This is definitely the shmup for Anita Sarkeesian to use if she wants to make a video decrying the representation of women in Japanese bullet hells.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/07/10/caladrius-blaze-real-bodice-ripper/
Man, there are a shitload of great shmups on Steam that aren’t made by Cave. It’s just that Cave’s are the only ones that get any attention, because theirs are the best and very few game journos like shmups at all.
I own about 100 shmups on Steam and at least half of them are good, and another dozen or so are outstanding. I would say these are the cream of the (non-Cave) crop:
Alltynex Second - The best of Siter Skain’s “Tale of Alltynex” trilogy. It’s been suitably enhanced from the original release. The other two games - Kamui and RefleX - are also great.
Armed Seven - Astro Port has around 10 shmups on Steam now. They’re all cheap but pretty much all good too. I think Armed Seven is their best work, though most others would probably give that honor to Satazius. You can’t go wrong either way.
Crimzon Clover World Ignition - This is likely the most popular non-Cave bullet hell on Steam. It is in fact very Cave-like in design. Been out for a while now but it still holds up (Great shmups never get old).
Danmaku Unlimited 3 - Graphically simple but mechanically deep. The previous game in the series is also on Steam and is similarly excellent.
Deep Space Waifu - If Caladrius Blaze is too much of a tease for you, here’s your alternative. Based on While’s Sentimental Shooting from 2001. The objective is the same - stay alive in each stage long enough to shoot your dates’ clothes off piece by piece. This is probably the best dollar-to-value ratio of any Steam shmup (other than Z-Exemplar, which is like 20 hours long but good luck trying to finish it), The developers have been adding new free content pretty much every week since release.
Gryphon Knight Epic - A mix of shmup and Mega Man. Great artwork and the story is surprisingly deep (for a shmup).
Jamestown - A classic. I believe this was the first shmup ever released on Steam. Still awesome, though it’s missing the substantial updates from the “plus” version released for the PS4.
Jets ‘n’ Guns Gold - The most popular Euroshmup on Steam. “Euroshmup” used to be a derisive term for shmups that used elements like life bars to mask bad game design, but now they’re a healthy shmup sub-genre with lots of good entries in recent years. JnG is among the best (see also: Syder Arcade and 1993 Space Machine).
QP Shooting - Dangerous!! - Another popular bullet hell. Uses characters from the Orange Juice universe. A bit of a pain to play because you have to constantly switch between 3 different firing modes, but the stages are well-designed and the game has a lot of charm.
Raiden IV Overkill - My favorite shmup on Steam, including Cave games. This is also by MOSS, who developed Caladrius Blaze. Lots of game modes. Good Steam integration. Maybe not as good as Raiden DX, but until we get a decent port of that one on Steam it’ll do fine. Raiden V coming later this year.
REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR - Incredibly hard but very cool. Probably the best-looking shmup on Steam, with a great soundtrack too.
RIVE - More of an action platformer really, but with the heart of a twin-stick shmup. Gotta mention it because it was Two Tribes’ final game. They went out on a major high note.
Space Moth DX - The theme is borrowed from Cave’s Mushihimesama, but this game stands tall on its own.
Super Amazing Wagon Adventure - One of the many XBLIG refugees to find new success on Steam. Not considered a shmup by most, but it basically is. Funny with lots of variety.
I wanted to add links to the store for all of these games but the forums won’t let me (new user). If someone could lift that restriction for me, I think these games deserve the exposure.
Welcome to the forum. I made a thread a long time ago about PC shmups.
I haven’t kept up with the genre as much as beat 'em ups though.
Great post. I’ve been working my way through a bunch of shooters on Steam and you’ve got quite a few I haven’t tried.
I’m glad you made that thread, although I don’t know if I’d be a helpful contributor. “Entry-level shmup” is kind of a difficult concept for me, because I feel the primary appeal of a good shmup is its complexity. Most shmups also have difficulty options now, so being too hard to play shouldn’t be an issue.
Shmups tend to be very short if you play them from start to finish (except, again, Z-Exemplar… christ that game is stupidly long), but their value comes in learning how to master the scoring system so you can chase your friends on the leaderboards.
In addition to making shmups that look and sound great, Cave is also ace at creating deep, detailed score mechanics, which is why I think their games are so popular. I’ve put close to 16 hours in Mushihimesama now, and I’m nowhere near done. Gotta beat my Steam nemesis, who always gets higher scores than me in every shmup I love. Asshole.
There are maybe a few shmups I’ve played on Steam that bridge that gap between complexity and approachability, while still being pretty decent games. Tom linked to one of them in the Caladrius review - Super Galaxy Squadron. Another one would be Sky Force Anniversary.
I don’t particularly love either of those games, but Sky Force in particular has found success both in sales and reception from Steam users, and it’s certainly a well-made package even if it didn’t grab me.
Actually, Deep Space Waifu is very simplistic mechanically. There aren’t even any leaderboards, which would be a cardinal sin for any other shmup. But I love it because it’s singularly unique among any bullet hell game I’ve ever played (I wasn’t aware of Sentimental Shooting before playing DSW for the first time). If the theme of the game doesn’t put you off, then it’s actually a pretty good introduction to bullet hell games - there are only a couple of weapons and the gameplay is easy to understand.
It only started as an intro to shmups thread. I’m decent at them now, though I lose interest long before I’m able to 1CC on arcade difficulty levels. (I do plan to try for that with Crimzon Clover next year.)
Hey I’ll tell you a secret: Shmups have been my favorite game genre for 20 years now, but I still don’t have a single 1CC game in my record on normal difficulty or higher (excluding a couple of casual shmups which I don’t really count).
My most-played shmup of all time is Psyikyo’s Strikers 1945. I started playing it when it was brand-new in arcades. I still play at least a few hours of it every year. I don’t even want to think about how much total time I’ve put into it, but I still can’t clear the damn game on one credit. If I ever do it will be the greatest accomplishment of my gaming life.
That’s part of the beauty of shmups: You really don’t need to be that good to enjoy them. I’m certainly not great by any measure, but I just love the art and the intensity of the best ones, and now with Steam there’s always a new friend challenging my spot on the leaderboards.
Good luck with Crimzon Clover - 1CC on that game is definitely beyond my skill level.
So 1CC means not using continues, right? Just clarifying for the shmup “newbies” like myself.
Yes, one credit clear. God help me.
What Tim said. Very difficult to do on any decent shmup without lowering the difficulty. In fact a lot of the best shmups will make it even harder for you by adding an extra brutal “secret” final boss if you make it to the last stage without using a continue.
This video had some popularity among general gaming sites a few years ago. The person playing this game (Mushihimesama Futari, by Cave of course) made it to the true final boss on the game’s hardest difficulty without even dying once (a ridiculous task by itself), then had to use all their remaining lives and bombs to beat her.
Most shmups are not nearly that difficult to get a one-credit-clear in, but I still think it’s a major accomplishment for anyone who manages it.
I remember managing a 1CC (sort of) in an old arcade shmup called Tokyo (aka Scramble Formation). It’s probably the only shmup I got actually good at. I don’t think I’d be able to do the same thing nowadays though. ;)
This one I assume? I hadn’t heard of it till now, but yeah that would count in my book. Looks like a pretty good game actually.
Yes, that one, and I loved it to bits. It was fantastic, much better than the much more famous 1942 that got most of the attention at the time (yeah, I’m old). I don’t even know how many tokens I used on that arcade machine, but I’m sure it was a lot.
Since then, I barely played shmups (unless NieR: Automata or Forced Showdown classify). I should try again sometime.
“The gameplay appeal of Caladrius Blaze is its variety and progression within each match.”
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Say no more! Say no more!
There should be a term for games that you enjoy, but are too ashamed to recommend or discuss due to some aspect of the content.
Like, did you know that Monster Monpiece has a pretty interesting card-based battle system? Uh, or so I’ve heard. You know. From a friend.
I’m not a fan of shmups*, but Tokyo I loved. The music was amazing. I spent too many coins on it before realizing I would never get to that damn second turn within a reasonable investment of time and money. I still fire it up occasionally on MAME.
EDIT: Make that modern shmups (aka bullet hells). I used to play a lot of old school arcade titles, and even managed to 1CC Taito’s Flying Shark once.
There’s no C anywhere in “shoot-them-up,” you know.
One game I’d add to @felixlang’s stellar list is Dariusburst Chronicle Saviors. It’s expensive ($50 for the game, plus some really cool extra gameplay content as DLC), so you’ll almost certainly want to wait for a sale if you’re not the biggest fan of the genre, but it’s got an absurd amount of content to back up the price tag.
Guess I had myself in mind when I mixed that with “schmuck”
I just about pulled the trigger on Dariusburst Chronicle Saviors during the recent summer sale when it dropped to $20, but I had to hold off because I had already gone $50 over the $150 limit I set for myself. I’m really looking forward to playing it, but yeah they really shot for the sky with that price point, plus there’s another $100 worth of DLC available. That’s a premium shmup if there ever was one.
That’s actually one of the best benefits to Steam’s recent expansion in the Asia region over the last few years. Good shmups were so rare on Steam for so long, but now there are so many we actually have to pick and choose which ones we can afford to buy. God bless Japan.