I'm not remotely skilled at or knowledgeable about shmups, but I do know that Ketsui is one I like a whole lot, and this is a real good version of it. These M2 ShotTriggers releases seem pretty cool! The Super Easy Mode and the Arcade Challenge training mode are great inclusions to break players in to the game and slowly build them up to taking on the crushing whirlwind of Normal Difficulty, and the Bonds of Growth mode that records your deaths and lets you practice those moments is something I want in every shmup going forward. As a package, this is pretty flawless!
A good side effect of having these modes that increased my familiarity with the game: now that I'm not in a constant state of desperation (most of the time), I was able to appreciate the game as an artistic endeavour beyond the insane gameplay a lot more on these repeated playthroughs. Little moments like the first stage music properly kicking in right as you pick up your first powerup and come up against the first tougher enemy type. The part right after Black Draft in stage 4 where you slow right down as you hit the cliffside and mop up a couple of ground mooks feels like taking one deep breath before you descend into the absolute hell corridor that is the horizontal section. The inverse of that, right after Trafalgar in stage 5 where you're immediately beset by a rush of smaller enemies - no rest this time, we're in the endgame. Speaking of stage 5, how good is that music, that melancholic rendition of the first stage's theme, driving home that this whole thing is a suicide mission? What a game. What a game!

(Marked this as Mastered because I got the plat, but please understand I have in no way, shape or form mastered Ketsui. Please don't ask me to prove that I've mastered Ketsui)

Gunvein is a lesson. Even in shmups, arguably the most gameplay driven, distilled form of the videogame there is, you need a bit of flavour. I can safely say Gunvein is a very competent, aggressive shmup. But I can also safely say it's dull and forgettable.

It uses a clever selection of influences as a skeleton for a strong core gameplay loop, decent stage design, and good (if derivative) bosses. The big influences here to me feel like Shinobu Yagawa's games at cave - Ibara, Muchi Muchi Pork and Pink Sweets - with a heavy emphasis on aggressive bombing, score extends and some element of deleberate deaths thanks to a limited life stock. Throw in a scoring system that encourages quick killing absolutely everything you can and it's easy to get into the swing of things the game wants you to.

I would say the gameplay isn't quite there yet though. Difficulty balance is very weak, with the hardest part of the game by far being the stage 3 boss, and stages in general being a bit too easy compared to the bosses. The game's hitboxes are also a bit wonky in that both the ship and bullet's are absolutely tiny - and i do think it should have picked one or the other because you can really just sweep through whole bullet curtains and just scramble dodge without thinking way too much. I get danmaku needs lenient hitboxes but this is a bit too far. Ship balance is also wonky, with the only fun ship - type C - having the good old technical character problem of technically being balanced, but has to really work for it, being more aggressive and effectively multitasking to get the same results Type A and B do with far safer, simpler gameplay - both in scoring and survival.

But it would be easy to overlook the issues if the game had any fucking sauce. Even if I pick some of the most bland shmups out there, lets say; Rolling Gunner, Strikers 1945, Tatsujin - it is absolutely blasted out of the water in terms of thematics, character, story, and just a general feel. Gunvein feels utterly anonymous. The 3 pngs of those characters in the cover there is literally all the character you get. The game doesnt have an ending or any story at all, there's no motivation behind anything, and the aesthetic is this really bland neon-sci fi stuff. It just feels very disconnected from anything. It's just five levels and bosses and the bosses dont even explode with majesty. That aforementioned 3rd boss is positioned as a rival fight (and is also takes a lot from battle garegga's black heart)- a shmup staple where you fight a ship similar to your own, and in a vacuum its a fun fight, but the lack of build up, payoff, pacing and just a reason for it at all makes it feel hollow when this is frankly a really easy trope to turn into something that, for lack of a better term "goes hard."

If the gameplay was absolutely top, top tier it could maybe get away with it. But whilst it's good, all but a few of the cave and raizing games it imitates have better gameplay and every last one of them has better themeing and flavour. Even Deathsmiles 2. In the realm of indie/doujin shmups it fares better but when Rolling Gunner eats your lunch for flavour, aesthetics and thematics, the likes of cambria sword, SF BELUGA, Ikusaaaaaaan, Zeroranger and Blue revolver make Gunvein look particularly souless.

Roguelike arrange is also a huge meme. Its bad and feels pretty desperate to get some more modern gamers on board.

The bright spot of Gunvein is it's tutorial, which legitimately teaches the danmaku concepts of streaming, cut backs and hitboxes very well. It's a shame I can't reccomend this to a new shmuper though, it's so fucking dull.

I wish I could just grab the artists from Drainus and the lead game designer from this and smash them together. Each game has like the opposite half of the games' issues! AAAA.