Everyone always brings up Mushihimesama, DoDonpachi, or Death Smiles while discussing CAVE games, entirely ignoring Espgaluda, which is a complete crime against humanity.

Here's the gimmick: You have two shooting styles: the primary one, which is just your usual, straightforward type, and the secondary one, which activates "slow mode." While in slow mode, enemy projectiles will become much slower, making it easier to avoid them, and your projectiles will deal significantly more damage. The catch is that in order to activate slow mode, you'll need to collect emeralds, which can only be acquired by destroying enemies with your primary shooting type. This forces you to use your primary shooting style most of the time, destroy as many enemies as you can, and get familiar with every stage, using slow mode only when necessary. In fact, abusing slow mode will lead to the exact opposite effect: enemy projectiles will get much, much faster, making them almost impossible to dodge. This mechanic has so much depth and allows for so much experimentation that it alone makes subsequent playthroughs worth it. I'm still discovering little tricks. 

On top of that, its action, coreography, and enemy projectiles are all so well crafted and thought out, so above much popular shmups that it makes me wonder... Why does this one not get the praise it deserves? 

The music is also fantastic. I'm not a big fan of techno but shit slaps.

Its a good game but the first 4 stages are way too easy considering what they put on stage 5, they eventually become a loading screen for you to have an attempt at the final boss and then tlb embryo thing and then tlb 2 and then tlb 2 second health bar, for this reason i don't think its a masterpiece or that amazing, its not an extremely hard game though it took me 6 hours to clear including practice (and you need practice for that final attack). Playing for score might be more enjoyable but i only played for survival.

You think this is an STG? Imbecile. You fool. This is a Tantalus Simulator.

The 1CC seems so doable. Your hitbox is genuinely miniscule. Following Cave's conventions, the bullet speeds and patterns are downright reasonable, at least compared to Raizing or Psikyo games. You even have an alt-fire mode that slows the bullets down more. 3 lives. A generous screen clear. It's so easy to convince yourself that this is the game, this is it. This is finally the Cave game that you 1CC.

Don't kid yourself. Whenever you bend down to drink the water at your feet, or reach above to the ripe fruit above your head which seems ever so close, Cave crushes you into the dirt in a way that feels embarrassingly fair.

Still prefer ESP Da. Re. though.

This game is the shit. This is probably my favorite Cave game atm, but I still need to put more time in DOJ/Try its sequel and Mushi Futari, but this game is just a blast to play. Kakusei mode is a genius addition and one that adds a lot of dynamic difficulty the player can adjust themselves. Using it only for tough patterns is good enough for beginners, but using strategically for scoring or even using Overdrive mode to get Ultra level speed is up to the player to decide. Very elegant way to create a difficulty mode.

Scoring feels awesome and it's probably my favorite of the Cave games, optimizations can be found everywhere but a single mistake doesn't cost you the whole run.

If there's something against it is that the game does feel a bit basic in places, especially with the character choices being very vanilla, but it is a damn good solid shmup with tons of ways to play it. I haven't gotten the chance to play its PS2 port but I heard it's marvelous and I know why that is. Check it out if you ever can.

God-tier.

Espgaluda finds Cave stripping away everything that made its former titles renowned (insane difficulty, strict and occasionally obtuse scoring mechanics, 2nd loops, TLBs) in search of pure fun. This is not to say that the game isn't difficult--it is, very much so! But the curve is a gloriously smooth ramp this time, instead of a series of impenetrable spike-walls; and, more importantly, the best mechanic in any shmup I've yet played is on offer: Kakusei mode. Or, in layman's terms, motherfucking bullet time.

Honestly, ever since I began playing these games, I fantasized about one that would let me slow bullets down at will--even just as a practice-mode mechanic, or something. Cave have done much more than that, though -- they've integrated manual bullet-time into the normal arcade version of a game, perfectly balancing it to not feel too much like a blatant crutch.

Essentially, killing enemies builds your Kakusei meter, up to a maximum of 500. It depletes quickly once activated, and is tied intimately to scoring -- for every enemy killed in Kakusei mode, valuable gold ingots are acquired. Additionally, each enemy killed in slow-mo depletes your meter by a large chunk; meaning there's a great risk/reward tightrope to be walked, between stashing Kakusei for survival, or spending it liberally to cash in on mega-points. (It should be noted that points can get you extends, AND the bullets shot by enemies killed in Kakusei mode are cancelled! So the choice for a survival-focused run is not at all black and white).

It's in the flexibility, and the split-second choices that evolve from this system that makes the game's fun so pure. Have trouble with a particular midboss? Make sure your meter is full when you reach it, and you can coast through in bullet-time. Is a cluster of bullets hurtling toward you, and you fear that you might not be able to dodge through even in slo-mo? Activate Kakusei and fry the enemy who shot them with your giant laser, and watch those bullets disappear.

I believe this is how the game gets its reputation for being one of Cave's "easier" offerings--its design is extremely player-friendly, and strategies for both survival and scoring can be developed organically. That being said, it still took me around 100 hours to 1CC, so be careful going into it thinking it's going to be a cake walk if you're a beginner or intermediate shmup player. The last boss--especially their final form--is a real asshole.

As far as presentation goes, the sprites are cool, and the backgrounds are very Cave-y in that they provide sufficient narrative context without getting in the way of the action at all. The music seems generic, sure, but it grew on me as I played: it's the kind of stuff you don't mind hearing over and over again if you're going to put the time and effort into clearing this, and it's suitably hype.

Espgaluda might be my favorite Cave game I've played so far. It is just infinitely satisfying to stop-start time as you're rushing through hails of bullets, wrecking steampunk airships and fairy-tale villain bosses with your psychic powers.

Just a cool fucking game.

Probably my favorite ever shmup, from back when I still played them religiously. That era will probably never come again for me, so I'm not sure what could ever topple this game in my personal ranking. Never got that 1CC but got all the way to the point where I could one-life all the way to the final boss where she starts filling literally the entire screen with the grid of bullets and then I'd lose all my lives at that point. So close!

Takes me back to 2003; college, too much weed, too many shmups and the beginning of my review career. Cursing my TV because it had rounded sides and couldn't be used for tate mode, and being jealous of my friend who had a little like editing monitor that was a perfect cube and could easily tate. I did sometimes tate mine anyway, while propping it up with things and playing a terrified round before I quickly flipped it back to normal. Feels a little bad to know that I will never love this genre as much again.

1CC All-Clear, Ageha, 23455360 Pts! Absolutely loved this game to bits, so rewarding and fun to learn. The other Cave shmups I've spent a lot of time with are Mushihimesama and DoDonPachi. Those games are excellent, but very stoic and restrained in terms of storytelling, so this one really surprised me with its extremely hype two part final stage plus three stage epic final boss fight. I didn't think Cave had that kind of storytelling gumption -- I'm extremely excited to dig into ESP Ra.De. down the line.

now that i’ve played my fair share of cave shmups i wanna say that the mechanics and philosophy of bullet hells have clicked with me but in all honesty they haven’t yet. although i can say i’m probably better than your average joe-shmoe gamer at these games. by the end of my run with espgaluda though, i think that something did click, even if it was pretty minor. while playing this one there were multiple instances of me entering this zone where it was like i had been under some sort of trance. for a few moments without thinking i could effortlessly weave in between the threads of bullets as they unraveled beneath the blanket of enemies on screen. the only other games where i can distinctly remember this happening to me are ketsui, mushihimesama, and battle traverse which are also my favorites in the genre. i play shmups on a very on-and-off basis so if one manages to pull me into The zone i say it’s a memorable one for sure. obviously that’s not my only criteria for gauging how much i like these games but it’s an important factor for me personally.
i also really enjoy espgaluda as this makeshift tribute to its cave predecessors; i noticed elements and tropes reminiscent of esp ra.de., dodonpachi, and the aforementioned titles (minus battle traverse). it’s a good collaboration and evolution of the pre-established formulas. the final boss in particular giving me ptsd from mushihimesama’s final boss lol. the ost also caught me by surprise with how unhinged it is, especially the arranged/remixed tracks.
i dont think ill ever become a so called “god” at bullet hells but i dont mind truthfully. i’m content knowing i beat this game in (probably) under a 15cc while having fun. playing espgaluda reminded me why i enjoy this genre so much.

Vertical shoot em up. Two characters with one shooting straightforward lasers and the others attacks having more of a spread. Attack button will fire a few shots, holding fire will slow you down but maintain a constant higher damage attack. The game has some cool features, "bombs" reduce a power meter with your character having an aura around them that grows as you drain the meter to charge an attack while also protecting you (so a quick tap of the bomb button will drain limited meter while possibly saving you from being hit). You can also build power for a mode that slows down enemies and their shots while also charging your attacks and changing your characters gender and outfit, it will also change destroyed enemies active bullets into gold but it will increase enemy attack speed if overused (though going into the overdrive mode is enough way of scoring in itself).

Fairly dull stage design and similar enemies in them.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1344603415226109953