Danmaku Unlimited 3 Review (Saturmorn Carvilli)
I really enjoyed Danmaku Unlimited 2, but many of the elements I liked about 2 have been stripped away 'for beginners'. Yet, I find Danmaku Unlimited 3 far less beginner friendly.
The game play is roughly the same as the previous. You have a regular shot and a more powerful shot with slower movement. Plus, bombs that serve as shields if hit. Finally, you have a Trance/hyper shot that fires automatically once the meter builds from grazing (getting close to enemy projectiles) or absorbing their 'shadow' when canceled typically from destroying the enemy ship that fired them.
It's the automatic part that feels bad. It can go off when it really is of no use unless you purposely avoid building up that last little bit. Which is less beginner friendly than just allowing the player to release it on command. And far more annoying to have to work around it.
Danmaku Unlimited 2 already had boss battles with more and longer lasting phases than I prefer. Danmaku Unlimited 3 feels like there's more and they are longer. I don't know if that's true, but I do find my mind wandering as I wait for the next phase. Sure, there's bullet patterns to dodge. But I either know how to dodge it or I really don't. The game forcing me to run through it for several more seconds than most bullet hells I've played only changes that I get tired of waiting for the next phase to start. And I'd think I was doing something wrong as how slow damage was applied if I didn't have to struggle to setup my controls.
And struggle I did. I'm weird in that I like to use an 8-button Sega Genesis controller when I can. Danmaku Unlimited 3 doesn't allow me to without the use of a MayFlash Magic-S Pro 2. Which isn't ideal, but some STGs don't even let me get that far. However, remapping keys is strange in this game. The beam shot doesn't work unless I hold down the regular shot and the beam shot at the same time. Pause is what's listed to fire bombs. And the only other thing that can be re-mapped is the menu button. It took me a good while to release I could manually use bombs. I was beginning to wonder why the game called the bombs at all since up until that point, I thought they just let you take extra hits and they didn't even create smaller explosion closer to your ship like some shmups do that also have this feature.
All in all, I can't recommend Danmaku Unlimited 3. If feels like a big step back from Danmaku Unlimited 2, and just claims that step back was in the name of being beginner friendly. Which I don't think it is. As I found Danmaku Unlimited 2 to also be a tad less difficult on the Easy setting. Allowing novice players to get to play more than the first couple stages.
I'm not a very good shmup player admittedly, but I have a very tough time getting to Stage 3 on Easy after an hour of play. Where actual shmups I would recommend to beginner players, I'm usually working on beating the final boss (on Easy) if not beating the the game. And Danmaku Unlimited 3 does not inspire me to continue to try either. I'm certainly not enticed to unlock different firing modes as deep into the game as it wants me to unlock them.