Studio Siesta's new PC doujin STG title, Varstray...

[Remembrance]

Gameplay footage finally released. https://youtube.com/watch?v=cfl6yPTOCXQ

Edit: The above link no longer works. The video was reposted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxHzfz2iC9Q

[Xyga]

Mmh...several attractive things, I'd like to play it, yes.

But the bullets following you during side-scrolling movement is something I loathe in a shmup, it makes me lose focus.

And why the cute happy girly voice when your character looks so angry/tsundere ?

[Ebbo]

The bullet wobble is indeed strong with this one, although the wobble doesn't seem to affect boss patterns. Nevertheless the game looks smooth and fast paced, especially with crashing into enemies with the black hole special attack. It certainly captures the more caravan-ish gameplay style.

Edit: Okay, maybe it just the background scrolling playing tricks with my eyes but the bullets don't seem to follow the screen scrolling after all?

[GSK]

I'm glad they finally bothered to upload some footage, just a few days after the game was supposed to be released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfl6yPTOCXQ

[CStarFlare]

Trailer makes me skeptical. I'm sure it'll be decent, but it seems to lack an identity - strange, given how much personality Trouble Witches had. Varstray seems a bit like a mashup of several different elements (bullet cancelling hyper, some sort of homing attack, caravan tiles, some sort of point-blank hyper?) with a fairly generic coat of paint. Bosses appear to be one drifting sprite. They didn't even bother to give the video a real name: "151218 Varstray GameMovie ver1."

I wonder if Studio Siesta lost some important member(s) and never found someone to replace him. Trouble Witches was a professionally presented title, but TW2 apparently died and Varstray is looking firmly doujin-tier.

[z0mbie90]

Looks fine for me. Wanna play it, and I just hope the Caravan Mode will be good. I love Caravan Shooting

[Squire Grooktook]

Trailer makes me skeptical. I'm sure it'll be decent, but it seems to lack an identity - strange, given how much personality Trouble Witches had.

I agree, this wasn't what I expected at all. This here looks rather generic on all fronts.

Not sure how you're figuring that. I don't know quite what's going on, but the constant weapon switching and how different they all are looks quite fun. If there's some actual balance and nuance put into what to use and when, then that would be awesome and pretty original (the majority of modern shmup devs seem to have firmly established that they don't give a shit about weapon systems beyond shot/focus).

What I'm more skeptical of is the bullet-wobbly screen scrolling, and the speed of the ship looks a bit weird too for how dense some stuff looks (or looks like it might get). The video gives me kind of an "awkward" feel. I could see it playing better than it looks though. Here's hoping.

[Afterbirth]

It does Look very much like a lush version/evolution on the Star Force/Star Soldier caravan game.

And therefore...teh. win!
Lets hope theres no autofire modes.

[clippa]

Steam page is up! - http://store.steampowered.com/app/416380/

[Squire Grooktook]

Loving that engrish description

you can play it long time.

[NeoStrayCat]

Loving that engrish description

you can play it long time.

I really chuckled to that, they know their audience! XD

[Obscura]

Hello, bullet wobble!

[Danny]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/416380/

21st December!

EDIT: Dammit someone beat me to it.

Glad they put the ludicrous multipliers in this game it reminds me of their earlier work in that regard!

[Afterbirth]

Sound issues aside (at least with my Audio 6) - its a cracking game.
It looks like Star Force but plays a bit like Deathsmiles in its two layer multiplier scoring (so you fire the main laser, collect stars and they powerup a multiplier you use to get scores of ships and bullets).

A caravan like mode will be added later it would seem.

[CStarFlare]

More caravan modes are always delightful.

[pixelcorps]

enjoying it so far, but don't really understand the play system yet..

[rtw]

Anyone found any video settings ?

Fun game so far, but I do not know what I am doing

[Danny]

Anyone found any video settings ?

No but if you press ALT + ENTER is goes in to full screen mode.

Doesn't run in Steam's offline mode = refund.

This is odd because the leaderboards and replays functions are in the game but the replays are not accessible yet so I think this game was not entirely finished. I have also herd some schuttlebutt that this game is only "online only" because there is a potential bug in the game that prevents it from starting in offline mode. Again that's speculation but you might want to wait it out and see if these things get patched before purchasing.

On the other hand the game is really fun, not the Dev Team's most polished effort but I am having a lot of fun with how the game is playing. When you charge up your special laser you can use it to score a massive combo that destroys everything. (remember to let go of the laser button to scoop up all the medals) then after the lasers are done you go in to some kind of shield mode where you can earn a bunch of medals and a crazy multiplier by ramming in to everything you see.

Also it's worth noting that there is no traditional "bombing" and your sub weapon needs to be switched to. You can upgrade the weapon by destroying stuff on the ground and flying over the power-ups. Each sub-weapon level up nets you an entirely new (and better for the most part) sub weapon but gets rid of the old one.

[Afterbirth]

If you collect the stars it boosts your timer for the multiplier weapon.

Collect the 'G's to give you a full timer. Then its just a case of choosing the best moments to use it - IE when theres lots of ships around (which you then crash into for score) - and hence why its a bit like Deathsmiles.

You can also choose various sub weapons but it appears only the first one you collect activates, even though their may be two or three in the selection box. Not sure if this is a bug - given this is 7 years in the making theres a few bugs. But all said and done i rather like it.

Incidentally you can Vsync the screen via Nvidia's usual driver options - Vsync is not yet available in-game or in any graphics config.ini.

[pixelcorps]

Thx - I practically doubled my best score once it clicked - the shield had me confused, I though it was a bullet grazing mechanic to start with, and it seems like I`ve taken more than just one bullet to the hitbox on one life and survived..

can`t wait for leaderboards

[Elaphe]

Taking a look at the videos, it looks like the ships moves way to fast, which might mean zero precision. Does the game feature focus movement ala Cave?

[rtw]

Anyone found any video settings ?

No but if you press ALT + ENTER is goes in to full screen mode.

Noticed that one, but then the mouse cursor insists on tagging along.

fun game but it seems a bit unpolished/rushed.

[BulletMagnet]

it seems like I`ve taken more than just one bullet to the hitbox on one life and survived..

I think if you build up enough energy for the super laser beam thing but haven't used it yet, the energy will be spent to save you from a bullet (you can see a small aura expand from your ship and cancel bullets close to you). Something like that, I'll have to look more closely.

Does the game feature focus movement ala Cave?

No "focus" button that I've found, though at least on "Normal" difficulty I didn't have too much trouble maneuvering where I needed to get to, using the "default" ship, anyway; again, I need to tool around a bit more with it.

[clippa]

Taking a look at the videos, it looks like the ships moves way to fast, which might mean zero precision. Does the game feature focus movement ala Cave?

I was worried about that too but the controls are "super-tight", as I believe the kids say. I've had no trouble at all.
I've been going with the orange wife with the spread shot, I think she's slower than the others, but the default blue bint is just as easy to control.
There are a few rough edges that need ironing out but the game itself is so much fun to play.

[Danny]

I would like to correct myself, the special weapons while they are on the ground have a letter on them and are not progressive as I stated before. And for the record the homing lazer is really strong vs bosses, like it almost insta-kills them.

[Zaarock]

1CC'd arcade mode on the highest difficulty in a couple tries. Thought the stages and scoring are pretty fun. But the bosses look super lazy to me. The bosses are just large sprites with a bunch of stationary turrets thrown on them resembling me of some Flash games. As someone already posted homing laser totally breaks them by circling the core and constantly hitting it. The patterns aren't totally uninspired but nothing memorable. Even the final boss follows the same formula and is not a threat once you shoot down the turrets with tricky patterns.

Looks like more effort was put into the voice acting, story, cutscenes and presentation than gameplay. Considering how much better the stage design is compared to the boss fights I get the feeling it's sort of unfinished?

I can't recommend this for the full price unless you think you'll enjoy the story mode and replay it with each character to see their story arc. It's a shame since the presentation and the caravan-styled gameplay are fun but the game seems rushed. Far less polished than Trouble Witches. Maybe more content will be added in the Challenge mode which I have yet to see anyone unlock.

For scoring it seems beneficial to ram into bullets to make the laser-phase of the super attack end quicker (because of autobomb) once the other gauge is maxed with star items. Also if you initiate the laser form right after killing an enemy its bullets will also cancel into stars.

[CStarFlare]

So is the gameplay of Story mode any different than Arcade, or is it just Arcade stages with dialogue?

[clippa]

So is the gameplay of Story mode any different than Arcade, or is it just Arcade stages with dialogue?

The latter.

1CC'd arcade mode on the highest difficulty in a couple tries.

Me too, it's very easy. Did you notice any difference between advanced and standard mode? They seemed identical to me, I'm hoping that it's just a placeholder and that the harder difficulty is being patched in at a later date.

Despite all it's flaws, I still can't stop playing it

[-S.L-]

This game is really fun !

I highly recommend it.

Why ? Well, ok, you'll probably clear the game after 1 or 2 run max, in it's hardest mode.
It is not the point of this game obviously, the main attraction is the scoring system.
And it's a really simple one to understand AND to put in action. It's highly addictive, feels like a Pachinko on fire more than a shoot them up, even thou, it is a shoot them up... somehow

Could be a hit if Studio Siesta would have put more effort into stuff like real leader board with separate difficulty board, oh and where the fucking replay ??? It is on screen, but impossible to use it ? Same as Challenge mode, is this has to be unlocked too like hidden character and weapons ?

I hope not, I cleared the game about 20 times now, unlocked 2 new character and 3 sub weapons, but from now on, nothing anymore. Stuff shouldn't be that secret really...

Music is excellent i must say. A bit more variety in the stages design would have been welcome, they all kind of similar.

Anyway, I very good game that deserve a bit more attention imo. Very fun, not so serious and yet refreshing.

My best score so far is 269 millions in Avanced mode, what's yours ? So to have an idea.

[clippa]

Not as good as you but I probably did it with more style and panache.
If you play "arcade mode" you don't get the chuntering fannies in between stages.