Reviews for DN8:Pulse

[djpraiseadelik]

Now For A Proper Review (actually in this game's case I'm adding to a lot of proper reviews so thanks to the people before me). Played the first game and was looking forward to this one by the way.

Design:
Loved the nod to TouHou in the design and gameplay. Besides that I loved the music (catchy but not mind-numbing) and the sound effects. Reminiscent of Galaxia/Galaxian to me. Enemies didn't vary much, even bosses, but the color definitely contributes to keeping the game active and fresh.
Gameplay:
It's Bullet Hell but the Graze concept is definitely a nice touch as it adds a very subtle risk/reward setup (graze for bonus lives but added risk of dying). I also like the two tiers concept i.e. lower tier for defensive/newer players and the higher one for offensive/expert players. The perks concept seemed limited but early on it gets xp/graze fast then switches over to better defense and offense (hint use first three then next three once dying isn't so much of an issue). And who doesn't love homing missiles in a schmup?

Overall 4.5/5 (having played up to final 3 levels in low tier)

ProTips (2nd one I've done first being for Pirateers. I'll keep it up unless ppl tell me they don't like it. But really who doesn't like free tips?)

1. Said it before but I'll repeat. If you're noob/seminoob to scmups and/or bullet hell games go low tier on your upgrades so you get pods for added off/def and shields for def. Won't get challenges/xp as fast but you'll live longer.
2. For pro's (like me somewhat I went low tier for 1st playthru I know) go high tier for all the attack power and a little defense (as far as I know which is up to double shot with 2 spread upgrades).
3. Remember your hitbox (i.e. it gets hit you die): it's small trust me. So just moving slightly in any direction will let you avoid hits, especially with shield/pods, while still grazing enemies. Bosses same way.

Again great schmup and has some replay value. Keep up the good work.

[Chronocidal]

I liked the 3d backgrounds, and I thought the multi-lingual warning text was a neat touch (even though I don't understand the other languages...). The game looks great on my computer (i7, dedicated GPU). Slowing the game when the cursor moved out of the play area was a nice touch. So were the enemy paths, although getting a nice obvious bonus when you shoot down an entire wave would be nice. I don't know if it's your idea or you got it somewhere else, but setting the difficulty by allowing different upgrade paths is a really cool alternative to the usual selection of "easy, normal and hard" at the beginning of the game (but see below).

On the small negative side, better contrast between your bullets, enemy bullets, and the enemy path lines would be nice (maybe difficult to pull off though). Also make it more obvious that one upgrade path is "easy" and the other "hard" (I missed the small text at first, and it's not immediately obvious that once you start down one path you can't go down the other). And having no more upgrades for the remaining few levels is sort of a downer. Finally, not being able to move up and down in the first level is disorientating. It's over fast enough, but I worry that some people might be so irritated that they would quit before they find out it's temporary.

Great job!

Squize responds:

Thanks mate.

The easy / hard path thing was something someone mentioned with the first DN8. One was always going to be aggressive and the other defensive, and the feedback was the bottom path was a lot easier, so it was a no brainer to label them up, but I didn't want to beat anyone over the head with it.

The first level is really just a basic training one, I wanted the player to get used to the HUD and shooting before giving them complete freedom of movement. If it switches some people off then that's just the way it is I'm afraid.

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the review.

[FrostyZ]

Very nice. Just a bit disappointed by the weak/weird sounds and low explosion amounts when knocking down enemies, especially bosses.

Squize responds:

Thanks for the review.
With the sound effects we couldn't really have normal explosions in there, there are so many baddies being killed at once that it would just be over-powering.
We did want Rez like sounds in there, that every baddie kill would add to the tune, but I left it too late ( And then realised it would be hard to do, and the music would need re-doing which wasn't possible ).

[tikibanana]

fun but the "get medal" alert has caused my death at least 3 times

[Ihatebots]

Wicked game. But the looping soundtrack gets kind of annoying. I love how the enemies' path are projected. Otherwise, this game would be crazy difficult!