Very polished and well made game although it’s basically Shoot the Bullet but the art is awesome. The mechanics are extremely well implemented, they are top-notch with lots of play involved like using the camera to clear bullets, and the fact that there’s actually a short window to shoot the charged camera just before death just blows the Polish meter out of this world. Graze mechanics and Silky Smooth are also great. Music is very good; I like all of them except the 2nd stage music.
For criticism, I had a ton of fun with the SHMUP mechanics but I stopped after about 20 dates. The dating part is underwhelming. I didn’t like the fact that it’s shuffled for Stage 2 and I had to do other dates and wait for the next round before being able to see what’s next with my first date, it confused me at first. The way Ren’ai is integrated is almost entirely disconnected from the gameplay, I’m not even sure if there’s even a mashup, but at least there are some love themes. There is another submission, Elemental Guardians, which had love develop as part of its story and a few love scenes, but had absolutely no player influence on any relationship/friendship, i.e. no routes. If all Elemental Guardians needed to do was to add a menu at the end to choose which love scene to play to turn it into a Ren’ai game, then Ren’ai is just a UI requirement.
The dialogue also didn’t seem very developed or refined. Some magical girls don’t have portraits and it’s hard to identify their character and emotions, but I like their sprite designs and I like that their attacks reflect their magical abilities, which is a plus.
In all other aspects, Tengoku 2.5 is an amazing game. Its implementation is of the highest quality and for a SHMUP, it is one of the best and can be on par, if not better, than some Touhou games. To be able to achieve this amount of polish in a month deserves high praise. Excellent work!