The push to get others to play ZeroRanger instills in me a certain malaise, specifically because it comes with the caveat of 'avoiding spoilers.' That insistence on going in completely blind affects expectations more than those recommending it might know. If you are interested in ZeroRanger, my advice would be to go for it with a few things in mind. I put these forth after the following paragraph to avoid marking the whole review as a spoiler, and to place those light spoilers below the break.
The sentiment that ZeroRanger is one of the best STGs in recent history has rattled around my head since its release. Claims of a work's greatness already make me wary, but for such praise to get tossed around from genre fans and dissenters alike made me all the more apprehensive. An insistence on 'not spoiling' ZeroRanger served as a final nail in the coffin for me in the wake of games like Undertale and OneShot. I was content to ignore ZeroRanger and play conventional STGs like Crimzon Clover and Deathsmiles. Around a year ago when I dove deeper into shmups, ZeroRanger became something I certainly wanted to try if only to see what the hubbub was really about. I played it a bit, couldn't get past Stage 3, and put it down. Credit feeding is a practice I try to avoid despite its use in honing ones skill, and this was no different. What I failed to pick up on by not ever using even a single continue is that ZeroRanger explicitly wanted me to use my continues to my advantage. It went back to the bottom of my shmups to beat list and the still present praise for it befuddled me all the more.
Light Spoilers
1. You need to use your continues. All of them.
2. The game is absurdly long for a shmup. Any time you think you're at the end, you are not.
3. You can use the stage select with no penalty outside of score.
4. Getting hit is fine, the game is incredibly generous with extends, especially if your lives are low.
5. There are some fights that feel impossible. There are tricks to beating them you can find if you experiment a little.
Light Spoilers End
The drive to improve without using continues persisted due to the oppressive difficulty of the game while I found my footing. Quirks of its design were unknown to me because I wasn't getting far enough to see how its systems actually worked. Those 'aha!' moments finally came when I shook things up and tried Type-C's rearshot on Stage 2's miniboss and it melted. From that point I knew I wanted to see this through to the end.
ZeroRanger is awash with hills and valleys in difficulty oscillating constantly and consistently. This leads to periods of rest which are greatly welcomed in a game whose full runs take over an hour to complete. When progressing this meant I was being built up and torn down repeatedly, thinking I had finally become 'good' only to get punished for my hubris. Nonetheless, as the game was never an unceasing climb in its difficulty, my progress did not wear at me like typicaly STGs such as Espgaluda had. The improvements in my play were palpable and my failures pushed me to do better next time. By no means was that experience unique to ZeroRanger, far from it, but it was more apparent here than in any other shmup I had played. It only became grating near the very end of my time when I had seen the start of the end of the game but hadn't realised I could freely use the stage select without remorse.
What I appreciate most about ZeroRanger is that it rendered concrete for me how I can and do improve at shmups (and games in general). By overcoming that inital hurdle of actually using continues and fighting back even harder after getting damaged, it clicked for me that I had been missing something in STGs this entire time by eschewing growth in favour of perfection. There's a pain point in that ZeroRanger's systems are far more forgiving of mistakes than, say, a CAVE STG but the lesson has been learned nonetheless. That desire for a 1CC will never leave me, and I plan on getting on in ZeroRanger, but my path towards that goal should be more constructive from now on.
Purely as a shmup, I think ZeroRanger leaves a little to be desired but I can't quite say why. As a stepping stone towards more healthful practices of playing and approaching games, it's one of the best.
Some errant thoughts:
The palette is the most striking thing about ZeroRanger, but I actually consider it a detriment in some ways. The visual contrast of the Colorblind Mode was much more legible for me and I'm not colourblind. The palettes unlocked after beating the game were infuriatingly helpful. That such beneficial colour schemes are kept from the player until they've finished the game is mindboggling. The Gray/Orange palette could at the very least be offered before beating ZeroRanger.
I'm thankful that the challenges and extras are nonexistent before getting the all clear as I am certain I would have obsessed over them above actually completing the game first.
The singular focus on movement at the end of the game is wondrous but it could have done with some more interesting patterns.
The sentiment that ZeroRanger is one of the best STGs in recent history has rattled around my head since its release. Claims of a work's greatness already make me wary, but for such praise to get tossed around from genre fans and dissenters alike made me all the more apprehensive. An insistence on 'not spoiling' ZeroRanger served as a final nail in the coffin for me in the wake of games like Undertale and OneShot. I was content to ignore ZeroRanger and play conventional STGs like Crimzon Clover and Deathsmiles. Around a year ago when I dove deeper into shmups, ZeroRanger became something I certainly wanted to try if only to see what the hubbub was really about. I played it a bit, couldn't get past Stage 3, and put it down. Credit feeding is a practice I try to avoid despite its use in honing ones skill, and this was no different. What I failed to pick up on by not ever using even a single continue is that ZeroRanger explicitly wanted me to use my continues to my advantage. It went back to the bottom of my shmups to beat list and the still present praise for it befuddled me all the more.
Light Spoilers
1. You need to use your continues. All of them.
2. The game is absurdly long for a shmup. Any time you think you're at the end, you are not.
3. You can use the stage select with no penalty outside of score.
4. Getting hit is fine, the game is incredibly generous with extends, especially if your lives are low.
5. There are some fights that feel impossible. There are tricks to beating them you can find if you experiment a little.
Light Spoilers End
The drive to improve without using continues persisted due to the oppressive difficulty of the game while I found my footing. Quirks of its design were unknown to me because I wasn't getting far enough to see how its systems actually worked. Those 'aha!' moments finally came when I shook things up and tried Type-C's rearshot on Stage 2's miniboss and it melted. From that point I knew I wanted to see this through to the end.
ZeroRanger is awash with hills and valleys in difficulty oscillating constantly and consistently. This leads to periods of rest which are greatly welcomed in a game whose full runs take over an hour to complete. When progressing this meant I was being built up and torn down repeatedly, thinking I had finally become 'good' only to get punished for my hubris. Nonetheless, as the game was never an unceasing climb in its difficulty, my progress did not wear at me like typicaly STGs such as Espgaluda had. The improvements in my play were palpable and my failures pushed me to do better next time. By no means was that experience unique to ZeroRanger, far from it, but it was more apparent here than in any other shmup I had played. It only became grating near the very end of my time when I had seen the start of the end of the game but hadn't realised I could freely use the stage select without remorse.
What I appreciate most about ZeroRanger is that it rendered concrete for me how I can and do improve at shmups (and games in general). By overcoming that inital hurdle of actually using continues and fighting back even harder after getting damaged, it clicked for me that I had been missing something in STGs this entire time by eschewing growth in favour of perfection. There's a pain point in that ZeroRanger's systems are far more forgiving of mistakes than, say, a CAVE STG but the lesson has been learned nonetheless. That desire for a 1CC will never leave me, and I plan on getting on in ZeroRanger, but my path towards that goal should be more constructive from now on.
Purely as a shmup, I think ZeroRanger leaves a little to be desired but I can't quite say why. As a stepping stone towards more healthful practices of playing and approaching games, it's one of the best.
Some errant thoughts:
The palette is the most striking thing about ZeroRanger, but I actually consider it a detriment in some ways. The visual contrast of the Colorblind Mode was much more legible for me and I'm not colourblind. The palettes unlocked after beating the game were infuriatingly helpful. That such beneficial colour schemes are kept from the player until they've finished the game is mindboggling. The Gray/Orange palette could at the very least be offered before beating ZeroRanger.
I'm thankful that the challenges and extras are nonexistent before getting the all clear as I am certain I would have obsessed over them above actually completing the game first.
The singular focus on movement at the end of the game is wondrous but it could have done with some more interesting patterns.