modern arcade style shmup release without emulator save states. The last functional feature is a ranking screen, but you can only see a local top 10. On top of that, it only shows you the stage you died at and the score, even though it does NOT stop counting your score when you lose extends. Not having online rankings is kind of fucked in this day and age. There’s quite a few build/routing options, but on a fundamental level, you’re not going to find all kinds of different playstyles, especially as mechanical content wise, it’s pretty barebones, with there only being 1 ship. Stage content wise, it has a good amount for the type of game it is, and for a 1 sitting style game the pacing is totally fine. There’s not a lot of other features or content in general. Again, It’s pretty barebones. It has what it needs. No extra gameplay modes. No 100% completionist kinda thing. I don’t even know if it has a story. To me, this isn’t a big deal, but for some, especially those not used to shmups, it might be disappointing and give it less value.

In terms of gameplay fundamentals rather than the standout systems, the bullet patterns aren’t super interesting. You don’t need to be super precise when hitting enemies. it’s often more about being able to hit the whole swarm in time, which is more about positioning and timing. They kind of use the gradius style bullet patterns where each individual enemy just shoots a thing or two and they all end up coming towards you in a line, and they’re usually about medium speed, but there’s some some slower shots and area denial lasers and the like to dodge as well, and you’ll occasionally dodge charging enemies their touch damage or swarms their touch damage and bullets.
There’s some quirky attacks in the game, but not too many. You don’t need to weave between slow bullets all that often, often it’s more about a quick macro dodge or eliminating the right enemy on time before it shoots. You don’t need to worry about matchups of different targeted/fixed patterns that much? The difficulty is more in the sheer amount of different enemy types that will be on screen at some point (all with added touch damage), rather than the bullets patterns themselves, and it’s quite dependant on positioning. You won’t find cave shmup nor touhou shmup dodging here, it’s closer to gradius and R type, but the fundamentals are still quite its own thing rather than a clone. It succeeds in that regard, but combined with the rather..Okay game feel and presentation, it feels a bit underwhelming. Good, yet a bit bland at the same time.

All in all I’d say that it’s a pretty nice game. I’m not a shmup expert at all, I just casually play a lot of them, so I can’t tell if the shmup fanatics will love it. At the very least, it’s a proper arcade style sequel that genuinely looks and feels like a 90’s arcade game rather than an imitation but with modern polish, so I think any fan of shmups would be quite happy with that. People who aren’t fans of the genre might have better luck with another game, but if you do end up getting this, you’ll probably have some fun with it. Andro Dunos II might not be the most creative or stand out piece, but it’s pretty interesting nonetheless.

-major 2000's filter
-multiple branching story paths
-utterly insane
-Panzer Dragoon stages
-large variety of weapons
-edgy protagonist obsessed over a woman

Babe this isn't your average Sonic game this is fucking Drakengard

"Alas, Space Cadet is going...
Undesired, unwanted them,
What makes them go?
It is nothing else than the
principle of the man who
has the reason for being."
Chapter 1 "Ideal"
"The stronger will you have,
the more you face various
trials. Although you can
choose to escape, 'Trial'
has the message for you to
conquer yourself."
Chapter 2 "Trial"
"There is no 'absolute',
in this mundanity.
Occasionally you get lost
facing unreasonable burdens.
In order to overcome,
you need a firm conviction,
penetration, and the ability
to take action."
Chapter 3 "Faith"
"And 'Reality' is unveiled.
What did it want...
What did it see...
What did it hear...
What did it think...
What did it do..."
Chapter 4 "Reality"
"Finally, Karma returns to
the place once belonged.
It recalls the genesis of
consciousness carved for
abyss of memories.
Hence Space Cadet is going..."
Chapter 5 "Metempsychosis"
"I make you alive so that you can walk along the right way.
But can't you understand it?

Este juego me recuerda a una persona muy especial, a dos. Conocido por muchos como "el juego de los anuncios"; si han leído anteriores opiniones mías sobre videojuegos, sabrán que soy un poco exigente al momento de calificarlos, pocos videojuegos considero que merecen 5 estrellas tanto por el desarrollo de su historia, jugabilidad, relevancia, contenido, etc.
Cuando lo vi en anuncios de redes sociales, me pareció estúpido, bajar una torre para avanzar en infinitos niveles igual de estúpidos. No le daría ni oportunidad al igual que a la mayoría de juegos molestos de anuncios.
Un día en clase, vi a una amiga jugarlo, una amiga inteligente que apreciaba mucho; lo estaba jugando, mi primera reacción fue reírme de ella (incluso ella lo sabía), así que me contestó -sé lo que parece, pero te juro que está bueno- y a los pocos minutos otra amiga reaccionó igual.
En fin, decidí darle oportunidad, lo descargué y empecé a jugarlo, qué bien la pasábamos haciendo niveles en las clases aburridas (esas donde los temas son reiterativos, hay espacios libres o terminas rápido los deberes), era genial pasar el tiempo con ellos bajando niveles, intercambiando nuestros móviles para ayudarle al otro en algún nivel que no pasara a la primera, intentando batir el récord de puntos por grandes caídas; ¿uno de los juegos más monótonos, sencillos, simples, básicos? Sí. Pero qué bien la pasábamos, las personas adecuadas pueden convertir algo tan malo, en algo que a día de hoy, años después de haber borrado el juego, me trae una sonrisa.

Sé que esas dos personas nunca leerán esto, pero extraño mucho esas clases.