The gameplay takes inspiration from a broad array of sources like Espgaluda, Devil Daggers, Cuphead and Devil May Cry (with the setting being heavily inspired by old Gainax anime), and has primarily been designed around the feeling of "an STG that I've always wanted to play".
The core idea is a linear difficulty curve across difficulty modes, meaning the first stage on the second difficulty is a direct step up from the final stage on the first difficulty, instead of the usual structure of difficulty receding a little every time you start a higher difficulty mode. The second main idea is bullet time triggering contextually, done by grazing marked projectiles to guide the player through difficult bullet patterns. It's something I've found pretty damn fun in playtesting, and the people who have tried the game so far seem to have a similarly positive reaction.
This is a game I've really poured my heart and soul into over several years, and I hope some of that shines through and makes at least half as fun of a game as I'd envisioned.
Oh, and the game is also full of weird extras and unlockables for the sole reason that I love that kind of stuff.
I've got a trailer if you want to see more here, and a Steam page that's still a bit of a WIP here.
The game is pretty much done content-wise, so if any of this looks interesting to you and you'd like to help beta test it before final release (both for bug testing and for general feedback), you can join the game's Discord server and try out the beta right now! I try to stay on top of things and consider everyone's feedback, so there's frequent updates and polish.
Thanks for reading!