RefRain - prism memories -

Out of my attempts to develop the brain-worm for STGs this is one of the ones that managed to hook me despite how terrible I am. Funny to think I only came across this just going far down the "Shoot 'Em Up" tag and ended up with such a gem. Makes me wonder how many more great Japanese indie games I'm unaware of. I very much look forward to C.C.S.B. when it finishes development and hope for an English translation.

Amazing.

Need to come back to this one. Fun gameplay, excellent presentation. The ship variety feels very good.

所有机体都通关啦，完结（打的很爽，推荐）^^ 难度不算高，注意下资源管理就好

One of the best shmups I've played on steam. Great soundtrack, fun bullet patterns, and multiple difficulties. I'd say a good shmup for beginners. Great game.

For nearly the first hour of playing RefRain - prism memories, I was considering not giving this game a recommendation. The game wasn't bad, but I was not finding anything particularly fun about it. However, on my most recent play through, some of the mechanics started to fall into place. RefRain - prism memories is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that has the player taking the role of a computer hacker flying through cyberspace. Which I think is a neat premise to a shmup, but in this game it is so far in the background that it is almost not there. If that's a good thing or not is up to the player I suppose. There's emails for each of the three playable characters and some text on the stage screen, but the color and graphics barely convey this. The color is a lot of blues and grays for everything not bullets. So much so that it was enemy ships I was hitting more than enemy bullets. Especially when I was getting greedy in grabbing points pick ups that jump further up screen when enemies are destroyed. The graphics themselves are largely simple shapes for enemy designs. Though, they have enough differentiation that player learns what sort of attack to expect. The backgrounds are a mixed bag. I always like shmup city backgrounds, so I like Stage 2's high rise building background, but it doesn't really fit the hacking premise to be honest. Stage 3 has more of a computer chip look but it's more of an impression of microchips than anything. Still, the multi-layer background design is nice and simple enough that it never creates confusing in the game play. Overall, I just found the designs a little plain and drab. The music was excellent. I especially liked the piano piece on Stage 2. Even now, I can't remember when the game transitioned from calming music to more frenetic techno stuff. Probably at the boss fight. General sound effects were serviceable. They work well in the confines of the game. Game play took a while for me to figure out a more optimized way to play. Originally, I was hanging back and saving my special attacks for the bosses. I was finding that outside of popcorn enemies, it was taking so time to destroy things. Often I couldn't finish off a whole squadron of enemies. It was only my last play through I started to have a better idea of where enemies were going to be that I could get more point blank. As well as making more liberal use of my special attacks. This was a game changer. RefRain - prism memories really seems to want the play make use of rechargeable special attacks more than most other shooters. Once I started doing that, I found myself keeping control of the play area far better. In turn yielding a better play experience. An element I like with RefRain - prism memories is the telegraphing of certain shots. Often incredibly fast and power enemy attacks have a line or a circular icon appear on the screen split seconds before the attack actually happens. It's still not a lot of time to get out of the way. But once you know they sort of attacks are coming, it certainly helps make sure your not in the path of them. So, I do recommend RefRain - prism memories. It may take some time and a few play throughs to find things to like about it. Definitely try each of the characters to figure out which one matches your play style the most. It may take a little more time than most shooters even with the game's rather simple mechanics. But once your start to figure out how the game wants those mechanics used, I think STG players will like this game.

Very cool unique cyberpunk bullet hell. Definitely worth picking up for your collection. Amazing music and atmosphere