Recent reviews by stellalumi

If Chicken Invaders at all looks even slightly appealing for you to play, then play this one. This is by far, the definitive peak of the entire Chicken Invaders series and while 4/5 are incremental improvements, they don't capture the raw spirit of the Chicken Invaders experience quite like Revenge of the Yolk does.

The boss design captures the essence of the game experience. You need to fly right under enemies to shoot them, but doing so puts you in a vulnerable position for attack. This fundamental loop is worked around in all of the U.C.O. encounters as well as the Yolk Star, which I believe to be the best boss battle in the entire franchise.

I have mixed feelings about the remaster. My recommendation is to play the original, or configure the remaster in such a way that you can get it as close as possible to the original experience.

This game definitely blew my expectations! A lot of passion went into just about every aspect of the game, but I particularly love the game's soundtrack and minimalist yet expressive story.

Despite having no difficulty setting, this game's mechanics allow it to have a highly flexible difficulty ramp. While the most casual of shmup players may appreciate the game's autosave, the more experienced players will find a decent challenge in scoring and completing the special 10th stage.

The UX of the game is very similar to the style of arcade game that it emulates, so it can be somewhat confusing to drop in and play the game. There are a number of aspects of the game (controls, scoring, the names of the two girls), that I only learned from reading the game's manual. The collision takes time to get used to for players not particularly familiar with the CAVE-style hitbox. So... while I do love this game, I also recommend that the game be approached with an open mind, especially for people not particularly accustomed to shmup conventions.

the gameplay actually sucks garbage but its art, music, and presentation make it worth hoping for better updates in the future.

i'm giving it a recommend as an encouragement to the developers that they still have something good going if they can work on the important game design parts and not just new characters.

- there is no content (the game is 10 minutes at most)
- of the content that exists the enemy design is extremely amateurish, what I would expect from a jam game, not a steam release
- there is only one real build (damage/fire rate) and most of the other items are worthless
- most of the character gimmicks are extremely shallow and not that satisfying (add 1 extra shot to your kit)
- character balance is completely all over the place (compare wriggle's damage output to daiyousei)

other minor nitpicks
- the dash is hard to use and mostly unsuitable for dodging
- devil deals are never worth it as the core damage build items depend on you not taking damage
- nitori shop is way too expensive without discount card and you cap out on money insanely quickly to make good use of it
- there are several bugs related to invulnerability frames that can lead to near-instant death even with items that give you more invulnerability.
- there is no real choice to most of the doorways, you either pick shop or you don't, otherwise all rooms are nearly identical and seem to generate similar pools of enemies to the point that I don't really care about the difference between 1 and 2 stars.

i love this game it's so cute and funny and satisfying

After almost 3 years of leaving my initial review, I think the game has gotten a lot better since receiving a slew of recent updates from the development team. Many of my pain points were resolved... but to be honest, it's still very much a mixed bag.

This game has the benefit of being a suitable alternative for Realm of the Mad God's expatriate playerbase, and when looked through the lens of a RotMG alternative it can be considered a simpler game without the terminal rot of FOMO (fear of missing out) events and redundant microtransactions. Despite having the hindsight of RotMG and the flexibility of a smaller game/team, I don't feel that Darza has properly evolved its gameplay progression to a point where I feel it's anything else but... diet Realm of the Mad God. There's still a lot of questionable design that may only exist from the developers' own nostalgia that I feel when examined from the lens of an original game, make little sense in a vacuum.

When we step away from the RotMG comparison, the game very much has an advantage as one of the few online multiplayer shmups that share more DNA with looter shooters than with Vampire Survivors. The game is still quite confusing and you'll spend a lot of time figuring out what to do and where to go, but if you're able to get a hang of the game loop, it's quite fun to kill some time maxing characters and fighting bosses- as long as you're in a group that runs the content fast enough to get that satisfaction.

The enemy design is not my favorite, often relying on players reading and predicting patterns due to their sheer bullet speed. At the same time, the patterns aren't particularly involved enough for me to gain that satisfaction of having read any pattern correctly. Despite having a fresh slate to work with, you can still die in rapid and unpredictable ways just like its predecessor, and while this was one of RotMG's biggest criticisms, seeing this game walk right back into that issue is frankly, uninspiring.

That being said, I can definitely have fun playing this with some friends, as long as I don't consider the game at the scale of commitment that I normally would an MMO. It's a small game and as a result you should plan to spend only a small amount of your time on it.

In the off chance that this game continues getting systemic improvements and new content, my review might change again.

===== original review below =====

i've played some pretty bad bullet hells but i think this game calling itself bullet hell is offensive to bullet hell games

i love this adorable game. requires lots of clicking though!

cute, loveable, and tragic

An absolutely charming, and surprisingly difficult game, especially if you intend on using the Jealous Chest. The game manages to be friendly and easy to beat in one session on Normal difficulty, while also being intensely painful on Master difficulty.