[h1] Summary [/h1]
Wide vertical STG with RPG elements and stages that are pretty well designed around them. The stakes regarding survival are pretty low on regular stages as you can get hit quite a lot, making this game suitable for those looking for a more leisurely STG experience. However, the game also has a scoring system that, while not complicated, can be satisfying, though you will be required to read up information in-game regarding specific enemies that might help you prolong the duration of your Absorption mode. Scoring well is also incentivized as your performance will affect by how much your received EXP and Gold are multiplied. Ultimately, even if scoring will sometimes incentivize you to intentionally tank some damage, I found that I often felt purpose behind my actions, like speed killing an enemy or improving my scoring. There are also some enemy-specific mechanics that will improve your performance. You can find out about these by checking the bestiary. I do have criticism regarding how some systems work and interact with another, but I'm sure that some of these could be fixed easily.
[h1] English translation [/h1]
Before I start talking more in-depth about the gameplay itself, I want to add that the English dialogue script is full of very unnatural translations. I also didn't find anything too notable regarding the dialogue, except for the fact that all shop owners will make remarks about you barely having any health if you interact with them. However, you are also not required to read event-based dialogue. You can set to skip them, if you want. If you do a Mature (normal) difficulty run while skipping all dialogue, you'll probably need only about 4 to 5 hours to clear the game.
[h1] Game mechanics [/h1]
The following sections will cover specific game mechanics, alongside criticism. Note that my criticism might be dated if the game is updated after this review, and it is not very likely I'll update the review after this.
[h2] In-game day system [/h2]
Every in-game day consists of you being able to do multiple stages of your choosing and ends with you sleeping at the inn, where you can use your acquired EXP to level up. The amount of stages you can do per day is limited by your health and vitality. Health goes down when you take damage, and Vitality goes down over time. If you run out of Vitality, you will then lose Health pretty quickly over time. This means that, even if you play really well and barely get hit, there's still a hard limit to how much you can accomplish within one in-game day. In my opinion, the Vitality costs for a lot of stages (especially some of the later ones) are too high, and if you're playing well, it's a shame that you can't keep going much further. I assume this is meant to streamline the difference of experience between players of different skill levels in the genre, but it's still to restrictive in my opinion.
[h2] Game progression [/h2]
Clearing a stage does not mean that you immediately unlock more stages; you usually have a pool of about 4 stages per area available to you which you have to do enough times before you can do the boss stage. I assume you're required to fill the Analysis bar in some of these stages to be able to progress to the end of the area. Ultimately, you will have to replay some stages multiple times in order to be able to progress, meaning you can't just finish an area of stages within one in-game day. However, at the very least, some modifications will be made to most stages over time as you replay them.
[h2] Boss stages [/h2]
Regarding boss stages, I found that those actually could be fairly challenging, as you would first go through a new stage section, then be faced with a boss which usually has pretty intense patterns. However, and this is something I find very unfortunate, once you've beaten the boss stage, you can not play it again on your save file. I assume this is also meant to streamline your ways of acquiring EXP. However, it is a real shame that you can not fight them again. It makes no sense not to be able to do something like this in an STG. The only boss you can fight over and over is the final boss. Personally, I also think that adding a boss rush might be interesting, though it obviously would need some kind of rebalancing, as you meet every boss with very differing character and weapon stats.
[h2] Criticism regarding in-game day system [/h2]
One may wonder what the point of the in-game day system is. What does it matter whether you spend 15 or 30 in-game days to progress through the game? For one, on all but the highest difficulty, if you do not fulfil certain requirements within 20 in-game days, you will receive a bad ending and not be able to proceed past that on your save file. This only happened to me when I wanted to find out what would happen after the time limit. However, in addition to that, costs in the shops also increase every day. I'm not aware of this inflation reaching a cap, as it has continued past over 40 in-game days, which is more time than you'd probably spend on a save file in this game. However, most egregiously, the inflation is not limited to the EXP and Gold costs in the shops; it extends to the SP Cost for your Skills. This has the insane consequence that you will not be able to use some special attacks at all anymore after a certain amount of in-game days, and that even some special attacks you used to be able to use more frequently will become less frequently usable. This part specifically is, in my opinion, one of the worst balancing choices in the game.
[h2] Other inconveniences [/h2]
If you have health runes equipped, the cost of the inn is increased. So, to save money you need to unequip it before resting, then equip it again afterwards. Evidently, the developer is aware of this as the game explicitly warns you about this if you have them equipped before resting. This is a very unnecessary inconvenience that should simply be removed in my opinion.
The shooting rate of your weapon is upgraded with Gold, the attack power with Exp. I don't mind that the game makes you choose between investing either in your character level or your weapon attack power. However, if you want to have a full recovery at the inn, you will automatically spend your Exp to level up your character! This means that, if you instead want to upgrade your weapon but don't have enough EXP to do that, but you do have enough to level up, you need to decide to sleep in the backyard in order to retain your EXP. The downside of this is that the backyard offers only a partial recovery, including only a partial recovery of your Vitality. This is also stupid because it allows you to do less runs on the next day.
Every time you use up your recovery stone which revives you after dying, you need to buy it again, and you also need to equip it again. Perhaps it's my fault for not always automatically equipping it, but I've often not been able to revive after dying, simply because I forgot to equip it, despite having rebought it again. I also find this inconvenient.
