izigame.me

The text limit for Steam reviews is pretty strict, so I'm challenging myself to write this succinctly!
I think this game is decent, but I have caveats for anyone on the fence about buying it:
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is not simply a remake of the SNES Pocky & Rocky. It's both a remake and a sequel in terms of its mechanics and the scenario, the game you're playing. I say this because Pocky & Rocky Reshrined will likely be a pretty frustrating Story Mode because the crux of the story is that the main villain travels back in time to defeat Pocky. The way the game motivates this particular aspect is by restricting you from having your special abilities. That's the twist in the story, that by obtaining the blessings of the gods, Pocky is able to use abilities that she didn't have in order to turn the tables on the antagonist, Black Mantle.
That's all well and good, but I think this story is otherwise fairly threadbare, relying on homages or references to things most people won't have any concrete knowledge of to begin with. Not only that, Pocky is incredibly frustrating to play as, she's fairly weak compared to other characters and her shot types don't seem to strike a good balance between coverage and precision, ever.
For casual players who are just looking to survive, this means that you're going to find yourself playing as a character who never feels like she has enough power or utility to really dispatch enemies efficiently. Pocky is a character where you have to have very strong fundamental skill. That's just to say, even if you don't care about being "the best" at the game, unfortunately the game is putting you in a position where you're going to take a bit of a beating whether you like it or not.
Players more invested or familiar with shmup mechanics should feel right at home; however, with Pocky & Rocky Reshrined. Upon getting through Story Mode, you unlock Free Mode and, upon unlocking the 3 secret characters in story mode, access to other play styles by which to try to approach the game.
The scoring concept is based on farming for score and, in my opinion, is probably the least interesting aspect of the game. I, at some point in time, had the number two score on the leaderboard for a normal playthrough... but that kind of run is very dry. The game actually, from the outset, has a design trick to try to implicitly suggest that "This is how you score well", by placing a 300 coin shop in the middle of Stage 1. The only way to get the money for this shop is by staying in one area and killing waves of enemies then picking up the money they drop. You would then, theoretically, look for profitable areas to score. Maximizing bonuses by not getting hit, thus making bombs, shields, and extra lives all spill over into high point collection.
I'm just going to be up front, the distinction that players make between, say, video games and pachinko, mean increasingly less to me as this kind of design normalizes. Scoring is the least interesting thing to me about a video game, ironically, I just learned how to do so because it's important to actually know the subject matter you're engaging with. In doing so, I'm going to say right now, this is the least compelling part of the game, but unfortunately the one that got quite a bit of consideration from the developers.
I won't go further into that, but getting a 1CC casually is pretty fun. At a 30 dollar price point, I think that most players who just want to run through a game and have a good ol' whimsical time should be well serviced. It may do well for you to wait on a sale at that.
If you're the type of player who feels that what a game communicates is very important to the experience, I would suggest skipping out on this game. Otherwise, it's a very good looking, pleasant sounding experience for those who like shoot em ups. Those who have never played this kind of game, if you find frustrating experiences off putting, take that into consideration because this game is not something I'd call "easy."