Recent reviews by PSW

Well...it´s "Bullet Hell Monday"....nothing more to say!
No, but seriously...one of THE best Mobile Only Danmaku Games, finally got a proper PC Port in an enhanced Version of what we already know.

First of all: Is it any good?
YESSS.....and even more so; it´s amazing and exceeded all my expectations.

Just a while ago, I wrote in a review, that Unity is probably oe of the worst engines to use for a Bullet hell Game, unless you know exactly what you´re doing: BHM is a great example of how to handle Unity the right way to create a fun Game.

The Graphics are what we all know and ove about Bullet hell Monday....easy shapes and bright colors mixed with heart throbing effects which, every so often, invert the whole color palette, destinguishing Boss encounter from the normal stages.
Nothingmore to say about the Sound ether....it´s the classic BHM Ost which bumps through our ears for years now, when playing the original Android Game.
The Sound (music as well as effects) support the "trippy" feel and gives us a sense of excitenment and power while playing, which is one of THE keypoints of a Danmaku Game. It needs to excite me.

Being extremely easy in the Beginning, when Playing the normal chapters, the difficulty ramps up quite drastic when playing the challenge Mode, which sould be more interesting for the advanced players.
But BHM doesn´t stop here:
New to the PC Port is the "Endless Mode" which is one hell of fun.
Basically it goes on and on and on until you die and increasing the difficulty over time.
The same way like the challenge mode, this new Mode is also connected to the leaderboards, which adds to the fun.
Playing this on first day I ranked on 5th on the World Leaderboards and checking in just a few hours later my ranking already dropped to 7th place.
I can see this one becomming a real challenge thing in the future.

Also BHM adds the ability to record your challenge runs, which is an amazing feature, that´smuch apreciated.
It´ll be great to save replays in Endles Mode as well, but I can clearly understand why something like this might be difficult to achive.

And if this isn´t enough already; Bullet hell Monday spoils us with a Tate Mode.

All in all BHM is a great PC Package which is a lot of fun, even more so, than it was on the Original Mobile Devices.
Controller Inputs are responsive and the game runs without drops on 60fps.
Also something worth mentioning here should be, that although being designed for Windows10 (as in BHM´s Minimum Requirements), the Game works on Windows 7 without any Problem.
With all it´s new additions and features, this is the Definitive Edition of an already great Mobile Game, which also allows for being slapped into an actual (W7 PC-powered) Arcade Cabinet......awesome.

If you love Danmaku Games, this is a MUST GET on PC!

After having Kikura wishlistet for a while now, I was really looking forward to this release.
Finally I thought, someone who takes the Guwange aproach to Bullet Hells.

Uff, buuuut I was really disapointed once it came out.
Booting up the game, i was greated with the unity startup prompt.
Oh boy, I thought; out of all gaming engines, you guys took THE ansolute worst engine for creating shmups or Bullet Hells.
Ok, so...maybe these developer(s) are really skilled to handle the engine for these type of games.

Sadly they´re not....so this is another entry of a cheap atempt to create a Bullet hell in unity which utterly failed.

So, let´s dive a bit into the details, shall we.
Kikura really took the aproach of Guwange, in terms of theme and Autoscrolling, but took the movement system of KikiKaikai (Pocky and Rocky).
The Movementsystem was something I always consider to be a bother and it was something that may work for the P&R Gameplay, which is a lot clearer and slower, but with the autoscrolling nature of Kikura it is a bother and it makes the game a lot more difficult or even unfair, for all the wrong reasons.
Sure, make games difficult...BUT make it so the game stays fair.
It would be a lot easier (to program) and way more intuitive (to play) to take the classic aproach to Bullet Hells and go with the "rolling gunner" or "Deathsmiles" kind of secondary shottype to accomplish the all direction shooting.

So, the controls are wonky the same way they are in the KikiKaikai series.

Now, let´s talk about the graphics:
High resolution graphics are not always a good thing, and this is a great example of it.
The High resolution graphics look like they´re supposed to be for a arcade/mid2000 kind of pixelated look, but in HD and something like this ALWAYS looks weird on so many levels.
Either do an arcade kind of aproach to your style, like Crimzon Clover or the 2000era Cave games did. Or go with hig resolution and effects and create it in one overall artstyle (like Danmaku Unlimited for example).
So...in terms of graphics the devs took the Touhou kind of aproach....but NOT in a good way....Touhou aren´t great games, because of their graphics.....the Touhou hames are amazing because of how they play, feel and sound like.
I will not go further into details regarding the graphics, here....color composition is a mess and the characterarts look like hells business (comming from an artist myself).
Just sell the game to a higher price, hire an artist and put more effort into it and it could´ve been a great shmup entry.

Talking about effort.
I mentioned this before that Unity is probably one of the worst engines when it comes to shmups.
I already was suspicious about the fact that this one requires Windows 10 as minimum (what´s totally odd for the type of game).
But with Unity behind it, this makes sense.
Unity requires a lot (!!!) of recources for stuff that´s not even needed for a 2D Bullet Hell game.
The result is that you need to understand how unity works and tweak to a point in heaven to get even an acceptable performance out of it....and even then, we´re not talking about performing great.
In Kikura in particular, the life-lengths of bullet objects seem to be way too long...usually you kill bullets which are off screen, so they don´t take up to much of your computers performance.
And especially when you´re working with HD graphics.
But even for HD graphics you wanna create them in the exact resolution needed and not higher than that, to save up recources as well.
So, what´s the result of it:
Heavy input lags and framerate drops, to a point that the game isn´t even playable.
I´m not talking about intentional slowdowns (like in cave games) but real framedrops and slowdowns due to the games bad performance.
These slowdowns increase the more bullets are on screen.

So, now combine these components all together and you´ll get a game, where it´s not even playable in a way it´s supposed to be played.

Are there even positives here?
Yes....the soundtrack is really amazing and I loved what I heard so far.
I wish the ost would´ve been given into hands of people who actually know what to do with it, to create a spiritual successor to Guwange.
Kikura remains a failed attempt to create something great because of lackluster development and the absense of artistic and development skills.
As an advice: just take the music and create a Music CD release out of it, it´ll probably sell for way more, than the actual game.
Or take the music and collaborate with skilled doujin circles or development teams.

I didn´t had Cosmo Dreamer on my radar at all...but I´m glad that I discovered it.

I would highly recommend the game to anyone who is into Shmups and Bullet Hells.

CD features tight controls and a great hitboxing, which feels really satisfying to play.
Everyone who played the third entry in the Exceed series will imediately feel at home here.
In terms of scoring it´s nothing that wasn´t already used in other games, but it works, so nothing to complain about here.
Cosmo Dreamer utilizes a shield/life/spellcard(bomb) system which is pretty forgiving......also deathbombing works, although it needs a little more timing compared to other games, like the touhous.
If I were to describe the game, by comparing it with other games of it´s genre; "It´s kinda like a misture of exceed3rd, Eden´s Aegis and the Touhou Games.
Controller as well as Arcade Boards worked great from the getgo, without the need to fiddle around in different Optionmenus etc.

So now let´s dive a little into the art department....and the first thing which comes to mind is, that it looks kinda like the Shooting Dangerous Games...and yes....the artstyle is pretty similiar.
Everything looks unified and nothing is out of place here, although the characterdesigns need some time to get used to.
For me personally; I would´ve preferred the typical Moe-Anime Artstyle for these Cute´m Up kind of games, but that is just my personal opinion...the artstyle as it is works and is clear enough to see everything what´s happening on screen.
The sound is kind of a mixed thing....while the stage tracks (for the most parts) are more chilled and layed back, a more modern rock/metal ost kicks in when a bossfight begins....both types work on their own, but mixed together feels kinda weird....but I guess it goes along with the games dreamlike aestethic. I would´ve preferred the boss (or stage 8 ost) for the entire game )of course with different tracks.
The difficulty curve is more on the lowend side of things....I basically blind 1cc´d this in Maniac Mode (which is the Normal Mode in generel).
Of course there is nothing wrong with having a beginner friendly game and I really enjoyed my time with the game, but (now let´s get to the one and only major nitpick I have with the game) the higher difficulties are locked behind the playthoughs of the first ones....so if you are the typical Touhou Maniac Player...have fun, since you need to play this on easy or normal mode first, in order to dive into the higher difficulties.
I mean, this is used in other games as well, but it IS not right to exclude more advanced players by locking the normally used difficulties.
But apart from that, Cosmo Dreamer is a fun game with a lot of replayability value to it....
....so if you´re looking for a great working Cute em Up / Barrage / Maniac Shmup Mixture...it´s totally worth to give it a try.

Well, I first stumbled across Chuhou Joutai on Instagram.
Chuhou Joutai is a (classic era) Touhou inspired Bullet Hell game, that does many things exactly right, but has a few issues as well.
That being said, let´s start with the good things, shall we?
The controller support is absolutely something worth mentioning here, since it is, pretty much perfect from the get go and doesn´t need any costomization, of course you can do so if desired.
The artstyle IN GAME and ost gives CJ a great atmosphere of the old Arcade (or PC98) times.
In terms of difficulty CJ is more on the easier side and provides a great entrypoint for newcomers to the bullet hell genre.
I 1CC´d this on normal mode on the first try without customizing the controls to my liking.
The gameplay and Danmaku Patterns are fun and with that Chuhou Joutai provides a great and fun gameplay.

BUT......(let´s dive into the negative things)
As beautiful the pixelart (in game) is, there are a few negative things about it as well.
First of all, the character and illustrations are the complete opposite....for those who think that the characterdesigns of (the original) Touhou games look terrible....well, then don´t look at these.
To top it off, these characters are mixed in with some filtered photos, so it is pretty much a bunch of stuff packed together....and not in a good way.
Also some backgrounds (in game) could use some tweeking, especially in the later stages....red bullets on red background = NOT a good idea.
And there are a few things of that nature, which makes the game harder than it actually is.....but it doesn´t feel like it´s a hard game, instead it just feels like it´s unfair at times.
Since the game provides you with many health items, this shouldn´t too much of a problem, but it would leave a better impression to players to make it more fair (so players can see clearly at every time were bullets are) and instead to decrease the number of health pickups.

On the technical side of things there are still a few bugs, but I´m sure that they´re being fixed at some point, for example that there are no stats shown when playing as princess kagami (health, bombs etc) or that the steam achivements doesn´t work (I 1CC´d this on first try and there are two achievements for that, shown inside the game, but there are no achievements given in the steam UI).

So Overall:
Yes I would recommend this one, especially for people who want an entrypoint to the bullet hell genre, but the artstyle could turn away some of them.
For advanced players (or people who play Danmaku games regular) it´s a nice to play game, but nothing worth mentioning any further, since it is pretty easy, even with the disadvantage coming with the artstyle.
You can clearly say, that there is a lot of heart put into Chuhou Joutai and it shows, even if it´s not a perfect or even a great game, by any means.
I had fun playing Chuhou Joutai....not long, but it was fun.

At first I didn´t know what to think about Wish Project, but after some recommendations I decided to give it a go anyways.....and I´m glad I did.
Although Wish Project has it´s flaws (I´ll get to these later) it was a refreshing experience.
The controls are tight enough to play well, but can adjusted via the steam controller support setting.
So, nothing to be desired here.
Gameplaywise Wish Project is more on the "simple" side.
You´ve got you´re Powermeter, which indicates the strengh of your shots, your Bombs and your Lives.
These three Bars fill up by collecting Items.
Once the Bar is full a new Bomb/Live/Powerlevel gets added.
In addition to these you´ve got a shield Bar which fills up automatically as you shoot enemies.
Although last one is not present in the hardest difficulty level.
Your character got two shot types, which can be swapped, plus focussed (similar to the TWilight Games).
In terms of patterns and difficulty curve, there is a lot to customize here....you´ve got four difficulty levels which you can then play with every character, which has it´s own difficulty as well.
This way you can choose if you want to complete the game on normal the easier way or the harder way, for example.
The Danmaku Patterns and Bullet density is somewhat predictable and shouldn´t be much of a problem for experienced players, but should be challenging enough for Newcomers to the genre.
Especially the later Bosses have some really unique patterns on them, I´ve never seen before in a Danmaku game.
After hearing much about it, I´ve played the Waltz Route first and this was, where I got really hooked.
While the artdirection is far away from beeing on a "good" level it was the story that hooked me up here.
You might thinking..."Story? In a Bullet hell Game?"
Yeas....Story.
I´ve never played a Bullet Hell Game feeling so uncomfortable with your In-Game Character than in Wish Project (in a good way).
Basically Wish Project plays inside the mind of certain people, while the characters are thei´re In-Mind personalities (or alter ego) searching for a "unicorn" which has the power to grant any wish once killed and once the horn is obtained.
Since it plays inside of the mind of these people, every character has certain problems in real life, with a partner at hand which is the embodiment of the characters sickness/source of problems etc.
And now comes the tricky part;
Although the Meme-ish Artstyle is far away from beeing good or acceptable, it absolutels fits the bill and works with this one.
Yes the art is ugly, but it gives the game it´s surreal look.
Yes the soundquality is sub-par, while having some really smooth latin guitars and jazz tracks.
It´s the artistic lack of quality which gives the game it´s uncomfortable atmosphere to play along with these heavy themes.
Many times I found myself in kind of a trance-like state, playing this.
So, can I recommend Wish Project?
Yep, absolutely....at least if you want to experience something unique within the bullet hell genre.

Well...The Adventures of Ten and Till, just got released and after quite some time, I´ve waited for this one I immediately jumped into the journey.
And what a journey it is.....I totally love it
As a fan of Bullet Hells, especially the Touhou and Cave Games, this one was a no brainer.
TAoTaT succeeds where many games before failed.
Tight controls give you the full control of the situation at any time.
Also the game pulls all the right strings when it comes to the size of the hitbox, which is very forgiving (somewhat like Mushihimesamas Arrange Mode HB).
The Adventures of Ten and Till utilizes a shield system instead of a heart/health system.
Basically you pick up shields, that can be stacked up to three times, to your additional two lives, that makes (when fully loaded) a total of 5 hits, that can be taken, before entering the continue.
But of course these shields can be filled up again along the way.
Although beeing too easy in the beginning the difficulty increases after 3 stages constantly, so from all the 9 stages there are 6 worth mentioning, what is a nice content.
Especially the later ones with 5 (or something like that) bosses in a row where pretty fun to play and somewhat unique.
Visually The Adventures of Ten and Till looks stunning. The Anime Pixel Artstyle gives it a retro-ish look but with a modern colorpalette.
Nice and detailed backgrounds, with cities, ruins and nature scenes to fly over and birds who are passing by sometimes gives it a really nice Isekai/Adventure Vibe.
The more vibrant color palette for the bullets makes it, that you are always aware of what kills you.
So, gameplay- and contentwise I can highly recommend the game to everyone; beginners and experts alike.
The only thing I would love to see are more Options (or an optionsmenu in general) and most of all; a fullscreen mode(!!!), since as of now, it is only playable in a tiny window.
Also a tate mode, additional to the fullscreen would be nice, but not nessessary.

Well, there it is; my first review here.
After I´ve already played the original trial version of "Elegant Impermanence of Sakura", I was realy hyped for this Final Release.
And I was not disapointed in it.
EIoS pulls all the right strings to enhance or rather define the original touhou experience.
Especially in the art departement this one is an eye-catcher.
In terms of gameplay mechanics it uses an easy to understand but hard to master item color system.
Elegant Impermanence of Sakura is also a prime example of how vital it is to understand these gameplay mechanics and how important it ist to utilize them to succeed.

The game itself provides a wide variety of challenges for all player groups.
The easy mode is, well; easy and is a fun entrypoint for newer players.
The normal mode was a little bit easier than usual BulletHell games (since this is the mode I like to play all my games to get the original intended experience) but it provided a number of challenges and nice Bullet Patterns.
From there on out it cranks up the difficulty curve with the hard and lunatic modes to provide more challenges for those who like to play in that style.
Finally the Extra stage provides a nice bonus to the game.

All in all this is a fun game, with nice arts/graphics and a challenge for beginners, experienced and pro players and I can highly recommend this one for everyone who loves Touhou- or Bullet Hell Games in general and also to everyone who want to take the step into the genre as well.

The only cons I had was the obvious thing that there is no english text, even in the menu.
So be aware of it, that you will skip through a lot of kanjis there.
And the major one was the issue I had with configuring my Controller (X-Box One).
The idea, to provide a controller-config set alongside with the game was a nice one, but it is nearly impossible to change these that easily.
Since I love to have my shoot button mapped to L1, my Slowmode mapped to A and the Bomb to X, to have everything at the palm of my hand to use it within milliseconds.
The premade controller config was not playable for me, but it order to change that you first need to get into the controller conficurations create a new set and change everything entirely, instead of just changing the buttons of the existing one.
This was a nice idea, but something that can be done better.