Vacant Kingdom

An excellent twin-stick shooter which doesn't simply incorporate bullet-hell "aesthetics", but which actually provides true bullet-hell gameplay, with one notable departure from the usual tropes found in the genre : the lack of a screen-clearing ability. Instead you are given a slowmo ability reminiscent of the FEAR franchise, and this intriguing design decision makes for very unique gameplay. Unfortunately there aren't that many enemy types or bosses, but what is there is extremely solid and leaves us wanting for more (plus the bosses put up a heck of a fight on Masochist difficulty, so you won't simply breeze through everything either). In other words, if you are interested in the danmaku aspect of this game, give it a shot! On top of the aforementioned shooting, you will spend your time exploring a small interconnected world and solving traversal puzzles, some of which I found pretty non-trivial (looking at you, bath-house). There is good variety here and they feel like a nice break from the action. Furthermore, you will meet and talk with many wacky characters, whose dialogue often got a chuckle out of me. And I haven't even mentioned the head-bopping and extremely diverse soundtrack! Personally the only part that irritated me was the platforming which, given the isometric viewpoint and the apparent lack of "coyote time" (where you can still jump for a brief moment after leaving a ledge), felt a little unfair and unforgiving. This was particularly noticeable during two of the boss fights, though not game-breaking by any means. Honestly overall this game is fire, though I do find it to be a little short. If the developer reads this (and other reviews stating the same thing), PLEASE MAKE MORE OF THIS!!!