What makes a good shmup? Honestly, I haven't played nearly enough of the genre to say, but whatever it is that makes games like Ikaruga or the Touhou titles stand out from the rest just isn't here. On paper, this game is really good. It has eight different characters to choose from, each with their own set of three different alt-fire attacks on top of their regular shot, character art by the excellent Suzuhito Yasuda, and a series of increasingly absurd boss fights. None of that did anything for me. The stages were bland, the music was just a generic rock soundtrack, and the bosses were all incredibly forgettable in terms of their attack patterns. The only thing this game did to stand out was actually use the black bars on the side of the screen for something. The game has what it calls a "shame break" system, where character CGs are swapped out with clothing damaged alternates as the player or a boss take damage, kind of like how FEH does things. I'm not someone who's put off by fanservice in games, but it just felt kind of weird to be fighting a giant eagle mech only to have splash art of an anime girl clinging to the last scraps of her clothing shoved in my face.

The splash art wasn't even that good.