I also came from the youtube video mentioned in other reviews & I found the game really enjoyable. The gameplay, humor, and art are excellent. I look forward to seeing what else you produce :)
I am insanely amazed by the quality of this, it's way above all the other itch games I played this year. This is so good I do view it as one of my favourite Games I played in 2023 in general.
At first I was only fell in love with the extremely unique Bullet-Hell mechanic, the Artstyle and Humor.
But with the later parts of the game the got a lot more interesting. The freaking boss gimmicks all start becoming some of the most unique stuff imaginable. Which added on top of the unique Playstyle makes this some of the most varied 6 hours I spend on a game. There's games of 60 hours playtime that don't have this amount of variance in them (of course not the only metric of a games quality but I just wanna point that out as a reason why I love this so much).
Now towards some actual Analysis of my thoughts on this game:
As I said the Bosses are insanely varied, if I recall correctly every single one has its own Gimmick. And to top that off I wouldn't call these hard Gimmicks but rather soft gimmicks. What I mean by that is that they exist to give a boss a unique identity but don't distract from the main Gameplay by creating their own goals. Some examples would be Fromsoftware who usually make very very soft Gimmicks, barely noticeable as Gimmicks but still enough to give each Boss its own identity and the Zelda series which usually has Hard Gimmicks to act as a challenge to the Dungeon item the Player learned.
These aren't quite as soft as the ones Fromsoftware (usually) does but I think they aren't as hard as to change the Gameplay-Loop of the Boss in a significant enough way to say the Gameplay changed. And I just really like that, it helps highlight the strength of the unique Gameplay Mechanic in so many different ways.
I actually wanted to say that I think the Gameplay mechanic does end up being a bit too much "just suck lots of the same stuff and 1-hit". And while I do think that Aspect could use some improvements, the Game does end up with a few harder fights that do manage to make this Aspect more interesting. (and I can't think of any ways to improve this in general, partly because it's been a while since I played the game.)
My favourite boss was probably HECC. I love her mechanic as it makes you quite involved with the right side of the screen so that you can control her versions. It just creates a really cool interplay of not just the Stuff you SUCC but also using the Stuff you sucked to switch to the right HECC-Mode which changes what you can SUCC. I really would have to play the Boss a bit more to fully explain why this entire thing works so well.
Something I was a tad bit sad to see was how there weren't any beautifull Danmaku Patterns, as that really is a Staple of the Series (next to the funny Girls). The Game does have unique patterns in the latter half in terms of Gameplay Mechanic but they just aren't beautifull.
Anyways lets talk sbout the funny Girls. I like wacky interpretations of the characters. I do think that's not even too inaccurate to Touhou because of how Wacky and Humerous the offical Games, Manga and other Stuffs ZUN makes already are (HECC, the thing that got closest to finishing off Reimu was Food poisoning).
I just love the funny Girls.
Also a minor complaint: Screen-Size 3 is kind of annoying because it isn't actual full-screen, and especially annoying because the places you have to click the blocks aren't the right places.
Anyways to not leave this off on such a minor complaint:
Generally, I love this game and it's definitely one of my favourite games of 2023. I will pay about 10€ for that when I finish listing my other 10 favourite Itch games of 2023 and my 2023 review Blog (not gonna finish 'em now, it's 2 in the morning). (I noticed this game doesn't have the choose price option, is there any reason for that? Another game you uploaded does take money so I will probably just give the bucks via that one)
Took me 9 hour to complete, I thought it was like a 5 minute game considering another entires on the jams.
It was quite fun and enjoyable, controls are wrong, it could be a lot more comfortable to have right click to absorb and space bar to stop time.
As always, beautiful art, people quite enjoyed it on stream, and I did so.
I loved the variety of mechanics proposed, some of them were quite unique, but the major bother is that I always had to set up a screen full of one only danmaku in order to create more damage, it could be nice to have a multiplier over multiple combos to make things more interesting, since the method used takes a lot lot lot of time.
That was a fun experience. I like, how each boss fight has its own unique gimmick, this way the game never gets stale or boring! And I like game's humor too, swearing aside.
after beating the game, i can definitely say that most bosses are cheesable with one shot by simply getting a full board of the same bullet type, in some cases that skips all the phases
I must be missing something with Reisen's mechanics, because I practically could not get past her with how slow it is to build up damage against her. Didn't have any problems with any prior boss, optional or otherwise.
The red/transparent bullets she fires don't do any damage. Sucking up many bullets of the same shape without getting the fake ones will make the fight easier.
Quite simple/easy bullet hell puzzle game to the point where I used zero upgrades but very enjoyable. I love the arts style and the dialogue in general, extremely solid game. (Also I like how when Yuuma talks to Reimu she turns into a full on cartoon character)
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This and Touhou Odyssey have been my favorite games of 2024! <3
very cool game with funny girls rate 5/5 star
I also came from the youtube video mentioned in other reviews & I found the game really enjoyable. The gameplay, humor, and art are excellent. I look forward to seeing what else you produce :)
Also came from pKBff6cTSAo. That was really fun. Loved the art style and mixing up of the core gameplay through different battles ready for the end.
Came from: youtu.be/pKBff6cTSAo
If you want more tags, try looking at https://itch.io/games/tag-match-3 or https://itch.io/games/tag-bejeweled
I guess? Have fun on the internet!
Game is unplayable as there is no fullscreen mode, and the largest screen size doesn’t place properly, leading to the top of the screen being cut off.
None of the usual GameMaker 2 keybindings for fullscreen do anything, either.
EDIT: Here’s the in-battle display:
CONGRATS FOR TOPPING MY LIST OF FAVOURITE ITCH GAMES IN 2023 (other ones in this post)
I am insanely amazed by the quality of this, it's way above all the other itch games I played this year. This is so good I do view it as one of my favourite Games I played in 2023 in general.
At first I was only fell in love with the extremely unique Bullet-Hell mechanic, the Artstyle and Humor.
But with the later parts of the game the got a lot more interesting. The freaking boss gimmicks all start becoming some of the most unique stuff imaginable. Which added on top of the unique Playstyle makes this some of the most varied 6 hours I spend on a game.
There's games of 60 hours playtime that don't have this amount of variance in them (of course not the only metric of a games quality but I just wanna point that out as a reason why I love this so much).
Now towards some actual Analysis of my thoughts on this game:
As I said the Bosses are insanely varied, if I recall correctly every single one has its own Gimmick. And to top that off I wouldn't call these hard Gimmicks but rather soft gimmicks. What I mean by that is that they exist to give a boss a unique identity but don't distract from the main Gameplay by creating their own goals.
Some examples would be Fromsoftware who usually make very very soft Gimmicks, barely noticeable as Gimmicks but still enough to give each Boss its own identity and the Zelda series which usually has Hard Gimmicks to act as a challenge to the Dungeon item the Player learned.
These aren't quite as soft as the ones Fromsoftware (usually) does but I think they aren't as hard as to change the Gameplay-Loop of the Boss in a significant enough way to say the Gameplay changed.
And I just really like that, it helps highlight the strength of the unique Gameplay Mechanic in so many different ways.
I actually wanted to say that I think the Gameplay mechanic does end up being a bit too much "just suck lots of the same stuff and 1-hit". And while I do think that Aspect could use some improvements, the Game does end up with a few harder fights that do manage to make this Aspect more interesting. (and I can't think of any ways to improve this in general, partly because it's been a while since I played the game.)
My favourite boss was probably HECC. I love her mechanic as it makes you quite involved with the right side of the screen so that you can control her versions. It just creates a really cool interplay of not just the Stuff you SUCC but also using the Stuff you sucked to switch to the right HECC-Mode which changes what you can SUCC. I really would have to play the Boss a bit more to fully explain why this entire thing works so well.
Something I was a tad bit sad to see was how there weren't any beautifull Danmaku Patterns, as that really is a Staple of the Series (next to the funny Girls). The Game does have unique patterns in the latter half in terms of Gameplay Mechanic but they just aren't beautifull.
Anyways lets talk sbout the funny Girls. I like wacky interpretations of the characters. I do think that's not even too inaccurate to Touhou because of how Wacky and Humerous the offical Games, Manga and other Stuffs ZUN makes already are (HECC, the thing that got closest to finishing off Reimu was Food poisoning).
I just love the funny Girls.
Also a minor complaint: Screen-Size 3 is kind of annoying because it isn't actual full-screen, and especially annoying because the places you have to click the blocks aren't the right places.
Anyways to not leave this off on such a minor complaint:
Generally, I love this game and it's definitely one of my favourite games of 2023. I will pay about 10€ for that when I finish listing my other 10 favourite Itch games of 2023 and my 2023 review Blog (not gonna finish 'em now, it's 2 in the morning).
(I noticed this game doesn't have the choose price option, is there any reason for that? Another game you uploaded does take money so I will probably just give the bucks via that one)
did i just get scary maze game'd
Took me 9 hour to complete, I thought it was like a 5 minute game considering another entires on the jams.
It was quite fun and enjoyable, controls are wrong, it could be a lot more comfortable to have right click to absorb and space bar to stop time.
As always, beautiful art, people quite enjoyed it on stream, and I did so.
I loved the variety of mechanics proposed, some of them were quite unique, but the major bother is that I always had to set up a screen full of one only danmaku in order to create more damage, it could be nice to have a multiplier over multiple combos to make things more interesting, since the method used takes a lot lot lot of time.
Please keep making awesome games.
a cool game
Super loved this game, albeit sanae's snakes weren't my favorite boss mechanic
Please, can you make it so you can use the arrows in the options?
That was a fun experience. I like, how each boss fight has its own unique gimmick, this way the game never gets stale or boring! And I like game's humor too, swearing aside.
Yuuka does, in fact, suck!
had a very SUCK⭐ time, 6/5 comically large spoons
TEN OUTTA TEN, ZE!
after beating the game, i can definitely say that most bosses are cheesable with one shot by simply getting a full board of the same bullet type, in some cases that skips all the phases
other than that, its a great game for sure
i dont understand how you fight hecatia, and im trying to 100% the game. can someone explain it to me
I've written a quick guide on how to beat Hecatia, if you still need it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gyVV769RYbXeJdJOVpmk-9_7Edrxu780FvGQZ2Kcnos/...
thank you! also the game's good, definitely would reccomend
This was a crazy fun game, both as an STG and as a Touhou fan game!
Thank you!!
I would love to play more STGs with this system.
I must be missing something with Reisen's mechanics, because I practically could not get past her with how slow it is to build up damage against her. Didn't have any problems with any prior boss, optional or otherwise.
The red/transparent bullets she fires don't do any damage. Sucking up many bullets of the same shape without getting the fake ones will make the fight easier.
Quite simple/easy bullet hell puzzle game to the point where I used zero upgrades but very enjoyable. I love the arts style and the dialogue in general, extremely solid game. (Also I like how when Yuuma talks to Reimu she turns into a full on cartoon character)