Tom-Massey

@koekiemonster It does.

@PtM @Manah

Appreciate all of this input. It sounds as though it was reconsidered at a much later date for a rating that ultimately went through. The internet has made far less noise about this than they did for its initial rejection, making it less clear as to what the ratings board actually did. Censorship in this type of game would be hard, since it’s more the overarching theme that poses problems (the only amendment that might work would be adding ages to the character profiles that detail them as 20+).

@BTB20 @Manah

Hey there. Perhaps it wasn’t explicitly clear, but the banning referred to was for Gal Gun 2’s previous 2018 release. I cross-referenced the information in several areas:

https://twitter.com/inticreatesen/status/961302412903424000?s=21

https://twitter.com/ricedigital/status/961253052262113280?s=21

https://nintendoeverything.com/galgun-2-refused-classification-in-germany-essentially-banned/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/7vx81v/gal_gun_2_banned_in_germany/?

If you feel this information is incorrect and needs to be amended, please let me know with your sources, and I’ll be happy to address it.

@OorWullie

Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad I helped you toward making a decision.

You might be right about how engaged you will be by Sol Cresta, but at the same time you might be surprised at how much you get into it. Its scoring is more tied to survival and use of formation icons to down enemy waves. I did enjoy the scheme of having a lead ship colour to open colour-codes crates and fly through scoring rings - but it’s a tad unintuitive for precise scoring in its regular mode, I’d say.

Ultimately a lot of this comes down to pricing. $40 is a big ask. At $15 I’d probably say it’s worth your time - although it wouldn’t impact my scoreline either way.

I’ve seen you comment on other reviews I’ve put up, so thank you for being there to engage, I really appreciate it.

@FishyS

Actually, this is a conversation I’ve had with the editor several times. The Pros and Cons aren’t meant to dictate the score: they’re literally just a list of bullet points. If they were supposed to directly correlate with score, we wouldn’t need a review at all.
As it stands, they simply summarise some of the review’s key features.

On a scale of 10, a 6 is above-average and a 7 is a pretty decent score, denoting a work that will provide enjoyment for people invested in a particular genre; but letting the content of the review guide you is probably the best way to make a decision about where you put your hard-earned money.

Appreciate the reply and engagement, many thanks and happy gaming.

@gojiguy @Vyacheslav333 @OorWullie @Rayquaza2510 @UglyCasanova @Savage_Joe @denpanosekai @FishyS

Hello to all commenters. Firstly, thank you all for reading the review, hopefully in its entirety. I understand many of you feel the score doesn't match the overall tone of the review. Hopefully, I can shed some light on how this works.

Review scores are very arbitrary. Ideally, not having scores would be better, allowing the content of the review to guide the reader toward a decision. However, scores are a popular format, so therefore we are compelled to use them.

Sol Cresta has flaws people should be aware of, and it's my job to try to break down, in both an honest and entertaining fashion, exactly what they are. Reviews that break a 1200 word threshold are something I try to avoid as a matter of good practice, and even here it ran slightly over. That means that there is a limited amount of space to provide history, backstory, and run through the finer details of what works and what doesn't.

To get to the point, then, Sol Cresta deserves a 7 purely based on the fact that, in spite of its flaws, it's still a pretty fun shoot-em-up. It has a certain amount of depth and intrigue in its formation mechanic, that can be toyed with. It's not hugely difficult, but it's also not an instant 1CC. There's increasing challenge in its last three stages (on default) that will keep you actively pressing for a while.

It is a grotesque-looking game, but aesthetics can (and should!) be looked past in light of whether or not the game is playable. And it is. A 7 isn't a bad score, and Sol Cresta isn't a bad game - it's just a game that probably doesn't warrant its current price tag, could have been improved in several key areas, and certainly doesn't beat out other competition in the genre.

Because of the process of reviewing and some of the limitations I have as an author trying to express the details, there are times when content and tone might not match your score expectation. This is sort of a curse of the process, and one of the reasons why scores are kind of detrimental to the reviewing process. It's not always easy to think about which digit makes the most sense in relation to how well a game plays, or, importantly, in relation to similar games in the field.

I hope this helps to explain a little about why the score might not match your expectations. It's not a perfect science, but I've done my best to be informative.

Thank you very much for reading both the review and this reply, I appreciate you all being here to read my work.

Tom

@MeloMan You're very welcome!

@riccyjay @-wc-

Thanks to you both for your responses, I appreciate your understanding.

@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.