With an aesthetic that's arguably distasteful at worst and barely twee at best, a narrative that is forgettable and burdened with a poor localization, and no interesting atmosphere or worldbuilding, Rabi-Rabi is carried by the sheer strength of its gameplay. The boss fights in this game are some of the most fun I've had in recent memory: the movement and combos all feel good to execute, and your move-set is constantly tested by an impressive variety of bullet-hells which create a dynamic state of play and force you to engage with all of the game's mechanics.
I understand that its impossible to talk about this game without addressing its uncomfortable aesthetic, but I found that it never really got any worse than what you see in the promotional art. It's very much a mechanically inclined game first, and I found myself forgetting that there was anything supposedly suggestive about it as soon as I became immersed in its gameplay. There is absolutely a much better game that could be made if you took this game's mechanics and did...something else with the rest of it, (I actually kind of like the cutesy bunny-girl aesthetic on paper, but there's no denying it could've been executed a lot better) but I really enjoyed what we got.
I understand that its impossible to talk about this game without addressing its uncomfortable aesthetic, but I found that it never really got any worse than what you see in the promotional art. It's very much a mechanically inclined game first, and I found myself forgetting that there was anything supposedly suggestive about it as soon as I became immersed in its gameplay. There is absolutely a much better game that could be made if you took this game's mechanics and did...something else with the rest of it, (I actually kind of like the cutesy bunny-girl aesthetic on paper, but there's no denying it could've been executed a lot better) but I really enjoyed what we got.
Started slow for me at first, but once I started to gain more upgrades and explore more and more it clicked with me super hard. Exploring and finding new passages and discovering items is satisfying and it always felt like I was discovering something new. The game as often noted is incredibly non-linear, it's more than willing to point you in the right direction when needed but you absolutely do not need to follow that and can make your own path. The level of sequence breaking potential this game has is nuts. Admittedly, some of the levels can be sorta sluggish to traverse and I think that just has to do with the enemies. Once you get the yellow orb, it's just holding down the shoot button and hitting them with that.
Still, this game was really addicting and I was a big, big fan of the bullet hell aspect, especially with the boss battles. They can be challenging even on normal difficulty, but I think for the most part they are fair and almost every attack they do seems dodgeable. Note though, I only played up to chapter 5 which is the conclusion of the main story so I am unsure of the difficulty past that chapter and the DLC. If you are unfamiliar with bullet hell games or not into them, this might be more difficult to get into but I think it's absolutely worth it. The combat itself is a blast, trying to pull off combos with the hammer in conjunction with your mana attack feels really good.
The artstyle for the portraits is a bit much and while I think the designs and art itself is nicely drawn, the sorta lowkey horny aspect of it can be a bit offputting. Spritework wise though the game looks fantastic and the music really nice. There isn't much to say about the cast, personally I did find the lot of them charming, especially Erina herself (shoutout to my poverty stricken cat friend Cocoa) but they can be one note. This isn't exactly the kinda game you'd play for the story, but for the exciting bullet hell bosses and the sprawling exploration. Great game
Still, this game was really addicting and I was a big, big fan of the bullet hell aspect, especially with the boss battles. They can be challenging even on normal difficulty, but I think for the most part they are fair and almost every attack they do seems dodgeable. Note though, I only played up to chapter 5 which is the conclusion of the main story so I am unsure of the difficulty past that chapter and the DLC. If you are unfamiliar with bullet hell games or not into them, this might be more difficult to get into but I think it's absolutely worth it. The combat itself is a blast, trying to pull off combos with the hammer in conjunction with your mana attack feels really good.
The artstyle for the portraits is a bit much and while I think the designs and art itself is nicely drawn, the sorta lowkey horny aspect of it can be a bit offputting. Spritework wise though the game looks fantastic and the music really nice. There isn't much to say about the cast, personally I did find the lot of them charming, especially Erina herself (shoutout to my poverty stricken cat friend Cocoa) but they can be one note. This isn't exactly the kinda game you'd play for the story, but for the exciting bullet hell bosses and the sprawling exploration. Great game
Hey it turns out the pervert weeb bullet hell metroidvania is actually pretty good, how about that?
I was a lot more impressed with the boss fights than anything else here really, the plot is a paper-thin excuse to throw loads of interchangeable anime girl designs at you, and the level design and regular enemies are just busywork to mow through to get to the next boss. I did appreciate the non-linearity, and the potential for sequence breaking on future playthroughs is ginormous, but there ultimately wasn't enough to this game to make me want to play past the credits.
I was a lot more impressed with the boss fights than anything else here really, the plot is a paper-thin excuse to throw loads of interchangeable anime girl designs at you, and the level design and regular enemies are just busywork to mow through to get to the next boss. I did appreciate the non-linearity, and the potential for sequence breaking on future playthroughs is ginormous, but there ultimately wasn't enough to this game to make me want to play past the credits.
WHY THE FUCK IS THIS GAME SO GOOD
É um metroidvania não linear mt bom em questão de gameplay e um conteúdo praticamente infinito (+30horas fácil) para um jogo barato e pouco conhecido. O charme desse jogo é as boss batlle q vem num estilo bullet hell e traz mts chefes diferentes e criativos, tendo o nivel de dificuldade bem balanceado de acordo com o quanto tu explora o mapa e acha item pra upar seus status (mas q tbm se tu for mt hardcore tem mt conteudo de dificuldade elevada) e outro ponto forte dele é a grande variadade de ataques, movimentos e build de gameplay, dando mt espaço pra se especializar. O grande ponto negativo nesse jogo é a história e enredo que é mt fraca (nivel sessao da tarde), apesar de ter um ou outro personagem 'legal'.
Demasiado yuri
(this is a repost of my Steam review for this game with some modifications. you can read the original review here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/huuishuu/recommended/400910/)
This is a game I played in Christmas of 2018. And I very quickly fell in love with it, putting in about 20 hours in a mere 2 days.
There's so many things I want to talk about with this game, but I'll start from the most fundamental part - the gameplay. It's just fantastic. It's a metroidvania platformer mixed with a bullethell game. And it's so good at being just a great game. The controls are super good - they are responsive, accurate and satisfying in every sense of the word. While at the start of the game you may be limited in terms of movement options, by the time you hit the late-game - you'll basically be going anywhere you want, whenever you want. It's that kind of gratifying feeling that makes exploration in a game like this really fun. Thanks to this, backtracking to previously completed stages never feels like a necessity or a drag because the game properly rewards you with new areas to explore alongside with new items to gain, new enemies to fight and even new characters to discover. It's never over until the game says it's over. And even then it's probably still not over.
On top of the solid controls, the combat is also very satisfying. While invincibility frames & slight knockback can be a minor annoyance, nothing in this game felt cheap. The game gives you a fair chance but also requires some degree of precision to dodge if you don't want to constantly lose health. Although this being heavily inspired by bullethell shooters, especially during boss battles, visibility can sometimes be a problem, as stuff tends to blend in with the background or with each other even and it may feel like you get hit by something you didn't see. But if you do pay attention while the boss is attacking then it's absolutely not a problem.
The story is a bit weird. Overall I did like it, but I didn't like the inconsistencies between the main game and the post game. I'm not gonna spoil anything here, but you may notice narrative inconsistencies from time to time. Besides that, the story doesn't try too hard to take itself seriously and that's for the better - you're a bunny girl running around with a fairy and a giant hammer. If this game tried to be ridiculously serious with its narrative then I'd find that pretty jarring for a game of this nature. Aside from that though, there were a few nitpicky quirks with the story, such as a couple of spelling mistakes that made themselves pretty obvious. While I never really outright laughed at this game's comedy, it never bored me and always kept me engaged, which is a good thing since that means it doesn't get very repetitive. Although some of the achievements in this game definitely are funny, I liked the sense of humor of the achievements, especially some of the references.
The soundtrack is just on another level for me. Well done by all the composers of the soundtrack, especially 3R2 with amazing tracks such as cyberspace.exe, Get On With It, Bounce Bounce and more. I also really liked songs like the Volcanic Caverns theme and Exotic Laboratory theme. But as stated - every song in the game is just incredible. It's rare for me to say that I didn't dislike any of the songs. I ended up buying the game's soundtrack for listening outside of the game.
Although one thing I will mention about the game that I feel is a bit of a negative is that the boss battles can feel a bit repetitive. Almost always you'll be placed in a wide open area with the boss you're fighting and it's really just a case of "dodge, attack, wait, repeat". Not a lot of the bosses in the game felt like they really challenged your skill otherwise. I do understand why they designed it like this - so speedrunning the game didn't feel like certain items were crucial in order to progress but because of that, the final result ended up with some repetitive boss battles. The best battle in the game was the main game's final boss because it was the closest thing in the game that ended up being even a little bit mechanically challenging for the player. A close second would be the boss battle in Natural Aquarium due to the higher jump that you get from being underwater, allowing for some flashy combos to be made.
There is still an entire OCEAN of content I haven't covered - badges, the item shop & how simple its integration is, new game+, speedrun mode, boss rush, etc. but that should be a testament to just how much stuff there is in the game. Overall it's a really solid metroidvania bullethell platformer. If you're at all on-the-fence about this game, just get it. It's absolutely worth it and I loved every second of it. In fact, I'll probably give this game repeat visits just to see how much stuff I missed.
This is a game I played in Christmas of 2018. And I very quickly fell in love with it, putting in about 20 hours in a mere 2 days.
There's so many things I want to talk about with this game, but I'll start from the most fundamental part - the gameplay. It's just fantastic. It's a metroidvania platformer mixed with a bullethell game. And it's so good at being just a great game. The controls are super good - they are responsive, accurate and satisfying in every sense of the word. While at the start of the game you may be limited in terms of movement options, by the time you hit the late-game - you'll basically be going anywhere you want, whenever you want. It's that kind of gratifying feeling that makes exploration in a game like this really fun. Thanks to this, backtracking to previously completed stages never feels like a necessity or a drag because the game properly rewards you with new areas to explore alongside with new items to gain, new enemies to fight and even new characters to discover. It's never over until the game says it's over. And even then it's probably still not over.
On top of the solid controls, the combat is also very satisfying. While invincibility frames & slight knockback can be a minor annoyance, nothing in this game felt cheap. The game gives you a fair chance but also requires some degree of precision to dodge if you don't want to constantly lose health. Although this being heavily inspired by bullethell shooters, especially during boss battles, visibility can sometimes be a problem, as stuff tends to blend in with the background or with each other even and it may feel like you get hit by something you didn't see. But if you do pay attention while the boss is attacking then it's absolutely not a problem.
The story is a bit weird. Overall I did like it, but I didn't like the inconsistencies between the main game and the post game. I'm not gonna spoil anything here, but you may notice narrative inconsistencies from time to time. Besides that, the story doesn't try too hard to take itself seriously and that's for the better - you're a bunny girl running around with a fairy and a giant hammer. If this game tried to be ridiculously serious with its narrative then I'd find that pretty jarring for a game of this nature. Aside from that though, there were a few nitpicky quirks with the story, such as a couple of spelling mistakes that made themselves pretty obvious. While I never really outright laughed at this game's comedy, it never bored me and always kept me engaged, which is a good thing since that means it doesn't get very repetitive. Although some of the achievements in this game definitely are funny, I liked the sense of humor of the achievements, especially some of the references.
The soundtrack is just on another level for me. Well done by all the composers of the soundtrack, especially 3R2 with amazing tracks such as cyberspace.exe, Get On With It, Bounce Bounce and more. I also really liked songs like the Volcanic Caverns theme and Exotic Laboratory theme. But as stated - every song in the game is just incredible. It's rare for me to say that I didn't dislike any of the songs. I ended up buying the game's soundtrack for listening outside of the game.
Although one thing I will mention about the game that I feel is a bit of a negative is that the boss battles can feel a bit repetitive. Almost always you'll be placed in a wide open area with the boss you're fighting and it's really just a case of "dodge, attack, wait, repeat". Not a lot of the bosses in the game felt like they really challenged your skill otherwise. I do understand why they designed it like this - so speedrunning the game didn't feel like certain items were crucial in order to progress but because of that, the final result ended up with some repetitive boss battles. The best battle in the game was the main game's final boss because it was the closest thing in the game that ended up being even a little bit mechanically challenging for the player. A close second would be the boss battle in Natural Aquarium due to the higher jump that you get from being underwater, allowing for some flashy combos to be made.
There is still an entire OCEAN of content I haven't covered - badges, the item shop & how simple its integration is, new game+, speedrun mode, boss rush, etc. but that should be a testament to just how much stuff there is in the game. Overall it's a really solid metroidvania bullethell platformer. If you're at all on-the-fence about this game, just get it. It's absolutely worth it and I loved every second of it. In fact, I'll probably give this game repeat visits just to see how much stuff I missed.
rabbit girl cute
this isnt a metroidvania. this is an open world 2d platformer
holy shit, i did not expect the fucking bunny cunny game to be genuinely fantastic. almost everything about this game is extremely well done and in depth enough to remain fun the entire time.
my only real gripes about the game is the bad indications of where... anything is really, and that boss attacks like to think that theyre more readable than they actually are.
i did NOT do the postgame, nor did i find every character. idk if i will do so, but i did buy the 2 content dlcs. most likely will do all the postgame shit after a break to play another game (ace attorney investigations 2).
holy shit, i did not expect the fucking bunny cunny game to be genuinely fantastic. almost everything about this game is extremely well done and in depth enough to remain fun the entire time.
my only real gripes about the game is the bad indications of where... anything is really, and that boss attacks like to think that theyre more readable than they actually are.
i did NOT do the postgame, nor did i find every character. idk if i will do so, but i did buy the 2 content dlcs. most likely will do all the postgame shit after a break to play another game (ace attorney investigations 2).
Um ótimo metroidvania que infelizmente tem um dos art styles mais animes possível
Pelo menos em gameplay o estilo fica mais fofo, sendo em pixel art
Tem uma ótima gameplay, tendo tanta coisa para fazer que é difícil acabar o jogo com quanto conteúdo tem
Boa OST
Não liguei para a história e personagens, recomendaria ligar o modo que skippa a história e foca só em gameplay
Pelo menos em gameplay o estilo fica mais fofo, sendo em pixel art
Tem uma ótima gameplay, tendo tanta coisa para fazer que é difícil acabar o jogo com quanto conteúdo tem
Boa OST
Não liguei para a história e personagens, recomendaria ligar o modo que skippa a história e foca só em gameplay
Uoooh seeeeggggggggs
Stupidly in-depth combat mechanics that flows like no other, tons of unique and interesting bosses, incredibly fun movement from beginning to end, rewarding exploration incentivized through useful collectibles galore, near infinite replayability due to the many different viable play styles and routes, some of the most fine-tuned and purposeful difficulty options of all time, glitches and exploits are embraced and encouraged by the game design allowing multifaceted approaches to the game’s systems, extensive optional modes and bonus content, QoL is through the roof with quick loads and item management, boss rush + speedrun modes are awesome, and it even has a solid OST.
Unparalleled. One of the best games ever made.
Unparalleled. One of the best games ever made.
Pretty great metroidvania here! Really fun to explore with some great bosses and good combat/movement. I love all of the characters (they are so cute and have all my love and affection) and how adorable everything is every conversation no matter how cheesy kinda warmed my heart. It's a real shame that the character designs are gonna stop a lot of people from playing, cause there's tons here to love. Logging now because the postgame is absolutely filtering me in terms of difficulty, bosses and some enemies in postgame areas go from moderately difficult to absolutely brutal after the main story. But from the main story, Rabi Ribi was an adorable, fun adventure!
It’s a shame that a game with this much potential is this game instead.
Metroidvania + Bullet Hell is an inherently good idea for a game. And even better than that, this is actually great execution on that idea. The map is large, non-linear and full of secrets. The boss battles are challenging but fun and rewarding. The soundtrack is also great.
Unfortunately, in between all the great stuff, the map is littered with uninteresting enemies and worst of all: cutscenes. The writing in this game is truly terrible. The overall plot ranges from nonsensical to purely bad, but the dialogue is consistently atrocious. On top of that, the character design is a a parade of adolescent girls and your reward for beating them in a fight is a full screen drawing of them slightly sexier than normal. Also, the final boss is devastatingly hard to the point where I was no longer having fun.
Overall, I can’t say if this was worth it for me. If the negatives don’t put you off, there is excellent gameplay to experience here.
Metroidvania + Bullet Hell is an inherently good idea for a game. And even better than that, this is actually great execution on that idea. The map is large, non-linear and full of secrets. The boss battles are challenging but fun and rewarding. The soundtrack is also great.
Unfortunately, in between all the great stuff, the map is littered with uninteresting enemies and worst of all: cutscenes. The writing in this game is truly terrible. The overall plot ranges from nonsensical to purely bad, but the dialogue is consistently atrocious. On top of that, the character design is a a parade of adolescent girls and your reward for beating them in a fight is a full screen drawing of them slightly sexier than normal. Also, the final boss is devastatingly hard to the point where I was no longer having fun.
Overall, I can’t say if this was worth it for me. If the negatives don’t put you off, there is excellent gameplay to experience here.
Hungry bread and butter hustle
You've been doing it a while, it is only fair
Words should be like station
Words that aren't required for your help
Quit hating on my new perspective
But hurrying along with meal is ever done
You could win a rabbit
You could have a rabbit or
With the fast child is gonna have a dead hand
We can get it strong again
But mine let meats (?) put on good habits
Been working and put on good habits
Sometimes I can't find my good habits
Oh, Spanish babies all the echoes
Heard she's getting better stay out of the train
Let you wipe your feet off
Eat it like it's gonna get away
Your coffee sure is getting colder
Your teeth are getting fewer spaces in the way
You could win a rabbit
You could build a rabbit with a rib
Wabbit or habit, habit or real
Wabbit or habit, habit or real
Rabbit or habit
You've been doing it a while, it is only fair
Words should be like station
Words that aren't required for your help
Quit hating on my new perspective
But hurrying along with meal is ever done
You could win a rabbit
You could have a rabbit or
With the fast child is gonna have a dead hand
We can get it strong again
But mine let meats (?) put on good habits
Been working and put on good habits
Sometimes I can't find my good habits
Oh, Spanish babies all the echoes
Heard she's getting better stay out of the train
Let you wipe your feet off
Eat it like it's gonna get away
Your coffee sure is getting colder
Your teeth are getting fewer spaces in the way
You could win a rabbit
You could build a rabbit with a rib
Wabbit or habit, habit or real
Wabbit or habit, habit or real
Rabbit or habit
setting the nonexistent story and characters aside, hopping across the lands as a bunny girl with a comically oversized hammer and smashing everything in your way is fun, but the main appeal is the boss battles, in which you are rewarded for optimizing your execution and combos. lots of items and thingos to collect which lend the gameplay a lot of variety and replayability. just uh ignore the skin tight costumes
Fantastic soundtrack here, that's my biggest takeaway after playing this. The game is a bullet hell metroidvania, and honestly to some people that's all you need to say to get them on board to play it. There are cute girls here too, which is a fun plus. You basically just search around the open world like any other metroidvanias and the bosses are all extravagant bullet hell spectacles. If you are into that kinda stuff, then this game will never disappoint. Otherwise you might find it a bit too difficult with all the stuff flying around. Worth a play tbh.
this game merges the two biggest desires of every thinking man: metroid and bunny girls
this game its a masterpiece. its amazingly fun to replay over and over and super hard too. the music is godlike, and erina its literally me.
it is the best metroidvania by a decent margin. the trees look like they were made in ms paint
A really, really fun Metroidvania that has quite a lot of bullet hell influence in it. Also the game is very cute.
biggest issue that the game has is the rather lewd art choices
the best game i could never recommend to someone i know in real life.
better than hollow knight
better than hollow knight
Rabi-Ribi is a game I like slightly more every time I play it without fail. It's inevitable that one day Rabi-Ribi will be my fave game of all time
I don't actually know it i trully finished the game, but it feels like i did...
um grande potencial estragado pela imbecilidade da historia, personagens e diálogos, eu queria muito continuar jogando mas infelizmente eu não aguentei.
Honestly, this game kind of took me by surprise. I wasn't sure just what I was expecting but this is an incredibly fun and lighthearted metroidvania style game. The big barrier to entry for some is probably going to be the bullet hell mechanics as each boss unloads waves and waves of magical bullets at you, sometimes to the point that they seem impossible to dodge.
But honestly, if you stick with it, you start to see how simple it is to just, dance around the bullets without taking a single hit. Not to say there weren't some moments you won't struggle with, but the game allows you some flexibility with the difficulty options and you never really feel overwhelmed by just how intense the battles can get.
On top of that, the music is incredible and the visuals, while perhaps not the best part of the game, are fun, bright and adorable to look at. Probably the weakest aspect is the story, but even that is fun in just how simple and lighthearted it is.
If you're looking for something to scratch your metroidvania itch, give this a try!
But honestly, if you stick with it, you start to see how simple it is to just, dance around the bullets without taking a single hit. Not to say there weren't some moments you won't struggle with, but the game allows you some flexibility with the difficulty options and you never really feel overwhelmed by just how intense the battles can get.
On top of that, the music is incredible and the visuals, while perhaps not the best part of the game, are fun, bright and adorable to look at. Probably the weakest aspect is the story, but even that is fun in just how simple and lighthearted it is.
If you're looking for something to scratch your metroidvania itch, give this a try!
This is actually a really solid metroidvania game. Pretty good map design, with some great combat and excellent music. The boss fights are also really cool and well made, especially for being bullet hell fights. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay. I think some of the areas were a little bit too annoying to traverse, and I had to do that multiple times, but it wasn't too bad overall. The pixel art was pretty great as well.
However, the high-res art in this game was very clearly uh... full of stuff to feed some peoples' fetishes, which I didn't really appreciate too much. It's not 18+ or anything, and it's all well drawn, but it's still something to keep in mind if you wanna play the game. The writing is also not all that great either, but I just kinda ignored it because the gameplay was good.
I have a hard time recommending this game, but it's a solid metroidvania game if you're okay with the things mentioned earlier.
However, the high-res art in this game was very clearly uh... full of stuff to feed some peoples' fetishes, which I didn't really appreciate too much. It's not 18+ or anything, and it's all well drawn, but it's still something to keep in mind if you wanna play the game. The writing is also not all that great either, but I just kinda ignored it because the gameplay was good.
I have a hard time recommending this game, but it's a solid metroidvania game if you're okay with the things mentioned earlier.
I get the impression that most people scoff at this game because all the characters are cute moeblobs drawn by artists who appreciate the anatomy of the female body a liiiiittle too much, and the writing is so pumped full of tropes that it would probably make some puritans gag. I kinda threw my dignity in the trash half a decade ago though, and I'm here to tell you that this game is completely worth it.
Rabi-Ribi's a game about Metroidvania exploration broken up by absolutely raw bullet hell boss fights. You'll find a variety of items hidden about the overworld, including new powerups and moves, and badges that modify your abilities in various ways. While you can collect more moves, the game also has a decent amount of hidden tech that's useful for combat and exploration. You can sequence break the hell out of this game if you understand its mechanics. And on the topic of combat, the bosses in this game are fucking insane. Every single one of them has their own unique bullet patterns to dodge, usually matching the boss's own appearance and demeanor.
Rabi-Ribi looks excellent. Regardless of what you think about its art, the quality of it is really good. The pixel art that surrounds the game is great as well. The soundtrack is all memorable, even having some more atmospheric tracks for exploring certain areas. Music during boss fights is upbeat, electronic, and frantic, perfectly matching the image of dodging absolutely insane bullet patterns.
The writing is definitely going to be a deal-breaker for some people. If you're looking for a logical story, look elsewhere. The game plays most of its tropes up for laughs, and most of it got genuine laughter out of me. Not all of it though. Even I have my cringe limits.
Listen, it's really easy to judge a book by its cover, and this cover is...particularly horny. But I promise you, there's an extremely good game for bullet hell and metroidvania fans alike in here. If you skipped this game solely due to the character art, I implore you to give it an honest shot.
Rabi-Ribi's a game about Metroidvania exploration broken up by absolutely raw bullet hell boss fights. You'll find a variety of items hidden about the overworld, including new powerups and moves, and badges that modify your abilities in various ways. While you can collect more moves, the game also has a decent amount of hidden tech that's useful for combat and exploration. You can sequence break the hell out of this game if you understand its mechanics. And on the topic of combat, the bosses in this game are fucking insane. Every single one of them has their own unique bullet patterns to dodge, usually matching the boss's own appearance and demeanor.
Rabi-Ribi looks excellent. Regardless of what you think about its art, the quality of it is really good. The pixel art that surrounds the game is great as well. The soundtrack is all memorable, even having some more atmospheric tracks for exploring certain areas. Music during boss fights is upbeat, electronic, and frantic, perfectly matching the image of dodging absolutely insane bullet patterns.
The writing is definitely going to be a deal-breaker for some people. If you're looking for a logical story, look elsewhere. The game plays most of its tropes up for laughs, and most of it got genuine laughter out of me. Not all of it though. Even I have my cringe limits.
Listen, it's really easy to judge a book by its cover, and this cover is...particularly horny. But I promise you, there's an extremely good game for bullet hell and metroidvania fans alike in here. If you skipped this game solely due to the character art, I implore you to give it an honest shot.
This was recommended to me by a friend on hearing that I was interested in dipping my toes into the waters of Metroidvanias - a genre that always seemed like something I would enjoy but I never got around to trying.
First things first: like many people, the character designs nearly put me off trying the game entirely. If I'm being charitable, I could say that the game is trying to poke fun at stereotypical anime girl designs as well as people who go crazy for them (you even spend an entire section of the game beating up weebs who are trying to take pictures of you), but it doesn't lean into the satire heavily enough to be convincing. Another thing that nearly filtered me was its clunky translation and clumsy storytelling, which caused both the mystery elements of the story as well as the potentially heartwarming plot elements to fall flat.
Underneath all of that, though, is a package with enough fun to keep me playing all the way through to the end of the postgame. I had mixed feelings on the exploration elements; it was quite fun unlocking new areas and discovering hidden items, but some of the level designs tend to loop within themselves, 'rewarding' exploration with lots of backtracking. In addition, many of the differences between locations are purely cosmetic, leading to a bit of 'sameyness' and making exploration feel like a chore at times. The character progression is stronger though, with the steady drip-drip-drip of finding new abilities and powering up existing ones not only being a great source of dopamine but being a great way to gradually expand the player's moveset without overwhelming them with too much information at the beginning.
One only need to look at some of my other reviews to know that I can sometimes bounce off difficult games, but the boss fights are the strongest part of this game for me; they are examples of difficulty done very right. The waves upon waves of projectiles that you face are absolutely brutal, but they're mitigated by the tools you have at your disposal: crisp and responsive controls, a versatile moveset, a very small hitbox, as well as other anti-frustration features like autosaves and the ability to change the difficulty whenever you want. (I started on the easiest difficulty, turned it up once I got a bit more used to the mechanics, and I'm not ashamed to admit I dialled it all the way down to 'casual' for the postgame final boss who kicked my tail more times than I can count)
I started on this game thinking it would be the first of many Metroidvanias - but I had enough fun that it might also be a gateway into the world of shmups for me. In the end, it earns a high score because it takes a special kind of game to absolutely slaughter me, but have my thought at the end be "yeah, I'll definitely come back to this again later!" I'll definitely revisit this, perhaps on a higher difficulty level, but in the meantime I'm off to play more Metroidvanias and shmups. Hopefully those will be less awkward to play in front of my wife.
First things first: like many people, the character designs nearly put me off trying the game entirely. If I'm being charitable, I could say that the game is trying to poke fun at stereotypical anime girl designs as well as people who go crazy for them (you even spend an entire section of the game beating up weebs who are trying to take pictures of you), but it doesn't lean into the satire heavily enough to be convincing. Another thing that nearly filtered me was its clunky translation and clumsy storytelling, which caused both the mystery elements of the story as well as the potentially heartwarming plot elements to fall flat.
Underneath all of that, though, is a package with enough fun to keep me playing all the way through to the end of the postgame. I had mixed feelings on the exploration elements; it was quite fun unlocking new areas and discovering hidden items, but some of the level designs tend to loop within themselves, 'rewarding' exploration with lots of backtracking. In addition, many of the differences between locations are purely cosmetic, leading to a bit of 'sameyness' and making exploration feel like a chore at times. The character progression is stronger though, with the steady drip-drip-drip of finding new abilities and powering up existing ones not only being a great source of dopamine but being a great way to gradually expand the player's moveset without overwhelming them with too much information at the beginning.
One only need to look at some of my other reviews to know that I can sometimes bounce off difficult games, but the boss fights are the strongest part of this game for me; they are examples of difficulty done very right. The waves upon waves of projectiles that you face are absolutely brutal, but they're mitigated by the tools you have at your disposal: crisp and responsive controls, a versatile moveset, a very small hitbox, as well as other anti-frustration features like autosaves and the ability to change the difficulty whenever you want. (I started on the easiest difficulty, turned it up once I got a bit more used to the mechanics, and I'm not ashamed to admit I dialled it all the way down to 'casual' for the postgame final boss who kicked my tail more times than I can count)
I started on this game thinking it would be the first of many Metroidvanias - but I had enough fun that it might also be a gateway into the world of shmups for me. In the end, it earns a high score because it takes a special kind of game to absolutely slaughter me, but have my thought at the end be "yeah, I'll definitely come back to this again later!" I'll definitely revisit this, perhaps on a higher difficulty level, but in the meantime I'm off to play more Metroidvanias and shmups. Hopefully those will be less awkward to play in front of my wife.