Empyreus

Simple in its essence, but with a good level of challenge. Also great art style and music.

Empyreus is a pretty cool little bullet hell game with a really strange setting. I am playing as angels with guns while Heaven is basically falling apart around them, which is not something I expected to see mixed with this kind of arcade shooter. Ariel gets separated from her squadron and Cassiel goes looking for her, with demons, strange experiments and a lot of ridiculous religious drama getting in the way. I like how seriously the game takes its weird idea while still keeping enough humour to stop the story from becoming too heavy. The actual shooting is where most of my time goes, and I think it works well for such a short game. There are dense bullet patterns coming at me from all directions, so I have to pay attention to where I am moving rather than just holding down the fire button. The boss fights are especially important because they push the dodging much harder than the normal enemies. I enjoyed learning the patterns and slowly getting better at finding the safe spaces instead of trying to force my way through everything. I also really like the setting. Medieval religious imagery mixed with Great War weapons and chiptune hymns sounds like it should not work, but someh…

This is actually pretty fun for a very short (2 level) flying shooter about an angel who doesn't want to get turned into a square (Yeah... it's weird.) The achievements are totally busted because nobody playtested the game, but it is possible to beat the game.