DANMAKAI: Red Forbidden Fruit

Really fun bullet hell shmup clearly inspired by Touhou but imho surpasses it in a lot of ways. Very clean and crisp presentation, almost no visibility issues, dodging feels very good thanks to some decently non-distracting juice on grazing bullets and just overall hitbox/hurtbox leeway. The game really wants you to bomb often, especially later on, but can punish you harshly if you happen to bomb at the wrong moment. The basic characters are good, but the hidden character kind of breaks the game in half and makes a lot of patterns and stage design irrelevant. Still, it's a fun time, very well designed and a lot of thought and care went into this one.

Good game!

Having now 1CC'd Lunatic mode and cleared all patterns with all characters in Challenge mode, I'm happy to say Danmakai has only grown in my esteem since I first played through its lower difficulties back in 2022. Unlike a game such as Karous, where going for its hardest challenges revealed some minor but pesky flaws, pushing Danmakai to its limits only further shows how solid it is all around. Even with the microest of micrododging, visibility issues are pretty much nonexistent (save for the grazing effect that can be the tiniest bit distracting, and the final pattern as Eldied having enemeis explode on you, but that's really pushing it). The scoring system is a lot of fun, borrowing from Touhou with its point item value multiplier and more specifically with the release system from 16, which I feel Danmakai executed noticeably better. I love how it rewards aggressive play, while still being able to force you into defensive play at a moment's notice if you don't play your cards right. Having a lot of lives can be a real safety net just as easily as it can be a desillusion as you watch your stock melt to a single pattern (which can happen at quite a few points, if you're not caref…

An STG heavily inspired by Touhou (particularly PC-98). Very smooth and responsive, probably one of the smoothest I've ever felt. Very difficult, but it never feels unfair with its difficulty. Patterns are very fun to dodge, especially Stage 5's boss. It's mint, definitely give it a try if you're into shmups.

Very fun, cute and challenging game for someone like me that usually sticks to normal/ easy mode on Touhou. The English translation is not very good though, so forget about trying to follow along with the story lmao.

Danmaku design and gameplay is very well done. My only complaints are that it's a bit derivative of Touhou in terms of scenario and that there's a few duds in terms of pattern design.