Sora

A bullet-hell game with emphasis on high-speed combat. Rather than dodging slowly and accurately through enemy's rain of bullets, the game has a high-risk high-reward system where you can dash through enemy bullets where you take more damage if you make a mistake.
Melee is very fun, making the game even more high-risk high-reward than it already is. Game is hard though (or I'm just bad at the game), took me 7 hours to finish the entire campaign in easy mode. Hime is a nightmare.

Nice introduction to get into shmups without needing to dodge rain, stage design makes decent use of the environment and enemy spawns to display progress and stay exciting. Memorable game that stands out for its strong aesthetic of a world desolated by war, with credit to Deku's powerful soundtrack, brief but meaningful dialogue, and despondent visuals that remain polished and cohesive despite being a somewhat old game.

Bullet Hell games has never been a genre I've fully tapped into. I've never played any official Touhou games and I haven't even played the prequel to this game (as of writing this atleast), Suguri. So it makes me wonder, why would I go out of my way to buy a game that just doesn't even seem like it'd be for me? Well, I will get to my reasoning in a bit. First, I want to talk about a few things.
The difficulty of this game is incredibly high, it can take hours even finishing a stage and ramps up in difficulty incredibly quick. Even if you played "easy" mode, it's still incredibly challenging. There is unfortunately no way to make the game easier besides learning the controls and mechanics. (aka, git gud). This is overall a negative for the game, as I would imagine some would want to see this game for its story and characters rather then suffering through the game's difficult gameplay.
The controls are very snappy and fun, I've never had any issues playing with a PC Keyboard. There are several weapons to choose from for your attacks, and it's all nicely customizable. (You DO have to unlock weapons though by playing the game.)
The sound design is simple and pretty generic, but the music for this game is outstanding and one of the highest points in my opinion. DEKU composed an incredible late 2000's-trance OST that meshes perfectly with every stage and boss. Highly recommend to check out the game's OST if you love trance. Grey Hued, Le Train, Regalia, Grand blue, they're all fantastic.
Graphics are nothing to really scream about, it's exactly what it looks like in the store's preview pages. Should not be an issue to run at all. Some nice usage of 3D map environments in the stage backgrounds, though.
Alright. Now that I have yapped for way too long, why *did* I buy this game?
The premise.
The premise for this game is outstanding. Everything about it is completely up my alley. It starts off with a girl who was raised into a world of war where it has lasted so long to the point where nobody even understands why they are fighting anymore. Sora, the main character of the game (which has a double-meaning for this game's theme, since Sora is Sky in Japanese, I believe.) is put to immediate use to fight for her country.
While loyal to her side, she questions the entirety of her purpose and goal in the first mission. After fighting Alte (The first stage's boss), she wakes up and learns that there are still others who cannot fight that want to fix the world to be a brighter place. This overall motivates her to be apart of her own faction and take on the entire world by herself, with NO outside help. The rest of the game follows this path, and it's just an amazing story-telling premise the entire way through that shows the actions of Sora's selfish choice.
While I praise the premise for its high-stakes and concept, the overall story introduces several characters who have their own goals and resolves to fight. There is so much premise in these character designs, themes, and even the music that you are sucked into this world of mystery and chaos and you just want to know even more.
Unfortunately, this game suffers from a lack of further exposition and has little to no interludes between each stages. Every stage will have you jump towards a completely new environment and plot point of Sora's character, which can be incredibly jarring and confusing. There's not enough cutscenes and dialogue to fully flesh out this beautifully tainted world that one like myself would love to learn more of. It's not even a matter of loss of translation or something, there just *isn't* enough descriptions for several characters and plot points. While it DOES add to the game's mystery, it can be rather frustrating not knowing a lot that is going on-- especially in the final mission (which originally WAS the finale for the game, until they added an EX stage that salvaged a bunch of questions.)
There is extra detail of characters and lore in other games such as 100% Orange Juice, 200% Mixed Juice, Acceleration of Suguri 2, etc but it would have been nice to see this game fully flourish in its amazing premise. Sora HD remastered when???
Overall, this is an incredibly fun (and frustrating) game that I highly recommend anyone to pick up and try out despite my nitpicky complaints and rants. Playing Suguri beforehand is recommended as well!

One of my, if not my very favorite shmup game. I decided to try it out since I enjoy 100% Orange Juice and wanted to learn more about the characters.
The story isn't "The greatest masterpiece of all time", but there was enough substance that made me fall in love. The opening movie after stage 1 really set the mood and made me excited to keep playing, and the final + extra stage really tested my skills and gave a nice conclusion.
A way I think to describe it is a bullet hell, but with a little bit of tech. You have access to faster movement that also comes with a risk and reward system. And an assortment of weapons to try out.

Sora is a shmup gem. Despite its simple look, it packs a punch with challenging gameplay that demands quick reflexes and strategy. The weapon variety is great, though the starter weapon remains a favourite of mine.
The music is a standout, perfectly matching the intensity of each stage. However, it's a shame that some of the epic boss tracks don't get the chance to fully play out before the fight ends. The story is minimal but effective, with a cool nostalgic vibe.
I really liked the storyline and music during the internal conflict with Sham.
Playing Suguri first is recommended.

Fantastic game, incredibly difficult. As expected.

Playing this has made 100% Orange Juice significantly funnier
I wish Star Breaker would mail me a bomb