Sora

 PC
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. GameGrin
    Feb 7, 2016
    90
    As a shmup, it will provide ample challenge for everybody, but even if you find it teeth-grindingly tricky in the early goings, the high production values and the interesting framing device will keep your interest rapt.
  2. Worth Playing
    Jun 6, 2016
    80
    Sora is an experience worth checking out if you're grown bored of the standard bullet hell formula.
  3. Brash Games
    Mar 22, 2016
    70
    Anyone who loves action will like Sora. My only complaint about Sora is that I got bored after awhile. There wasn’t enough variety in each level. The gameplay was pretty much the same in each level. It was too straight-forward and you knew what to expect.
  5. Multiplayer.it
    Jan 25, 2016
    70
    Sora is another great shooter made by Orange Juice, held back by some technical deficiencies.
  6. COGconnected
    Jan 16, 2016
    60
    Sora succeeds in providing a satisfying toolset for players to mix and match playstyles and attacks. The sheer number of mechanics adversely gets in the way of consistently fun combat as players are bound to forget the dozens of weapons and dash combinations triggered by an insane number of button commands that are introduced.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. Turboblast
    Apr 14, 2016
    10
    Best shoot em up to ever exist and that ever will. Best girls, best story possible and defies all human logic that a mere mortal was able toBest shoot em up to ever exist and that ever will. Best girls, best story possible and defies all human logic that a mere mortal was able to conceive a game of this high caliber!… Full Review »
  2. CenturionPPV
    Apr 14, 2016
    10
    This game takes everything that was great about Suguri and improves upon it. The action is fast paced and demands your full attention.This game takes everything that was great about Suguri and improves upon it. The action is fast paced and demands your full attention. Blinking may be the difference between life and death. The bosses are challenging and the patterns often hard to pick out. Even if you memorize them, you'll still need the utmost precision.

    The story of the game is rather simple and doesn't overcomplicate the game. The overall ambience and tone of the game and settings reflect the turbulence and struggle the protagonist Sora feels inside.

    Overall, beautiful game, lovely mechanics, and a real treat to anyone who likes action and challenge. Definitely would recommend this game for sure.    … Full Review »
  3. letcreate123
    Jun 9, 2016
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Finally finished the game. Also I got the 2016 version so this review will finally be fully accurate.

    This time I don't want to write too much, since my score should already tell enough, but I'll describe this anyways.
    Sora is a game, first released in 2010, and had it's English translation released in 2012. The translation, however, became infamous, not to mention the antecedents of the translator (they already had got infamous by their translation of a game called Frane), but that won't affect the review, since it has been addressed in the 2016 Steam version (the one from the Metacritic page), which had amazing translation and addressed other points (such as the use of Comic Sans for the intro and credits in the 2012, seriously). The 2016 version also had the option to enable or disable blur effects, and used another render for the graphics (which became a problem at least for me, since it slowed down for me waaaay more often and the slowdowns were worse), but I guess that won't affect the score either. It also had the ability to properly change the resolution (no widescreen support during normal gameplay, minus the very final battle, though) which was pretty positive.

    Now let's get into the actual game itself. First, the gameplay. You can assign three different kinds of weapons to your character; Main, Sub and Special. The main weapon shoots beams, the sub shoots physical stuff such as missiles, etc. and the special weapon is for special purposes. I don't wanna get too much into that, but you can also unlock weapons from time to time by scoring points and whatnot. There's also the Dash. The Dash allows you to go at high speeds and walk through beams (but not through physical attacks). It also leaves rings behind for a moment, which beams can go through to charge the hyper bar, which we'll go through now. The hyper bar can be charged (up to 3 times) to be able to use a hyper attack of either the main, sub or special weapon. There's also the heat bar, which I won't really explain because I don't want to just explain every detail of the gameplay. Anyways, all of this turns the experience into a true pinnacle. There's also difficulty settings which help a lot for beginners and experts. Now, the graphics. There isn't really much to say about them, just that they're greatly detailed, and the characters are very pretty, cute, and overall detailed. Now into the story. The backstory tells that the sky was once blue, but was/is getting painted darker with each passing moment, due to war, people killing each other, etc. Nobody knows who started the war anymore, and they just fight without actually knowing what they're fighting for. They just want to win. A reploid girl named Sora was born during this time, and she was created mainly for battle, given how powerful she is. Later, other people who have escaped are working to save their planet, and Sora is rescued by one of them. The guy tells Sora that he wants to see the sky blue again, etc. The more he talks, the more desperate she gets, eventually asking him if she could help him as well. As such, Sora decides to fight to protect the world, althrough eventually realizes that makes her part of the war as well. Nonetheless, she continues fighting until eventually accomplishing her goal (sort of). I won't get any further into the story. And last, the soundtrack. The soundtrack in this game is TOP tier, dude. It's some of the best soundtrack you'll hear in a videogame. All of it was composed by DEKU, and I give them props for that. Not much to say. You'll probably want to listen to those songs for an eternity.

    Overall, this is a game that does everything right for its genre. Great gameplay, amazing design, really cool graphics, cool story (heh puns) and incredible soundtrack. I would recommend it to bullet hell fans, or to people looking to get into bullet hell games, too.    … Full Review »
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