You really need to play Battle Traverse

[Bananamatic]

Why is this game slept on so hard while eschatos, mecha ritz and other meme crap is game of the year?

-multiple difficulties and none of them suck (unlike eschatos)
-cool music
-great bosses
-fun and intuitive scoring even if you can't handle cave scoring
-pixel art, i know the oldschool dads here would appreciate this

the only downside is that there is an anime girl

better than deathsmiles tbh i've never played deathsmiles

[Lord Satori]

How on earth does Mecha Ritz qualify as "meme crap"?

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^Bad taste, maybe a bit of tunnel vision.

Game looks alright, but all the gameplay footage I've seen leaves me thinking "oh look, another danmaku game with the exact same style of patterns/dodging and shooting mechanics, differentiated solely by its (slightly different) scoring mechanics. Not like I don't already own 50 of these types of games or anything". I'm just super worn out on the classical IKD style of shot/focus shooting and micro dodging at this point. These days I don't get excited for a bullet hell game unless it does something that gives it a more tangibly distinguishable personality/character/style beyond whatever slight variation in chaining causes the numbers to rise.

Will give it a shot eventually though, with some luck maybe something about the dodging, shooting, or patterns will jump out at me as "oh this is unique and original". Or maybe someone here can suggest an interpretation of it that interests me.

-pixel art, i know the oldschool dads here would appreciate this

The thing that kills it aesthetically for me is the extreme contrast between the chibi-ish player designs and the realistic/sci-fi machinery. The former looks silly and the latter looks bland, and they don't gel with each-other at all. Metal Slug it ain't.

Not that that would stop me from liking it, but it doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing to me, which is sad considering the work that seems to have gone into it.

[CStarFlare]

For anyone curious - you can get it from DLsite.

It's fun, but it's hori-Ketsui and I was never head over heels about Ketsui. That said, banana is entirely right in saying it deserves more love here, even though I think he's wrong about it not having a difficulty level that sucks.

[Cagar]

Why is this game slept on so hard while eschatos, mecha ritz and other meme crap is game of the year?

-multiple difficulties and none of them suck (unlike eschatos)
-cool music
-great bosses
-fun and intuitive scoring even if you can't handle cave scoring
-pixel art, i know the oldschool dads here would appreciate this

better than deathsmiles tbh i've never played deathsmiles

Agreeing with all of this. Quoting Jaimers91 himself
"The pixel art is insanely good, almost to a level of something like Metal Slug and the level design and scoring system is like something straight out of a Cave game.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this game is pretty arcade-level quality like Crimzon Clover."

the only downside is that there is an anime girl

Not only this, but the animations of the characters are almost non-existent and the characters look REALLY out of place compared to the gorgeous ship/tank/machinery/etc art.
The game is great though.

"oh look, another danmaku game with the exact same style of patterns/dodging and shooting mechanics, differentiated solely by its (slightly different) scoring mechanics. Not like I don't already own 50 of these types of games or anything".

I personally don't even mind it being the 51th CAVE Ikeda style bullet hell, because I never get tired of that style. I appreciate, like and play other kind of shmups too, but the Ikeda style is just so good that I never stop craving for more of it.

Regarding that, brand new CAVE shmup on steam hype! It will happen, right?

[Shepardus]

I too think Battle Traverse is underappreciated, which is quite hypocritical of me considering I've yet to play it. I think the main reason so few people play it is simply that it's a non-freeware doujin game that isn't on Steam, GOG, or any other popular western digital distributors. Rarely does any such game achieve popularity (Touhou being the big exception). It's a shame that great doujin games fall into obscurity like this since they're what's keeping the genre alive.

[Squire Grooktook]

I personally don't even mind it being the 51th CAVE Ikeda style bullet hell, because I never get tired of that style. I appreciate, like and play other kind of shmups too, but the Ikeda style is just so good that I never stop craving for more of it.

Yeah, I get that, and it's cool. That style was just never my first love, so I feel the saturation more.

[KAI]

-cool music

nope

[Lord Satori]

Played it.

Next...

[Legendary Hoamaru]

-cool music

nope

Hey the boss theme is pretty awesome at least.

[Hagane]

I haven't played it in-depth but, while saying that it's on par with something like Metal Slug is extremely exaggerated (too clean and undetailed), I find it much easier to look at than any non-pixel art Cave game. Scoring seems to have elements from Ketsui and Progear, which is a huge plus since to me those are two of Cave's best, and it's all around a fun game. I'm equally puzzled why something like Mecha Ritz gets so much attention (I find it absolutely ugly to look at and listen to and rather boring to play) while this is so ignored. I find no reason to not play this if you like games like Ketsui.

[Bananamatic]

Why is it compared only to Ketsui anyways, the only ketsui-like thing is that you have a counter and you spend it and an empty lock mechanic (and a lot of references unrelated to mechanics)
point blanking is a fairly common mechanic and it doesn't work anything like Ketsui's, I'd say it's way closer to Progear

some references I've noticed:

stage 3 midboss works like ketsui's - destructible parts until you take out the main body after which the life bar appears, the final attack is also very much like in ketsui and you need to destroy all the parts before the health bar appears to get a 1-up

stage 5 midboss opener also reminds me of the one in ketsui, that's probably just a coincidence though
the second secret 1-up placement is also very much like ketsui's, right before the midboss and it involves destroying 2 targets

the big plane right before the final shaft in st5 is also like ketsui's during the descent - 1st attack is aimed at you, 2nd form spams round bullets everywhere

final boss theme uses the main tune of progear's final boss theme (and so does stage 4's theme)

TLB's final attack in hard mode is like doom's and hibachi's washing machine combined

[Hagane]

It has lock shot and proximity mechanics, more than enough to feel a Ketsui vibe system wise. Visually it also has a lot in common and it has several references that you mention, the comparisons are obvious. As I said, a mix of Ketsui and Progear elements.

[drunkninja24]

So I went ahead and bought this, and am really liking it. But does anyone have a translation for the config menu? I figured out how to adjust controls and window/full screen mode, but that's about it.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

The thing that kills it aesthetically for me is the extreme contrast between the chibi-ish player designs and the realistic/sci-fi machinery. The former looks silly and the latter looks bland, and they don't gel with each-other at all. Metal Slug it ain't.

Not that that would stop me from liking it, but it doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing to me, which is sad considering the work that seems to have gone into it.

This. The game is full of awesome military vehicles that look like a Ketsui/Raiden Fighters mashup but the stupid character design just kills it. Complete eyesore. Just replace the characters with some badass fighter jets or make the characters pilots of said aircraft and I would've been all over this game. Of course that doesn't affect gameplay but it's an instant turn off seeing the awesome vehicle designs only to see that you play as some out of place flying chibi with guns

[Squire Grooktook]

I prefer character shmups over space ships/jets (as I've said many times), but I just tend to have high standards for it, at the same time. Cybattler, Guwange, and maybe Hollow World of God are really the only character shmups where I like the player sprite a lot. Maybe Vacant Ark too on the horizontal front.

If the pose, art style, perspective, or animations are off for me, then I can't enjoy that part of the aesthetic. I'm very nitpicky.

[Strikers1945guy]

The thing that kills it aesthetically for me is the extreme contrast between the chibi-ish player designs and the realistic/sci-fi machinery. The former looks silly and the latter looks bland, and they don't gel with each-other at all. Metal Slug it ain't.

Not that that would stop me from liking it, but it doesn't look very aesthetically pleasing to me, which is sad considering the work that seems to have gone into it.

This. The game is full of awesome military vehicles that look like a Ketsui/Raiden Fighters mashup but the stupid character design just kills it. Complete eyesore. Just replace the characters with some badass fighter jets or make the characters pilots of said aircraft and I would've been all over this game. Of course that doesn't affect gameplay but it's an instant turn off seeing the awesome vehicle designs only to see that you play as some out of place flying chibi with guns

This x100

Stupid character design where your character is bigger than the damn enemy tanks. At least in espgaluda flying a transsexual fairy the character design from a size standpoint made sense and wasn't a complete eye sore. Whoever desiderate the character needed to cover 1/4 of the entire screen ruined a lot of the positives from this game.

It does remind me of a horizontal ketsui as others have said, which is cool.

[drunkninja24]

I dunno, I guess its mostly personal taste, the characters haven't really bothered me despite their size compared to enemies

The game overall just seems to scratch all the right itches for me, least based on my limited playtime thus far.

[Strikers1945guy]

Other than the size of the character on screen I don't have any complaints.

[drunkninja24]

So I went ahead and bought this, and am really liking it. But does anyone have a translation for the config menu? I figured out how to adjust controls and window/full screen mode, but that's about it.

Btw, found the post for it in the Strategy thread for the game, I'll just repost here for easy reference for anyone else:

So you already know the options on the left half of this window are the exact same as the in-game options.
The right half is a little different so for someone who's wondering what they are, the rough translations are as follows (courtesy of a local friend):
[ ] Don't save any replays
[ ] Show FPS
[ ] Remove boss intro (presumably the red font before each boss fight showing the name/pilot of the boss)
[ ] Sync refresh rate to display
[ ] Something regarding not showing some sort of display when enemies get it (presumably multiplier text?)
[ ] Fully load the game data on startup (requires 2GB of VRAM)
[ ] Enable 2P simultaneous play

[Elaphe]

One of the best shmups I've tried these years and possibly the best doujin shmup ever made. It looks great, with fantastic design and lots and lots of graphic work, and plays amazingly well, with focus movement everything you could expect from a game like this. The only thing is would complain about is: why 4:3?

[Despatche]

The character sprites aren't too out of place next to all those bright futuristic anime machines.

Music's actually kinda good. I really like stage 3.

[EmperorIng]

I would play it if it were released here in the West, hint hint hint Nyumedia/Degica/etc.

[CStarFlare]

You can buy it digitally from DLsite's English page. It doesn't need a separate Western release.

[Aliquantic]

You really need to play Battle Traverse Banana, where's that Very Hard 1-ALL?

Game is seriously good.

[Bananamatic]

too busy playing extreme

[Shepardus]

I finally picked this up recently. For those who don't know, DLsite is having a site-wide 20% off sale, so check out the game or its demo here: http://www.dlsite.com/eng/work/=/produc ... 57191.html

Overall it's a very high quality game. Gameplay is very CAVE-like, so if that's something you're into then this is surely worth checking out. Unlike Bananamatic I think it's more like Ketsui than Progear, even if that's largely due to its scoring system with the counter that you build up with rapid shot and cash in using lock shot. Bullet patterns also feel more Ketsui-ish to me (doesn't have so much of the "clumps" of bullets that make Progear distinct). The main similarities to Progear are that it's horizontal and it has bullet cancelling.

I actually like the character sprites. They have a level of detail consistent with the rest of the game (which is also well-done), and while there isn't a ton of animation for things like moving in different directions, that never bothered me in practice, and there's different animations for the different firing modes. They're also pretty reasonably-sized next to the bosses - it's the rest of the enemies that are absurdly small. I'm going to assume they're unmanned drones that have windows simply for style. They are kind of oddly shaped for gameplay purposes though, especially with the guns sticking way out in front of the character. I tend to forget that the hitbox doesn't also stick out like that.

Only weakness I think is in the sound. Large enemy explosions are suitably satisfying (and let's be real, that's probably the part that matters the most), but it's a pretty quiet game aside from that. Shooting in particular could have some more oomph to it. Maybe it needs something like Ketsui's "BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP" lock-on sound. Music isn't bad but I don't find it memorable either.

I've gotten clears of Easy and Normal so far, which I both got within a couple attempts. I might try for a Hard 1-ALL, but my attempts at that so far have gone terribly. Honestly not too interested in optimizing my scoring. If you enjoy Ketsui's dynamic, this should be right up your alley, but I personally would rather experiment with something like ring^-27 or play something simple like TwinBee. What I don't like about both this and Ketsui is that you just kind of have to know (or experiment until you know) which enemies to build your counter on and which to cash it in on. Understanding how much you can get from enemies is a bit easier in Battle Traverse than in Ketsui, since the bulk of the points come from bullet cancels and it's easy to grok how big a cancel is, unlike enemy point values in Ketsui which aren't communicated anywhere helpful. But while it's easy to understand that you generally want to rapid-shot small enemies and lock-shot large enemies, it's often unclear when you're missing out on points because you're lock-shotting one enemy instead of saving the counter for another, and whether any of that changes because you screwed up a previous cancel and have a different item counter as a result. I prefer scoring systems to be simple to figure out what you're supposed to do, but not necessarily easy to execute on that. Again, though, that's a common characteristic in CAVE games too, so if you're fine with it there then you'll probably get along with this game just fine. It makes a lot more sense than many of CAVE's games.

Extreme is pretty silly.

[Zaarock]

Enemy values matter very little in the scoring. Since value of bullet cancels is exponential you mostly make sure you have a high amount of items for the biggest cancels in the stage (like a big x300 number). Then shoot enemies close range / empty lock just as they fire to refill the item count. There's almost no exceptions where you want to cash in on small cancels. I think that's easier to figure out than most games, trying to get the secret stage 1 boss form is a good way to figure it out.

I think Hard 1-ALL is easier than your usual Cave game. Very hard ALL is a good challenge (maybe SDOJ all level?)

Anyone who thinks the game has boring/unremarkable patterns should try Extreme. It's too bad its plagued by constant slowdown and ends up being easier than the other modes cause of all the cancelling.

[shoryusatsu999]

Why is this game slept on so hard while eschatos, mecha ritz and other meme crap is game of the year?

Simple. It's not on Steam, but on DLsite, which is a hard pass for most gamers due to it being full of H-games and not being Steam compatible.

[Sumez]

Simple. It's not on Steam, but on DLsite, which is a hard pass for most gamers due to it being full of H-games and not being Steam compatible.

2018, the year when people won't buy a game because they can't lock it into their DRM system.