Tom-Massey

@X68000 @-wc- @riccyjay

Fellas, you're making me commit a cardinal sin of my own here by making me reply in a comments section, but for the sake of clarity, I'm the last person looking to offend my favourite videogame genre. Perhaps the phrasing didn't land right, but the idea was to put emphasis on just how unique Eschatos is.

Someone mentioned shmups going through a 'renaissance', but honestly, they've been going through a renaissance for the last two decades. It's always been an active genre, from X360 to PS4, and now Switch - but the format of most shmups tends to be essentially the same: either danmaku or... not danmaku.

Great as something like Fantasy Cotton is - as a recent example - it's still a shmup in a format we're all very familiar with, and it's fairly rare to see something as original as Project Starship X or Radirgy (also a pretty old series) flipping the medium on its head.

Many of the Shmups appearing on current-gen are anywhere between 10 - 20 years old now (Even Eschatos has hit a ripe old 11), and what's new tends to revisit well-established formulas with new patterns and the occasional juggling of mechanics.

I didn't mean to infer anything derogatory at all by the phrase "dangerously played-out", and if that's the way it came across, I sincerely apologise. I write for mainstream sites, but if you check my portfolio I'm anything but a typical mainstream journalist. I hoped, considering the degree to which I gargled Eschatos' balls in this review, as well as taking time to map out its heritage, that that would be communicated better.

Anyway, genuinely sorry again if you felt I was dissing the majestic shooting game, I'll be more attentive to my wording on the next one!

https://muckrack.com/tom-massey-2

@jarvismp

Sorry buddy, I've got no idea if there's a Flip Grip or similar for the OLED Switch, but I'm sure it would be a popular device if someone brought one to market. If all else fails, 3D printing actually works excellently for this kind of thing.

@Roz1281 No problems whatsoever. If it was an issue I definitely would have mentioned it. All seems perfectly responsive and improves over the PS4 release.

@Realness 😁

@MARl0 You may want to wait. The PS4 version is still waiting for a patch that allows for a 16:9 ratio on Deathsmiles, and some of the slowdown has been under scrutiny for being inaccurate. The Switch version has neither of those issues from what I could tell.

@StuartGipp Not in English but they are indeed fairly simple to navigate.

@EmmatheBest

In the entire time I played it dropped only (and very noticeably) at the same point on multiple play-throughs on the Fire Hamlet stage, near the beginning when approaching the rock pile. I never noticed anything similar at any other point. Hope that helps!

@BionicDodo
15 minutes tops.

@DenimDemon I agree with pretty much all your points, and although this particular developer’s body of work is still very early, the leap in improvement shows real potential. Thanks for the response.

@DenimDemon As someone with a long history dedicated to shmup playing (and no issue recognising your avatar) I dedicated a lot of time to arrive at that score. If 5 represents an average on a scale of 10, it's a good score for a good game. Its originality within the genre is impressive, but some design aspects will occasionally irk even the most hardened genre enthusiast. I do appreciate your comments, however. Thank you for taking time to read the review.

@COVIDberry I don't decide on whether or not video content is included. I only provide screengrabs.

@COVIDberry Yes, it's British English, so the meaning of pants would refer to undergarments rather than overgarments. Although let's be honest, if you spoil one you're probably going to need to change both.

@LEGEND_MARIOID

My pleasure, thank you for reading.