I think you'd help up the pace of the game, and get a bit more of an exacting and frenetic feel, by raising the speed of the standard shot just a little bit: Just looks slightly slow/unresponsive, and less precise, than it could be. By contrast, this could help bring a bit more gravity/impression to the threat of the slower special shot types.
I'd really encourage you to revisit level 1 - probably once you're further along - making the stage much more impact-ful, even if short, maybe breaking it into 3 parts or something if you've got a bit of a story to tell.
For ships that take a bit of shooting to take down; I'd really encourage a couple of stages of damage for the actual models, just to help add a bit dynamism to 'chewing' through them. Also a slight kind of double flash/ripple when you engage with them. Maybe just a bit of secondary movement on the larger ones too - no need for transformers, but a little wing-lock and/or weapon-wriggle. Just to help it not feel too clinical. I'd definitely re-visit that first boss; just feels just like a scaled up small fighter (cockpit and all) given the kind theme of the game/level try a slight dark purple/blue theme rather than black and help the sense of scale by retaining the same level of detail/scale/texel/dpi ratio as regular enemies....
Similarly, add just the smallest of jukes/angles to the player ship when even moving just a little (possibly two more angles to complement the one you have for bigger lateral movements), and only have a small thrust flare unless driving forward. Have faster moving asteroids also rotating/tumbling faster. Your hexigon power ups might look a bit more appealing as smaller tumbling cubes, that have room to get visibly sucked in a little when picked up, or else solid flat chits with a pulse glow or glimmer, rather than static outline icons with a slow rotating glow.... maybe a quick little rotate glow when 'released' and then a little all round pulse as they drop down the screen. I'd also try and theme the enemy waves a little more - perhaps even across levels - just in that first level the battlestar cylon flyers + larger rectangular don't quite work with the larger ship/plane type and current boss direction imho. Presume this is all WIP, so probably a little redundant but of course matching level of detail on environments/levels to that of combatants; keeping it consistent.
The thing with your style is that you're getting quite a lot out of it, with a quite well done basis - it just needs a touch more dynamism and real attention to detail to help that style feel characterful, and not feel clinical imho, and keep you in it's world - especially if you want to tell a tale.
Radio-effect the voices maybe, or perhaps just some ambient noises if want them to still sound 'clear': Cheese is fine, but they sound too perfectly like they're just in an empty small room.... in fact I'd almost be tempted to scale down or not have the portraits unless doing something (near) screen filling... there's a dissonance in styles there that I don't think keeps you in the world... maybe have some portrait-less chatter just before (+after?) any interlude also; so that it doesn't appear to just pop up.
Logo and text, seems super minor but really helps feel raise the sense of attention to detail/quality. Again, appreciate probably more placeholder/WIP, and the least of your
game making concerns, but I'd really encourage a bolder font for the main title, and then just a thinner/tidier/clearer one for any other text... Doesn't need to be complex, always liked this tidy Gradius one for example (ignore the ship picture)
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... M6PV8L.jpg ... It'll just helps the whole pitch/project feel that bit more curated and confident - and even if it was a b/w silhouette I'm sure it'd be nice just to have something more 'key' to hand for any pitch/documentation etc.
If it was me, I'd probably try and pull the overall art style into something a bit more unified/restricted/disciplined and/or themed by level. In a large part this is just colour/range selection. The
easiest (not necessarily best depending on your taste) way that I'm seeing it would be to go the gradius route and make all laser fire roughly a similar colour blue. You can always subdue/white and/or tint the enemy colour slightly if wanting to differentiate. The pink is nice and visible, but is something of a clash. (The option to make anyone happy: have a colour selector option.) Where-as the blue seems to complement the earthier red/orange hues you've got much better. With the backgrounds - especially the star field voids - pull them down just a bit in colour/contrast - especially what would be the brightest whites: This will help them not feel garish/clashing, keep them in the background, and helps tie the whole thing together a bit more - looking at that 3rd screen down orange starfield in particular vs. the better balanced atlas blade screen for example. Nothing wrong with keeping the full colour for parts, but even then just pulling it down slightly for difference between background, mid ground and foreground... I'd reference Gradius V primarily here - the difference in background, mid ground + colour levels despite still having 'all the colours' and fantastic shapes/forms .... + kind of ikaruga's desaturation/blue for distance/atmosphere though that feels less immediate in terms of style fit....
I'd also avoid multi coloured ui text, I know you're linking it to the elements, and keeping it clear, but the distance/icons will do enough: usually no more than two styles (preferably one in this case I think), no need for 'shields'/'energy'/'score' headings (all fairly obvious by context, only maybe useful one to have will be credits), and try - at least for the in game HUD - using upper case to keep their overall shape profile on screen more REGULAR - also tends to feel more punchy/arcadey
There's some real promise here ... a (metal) gradius-ikaruga-dodonpachi-rtype-pysvariar melting pot is great fking premise - but it has a lot to live up to at the same time! I'd really lean into the metal theme for some kind of audio highlight - story depending/allowing of course ... especially 'around' (not necessarily 'at') the start of levels or boss encounters... just for like a few bars... You can't go 100% all the time, that's just annoying ... And the quiet moments will also feel even more poignant by contrast. It's a completely different style but Ikaruga's always great for the end/opening stage flourish example + classic boss warning... Soundtrack/pacing wise I always reference stage 4 of both doj and ketsui; just when you need a pickup.
. Real interested to see where you take it - good luck sir!
