This is from Izanagi Games (Death Come True, World's End Club) and is a rather unconventional blend of VN-type adventure game and shmup, with chops in the latter coming courtesy of G.Rev (Border Down, Senko no Ronde, Under Defeat). Following a demo going out last week, NISA are releasing this in the US/EU this coming July, but the Japanese version is out already and plays in English.
The plot revolves around the idea of 'pardon or kill'; half of the cast are convicted criminals, who wake up in an amusement park paired up with an 'executioner' who has the ability to administer a lethal injection to them at a moment's notice. Yet they're tasked to work together to solve puzzles in the theme park's attractions, thus competing in the 'Yurukill Games' and potentially winning back their freedom.
I've been playing through the story mode so far, and each chapter gets rounded off with a section of the shooting aspect of the game. Before you go fully in you're grilled on some facts of the story to date, and the number of questions you get right determines how many lives you get for the shooting section. A 100% success rate grants 20 lives - which might sound excessive, but each stage of the shooting section is broken up into three smaller sections, each with a midboss who once again interrupts the flow with more questions to determine if you've got the right of the case, where every wrong answer docks you three of those lives.
The story's not really wowed me just yet, though I'm now into the latter half and I'm expecting various loose ends start coming together. There's all sorts of story beats you'll recognise from other games, and if you're familiar with the Zero Escape or Danganronpa series you will know pretty much what to expect. Concepts are over-explained, repeatedly so, and there's plenty of revelations that you will see coming plenty before the characters do. Generally speaking the puzzles are... ok. There's some basic but pleasant enough logic to work out with some of them, but then there are others - typically at crucial points where a 'game over' hangs in the balance - where the logical leaps are pretty wild and you may find yourself reduced to guesswork.
The shmup portions are a touch derivative too, particularly in terms of stage design, where there have been more than a few points where you can see where it's taken inspiration from (not-spoiler spoiler: Treasure games). In terms of balance, so far it's very hard to detach from how it's balanced to keep pace with the flow of the story, but I'm hoping that by the end you'll be able to play it without the distractions of cut scenes or dialogue interjections, and with the difficulty curve all mapped out in a more traditional style. Debris collected from downed enemies contributes to a gauge, that at 20% allows you to use an additional shot type or a bomb, and at 100% gives you an even more powerful bomb. On normal mode at least, being over 20% also gives you auto-bomb, making things a little easier still.
As someone who's typically into both of the genres this dabbles with, so far I think I'm more into it from a shooting game perspective, but that's having not yet seen the story through, or the way that the shooter plays when given room to breathe. In the meantime I'm at least digging it as a unique, quirky thing.
The plot revolves around the idea of 'pardon or kill'; half of the cast are convicted criminals, who wake up in an amusement park paired up with an 'executioner' who has the ability to administer a lethal injection to them at a moment's notice. Yet they're tasked to work together to solve puzzles in the theme park's attractions, thus competing in the 'Yurukill Games' and potentially winning back their freedom.
I've been playing through the story mode so far, and each chapter gets rounded off with a section of the shooting aspect of the game. Before you go fully in you're grilled on some facts of the story to date, and the number of questions you get right determines how many lives you get for the shooting section. A 100% success rate grants 20 lives - which might sound excessive, but each stage of the shooting section is broken up into three smaller sections, each with a midboss who once again interrupts the flow with more questions to determine if you've got the right of the case, where every wrong answer docks you three of those lives.
The story's not really wowed me just yet, though I'm now into the latter half and I'm expecting various loose ends start coming together. There's all sorts of story beats you'll recognise from other games, and if you're familiar with the Zero Escape or Danganronpa series you will know pretty much what to expect. Concepts are over-explained, repeatedly so, and there's plenty of revelations that you will see coming plenty before the characters do. Generally speaking the puzzles are... ok. There's some basic but pleasant enough logic to work out with some of them, but then there are others - typically at crucial points where a 'game over' hangs in the balance - where the logical leaps are pretty wild and you may find yourself reduced to guesswork.
The shmup portions are a touch derivative too, particularly in terms of stage design, where there have been more than a few points where you can see where it's taken inspiration from (not-spoiler spoiler: Treasure games). In terms of balance, so far it's very hard to detach from how it's balanced to keep pace with the flow of the story, but I'm hoping that by the end you'll be able to play it without the distractions of cut scenes or dialogue interjections, and with the difficulty curve all mapped out in a more traditional style. Debris collected from downed enemies contributes to a gauge, that at 20% allows you to use an additional shot type or a bomb, and at 100% gives you an even more powerful bomb. On normal mode at least, being over 20% also gives you auto-bomb, making things a little easier still.
As someone who's typically into both of the genres this dabbles with, so far I think I'm more into it from a shooting game perspective, but that's having not yet seen the story through, or the way that the shooter plays when given room to breathe. In the meantime I'm at least digging it as a unique, quirky thing.
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