Gunvein

BOMBAA

Great game by a great player. Amazing shooter to get into the genre with.

This game reminded me a lot of Dodonpachi Saidaioujou... in a bad way. The game shares same problem as Saidaioujou. Screen is zoomed in too much, ship and bullets are too big and incoming bullets are too fast. The game rewards you for getting close to enemies but since the bullets are too fast the reward isn't really worth it. Lock on mechanic is bit questionable too since it also shoots focus shot on top of lock on, so it will usually destroys the target before lock on ever goes full. Bomb mechanic is odd too since it's usually there to clear up some mistake, but instead it is linked with scoring, making it less friendly with new players. The game barely has any difficulty progression and all levels feel about the same difficulty. Music is also quite forgettable. It's very trancy, but tunes that you can't really sing or remember. (Terrible thing to say, but it feels almost like AI generated.) Graphic is nice and crisp but background, ship, and bullets don't seem to match the resolution, making it feel like everything is out of place. Menu UI feels bare bone with shmup maker tool. No real ending or story or lore. With other indie game like Devil Blade on the line, this game is very difficult to recommend.

I was taken on my first play of this how intense it feels while not being all that challenging - from start to end it puts you in that zen state where you're almost unconciously dodging and weaving through bullets. In part it's thanks to extremely good bullet visibility, relatively light strategy elements, macro emphasis, the lack of any substantial down-time and some very kind hit/hurtboxes. Difficulty is fairly light (again, on Intense) with a couple of isolated difficulty spikes. The lock-on system is well-executed and adds an extra degree of depth to movement & enemy-relative positioning. The feedback in particular is a lot better than something like Crimzon Clover, which I find feels weak even if it isn't. As a relatively inexperienced bullet hell player it feels most like Mushihimesama in terms of the bullet patterns and speed. It takes me back to stage 5 of that game in particular. Again, the emphasis is on macro, with fast & relatively unlayered patterns, but there's a nice little mix of micro in there to keep you on your toes. After engaging more with the scoring system, it's very well-integrated. It encourages you to play aggressively by feeding you more lives and bombs for doing so, but it also limits you to a maximum of three of each, so you can't farm resources and bomb through the final stage. It also encourages constant bomb use, since you get more score by bombing and surplus bombs are essentially thrown away. Really, everything in this game feels very well-tuned. After a few plays I think this might be in my top 3 favourite bullet hell games available on Steam, but I probably need to play it more before making that judgement.

[h1]Want to Get Into the Genre? This is a DAMN Good Place to Start[/h1] AWESOME Shoot 'Em Up that is made by a veteran who has played the best in the genre and knows how to make a modern Cave like action game. You have three classic ship types, an arcade mode, stage select, a mission mode, arguably the best tutorial mode in ANY shmup, and a really cool roguelike arrange mode that adds to the replayability! The scoring system is cool, allowing you to either bomb enemies to get gold stars similar to Cave SHMUPS, or hold down the bomb button to use a hyper laser which multiplies your damage substantially. Newcomers will have a strong challenge to overcome and it feels like it is just right on the lower difficulties. The game actually adds up your score on your current run and turns it into money when you die and use a continue which you can use to purchase things for your next credit like a shield or an extra life, which is a great way to encourage novice players to take the scoring system seriously. Hardcore players will still be challenged going for the 1CC and the higher difficulties. The only thing that may leave you scratching your head is how unlocking extra continues is tied to finishing missions in mission mode which is HARD. Possibly harder than finishing the game itself. Don't really need extra continues if you have the skills needed to pass those. I had to study videos online and timestamp where in the mission they dropped bombs in order to complete a few of these. It was fun but man is that a lot of work for extra continues lol. Still though, this is a must buy if you're a fan of shmups or getting into them. BE WARNED Steam save cloud doesn't seem to work for this game on the Steam Deck at least. So if you manage to beat this game's challenging mission mode and want to save those extra credits, back up your saves!

Perfect balance of aggression and dodging. Very momentum focused, and lots of resources to expend.

Probably one of the best feeling and looking SHMUPs I've ever played. The dev of this game is intensely tapped in, as well as being extremely competent at the genre, and what results is a more or less perfect entry in the genre. My only critique/complaint, and this is a purely systemic one, is that unlike many other SHMUPs, you can't extend stack in this game--if you hit max lives, you are stuck there, and playing out of your mind early on will hit a cap because of this. That's a bit of a bummer, especially considering how risk/reward the core bomb mechanic is (blowing stuff up just to basically get your bomb back for free AND an extra life feels awesome). The core lock-on model is probably my favorite style of SHMUP just because of how it increases APM and player expression/engagement, and this is a great example of one. I still get my ass kicked by intense, but one day I'll clear it. Heavily recommended, and cannot wait to see what this dev does next.

Don't get it twisted... This is NOT a game developed by NGDEV... This was majorly developed by BOGHOG, a wonderful essayist and artist making his living breaking down game mechanics and making Dev Vids on YouTube. In a world where devs try to make arcade games have mass appeal, this game stands with few others in that it is not afraid to challenge the player. Taking a lot of nods from Raizing games, bombs are a commodity that are MEANT to be used, not as a panic button, but as a way of scoring and dealing damage. I love that the ships are actually all SUPER DIFFERENT! Honestly, it almost feels like playing different games when you switch ships. You don't see that too often, but it is always welcome. I can't recommend this game enough.