PAWARUMI

Game looks good but the shots are not satisfying at all.

喜欢STG的可以入手，很不错的游戏 画面华丽 手柄操作流畅 弹幕适中 打击感强 自带中文和剧情 有点难度，街机模式没续关吗？

1) If you read any reviews or just saw the trailer, you see the game uses a 3 weapon system, you always have the 3 weapons and they are color coded. Blue, Green, Red. Enemies are also Blue, Green, Red, and each weapon will have different effects on each color. Attack enemies with weapons of the same color and you refill your shield (They call it BOOST), and the other two colors will either do more damage (CRUSH) or refill your special weapon (DRAIN). Special Weapon fires a lot of missiles on every enemy on screen and the more missiles you hit, more points you score. So the score system is based upon a balance between risking filling your special weapon for points or play safer and fill either your shield to stay alive or kill enemies fast. I must say, while there's a lot of merit on this system, it's confusing as hell. I always remember same color = fill shield, which is important to keep you alive. But I never remember what weapon I need to use for the other two effects, and have to keep looking at the hud distracts me from the main action. Which wouldn't be that bad except when the game starts throwing you stuff that REQUIRES you to use the "correct" weapons, and it makes it even worse that the names don't make any sense (How the hell filling my shield means BOOST but filling my special weapons means DRAIN?). That boss where it asks you to "DRAIN" or "BOOST" or whatever was a real pain in the ass because of this, and I was just wilding guess and whatever. So, most of the time I was just trying to fill my shield to stay alive after getting hit or just using any random weapon and hoping for the best. If you have the time/patience/brains to learn the weapon system, there's a lot of fun here if you want to chase high-scores. But I'd rather be learning chain routes on Dodonpachi or Bombing places on Batrider than remembering if Green weapon is CRUSH or DRAIN for blue enemies. (Thank God, oh my God, THANK GOD they didn't add an absorb bullet mechanic) 2) The game is a vertical shmup with an horizontal 16:9 setup. This is usually a recipe for disaster. So this one suffers from the same problem other games that uses this setup suffer: A lot of times there's a corner that's really safe, because most of the action is happening at the other side of the screen... and at the same time the screen always feel kinda clogged and too tight, with not enough vertical space. To be honest, I've played a *lot* worse when trying to go for the vertizontal 16:9 aspect and this one tried hard to avoid the problems this brings to a game of this kind. It doesn't fully succeed, but its also far from failing badly. Really far. 3) The game seems to be designed by someone who *understands* shmups (which is not the case in most of shmups here in Steam), because in spite of the problems I discussed above, the bullet patterns are really interesting and well made, and the enemy waves are REALLY well constructed, clearly making smart use of the 3 weapon system. Since the score system is very simple and straightforward, the designer made an effort to make the enemy waves complex enought that, if you want to go for a high score, you'll have to learn the level designs because killing all enemies on screen is very hard, and you'll need to change weapons constantly and use your special weapon a lot to do it (Meaning rembering to always... -sigh- ... DRAIN when possible and firing your special weapon at the right time). There are also areas where you can milk bosses/midbosses for extra score... I really don't like this kind of stuff, but many people do (I hope there's no endless milk, I *felt* there was a boss I could keep milking forever, but I didn't want to keep going on, as I wanted to go for the 1cc). The bosses are also made of different parts with different colors with some interesting mechanics where you can exploit them for extra points or just try to play safe and kill them quickly. 4) The game seems to be on the easier side, with the Shield/Boost mechanic being very permissive with player errors. Keep in mind you have only one life, and if your shield ends, it's game over (And from what I got, no continues). So the shield acts as lives where you can get extra ones very easily by (again, -sigh-) using BOOST, but with a tight limit on how many lives you can have. Now, I nearly 1cc the game on my 2nd try, except that on the last level the game completely changed how it plays outta nowhere, and now my ship was fixed on the center of the screen and the screen was moving while I pressed right and left. That REALLY threw me off unexpectedly and I disliked this *a lot*.... this added to the "rolling ball" setup and the previous boss that also changed the camera view out of nowhere made me really annoyed and I disliked all of this *A LOT* and I nearly gave a Thumbs Down just because of those features. Don't establish how the game plays and then change it outta nowhere without giving the player some time to acommodate. I know this was thought to be played a lot of times so next time you get there you know the game will change but, still, even if I know what's coming up, give me some time to get used to the new mechanics. Though, like I said before, even if the games is not exactly a hard one considering the average for the genre, the game clearly becomes a whole new beast if you play for score, and that's how good shmups are supposed to be made. So, kudos for the devs on that aspect. 5) The action flow is great and smooth for most of the time and there are no empty moments on the game, which is awesome 6) The 3D graphics are some of the best I ever saw on an indie shmup. No, honestly, this has probably the BEST 3D graphics I ever sawy on a 3D shmup, the backgrounds are awesome, with those cool camera animations and all. IMO it doesn't make the gameplay better, but it really makes the game looks great. The overall polish of the game is off the charts, way above what you would expect from an indie game. Overall, would I recommend the game? Well... on a sale probably. It's not a bad game, not at all, but it's really flawed on a lot of aspects. I really love shmups, and this one is a lot polished and better than the average we see from indie devs here on Steam and, being quite honest, from a technical point of view it wouldn't be out of place among 3D shmups made by the "Bigger" guys like Treasure. Gameplay wise... I'll probably play it again and get that 1CC, but I don't see me going much further than that. Its a fun game to play, but not a LOT of fun because of all the flaws in the gameplay I described and, quite honestly, the weapon/score system is really just too confusing for my taste. But it's a crime the game isn't more well known. With this level of polish, 5 years after its release it really deserved to have more reviews on Steam.

Underrated

realarcadepro3.0で操作しようとしたら、どうしても上下が逆のままになるのでプレイ不可能。 20190419 どう試しても上下が逆のままなのでプレイが出来ない状態です。 もし普通に遊べるようになったら、その時にじっくりプレイしてからレビューを更新します。 steamのシューティングゲームでも、counterattackなどはrealarcadepro3.0でも操作出来るし、殆どの格闘ゲームでも認識しているので、対応されると嬉しい。 20190422 LogicoolGamePad F310 を使用して、何とか操作出来る。 ショットは３種類あり、Xは青レーザー、Aは緑ショット、Ｂは赤サーチ、 Yは黄色でボム(無敵+ホーミング弾幕)とスロー移動で、ボタンは5つ使用。 XBOXなどに対応するゲームパッドだと色とウェポンが同じ色なので分かり易い。 ステージ２まで遊び、画像がかなり綺麗で、カメラワークも迫力がある。 希望を言うとすれば、 自機はパワーアップして欲しい。 周回するとかクリアするとかで、何等かの特典が欲しい。 シューティングとしては面白いので、またプレイしてみます。

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] PAWARUMI is a very well-made shmup game, and one that I believe is criminally underrated. The game takes several inspirations from Ikaruga, which is one of the best games in the shmup/bullet hell genre, to form its gameplay and presentation. But while it does look great and is fun to play, some unfortunate issues and its reliance on being a classic-styled shmup ultimately cause it to not be a suitable pick for everyone. [h2]Outstanding presentation[/h2] If there's one thing that PAWARUMI absolutely nails, it's the presentation. The soundtrack of the game is very well-composed. No doubts about that. But it's the visual design and polish that deserves the most praise. All of the level backgrounds in the game are very detailed and full of color, with each of them having a dominant shade of color throughout them to set their moods. The same applies to the player ship and the enemies, each having specific designs that make them wildly different to the other types. The cinematic camera shots are done really well and add to the game's feeling of progression through or between the levels; much like the same thing with Ikaruga, only without the possible goosebumps as the result of music and visuals being perfectly synced. I especially love the attention to detail in this game. The default bindings of the game have been set in a way that the color of shots and the color of their respective buttons on an Xbox 360 controller are the same. Each of the fire modes are signified with the facial appearances of Condor, Serpent and Jaguar, and you will see a brief animation of them appearing upon firing the weapons in addition to the playable ship changing its appearance. And the design of the HUD and the characters are very in-line with drawings of Aztecs, a civilization which is a major source of inspiration for this game. [h2]Fun, and yet confusing at the same time[/h2] When it comes to talking about the gameplay and how it feels at a fundamental level, I've got to say it is very fun, well constructed and unique. Sure, the game lacks the punch it needs to make enemy explosions impactful, but everything else work together to deliver a satisfying shooting experience. The game's uniqueness comes in the form of its shot modes, where it takes Ikaruga's polarity system, changes some stuff and then adds more to it. In PAWARUMI, you have access to three color coded shot modes: Laser beam (Blue), homing missiles (Red) and curved shots (Green). The enemies are all drenched in one of these three colors, and attacking them with each of the shots causes you to achieve one of the following effects: [list] [*]Crush (bottom middle of the screen): Attacking an enemy with the opposing shot color, dealing more damage as a result. [*]Boost (bottom right of the screen): Attacking an enemy with the other opposing color, in order to charge your special attack. [*]Drain (bottom left of the screen): Attacking an enemy with a shot that has their exact color, in order to charge your shield. Also causes the drained enemies to attack faster in retaliation. [/list] One one hand, this weapon system gives you complete freedom to decide what you want to do and how you want to progress. But on the other hand, it also makes the gameplay very confusing. If you cannot get a grip on how the weapon system is handled, you will be forced to constantly take a peek at the bottom of the screen and then immediately look back to make sure you won't get hit by the enemies. Not only that, one of the bosses forces you to play a shell game and hit the target with the exact weapon effect he asks you to choose, further making this an issue for the confused. [h2]Not very casual friendly[/h2] When it comes to the difficulty, PAWARUMI is a decently balanced game with very well-designed enemy patterns. However, it's not a game that I would recommend to the newcomers to the genre or casual players as its game design is based on older titles in the shmup genre, not offering any modern quality of life additions. What I mean by such statement is that PAWARUMI is a game that in classic shmup fashion, requires dedication to be finished. The game's true ending is only accessible on the hardest difficulty mode and some enemy patterns, such as certain laser beam enemies in the Industrial Complex, require you to have prior knowledge of their appearance in order to not get hit by them. Furthermore, you are forced to 1CC the game. There is no free play mode, no extra lives system and no unlockable credit points in this game. If you run out of shield meter and die at any point, which can happen a lot as the amount of shield and super meter you have don't recharge between levels, the run is over and you have to restart everything from the beginning. All of these make for a game that requires hours of practice and restarts in order to access its ending, thus not making it a suitable choice for casuals and newcomers, or those with limited time on their hands. The 1CC is especially a problem here since I believe the game unintentionally suffers from a rather big problem. [h2]Oh god not again…[/h2] This is the main reason that much to my dismay, I decided to not recommend this game. If there was a middle ground option I would have chosen that instead, but unfortunately I do not have such leisure. As I have mentioned before, PAWARUMI is a game with a lot of work put into designing its levels, models and other visual elements. But while this works for the game by providing a unique visual presentation, it also works against it by increasing the chances of visual clarity issues surfacing, which is very visible in the Dune Ocean and Xibalba levels. Simply put, the background is colorful and detailed, all of your ship's attacks have visual effects of their own, the animation for special bars filling up takes some space on the screen and some setpieces fill the screen with various moving objects, making some of the levels visually busy. Not only that, enemy projectiles have a dark purple color that makes them hard to notice in busy scenes, with only the faster variants being bright and noticeable. Then there is the fact that all of the enemies in this game deal contact damage and their fly patterns can cause them to come right at you. So basically, you have to watch out for the projectiles that are coming at you from all directions in middle of all of the visual effects (as the game is a vertical shooter in 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing fleeing enemies to attack at you from the sides of the screen), and also watch out for the enemies that are flying around or for the sudden lunge attacks of the bosses, all while you are also keeping an eye on the enemies and the bottom of the screen to determine which shot type you should use against them. This is simply too much, paving the way for many instances when you legitimately don't know what hit you. And need I remind you that you are forced to finish this game in one sitting without continues? [h2]TL;DR[/h2] A fantastic & frankly underrated shmup with lots of care and polish put into its presentation and gameplay. Unfortunately, the game's 1CC requirement and some clarity issues make it hard to recommend.

Good shmup, interesting take on different weapons matching enemies. But, like most old school shmups, ultimately falls to memorization. I'm a little too old to spend over 9 hours trying to beat a game on normal. Still, fun.

Extremely polished, great art while still keeping bullets and enemies visible, and the weapon system is fantastic.