TechBeat Heart is a flawed and improvable game, in which the most interesting thing is that it shows a promising new STG developer, that is slowly learning from his design mistakes, making of Dual Gunstrike a development to follow.
Conceived as a scoring attack STG, and there aren't as many of them taking the path of an eastern Japanese tradition, if it were for its main Normal mode, honestly, this is a game that I can't recommend.
It has two major flaws. The first one, there is a weapon, the laser beam, that is so overpowered that makes feel the rest useless in comparison. So you will only take the other weapon capsules at the beginning of the run, until you're lucky enough to get a capsule with the laser. There is only a sword that can be justified, because it's a bit (only a bit) more powerful than the laser. Requiring a play style more aggressive, attacking the enemies in the front line, similar to the Vasara games. The problem is that while this style is fun to play, it's a suicide once you reach a boss. Talking about bosses, they're completely unnecessary in a game conceived as a score attack arena game, and they completely broke the high octane rhythm of the gameplay.
Then you have the V spread shoot, that it has a major problem, it's not as wide as you expect it to be in a STG game. And it's so weak that makes other suicide to try to clear the screen of enemies using this, because most of them will take too much time to die in comparison to the laser.
You also have a flamethrower that it's a good idea on the paper. A middle ground between the three other weapons, it has a middle range, it's powerful enough and it's wide. But once again, the laser is comparison is so overpowered, reaching until the upper part of the screen, that you will never use this.
I remember how in a recent tweet, Banana Bytes, the developer of Shopstar, talked about the design process of his new STG game Quasarius Rush. In the early prototype, he found that there was a weapon that he felt that was always annoying to get. So he ditched the work, eliminating the weapon from the early prototype. What's the point of including a weapon that the player will always feel annoyed to use?
Creating a variety of random and diverse weapons in a STG game it only makes sense if you take the Aleste approach. Create diverse play styles for each one that are so different that a diverse number of players will feel at home using them. The problem is that the only weapon here that changes the play stile is the sword, but it will make the bosses artificially hard.
This could have been fixed through the special attacks, and here comes the second major problem of the game. One easily fixable. There are not visual clues from your ship, or through a sound differentiated enough from the rest, to advertise you when the special attack has been charged. So it forces you to look the meter at the right of the screen, that it's the last thing that you want to look at in an intense shooting game. This empties the game of the pleasure of other STG games, of continually refilling your special attack, using it only for the satisfaction of making you feel powerful. It's also incredibly slow to charge, so it's not able to add a second layer of depth to the gameplay. And at the same time, it doesn't serve to compensate how weak are the rest of weapons respect to the laser beam. They don't serve to compensate the flaws of each weapon. How about putting a laser beam as the special for the sword, so you can affront the bosses with a long range attack?
This unbalanced selection of weapons also ruins the Caravan mode of the game. This Caravan mode is superbly designed in its layouts, super intense and fun to play. But there is a significant difference in the scoring possibilities once you are lucky enough to get the laser in a capsule.
It seems that the developer was aware of these problems, and that it's why I recommend this game. There is an extra mode added for Halloween, that fixes all the major flaws. You control a spider, there are not weapon capsules. Its play style is super different from the rest, you need to push the focus button to increase the velocity of the ship. Its special attack feels satisfactory, contrary to the rest of specials in the game, with a screen clearing bomb with an amazing visual design: the thing that you expect from a special weapon, to create chaos and destruction.
Honestly, if the developer creates again other endless attack score game, he should take note of this approach. Ditch the capsule weapon system. Create different ships with completely different play styles that you can select at the start of a run, with separated leaderboards. Create more satisfying special attacks for each one, that also compensate the flaws of its main attack/gimmick.
And please, patch the game including an obvious visual clue when you charge your special attack. This thing is still easily fixable, and it will improve the game a lot.
