Shmup Club October 2021 - Shikhondo Soul Eater

[BlurSTG]

Also I'm not sure what the score penalty is for bombing, but I def accidentally bombed like 3 times during that 1 billion run I had lmao. Noob mistakes boys XD

[MetalFRO]

Yeah, I have a real problem with accidental bombing, because it looks like my meter is full, but I'm not absolutely waiting for the audible cue that Soul Mode is ready. Hard habit to break

[BlurSTG]

New high scores for tonight! I was pretty surprised that I got my best score with Grim Reaper, since I generally think The Girl seems better. But who knows.

[BlurSTG]

New High Score! Broke the 2 billion mark!

[FauxMacho]

Solid progress today. Something odd going on with my Switch and this game with both the pro controller and handheld where occasionally the inputs don't register, or worse, the character randomly charges forward. 

I understand the game a lot better, and focusing on scoring makes the game more fun. There just isn't a lot of enemy variety otherwise, and perhaps Boss Rush would be more fun. With that, I get the rhythm it's asking me to play at. Is it that 4th boss that pretty much has you charge during the first half of a pattern dodging to the side then unleashing? There's no other way out. The publisher has a short video explaining some scoring
Soul Collect Mode = 2x points
2nd level Soul Collect Mode = 4x points

So basically I've been grazing bullets in the levels to charge and engage the Soul meter as much as possible. I like that mechanic because I've already played Danmaku Unlimited 3 a lot.

High scores are not working on Switch, but I promise I'm playing Arcade on Normal difficulty and personal best so far is:
1,579,148,184

[BlurSTG]

Solid progress today. Something odd going on with my Switch and this game with both the pro controller and handheld where occasionally the inputs don't register, or worse, the character randomly charges forward. 

I understand the game a lot better, and focusing on scoring makes the game more fun. There just isn't a lot of enemy variety otherwise, and perhaps Boss Rush would be more fun. With that, I get the rhythm it's asking me to play at. Is it that 4th boss that pretty much has you charge during the first half of a pattern dodging to the side then unleashing? There's no other way out. The publisher has a short video explaining some scoring
Soul Collect Mode = 2x points
2nd level Soul Collect Mode = 4x points

So basically I've been grazing bullets in the levels to charge and engage the Soul meter as much as possible. I like that mechanic because I've already played Danmaku Unlimited 3 a lot.

High scores are not working on Switch, but I promise I'm playing Arcade on Normal difficulty and personal best so far is:
1,579,148,184

GG FauxMacho, and thanks for the video!

[BlurSTG]

So it seems that Shikhondo - Soul Eater does not have a time out on it's bosses. Which is a huge oversight by the devs. You can basically just milk bullets and activate burst mode forever and pad your score for as long as you want to. Pretty lame imo, and I'm not gonna do that. But I thought it was something worth mentioning and bringing up in here.

[FauxMacho]

I tried milking the first boss. Since you have to stop shooting to graze and fill the Soul meter get extra Soul Collect attacks, and then you only get points for the onscreen bullets converted to souls at the beginning and end of the power-up, your soul count will start draining. When my soul count went down to 0, I was only getting 10-20k per Soul Collect attack, but by losing the Soul Count my 70-90 million end stage bonus is no more. So you'll have to milk seemingly for DAYS.

Perhaps there is some scoring technique in pulsing your attack to keep your soul number up, thereby lengthening your boss fight for more Soul Collect attacks without losing the end stage bonus. The boss will take some continual damage and eventually be defeated.

[MetalFRO]

I tried milking the first boss. Since you have to stop shooting to graze and fill the Soul meter get extra Soul Collect attacks, and then you only get points for the onscreen bullets converted to souls at the beginning and end of the power-up, your soul count will start draining. When my soul count went down to 0, I was only getting 10-20k per Soul Collect attack, but by losing the Soul Count my 70-90 million end stage bonus is no more. So you'll have to milk seemingly for DAYS.

Perhaps there is some scoring technique in pulsing your attack to keep your soul number up, thereby lengthening your boss fight for more Soul Collect attacks without losing the end stage bonus. The boss will take some continual damage and eventually be defeated.

I didn't try milking the bosses, but this has been my observation as well, the latter part of what you posted. To me, then, the scoring in this game isn't a very interesting loop, as it's not very flexible, and doesn't really allow you to do much to really exploit it to the fullest, aside from really low scoring bursts. Seems boring to me.

[MetalFRO]

I was hoping to stream this last night, but after work, adulting took precedence, and time got away from me. Not sure if I'm going to have time the next couple days to play, as I have a lot going on. Anyone have final thoughts about the game to share?

[Corkman]

  I was able to get a few more runs in today after not being able to play for a couple of weeks. I got to 661 mil, a little better than my previous score.

For me, I was interested in this game for the cool art and found some fun in the gameplay for the small amount of time I was able to play. It was good to get some practice in a game with grazing mechanic.

 I had some issues with the orange arrowhead looking bullets blending into the background or the souls you were collecting. Also the online leaderboards on the Switch version were glitchy. One time the scores didn't display and another time it wouldn't update my online ranking when I got a higher score.

It's a pretty average game. Not amazing but not bad either. Good at a low price.

[FauxMacho]

My final thoughts about this game is that it's a very good concept, but truly just unfinished. With a revision of bug fixes, color changes and some less pixelated assets (on Switch at least) this game could really shine.

The Soul Collect mechanic is a bit deeper than it appears on the first credits. The 4th and 5th bosses mandate activations at certain points so the player better have one ready, but there is usually enough wiggle room to quickly charge up and release one. And those patterns are timed so the end-of-power-up bullet cancel saves you from the pattern once again. To my recollection there is just one spot at the beginning of the 4th boss where I need to come in with a full meter otherwise I will take a hit.

One feature we haven't mentioned that I really like is the Reward at the end of each level. Choose between Soul or Life. But what isn't explained is that if you have 3+ of the one you choose you get 1 added to your stock, but if you are down to 0 (Soul only), 1, or 2 it will bring you back to a stock of 4. What I really like about that is that you can take a few hits in early levels and not feel the need to restart. Sure scoring takes a hit because the end of level bonuses are smaller with less lives remaining, but I've been playing 1/2 for score and 1/2 for the clear.

But also, the levels are too long and boring. There just needs to be more enemy variety.

My high score so far is: 2,128,985,850 and I think I got a 2CC at some point. I'd really like to get a 1CC but the last two levels are a bit more difficult.