tl;dr: it's really just Virtual-On (and I mean this literally, the mechanics are lifted straight from it) but kinda jank. If you don't knowtl;dr: it's really just Virtual-On (and I mean this literally, the mechanics are lifted straight from it) but kinda jank. If you don't know what Virtual-On is, this isn't going to be the best introduction.
It looks nothing like Sega's mech arena game, but after a quick and easy control remap, there's no mistaking it, and most of the characters have movesets ripped straight from Sega's giant robot series anyway.
There's a story. It's just okay. It's not terribly good. There's a Yukkuri boss that's basically Virtual-On's Z-Gradt but not really. The writing is pretty amatuerish, but this was originally just a doujin game, so that's par for the course, and maybe I'll blame the localization team for how some of the personalities are.
There are extra modes like score attack and arcade. They're the same thing, except score attack ranks you on more than how many enemies you've defeated.
There's music. It's just okay. Nothing special, which is disappointing for a Touhou game.
There are graphics. They're largely mediocre. Environments look decent, but the player models are kinda lame. They're in this weird mix of not quite chibi and not quite regularly proportioned. There are also some framerate issues here and there.
There are controls. After quickly remapping the controls to the very familiar VO:OT layout, I was dashing around and enjoying myself. The default layout kinda sucks and seems largely unsuited for what the game is.
If you're a-okay with VO on pad, you can make everything be as it should be. The standard VO:OT layout for this game would be L for main attack, R for secondary attack (L+R will do your third weapon like in VO), Square for turbo, Triangle to jump, X to land/block CC attacks. Circle can be the third weapon (you need to map it to something, since your super is done by pressing all three attack buttons). It works like a charm. You can even curve dash with the right stick.
Once remapped to something familiar, it was all very nice and everything felt smooth, except for the fact that you automatically face the opponent most of the time -- which is admittedly quite convenient, except when it's not. You can jump cancel and all of that, but that's more useful for getting into close-combat range or dodging CC attacks. Unlike VO proper, there's way less pause after attacks or landing or dashing, which is probably the reason the stamina gauge was included in the first place.
Some reviews say the game is slow paced, but those reviewers are wrong, the game's almost (if not quite) as fast as the twitchy VO:OT.
A lot of stages don't have any walls. This seems kinda lame, until you play the stages that do have 'em, which are really poorly laid out, and the auto-aim camera makes navigating around them a bit trickier than in actual Virtual-On, which only re-aims the player when they jump or attack.
There's a stamina gauge to keep you from dashing too much, and you're stuck vulnerable when you run out. If you're doing a dash attack, stamina won't keep draining.
All the standard VO attack types exist (normal, crouching, turbo, dashing in each direction, air).
You can also hit someone after knockdown, just like VO:OT.
In conclusion, It's not a miserable game at all, but it should really be better considering the series it takes its mechanics from.… Expand
