[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote]
Natsuki Chronicles is... a weird game. It's much better than its predecessor (Ginga Force) and improves upon that game's faults. However, it fails to understand and properly utilize its own strengths and weaknesses, ultimately resulting in a game that is not bad, but is far away from what it could have been and cannot be easily recommended to the masses.
[h2]Story?... Again?[/h2]
This game continues Qute's attempts at storytelling in a shmup and frankly, it has failed at it again. I don't expect shmups to do what the ALLTYNEX trilogy did, but if you are going to put a whole lot of resources and time into creating a fully voice acted story mode, at least don't give the MC's superior a Gundam villain look, and don't write the story in a way so it's clear that we are working with the bad guys from the get-go.
That aside, the story narration problem from Ginga Force is still here as well. The game does feature lots of cutscenes, but it still insists on having the characters constantly talk while you are fighting the enemies. So if you do want to follow the story, you will need to constantly look at the top right corner of the screen, which means you will 100% be getting hit by the enemies if you do so.
Then we have the issue of the story messing with the tutorials. The purpose of a tutorial is to teach the basics and the game's mechanics. However, Natsuki Chronicles only has you going through them whenever it wants to throw a story flashback at you. Therefore, you get these tutorials way after or way before the time they are actually needed.
[h2]Forget the story, how's the game?[/h2]
I would say that Natsuki Chronicles is... alright. It brings back much of Ginga Force's gameplay features, such as the customization system, with the most notable difference here being the scrolling type changing from vertical to horizontal.
The game also makes some improvements to offer a better gameplay than its predecessor. Lives are replaced with a HP bar that recharges over time. You can toggle the display of bullet paths to dodge them more efficiently. The visibility is also way better here, with the exception of first level as enemies can easily blend in with the background, or hide behind the boss warning and hit you unfairly.
Unlike Ginga Force, I actually stayed with Natsuki Chronicles until the very end. It's a big improvement over that game in terms of actually being decent enough to warrant a full playthrough. However, I still cannot recommend the game unless it is on sale, as a lot of things are not ideal.
[h2]I expected more from a dev with such a long shmup history[/h2]
The first problem is that it's not clear where the hitpoint of your ship is. This is not a vertical shmup (in which you can easily identify cockpit as the hitpoint) and also the ship's 3D model starts tilting to the sides while moving. Without an option to make the hitpoint visible, it's not easy to find out where it is.
Next, the rear shot mechanic feels poorly thought out. Rear-side weapons are inferior to the ones you can equip on the front. Not only that, using them in tandem with your main weapons feels counterproductive, as doing so causes both of your weapons to lose some firepower. This means every time an enemy or boss gets behind you, you just have to survive long enough for them to change locations.
Then there's the difficulty and its scaling which still seems to be busted, just like Ginga Force. Not only medium difficulty can kick your ass, but there are difficulty spikes all over the game, with some of the stages and bossess feeling significantly easier or harder than their predecessors.This can force players towards the easy difficulty to have a better time, and to prevent the equipment unlock grind from getting bad.
[h2]Do you guys not [strike]have phones[/strike] love grinding?[/h2]
The unlock system in Natsuki Chronicles has went through some changes compared to Ginga Force. It's better than what we had before, yet does nothing to fix the grinding.
This game has two different level up systems. First, we have the "Player Level" which is the same global unlock system from ESCHATOS and Judgment Silversword. You get EXP by playing the game and will unlock new equipment as you level up. Then there's "Stage Study Level" which is a replacement for how you got extra lives in Ginga Force, and lets you get extra shields by replaying levels and leveling up. And it does not matter if you win or lose, your accumulated EXP will be added anyway.
Seems good so far, but the problem is that some of the equipments are locked behind your Stage Level. The game artificially increases the playtime by expecting you to grind the stages over and over and over again, if you want to have access to more equipment. And the reward for going after them is not worth it as your unlocks will not be accessible in the arcade mode. So what's the point of grinding for equipment other than a sense of pride and accomplishment?
[h2]Wait, did you say ARCADE MODE?![/h2]
Yes, there's an arcade mode in the game.
Arcade mode is separate from the rest of the game, having its own set of settings, rules and leveling system. In this mode, you begin the run with the default equipment, and can change or empower them by collecting pickups that drop from specific enemies. You will also begin the run with 0 credits, and will get more as you amass points through your attempts. Seems nothing special or awful, but there's one thing that prevents me from dedicating more time to playing it.
This mode features an exclusive game mechanic that I DEEPLY despise: Powering down your equipment in a way that jeopardizes progress. Your shield, which is a key ability in Qute's shmups, gets downgraded just after taking three hits. And if this happens when it's at level 1, it gets disabled! Your punishment for being bad at the game is the removal of your last line of defense! In case of the weapons, they always fire with full power until you enter a critical health state, in which their power is downgraded and you are forced to continue the fight in a very vulnerable state.
I know that your equipment is not going to get downgraded with each hit but still, this doesn't make sense. This game mechanic is incredibly unfair towards the players, especially the casual players and newcomers to the genre, as it punishes you for not being very good at the game. If you fail to play the game as well as the it wants you to, your weapons will get powered down and it will take much longer to defeat the enemies and bosses.
While I do not think the game is bad, I honestly cannot recommend it. You're better off playing other shmup games and getting this on a deep sale if you really want it.
I think the game has not utilized its qualities properly. We have a story mode with loads of content to unlock, yet it does not have the "pick up and play" feeling of a traditional shmup. We have an arcade mode with a traditional gameplay that does not allow the usage of story mode unlocks. These modes should have had a connection to allow for a unified progression path, unlocking things as a whole and for both of them. And it doesn't seem like it would have been hard to do, as the devs had used a similar system in the past.
Getting rid of Stage Level and Arcade Level, and having Player Level doing the job of both, would have benefitted the game and greatly increased its replayability value. But alas, this has not happened and therefore, I don't think I will ever get the itch to return to this game.
[h2]TL;DR[/h2]
Not a bad shmup, but doesn't use its features properly. The grind caused by disconnected level up systems, underutilization of gameplay features and difficulty issues make for a mediocre game at best.
