#gamepulse

gameplay

cirno has two types of attacks, a basic shot and spell cards. hold down LMB or whatever is assigned to the controller to shoot and deal damage to the boss. to use spell cards you need courage, gained by dealing damage (i actually can't remember if there are other ways, but uh you'll mostly get it by dealing damage anyway). gain enough courage and you can use spell cards, consuming it. it's worth noting that some shot types do much better with higher courage, and all of them have additional benefits from being at higher levels of courage.

dash with RMB, and fly by dashing in the air. flying is completely free invincible movement and is really strong, but uses stamina obvs. the game honestly feels a bit like a souls-like, not that i play souls likes. there's a lot of dodging involved, but attacking is pretty much a continuous effort

i forgot to take pics of the gameplay and apparently this is the only screenshot i have. your goal is to clear the many phases/stages of the fight either by waiting out the timer or depleting their health bar. some phases force you to wait out the timer by making the boss invulnerable, indicated by chains

here's a store page screenshot

after finishing the main story battle, you can eventually choose to challenge past opponents in challenge mode. for completionists, there's no-hit and pacifist no-hit runs you can try

forgot to mention items, they're basically to modify your shot type and give you passives, you can see 'em in the lower right portion of the screenshots above

screenshot from the trailer

and, another thing i forgot to mention was the presence of an assist mode. it said it decreases boss difficulty as you lose so it's a pretty neat way to slowly lower difficulty as suited for you. it also gives cirno this cute chick thing on her head lol

story

the first stage sees us at the misty lake, where cirno begins her search for the nightmare miko's lair.

she's kinda dumb

we're then introduced to our first opponent, clownpiece

her being in a one piece latex suit might be a joke in itself i'm realizing. she's our first taste of real gameplay, and uses bullet patterns akin to someone who—as my partner so aptly put it—has a surface level understanding of what america is.

beating her shows her in a battle damaged state which i will not be showing here because she has her whole ass on display, but that'll be the trend for mostly everyone yeah. though, i think hers has the uh, most damaged outfit out of all of them. also losing enough times triggers taunting dialogue from them too, really made me wanna beat suika up more when i got it the first time.

oh yeah she promises to tell you the way to the nightmare miko's lair too! hooray! though, unsurprisingly, she is somewhat of a jester

and our hero is kind of dumb. in the forest, cirno stumbles upon some fairies harassing a bunny. after driving the fairies away, they invite us into their train

tewi's outfit is so cute

there are, naturally, bunnies on the bunny train

this bunny train serves as the menu and hub, i quite like it. there's an encyclopedia, a jukebox, etc.

reisen here changes your loadout for you

pls be nice to her, she's overworked

there's this cute board showing all the bosses you've beat thus far, too. incredibly charming

the story ramps up a bit later, coming with the difficulty spike (at least for me, idrk how others fared). will not be discussing it because uh no time rn, got other things to do

closing thoughts

this game is cute, charming, has great music. i'm impressed by it's quality, and it leans into its aesthetics very well. the redesigns i find quite interesting, and it's fun to compare and contrast the world they establish to canon lore

hmm, the english translation is a bit wonky, but it's honestly serviceable. other than that i've got no real complaints

edit: beat a challenge and like, this is a bit unfair i feel... i mean, i guess i could watch it on youtube....

if you like touhou for the shmup gameplay you will definitely find it here. if you like it for story and characters you will also find it here, feel free to use assist mode and stuff. if you don't like touhou, give it a try anyway

if this game looks fun, buy it over here: