First, a small definiton of what a shmup is: In a STG, the player character engages in a lone assault, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. Shmups call for fast reactions and for the player to memorise levels and enemy attack patterns. "Bullet Hell" or "Danmaku" games feature overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles.


BLUE WISH RESURRECTION PLUS

COMPATIBILITY: Windows.
LENGTH: 5 Stage + 1 TLB
LANGUAGE: ENG Menus - JP Text
DIFFICULTY: Varies between Very Easy in easiest setting (Accel Off - Wait On - Guard On - Heaven Difficulty) and Hellish on hardest setting (Accel On - Waif Off - Guard Off - Hell Difficulty)
PERSONAL RATING: ★★★★★ - One of the best free doujin shmups.
DOWNLOAD: Click
OFFICIAL SITE: Click
CONTROLS: Z: Shoot - X: Bomb - A: Pause - ESC: Quit - Arrows: Movement

Personally I find this game one of the best start you can have if you never played a Bullet Hell before. It's very beginner friendly and a really good game (feels like a CAVE shooter) Gameplay consist revolve about bullet canceling and scoring with point blank kills, the game is very generous with the hitbox and when it come about lives and bombs, giving you plenty of them if you score well. I found the soundtrack very good also, It's from Cyber Rainforce, their tracks are free so if you want to hear more, don't doubt about going to their website.

Here's also a shitty and fast replay I did for this spotlight: Click - Made plenty of mistakes, Stage 1 and 2 were flawless, 3 was good enough (that big mistake with the boss... also used way more bombs that I wanted), 4 and 5 were a disaster in every possible way. Ended up with a pretty bad score, but atleast managed to do a quick 1cc. Going to do a better one later. Settings: Accel Off - Wait On - Guard Off - Original Difficulty. Also as you can see I not very good at this kind of game either, that doesn't stop me from enjoying them! And it shouldn't stop you too!

New Replay: Click Settings: Accel Off - Wait Off - Guard Off - Original Difficulty.

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Since this is the first spotlight, I do a little FAQ (I lied! nobody asked me a thing!) that may apply to most games that are going to be spotlighted here.

The game doesn't work.

Well, you see, most of these games are doujin games made as a hobby in most cases, that didn't cater for a international audience. So what does have to do with the game no starting? Easy, most of these are made for a japanese PC in mind, so you may need to change your system locale to japanese to have the game work, this can be done either the applocale way, or the most easy one, changing your whole system locale to japanese (This DOESN'T CHANGE your system language to japanese, this only change the default languague in some applications -rarely must say, only happened one time to me, and was with photoscape- and changes the backslash sign to a yen sign). Since setting applocale can be quite difficult for an unexperienced user I explain how to set your system locale:

  1. Go to control panel
  2. Go to Regional and Language Options
  3. Click on Administrative and then go to Language for non-Unicode Programs and chose "Japanese (Japan)" now click OK
  4. Restart the PC.

You can always revert this to the previous config anytime you want if it causes problems.

What is TLB?

TLB means True Last Boss, it's usually a last boss you unlock by fulfilling a secret objective (like no death, no bombs, no continues, certain amount of score or a combination of anything of these). Unlocking those are hard enough, beating them can prove to be very difficult.

What means 1cc?

Means clearing the game on one credit or in other words using no continues, I don't consider a game cleared unless I 1cc it, obviously, if it your first time playing a game, nobody would say a thing if you pop in some continues to see some of the latter bosses patterns (I do it myself).

This game is too hard, do you have any tips?

DON'T ALWAYS look to your hitbox, neither the bullets, instead look for aperture in the incoming bullets or in other words where the bullets aren't, otherwise you won't see these coming. While bombspaming it's bad, because you end up not learning the patterns, no using bombs it's even worse, especially on games like give a lot bombs or not penalize you for using them. Also avoid getting trapped on the bullet barrage, happens quite offen if you aren't careful enough. And lastly practice, it just take dedication and you will notice how your skills improve. Don't give up! If you need even more help, I recommend looking for a superplayer on Youtube or NND and watch his videos, there you would notice their tactics, approachs and routes.

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I guess that's all for now, hope you guys enjoy this spotlight! Tell me any improvement I can make to the series. And thanks xKomachi for helping me formatting this post!

Best Regards!

10 years ago*

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In other news, Crimzon Clover is coming to Steam.

10 years ago
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Thanks for the info, added it to wish list :D

10 years ago
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A really great game, Is a must if you never played it!

10 years ago
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This thread will obviously need Warning Forever at some point, though you will need to find an alternate download link as the developer's site no longer exists. I have a download link here

10 years ago
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Yes, Warning Forever was going to appear, I still have it downloaded. Thank you for the link! saved me a lot of trouble.

Also must say that I didn't know about that Street of Rage Remake, looks quite good, so I thank you for that too!

10 years ago
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Yay for getting another person to play SoRR. :D

10 years ago
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Found SoRR awesome! However, it will have to wait for my 1cc!

10 years ago
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Just little bump! Also did another replay: Click this time with wait option off, but scored slightly worse. Now I'll try a Hell run!

10 years ago
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I'm disappointed with the lack of responses. Anyway Asterbreed is coming soon on steam.

10 years ago
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This one looks pretty good. Another Eldelweiss gem? (Loved Ether Vapor)

10 years ago
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You can download japanese trial version here.

10 years ago
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Going to give it a try then. Thank you, didn't know it had a trial released.

10 years ago
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Nice post, I'll give the game a try, though I'm horrible at these games.

10 years ago
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No need to be good to enjoy these, I also was pretty horrible when I started (I couldn't even 1cc them at the easiest setting)

10 years ago
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I'll give this a try later since I have nothing to do :3

10 years ago
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Hope you enjoy it then!

10 years ago
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The mention of applocale reminded me of this: Locale Emulator

I haven't tried it though.

10 years ago
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Never tried it neither. But seems to be very user-friendly, I might try it later.

10 years ago
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If you want to go with a more "classic" styled shmup, be sure to try Hydorah. It's pretty good.

10 years ago
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I love locomalito works! Maldita Castilla is really good.

10 years ago
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Seems awesome, might play it after finishing Touhou Soccer.

10 years ago
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Hope it meets your expectations!

10 years ago
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Thanks for sharing, will try this later.

10 years ago
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You're welcome, hope you enjoy!

10 years ago
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Ah doujin game me gusta :) I have a special site in my bookmarks with such games ;)

10 years ago
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I also love doujin games!

10 years ago
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While my interaction with them is pretty limited (haven't even played Touhou, lol) I must say that I really like Bullet Hell games. They provide a (sort of) nice, fun and fair challenge. :D

I see you don't have Jamestown or the Gundemonium Collection. Totally recommend you try them out. ^_^
They play around with the usual Shmup formula you described- Jamestown's bomb mechanic is more of a "shield mechanic" and functions completely differently, Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne are side-scrollers which makes them quite different from top-down shmups and Hitogata Happa's mechanics are barely comparable to other ones(Your "characters" are actually suicide bombs that you activate by ramming the enemies with them after they are charged... yeah, it's absurdly difficult. :D ). Also all of them have awesome soundtracks.

10 years ago
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I feel this one is really beginner friendly on the easiest setting, you shouldn't have much problem with it if you have previous experience. Also you should totally play Touhou if you like bullet hell games.

Can't say I played those. But Hitogata Happa has been under my radar for a while.

10 years ago
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Finally beat hell difficulty! I only had one continue left in reserve,but I did it :)

Music was okay. I didn't like the boss theme,but stage 3's music was nice,and all other tracks were not really notable. It fits,nothing more.

Controls were usable but weird. Holding primary fire will slow you down and show what I assume is your hitbox. Moving while not slowed down was a recipe for disaster. This really discouraged the use of secondary fire.

Bullet patterns were the biggest turn down for me and the only thing I had real issues with. First,some were impossibly fast - I could possibly dodge them if I had a slow-motion button,but as is it felt like if you were in the wrong position you were bound to get hit and if not they did nothing.
Second,some bullet patterns were not fair - as in,there were moments that while they were generally spots you could be in and not get hurt on the screen,those places were inaccessible from my current position. Something like 'if you were in the middle right you could twitch a bit and survive the wave,but since you're in the middle left you're surrounded by bullets and more bullets are approaching you current position'. Thanks to the really small hitbox they could technically be dodged but given the relatively fast-paced nature of the game it was more or less luck.
Third is interaction between enemies - while each enemy separately had a dodgeable pattern,sometimes their mixed patterns were truly impossible to dodge if you were in the wrong position.
Forth,lockdown. Bottom-middle is the optimal spot to be in,but sometimes you had to move to the edge to dodge or hit some enemies. If you're at the edge with a screen full of bullets and enemies - you have very little clear space to move to and getting back to the middle was almost impossible without getting hit. This is enhanced by enemies that you didn't take care of - if something manage to get to the bottom of the screen your reaction time to it's bullets was severely cut,so you couldn't juke them as they didn't even have time to spread - you had to go upwards which equals suicide,or go to the side which leads to the above problem.
Last is notability - some enemies just blend in with the background and shot a small amount of bullets,while I was busy dodging the mini-mini-bosses' bullets. I found myself dying to those 'sneak attacks' more than I died to the stage's final bosses.

I tried out several ships but eden was the only one that I felt comfortable with. Not sure why.

Still,it was incredibly satisfying to win. A few tips to anyone who has problems - try out all ships to see which you are the most comfortable with,toggle between using your secondary and primary fire to spread and focus your shots,don't let ANYTHING get down the screen,try and stay in the middle - move only a small bit and try to graze the bullets instead of running away from your position,and lastly,if you're about to get hit,USE YOUR BOMBS. Getting hit will discard one bomb to destroy all bullets and render enemies unable to shoot for a small duration,while using a bomb will not only make that duration much longer but also make you perform a special attack that will often wipe the screen from cannon fodders and deal lethal damage to mini-mini-bosses.

10 years ago
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Congrats!

The music was good, I think, don't know much since I ended using custom music (played this game before and grew tired of the music, but when I first played it I found it good).

Controls were pretty much like every other doujin game. Z X C A S Shift and Control are the usual scheme for these games.

They were fast, yes. The patterns, It's not like they are not fair, but more like you need to avoid being trapped (it's on the tips section of the FAQ "Also avoid getting trapped on the bullet barrage, happens quite often if you aren't careful enough") but the game give you bombs for that reason, so you can get out of a situation you know you screw up. You want to clear up the screen of enemies before they fill it with bullets and only killing the big ones when you want to bullet-cancel, or score (also before the get too close). Enemy blending on the background IS a problem, but I didn't noticed it.

Every one have a different style for playing games, I reccomend testing every type of ship and find the one that suit you better (in your case, Eden).

In any case. Did you enjoyed it? Are you going to try to 1cc it on a lower difficulty? I have a plan for the next one (which should be appearing between tomorrow and monday, hopefully), I do have a run of myself 1cc'ing it since a few days ago (It was quite easy on normal), but I want to try something that may allow me to include a giveaway for those who participate.

10 years ago
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At my first run I died in stage 5 between the midboss and the final boss. Considering I now beat hell with a continue to spare,I think I can consider this one finished. I 1cc'd heaven(with one bomb to spare^^) already and I don't think I can do this for normal.
As for bullet patterns,while it's true the game is generous with bombs and lives,I feel like a good game is one that always gives you the option to escape without using a bomb if you're good enough. If the actual ship model was as small as the hitbox it'd be much easier to navigate.
Well,yes,it was fun,but I'd like to see some other..variations? Something else than the stock sci-fi one futuristic ship versus hordes of enemies. Like unique mechanics or a good story,or at least colorful bullets that spread in beautiful patterns.

10 years ago
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Something like Touhou? There's a few really nice fangames out of there that doesn't require danmakufu (I want to avoid games using it, since I want to keep it as simple as "download, extract and play"), but for next one I wanted to stick to the same style. I might put a touhou-like game on the 3rd or 4th.

10 years ago
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Even if touhou was free it'd be way too hard to feature here imo. Pretty bullet patterns or good story are not tied to difficulty. Extract and play is way better than installing imo but if the game is good I'll let it pass,no big deal. As for fangames,I'd say avoid them unless they require no knowledge of Touhou to be fully enjoyable(they tend to be reference-heavy).

In the end,I trust you to make the right decisions - I can only offer my opinion. This is your spotlight and you decide what's in it :)

10 years ago
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I think I explained myself wrong. I was refering a Touhou clone (no characters from touhou involved, yet share the same mechanics), not a Fangame, since those require some knowledge about its universe.

That being said, I don't want to put a very hard game here (for example Aero Chimera was one I tried for the next spotlight, but decided to not include since I found it too hard for a beginner)

10 years ago
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I could definitely see some bullet mechanics from touhou(such as delayed/splitting/going in reverse bullets or sakuya's knife usage that calls past patterns and adds them to the current) fitting here,if their difficulty is tuned down so they are easy enough for people new to bullet hells to pass; But touhou games had their own share of problems(different hitboxes for different characters and relying on memorization of safe spots) so I think it's best to give a taste of everything rather than stick around one type - have one game with an exceptional story,one with gorgeous art,one with unique-r mechanics(maybe something like the one where aya goes picture-hunting,or no traditional life/bomb system) and one with rpg-like upgrades.

Then again,I trust your judgement,do whatever you feel is right.

10 years ago
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Closed 10 years ago by nwod.