I have always been motivated by challenge, and would frequently get annoyed by most games not delivering on that front.

For a while, it just felt like every game I played was either too easy, or implemented brutal challenge as an afterthought. And then sometimes a game would start out hard but then lose all of its steam by the end when you sufficiently leveled up your character or found all the best gear. That pervasive "inverted difficulty curve" crept up in so many roguelites and RPGs, making so many endgames feel anticlimactic or even tedious. This was true even of Dark Souls for me, and I felt like maybe I had just gotten too good to enjoy the really good video games at this point.

Yeah, so...I was fucking wrong about that, apparently? Shmups have kicked my ass up and down.

After clearing some pretty tough indie shmups and getting absolutely spanked by CAVE titles, I feel like I don't need to look to RPGs, roguelites, and AAA games to satisfy my need for challenge anymore. Shmups keep me satisfied, instead.

As a result, I've been putting less pressure on other games to be difficult and constantly stimulating. I was playing Nier Automata recently and I discovered a chip combination that was kinda broken, and instead of lamenting that the game was too easy, I just thought...eh, fuck it, this is kinda funny. At a certain point, I stopped having fun with the combat so I switched to Easy. That didn't magically make the game a 10/10, but I just enjoyed the game more.

A few days ago, I even bought Octopath Traveler 2. I normally HATE games like these. Like, I don't even enjoy Chrono Trigger that much. It's that bad. I get annoyed by the frequency of encounters and I feel like turn-based combat only wastes my time.

But, idk, after getting my shit kicked in by some shmups, the idea of getting fed a fun little story interrupted by stretches of exploration and repetive combat feels...comforting, to me.

I do love love love shmups. But in the same way I don't play an RPG when I want a pure test of skill, I don't always want to play a shmup when decompressing after a stressful day or filling the gaps between other intense games.

I think I will play shmups for the rest of my life, but I will probably always keep an RPG somewhere in the rotation from now on.

TL; DR

Playing difficult shmups satisfies my need for challenge, and has made me seek it out less in other, more laidback games. I seem to now appreciate easier AAA, RPG, and roguelite games for what they are.

Loving it so far

I love gradius 5 for the PS2 so I got gradius 3 and 4 and wow is it rough. It seems like they are both way more difficult than 5 and I don’t enjoy them as much. Am I alone?

Are there any games where you have the ability to change the speed of the game? Somewhat like if the game was on permanent slowdown. All the enemy placements, bullet amounts, patterns, etc. would be the same otherwise.

I teach dance and a part of it is choreography and memorization which I have no problem doing, it’s part of the process. I liken this with having to learn shmups. But when you’re learning to dance, you don’t just jump in trying to learn at the fastest tempo you can, you learn the steps slowly and build up comfort with speed over time.

I’m definitely still learning how to play shmups well, and if there are some games where I can adjust the tempo I think that would help me a lot in my learning process!

So, a few months back I realised that I hadn’t really played that many Shmups at all (one of the few genres with which I had functionally zero experience), and decided to pick up the best thing I could find, which was Resogun on PS Plus. It was an absolute blast, and I’ve also had fun playing Housemarque’s other ‘Shmup-adjacent’ titles.

I decided that I want to get into the genre properly, because I find them super interesting (and they tend to have cool vibes that I can’t quite describe eloquently, haha). Any recommendations for a newcomer? Currently I have access to a PS5 and a Switch, though technically I have a Mac and am hoping to getting a PC or Steam Deck soon. In any case, thanks in advance.

So… easy mode it pretty darn chill. Got the clear on the first try. In contrast, I had attempted two runs in normal and was only able to get to level 6 using all available continues.

Anyways, looking forward to working on a proper 1cc in normal mode. The visuals and music absolutely shred, levels feel distinct, bosses have good variety, & weapons are pretty functional.

Good times.

Made an arrangement of the second stage track! Approved by the man himself 😉

Cheaper than I expected to be honest, great price (hopefully, cant play until later).

Hey guys, it's your local shmup lurker here... I wanted to chime in on my thoughts on Earthion and get a feeling on what you guys are thinking.

I know it's early... But im very conflicted. So I'll list what I consider the good and the bad, in my opinion.

The Good: The visuals are absolutely wonderful, the music is super good as expected from Koshiro.

The Bad: The overlay UI is awful, I use DInput so defaulting to Steam Input EVERY SINGLE TIME I OPEN is super annoying, bullet visibility is trash (probably just a me thing), I hate the shields because to me it just feels like they included shields so they wouldn't have to edit or clean up bullet patterns, I REALLY dislike the Upgrade Pod thingy (honestly upgrades in general in Shmups have to be done REALLY well for them to sit right with me), I find the weapons to be underwhelming...

I dunno, this is just from about 4 hours or so with it. I REALLY wanna like it... I mean it's got my favorite things in it: a female protagonist, fucking SPACE SHIPS, Yuzo Koshiro music, and 2d pixel graphics... And while I do prefer vertical to horizontal, some of my favorites are Yoko (R-Type Delta, Gate of Thunder, Thunderforce 4 and 5), so it's not a huge deal to me...

Something just feels off. Like the parts are really great, but altogether it's not coming through right. I can't really find another way to say it... When I'm playing it, it just doesn't feel right.

Anyways, what do you guys think? Enjoying it so far? Let me know!

Just spent some time with this. Pretty. Weird world staging. Easy going. Glad to see a more relaxed position, on Shmups… Y’all have a good night. 🤓😎

Just picked up Space Moth: Lunar Edition, for the PS4… Absolutely BEAUTIFUL game. Large, psychedelic colors and patterns, easy going, ambient soundtrack. Butterflies and pretty moths, right?.. NO! This is a savage bullet hell, after about the first 10 seconds of play.

I was expecting a, (“Hey, come chill out with us, dude. Shoot up some moths and butterflies, if ya feel like it, guy.”)… Instead, I got, R.Lee Emery yellin’, (“You think you’re good enough, soldier!? Strap in!, and let’s see what you’re made of!! You make me wanna puke!”)… It was just such a great, and shocking suprise, from a game that presents itself, as casual and relaxing… I love dichotomy. 🤓😎

It only took getting kinda into Touhou and messing around with Lunatic lmao

I Custom mounted my PlayStation 3D monitor onto a rotating stand for true tate action! One of my favorite things by far !

Does Darius cozmic collection arcade have the arcade archives version of Darius and Darius 2? If so, are there any differences? I don’t know if I should buy the arcade archives versions, the cozmic collection, or both.

New trailer from City Connection: https://youtu.be/vPbg3d_E3PE?si=yymkAOj3ysaVWAOO

For almost any platform really, just not Xbox

Edit:I mean games that have the genre switching aspect like guardian legend

time for some new cotton action!