[Demo] Irena Genesis Metal Fury CLEAR (Score: 11,750)
4I'm aware that the game is still a demo, but when the vertical slice like this I'd rather wait for its full release than backing it up. The stage design is still rough and to put it in a phrase, overstaying its welcome.
The graphics and visuals are nice. The game is stable too, which is great. But several things to note:
1. To upgrade your weapon level universally you must pick up the same weapon icon again. Not so bad.
2. When you lose a life, boom. All the upgrades including your options and weapon level, GONE TO LEVEL 1.
3. The best weapon is the G shot since the stage design has fast enemies and mostly are popcorn enemies. At level 1 it's so pathetic might as well as restart the game! But the other 2 weapons, R and L, have bad fire rate that are based on actual cooldown time, not on-screen bullet count limit like the good ol' days. Case and point, point blanking is useless.
4. The best strategy is to stay at left-center of the screen. With the wider G shot at Lv. 2+ you'll be mostly fine. I welcome enemies that will force me from staying in that position, but not as cheaply as 4:34 with lightning-fast enemy from above, which means I can't finish it off before it comes crashing unto me!
5. On the tunnel section the options go into back shot without me doing anything despite the stage itself doesn't have enemies that come from behind. Who thought it's a good idea to change the option formation without my consent? I want my full frontal shot, not wasting my shots to the back!
6. 11 minutes for Stage 1? The enemy variation is good, but there are still empty moments, making the game rather boring. And assuming the final game is 7 stages and each stage is this long, that means clearing this game will take 77 minutes, which is too long for a shmup, a genre about non-stop onslaught! More doesn't mean it's better!
Overall, the experience of playing this game isn't that good despite the awesome presentation. There should be still time for the game to be improved. In particular scaling down the punishment or making the game tighter with less time in a single stage. I hope for the best for this game.
By the way, it would be very welcome to have the cutscenes skipable.