Barrage Fantasia Reviews

Fun shmup with a lot of options for beginners and experts as well. The artstyle is very charming and welcoming.

Barrage Fantasia is a pixel aesthetic shmup that caters to both beginners and experienced players alike. The music is pretty neat. The different types of familiars and specials depend on whether you want to play for survival or mainly for score. The way the big bullets and big hitbox visually remind me of The Adventures of Ten and Till. Just like Ten and Till the hitboxes seem to be a little bit smaller than they look. Maybe not as extreme as Ten and Till but it's definitely noticeable. if you're looking for a cute shmup and a relatively easy clear this is pretty much the game for you. Not many people will enjoy the type of scoring the game shows but I personally dig it. You pretty much have to "all break" all of the boss's parts and also cancel OR graze bullets into hearts to be able to refill your heart meter. Once you haven't been hit for a while (depends what difficulty of life you choose) you will glow a green barrier which will then allow you to get bonus's each time you extend another life in exchange for already having max life. Besides just the arcade mode the game has a section called "short" which is a set of challenges put upon you and in there you'll possibly encounter boss's and hidden things only in the challenge mode. The game has a training mode which is a plus and the in game menus are nice and simple. The only gripe I have with the game is that there isn't a instant retry button, there is no in game way to change your bindings, and last of all there isn't an online leaderboard. This didn't stop me from enjoying the game in anyway so please if you have the money do check it out.

This game's severely underrated, control remapping issues aside, the shmup that is here is very good, and lots to do, masterful level and boss design, albeit simplistic. Very enjoyable!

Don't be misled by its cute gfx, this is the real thing. I would have liked some pixel gfx a bit less coarse though. Unlocking all stuff will show you the whole content, and then it will be time to go for the score. (works fine on a lean glibc/linux distro in the steam runtime)