Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
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About
*The DEMO version is under production and may differ from the product version.
A horizontal scrolling shooter where you defeat enemies using BITs that can change attack direction.
Defeat enemies to release energy items.
Approach them to draw them in automatically, but releasing the attack button will also attract distant items.
(The faster you collect them, the more points and energy you gain.)
Once your energy gauge is full, Hyper mode becomes available.
While Hyper is active, your ship’s shot changes to a powerful laser and enemy point values are doubled.
BITs can also block pink enemy attacks during Hyper.
Continuing to collect energy even further unlocks Double Hyper.
in Double Hyper, homing shots are added to your arsenal and points are quadrupled.
(Colliding your Hyper laser with a boss or large enemy’s laser creates a massive amount of energy items and deals heavy damage with powerful energy balls.)
Medium and larger enemies offer a time bonus — the faster you defeat them, the higher the point multiplier.
Combining this with Hyper multipliers allows for a maximum of 32x points.
In boss battles, bosses release energy items every time they lose 1/4 of their health.
The fewer seconds that have passed, the more items appear.
Defeating them quickly also grants additional “Destruction Bonus Energy.”
Clear a stage with no deaths to earn a NO MISS BONUS.
The bonus doubles with each consecutive no-miss stage, and the final stage bonus is doubled again.
3 Game Modes × 2 Difficulties (NORMAL / HARD)
NORMAL / HARD
The Hyper gauge also functions as shield energy.
At full gauge: NORMAL allows up to 6 hits, HARD allows up to 3 hits.
In HARD mode, enemy attacks become more intense, but the number of energy items that appear is doubled (though each item provides half the energy).
X-mode (X-NORMAL / X-HARD)
You can hold up to 2 shields (1 on HARD).
Even if you lose them upon taking damage, you can redeploy them by accumulating gauge after activating Hyper.
Hitting enemies with shots outside of Hyper increases the gauge.
Activating Hyper while holding a shield grants bonus points.
VX-mode (VX-NORMAL / VX-HARD)
Energy gain is 1.5× higher than other modes.
You have 1 automatically regenerating shield that works even during Hyper.
When respawning, the energy gauge retains the amount it had before the player ship was destroyed.
Gauge increase from shooting enemies outside of Hyper is higher than in X-mode.
Settings Screen Options
BLUR: Toggle blur effects
SHAKE: Toggle screen shake
EFFECT: Set to MIN to reduce explosion debris and other objects
BLASTTINT: Choose explosion effect color intensity
WALLWARN: Turn terrain collision warning ON/OFF
LOW SPEED: Choose from 4 types of low-speed movement behavior
BIT Control: 6 types (TYPE-A to TYPE-F) — forward fixed, free movement, hold-style, etc.
〇 TYPE-A・TYPE-B
Press the R button (default) to cycle through BIT positions.
〇 TYPE-C (Recommended)・TYPE-D
Hold R and move the control stick to adjust BIT position. Release R to confirm the position.
〇 TYPE-E・TYPE-F
When R is not pressed: BITs stay in front.
When R is held: BITs move to a different fixed position (position changes depending on lever input or lack thereof).
Config Screen
Separate from the Settings screen, you can access it with ESC or the START button (default).
Here you can configure key mappings, controller vibration, volume, toggle between fullscreen/windowed mode (window size settings are independent of fullscreen), and exit the game.
*Replay playback may not be normal depending on the content of the game update.
Thank you for your understanding.
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, Japanese
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Congratulations Zakichi, Varyznex compliments your portfolio of game releases on Steam perfectly. Gameplay, art style and of course the Excellent soundtrack all combine to offer the player a sense of satisfaction well beyond the price of entry. I'd even go so far as to suggest you should be in line for the Nobel Peace Prize for you contributions to World Happiness over the past few years. Those Wings Are Forever :-)
VARYZNEX is a horizontal shmup that gives me the feel of playing a retro shmup that one would play on the SEGA Genesis, so if you are a fan of old school SEGA Genesis shmups then you should definitely pick this one up. At this moment I have only played the game one the Normal difficulty and have not tried the Hard difficulty and I can say with my skill level at shmups the Normal difficulty is fast paced and fun enough for me. Players who are more skilled will probably enjoy the Hard difficulty, but for players who are not so skilled (like myself) the Normal difficulty is plenty of fun and not difficult in a rage quit sort of way while also not being a boring cakewalk. You are given the ability to switch between firing modes consisting to focusing only in front of you, focusing on the areas above and beneath you, and focusing on the area behind you. You can freely switch this up with the push of a button and will to be quick to keep switching as needed by the current situation you find yourself in. The only issue I have is that the soundtrack is unfortunately not available for purchase at the time of this review. With a soundtrack this good it is a shame to not have it available for download as well and I am sure I am not the only player who feels this way about the soundtrack. The soundtrack is an absolute blast to listen to while playing and does an excellent job of getting the player into the moment. Overall VARYZNEX is a very fun shmup to play and a nice throwback to the kind of shmups you would find on a SEGA Genesis console (makes me want to play Hellfire again). Again if you are a fan of the retro style shmups this is a great title to add to your library. Now here is hoping the developer will be able to release the soundtrack as that too would be a worthwhile purchase.
Related
Related
Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
In a recurring trend that just about everyone is happy with, zakichi has released another quality shmup on Steam. VARYZNEX has a neat, simple balancing act when it comes to how you choose to use your hyper. If you keep your meter topped off, you'll be able to take a couple of hits before actually losing a life and it doesn't take all that long to fill it up. Makes the game pretty easy though; getting a 1cc without serious practice is quite reasonable if you play defensively, at least on Normal. On the other hand, consuming your meter to unleash the hyper will increase your firepower and scoring potential quite dramatically, especially if you double down on it. Racking up score with a double hyper is satisfying and the game lets you do it often enough where it lets you indulge in the exhilaration of really overpowering the enemy and turning the tables on them It's about as no-frills as you get but that suits me just fine. The retro look and soundtrack are on point. The settings giving a visual warning when you're close to a wall and the different variations on how your button press changes the positions of your options are appreciated. VARYZNEX is a good value like everything else zakichi has on offer. If a classic styled shmup is what you're after, then this should scratch that itch pretty well.
Frenético y divertido shump con una estética muy particular a la que se le termina cogiendo cariño. Tiene un nivel de dificultad normal muy fácil de superar que invita a jugarlo a puntuar arriesgando con el doble hyper. Junto con Outside, Zakichi me parece el mejor diseñador actual en este género.
Fast-paced shoot'em up with an extremely satisfying soudntrack, from an indie Japanese developer. What's not to love?
The game feels a lot like Thunder Force 4&5, which are some of my favorite games. The G-Darius/Metal Black laser duel you can do on specific bosses/enemies are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome and it genuinely blew me away when I did it for the first time on stage 5 The soundtrack is really good too. Only thing I don't like is that it's a bit hard to differentiate the bullets and the hyper pickups at first, but that won't matter after stage 1 because you can already tell at that point. Overall a good experience for it's price. Big ups zakichi.
Fun shooter with a rockin soundtrack!
へっぽこゲーマーでも気軽に楽しめると思うw この手のお約束で初見殺しは多いがバリアの御蔭で何とかクリア、 突き詰めると難しいんだろうなぁ…(無理そうな実績が…w 自分が下手なだけだろうけど、相殺ビームが肝心な所で撃てないのが少し気になりました。 上手ければ期待の場所で撃てる様になるのかな? ---------追記------- VX-mode(追加ver)は遊び易いverかと思いきや、難易度upでした…初見さんお断り(個人的感想 相変わらず壁(巨大戦艦本体)が脅威で、死んだ後油断すれば(死後のバリア無い為)サクサク死ぬ。 之ならノーマルで緩く遊ぶ方がストレス無いかな…やり込んだ人向けなのかね?
Short and sweet. Challenging enough that the 1CC doesn't feel free, but it also doesn't feel impossible. Great music.
Fun game. Forgiving and a bit unrefined in it's presentation, but the action is tight and art direction inventive.
Momentum
Pace estimated from the game's recent review growth (our daily snapshots) at its own sales-per-review ratio — a momentum signal, not booked sales.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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