Nyanco Dream

Let me say just one thing real quick before I start this review. I am not a terribly huge fan of bullet hell games. I have not played very many of them and I'm ok at them but Bullet Hell games are alright. Honestly I mainly just bought this to support the dev of this game and to give it a quick play through. Anyways this means Nyanco, anything I say here that is negative, please don't take it personally but more as constructive criticism please and thank you. Now that that is out of the way, onto the game review. So Nyanco Dream is a bullet hell game..... made in RPG Maker. Yes you read that right. Made in RPG Maker. Now about this statement, I have VERY mixed emotions. So let me just make a detailed of pros and cons as to why my emotions are the way they are. We will start with the cons: - The performance is absolutely god awful. Honestly this is the first time in my entire life that I have seen an RPG Maker game lag before. Truth be told I thought I would never see the day that an RPG Maker game would lag. Moreover with something like a bullet hell game, performance lag can be an interesting thing. From my perspective it can be an ok thing if the game slows a bit for someone to gather their thoughts on what to do next and where to go to avoid the many projectiles... but that's about it. The bad things about this is that it can cause input lag which in a bullet hell game (which requires you to think quickly) is a big no no. I can already see the frustrated people thinking "OMG Why didn't my character move when I wanted them too." Which unfortunately this game is sort of plagued with. ESPECIALLY WHEN NYANCO TAKES DAMAGE. She is literally as paralyzed as a statue for a good second or two and in a bullet hell game like this it's a problem as it opens you up to taking more damage which can really suck (and is the reason I got a game over on one of the stages) because it's almost like having an extra layer of difficulty that is unnecessary in a way. Which leads me to the next issue about this game. - The difficulty of this game is inconsistent. I personally found that the first stage and if I remember correctly the third stage were the most difficult in the entire game. Which is strange as the last boss and the battle before it felt like a cake walk in comparison. This can be a MAJOR turn off for people looking to play the game if the first stage is difficult as they will have no hope of trying to beat the rest of the game. It isn't necessarily unbeatable but for a more casual gamer it could prove difficult as in some of the later stages my health didn't really dip below I'd say maybe around 40% - 45% whereas in the first stage I ALMOST DIED and in the third one I did. With a difficulty this inconsistent throughout the game it's kind of a buzzkill for people expecting a balanced difficulty that escalates higher as you progress later into the game. Now I will make a list detailing what was alright about the game. Not necessarily good but also not necessarily bad. These will be like "meh" things or "ok" things about the game. - The plot was well, it wasn't bad. TL;DR the main character Nyanco gets transported to the world of Gensokyo Touhou and is trying to find a way back home to her own world. Along the way she meets people who are willing to help her as long as the player "plays" with them because they are bored. (Play meaning beat me in a bullet hell mini game) It isn't anything too extraordinary and unfortunately much to my disappointment I have to say that it lacks the charm that another game in the Nyanco series overflows with, the first game "Nyanco." - The soundtrack. Now here is where it gets interesting. I thought the music was ok. The only reason I thought it may have been good is if the game didn't have performance issues like I stated above. If the game was fast paced like you can tell it was meant to be, the music actually would fit just fine with the game. However, since that isn't the case, it's ok. Now onto the pros of the game. - The innovation of the game. Holy s**t. Nyanco you are undoubtedly amazing for even thinking about taking the RPG Maker game engine and deciding "Hey let's make a bullet hell game using it." As someone who has made Bethesda game mods, (which is mainly difficult as everything crashes with their games and engines frequently) I salute you as I imagine it couldn't have been easy at all. However, if you are anything like me, I am stubborn as heck when it comes to making what I want to happen, happen regardless of how many bugs or hurdles stand in my way. The fact that you took a game engine not even meant for this type of game genre and made this type of game in it speaks volumes. Also the thought process behind this game of trying new things is something I severely miss from the game industry as a whole. Innovation. It used to be around a lot back during the 7th generation of game consoles (PS2, Xbox, GameCube) and prior but after that once the 8th generation of game consoles existed (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii), it sort of died down significantly. It's still around from a few AAA game devs but not a lot anymore so when I see things like this, it makes me really happy inside knowing there is still someone out there willing to take a new step towards something unheard of. Not every game will be a hit, but you get a lot of experience out of it and you also have the bragging rights to say "Hey I did this" which is awesome. The price I'd say is about fair for how long the game is too. Literally cheap for a game that isn't too long. That about sums it up for this review. To summarize, this game has a lot of performance issues along with an unstable difficulty progression system, but it's still worth playing as it probably won't take up more than an hour of your time and is worth it just for the price and for the sake of how innovative it is and for how much crap the dev probably had to go through just to make it. Developing games isn't easy. Especially when it's something that a game engine isn't normally meant to do at all so once again, props to you Nyanco for thinking outside of the box and sticking with your idea for this game. Furthermore if you are still on the fence about playing it... IT'S NYANCO we are talking about here. NYANCO. Again, for anyone looking to play another Nyanco game, give Nyanco Dream a shot. I think it's worth at least an hour of your time. Thanks to everyone who read my review thus far. Hope to play the next Nyanco game real soon.