Dogos (XBOX One / PlayStation 4)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Dogos (XBOX One / PlayStation 4)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMmtVZh6lKE
This is Exceliza, roger, Good Luck...*Durun-duru-ruru-ru-ruru-ru-run Durun-duru-duduuuun!!*

OPQAM is back at it again, this time they jump to the shmup scene once more with their new creation, Dogos.

To begin with, the ship variety is very limited, going into the depths of the "basic two" option kinda like "Exelica or Crueltear" in Triggerheart Exelica. In Dogos' case is the KZ-72 and SI-15.

Both are "Balanced Type" ships, however there's very slight differences. The KZ-72 might be the weakest in Armor and Energy (both 3/5), but it has the highest Speed and Weapon power (5/5 in Speed, 4/5 in Weapon). The SI-15 is the most balanced of the game, as all its status are between 4/5 (Energy and Armor) and 3/5 (Speed and Weapon).
While the ship variety is too simple, the game compensates that with a selectable weapon array in the style of Axelay and Gradius V along with "skins" (colorschemes) for your ship like in the latest Ace Combat games. You can assemble some basic combinations with the already available weapons, the rest of weapons and skins have to be unlocked, ¿how?, by completing a mission clearing challenges during them. Each mission has three challenges available, such as clearing the mission within a range of time (5 minutes for example), destroying a specific type of enemy ("Elite" type ship in Mission 1) or surviving a mission without dying once.

Like Project Root, Desert Strike and Thunder Force II, there's two types of enemies: The Aerial Enemies and Land Based. The Aerial Enemies (Jets and flying vessels) can only be destroyed by your regular "frontal" shots, Laser gun and Homing Missiles, and the Land Based (Mechs, Tanks, Buildings) which can only be destroyed by your Air-To-Ground weapon and the Homing Missiles. There's weapons capable of destroying both types with one shot, like the Homing Missiles, which are your special weapons that work as the "bomb feature" of this game. There's also the Lasergun (Sword Over Weapon-like beam), the Pulse (bullet killing weapon) and the Megabomb, which is your deathbomb for all enemies. However the Megabomb has to be unlocked via mission progression (clearing levels), but really comes in handy.

The radar system was improved from Project Root, since you can also activate a map to know your way around a mission zone, kinda like the Map button in most of the Ace Combat series, if you're gonna use it, better be out of enemy fire.

But exploration is not only the basis of Dogos gameplay, the game features new stage hazards like self-scrolling high-speed flights between canyons, like Axelay, Super Nova and Gradius III, where the objective is to navigate successfully without crashing once, otherwise, you'll have to start that section all over again. However, the final missions are basically frustrating since they're a deadly bunch of stage hazards that require extreme memorization to navigate through them.

There is also some problem solving situations like the "beam walls" which require charged shots to open a hole to pass through, fortunately, you'll have to wait until the last missions.


Graphically is more advance and larger than Project Root, as the stages features all kinds of surface obstacles from mountains to laser traps. But what it makes the graphics shine is the lighting, most times the lighting of the beams and bullets provide a fascinating visual spectacle turning the shooting action into a genuine eye candy for shmuppers.
Like Project Root, the game blends the Anime-style and the western Comic Book style with the use of anime influenced mechanical designs, and the characters are once again based on comic book, but unlike Project Root where the designs were influenced by Spawn and Gen13, the designs look more like a mixture between Marvel "Ultimate" series and IDW's The Transformers: Infiltration comics.

The music is an improvement too, this time the game composers decide to put up some effort and brought us a good display of fanfares and rocking paces resulting in a better job than Project Root. Unfortunately, the music still suffers the same problem as before: Repetitivity.
There is voice acting which is kinda interesting, although the first line from Europa (when she asks for help) sounds unaccurate for an SOS call, but as the game progresses, the voice acting improves.

"More than just a Thunder Force II clone", that's what Dogos is. However i think OPQAM could give a try to other kinds of shmup elements rather than the "Open world" genre. I don't know could they consider a Thunder Force V clone or even a Triggerheart Exelica clone up to the Anchor feature just like Aicom did with their R-Type clone (Pulstar)?
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STG Wikias: Thunder Force Wiki - Wikiheart Exelica - Ginga Force Wiki
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