Shienryu - Saturn
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:54 am
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.
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.
