Universal Danmaku Unlimited 2 (+ Lite Version) by Sunny Tam

I LOL'd.

 

I would love to see how good a game by Sunny would look with iPad retina, but I'm totally over the lack of it here. The pixel edges are beatifully sharp, so I just tell myself I'm playing an old-school arcade game MAME style or something (which I essentially am) and all is good.

P.S. Those of you who haven't rated the game's appinfo should remember to do that

 

You have to 1cc the game on hard or extreme to get to the true boss. The beginning background in stage 5 will look slightly different (reverse scrolling/purple..er?) when you do.

 

Woah right on! And another challenge to try and take on!

 

It's an issue if people are brining it up. You can't argue that having smaller orbs is going to be a detriment to the gameplay. And I agree about having the trace missiles as possible having a more 'missile-like' shape, possiby more oval shaped as opposed to circular.

I am wondering if maybe a tutorial that goes into more detail than what is currently available in the game is necessary to explain the scoring structure a little more thoroughly. The more casual gamer will not know a lot of this.

 

Truth! +1

 

I think my favorite scene graphically in this game is on the third board, when that mid boss comes in on an angle. Not only does that ship look sweet, but the cloud patterns in the background (when I am able to take my eyes off the bullets) are beautiful.

 

Just bought the sh!t out of this gem. I had the chance to beta test it and as with others enjoyed this. just awesome game what else is there to say

 

Holy crap... This is a first for me. I was sure Crazy Bill was gonna be my gotw, but i just cant put DU2 down.

It's the first bullet hell shooter i really liked, and this is the first time im choosing a shmup as my gotw.

Only gripe right now is that we had a short power interruption earlier and my 240M score didnt upload! Well... Gotta play more!

 

One of the things I said to Sunny while testing this was how appealing the bullet hell/grazing was for me, more so than a lot of other bullet hell titles.

 

Well, I for one, don't like the size or looks of the orbs, and this kinda includes the stars and diamonds too. They need to be more transparent at the very least, like how they are in cave games. Or maybe made smaller or resigned, it really is detracting in the gameplay for me.

Also, the sound effects need improvement, even when I jack the music volume down, I don't get a great experience of the sound effects. I miss that from the original Danmaku, that had a lot better sound effects combined with pumping music.

Also, the bullets seem slower in this compared to the original. The original seemed more fast and furious

And then of course is the lack of ipad retina, this was a little disappointing.

Anyway, these are improvements that I would suggest, not posting these to criticize or downplay the game, just notes I would make if I were a beta tester. Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.

 

I'm not just trying to be contrary here, but one of the key differences between bullet hell/danmaku and standard SHMUPs is that they usually have slower bullets. Especially when it comes to bosses, it's about memorising the patterns more than reacting quickly. Slow bullets and learning patterns is why I love danmaku and don't care much for regular SHMUPs.

In fact just to be clear, if I disagree with anyone here it's not because I don't respect their opinion, it's just because I've waited for so long for someone to get this kind of game right, and this is one of the few times it has been. I'm open to changes, but I also gotta protect the stuff I love

 

Haha, I think we are all pretty much in agreement that this game was done right If we are going to disagree, it is a matter of artistic nuances, like in the case of the orbs.

Let me ask you this, Midian, hypothetically speaking... Since the size of the orbs does not seem to bother you, how would you feel if they were half the size they are now?

 

Is it worth 5 of my bucks

 

It is worth 5 of your bucks.

 

I'd be fine with that

 

I was just thinking back to this post and wondering how well a game mode devoted entirely to this idea might work. Give the enemies a ridiculous amount of HP to make the regular weapons weak, almost to the point of making them useless. Then make the trance weapon strong enough to counter the enemies' high HP and make the refill while grazing generous enough to theoretically keep it alive the entire stage. The idea essentially being "keep grazing or lose your power and die".

Or how about this... no weapons at all during regular flight, your ship can only fire while it's grazing.

 

Just voted DU2 as game of the week...
I just hope to see more and more and more people on the leaderboards!! C'mon everyone that's reading, buy this spectacular bullet hell masterpiece!!

To the dev: I have just a couple of little suggestions for a future update: leaderboards for the single stages and the addition of a button "restart" in the pause menu...
Congrats again to the dev, really an awesome job!!

 

Castle of Shikigamii 3 for the Wii is kind of like that. Your shot is significantly more powerful only while you're grazing, making it a necessity when up against bosses and harder waves of enemies.

Also, Phoenix HD has a DLC ship that basically only fires when grazing.