Topic: Cosmophony - thoughts

So, tonight I bought this cheap game presented as a "musical shooter". A "100% Drum'n Bass Rhythm Shooting Game" precisely, as advertised on the trailer. I thought I couldn't go wrong because I like music and I like shooting things in videogames. It also looked a bit like Tempest, which is always a good thing.

So I watched the trailer on Youtube - 45 second long, but only about 10 seconds of actual gameplay (I wonder why?!). On a separate note, this trailer bullcrap needs to stop. Go on the eShop and pick any game you don't know: I challenge you to understand what kind of game it is by watching the trailer - it's impossible!!

So I thought it was a bit like REZ (because when you say a "musical shooter", Rez is kind of a standard for all players) where your actions actually produce a sound that adds up to the soundtrack. Even Space Invaders Extreme does that to some extent. It's not like Rez, but I won't criticize Cosmophony for being different from what I expected.

Let me start by saying that I have played for about 45 minutes and I'm at level-3 at the moment. In Cosmophony you are a spaceship thingy that goes down a half-pipe at break neck speed. You have to shoot triangles placed along the course, while avoiding cubes. First, the game follows the stupid trend of having you do things twice in order to complete a level legitimately. You have to beat the levels, but you also have to complete their "practice version" (a ugly b/w rendition of the actual levels). Although practice is very useful in such games, it's simply unnecessary to include it as a requirement to 100%. But whatever.

Calling Cosmophony a "Rhythm Shooting Game" is simply false advertising. In Cosmophony the only thing remotely rhythmic is that the "enemies" (triangles) are placed on the course so that they appear when certain melodic lines are played in the track (for example, in level-2 they appear when the synt is playing the riff). They are simply placed so that if you shoot at the right moment, it gives you the impression that you are making the sound, but actually you don't make any sound. It's fake - the soundtrack does everything. You can simply do nothing but avoid and the sonic outcome would be the same.
In level-3, there's simply no apparent reason nor rhyme to where the enemies are placed - or maybe there's some kind of mathematical/musical reason but we'll never know since your laser doesn't make any sound. The enemies don't make any sound. There's literally no in-game sound effect (and that's not enough sound for a "rhythm" game is it?!). Even the drum'n'bass tracks are pretty much one-dimensional (I complained about the EDGE ost, but that is the London Philharmonic Orchestra in comparison) and lack the flourishes you would expect from a rhythm based game.
Level-3 also features some painful and pointless speed-ups that serve no purpose but to make the game harder, since they are not related with the music at all.

And this brings me to the SPEED of the game. The game is supersonic to the extent that it's almost pointless, and after 45 minutes I had to quit because it made me feel dizzy (and that's unexpected because I've played some of the heaviest psychedelic looking games without my eyes ever tiring). The reason for the speed is probably to require you to use memorization in lieu of rhythm skills, which are in this instance, worthless. So Cosmophony at its core is a no-rhythm, all memorization game. Alright, both shmups and proper rhythm games need a great deal of memorization, but the difference is the payoff. In shmups, memorizing patterns leads to beautiful coreographies of spaceships dancing through enemy bullets like butterfly under the raindrops. In rhythm games, memorization leads to fluidity and perfect sonic execution of a track. In Cosmophony, memorization simply leads to survival of a mediocre level that is just hard for the sake of being hard with no reward, therefore not worth the practice.

So, unless I am missing something as big as an elephant, the bottom line is - don't buy the game.

I like it. It's superfast, stylish/trippy, and just a few bucks.
Watched some yt video footage I knew I'd get a simple shoot&avoid-type action game and not a music/rhythm game.
Had a couple funny nights with it and a group of friends as it's easy to understand and control.

Stage 4 is a monumental roadblock though. None of us could ever beat it.

Alright I can see where you're coming from and I'm not going to deny that it might be alright for one night with drunk friends - although nobody has to be drunk, as 15 minutes of Cosmophony would induce the same effects of two ketamine pills washed down with half a bottle of cheap vodka.
I don't agree about the price though, as you know better than me there's a lot of far better stuff that you can get with just €4 on the eShop (EDGE + Toki Tori or RUSH + Abyss to name but four).

I think this is one of those games that could have been much better had a normal person tested it and punched the designer in the face at least once to bring him back on planet earth. First, there's really no need for the supersonic speed. As I said it's just there to make the game harder for no reason and to force you to use brute memory instead of any other skill (even the man with the sharpest reflexes in the world coulnd't survive without tediously memorizing the pattern).
Second, the game could have been made into a very primitive but at least organic zzap rhythm game by adding basic sound effects. What about a laser sound IN TUNE with the soundtrack if you shoot the enemy at the proper time?! And a zzap sound OUT OF TUNE if you shoot the enemies without following the music?! So at least your ear catches some input that tells you how well you're performing and you have at least the pleasure of accomplishing something...

i like your zap sound idea as that little extra would probably add to the experience.
however, i felt the stage designs (and backgrounds) were designed to fit with the music tracks.

had problems with the speed as well, but it doesn't detract from the gameplay.
with split second movements, it's a brutal game for sure, but it's also a very short game, and so I'm glad that the difficulty picked up fast.
Winning at a game like this also feels more rewarding than a regular "normal difficulty" game.

the only problem is stage 4 - that one's hellish.

and of course games like Toki Tori and EDGE are better and even cheaper. Those are severly underpriced though.
Imo if you're out for a challenging superfast trippy little action game 3,99 is ok for Cosmophony.