Steel Vampire is p.good

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Squire Grooktook
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Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by Squire Grooktook »

Still haven't seen a thread for this one, so thought I'd throw up my 2 cents.

From Artesneit/Akiragoya, the guy who made all those h.r giger themed semi-hentai shmups (Galshell, Yakouga, Death Ephemera)...except this one doesn't feature any vagina monsters, so you can play it even if you're also a giant pussy.

It's a speedkill/pointblanking focused game. System goes something like this:

-You do LOTS more damage point blank, lots
-Kill large (non zako) enemies at point blank to spawn extra score and bomb chips
-garegga medal cahining, but less punitive (go down one level if you drop one)
-Green and Red Rank medals periodically spawn. Grab Green to reduce rank, grab red to increase. Higher rank means higher multiplier on your score.
-3 difficulty modes, the easiest of which has a shop/ship customization ship. I mostly ignored, as it's more or less explicitly stated to be a warm up for 1cc'ing the next 2 modes with the static 5 ship selection they present.

Overall pretty simple, but pretty manic and feels like an extremely polished representation of Akiragoya's fast paced and offbeat style. Plus, like I said, this time you don't have to look at demon boobs with eye nipples warping in on themselves within the necrotic folds of the womb of nephilim. Unless you're into that sort of thing, in which case give Yakouga 4 and up a shot.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/9089 ... l_Vampire/
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.
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schleichfahrt
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by schleichfahrt »

Squire Grooktook wrote: this time you don't have to look at demon boobs with eye nipples warping in on themselves within the necrotic folds of the womb of nephilim.
I did kind of like that, tbh. I always found it refreshing in its own bizarre way (especially since none of this stuff was really polished).

I must admit that I dislike Steel Vampire's presentation. In a scenario like this that is a well trodden path (machinery and concrete dystopia) this special brand of half assedness works a lot less good.
I also find the player sprite and the item sprites at least 2, more like 3 times too big. This creates bit of a cramped feel.

From a purely gameplay point of view I too like it, and would also recommend it.
When you ruin some enemy, add to score points.
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Squire Grooktook
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by Squire Grooktook »

schleichfahrt wrote:
Squire Grooktook wrote: this time you don't have to look at demon boobs with eye nipples warping in on themselves within the necrotic folds of the womb of nephilim.
I did kind of like that, tbh. I always found it refreshing in its own bizarre way (especially since none of this stuff was really polished).
Same. Even though it's obviously not meant to be taken seriously (there is an enemy type in Galshell 2 that attacks by shitting bullets on you), his artwork is legitimately fantastic, and I am a fan of that kind of eldritch biohorror aesthetic. Moreso than generic fighter planes, at least.
schleichfahrt wrote: I must admit that I dislike Steel Vampire's presentation. In a scenario like this that is a well trodden path (machinery and concrete dystopia) this special brand of half assedness works a lot less good.
I also find the player sprite and the item sprites at least 2, more like 3 times too big. This creates bit of a cramped feel.
While it's not as interesting, personally I think the aesthetic is handled well. Very gritty and well drawn with good explosions, effects, and sound design. The final stage also dips into the horror theme ever so slightly enough to stand out.

Huge as fuck player sprites are also kinda his thing. I think this one is about as big as the one in Galshell 2. You are mostly not going to be micro dodging in this too much anyway.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.
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M.Knight
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by M.Knight »

It is not the first positive impressions I hear about the game, and if you liked its focus on speed-killing enemies, I wouldn't be surprised to enjoy it a lot too. Even the big ships are a plus to me. Fuck super tiny ships and bullets on modern resolutions you have to squint to see lol.

I have a few questions though :

-How bad can the item dodging get? If you want to maximize scores, you'll have to dodge the green medals that are as huge as everything else in the game and they seem to pop veeeeery frequently.
-Are there any options/settings to tweak the HUD's look and colors? I don't mind the gritty aesthetic of the stages themselves, but the HUD is pretty ugly and looks covered in piss or something. Not a fan.
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DietSoap
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by DietSoap »

The graphics look really impressive, but dang that player ship is big.
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MathU
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by MathU »

Point-blanking was a pretty important mechanic in Galshell 2 due to the on-screen bullet limit, I guess this was the next progression for him.

Is there DRM?
Of course, that's just an opinion.
Always seeking netplay fans to play emulated arcade games with.
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KAI
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by KAI »

I thought there was a demo for this game, but can't find it anymore.

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schleichfahrt
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by schleichfahrt »

KAI wrote:I thought there was a demo for this game,
Since yesterday the game's part of this year's winter sale, so depending on your region you can get it for like EUR 6.20.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by BulletMagnet »

Gave this a go, a few impressions:

- I'm always partial to shooters that opt to put rank both out in the open and in control of the player, and this one does both about as well as I've seen it done: there are plenty of opportunities to quickly build it up and boost your score, but it's also easy to temper it when things start getting too hot to handle.

- Point-blanking is also considerably less frustrating than it could be, since enemies telegraph most attacks a bit and make it easier to determine when it's safe to dash in. Oh, and touching enemies doesn't damage you either, only their bullets.

- Not as "hardcore" as some here might like, since a) While technically you start with the usual three lives and lose one when hit, they can be gradually refilled with both time and item collection, and 2) As you play you earn different/more powerful weapons and buffs, so you can "grind" your way through to some degree, though it should be noted that the cheeky developer made "Very Hard" the easiest difficulty and went from there. :P

- My biggest single issue with the game is what Rob (IIRC) memorably labeled "pan and scan", in which the playable area extends beyond the visible screen and will scroll if you move far enough to the side; the tutorial openly says that survival is dependent primarily not on dodging attacks but by killing everything before it gets a shot off, and most of my deaths have come courtesy of enemies that fly in unseen from the margins and are ready to unleash hell the second I venture too far from the middle and inadvertently draw their ire. In a game built on picking off everything immediately not being able to see the entire playfield is a poor fit, and the huge ship sprite makes insta-dodging especially difficult.

- I also wish there was an autofire button; the fire rate is plenty fast, but I still wish I could just hold a key down to sustain it, especially since you're encouraged to basically never use your "focus" weapon since it isn't affected by point blanking and doesn't spawn bonus items.

- The leaderboards/trophies suggest that there are a bunch of ships/difficulties I haven't unlocked, so there appears to be plenty of content here if the playstyle suits you.
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Squire Grooktook
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Re: Steel Vampire is p.good

Post by Squire Grooktook »

BulletMagnet wrote: - Not as "hardcore" as some here might like, since a) While technically you start with the usual three lives and lose one when hit, they can be gradually refilled with both time and item collection, and 2) As you play you earn different/more powerful weapons and buffs, so you can "grind" your way through to some degree, though it should be noted that the cheeky developer made "Very Hard" the easiest difficulty and went from there. :P
Note on this: after spending a few hours on "very hard" you unlock another difficulty which does not let you use the shop/unlock upgrades, but instead locks you into 5 premade ships that the game is balanced around.

After you clear that, you unlock another even harder difficulty mode with the same rules (but no continues this time)
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.
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