My point is, you're probably right about the Western developers as a whole, but if you focus on those who actually like JP shmups and hang out here, this statement isn't true.Īlso, in hindsight, it makes sense that the website you've checked would call Sky Force addictive if it has all the usual Skinnerbox bullshit. There's also games like Fire Lancer, ZenoDeath or WestGunne that are still in developement. Off the top of my head, we recently had Blue Revolver, Pawarumi, ZeroRanger, Jet Buster, Flight of Pigarus, and I am probably missing a few others. That said, there are a bunch of examples of great shmups made by Western developers, many of them who actually are on this forum, and that's because those devs are a lot more passionate about JP-style shooting. While the median new JP shmup we hear of is unlikely to have all that grinding/inertia/shop/slow pacing/analog control nonsense, Western teams may have more incentives (or think they have more incentives) to target casual players who won't see a difference. The thing IMO with Western-made shmups, is that you have to pay a lot more attention to the developers' background and influences. That was ridiculous and what's more, there's an easy mode with the knockback disabled. Put in auto-bomb, so people won't stop playing after 5 minutes because "1 shot and you're dead, how can that be fun? This game is way too punishing."ĮDIT: I've witnessed a similar case with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, where people were complaining about the damage knock-back often resulting in them falling to a pit to instant death. If you want to make a shmup more interesting to "outsiders", then create Novice modes similar to Cave's X360 ports and M2's recent work and that's how you appeal a more broad user base. In the end, this shows the direction the gaming industry (and developers) has taken: creating games trying to appeal the most possible vast audience, without any kind of respect to a genre's foundation.Īnd SFR, imho, is one of the best examples of this trend. If it was anything more than 1€, I would have probably asked for a refund. I have unfortunately bought this because it was on sale for 1€ and it was available for Mac. It's obvious the developer wanted to give his game more longevity, but this shows how little developers know about what a shmup should be: longevity and replayability stands in the scoring system and goals like 1CC'ing the game. It's the exact opposite of what a shmup should be. SFR it's not a shooter, it's a grind to unlock weapons and buy improvements, with all the stages disconnected and locked behind an achievement barrier. I have to concur with the rude opinion expressed by the OP. The feel of the game and a cookie-cutter sound package plays into this, and it's an issue I find with a lot of indie shmup releases when I'm perusing the Steam store for new shooters. It lacks a unique identity and it feels wholly generic. Speaking of Sky Force specifically, it falls into that category but I don't think it's great. Played on their terms, they are solid, enjoyable games with distinct visual styles and memorable soundtracks. Just because they aren't recreating an arcade-style feel that most of us are used to doesn't inherently make them bad. Games like Raptor, Tyrian, and Stargunner revolve more around endurance and smart use of weapon upgrade shops, rather than super reactive, dodge-heavy gameplay. I don't look at some of these classic PC shooters as "flawed", so much as that they are simply a different style of shoot 'em up. If you can't get that right, better try creating another type of videogame. In a shmup the fine and precise control of the ship is so basic and essential. I can accept that a indie game has poor graphics or whatever because you don't have a budget or enough people or time to make it better, but at least make it fun to play. Anyway, what is not acceptable is to be indulgent with bad playability in modern games. Should we be indulgent with those flaws as we are with old graphics or old technology in general? I'm not sure. But now, we can see how terribly bad they perform and play so we have to admit they are very mediocre shmups. I also played Xenon 2, Blood Money, Tyirian or Raptor with my PC in the old and dark days, when we had to get along with what we had, which was not much. Elaphe wrote:Of course you have to judge things by comparison.
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