I played this years ago, and I liked it. Then I replayed it some times, and hated it. Then today I was listening to an audiobook and needed to kill an hour while waiting for an online meeting and went, 'hm, whats a game i could easily 1cc in an hour' and got reminded of this. And I played it again, and like it... conditionally.
If you like your shmups on the best possible interpretation of the 'euroshmup' style, this is a solid one - not European-developed, but definitely in a similar spirit, with its slower pace, level-up system, fixed fire rate and a number of other quirks. The art and presentation is undoubtedly the centerpiece - warm parallax backgrounds setting stage for arduous warfare against dozens of giant steampunk battleships. Unfortunately this all comes with nonstop slowdown, bullet-sponge bosses, environmental hazards that feel impossible to dodge at points, a sluggish 50 minute runtime, and a couple repeated fights that drag it down. You have to go into this with the expectation of a slower comfort game, it's a far cry from the perfectly balanced bite-sized portions of Thunder Force games and whatnot.
If you like your shmups on the best possible interpretation of the 'euroshmup' style, this is a solid one - not European-developed, but definitely in a similar spirit, with its slower pace, level-up system, fixed fire rate and a number of other quirks. The art and presentation is undoubtedly the centerpiece - warm parallax backgrounds setting stage for arduous warfare against dozens of giant steampunk battleships. Unfortunately this all comes with nonstop slowdown, bullet-sponge bosses, environmental hazards that feel impossible to dodge at points, a sluggish 50 minute runtime, and a couple repeated fights that drag it down. You have to go into this with the expectation of a slower comfort game, it's a far cry from the perfectly balanced bite-sized portions of Thunder Force games and whatnot.