“NeverAwake” was a stiff shooting game with beautiful and cute graphics. However, even the author, who doesn’t usually play this genre, reached the end of the game in about 13 hours after touching it for the first time. Let’s face it, this is not an easy game. However, this is the kind of game where you can keep retrying and lose track of time.
This work contains many innovative ideas. What’s important is that all of them had the spirit of wanting to deliver the fun of shooting games to users. I can’t talk about how it looks to the core users of this genre, but I can’t say, “I like shooting games, but I can’t quite get to the end.” I don’t know.” It was a work that I would like users who feel that way to touch. What kind of ideas are included in this game? I would like to introduce it from now on. I played the game using an Xbox controller.
A simple twin-stick shooter with a creepy cute worldview
This work depicts the story of Rem, a girl who is bedridden in a hospital bed and wakes up after facing her own traumatic experiences in her dreams. The genre is 2D shooting. The player controls her machine, Rem, who is dressed in her black outfit, and goes to the “Nightmare” stage. Her REM controls are really simple, and she uses only two analogue sticks and LB and RB buttons. She moves with the left analogue stick and aims with the right analogue stick. When you start aiming, it will automatically start firing, so the player can concentrate only on the target of the aim.
You can use the LB button to evade by dashing (invincibility is attached), and the RB button to use “weapons”. The variety of weapon types is the heart of this work. For users who are familiar with shooting games, the weapon is not a bomb. Some weapons can be used like bombs, but since there are so many different types, think of them as more powerful special attacks than shots. The shield shows life, and if the shield is zero and the enemy attacks, Rem will die. As for the feeling of actually moving the REM, the response is quick, and the operation feels light, which is very comfortable. Switching between left and right aiming with REM as the axis is smooth and easy to operate, but it gives the impression that you can shoot bullets at the target. The author turned off the auto-aim and played.
The graphics are also distinctive. Based on a beautiful and dark worldview, “creepy cute” characters and everyday locations in nightmares are intensely arranged and appear. I’m glad that there are many types of boss characters. There are no more than 20 pairs of bosses that can be reused, and each time they launch a different pattern of attack, and above all, the bosses with unique designs are exciting.
The location of the stage is full of dark tastes, such as familiar locations such as clinics and schools. In each stage, unique enemy characters are waiting for Rem.
Retry tempo is good for stages were short routes loop
The progress of the game is to clear the “world” divided by theme in order. The world consists of 10 stages, and by clearing the stages in order, the next world will be released when you win the battle with the boss in the 10th stage.
In the world, the stages are arranged in a row such as 1-1, 1-2, etc., and proceed in order, but some stages can be skipped at branch points along the way. Between the stages, the girl’s diary is inserted, and the days she experienced when she was not sleeping are unravelled fragmentarily. All of these can be viewed at any time from DIARY on the main menu.
The first thing that surprises you about this work is the composition of the stages. Stages that proceed with forced scrolling do not have a point of arrival as coordinates and have a structure in which a short route loops.
The condition for clearing the stage is to collect 100% of the “souls” dropped by the enemy. This is the same for boss battles, and you can clear the stage by continuing to attack and collecting the souls that drop at a certain time. You can clear the stage without defeating the boss. The soul will be used to purchase items at the shop and purchase power-up sources when retrying.
Build freely with a wide variety of weapons and accessories
There are various types of “accessories” that can be selected and worn just like weapons, such as “umbrellas” that block enemy bullets and “shoes” that increase Rem’s movement speed. The effect of accessories is great, and it becomes important in advancing the capture, but the frame of accessories that can be installed is limited. And this space will soon run out. This is a fairly intentional specification, and you will be forced to choose severely when it comes to equipping accessories. This is where it gets tricky and interesting.
As a combination, it is necessary to rearrange according to the purpose, such as “Souls are extremely easy to collect, but can’t be hit” or “It doesn’t have offensive power, but it’s easy to fight long-term battles with an emphasis on shield recovery.” Even on a stage that felt difficult, the ease of capture changes dramatically just by rearranging the accessories. The replacement of accessories becomes more frequent as the second half progresses. I felt that it was a little troublesome to replace frequently, and I felt that I wanted a system like “deck registration”.
Interesting OMOIDE CHALLENGE that makes the most of accessories
The one I find particularly interesting in this work is the “OMOIDE CHALLENGE”. Unlocked after clearing World 4. This is a mission to take on a new challenge in a world that has already been cleared, and you will get a “memorable photo” as a reward. The clear conditions are different from when you visited before, and the challenges are presented. There are several types of challenges, such as “get 100% of souls in one loop” and “avoid souls and completely defeat the boss”. Here, the selection of accessories will determine the fate of the capture.
For example, in “Avoid Souls and Defeat the Boss”, if you get 100% of Souls, as usual, the battle will end there. Even if the boss spews out souls, it is necessary to continue to damage the boss without obtaining it. However, the amount of souls the boss spits out is quite large. If you’re just fighting normally, you’ll come across souls floating in the air and get them. That’s where the accessory “Soul Earplug” comes into play. This is an item in which the emitted soul flies away from Rem. In this way, items whose usage was unknown in stage capture can be found in new ways in
The difficulty is that there are few moments when brain juice spurts out.
In the second half, you will be forced to try out combinations of weapons and accessories frequently, or you will be forced to play at the limit while staring at the durability value of the shield while being hit. The second half gives the impression of being forced to play stoically.
For example, the weapon Inazuma Pencil. This is a weapon that can be obtained later in the game. It is quite strong and the production is flashy, but it can only be used 3 times and the aim often misses. Unfortunately, the capture was almost unmanageable for me. If this number were 10 times, I feel like it would have been an interesting capture companion.
As I said, somewhere along the way, I had a greedy impression that “It would be nice if there was a broken part that could be a little more unrivalled.” Of course, this is also an extravagant opinion, and with Rem’s comfort to the touch, sharpness of aiming, and the overall design and balance of the game being particularly good, this work is still interesting enough, but the number of stages is also large. Yes, I feel like I wanted an element that looks a little broken and occasionally blows up the player’s tension.
In addition, from the beginning to the middle, you can feel a fresh shooting experience, but in the end, it became something close to “a normal shooting game with a high degree of difficulty”. This is a point I feel a little disappointed with, but I’m arbitrarily convinced that this is a “stick of love from a shooting game” that says, “If you clear this work, try touching other works.”
Overall review
When I first played this work for about an hour for the review, I was amazed at its quality. The graphics, game design, game touch, and BGM are all finished in high quality. I didn’t encounter any bugs while playing the game. Although this work is an indie game, it has a finish that compares favourably with major releases. And while playing the game, I was made to reconfirm “the fun of shooting games” many times.
REVIEW : Wild Terra 2: New Lands (PC)
