Would never have found out about this without having seen
Zaarock's playthrough of the game!
Wake up, Sin and Punishment + Ikaruga + Alien Soldier just dropped.
///
Tempted to say this is one of the finest polarity-swapping mechanics in the medium, constantly balancing your health and an ever-draining timer against your red and blue shots, each of which will refill the corresponding resource. Arcade games are generally great about establishing continuity between fights, where your first encounter can ripple out all the way out to the final boss, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better example of it than here- where even the dopey first boss has you waiting for just the right moment to bullet cancel its densest patterns as a way of filling out the clock. I managed to get to the end boss with seconds left on the timer before getting a game over and that was exactly the sort of calculus going through my head, thinking on how to avoid failure on the next attempt: Health or time? Kill the boss now or wait just a moment longer for it to fire one of its screen-filling attacks?
It’s a game of big plays, where it’s possible to turn the tables at the last second if you’re able to keep a cool head- success more a matter of juggling those competing priorities than it is of your reflexes. (I think it also successfully carries on some of the awkward complexity of Alien Soldier, so much of the tension coming from trying to find space to change your shot-type and plan your next move in the middle of some bullet-hell pattern.)
Really it’s only flaw is that it doesn’t surprise the way the other games mentioned above do, at least not until the very end, when the game starts making screen-filling enemies that really test you on your knowledge of your kit- but it’s a remarkably cohesive title, and feels like one of truest successors to Treasure’s body of work of any game I’ve ever played.
Can’t wait to dive into some of uturobune’s other games.
Zaarock's playthrough of the game!
Wake up, Sin and Punishment + Ikaruga + Alien Soldier just dropped.
///
Tempted to say this is one of the finest polarity-swapping mechanics in the medium, constantly balancing your health and an ever-draining timer against your red and blue shots, each of which will refill the corresponding resource. Arcade games are generally great about establishing continuity between fights, where your first encounter can ripple out all the way out to the final boss, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better example of it than here- where even the dopey first boss has you waiting for just the right moment to bullet cancel its densest patterns as a way of filling out the clock. I managed to get to the end boss with seconds left on the timer before getting a game over and that was exactly the sort of calculus going through my head, thinking on how to avoid failure on the next attempt: Health or time? Kill the boss now or wait just a moment longer for it to fire one of its screen-filling attacks?
It’s a game of big plays, where it’s possible to turn the tables at the last second if you’re able to keep a cool head- success more a matter of juggling those competing priorities than it is of your reflexes. (I think it also successfully carries on some of the awkward complexity of Alien Soldier, so much of the tension coming from trying to find space to change your shot-type and plan your next move in the middle of some bullet-hell pattern.)
Really it’s only flaw is that it doesn’t surprise the way the other games mentioned above do, at least not until the very end, when the game starts making screen-filling enemies that really test you on your knowledge of your kit- but it’s a remarkably cohesive title, and feels like one of truest successors to Treasure’s body of work of any game I’ve ever played.
Can’t wait to dive into some of uturobune’s other games.