Firstly it must be emphatically stated that Psyvariar 2 is simply one of the finest shoot-em-ups ever created. Whilst many venerate the opae from Treasure, and rightly so, it is clear that Takashi Ewagano's latest one-man foray utterly eclispses anything within the genre.
The game itself hasn't really undergone any drastic gameplay changes from the original. The main difference now though is that spinning has to be undertaken manually. This is not really a problem, because you can hold back whilst spinning to keep the spin active (as long as you remain mobile that is). Moreover, the lack of two player cooperation only helps to cement the true arcade nature of the series.
The nature being the anxious joy of scraping shots to near death, only to be rewarded for your insanity. This has been honed. We are now presented with a buzz field and a considerably more vunerable ship. The consequent upping of the ante only makes the gameplay more exciting and vibrant.
We also have two mecha now (rather than ships), one is tuned for quicker buzz and the other for better firepower. They also upgrade, like in the original, but this only occurs at the end of a stage rather than midway. Buzz levels also vary depending on what point you are in the level and not just during boss encounters.
The default difficulty (Normal) is cathartic fun whereas the pro-level (Very Hard) is utterly insane (the amount of buzz available dramatically decreases making it very hard to level-up and consequently kick-ass).
In short, Psyvariar 2 is an addictive and engrossing game that is clearly set to be sickeningly deep (the shot patterns are utterly disgraceful in terms excessive intricacy).
Ikaruga? Pah! Gather round, the best shoot-em-up ever created is Psyvariar 2.
The game itself hasn't really undergone any drastic gameplay changes from the original. The main difference now though is that spinning has to be undertaken manually. This is not really a problem, because you can hold back whilst spinning to keep the spin active (as long as you remain mobile that is). Moreover, the lack of two player cooperation only helps to cement the true arcade nature of the series.
The nature being the anxious joy of scraping shots to near death, only to be rewarded for your insanity. This has been honed. We are now presented with a buzz field and a considerably more vunerable ship. The consequent upping of the ante only makes the gameplay more exciting and vibrant.
We also have two mecha now (rather than ships), one is tuned for quicker buzz and the other for better firepower. They also upgrade, like in the original, but this only occurs at the end of a stage rather than midway. Buzz levels also vary depending on what point you are in the level and not just during boss encounters.
The default difficulty (Normal) is cathartic fun whereas the pro-level (Very Hard) is utterly insane (the amount of buzz available dramatically decreases making it very hard to level-up and consequently kick-ass).
In short, Psyvariar 2 is an addictive and engrossing game that is clearly set to be sickeningly deep (the shot patterns are utterly disgraceful in terms excessive intricacy).
Ikaruga? Pah! Gather round, the best shoot-em-up ever created is Psyvariar 2.
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