CYGNI: AGB | Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series 2023

[m.sniffles.esq]

Indeed, playing games on a tablet must be a garbage experience, and I am not sure why you'd want to when you can play on a computer instead.

The bus doesn't provide enough outlets?
Bag not large enough to hold a tower and monitor?

[Steven]

Use a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, GBA SP, DS, 3DS, Nomad, Steam Deck, PC Engine GT, Switch, WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, or some other handheld game system, then.

[dmk1198]

I like Tate tbf and have just bought a 32 in
Monitor that can rotate
Probably won't be bigger picture than my 65" main TV but lookin forward to playing on it
It does add a certain something imo

[FunktionJCB]

Ah yes, human irrationality. "This thing I want is now free, so rather than get a refund for the one I bought and then get the exact same thing for free and play it and be happy because I got what I wanted without spending any money at all, I choose to become angry and get a refund and not get and play the free game at all".

If I'm wrong, disregard, but if not... that is highly irrational.

Steven, I'm not going to bother arguing with you over this, but before you start insulting other people you don't know over why they may want, or not, to do "x" thing, maybe they have their reasons and preference, different from your own, instead of just being a case of "irrationality"?

In my case, I refuse to use the Epic Games Store, over what they did to several games I backed on crowdfunding campaigns, and that they decided to lock to their platform, in an effort to force people to use their crappy launcher.
Backers were promised DRM free downloads, Steam keys, GOG keys, ..., and at the very last minute the guys from the EGS came, paid the developers, and it was "tough luck, you are not getting what you were promised and selected, it's EGS or nothing".

Maybe you like going to places where you are badly treated or get a bad service, or using stuff with which you have bad experiences. Personally, I don't. And since I don't have a shortage of games to play, can't say I feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Would I claim this game for free if it was on Steam? Surely. GOG? Absolutely. The EA or Ubisoft launchers? Of course. I had no problems with any of them.
On the EGS? No.

[Steven]

If you do not wish to argue, that is your choice and I will respect it and say no more.

I'm done with this thread.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Use a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, GBA SP, DS, 3DS, Nomad

The concept of playing a game that's three months old on a 35 year old handheld...

Even though this thread is all over the fucking place, I think a universal take-a-way could be 'just because you don't like something, doesn't means it's bad/worthless/stupid'

[AntiramDSR]

Use a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, GBA SP, DS, 3DS, Nomad

Even though this thread is all over the fucking place, I think a universal take-a-way could be 'just because you don't like something, doesn't means it's bad/worthless/stupid'

That's so true... it hurts

after all my ranting some self reflexion where it's due

[AntiramDSR]

well... first mainstream-media reviews are up...

it seems a whole bunch of gaming-journalists learned some valuable lessons about "the usual shmup-journalism" over the years... now of all times, eh Konami?

[AntiramDSR]

and some don't...

welcome to shmup "review" hell:

https://youtu.be/kJ-gfr8mhSA?si=yJ8nIW537i5TGE63

[KAI]

shmups are saved

Spoiler

dont click that video AntiramDSR posted if you are fond of your braincells

[AntiramDSR]

shmups are saved

Spoiler

dont click that video AntiramDSR posted if you are fond of your braincells

we love our "aeroplane-type-games"... don't we?

[To Far Away Times]

Gotta love the random arrows and open mouth expressions in almost every YouTube thumbnail. Anything for the algorithm.

I highly recommend the dearrow extension to help reverse the enshitification on YouTube. It replaces obnoxious clickbait thumbnails with a screenshot of a random time stamp from the video. It only does this for the bad offenders, so more tasteful thumbnails will remain. Pair it with Sponsor Block and an ad blocker and YouTube can actually be an enjoyable experience.

[Giga Power]

So I've been playing for a few hours this afternoon and I have to say I like it. A lot.
The gameplay is pretty great (if a bit overwhelming at first) and the graphics are really impressive. The sense of scale and the lighting especially. Can't wait to play some more tomorrow!

By the way: it's playable now on Series X if you change your console region to New Zealand.

[AntiramDSR]

well well well, here i am now... feeling like the biggest asshole ever, but learned a valuable lesson about judging to early!

it's great. really!

does it all the wrongs a euro-shmup can do, yes it does. but they work and it just all fits together... even the all over the place wicked fast ship controls, which looked mad in the trailers.
no inertia, btw. there is no way, this could ever be playable if the movement were slower. controller layout seemed overloaded on paper but becomes natural after 5 minutes and they are right: play the tutorial!

important for xbox series s players: yes, it's 30 fps only but like they promised, and i can't believe saying this: really no problem there. no laggy controls because of low framerates... tbh it's hard too even notice since it's so frantic. compared to the ps5 version i got to play on my sons console there are some visual downgrades here and there but still looking gorgeus.

a great euroshmup it tickles the twinstick-shooter itches without really beeing one, but also not quite the usual stg-feeling. whatever one will call it, it's great fun!

Bosses move away if you take to long to kill them, like if they want to say: "gitgud shmuphead!", lovely

EDIT:

04:00am and still playing...

it's so intense and satisfying. and so well thought out... it all comes together more and more every run you take. for example the progress-upgrade-system... what sounded like a grind at first really is needed to learn all the little nuances in the first level alone. first run you better... wait... better to not spoil anything. also the extraordinary level-length makes sense now... so intense beeing at the last boss with no revives and on your last shield. which brings us to the lifebar, which is hatet in every other shmup. here it's a great feel of risk and reward. and all the little details... like for example: you can manually target your ground weapon with the right stick but it's fixed to your ship... as you move, it stays there where you left it in relation to your ship... this could have been went so wrong if they didn't thought about making it in exact this way. the first level alone totally feels like a complete run as you would expected it from a traditional shmup. i can absolutely think of future expansions adding more and more chapters and things to upgrade. absolutely in love with this game <3

[-Fish-]

Can someone who's unlocked arcade mode give a brief overview? I'm unfortunately still on the story mode. As great as the gameplay is I want to make sure the arcade mode is done properly before I go over the Steam 2-hour refund window. Is arcade mode actually a full game playthrough with score resetting to zero when continuing? Is the online leaderboard also setup properly?

[AntiramDSR]

Can someone who's unlocked arcade mode give a brief overview? I'm unfortunately still on the story mode. As great as the gameplay is I want to make sure the arcade mode is done properly before I go over the Steam 2-hour refund window. Is arcade mode actually a full game playthrough with score resetting to zero when continuing? Is the online leaderboard also setup properly?

i'm also still on story-mode so don't know... but want to throw in that the devs (just today) answered on their discord, that they already consider to add more flesh to the scoring system in arcade mode, after i asked them out about it cause of replayability reasons. at least they are aware about some shortcomings in that way.

[-Fish-]

Can someone who's unlocked arcade mode give a brief overview? I'm unfortunately still on the story mode. As great as the gameplay is I want to make sure the arcade mode is done properly before I go over the Steam 2-hour refund window. Is arcade mode actually a full game playthrough with score resetting to zero when continuing? Is the online leaderboard also setup properly?

i'm also still on story-mode so don't know... but want to throw in that the devs (just today) answered on their discord, that they already consider to add more flesh to the scoring system in arcade mode, after i asked them out about it cause of replayability reasons. at least they are aware about some shortcomings in that way.

Arcade mode is instantly unlockable with the Konami code at the main menu.

With arcade mode you are restricted to a single life to play through hard mode. Curious as to how difficult this actually is. If it's a walk in the park it will hurt replayability as well.

[AntiramDSR]

this hefty, near 20 minutes long, stage 1 with 3 bosses makes total sense now...

when the devs reminded everyone (not sure where exactly, but saw them pointing this out many times) to keep playing on easy and get the hang of stage 1 and get your ship config together, i instantly thought: "hell no, please not a SkyForce-like grind" but it really isnt.

you need those few runs to see it all come together, than you can get your desired ship config set up, optimize for stage 1 and kill bosses and minibosses faster or take on the next 5 shorter (about 10 mins) stages until the grand final. same for medium and finally on hard you also loose your revives and now even the complete lack of checkpoints makes sense... seeing how all the little things work together is astonishing.

example: first unlock after 1 run was ground weapon firerate. this is one single unlock which is needed to even be capable to kill those fat slow walking ground enemies in time which is totally optional but they drop the pickups you need to butter up and kill the next boss faster. excellent risk and reward dynamic.

as for replayability: i believe there will allways be some ways to optimize your run through little things like this on hardest difficulty... optimize your bulletpattern-setup per stage and go more and more towards full weapon energy and kill some enemys more than before. hard throws so much on you, you have to go ALL GUNS BLAZING! see, it all makes sense now.

and if they really add some future more in depth scoring-system (wich they stated to had in mind already, but not enough time before release) you can go wild on 7 stages forever.

but even without, it's so clever and well thought out.

that truly is where i did them the wrongest... it's far from all style no substance.

EDIT: finally found the words to describe it and accept getting stoned to death for this, but:

think of it as the "Elden Ring" of shmups

[ExitPlanetDust]

This thread is amazing.

[Aceskies]

Bought the game, finished story mode on easy an that was FUN as shit. I am happy enough if the game is fun on easy, it means I can go play anytime, no memorization required, and a greatly adjusted playthrough around 2h of joy. Now I of course will play normal and hard, actually, the gameplay loop based on shields/missiles management ia so good I am really invested on how it tests my skill.

Btw I dont think calling this euroshmup is a good idea.

[Samildanach]

This thread is amazing.

Truly one of the most impressive U-turns on a game that this esteemed site has seen?!

Now, the overly suspicious cynic in me can't help but think that AntiramDSR is a very clever plant by the Cygni devs to pretend to mercilessly berate them initally then suddenly find it truly wonderful when they play the full game. It certainly would make us overly suspicious lot take interest. Apologies to AntiramDSR for my likely unfair aspersions!

Doesn't matter as I eventually always buy new shmups to do my bit for the industry, other than all the truly dreadful shovelware crap that the endlessly suffering Sturmvogel Prime heroically inflicts on him/herself. Quite how it's possible to get through them all is another problem, something that new shmup devs I think must have a really hard time against. For example, I have now exactly100 mostly as-yet-unplayed shmups in my backlog, all legitimately bought from the likes of Hamster/M2/City Connection/Capcom etc.; it's a great problem to have, but I am sure I am not alone in the fact that I now have too little time and too many great shmups.

[Ice Beam]

Truly one of the most impressive U-turns on a game that this esteemed site has seen?!

Now, the overly suspicious cynic in me can't help but think that AntiramDSR is a very clever plant by the Cygni devs to pretend to mercilessly berate them initally then suddenly find it truly wonderful when they play the full game. It certainly would make us overly suspicious lot take interest.

I thought the same, considering his first post (and most posts) are in this thread.

[Giga Power]

This game is fantastic. The upgrade UI is a little confusing but other than that I have nothing negative to say. Absolutely gorgeous as well. The sense of scale and lighting really stand out.
Really hope this finds a sizeable audience. It deserves success.

[AntiramDSR]

Btw I dont think calling this euroshmup is a good idea.

a great euroshmup it tickles the twinstick-shooter itches without really beeing one, but also...

if you're reffering to this, yeah... that one came with a sarcastic nod calling out myself

You keep reffering to Cygni as Euro Shmup. Maybe we should revisit the term and create a new one, what if one has a bit of both? What terminology would be used then?

[Shatterhand]

I haven't played the game, so I won't give my opinion on it.

But the term "Euroshmup" exists since the dawn of these forums, and there was always an idea that you don't need to have all defining qualities of an euroshmup to be labelled as one. There are some that are more defining than others (like complex weapons systems usually with shops or energy bars to compensate the lack of proper bullet patterns).

You don't need to create a new term, unless there's something really new to be defined.

[AntiramDSR]

Truly one of the most impressive U-turns on a game that this esteemed site has seen?!

Now, the overly suspicious cynic in me can't help but think that AntiramDSR is a very clever plant by the Cygni devs to pretend to mercilessly berate them initally then suddenly find it truly wonderful when they play the full game. It certainly would make us overly suspicious lot take interest.

I thought the same, considering his first post (and most posts) are in this thread.

i totally get the idea behind this... but seriously just an old guy who oneday stumbled over this forum, happy to have found a place to dig some serious reviews in the shmup archives back then... i was very interested in the sine mora thread that time... since i was very interested in sine mora... but never got the feeling there was any need to throw in my 2 cent on anything here... the quiet guy who keeps reading here and gains shmup knowledge as a side effect...

there was also a time when i was heavily interested inemulation and offcourse the annual shmups of all time-lists where helpful to even get to know games worth to look into...also as i am living in germany where it's just hard to even know that (for example) cave games even have existet... as niche as shmups already are... here in germany even arcade sticks are something you often have to explain to some people and germany banned arcade machines from everywhere we only have slots here.

and than this thread popped up and ofcourse i'm interested in cygni since i first ever heard of it.

also... really can't remember when i even registered here but i'm really not new here... just didn't say anything till now

well, don't know what to say to explain myself

i asked something about dangun feveron in the morning... that i already wanted to ask for ages but allways forgot it then... that's the type of forum-guy i am.

[-Fish-]

I've not experiencing anything pure enough to classify this as a euro in design. 1500 to 3000 enemies killed per stage (mostly popcorn), insanely fast enemy bullets, fast player movement, micro and macro dodging, and you are also stuck with your pre-chosen loadout from Stage 1 to 7 in arcade. If I can recognize anything that even hints at euro it would be the slight bit of acceleration being applied to digital movement. A dev has already commented and said he would look into this though.

[AntiramDSR]

Now, the overly suspicious cynic in me can't help but think that AntiramDSR is a very clever plant by the Cygni devs to pretend to mercilessly berate them initally then suddenly find it truly wonderful when they play the full game. It certainly would make us overly suspicious lot take interest. Apologies to AntiramDSR for my likely unfair aspersions!

Doesn't matter as I eventually always buy new shmups to do my bit for the industry, other than all the truly dreadful shovelware crap that the endlessly suffering Sturmvogel Prime heroically inflicts on him/herself. Quite how it's possible to get through them all is another problem, something that new shmup devs I think must have a really hard time against. For example, I have now exactly100 mostly as-yet-unplayed shmups in my backlog, all legitimately bought from the likes of Hamster/M2/City Connection/Capcom etc.; it's a great problem to have, but I am sure I am not alone in the fact that I now have too little time and too many great shmups.

absolutely no need to apologize, totally understandable...

i was just as surprised by this u-turn... also, and that's far more important to me on a personal note: i really began to feel bad about my comments in this thread, right after someone stated how all over the place everything got... and he was right with his complete post. then release-time came and it was really all so good and the more i got to began to like this game the more i began to regret my behavior in this thread... i'm a father of three... i wouldn't like seeing my own kids behaving this way and judge someone or something without really knowing. that's it... that and the fact that this game really is that good! which everyone should see if he really opens his mind for it... there are people on reddit who doesn't even consider trying it because of the length of stage one... that's just closed minded stubborness. that i also needed to get rid of... tbth

also, the baddest way to self-introduce into a forum to ramble on people. :/

[AntiramDSR]

I've not experiencing anything pure enough to classify this as a euro in design. 1500 to 3000 enemies killed per stage (mostly popcorn), insanely fast enemy bullets, fast player movement, micro and macro dodging, and you are also stuck with your pre-chosen loadout from Stage 1 to 7 in arcade. If I can recognize anything that even hints at euro it would be the slight bit of acceleration being applied to digital movement. A dev has already commented and said he would look into this though.

agree, that's what i believe went so utterly wrong... on paper all the named features are the usual red-flags... lifebar, 16:9 vert, long stages, upgrade-progression... the phrasing "reinventing this and that"... all to easy to jump on...

[ExitPlanetDust]

This thread is amazing.

Truly one of the most impressive U-turns on a game that this esteemed site has seen?!

Isn’t it!? Haha!

I’ll share my opinions on the game when my disc arrives. Even if it is entirely mediocre, even if AntiramDSR is some kind of plant, it was worth it for this hilarious thread reversal.