Shikhondo(食魂徒) - Soul Eater Reviews

A Bullet Hell game with an Asian horror aesthetic. It is short and there are not a ton of different enemies to shoot down, but there are several difficulty levels and two alternate modes to play, so there is enough replay value to be worth playing. Also, the controls are excellent. Bullet Hell games with bad controls are incredibly frustrating to play. I do wish there was more variety in characters and more story / lore in the game. They do have a new game coming out soon, Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage, so hopefully it will be just as high quality with a little more variety.

A solid beginner-friendly bullet hell shooter. Not too difficult, but not quite a cakewalk. Incredibly stylish with great boss designs. Soundtrack is fantastic. I can see this as being a good intro for those looking to get into bullet hell games. If you care about completion, you can unlock all the achievements by the end of your first playthrough.

The 'graze for bomb' system and infinity retries after death makes Shikhondo a very forgiving danmaku, might be good for those who wanted to get into the hell of bullet hell games. Custom mode is also not something I can complain about. As someone who plays a game because of the soundtrack, I got convinced enough to get this game with the OST, and I don't regret it. The atmosphere difference between each stage themes makes the game isn't always suspensed or relaxed all the time. A pity only the last boss has her own boss theme. Overall visually appealing, though I only noticed the score is on top of screen after I reached stage 4 or something.. The lack of story, however, is what makes this game very weak, making great character concepts seemed pointless in the end.

Vertical bullet hell with a fantasy horror theme. Precise controls with different shot types and focus mechanic. Stunning graphics and rocking music. Interesting and challenging bullet patterns. [i]Listed on the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40858110-Shoot-%2527em-up-Database/]Shoot 'em up Database[/url][/i]

The game is great, presentation and music are stellar, gameplay is keeping it simple, a bit more variation in enemy formations and bullet pattern would have been nice, but the bosses fully make up for that. The game is running on Unity, so everything scales nicely to whatever res your display is supporting. This might end up being an overlooked gem. So please, by all means, look at it!

Fellow arcade stick users, please read before considering a purchase. The visuals and audio is great. The controller support isn't. It's bad, real bad. Attempting to play this on an actual arcade stick is an absolute nightmare. The controller-inputs are reversed and the unity settings for inputs is busted. Any attempts made to rectify the issue results in either up or down missing or the game receiving a million inputs per frame. Since i can't play the game, i simply refunded it. I can't stress this enough, if you are thinking about playing this on an arcade stick, stay away! There are a million other Schmups that has proper controller support and great gameplay. Go play those instead, like Jamestown.

I love the aesthetics. But the game lacks polish. Great art doesn't mean anything with terrible animations. Bullet visibility is really bad.

Two ways this game can get better: 1. Story mode 2. More characters The music's awesome, art is gorgeous, and I would really appreciate back story on the bosses, as well as the player characters! (A reaper and a high school girl with a sword? wth) I really want to know story on all the bosses, especially the last one. She has such a sad song Edit: for grammar and spelling. Initial review was written after playing the game for hours

The bullet and enemy patterns repeat a lot and carry over to each stage. The boss theme is the same for every boss which is some repetitive dubstep style music which wears after a while. Its fun the first time you play it but after a couple playthroughs you realize its not really that good.

I think I'll have to file this one under shmups to recommend to players new to the genre. It'll feel right at home to anyone who has played a Touhou game before. The gameplay is forgiving and accessible enough to keep new players from getting frustrated, despite sacrificing some of that raw adrenaline an experienced bullet hell player seeks out (I was able to very nearly 1CC the game on just my second attempt). Variety in game modes I can't complain about, but given I've only spent a couple hours with this game I'm sure there's something still I haven't seen in it. Withholding judgment for now. Menus and UI while aesthetically pleasing could do with a little polish. For example it took me a solid hour to figure out where the score was displayed due to it being partially transparent and blended with the backgrounds. I also could not for the life of me figure out what the "Customize" game menu did. I adore the backgrounds, enemy designs and overall art of the game. The combination of still and floaty jerky animations on parts of the characters and bosses contribute to a very creepy vibe that tickles a very happy part of my soul. Sound design. This is where I have mixed feelings on. Overall the sounds in the game felt a little flat. Long droning hums to indicate information to the player while consistent with the grim theme aren't particularly stimulating. Even the larger enemies vanish with little more than an unsatisfying "phut". Last gripe is there's very little to communicate the player has taken damage short of an immersion-breaking panicked glance at the bottom UI. There were several instances where I was unsure for a good several seconds whether I'd been hit or if I'd managed to get a bomb off in time. The music is another hit or miss affair. I enjoyed the eerie lonesome sounding stage music, and some of the boss themes during their non-awakened phase, but after hearing the same dubstep drop 3 or 4 times during the 2nd boss phases I started to tire of it. Tech. I'm not going to whinge on about technical issues endlessly. No game is bug free and this is no exception, but here are some of the ones I observed. It may be an engine limitation but I noticed several instances where the frame rate would suddenly drop during boss death sequences. In the 2nd and 4th stages there was a brief period at the beginning of the stage where my directional inputs wouldn't respond even as enemies started to appear and I only regained control after tapping one of the fire buttons. Lastly, and I don't know whether to classify this as a bug or a UX quibble, but the score entry screen gives the feeling that it's hanging after selecting the "End" button because the game is saving data but there's no sound or visual cue that the game is doing something other than your controls being locked. Overall. Solid shmup with the potential to be a great shmup barring a few polish-related issues. I've certainly paid more for much, MUCH less. Update: This game has received quite a bit of post-launch support. I don't mean that in that it was unfinished on launch, but in the realm of improved controller support and additional game modes at no extra charge. As it stands now this is definitely a shmup worth picking up.