Ghost Blade HD

Decently solid bullet hell shooter. A little bit of jank in the patterns takes it down a few pegs but it's not a bad game.

@FISTING GURU is wrong by giving this game thumbs down, this game has exemplary display options: it allows you to select from wide range of resolutions, it runs in full screen, it allows to play on pivoted screen (the only way one should play shmus actually = on tilted screen) and it does also something what NO other shmup does (not even CAVE) : instead always displaying some kind of wallpaper , it usees 100% of screen area ! Best options ever ! This game is great, it really does what a description says = "ties old memories to current tones and techniques". It goes back but not too far back which is a good way. You see, between an oldshool game era (where bullets were sparse but fast and deadly) and manic shmup era (where bullets are plentiful but slow) there was a wondrous albeit short period of time which allowed for transition to manic shooters but retained the philosophy of older generation. There was no indie studios and graphics were powerful so every sprite was top notch hand-drawn, the bullet patterns of that era were a "perfect" mix of manic shooter overload and oldschool deadly gameplay but developers did not have to use cheap "i got you" patterns and could experiment with much balanced and intelligent gameplay. One of the pinnacles from this time would be Raiden Fighers Jet from Seibu Kaihatsu (especially the last HUGE True Battle level 2 with incredible level design, enemy placement, blood pumping bullet paterns and soundtrack, and enormous multi-staged bosses). This sort of game style is my favourite shmup , and games like these are scarce and in between. Ghost Blade is one of these shmups and make no mistake, it is among the best. I would like to make a comparison to a "modern" manic shooter Bullet Soul from the acclaimed 5pb games studio. Bullet Sould is heavily inspired by games made by CAVE who was absolutely the best in the shmup business. How do you beat excellence in department graphics, music and gameplay? You simply can not, but you can try reaching the ideal. Bullet Souls soundtrack is guitar-heavy typical for late Cave games, but is rather bland and forgettable. Apply the same to bullet patterns, boss designs, backround (which was scrolling in circles like mad) and you have a picture of a pretty forgettable production. Oh, it was also easy. Not the thing you want to hear about manic shooter. The player ship can slow down and have stronger bullets OR accelerate and have weaker bullets. However the option felt redundant as one never felt compelled to use faster movementt unless there was a super specific and very rare pattern which explicitly forced you to use faster movement. Now compare the same things to Ghost Blade: the gameplay does not copy anything , it is unique and refreshing, comparable to the Raiden FIgters games era. The soundtrack is crisp and super energetic without being overly repetetive , it also perfectly ties to the music of late 1990 which was rave /techno /dnb era. Bullet patterns force you to think , think , think! The lure you into traps and try to hunt the unaware you. You have to be on your toes, but it has nothing to do with the unfair and stupid bullet speed of new Raiden V IV III games from MOSS. This game also reminded me how important and great the sound effects could be , everything from explosions to player ship bullets have very distinct sound that conveys punch and force of attacks. Ghost Blade is truly beautiul and unique game with tons of character and is a great diversion from the bland modern CAVE copy cats. Both games (bullet soul and ghost blade) have one big disadvatage over old titles: ugly stuff on the screen. The old games as well as manic shooters from CAVE had been for the most part lovingly hand drawn and used animated sprites which have the immortal beauty aspect to it. Nowaday games made in some 3d program are so ugly and lack any basic detail it is absolutely cringe inducing. Ghost Blade is nicer than Bullet Sould, but still i have to mention: - dead backgrounds which are just huge still pictures - enemies look like some handy java games sliding on the pictures, nothing EVER is animated on them, wheels of tanks dont move, they dont even look distinct from other part of a model , everything looks like a one mould toy. - Enemies closing in backround which are suposed to have jet engines trails have just a FAT line behind which is not animated in any way. This looks totally embarassing. i guess these are Dreamcast limitations. Still, accepting the fact that absouletly no other shump has hand drawn sprites nowadays, the aforementioned graphic is ok. At the end i want to mention something what can not be easily conveyed. Namely , Ghost Blade really does a good job in recreating the pondering technological army world sluggishness of old shool games. Remember me saying the Bullet soul had fast and slow shot and both were meaningless? Ghost Blade has it too, but the proper use of it is absolutely essential , you can not ignore it, the use of these 2 modes are one of the keys to survival. It is great! No naked lolitas, no emo, only oldschool technological war machines battling for supremacy in this superb recreation of the best shmup time: between aerofighters from TECMO (1992) which marked the new era after the old school Truxton from TOAPLAN (1988) and before the manic shmup era of raizing/8ing and later CAVE games.