While I have know for a long while that Shmups simply aren't for me, there are just some that are so famous that you kinda have to see what the craze is about. From my understanding there are harder shmups to look out for, but at the least Ikaruga seems to be one that anyone could probably pick up and beat given time. The game focuses heavily on it's dualed mode system in which you absorb bullets of either light or dark, but take damage from the other one you are not. You can play this game in a free play mode, and while that is how I beat it, the game doesn't lighten up on you at any point. If you don't defeat a boss in enough time, that will be it, including the final boss. While it is frustrating, it also gives you something to work toward and practice in this mode. Overall Ikaruga hasn't sold me on shmups, and frankly I'm done with it knowing how blink and unfeeling it is. There isn't as much arcade feeling that I usually feel with most treasure games, and while I won't deny that it's probably a good game, it's just in a genre I don't care for, and presents itself far too seriously for my taste.

I know it sounds rather dubious, but this is kinda a very average fighting game that uses characters from the Shining Sega Franchise, and like honestly I wish I knew more of the series to enjoy this game. Like it's not lost on me that the Shining series is kinda a sleeper hit for Sega, and I'm just questioning why I haven't touch it enough. That being said, I'm not familiar with any of the characters here, and as I played the Arcade edition with no translation, I sadly didn't get anything from the games story either. I did however realize that the character design really shines here, and the controls themselves were really simple and easy to learn.

Like ascetically, I think this game is pretty average, from it's backgrounds, supers, music, and like fundamental combat, but I do think that the character design and control system really help it from sinking into the ether. I know a lot of this is due to them pulling from various games to get some good characters, but I can't express enough how well the game's control scheme felt too. While I probably don't understand it fully, I do feel I have enough grasp on the game after my playthrough that it feels natural to figure out each character and do combos with them. Each character I played felt unique compared to the others, and gave it self rather easily to learning each of them. That topped with the fact that this game is technically a tag team game that let's you switch between two characters between rounds really gives it a nice gimmick over other tag team games I'm aware of.

Really, Blade Arcus From Shining was an interesting find because I would love Fire Emblem to do something like this. While I don't have much stake in the characters now, I do know a franchise like Fire Emblem having various characters show up and fight would be really exciting thing to me, and as someone that just needs to play more of the Shining games, i feel like I can be that way with this game eventually. So really this game has made me interesting in playing more of the Shining series as well as get the localized version of this game. It does make me sad that this game feels neglected, but on the surface it really does have generic anime fighter vibes. While I wouldn't recommend this version unless you can read Japanese or at least have a connection to the franchise, I will say to seek out a version that is localized. I know I will.

I don't understand people's love affair with this game, frankly it feels too clunky, looks ugly, and doesn't really have anything worthwhile going for it. Like I really looked into this game, tried playing different characters, looked at some options, and everything turned back to me and concluded that I wasn't having fun with it. There really just isn't anything here that makes you feel like it was worth it aside from some neat stuff you can do by ganging up on computers, and even then that same threat can apply to you, and it's not a good time.

Usually I can find some merit of why a fighting game would be particularly interesting, or fun to play from the standard settings of what the fighting game community is used to, but Street Fighter EX3 isn't it. The controls feel super wonky, specials don't always work the same way across other games that feature said characters, and the story to this game is a pop up text. Like I never felt so blatantly empty playing a fighting game like this before. Usually I could get mad or be upset over the missed potential or have excitement by something really interesting about it. Here though? I feel nothing for this game, it's kinda empty, and only really adds multiple characters in a fight to make it feel any different. The game and combat plays fine, but the flair just isn't here in either the moves or roster when it comes to showing off something. Like I can't express enough how barren a wasteland of nothingness this game brings my feelings, but I guess some people like that you can have two to three characters on the screen at once? Like that just feels like a mess to me, and certainly not fun to play with. If you play this game, I certainly hope you have a better time with it, but there's a reason most people don't know this game exists.