It's a difficult ordeal to review a game from someone you know, especially if they're among the first friends you made on BL. After all, what good are my thoughts if I don't give a concise look without being biased? I never want to potentially hurt anyone's feelings, and I feel like I'd be pulling their leg if I gave them five stars just for being someone I talk to on the regular.
I'll try my best to be constructive with this shmup, while also being as uplifting as possible.
The presentation hits me as hard as the Mega Drive instruments in the soundtrack, where I play an inner game of "I heard that sound somewhere" as vocal soundbytes from The Hybrid Front ring out. Gendy Tartakovsky-esque style of art that reminds me of cartoons I watched overnight back in ye olden times, as I was being assaulted by bullet patterns both familiar and new to myself. I adored the little enemy logs with in-character excerpts and pencil sketch artwork that I viewed after completing the game, letting me know of the care given to crafting this universe that Cycle Chaser H-5 resides in.
I imagine that difficulty balancing is probably one of the hardest things about game development, especially when you playtest your own game so much that you must rely on others and gauge from there. It's even a tad difficult for me as someone who just played this, is it a bit easy? Well, for someone like me who was commonly brutalized by Super R-Type during their childhood, I ended up never getting the game over achievement in my two runs in Basic and Advanced. Suffice to say though, I think everyone aside from the most masochistic of sweaty humans will agree that they would rather have something that was fun than agonizingly unfair and difficult. Personally, I would say it's a lovely shmup for someone who is generally scared of the worst that STGs have to offer and are looking for an entry point. I do quite look forward to your own version of "DEVIL" difficulty in the future, you don't need to call it that, but well ya know.
...and after all this, all I can say is that the game might be easy for veterans of the genre? Well, if that's the only complaint that I have for something I only needed to lay down eight dollars for, then I think you succeeded. I knew you knew your stuff with these kind of games. All I recall asking was that you make a better shmup than Gaiares, and instead you made a shmup I liked more than Thunder Force III. I appreciate how much you overdelivered on that, and I look forward to more of your work.
Just let me know when I can buy your soundtrack, okay?
I'll try my best to be constructive with this shmup, while also being as uplifting as possible.
The presentation hits me as hard as the Mega Drive instruments in the soundtrack, where I play an inner game of "I heard that sound somewhere" as vocal soundbytes from The Hybrid Front ring out. Gendy Tartakovsky-esque style of art that reminds me of cartoons I watched overnight back in ye olden times, as I was being assaulted by bullet patterns both familiar and new to myself. I adored the little enemy logs with in-character excerpts and pencil sketch artwork that I viewed after completing the game, letting me know of the care given to crafting this universe that Cycle Chaser H-5 resides in.
I imagine that difficulty balancing is probably one of the hardest things about game development, especially when you playtest your own game so much that you must rely on others and gauge from there. It's even a tad difficult for me as someone who just played this, is it a bit easy? Well, for someone like me who was commonly brutalized by Super R-Type during their childhood, I ended up never getting the game over achievement in my two runs in Basic and Advanced. Suffice to say though, I think everyone aside from the most masochistic of sweaty humans will agree that they would rather have something that was fun than agonizingly unfair and difficult. Personally, I would say it's a lovely shmup for someone who is generally scared of the worst that STGs have to offer and are looking for an entry point. I do quite look forward to your own version of "DEVIL" difficulty in the future, you don't need to call it that, but well ya know.
...and after all this, all I can say is that the game might be easy for veterans of the genre? Well, if that's the only complaint that I have for something I only needed to lay down eight dollars for, then I think you succeeded. I knew you knew your stuff with these kind of games. All I recall asking was that you make a better shmup than Gaiares, and instead you made a shmup I liked more than Thunder Force III. I appreciate how much you overdelivered on that, and I look forward to more of your work.
Just let me know when I can buy your soundtrack, okay?