Game:

Senko no Ronde 2 (2017)

Duration: 4:55

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Senko No Ronde 2 is a versus bullet hell hybrid mecha game. Not unlike Acceleration Of Suguri, which likely drew inspiration from this series. (Also like Babel Sword, but who even knows that or watches my videos...)

Combat is fairly basic at its premise. A main shot, a sub shot, and a barrage shot button. You also have a shot canceler move, and a special ability that has longer cooldown.

Main shots are very basic, and may change a bit depending on if used when blocking or dashing. Sub shots are usually a gimmick, sometimes things like deployed shields that can also damage. In melee range, they turn into different melee attacks.

Barrage shots use up some meter, but are what bring bullet hell to play. There's also two more types, used by a rotation input, or forward-back input. These attacks can really start covering the screen in bullets. Your bullet canceler is usually some variant of a melee spin, and will destroy bullets hit all around you, but this can also be used as a manual melee attack.

Special abilities vary depending on the sub pilot. Every character has an alternate secondary pilot, so each mech gets two. These range from attacks to defenses, restoring your meter, or even special attacks that only work against...

B.O.S.S. mode! The last main aspect to gameplay. Each mech can combine into a huge boss unit temporarily at any time, using B.O.S.S. stocks. Here, you basically play a standard shmup boss, with slight movement control. Your opponent can try to damage you, but they'll only your phase faster, and they'll have to be more worried about the extreme firepower, which can be super hard to avoid. If you use this mode during a Vanish state (your HP will cling to 'zero' even if you took an overkill hit, but you can't block anymore), you'll enter Final B.O.S.S. mode! It's mostly the same, but it lasts longer, and you get an even crazier signature attack that only true masters could avoid.


The mech I'm playing is fairly basic but controlling. Rapid fire and beam waves, the sub shot deploys shield units that also act like stun mines, and various barrage attacks using little striker bits that attack autonomously, or calling in some bullet hell explosions. B.O.S.S. mode is very straightforward shmup boss, just a wall of firepower, that shoots beams down the middle, it can also switch sides (and ram the enemy on the way) to avoid being cheesed. Its final mode attack lays down ridiculous firepower including some huge orbs.

I'm really happy this game came out recently on PC and PS4. I wanted to play the original game for so many years... it's almost like a dream that this game randomly popped out after so many years of the series laying dormant.

This game also has online play, so that's great. So far, my biggest qualm is that the AI is pretty bad. I was playing on the hardest difficulty, Maniac, and this was nearly my first time playing outside of Practice mode to learn the moves, yet I won just toying around still getting used to the game. I've even even fought against a B.O.S.S. mode enemy that just let me sit tight as they shot forward without trying to aim at me... and in general, they're good at spamming bullets, but seem to have very little awareness care about you or your bullets. So luckily, being able to play online against people can offer that lacking challenge.

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