Recent reviews by Skip

Rather than adding another short opinion to the list of reviews, I have attempted to document the things that might sway your purchase (for better or worse). Although this game was crowdfunded, I was not an early backer; I'm just a fan of the genre and the R-Type series.

Moreover, please forgive the "1.5 hrs at review time" indication above. I began this review with basic, core information as early as I could to help answer a few major questions I felt some excited, potential buyers might have moments after the game launched. But I have since been continuously updating this review as I've progressed further.


• What separates the R-Type series most from other side-scrolling shmups is the inclusion of a "Force" -- the large orb you see hovering in front of your ship. All ships have such a Force that the player can leave attached, launch forward, leave out in space, and recall back to them at will. During the Force's return, the player can also fly ahead of the Force and back into it, effectively attaching it to your ship's rear instead. In all cases, the Force will emit its own (friendly) projectiles, invincibly block/destroy most all incoming (enemy) projectiles, and usually serve at least one other utilitarian purpose unique to your chosen ship's loadout (e.g., working as an independently flying companion when not attached to you, or projecting an even larger shield to deflect more bullets with, etc). On paper, this feature might seem novel at best, but in practice, it defines a major portion of R-Type's unique gameplay, strategies, and customization. Watching any duration of any gameplay videos of either R-Type Final or R-Type Final 2 should suffice for learning the significance and value of a ship's Force (and the player's ability to manipulate it).

• Kazuma Kujo (the game designer and producer for several R-Type releases, including R-Type Final) nailed the audio and visual presentation of R-Type Final 2, making the nostalgic portion of the experience all the more rewarding for former R-Type players. Moreover, the diversity in ship weapons (be it melee attacks, bouncing lasers, droppable bombs, sidekick projectile emitters, heat-seeking missiles, auto-aiming turrets, and everything in between) remains true to what I expected from a modern R-Type title.

• The 16:9 aspect ratio "upgrade" (from its predecessor's 4:3 aspect) measurably improves gameplay by allowing you to see upcoming enemies and obstacles in greater detail from further away, etc.

• Beyond your basic 8-directional shmup controls, the in-game ship mappings include a rapid-fire button which, as expected, fires your basic weapon at the maximum rate your weapon allows (negating any need/advantage of rapid button-mashing). You are also given dedicated buttons for slowing down and speeding up your ship's agility (that is, how fast your ship can navigate the screen-space and avoid incoming projectiles/obstacles, not how fast you progress horizontally through the level) for quick escapes or precise dodging on the fly.


• You pick from 5 difficulty settings at the beginning of each run (Practice, Kids, Normal, Bydo, and R-Typer). These seem to simply adjust the number of enemies/projectiles on-screen at any given time (and perhaps their health).

• There are options to play at up to 360 FPS at 4K resolution.

• You can change the controller icons used to Keyboard, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch styles.

• You are offered fully remappable controls for both keyboard and gamepads.

• While there are no colorblind-related accessibility settings, I have not had any situations arise where obscure color-coding played an important role.


• The interface seems to indicate room for 99 flyable ships in total, however, it is my understanding that not all 99 are currently present and unlockable. (The developers are quick to advertise their intention to add new content to the game post-launch, so take that as you will.) Regardless, each ship has its own projectiles, uniquely meaningful upgrades, powerful charge shots, interesting Force mechanics, and so on. And it is this diversity in customizable ships (and the gradual unlocking of them) that drives a big part of the game's "fun factor" and replayability.

• The "R Museum" (a giant warehouse showcasing your entire ship collection) from R-Type Final is fully-realized in 3D, complete with a ground-level first-person mode for exploring and viewing your collection, and a focused view to see all your individual ships from all angles while you read immersion-friendly descriptions of their loadouts, etc.

• You start the game with 3 ships unlocked, and all ships appear to be customizable. The customization interface offers 8 body colors, full RGB canopy selection (~16 million colors), 61 *extremely generic* decals that can be rotated and positioned anywhere on your ship's body as you see fit (with more optionally unlocked later), 12 missile options (with only 2 unlocked initially), and 12 companion "bits" (smaller projectile emitters that closely follow your ship, of which only 1 or 2 are unlocked initially), all provided and saved on a per-ship basis.

• Beyond the initial 3 ships unlocked from the start, new ships and modifications are unlocked through either crafting materials gathered in-game or bought via currency earned in-game (sans a few exceptions locked behind game progression accordingly).

• 4 ships are locked behind (all lowercase) passwords entered in the R Museum: The R-Type Discord guild discovered Ship #3, the R-9A3 LADYLOVE, password: loveandpeace. Twitter user bandana5656 discovered Ship #24, R-9B STRIDER, password: granzella.


• The length of the game is decent for an arcade-style shmup at the intended (or harder) difficulty, as countless lives will be lost as you learn the ins and outs of each stage. (The struggle of progression is similar to challenging "Mario Maker" levels, if that means anything to you.) But I suspect fans of the easier modes will find its 7 current levels unexpectedly short and unrewarding.

• As can be gleaned from the promotional videos and screenshots provided in Steam, the background during gameplay is bright, detailed, and interesting *almost* to a fault. While I do not believe it has measurably affected my performance in a level yet, I wouldn't be surprised to learn a portion of the playerbase was struggling to distinguish the foreground threats from the background art at the reflexive speed the game requires at harder (and thus "busier") difficulties. An easy fix would be the introduction of an option that allowed players to either dim the background significantly or toggle it off altogether.

• The game requires text-typing in a few select areas (naming your "pilot", inputting backer codes if you have any, etc), and attempts to leverage an in-game keyboard to accomplish this. Unfortunately, this was clearly a rushed "feature", as its implementation is beyond clunky and mandates you to use your mouse every time it comes up (even just to close it, which confusingly is done by clicking the "Enter" button on the virtual keyboard, regardless if you're trying to back out of it, return to the previous menu, or submit the text you've entered). Until this is fixed, using your mouse to click the "Enter" button is a simple workaround for this one-time issue.

• It's perhaps an insignificant shortcoming, but the initial 61 decals available to customize your ship with have an unreasonably copy-pasted clipart-esque aesthetic. It genuinely feels like a barebones pack of public domain emoji (which is *certainly* not the work of any of R-Type Final 2's artists). Fortunately, you can unlock more pertinent decals with in-game currency as you progress.

I won't tell you if you'll like it or not. I'll tell you what you're getting so you can decide for yourself.


• Roughly 15 to 30 hours of content (depending on your preferred pace).
• No replay value outside of achievements.
• Not particularly challenging, even on its hardest difficulty.
• Very well polished in its presentation and execution (sans a few initial-release bugs).
• Minimal lore primarily discovered scattered throughout the dungeons.
• Introduces a few interesting inventory mechanics to the scene while cleverly borrowing/marrying the rest of its designs from other successful inspirations.



1. Binding of Isaac's dungeons, NOT playstyle.
While exploring dungeons, your top-down perspective, room-to-room exploration, and overall map are all borrowed from Binding of Isaac / Legend of Zelda, but you do not encounter any playstyle-changing items throughout each run. Your only 4 attacks (a 1-to-3 hit combo and a charged attack for most weapons) are based on whatever 2 weapon types you brought with you (Sword and Shield, Big Sword, Spear, Glove, or Bow).

2. Recettear's shop management, NOT depth.
You place items for sale at your desired price, learn from your customers' reactions how to better price them next time, and upgrade your shop. Each customer is not unique in their desired target price, there is no back-and-forth bargaining per customer, there is no buying items from customers, there is no recommending items to customers, there is no debt with a looming due date, there is only roughly 200 items total (including weapons, armors, potions, and materials), etc.

3. Stardew Valley's city, NOT gameplay.
You can roam around a charming city, talk to townsfolk, add 5 buildings/NPCs to it (e.g., Blacksmith, Alchemist, etc), walk to the dungeons, and... that's about it. There's no farming (obviously), no shop investments (beyond paying to spawn them), no seasons or real-time clock system, and no relationship building of any kind.

4. Rogue Legacy's progression WITHOUT the passive skill tree.
Between each dungeon run (after selling your loot from the previous run), you're given the opportunity to upgrade your gear. This gear (and its upgrades and enchantments) will increase your damage, health, defense, or move speed, which in turn makes you stronger (and your next run easier) until you can progress further (and eventually beat the game). However, said upgrade options are very limited, rather unimaginative, and likely won't impact how you approach your next run.

I won't tell you if you'll like it or not. I'll tell you what you're getting so you can decide for yourself.


1. This is a sidescrolling RTS, not a platforming Terraria/Starbound clone.
You do not modify your surroundings. There is no major recipe-based crafting. You don't WASD to move your hero; you drag a box around the group of units you want to control and right-click to perform move/attack/skill commands. This will not scratch that 2D sandbox-world itch.

2. If you don't like the deck-building process of your favorite trading card game, you won't likely enjoy this game.
You choose/enhance the characters you want, then their classes, then their tech tree bonuses, and then finally their gear and abilities before every "level." This is literally half the game, and it's akin to the deck-building portion of your typical TCG. You then pit this "deck" of characters against a random series of enemy-filled rooms and hopefully find pride in the outcome of your well thought out preparations. This inevitably results in a couple dozen more items (read: "new cards for your deck") with which you rinse and repeat endlessly. How this comparison is being missed until now is beyond me, but it's an incredibly important aspect to understand before you sink your teeth into this game.

3. Your first couple hours can be hard to enjoy as your decisions/mistakes will not feel meaningful/consequential.
You won't start off with much of anything to do beyond selecting all of your units, right-clicking bad guys, and waiting for everything to die. Fortunately, this isn't the case after your first hour or two. You'll also eventually realize the significance of your resources as soon as you run out of one for the first time (e.g., the currency for shopping, the currency for cloning items and reviving, the currency for your tech tree, or the fuel for exploring new levels). Much more importantly, however, you'll discover (on your own, after the tutorial) that the difficulty of each individual "level" can be scaled through the roof as you see fit; there's no need to bore yourself to death versus enemies that require no thought or effort to defeat. And before you ask, scaling the difficulty up does reward you with better loot drops accordingly, so it's a satisfying choice instead of an arbitrary, self-imposed challenge.

4. The amount of content is appreciably greater than most "loot 'em ups."
Each class feels uniquely important with a wide variety of sub-specialties to choose from within each class. The active and passive buffs and unlocks you'll have to pick from in the tech tree are mostly all interesting. The random item modifiers on your gear range from the typical +stats, resistances, and status immunities to auto-casting unique spells on weapon reload and ensuring a chance to drop consumables on kill. The art for each world feels rich and engrossing. The enemies you'll encounter are varied enough in behavior, ability, and art that you likely won't think to complain. The random NPCs and quest-givers you'll come across frequently have distinct personalities and charm. There's also a decently-lengthed story-focused quest line, procedurally generated side missions, unexpected random encounters, and your typical market fare (buying and selling from stores, shipyards, blackmarkets, etc).

Update 1: The notable May 2017 patch added new content, bug fixes, more useful tooltips/labeling/hints, and relative UI scaling (i.e., no more unreadably small text).

Update 2: The developer, Quadro Delta, went bankrupt on September 4, 2017. Development on Pixel Privateers has ceased accordingly.