Shienryu - Saturn

[Frizz.Meister]

Shienryu is a Japanese vertical shoot 'em up for the Sega Saturn, which is often ignored when people discuss the genre. But in my opinion it is actually one of the really good shmups for the system.

Gameplay
The gameplay appears basic on the first play through of the game with the simple machinegun style weapon which can be upgraded by picking up P icons from destroyed enemies. Aside from you main weapon you also have bombs which don’t actually explode when used but rather make your ship fire several wide blue lasers which destroy all but the toughest enemies in one strike, however you’re not invincible whilst these are firing.
In spite of this simple gameplay you soon realise that your ship has more than just its machinegun style weapon and 'bombs' but to me how to switch between them was a mystery. To switch between the 3 weapons you have to collect coloured orbs, with blue for lightning, yellow for machinegun and orange for missiles, each of which has its pros and cons and are useful for different situations.

The Machinegun is accurate and deals the highest damage but offers little spread and no homing ability, making it most useful for tough enemies which moved slowly.

The Lightning is the opposite and deals very little damage but homed directly onto every enemy in site. However once fired you could not fire the lightning again until it had finished jumped from enemy to enemy leaving you vulnerable. This was most useful early on in levels where you were bombarded with many weak enemies which could quickly blanket the screen in fire if not destroyed fast enough.

The Missiles are a halfway house and offer higher damage than the lightning but lower than the machinegun, but allow for continuous fire and accuracy. Also at high power levels the missile weapon also fires smaller less damaging missiles which home onto their target. I used the missiles almost exclusively for the bosses because of the homing ability without pausing my fire like the lightning.

On top of the weapon orbs you can also pick up a shield for your ship which allows you to take 2 hits before dying, blue S orbs which increase your strafing speed slightly, as well as coloured what I think are LEDs which grant you points.

But the gameplay has one large flaw. Unlike most shmups when you die in Shienryu you don’t respawn, you go back to the last checkpoint. This really takes away from the overall manic feeling of the game and snaps you back into reality. What’s worse is that not only are the checkpoints not marked, but at a couple of them you will ALWAYS respawn with a bullet in front of your ship. This isn’t a problem if you know because you can hold a direction when you die, but it can catch you out and be really frustrating. Fortunately this doesn’t happen for the bosses and you simply respawn in you last position with you Power level dropped by one.

Overall I’d give the gameplay 8/10, and would have preferred the weapons being mapped to different buttons rather than needing to search for coloured orbs.

Graphics
One word could describe Shienryu's graphics. Detailed. You can see every detail of every enemy from the turrets to the ships including shiny windscreens and rusted gun barrels, even to the point that if you shoot an enemy down over air rather than land they will spin out of control and circle towards the ground before exploding. Whilst many people like this style of graphics I found it to be too detailed as it gives the game a strange look to it, and personally I would have preferred it to be simpler and more vibrant. However it is clear and you can see every bullet and enemy perfectly over the backgrounds. At times so much stuff is moving on the screen I’m honestly amazed the Saturn can cope, especially on higher difficulties where your entire screen can quickly fill up with enemy fire, but there is no noticeable slowdown which is really impressive.
Overall I’d give the graphics 7/10

Sound
The Sound is very average in Shienyu. Yes the explosions sound like explosions and the music is quite catchy but it just feels lacking. It doesn’t immerse you in that way that a good shmup soundtrack should and sometimes the music just seems to fade out and not return which can make the other sounds feel very empty.
I’m not sure what I expected but I give the sound 6/10

Difficulty
Shienryu is a very difficult game. However its difficulty comes in two forms, filling the screen with bullets and luring you into danger. For the most part is you simply hold down the fire button and strafe any incoming fire your screen will stay fairly clear of bullets and shouldn’t be too hard to survive, however if you stop firing (or get the lightning weapon) you soon realise that the number of weak enemies can grow incredibly fast and at higher difficulties each of these can fire 20+ bullets quickly making you job of surviving very difficult. The second reason for the difficulty is that the various power ups such as weapon orbs or shield bonuses appear from stationary enemies destroyed right in the bottom corner of the screen forcing you to decide whether the risk of returning to the last checkpoint is worth the reward of a more powerful/suitable weapon.
Overall id give the difficulty a 9/10 as the amount of enemy fire is adjusted by the in game difficulty level and aside from the checkpoint system, it rarely gets frustrating.

Overall
Overall I give Shienryu a 7/10. It’s a very solid shooter with some great concepts, such as the weapons and the bosses are just so much fun to kill you want to do it all again. However the game is short and could be far better with some simple changes such as instant respawn and far less confusing scoring system. Nevertheless I still highly recommend it to any fan of 2D shmups.

[Dakinggamer87]

Nice review!!

[hashiriya1]

Great review, I really like this series even tho it's on the easy side.

I was going to review this game along with its sequel for PS2...but I guess I'll just do the sequel instead!

[Frizz.Meister]

I never knew there was a sequel, let alone on the ps2. Whats it called?

[hashiriya1]

I never knew there was a sequel, let alone on the ps2. Whats it called?

Shienryu Explosion


It's a Simple 2000 Series disc called "The SHOOTING: Double Shienryu" released for PS2.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/SIMPLE2000%E3%8 ... 857&sr=8-4

[dsheinem]

I think this is the same as Gekioh: The Shooting King for the PS1, right? I have that game and I think it adds more modes and other stuff. Is there any advantage to owning the Saturn version?

[Hobie-wan]

I think this is the same as Gekioh: The Shooting King for the PS1, right? I have that game and I think it adds more modes and other stuff. Is there any advantage to owning the Saturn version?

Yeah, it's the same game. The Saturn version doesn't have all the extra modes, but it does tate and saves scores.

[d123456]

http://www.fevereon.com/turnto/shienryu.html
I gave it a 8.4

[Despatche]

Greetings.

Shienryu is a Japanese vertical shoot 'em up for the Sega Saturn, which is often ignored when people discuss the genre. But in my opinion it is actually one of the really good shmups for the system.

Each weapon has its own bomb. The "several wide blue lasers" bomb is for the blue weapon.

The red weapon actually has a screen-covering spread at maximum power.

The blue weapon is far and away the most important weapon in the game. It gives you a lot of points-per-damage where the other weapons don't. Because it's the weakest weapon in the game by far, this is a clear risk/reward mechanic.

Many older shmups have checkpoints. Like many games in the late '80s and early '90s, Shienryu is specifically based on the legacy of Toaplan, who were all about checkpoints. The checkpoints are not immediately presented to you, but are marked (something most games do not do); you are shown which checkpoint you're at whenever you die and respawn, and whatever checkpoint you lost your last life at is displayed on the high score screen.

"I would have preferred the weapons being mapped to different buttons"... is this a jab at Daioh?

Most of the difficulty actually comes from collecting powerup and speed icons when you're at maximum power and speed (which includes the purple full powerup). If you avoid scoring as much as possible, the game is significantly easier.

The game is actually fairly long. A single loop is a little under 30 minutes, and this game loops twice.

It should be noted that the vast majority of what I've explained, and what Shienryu offers, is shared with Daioh. Daioh is a 1993 title developed by the same people, when they worked at a company called Athena. The relationship between Daioh and Shienryu is almost identical to the relationship between Raiden and Raiden II.

I should also point out that Daioh is not supposed to have the six-button play, and normally plays the same as Shienryu. It's likely that the "US" mode is simply a debug function that was made into a selling point.

I never knew there was a sequel, let alone on the ps2. Whats it called?

Shienryu Explosion


It's a Simple 2000 Series disc called "The SHOOTING: Double Shienryu" released for PS2.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/SIMPLE2000%E3%8 ... 857&sr=8-4

Shienryu Explosion isn't really a sequel at all. It's a completely different game that feels more like Giga Wing without the reflect system (particularly in ship design) than anything else. Why it's marketed as a sequel to Shienryu is a complete mystery.

I think this is the same as Gekioh: The Shooting King for the PS1, right? I have that game and I think it adds more modes and other stuff. Is there any advantage to owning the Saturn version?

Although Gekioh has all those funny extra modes, the main game is neutered. In addition to not having either a vertical mode or saving, it ends after the first loop (there is no known way to change this), and it has a lot of slowdown where the original version doesn't. Some say it's also easier, but this could just be a result of either the slowdown or Shienryu's incredibly flexible rank system.

On a related note, I theorize that "Gekioh" was the original development name for Shienryu, meant to link it to Daioh, and they decided to use it for this port.

By the way, here's a nice video of someone tearing the game to pieces. Check out the entrance of the final boss: Shienryu (the new final boss) burns Daioh (the old final boss and new stage 4 boss) into atoms, then proceeds to be more hellish than Daioh itself.