I can confirm it's running on Unity, which means G.rev joins many other esteemed shmup developers in ditching their home-grown technology in favour of popular middleware.Well to be fair, g.rev was probably forced into that decision since half the game isn't their doing.
But thank you for the heads up! I already pre-ordered, but I'll probably d/l the demo just to squelch some nagging curiosity. Like I said, after playing 13 Sentinels, thus making clear what the whole concept is even supposed to be, I'm not expecting some classic. I know the only reason g.rev is even credited (unlike their other freelance jobs) is to drum up some interest in people like us. Still, as a general fan of their work, there is a curiosity. Even if the expectations aren't the highest.
Hell, in 13 Sentinels all the non-visual novel sections are wireframe with unanimated icons, so at least this isn't that...
EDIT: The demo defaulted to English for me
EDIT #2: So it crashed after I completed the STG section, but I think the demo ended there away. Thoughts
- I played on 'Normal' and I got through all three stages on the first go. It certainly got pretty hairy in a few places, but nothing too tough. Which I believe is 100% the intention. They want to get your heart rate up, but don't want to punish you. Still, if I was to play in score attack (not available in the demo), I'd probably take it up a notch. But as an 'action' section to a vn/point and click adventure, it's perfect.
- I remain a little unclear n the controls. They state 'a' is rapid-fire, while 'b' is single/charge shot. However, both seemed to be operating as rapid, and I had no charge shot (that I could tell). Perhaps the initial ship doesn't have a charge shot?
- Gameplay looks and feels like Strania without the multiple weapon gimmick. Very slick/polished, but perhaps a little bland.
- Some MAJOR slowdown that seems intentional (as it mostly seemed to occur after I took a hit). But it seriously grinds down to seemingly 10fps. I appreciate a little slowdown to help me get my bearings, but not THAT slow.
- Demo's last auto-save is right before the STG stage begins, meaning you can play it over and over. That's the good news. The bad news is, there's a TON of dialog you have to sit through again before the action actually starts
- About that dialog... Story/voice acting/writing is mostly okay. WAY too many "No, I didn't" "Yes, you did" "No, I didn't" circular conversations that go on and on and on (and on) without adding any new information. But thus is the nature of the beast. The biggest problem is actually the villain--who at one point the script describes as "annoying"--and boy, oh boy did the actress take that ball and run with it. Lots of random yelling, use of 'zany' voices (including an oft-used 'baby' voice that's REALLY grating), and other 'kooky' theatrics. Much like, if you took Jim Carry, added the volume of Al Pacino, then made the result a Japanese woman. It's bad. I ended up muting the volume whenever she showed up (which sucked, because the music is actually pretty good)
So... Should you download the demo a grind through like three hours of occasionally really irritating vn/point and click adventure in order to play three stages of a new g.rev STG? I wouldn't recommend it, unless you actually have some interest in the vn portion to begin with. Like I said, it's okay. And the shooter stuff is quality and serves it's purpose within it, but it's really not worth messing with until there's a lot more of it.
EDIT #3: That crash was a happy accident. I played the STG stages again and the demo ended for real

I wasn't able to take the difficultly up to "Hell" (which the game warns you about when you initially select) but I did notice this time around there's a ton of conditional waves/attacks