Psyvariar 3 Announced [BananaBytes Software]

[Faith]

As someone who never play this series... so the whole rolling thing (which... looks very annoying... lol)... is that like this game's "focus shot" that also happen to make hitbox smaller and graze radius larger? I did try do some research and it seems that normally you have to keep going left/right (or is it up/down) to roll but there is also dedicated roll button now like how most STG have autofire?

Just asking because been following this release closely and game will launch soon @_@"... but also want to know if it is for me!~

Mechanics look damn weird... but also very interesting lol >.<!!~

[Shatterhand]

Yes. On this version using the button also slow you down, If you roll by wiggling the stick you keep normal speed.

[1000Eyes]

Dunno how rolling will be handled in 3, as it seems kinda vague about it. I can talk a bit about rolling in previous games tho.

I bought an arcade stick just for purpose of trying out manual rolling. It is a little weird at first, but it becomes very unique imo, because it has an analog resistance to your movement since you always move left and right slightly every time even during tight patterns. Like playing gravity-inertia shooters like Asteroids or Defender. It is no harder than to learn to control a ball with your feet, or using a bat or a racket. I think that you should compare it to something like physics games, which is something that shooters once experimented a lot with before the stench associated with Euro devs.

But most of the game design is still available using the roll button. I do believe that some patterns might seem a little too straightforward initially when you dont have to worry about how to move in them, but this probably evens out when chasing high scores. Ideally manual roll should be experienced, but I know the game is in no position to demand that from audiences nowadays without a stick.

[AntiramDSR]

Like playing gravity-inertia shooters like Asteroids or Defender. It is no harder than to learn to control a ball with your feet, or using a bat or a racket. I think that you should compare it to something like physics games, which is something that shooters once experimented a lot with before the stench associated with Euro devs.

like in TriggerHeart Exelica with auto rotate off? anchor-dancing?

(also never played Psyvariar before, always wanted though)

anyways... 13 hours till release wooohooo

[Weak Boson]

As someone who never play this series... so the whole rolling thing (which... looks very annoying... lol)... is that like this game's "focus shot" that also happen to make hitbox smaller and graze radius larger? I did try do some research and it seems that normally you have to keep going left/right (or is it up/down) to roll but there is also dedicated roll button now like how most STG have autofire?

Just asking because been following this release closely and game will launch soon @_@"... but also want to know if it is for me!~

Mechanics look damn weird... but also very interesting lol >.<!!~

Rolling works differently in the different games.

It's been too long since I played Medium Unit to be speak on that, but in Revision you move faster while rolling to compensate for the extra inputs you need. Even in the arcade version of there is a roll button: when you exhaust your bomb stock the bomb button becomes a roll button. This roll button gives you the rolling state and maximum speed, and it's mostly there for the final boss. In the port they added a seperate roll button that slows your movement when held, but will increase your speed when tapped.

In Psyvariar 2 once you initiate the rolling state you will not leave it as long as you maintain some directional input - this lets you roll in place at the edge of the screen without the use of the roll button - but the speed increase is less. You do however get a burst of speed when you level up. The DC port doesn't have a roll button but the Xbox and PS2 ones do.

Maybe it's an unintuitive mechanic but aside from the risk/reward of the movement tech it's absolutely necessary to be able to move at different speeds and buzz at different rates for high level play. e.g., there are situations when you want to buzz less so you can time a crucial level up. I'm a big fan of how the system works in the ports of Psyvariar Revision specifically - you have total control of your ships movement and can adapt to any situation. In Psyvariar 2, the slower default speed with boosts felt inconsistent to me. It's fine when everything goes to plan but it feels awful to go off route and become sluggish and that often leads to getting trapped or making a stupid mistake.

We'll have to wait and see how Psyvariar 3 handles it, but that's not very long now!

[AntiramDSR]

https://youtu.be/4-6aDUKhOSQ?is=YLIz__t6lVO_GDI4

[Jonpachi]

She ain't really a looker, but I do love all the camera work and stage transitions. You just don't see that in many shmups anymore (post Treasure, really). I'm excited!

[AntiramDSR]

She ain't really a looker, but I do love all the camera work and stage transitions. You just don't see that in many shmups anymore (post Treasure, really). I'm excited!

agree. to me it looks definitely charming, there is something about the unusual look. can't put it better now, but i like it!

https://youtu.be/0sMPkf_B0Kw?is=ujsdge0shsyxCSXL

[StarLightMoonLight]

The game is out now, has anyone else tried it? I haven't picked any of the other characters yet but Cotton feels a bit slow!

[ciox]

Well I gave the game a go for about an hour with Buzz Type, and while there is effort to make the game flashy and polished at first look, it seems like too much of the right Psyvariar type of gameplay is missing right now.
There's plenty of aggressive enemy types that will challenge you during the stages, but I haven't seen many enemies that suggest an obvious trick to be done to get more graze/buzz out of them, I saw one or two that you can kind of risk hugging for more graze, and there are some specific areas in the stages where there are so many bullets being launched that you can and should move up the screen to graze it all and chain a couple invincibility shields in a row, but there isn't really a lot of finesse to it. The boss attack patterns have much the same problem and don't feature any obvious moments to optimize, unless you weave in your bomb abilities. In general the grazing is more like the grazing in Raiden Fighters and Touhou than anything else, brief moments of bullet spam aside.
The stages also have some dead air and long sequences where you fight just one enemy that doesn't do much but takes a good while to kill, it's unfortunate since Psyvariar Delta's remixed stages didn't have any problems like that and that was a relatively recent release.
It is quite cool that the stage select feature is in, since you can choose the difficulty of the next stage or stage segment, and you should always go for max difficulty to make the game more exciting since it ramps up enemy counts, but as far as I can tell this will just make the "bullet spam" super graze moments a little more common during stages, rather than ramping up the skill requirement for scoring in some grand way.
The UI is a bit unclear too, the neutrino energy gauge is pretty hard to read, and you can turn on a "neutrino ring" in the game options, but that is a bit hard to read also since it's desaturated and transparent, oh well, graze-by-instinct it is then.
I will be playing this more to see if it's possible to make some interesting routes through the game, especially later levels at max difficulty, but it looks like it's quite a different game from the other Psyvariars, much more focused on direct action, and with less focus on epic boss fights full of scoring optimization.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

On Steam, you can buy Psyvariar 3 with a 20% off discount making it a $15.99 usd purchase instead of it's original MSRP of $19.99 usd on it's debut date of 5/20/2026, Wednesday. It's a 3.77gb digital d/l and is Steam Deck verified with no need to use a Proton booter utility app to boot it up/run. The Steam port of Psyvariar 3 is currently at Version 1.0.1 as of today, 5/20/2026.

On the High Score initial entry screen, up to 3 initials or numbers may be entered and saved for posterity.

You're given a default number of 4 credits upon booting up Psyvariar 3 for the very first time and earn a 5th credit upon entering your high score initials for the very first time -- thus making it a grand total of five.

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From the Main Menu screen, push right on the D-pad or use the right arrow key on the keyboard to gain access to the Options screen which will bring up a submenu of Game Options, Video Settings, Volume & Sound and lastly, Controls.

If you highlight Video Settings, you can enable tate in either 270 degree orientation or 90 degree orientation.

From within the Video Options submenu, you can adjust the "Render Resolution" from the following: 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p and 2160p.

Render Quality can be adjusted from the following: Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High and Ultra.

VSync settings include the following: Every Frame, 1/2 Frames, 1/3 Frames, 1/4 Frames and Off.

The overall Border artwork can be changed as well from the following: Earth, Exodus, Blur, Black, Green, Info Without Zoom and Info With Zoom.
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On the high score screen, there's a message displayed at the very bottom saying "Only your first score is uploaded to the online leaderboards" (if wi-fi is enabled and turned on).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Shatterhand]

On Steam, you can buy Psyvariar 3 with a 20% off discount making it a $15.99 usd purchase instead of it's original MSRP of $19.99 usd on it's debut date of 5/20/2026, Wednesday. It's a 3.77gb digital d/l and is Steam Deck verified with no need to use a Proton booter utility app to boot it up/run. The Steam port of Psyvariar 3 is currently at Version 1.0.1 as of today, 5/20/2026.

On the High Score initial entry screen, up to 3 initials or numbers may be entered and saved for posterity.

You're given a default number of 4 credits upon booting up Psyvariar 3 for the very first time and earn a 5th credit upon entering your high score initials for the very first time -- thus making it a grand total of five.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

It seems if you keep playing you get more credits, in a system similar to Gradius V.

[Jonpachi]

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you defeat the Stage 1 boss, the old-school background graphical effects taken from the very first Psyvariar Medium Unit game is shown -- how cool is that? Definitely such a nod towards the 1st Psyvariar game indeed.

The BGM tunes are composed by Cris Arievilo for this third outing of Psyvariar 3.

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If you buy Psyvariar 3 through the Microsoft Series S or Series X gaming consoles, the ol' standby of using the handy "Quick Resume" feature is cool to use with Psyvariar 3 and saves you unnecessary time to do a fresh boot up of it and resume exactly where you left off -- definitely an awesome perk afforded of the current Microsoft based gaming consoles not found elsewhere.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mamonu]

Just got it.

One thing that i liked was the price. It was near an expensive ACA game rather than some of the prices ive seen lately on some of my fav shmups. So pricewise its not a hit and run.

I played a bit and i didnt hate it. Ill give it some elbow grease when i find the time , perhaps during the upcoming weekend.

But one thing that i havent found is the gamepad rumble/vibration that eg psyvariar delta had when you scrape the bullets.
this is imo half of the fun of a psyvariar game. the scraping buzz/vibration of the controller.

Is there a way to turn this on (because if it is i didnt find it in the option). game has this on the psn page
"PS5 VersionVibration function and trigger effect supported (DualSense wireless controller)". i didnt however feel like this functionality is used. which makes the game a bit flat IMO

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Just got it.

One thing that i liked was the price. It was near an expensive ACA game rather than some of the prices ive seen lately on some of my fav shmups. So pricewise its not a hit and run.

I played a bit and i didnt hate it. Ill give it some elbow grease when i find the time , perhaps during the upcoming weekend.

But one thing that i havent found is the gamepad rumble/vibration that eg psyvariar delta had when you scrape the bullets.
this is imo half of the fun of a psyvariar game. the scraping buzz/vibration of the controller.

Is there a way to turn this on (because if it is i didnt find it in the option). game has this on the psn page
"PS5 VersionVibration function and trigger effect supported (DualSense wireless controller)". i didnt however feel like this functionality is used. which makes the game a bit flat IMO

The Steam port of Psyvariar 3 has support for vibrational rumble effects during gameplay so you might want to try that particular version instead.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mamonu]

Just got it.

One thing that i liked was the price. It was near an expensive ACA game rather than some of the prices ive seen lately on some of my fav shmups. So pricewise its not a hit and run.

I played a bit and i didnt hate it. Ill give it some elbow grease when i find the time , perhaps during the upcoming weekend.

But one thing that i havent found is the gamepad rumble/vibration that eg other psyvariars had when you scrape the bullets.
this is imo half of the fun of a psyvariar game. the scraping buzz/vibration of the controller.

Is there a way to turn this on (because if it is i didnt find it in the option). game has this on the psn page
"PS5 VersionVibration function and trigger effect supported (DualSense wireless controller)". i didnt however feel like this functionality is used. which makes the game a bit flat IMO

The Steam port of Psyvariar 3 has support for vibrational rumble effects during gameplay so you might want to try that particular version instead.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I would love to but i only have a PS5 for games. I also got a Mac but for most shmup games i like Steam publishes for PC only
Anyway hopefully they can add this? its really weird if its missing.

[xEbb1993x]

I think I'll get it on Nintendo Switch 2 because I'm getting one of those soon.

[Faith]

Just got game! First impression not bad!! Obviously... Faith have *zero* idea on what doing lol!!!~

Spent 3 hours messing around trying to see which ship type can work with... and after all this time... still no idea lol! Naomi probably seems most balanced? But no idea @_@"... like said... have no clue what doing yet haha... but definitely love the music a lot, and for graphics... nice to see another STG run at high FPS! Think I see it running at my laptop max around 144 FPS? Very smooth!~

[xEbb1993x]

I just need to know what the conditions are for reaching the TLB, and the easiest way to do so.

[Shatterhand]

I just need to know what the conditions are for reaching the TLB, and the easiest way to do so.

Arcade Mode: Play every stage on Hard or Extreme and reach Level 256.
Arrange Mode: Don't use continues.

Easiest way to do, *in my opinion*

Use Maeda, abuse its magnetic bomb, don't worry dying, use continues. Your score will suffer but you will face the TLB

[xEbb1993x]

Arcade Mode: Play every stage on Hard or Extreme and reach Level 256.
Arrange Mode: Don't use continues.

Easiest way to do, *in my opinion*
Use Maeda, abuse its magnetic bomb, don't worry dying, use continues. Your score will suffer but you will face the TLB

Okay, I'll be using Maeda when I play this.

[ciox]

Looks like I was wrong about the boss fights, there are some serious supergraze moments in there, even if the balance is a bit silly, with Buzz Type you can just sit right on top of the stage 5 boss for ages

https://x.com/charlie0816/status/2057481941046477127

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Looks like I was wrong about the boss fights, there are some serious supergraze moments in there, even if the balance is a bit silly, with Buzz Type you can just sit right on top of the stage 5 boss for ages

https://x.com/charlie0816/status/2057481941046477127

Is the above listed X superplay clip the very last boss in the game?

Apparently, today 5/21/26, the Steam port of Psyvariar 3 has a 1.4gb update -- am not sure what it entails but seems like quite a substantial update nevertheless.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[ciox]

Looks like I was wrong about the boss fights, there are some serious supergraze moments in there, even if the balance is a bit silly, with Buzz Type you can just sit right on top of the stage 5 boss for ages

https://x.com/charlie0816/status/2057481941046477127

Is the above listed X superplay clip the very last boss in the game?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

That should be the stage 5 boss while there are 7 stages total in the game, not sure yet but stage 7 might have special requirements to be entered.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you start an arcade session of Psyvariar 3 on Steam and don't touch the arcade stick/gamepad/keyboard controls until the ending results screen, you'll see a score of "zero" but will still earn another credit added to your overall existing number of credits, credits-wise. How cool is that?

Talk about a lazy-asses' way to earn extra credts without actually playing it -- discovered this lil' tidbit by accident yesterday, 5/20/2026.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[The_Trooper49]

Anyone playing on switch AVOID the base switch 1 version, unplayable levels of input lag (at least in docked mode with my wired arcade stick). Tried it on switch 2 instead (free upgrade route via the eshop) and it is at least playable now, although I'm not convinced it is especially responsive in general. I don't get scientific with these things so would be interesting to see if someone more technical does any tests!

I was really looking forward to this release but it seems 2026 has been a bit weak so far for shmups on switch / switch 2. Maybe Truxton Extreme will save the day later in the year??

[hamfighterx]

Anyone playing on switch AVOID the base switch 1 version, unplayable levels of input lag (at least in docked mode with my wired arcade stick). Tried it on switch 2 instead (free upgrade route via the eshop)

Thanks for that info, I was interested to hear about the differences. I'll still grab the S1 physical version since the S2 upgrade is free and that physical version is slightly cheaper, but good to know and I will set my expectations accordingly.

[xEbb1993x]

So get this on Switch 2 or PS5?

[Jonpachi]

So get this on Switch 2 or PS5?

PS5 is always going to be your best option if you have the ability to play both.