The Shmup Character Issue | Caladrius Blaze (and More!)
392The Shmup Character Issue | Caladrius Blaze (and More!). HOT GIRLS. SEXY BABES. BUFF BROS. COOL DUDES. Shmups (shoot em' ups) are filled with iconic and interesting characters ... sort of. Judging by the box art of many games, including the game that inspired today's video, Caladrius Blaze, shmups are jammed with compelling characters and designs. HOWEVER, there is one really big problem with character representation within the genre (and I don't mean in the Eurogamer anti-Dead or Alive sense), which is that the characters ... aren't actually in the games in a meaningful way. Sure the game will reference the characters on the attract mode or maybe in th end credits, but for the most part think how many games you have bought that had cool characters on front and then generic ships in the actual gameplay. That's just a part of the problem however. Even if the games do try to add more character presence like Caladrius Blaze for example, that presence usually boils down to simple PNG images that pop up as you play or at best animated talking profile pictures (I'm thinking of you Star Fox). Some games like Deathsmiles, Esp. Ra. De., and Touhou do take it a step further by actually including the character sprites within the gameplay, but even in these cases it still feels under developed because of how limited the view and animation of the sprites are and how generally zoomed out the player perspective is. You'll get to know the back of the character's head really well, but that's about it.
There are more topics and ideas on the subject that I discuss in the video, but I' don't want to spoil the whole thing in the description ha. If you are interested in Caladrius Blaze, you can pick it up on Nintendo Switch, Steam (PC), Xbox 360, PS4/PS5, and even PS3.
Awesome thumbnail created by @boghogSTG
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