Interesting idea! I'm not the most experienced player of Touhou (or schmups in general), but I think there are a few notes I would suggest with the balance in terms of the enemy waves. It feels like the very start is a barrage of bullets that most times you can't avoid due to the size of the character, and after that enemies either come in short and very manageable sets of 2, or in numbers large enough that (it feels like) the only viable way to not die is run on the side to the top of the screen above the enemies. The boss also feels impossible to overcome head-on, since after the initial appearance there's no way to shoot at it between the constant barrages it puts out without getting washed with bullets and dying immediately, thus making the player rely solely on what cards they can get on the side to do the damage. Again, there may be a tactic I'm missing due to being a newbie to the genre, but those are just some ideas. I really like the concept here and could see it being expanded into a fuller game.
Viewing post in Danmaku Shopping jam comments
Thanks for the play and the review. Enemy balance is something that kind of went off rails due to both the method used to deliver enemies and their attack patterns:
- They fly in from offscreen at different speeds, not even an universally set speed because I would only figure out to do that after I'd eyeballed the entire level.
- Their patterns are a basic "shotgun" spread, only a few of which track the player. And I believe I overdid it on the amount of bullets.
So yeah, I would say that balance was rather spray and pray, and that unfortunately held the rest of the game back. As an experienced, not the best but experienced player of those games I'm familiar some tricks like micro and macrododging that do help. For example, the tactic you used, going fast around the bullet patterns for the cards is actually macrododging, and to a point it was intentional. To a point.
Thanks for the review. If I had had more time with it it would've looked like a fairly different creature, but I greatly overshot my scope this time around.