Reviews for DN8:Pulse

[queenofbabes]

This is great! Gameplay is good, graphics are excellent. Flashing the path of oncoming enemy ships is a nice touch, as is the upgrade tree. Both 'main' paths are fairly balanced. I also really liked the touhou-style graze mechanic, which is not commonly seen in flash shooter games.

Medals-wise, so far 'all in a line' and 'the overlook' do not seem to be working, you might want to look into it.

One gripe, though, is about the boss warning sign. Yes, putting in some words in a foreign language might seem exotic to you, but they are just nonsense words. At least take the trouble to put them through google translate and make sure they at least make some sense. What you're doing reeks somewhat of snobbery and is incredibly annoying to anyone who understands that language.

Squize responds:

Thanks for the review. I'll look into those medals, I'm surprised at the Overlook one not working as that was in theory the easiest one for me to code. Odd.

As to the warning text, causing any offence was literally the last thing on my mind. It was purely a stylistic decision, hence us having it in Braille on the left too. It was meant as a visual nicety rather than literal text. Please accept my apologise about that, lesson learned there.

[djpraiseadelik]

Now For A Proper Review (actually in this game's case I'm adding to a lot of proper reviews so thanks to the people before me). Played the first game and was looking forward to this one by the way.

Design:
Loved the nod to TouHou in the design and gameplay. Besides that I loved the music (catchy but not mind-numbing) and the sound effects. Reminiscent of Galaxia/Galaxian to me. Enemies didn't vary much, even bosses, but the color definitely contributes to keeping the game active and fresh.
Gameplay:
It's Bullet Hell but the Graze concept is definitely a nice touch as it adds a very subtle risk/reward setup (graze for bonus lives but added risk of dying). I also like the two tiers concept i.e. lower tier for defensive/newer players and the higher one for offensive/expert players. The perks concept seemed limited but early on it gets xp/graze fast then switches over to better defense and offense (hint use first three then next three once dying isn't so much of an issue). And who doesn't love homing missiles in a schmup?

Overall 4.5/5 (having played up to final 3 levels in low tier)

ProTips (2nd one I've done first being for Pirateers. I'll keep it up unless ppl tell me they don't like it. But really who doesn't like free tips?)

1. Said it before but I'll repeat. If you're noob/seminoob to scmups and/or bullet hell games go low tier on your upgrades so you get pods for added off/def and shields for def. Won't get challenges/xp as fast but you'll live longer.
2. For pro's (like me somewhat I went low tier for 1st playthru I know) go high tier for all the attack power and a little defense (as far as I know which is up to double shot with 2 spread upgrades).
3. Remember your hitbox (i.e. it gets hit you die): it's small trust me. So just moving slightly in any direction will let you avoid hits, especially with shield/pods, while still grazing enemies. Bosses same way.

Again great schmup and has some replay value. Keep up the good work.

[Redgrant64]

Fun, quick little time waster, nothing too outrageous. I like the music and the overall look, especially the backgrounds. Unfortunately the perks don't really help much. I also liked the little "light path" that shows where the ships are going. It's novel, helps you plan your next move, and not to mention it looks pretty cool too.

Squize responds:

Cheers, and yes that's exactly what it's meant to be, if you have 15mins fun playing it then it's more than done its job.
And yeah, I was really pleased with how the paths worked out ( Its always a nice surprise when you code something and it works better than you planned. Pity its so rare that happens :) ).

[FrostyZ]

Very nice. Just a bit disappointed by the weak/weird sounds and low explosion amounts when knocking down enemies, especially bosses.

Squize responds:

Thanks for the review.
With the sound effects we couldn't really have normal explosions in there, there are so many baddies being killed at once that it would just be over-powering.
We did want Rez like sounds in there, that every baddie kill would add to the tune, but I left it too late ( And then realised it would be hard to do, and the music would need re-doing which wasn't possible ).

[tikibanana]

fun but the "get medal" alert has caused my death at least 3 times