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Dubbed a "Dimension Switching Vertical Shooting Game", "SwordBreaker: 2D / NOT 2D (also known as "2D or Not 2D: That is the Question") is a rather fun and obtuse game with some interesting mechanics that borrows some inspiration from the "Touhou" series but has a lot of stuff going on under the hood. The game is exceedingly rare and the small dev team at "else undefind" spent about 2 years (from 2014 - 2016) developing it then stopped making games shortly after release. They also developed "Magical Party: Panelia" and the demo of "SwordBreaker: Chronogrammaton"

The game features two "Swordbreaker" witches, Juno and Litte, who are sent to investigate anomalies in their kingdom of "Millenilia" caused by errant magic. Tasked by the immortal "Millenium Witch", a strange space dubbed the "Flat Area" is causing everything to become flat and is encroaching their kingdom. Juno is a little safer to use and specializes in homing abilities while Litte uses a stronger focused laser and tracking bits (bits that, once they hit an enemy, stay fixed on them). There is a lot of jargon to keep track of too... Ether, Consumption, Solid, Fluid, Atmosphere, Tablets, Rings, Fame, Heat, etc., and it can be difficult to keep track of it even once you understand the correlation between everything. That said, let's dive into it a little.

Ether can basically be seen as your overall pool of power and this power is channeled through "Tablets", which you have 3 by default. I say this because you can change the number of tablets but not the overall amount of Ether, and more Tablets means more opportunities to stay alive but lower attack potency while less tablets means higher attack potency as you burn Ether in a quicker and more concentrated form and also activate an "OverDrive" state more aggressively when your "Heat" reaches its maximum threshold. However, this results in a lower defense potency. Tablets second as shields and when the player is hit, they lose Ether or get shattered if the attack is powerful enough, but the Tablet will protect you at least once (at the cost of losing the Tablet). Different attacks will cause the player's Ether to fluctuate between a Solid and a Liquid, but if the Tablet is empty, it cannot be restored until Ether is completely solid, so be careful. Bosses also have Tablets and can be defeated by breaking their Tablets or reducing their health to zero.

Speaking a bit more on the Heat and OverDrive systems, the player gains chips when defeating enemies, but defeating enemies while in OverDrive will net gold chips which helps restore Ether, increase your score and Fame, and also alters the "Atmosphere". The "Atmosphere" changes depending on the player's skill level and will increase the intensity of the enemies but will also reward more chips and increase your score. The Ring Gauge System shows the player's remaining Ether with White / Yellow highlighting Liquid Ether and Red highlighting Solid Ether and the goal, like most shooters, is to get hit as little as possible. To assist in this endeavor is the "3D Expansion" system. At any time, the player can push a button and turn the field from "2D" to "3D', though the 3D field will consume Ether and will eventually be disabled if your Ether becomes too low. This is important as some waves are designed to be impossible to navigate without abusing this mechanic, so balancing your use of Ether, learning when to push your Heat to the limit, and proper deployment of 2D and 3D fields is essential to get the most out of the game.

So, with all of that out of the way, you may be asking: what is the point of getting Fame? We kinda get Heat, Rings, Tablets, OverDrive, Ether, 2D/3D and all that jazz, but is Fame even worth getting? The answer is YESSSS. Fame is also collected based on the player's scoring and skills and gets converted into "Icons" depending on how far you get, whether you finish or quit, etc. These Icons, to put it simply, unlock various features in the game, but you can also use them to continue if you die (this is discouraged of course).

Visually, the game is pretty simple like many Doujin shooters coming out around this time with lots of GUI displays, talking anime characters, and simple sprites and backgrounds, but everything runs smoothly and the game's gimmick of swapping perspectives is a nice touch. The music is also quite good and evokes a fusion of "Touhou" with "Castle of Shikigami" in some instances but also has some nice piano pieces and other set pieces. There's also a load of options and tutorials to fiddle around with to cater to players of most skill levels and there's also some Omake content if the player can achieve the "GOOD ENDING" after the "Another Day" segment.

The dev is still activate and does not want distribution at this time. Enjoy.

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