Sakurai really fucking knocked this one out of the park. It's crazy that this game is really this good and flew so under the radar. This absolute brainchild is an excellent combination of TPS and Rail Shooter and manages to do both mixes extraordinarily well. Featuring some excellent enemy design that never falters and solid rail levels that really push the stylus-point combat well, all wrapped up in a excellently written package due in no small part to the wonderful voice cast who perform so well here, creating a rather elegant package that is exemplified by the beautiful aesthetic and music it runs with.

It's not perfect of course, there's quite a few level parts that felt disgustingly brutal as a difficulty spike, and the system for health could've been made a lot more interesting. But even still, the completely in-your-hands difficulty setting and great replayability mitigates these issues. For something that isn't entirely 'my thing' in terms of how combat works (the arena combat doesn't really satisfy me in ways I assume will satisfy most others, and that's very much a main appeal) I can't recommend it enough.