Recent reviews by 730

Originally planned to make a review once I 1CC'd the game but I didn't manage to do that and got distracted by too many things and games later on so I'll just make it now.

This game is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece. Not just as a shmup, but as a game in general.
It evokes a constant sense of exploration and discovery through the complex stages, enemies, mechanics, and most importantly, its playable characters, which total 7, which is a ridiculous number when you consider all of them are pretty much completely unique, unlike most games of this genre where different characters tend to share more or less the same range of abilities and controls. Not only do you have to take some time to learn how a character controls and what its abilities are, but you keep discovering uses to their abilities as you keep playing with them.
The catch is that, for this reason, it is quite hard to get into, and is going to put you off unless you actually take your time to explore the game (and if necessary, read up on it, particularly the manual). Most games of this genre tend to be "move with arrow keys, shoot with Z, bomb with X" so of course getting confronted with this complexity can be scary at first, but in truth, it is no different than games with complex mechanics in other genres, it's just that shmups tend to have relatively simple mechanics.

If there's one aspect I could mention that would make it move inviting, it's the difficulty. Though learning how the game and the characters work is hard, the game itself is not as terribly hard as other games of the genre can be. Depending on your character, there's a lot of ways to slow down and delete bullets, and to make yourself invincible. Bombs work with a meter that is constantly charging itself automatically (and you can have 3 uses per level of autobomb), and you can get lives relatively often, giving you plenty of room for error.
Additionally, there's a mode which lets you play less stages than the full game, but still beat the True Final Boss, and therefore beat the game, so you don't need to do a real 1CC in order to see all that the game has to offer.
Of course, all in all, it's still quite difficult and you will need to play lots of times in order to get things right if you're not that good at this kind of thing (like me).

Now going back to actually reviewing the game itself, let me talk about the aesthetic.
You may have guessed from the screenshots what the game sort of looks like. It has this strange techno look to it with this cryptic and esoteric, psychedelic, sometimes even religious feel that pervades its entirety, with a weird techno soundtrack to match each stage and unify the game into a cohesive whole. Some things like the character, bullet, or item sprites might look kind of wonky and too game-like and break that cohesiveness, but overall it has a very unique aesthetic that you probably have never seen before, and likely never will again.

On the topic of music, that is one of the main aspects that really elevates the game for me. It's not just that the music itself is good, but how the music is utilized in the game. By this I refer to how the flow of stages, or the timing of the entrance of enemies/bosses, or even the attacks of bosses themselves are often arranged to match the music, practically making the game into a musical with beautiful choreography, and creating more of that cohesiveness. Showing examples of this would probably ruin the fun, but I'll just say that Stage 7 is a prime example of this, and the entire final boss sequence is simply a work of art.

I must mention the playable characters again to leave it clear just how incredible they are.
In this game there's barely any straightforward character that you can just shoot with, they all have different combinations of key presses and key holds you can do (using the same amount of keys you use in a normal shmup) to use different special moves and skills, so you can have things like a character with around 8 different moves using just 3 keys.
These moves relate to the gauges in the left side of the screen, with the behavior of these moves and gauges changing completely between each character.
The game is all about learning how the characters work (though generally you'd have your own character of choice, like a fighting game) and exploiting their abilities to your maximum advantage, finding in which situation each move would be appropriate. This is mainly what gives it an incredible depth and keeps you constantly discovering things, as you keep getting eureka moments for the different ways you can use each move.

This game also features some quite complex story and lore, of which I honestly don't know much about, but it's the kind of stuff where you have to spend some time looking into all the pieces of dialogue spread around everywhere and then come up with your own theories as to what the hell it all means. It certainly has an impressive amount of text for a shmup, I'll tell you that much.

I would love to write a wall of text about more details of the game, especially the actual mechanics, of which I haven't talked that much about, but not only would that be a huge amount of information, but I also believe it's best to discover as much as you can about this game yourself, since there's many, many moments of genuine surprise to be had if you don't spoil yourself.

Conclusion, if you like mechanical exploration and discovery in games, and are willing to put some hours into learning how the game and its characters work (be it via in-game tutorial and trial-and-error, or by the manual and online guides), I highly recommend this game, you'll find out why it is regarded as it is, and will be rewarded with an amazing experience, which is hard to replicate.
Did I mention this game was made by a single guy? Yeah.

PS: I made the only guide on Steam for this game also meant for beginners check it out wink wink

♥♥♥♥ THIS HSIT YGAME ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

DEVIL ENGINE DEBACLE SUMMARY: Original dev team is composed of artist, composer, and dev. After getting the game out of DANGEN's hands (publisher that wasn't giving any revenue to the team) now the artist and composer (they're siblings) claim the dev (who owns the actual game now) is not paying them what is considered a "reasonable sum" (https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/status/1348841432002424832 , https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/status/1352369550541561856), even though they now have access to the game's revenue. Dev ('s lawyer, probably) makes a rebuttal post (https://gtm.you1.cn/app/891790/discussions/0/3118147979122080023/), and artist/composer (@Protocultgames on Twitter) make in turn a rebuttal to that (https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srieb8).

Can't say whether you should buy it or not because things aren't black and white anymore and I feel we're missing lots of info, so just do whatever you feel is right idk.
i just wanted to listen to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Ignition covers

Edit 5: Game is apparently in a really complicated situation and allegedly, the artist and composer aren't getting their share from the sales of the game or the OST. Check out these tweets and other latest tweets on that account and judge for yourself https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/status/1352369550541561856 https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/status/1352707625897644033
Also, it seems the latest one of those is actually a reply to this https://gtm.you1.cn/app/891790/discussions/0/3118147979122080023/

Edit 4: uhhhhhhhh https://twitter.com/Protocultgames/status/1348841432002424832

Edit 3: solved https://twitter.com/Sinoc229/status/1348842709532872708

Edit 2: No more Patreon so no way at all to support them for now

Edit: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. the publisher, DANGEN, is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ over the developers and is giving them no money, none of your money will go towards the devs. support them on patreon (just google protoculture games patreon idk) and acquire the game through other means.

this game is VERY GOOD but it's also VERY HARD while im VERY BAD at it.

(edit: don't, all money for anything official about the game goes to DANGEN) buy the soundtrack, it's 10/10

good art, good animations, good music, it's fast, it's hard, the bosses beat your ass the first time but once you get to know their patterns and utilize the graze system you feel like you've mastered them. haven't found any optional skills besides from the last one so i cant talk about those, but the base gameplay with the regular skills you get by progressing is already pretty fun. probably a bit on the linear side, and also short, but it's still good.

worst ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game ive ever played

dev if youre reading this n*ck yourself

TL;DR: best shmup ever with super good music and super anime and super incredible graphics just buy it now, don't get fooled by the storepage there's much more to it

As someone who's had little experience with shmups, I found this game to be totally amazing. Unlike most/all of the few shmups I've played, ZeroRanger could keep me really engaged with its continue system, which is pretty forgiving, but interesting at the same time, and its mysterious plot.

The attention to detail in this game is amazing, there's a bunch of little details everywhere, the sprites, backgrounds and colors are incredible and they all come together perfectly without ever looking off, and there's references to a lot of stuff scattered all over the place (mostly shmups, though I only really got the Gurren Lagann ones, which are a lot).

During gameplay you can use up to 4 different weapons (3 of them you obtain as you play), though for each of the unlockable weapons there's 2 options, and then you've got 2 different ships with varying weapons, so the actual number would be 14. This variety allows you to play in many different ways and apply different strategies to each stage depending on the weapons you use.
Instead of having a set number of continues, you have something like experience bar, which you fill with your score upon game over, and on each "level up" you gain 1 permanent continue (starting out with 0). This makes you want to not only get more of them if you keep dying, but also it doesn't let you race through the game by pressing continue over and over from the very beginning of the game if you're bad at it.
On top of this, you can start playing from any stage you've reached (with your score at 0, of course), so you don't have to start from the very beginning each time you die.
This makes it pretty forgiving compared to other shmups, but at the same time it gives it this sort of "gameyness" for lack of a better description, that I feel other shmups don't have which focus more on the highscoring side of things.
Adding to this "gameyness" is a bunch of different gameplay twists that you find across the stages, and the fact that the game forces you to utilize the whole screen and all of your weapons, instead of just fixing you to the bottom of the screen to dodge bullets while holding the fire button.
All of this makes it feel much more interesting and engaging to me that other shmups I've played, it's like a different genre of its own.

Like most shmups, the music is amazing, though it has its own particular style to it, which actually varies from stage to stage. It sounds mostly arcade-ish or SEGA Genesis-ish, but it often mixes it up with different samples of instruments, which ends up sounding great.

On top of all of this, it has a weird mysterious esoterical plot (which as far as I understand it's mostly metaphorical in reference to some buddhist stuff, but I don't know much about that), which doesn't intrude on the gameplay at all, but still makes you want to go forward to know what's going to happen.
Not only this, but it also has some humor, conveyed mostly through gameplay or small pieces of random text, relying on your knowledge of other media and tropes.
In addition to that, it has a lot of "moments", that feel like you're playing through a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ anime, setting the atmosphere through gameplay and music alone.

Overall, the level of polish is amazing, the flow of the game is good, the mechanics are good, the graphics are great and there isn't a single sprite that feels out of place or low quality, the menus and options are perfect, the music is good, and it has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ plot that I still don't understand.

10/10 it has a lot of gurren lagann

P.S.: At the time of writing there's 2 empty slots for easy and hard mode in the menu, which will be released in a future update, which will be pretty big and also balance some stuff out and add some other options.

Do you think those walking simulators or whatever lazy ♥♥♥♥ people make in Unity these days are bad? Well ♥♥♥♥ that, at least those are made in an actual engine, maybe they are boring, but they can't be THIS bad.
THIS game, THIS is SO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BAD, I am sure it was made bad on purpose, there's literally no explanation for how bad this game is. It's truly something you have to experience for yourself to fully comprehend. Only then will you understand just how incredibly bad this game is.

I think Dark Souls is great particularly because it's an exercise in good game design since it combines so many good game design elements so perfectly. Well, this is the antithesis. This was made by a perverse mind in an attempt to make the worst game possible, not just boring, not just mind-boggling, but just completely bad. Combine everything that can make a (3D platforming) game bad and you get this, including technical aspects like WHY THE ♥♥♥♥ IS IT 130+ MB, WHY DOES IT QUIT WHEN I PRESS ESCAPE, WHY DOES IT CHANGE MY SCREEN RESOLUTION AND CONTRAST, WHY DOES IT NOT WORK AT 60 FPS WHEN IT LOOKS LIKE THIS. ♥♥♥♥, IT EVEN HAS DLC, LIKE A LOT OF ♥♥♥♥♥♥ MALFUNCTIONING GAMES FROM THIS ERA.

it's a cool game if you want to know how bad a game can get, also you can make your friends watch you play or something, that's probably fun, you could even make bets on whether you can beat it in a certain amount of time or not.

also giving this developer money was probably a bad idea but whatever

After selling a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of cards today I went to look at my wishlist to see if there was something I could buy, expecting nothing, then saw Barrier X which reminded me of the email I had gotten earlier that it was on sale, so I bought it because I mean, it's just 59 cents.

So basically, I think it's pretty good, I only beat the first level and unlocked the second and third, I doubt I'll be able to get very far as I'm not someone with inhumanly fast speedrun-tier reflexes, but the game has a nice aesthetic and graphics, and the music isn't half bad, at the very least it fits and isn't annoying, just like music in a game like this should be to encourage you to keep going.

Though the main reason I wanted to make this review is to address that guy that actually got 77% positive votes in a negative review saying that he couldn't even beat the first level, which concerned me before buying the game because that really sounded ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ impossible.
But you just need to look at the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ colored lines in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ floor man, not at the barriers. The game literally tells you to not stay in the red lines, and you go and stay in the red lines, shooting at the barriers. Good job.

So to sum it up, it's Super Hexagon but 3D and not really at all like Super Hexagon and the guys with the negative reviews are salty as ♥♥♥♥ because they can't read the instructions.

I CAN'T BEAT HELL

edit january 14th 2018: i did it.

anyways this game is fairly good i guess, i can't really tell anymore because of how much i've played it (it's actually been about 3.5 runs through the game but it's been a very long time since the first time i played it so i don't remember my initial impressions anymore).

this game was made in FIVE YEARS by a SINGLE GUY (the original freeware version at least, if you play this one with Original graphics and Original music then that's pretty much all made by a single guy). he even made his own music format and editor, which is actually used by some people today (the music of Monolith for example, another cool indie game, was made with that software). this was probably the most influential indie game of all time, it's a true classic, so i don't know if it's really that good or not but it's something you have to have played.

the music is really good by the way, one of the catchiest soundtracks ever, i like almost all the songs.

I never liked horror games or movies, and this game taught me what Psychological Horror meant.

If you're a wimp like me, LISA has a very unsettling atmosphere throughout the whole game (or at least until half/three quarters of the game, where you will have become insensitivized to outer stimuli), with no transitions whatsoever between zones, creepy imagery, and eerily contrasting colors. However, there is no outright horror, like jumpscares, which is how I learned the meaning of Psychological Horror (or at least how it should be properly done).

Now, story and setting. The year is 20XX (probably). There are no women. As you can imagine, this transforms the world into something horrible. Everyone is sad/depressed/angry (sometimes all at once, probably all the time), drinks, and takes drugs.
Our protagonists finds a baby on the ground somewhere. It's a female. He doesn't want to "share" her with the world and intends to keep her in their house for her whole life. People find out, chaos ensues, hero embarks on quest.
You'll find many bizarre characters and scenarios, EarthBound style. In fact, the whole game is bizarre, with the art style helping to set the tone, but at the same time it manages to be serious and soul-crushing.
When you finish you'll want to play the sequel, which is coming out at the end of August.

Gameplay consists of the overworld and the battles. The overworld is side-scrolling, with cliffs acting as platforms which you can climb and fall from, along with characters to talk, doors to enter to navigate to other zones, and such other things. The battles are your fairly typical turn-based RPG battles. There is the main character which you can't switch, and three companions. There are a multitude of companions to select from and place in these three slots (look at the achievements page. Every one of the red-on-grey-silhouettes is a character), although you have to unlock them through various ways, such as side quests, fighting them, or simply purchasing them by giving them currency. Most characters have distinct mechanics and attacks which keeps things fresh if you try different configurations.
Something that is not too traditional is that these characters can be perma-killed by certain enemy attacks (this doesn't happen too often, though there's a higher chance with late-game bosses), and restoring your party members isn't as easy as "going to the Inn"; you can restore your characters at fireplaces scattered through the world, and at certain tents, but random events happen when you rest, such as a companion being kidnapped (you can rescue them) or your whole party getting poisoned. Money and items are pretty scarce too, so you can't just heal your guys willy-nilly.
Don't let these facts discourage you though, there are plenty of save points, and the battles themselves tend to be pretty easy.

The music is fairly good. Probably not the music you would listen to outside the game, but it contributes to the atmosphere very well (you might as well not be scared at all if you turn off the volume).

I'm not very good at rating things numerically, but I guess I would give this one a

9/10

or maybe a 10/10

I'm not sure...

What I liked:
-Dark humor
-Not so dark humor
-Puns
-Graphics/art-style that I would call ironic
-It's a turn-based RPG
-Scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me

What I disliked:
-Maybe a bit short (though it felt like an eternity, because I refused to play it just because of how scared I was)
-Bicycle doesn't have a shortcut
-Jeff the Killer look-alikes (if you are traumatized by that face, then this game will multiply that trauma x10, then it will proceed to remove that trauma altogether. It's a good therapy). Don't worry, no screamers, just tiny pixelated Jeffies.
-Scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me (see above)

Final statement:
This game will destroy your life.

Buy it.