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Cool game, liked so did this

one must imagine speedrun

As person that came from steam and according to information about that game that final boss for demo is Koichi, I decided to share my feelings that's probably not gonna be new, lol

Story

not sure about inspiration (smt) way of story, but that one seems working for me and consider I barely know any of Touhou characters, I could get +- understanding about their character type and other stuff, so it's alright

Graphics

Pixel art is cool. I mean it can showcase attention to details from creator like they tried hard for every single pixels instead of just use model and expand it, so it gives own charm of games from...80's? 90's? Not really expert

Sound Effects

8-bit if people call it like that sounds and music. They don't make people have blood from ears so that's a good. Rock theme for bosses is working. 

Gameplay

That's....one is heavily questionable. I will try to share what I think about it from perspective of first try of game

Beginning:

Huh, 6 stats, despite basic AGI affect speed and LUK probably affect status apply chances, other 4 doesn't knownable. I guess one is phys power + def and other hp, equivalent for magic too. 

Gun in equipment and being 25 looks big enough, hope we can upgrade it no we don't

Tutorial battle:

Hijack system looks both pain and good. Not really a player of bullet hell but pattern in tutorial was readable so it's fine. Special mechanic was also there but not really explained, so maybe for future. 

Further gameplay until end of floor 1 challenge:

Map is confusing. No ability to get shortcuts so have fun do 15 steps instead of 3. Floor traps is fine, but they feel not equal. Battery punishment is more noticeably than just poison apply.

Battery, right. 

Reason why MC has allies + abilities. Despite having items for recharge they cost a lot and the spend of it per step if your character weak (Battery spend being low if your character's level being higher than Sleepers is not explained). I also might miss it too but game also doesn't explains about ability to transfer skills/element resists from allies for cost of their death and ability to buy em instead of catch sounds overpowered if you know what to do. Fusion being locked for always makes me wonder why it was there and not hidden. Enemies was extremely easy that they could be beatable with regular attack only. 

Floor 2 hell zone and pain

And that's where problems begin. If your team wasn't overgrinded before, you will suffer. A lot. Boss also same. Has 3 fire attacks but due 2 turns can also use other element in pair, so you can't just makes 100% fire absorb team (boss doesn't have reaction to you having sleeper that's literally him makes me wonder if it's all real). 

The realization

After dying to boss for first time due not knowing what he is capable of, I started to see mechanics I didn't know before. First of all, EXP scaling being based on level, so Lower Level = Higher Multipler doesn't really explained. The stats you spend between levels also weird. I decided to try math it by using invest only in LUK for having no difference and then spended other 12 in 1 stat only for compilation, which lead me to these numbers:

STR - HP/2 + ATK * 2

INT - MP * 1,66 + MDF * 1 + MAT * 0,16

MAG - MP * 1.66 + MTK * 1,66 + MDF * 1

VIT - HP * 1.66 + ATK * 0,83 + DEF * 1

AGI - DEF * 0,25

Sure, I don't account Level Stats grow too, but knowing these numbers from BEGINNING (I pretty sure no one gives exact numbers) makes you know what to invest to become overpowered. 

ESPECIALLY when there is almost no ability to recover MP outside of shop (even from Special Points that's also have weird stuff. Having ability to store it and then later do 2 buffs is strong, so I don't know who in the heck gonna use half of cost just to SEE enemy stats/skills (kinda, you don't know what it does in status menu). Full Heal early on sounds very weak when you find character with mass heal so only  valid option is Enemy stun for buffing own team and then destroy him. 

Yes, destroy. After spending several attempts at beating boss and having super low level, I noticed that Battery Cost increase due low level and increased scaling, so due no game over and after calculating stats I simply lower myself to level 1 and with strong sleepers killed Hell enemies to get sudden exp jump and became pretty much op. 

The post-Boss

After finding out who boss is in term of sleepers, gave our MC absorb + skills for weak damage (I also don't remember explanation about more SP if hit weakness, I thought it's only from flashy enemy, which I...still not know what to do), I bring best team and he died very easily. After that I didn't really knew where to go due our Story quest was done and exit wasn't real so I tried go to ! And met...the labyrinth  pain. Thank you game for explanation of how to pass it on half of it's way, pretty much already guessed pattern. 

Second bass was weird. After being exhausted from random encounters and coming to boss with no SP, I simply die to him. After that I find out about his weaknesses too + get better skills from Hell mobs, I came again and...boss died after 3,2 turns (or 4 but literally only 1 member of mine killed him later one). 

Overall.

Overall is hard to tell. From one side you see effor in art style, music, aesthetic and that all but balance...one friend of mine deeply suffered because 75% of mechanics not explained like Battery Consume based on level or fact that you can RETRY Hijack on next turn (also despite having knowledge about lower hp = easier pattern, it's kinda hard to reach because scan skill cost way too much), no explanation about ACTUAL meaning of stats and so on. It's looks like promising game considered I browse leaks from Twitter but the current status of it is...require to guess mechanics. 

6/10 from me but I know someone can give lower like 4/10, hope it will be improved in future and on full release might even buy it when I will be able to do it. товарищ