∀kashicverse -Malicious Wake- Reviews

Before all else, [b]USE A.D.A.M ver. 1[/b] uh it's chaotic very much [u]VERY CHAOTIC[/u] the most bullets the highest speed very difficult too, at least on akashic You get no lives, only a two-part regenerating shield, which the game also requires you to temporarily DROP to gather energy efficiently. Here's an immensely useful tip: MASH THE SHIELD BUTTON Similarly to deathbombing, there's a short duration after being fatally hit where if you have shield remaining, you can put it back up immediately to survive. Very quickly mashing the shield button gives a generally desirable balance between energy gathering and sustaining defense. this is a crazy game for crazy people or maybe I'm just playing on akashic difficulty I guess that would make me crazy apparently advent is stupidly easy I dunno really At least if you're playing it like I am, use stage select to practice the stages. Use practice until you get good at the stage, and then play through an actual run in a 1cc to unlock the next stage for practice. Practice the new stage, and repeat. In case it wasn't clear, go somewhere else for traditional bullet hell. The majority of damage avoidance in this game is countering with special attacks, not just dodging. There is reasonable bullet hell sometimes, but most attacks are too fast and dense to plausibly dodge normally. Also check out Hellsinker.

this game wants you to suffer, it will throw pure bs at you, it will use the most nasty enemy patterns you have ever seen in a shmup, a single mistake can cost your ENTIRE RUN... but you are overpowered and so overcoming all of these can be a pretty fun task. don't get me wrong, i still think scoring this game isn't that different from taking a competitive game too serious, and you know how much mental drain that can be. but still this game has so many cool stuff i just can't stop admiring how insane and unhinged it can be. to begin with, your given 7 different specials "methods", these can cancel bullets and deal huge damage to enemies, which makes up for the pure insanity the danmaku in this game can be. to not spoil too much, these methods also have "sub methods", which inputting the method button again after casting one will trigger them, these also help really well with survival and scoring in general. can i also mention this game's whole aesthetic?, you know how the main inspiration for this one "hellsinker" also has a really cool vide and a very (inscrutable) aesthetic but this one?, man the entire stage feels like a rave when its going all at you, enemies in total sync with the music, bullet patterns in total sync with the music, stage backgrounds in total sync with the music, which by the way it can be some really cool edm to some of the most hardcore/speedcore music i have listened in a whiiile. if there's something i could criticize here is scoring as i mentioned before, scoring this game is just so mentally draining dude... trying to get a nice score on an ALL run is pain, trying to individually score each stage is what i always do because its just that horrifying... but somehow i didn't get tired of it soooo yeah im in total love with this game, it began as a distant memory of my childhood of watching a "weird danmaku game" and finally remembering the name of that game a while ago. even if this game can get so so soooo uuuugghghghh sometimes, honestly?, i think you would enjoy playing this too, even if your not very into "weird" stgs and play hellsinker too if you still havent

A very, very unusual game with an interesting risk/reward system where you can "open" (aka. disable) your shield which does two things: -> Makes your shield recharge a lot faster -> Bullets grazed with the flaps of your now-open shield give you energy, which you can then use to pull off special moves with... Fighting game inputs! Yay! Not enough energy to do a special move? Death! Opened your shield at the wrong time? Death! Stuck between a thousand enemies moving faster than you can react? Death! Your shield is depleted? It won't activate until it's 50% charged which takes quite a bit of time, most likely, Death! I also have to mention that there are no extra lives, you die on a single hit if you're hit while your shield is open or depleted. Either start over for a 1cc or use a continue. Game has an "Auto-restart" option which makes you start from Stage 1 immediately after you die (I wish more games had this, it's just such a convenient thing to have). Yeah it's kinda hard if you couldn't tell. Get ready to use the practice mode a lot and good luck because- oh god, there is an extra stage DLC

this game is so over the top it's hilarious. it's also probably the best game for someone that's never played bullet hell shmups before: the tutorial is helpful, the gameplay is amazing, the shield is forgiving, & the music slaps. i know someone's first try after playing the tutorial that they nearly beat stage 1 without dying because they "get" it and it was hella satisfying for them to just do so much damage. you're practically entering cheat codes in the entire time - the fighting commands called "methods". you can blow up the screen more than like five different ways, and you kind of have to if you want to reach the end. some of these patterns seem absolutely impossible otherwise.

Definitely the weirdest shmup ive ever played. Play Hellsinker first, itl help you appreciate this more, even though the games are only related in inspiration iirc. Game rules, stick with it to the true final boss. Its doable, trust

Well if you like "unusual" shmup like hellsinker. , stellavanity, radio zonde, etc you probably gonna like Akashicverse too and if you don't or never play "unusual" shmup then you should give this game a try The mechanic it self is pretty good you guys can watch the gameplay video if you not believe it and aesthetic part also pretty good.

Super late edit since my previous review was for the Early Access: The game is now fully complete, with an additional "extra stage" DLC added. In short, it's great. If you've heard of Hellsinker then I won't hesitate to tell you that this game is just as unique, if only a little simpler, than Hellsinker. I'll write a more detailed review at a later date

Why should you buy this game? The true question is: Why not? This shooting game combines fighting game inputs with shmup gameplay. It is also the game that has so many references to other games that I can't even list them all. Main inspirations were Hellsinker and Re:frain prism memories which I recommend checking out aswell. This game is different from the original CD version. I don't want to say what got changed, but it certainly made the game far better. One big plus is that ingame documents can now be read which wasn't possible in the other version. the game consists of 6 stages with 3 difficulties. It plays after akashicforce. Advent gives 500% shield which are 5 hits with shield and 2 with shield-off. your shield regenerates once you use them for grazing which allows for quick recoveries. On Another shield gets reduced to 100% and you die instantly without shield-on. regeneration is slowed, bullets are faster and a bit denser. Akashic adds revenge bullets and forces a more radiant silvergun-esque playstyle. bullet density and speed are also enhanced. while it certainly takes a few hours to properly learn the system it becomes a lot of fun later once you learn to use them in more efficient ways. my favourite feature of the game are the options. you can customize your inputs aswell as change the behaviour of your shield/wing. there is also the option to enable autocontinue and autorestart which I haven't seen in other games yet. One thing to note is that highscores submitted to the leaderboards allow 1 credit clears only. Take it how you want. I don't really mind, because it allows for more optimization during the run. edit: ofc there is stage practice too where score gets submitted individually.

I'm writing a big ol' review, my first ever steam review, because this game has blown my mind and I need to tell you about it. In the most affectionate way possible, I need to tell you - if Polybius were a real game, I think it would play something like Akashicverse. This is a shmup where you do fighting game style inputs for special moves, the music and art both rule, and the level and enemy design is buckwild. But there's a critical fact about this game that no review I've seen has mentioned: There are no lives in this game. Instead, you have a shield that regenerates over time, that you can turn on and off. When it's on, nothing can harm you - you cannot be killed. When it's off, you can gain tons of meter for the aforementioned special moves - the shield transforms outward into wings, and bullets flying through them gains you meter. But get hit, ONCE, with your shield off? You game over instantly. Never have I ever played a game that goes this hard in the "finding new and creative ways to die" department, and it's an absolute blast. Getting far in the game on an amazing run is a blast, dying in the first five seconds of the game while trying something new is also a blast. Every time I die I'm never frustrated - I can't help but just laugh. It's not for lack of taking the game seriously, it's the inherent fun of the death mechanics themselves. The thing about dying in this game is that, most of the time, it's because you basically pushed a button with "PUSH THIS BUTTON TO DIE INSTANTLY" written on it. You turned your shield off, you made a mistake, and you have now been hoisted by your own hubris. And yet we [i]want[/i] to push the die instantly button. We [i]choose[/i] to push the die instantly button. Because pushing the die instantly button lets you do more cool special moves, it lets you go for higher scores, and ultimately it helps you survive once you learn how to use your abundance of special moves defensively. But most importantly, it's [i]exciting[/i]. Through the push of a single button, you have chosen to put absolutely everything on the line, all at once. You can do it pretty much whenever you want. Go ahead. Naturally, it's a bit more complicated than that - another critical fact I haven't mentioned is that your shield energy goes down a bit whenever you get hit with your shield on, and if it goes below zero it breaks and you're stuck with your shield off waiting for it to recharge and come back. But that's the absolute worst case scenario. When it happens, the mental alarm bells go off and things get serious, and you better develop an escape plan, because you know that the stakes are so high. But yeah, in this world, there are things that can harm us. In Akashicverse, it's the same thing. And yet in both, we know that we can't go through with our shields up all the time. We choose to take risks, and we choose to be vulnerable, because it's worth it. And that's pretty cool. Game just f***ing hits

[h1] "BULLET HELL", "ENEMY BARRAGE", "FAST PROJECTILES", "BEGINNER KILLER" [/h1] [b] You do not need to be afraid of this demonic threat, for you are superpowered. [/b] Akashicverse is a game developed by a small team, but it shines a lot brighter than most of the STGs in the market, including high budget ones. The art direction is masterful, the sound design is powerful and the overall aesthetics are probably some of the best ever made in the genre. This game is so synchronized with its OST that the absurd care that went through this title can't be understated. And man, the OST... It's so good that it could be sold by itself and it would be a damn good album. It's Nier and Umineko tiers of impressive. This game is, undoubtfully, a masterwork. One which really impresses me the fact that it came from a very humble origin, because this feels like a high budget game. Still, it has no mercy on any players who aren't ready to truly immerse themselves into the experience of battling unfathomable odds. And regardless of how many times you die — it's all your fault, because you always had the perfect toolset at your disposal. By using fighting game inputs, you will cast METHODS, superpowers that are able to both defend and empower you. Be prepared to either excel and inflict ultimate violence against your enemies, or die through a horde of desperate violence, enforced by high speed bullets and unrelenting enemies. If I have any criticism to this game, is that I feel it needed a bit of more method (no pun intended) to its madness. You only have one life; and even if you have a shield system, you will have to turn your shield off constantly since grazing allows you to increase your energy level. And yeah, energy is used for the METHOD spells I mentioned. This would be totally fine if some bullets weren't too slow sometimes and after evading patterns, you might die to some lone stray fire. You won't be punished by your skill, only simply for some temporary lack of attention. Considering this game is inspired by Hellsinker, I expected a bit more care in this regard, especially because Hellsinker is a lot more careful with this. I also feel that the fighting game inputs are somewhat of a drag sometimes and you might die if you do a wrong input accidently. Or if you are like me, an ADAM 2 user, you will end up casting the wrong spell out of using a previous input to evade, which ends up connecting wth the string of inputs you need for a superpower. Thankfully, I think the devs noticed it and their next game, Astralbringers, will use mouse movement for the player ship, while also allowing your other hand to cast spells through keyboard inputs. This seems both clever and innovative, solving the main design issue the combat has and also making something totally unique out of it. I'm hyped. Regardless of these issues, they're really small. They hardly ever hinder this game's luster. The most extreme action game I've ever played, and it's for sure both an unforgettable, and a very fun experience. If you are into extreme action or shoot'em ups, you should get it now. And also, maybe look into other Endless Shirafu games. Still haven't played them, but Akashicforce and that Hymeno Striker short game also look very unique. And also, if you want a proof that STGs still have a lot of brilliant ideas be explored, if you want a STG that truly reinvents the genre through its own identity... This one is one of the main options. It truly honors its main inspiration, Hellsinker, as one of the most innovative and incredible games that ever spawned from the doujin culture. Or maybe, that ever spawned from gaming as a whole. 9/10