Watching Sol Cresta's pre-release has felt like watching a car crash in slow motion. From it's bizzare pseudo announcement on April Fools day 2020 to actually confirming it's a thing to now, the road has been rocky and it's seemed so, so much, like this was going to crash and burn. From "oh god why does it look like that", to "why is nothing happening, and where are the bullets" to "Why the fuck is it $50 no one will buy that" - the decisions have been continuously baffling.
And, as predicted, the end result is messy, buggy, looks so weirdly terrible it almost warps back round to being cool, its too expensive whilst feeling like it was made for a lower budget than most of the good indie shmups. But, well, i'm here. I put my £38 into steam with the intention of refunding it but I ended up well overshooting the refund time - because I was having a really good time.
It's really fortunate that the game's core gimmick, the docking - where you arrange your 3 craft in different formations and order - is great. It's basically straight up taken from wonderful 101's line drawing, and weaving between bullets whilst making patterns, trying to pull out the optimal formation in tight spaces and moments - it works really well. It injects the peak flow state that clover studio and platinum's very best games have into a shooting game. And whilst there's a bit of hellsinker here and a bit of radiant silvergun there, but it does really end up feeling unique, and filling a niche i didn't know I wanted. Its helped by good boss design and - after the first stage - stage designs that keep you on your toes constantly.
It also helps that the game is very likeable in other ways. The Cresta series is something that even hardcore shmuppers mostly had to google, starting with the ancient moon cresta in frickin 1980. But there's a very cute degree of reverance the game has for the series that even as an outsider is nice. Between it's cameos, the dramatic mode, some legitimately amusing fakeouts with bosses, it's generally very pleasant. The neo-nostalgia here is dealt with very well, and im sure the 4 ride or die Cresta fans are ecstatic right now.
That extends to the Dramatic mode, which, ignoring the insane decision to be $10 dlc, is quite good. Its a very kitsch 80s tropey anime sort of thing in terms of story, but works as a bizzarely good way of giving context to the events of the arcade mode without any baggage. You play the dramatic mode once and then you know, pretty much. It's asinine that it's not in the base product though.
In terms of real issues, it's mostly technical. The game looks bad - it's made in unity with 3d models and some bizzare shader applied to try and make it look like 2d renders or sprite work interchangably. Ew. It's also absurdly buggy. In my time playing alone i've encounters bugs where you cant move, visual effects breaking - and other players have already found consistent invincibility glitches, softlocks, crashes, you name it. On a gameplay level, the deepest flaw is probably that it's a game with probably quite low a skill ceiling. The docking system is good, but clearly doesnt have the depth of plat's best action games and it probably leans a bit too hard on the stage memorisation side of things, which will probably mean this will never be anyone's "main" shmup. It just doesn't seem like the sort of game those superplayers will put literal days into runs for.
Before i forget, Special mention has to go to Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack. It's both great in it's original pieces (Saturn, Mercury and Sol's themes are fantastic) but also in taking motifs from the original games, most notably the original Terra Cresta theme. I'm not good at music criticism so i'll just say, yeah - it's good.
Ultimately, I like the game. A fair bit actually - but I have to admit that trying to earnestly reccomend it at time of writing comes with too many asterixes for me to bother, which i hope i've gotten through in these thoughts. It's also a shmup, and shmups often need a while to be out there for an actually good take to emerge, so take this whole day 2 ramble with a good pinch of salt.
But despite everything, I like it. It's platinum's best game since Automata, and it's a good, unique shooter. I'm happy with that.
And, as predicted, the end result is messy, buggy, looks so weirdly terrible it almost warps back round to being cool, its too expensive whilst feeling like it was made for a lower budget than most of the good indie shmups. But, well, i'm here. I put my £38 into steam with the intention of refunding it but I ended up well overshooting the refund time - because I was having a really good time.
It's really fortunate that the game's core gimmick, the docking - where you arrange your 3 craft in different formations and order - is great. It's basically straight up taken from wonderful 101's line drawing, and weaving between bullets whilst making patterns, trying to pull out the optimal formation in tight spaces and moments - it works really well. It injects the peak flow state that clover studio and platinum's very best games have into a shooting game. And whilst there's a bit of hellsinker here and a bit of radiant silvergun there, but it does really end up feeling unique, and filling a niche i didn't know I wanted. Its helped by good boss design and - after the first stage - stage designs that keep you on your toes constantly.
It also helps that the game is very likeable in other ways. The Cresta series is something that even hardcore shmuppers mostly had to google, starting with the ancient moon cresta in frickin 1980. But there's a very cute degree of reverance the game has for the series that even as an outsider is nice. Between it's cameos, the dramatic mode, some legitimately amusing fakeouts with bosses, it's generally very pleasant. The neo-nostalgia here is dealt with very well, and im sure the 4 ride or die Cresta fans are ecstatic right now.
That extends to the Dramatic mode, which, ignoring the insane decision to be $10 dlc, is quite good. Its a very kitsch 80s tropey anime sort of thing in terms of story, but works as a bizzarely good way of giving context to the events of the arcade mode without any baggage. You play the dramatic mode once and then you know, pretty much. It's asinine that it's not in the base product though.
In terms of real issues, it's mostly technical. The game looks bad - it's made in unity with 3d models and some bizzare shader applied to try and make it look like 2d renders or sprite work interchangably. Ew. It's also absurdly buggy. In my time playing alone i've encounters bugs where you cant move, visual effects breaking - and other players have already found consistent invincibility glitches, softlocks, crashes, you name it. On a gameplay level, the deepest flaw is probably that it's a game with probably quite low a skill ceiling. The docking system is good, but clearly doesnt have the depth of plat's best action games and it probably leans a bit too hard on the stage memorisation side of things, which will probably mean this will never be anyone's "main" shmup. It just doesn't seem like the sort of game those superplayers will put literal days into runs for.
Before i forget, Special mention has to go to Yuzo Koshiro's soundtrack. It's both great in it's original pieces (Saturn, Mercury and Sol's themes are fantastic) but also in taking motifs from the original games, most notably the original Terra Cresta theme. I'm not good at music criticism so i'll just say, yeah - it's good.
Ultimately, I like the game. A fair bit actually - but I have to admit that trying to earnestly reccomend it at time of writing comes with too many asterixes for me to bother, which i hope i've gotten through in these thoughts. It's also a shmup, and shmups often need a while to be out there for an actually good take to emerge, so take this whole day 2 ramble with a good pinch of salt.
But despite everything, I like it. It's platinum's best game since Automata, and it's a good, unique shooter. I'm happy with that.
3 Comments
@Hylian, i dont really like Astral Chain's style or really its combat gimmicks personally. Bear in mind im much more of a shmup enjoyer so im inevitably more inclined towards Cresta.
Makes sense!
Hylianhero777
2 years ago