Ginga Force

I wanted to like it but I just wish I were practicing playing another shmup every time I boot it up. The cover art is great, and the "arcade sound effects" and the voice acting make it feel exciting, but then the gameplay is just a mess. I can't ever tell what plane the enemies are when I start a new stage and waste ammo shooting at things that are on a different plane. To get around this I would have to memorize which enemies are a threat and replay a stage. I dislike the limited ammo mechanic and how you'll try to conserve ammo when you could have cleared out more of the enemies, only for the missiles that you could have easily shot to turn and home in on you. It's so cheap. At the same time you'll want to kill a boss before the timer runs out, but is it worth spending your ammo when there could be another fight after that? When I play these games I just want to go in the zone and shoot things with infinite lasers and not have to think about rationing my bullets like I'm in the current century. You also drive a spaceship with a stick-shift and have to press one button to shift between 3 different speeds which just feels needlessly janky. I hated how a stage will start off too easy, but then it suddenly escalates the difficult sharply at the end and forces you to repeat all of the boring tedious parts. The game feels like it has a lot of other cheap difficulty too. It doesn't help that the enemy projectiles and ships often have a similar color pallet to the scrolling backgrounds. Sometimes the perspective shifts and then objects that you think you could have flown over can crash into you and destroy one of your limited ships. In the back of your mind it also doesn't make sense to replay a difficult stage, practice, and get good when you know you'll eventually save up credits and get vastly better ship upgrades too. Their other game "Natsuki Chronicles" is more fun.

[b]Ginga Force is a shmup reimagined for the console era, using Mega Man stage structure and currency-based progression.[/b] The game isn't fabulous, it's not a modern classic, but it's definitely a worthy attempt at reformulating the hypothesis of what a shmup looks like in the modern age. [h2]MOST SHMUPS ARE STUCK IN THE PAST (AND IT'S NOT A GOOD THING)[/h2] So, before we talk about why Ginga Force is cool, we need to talk about the elephant in the room: [b]Shmups as a genre were solidified in the arcades, and most developers kept these basic assumptions about game structure.[/b]. The biggest quirk of this design history is the "arcade mode", a series of stages played in sequence. You always play all the stages in the same order, and if you game over you have to restart at the beginning (or insert a credit to continue). Even "console-first" shmups like R-Type kept this same structure. Shmups developed exclusively for console or PC never bucked this stage structure either. It was just... a given. While I LOVE emulating arcade games, I've never played them in an arcade. In order to preserve the integrity of the genre, I've had to disable continues through dip switches to force myself to git gud. Most modern console-first shmups releases provide an arcade mode with similarly limited continues to force you to git gud. It's fine? It's fine. I [i]like[/i] modern shmups, but mainly that's the core gameplay. The stage structure is just... there. For comparison, [b]I like caravan shmups as an alternative answer to this format question[/b]. A "caravan" shmup is the nerdy lingo name (for dumb historical reasons) for shmups focused on time-limited score attack, where Stage 1 always has a 5-minute time limit to finish the stage and earn maximum points. Caravan shmups are undergoing a modern revival right now, so it's a good time to get your feet wet and jump in. ...Actually no, the modern caravan shmup revival is just one guy. Terarin Games is the only developer making modern caravan shmups, and honestly there were only two developers who made caravan games historically anyway. But I mention this because [b]rethinking the arcade mode stage structure is rare in shmups.[/b] The unpopularity of caravan shmups is just one example of how rare it is to rethink any of these things (Digressing more on caravan shmups: Terarin Games provides demos for all of his games. I sat through all of them, and Crystal Breaker is the only game from Terarin that I plan to buy. Open a new tab right now and add Crystal Breaker's demo to your library before you forget.) But, specifically, [b]the innovation with caravan shmups is a stage select.[/b] You pop open the game, you pick your stage, and you play your session. NiGHTS into Dreams (sega why delist noooo) used a similar content model, providing an arcade-style time attack experience with a stage select. Console games need stage selects, otherwise you're designing a period piece. The main benefit of an arcade mode is the 1CC challenge, but if you really want that from your shmups, you know who you are. [h2]GINGA FORCE PROVIDES A MEGA-MAN-STYLE CONTENT FORMAT[/h2] Ginga Force follows a content model that should be very familiar to anyone who has played a Mega Man game, especially the Zero/ZX games. Mega Man games start with an easier intro stage, then the game opens up into a stage select screen with eight stages with a flat difficulty curve. Each stage has its own gimmick, and you have a special story mission at the mid-point (after completing four of the eight stages) and another special story mission after completing all eight stages. Similar to a Mega Man game, Ginga Force features an 'easy' intro stage (although I kept dying until I learned how this game does enemy patterns), and then the game opens up into a flat-difficulty set of four stages that you can complete in any order. I... actually haven't finishes all four main stages available to me at the time of this writing. So, take this with a grain of salt, I'm writing this review [i]in media res[/i]. What I will say is: I've been impressed so far at the stage variety present so far. The [b]intro stage is the low point of the game for me so far[/b]; push through it before you evaluate the game. The creativity on display in each stage's design is quite astounding. Mega Man games feature a unique gimmick for each stage, and then a boss with unique patterns. In Ginga Force, you're chasing down the boss over the entire stage, so the uniqueness of each boss is also woven into the stage. [h2]HOW BAD IS THE PROGRESSION GRIND?[/h2] I'm not gonna lie, the currency grind here sucks. However, I signed up for the progression grind when I picked up the game, so the progression grind is mostly my fault. Many purchases in the store are straight-upgrades of previously-available weapons. This is not what I was expecting from a shmup. I want all my options to be flat-ish in power, so this is less than great. However... Mega Man games have much, much more abusive progression. I've played Mega Man Zero 4 most, and... the game is just unkind to the player. Sub Tanks are hidden in obtuse areas, the game features a crafting system with random drops (and hidden recipes that the game never tells you), and the currency required for upgrades is just steep. [b]Ginga Force's currency-only progression grind is a kinder, gentler progression than Mega Man games'.[/b] Additionally, note that you get a hefty "initial clear" currency bonus the first time you clear a stage at each difficulty. Note that completing a stage for the first time on easy gives you this "initial clear" bonus also. If you're starving for currency, play older stages on easy mode too! [h2]THERE'S ACTUALLY AN ARCADE MODE HERE?????[/h2] You might be surprised to hear this, but... Ginga Force actually has an arcade mode, but it's hidden under a different name. It's the "Score Attack" mode. With progression-based games (especially arcade-style games), I always have this frustration: What power level am I supposed to be???? Ginga Force's Score Attack answers the question, providing three fixed ships available for each stage. You play the stage, you get score, and then you're done. No progression, no unlocks, just you and the game. The first ship is pretty clearly how the game was designed and meant to be played, and the other two ships are weird alternative sidegrades. I mention this to say: If you want to play a traditional shmup where you're not thinking about your build, Ginga Force provides that in Score Attack. If you play Ginga Force, and you want to engage with the progression system, you have an alternative way to play the game. Engaging with the currency system is your fault now. [h2]A BRIEF LIST OF CONS[/h2] [list] [*] I don't like the system of toggling up and down between three separate speeds. I much prefer hold-to-slow. [*] I dislike having primary and secondary weapons bound to different buttons (for me A and X). I've never felt a need to press just one weapon or the other during my entire playthrough so far. I literally hold both A and X during the entirety of each stage. [*] Bullet contrast can be rough against the busy backgrounds. I actually think the intro stage is the worst offender here; the other stages have better contrast because of simpler backgrounds. [*} The game is somewhat memorization-heavy, but this is much less of a problem in a level-select-based shmup. [/list] [h1]IN SUMMARY: KEY POINTS[/h1] [list] [*] Sale price is $1 [*] Level select makes a ton of sense in a console gaming environment. [*] Stage variety is really quite staggering. Each boss is totally different and provides a totally different experience. [*] Score Attack with arcade-style fixed ships provides a familiar alternative to the progression grind. [/list]

To be honest this is actually one of the best bullet hells you can get for its price. Its a great game and I've played bullet hell since space invaders. Why is it great? Because it does an amazing job of blending 3d and 2d style gameplay. It is a 2d shooter, but it runs in a full 3d engine with a lot of dynamic transitions. It makes for some really great gameplay and I think its even better than what Raiden series does. Although it is similar to raiden in gameplay. The difference is you get tons of upgrades and ways to improve your ship. So its not as hard as some bullet hell games. But its a lot of fun like the music too, Natsuki chronicles by the same developer is also a fun game but completely different. Pick up both if you see the pack on sell they are both great games.

Купил по инерции ,после Natsuki Chronicles,думая что будет тоже самое что и в Natsuki Chronicles.Оказалось наоборот. ПРЕВОЗМОГАЙ! Теперь надо конкретно так затерпеть (Учитывая то что это данмаку),чтобы получить нищтяки.Как по мне правильно и честно (я хардкорщик).Ибо Левел прогресс система,делает баланс по ♥♥♥♥♥. Но потом через какое то время это Честная система прокачки с надрачиваем на хард,начинает бико душить-и я спустя 8 часов смог пройди только легкий режим.♥♥♥!!! И мне не ♥♥♥ ничего не дали,даже харда не открыли ,не говоря про нг+ .тупо ебашь на нормале все,вот тогда откроем Класс!!!! Да и цена по скидону зарешала (21 р) короче оставляю,несмотря на явняй рефанд и Сильно на любителя.

Just buy it, it's cheap But sometimes i feel a lack of dmg and dps and the dodging is hard

次作のナツキから遡ってくる形でやってはみたが、こっちの方がよりきつかった。 ひたすら寒い演技と寒いストーリーを見せる聞かせるための長ったらしいステージ構成、何度も繰り返して残機増やして金増やしてゴリ押しするゲーム性、見辛い敵だの弾だの普通に殺しに来る体当たり、パワーアップ後を見据えた敵の異様な硬さと悪いところはそのままで一層こっちの方がやり辛い。 というか視認性本当に悪いわこれ。 ギミックろくに区別もつきゃしない。 カメラの動きも最悪で理不尽に死んでいることもある。 真面目にやる気を削ぐ。 シューティングごっこがしたい人くらいしか向いてない。 100円の価値すらないよ。 唯一褒めるとしたらひたすら横を狭めて針みたいなステージにしようとするアーケード系の縦シューよりはまだ横に広いステージだったくらいかな。 失われつつある家庭用ゲーム機感覚が残っている数少ないタイトルかもって、それでもこれはあまりにもきつい。 やっぱ無理。

its SO anime i love it but im never beating hard mode

爽快感がなくてつまんない。 缶コーヒー1本買ったほうがマシかとｗ

A very Qute try to do a modern shoot ’em up...

game is good!