Steel Vampire

Hard to fully recommend, but this is a fun weekend night distraction.
I really like the concept of this game. The loot/roguelite mechanics are ABSOLUTELY addictive and great. The weapons feel great, the stages and bosses are fun enough, and despite Stage 1 ost sounding pretty bad the rest do their job.
That said, everything seems to come with a big grain of salt.
-There's no need to learn or even dodge any patterns. I've beat the default "Very Hard" (read: Normal) mode several times, and I realized that I have not seen a single boss shot. This entire game is LITERALLY smashing your face into anything moving, as fast as possible, while mashing as absolutely fast as possible. Don't dodge, just smash your face into everything. If something shot bullets, even at lvl 100 Risk, you didn't smash or mash hard enough. Couple this with the bomb, drop it as soon as a boss fight starts and you'll be invul long enough to mash the boss hp away. It's fun, but mindless, like a clicker game, if you consider this a clicker and not a vertical shooter, you'll probably enjoy it more.
-You have pages of weapon loot, did not know this for awhile. Pushing right on the weapon page changes to laser and then option weapons. Maybe I'm dumb, but I did several runs before ever finding them.
-I managed to also delete all my weapons after several completions, having strong and rare main weapon drops. The loot list was massive, so I held the delete button down as it scrolled down the list of garbage, it didn't stop, re-scrolling my rare ones after and leaving me back at level 0. Sure, there's a "lock" feature, but like any loot game, didn't expect to need it as I'm changing to a better weapon almost every single run and it's a hassle unlocking and deleting and re-locking, every single time. Yo... do that... LOCK THEM. Even then, restarting at level 0, default, still able to smash my face into everything for high level upgrades in one run.
-Look at the preview pictures, your ship is MASSIVE and clunky... it's "one of those" euro-shooter feels. Not that it really matters, you're using it to smash into everything, but the one time you pull back to dodge a shot and I have no clue where the hitbox is on this thing. It's not the whole ship, I've managed to go through gaps, it's smaller than it looks, but how small, where, who knows. This too encourages you to, again, not dodge, not look for patterns, and just be mindless.
-The screen size is bad, as others said. It's too hard to see or react to anything actually fired. Generally, you smash at the very top, and if you see a white flash of somebody charging, you fall back before coming back in if you feel unable to mash fast enough, that's it.
-It seems you refill and level up your bomb by bumping things before destroying them. This is fine in the beginning, but even moderate weapon upgrades and enemies will melt. My bombs never level, never replenish now, even with equipment modifiers set to give them specifically a bonus. I'd have to actively stop firing, bump into every enemy several times, then shoot to do it which seems pointless for a bomb when your shot melts bosses in a second. Being the case, the laser weapon that causes an explosion can become an unlimited alternative. Hold it down at boss start, bomb explosions happen everywhere, immune in them, melt boss. This lack of balance made actual bombs useless, they ought to level the same as your shield from proximity gem drops.
I feel like if this had a redesign, better music, tate screen, better ship size and hitbox, a little less emphasis on mindless and bit more on classic bullethell dodge with a proximity bonus, it'd be one of the best shooters, and an easy recommend.

Steam User 0

Reviewed last year

Hard to fully recommend, but this is a fun weekend night distraction.
I really like the concept of this game. The loot/roguelite mechanics are ABSOLUTELY addictive and great. The weapons feel great, the stages and bosses are fun enough, and despite Stage 1 ost sounding pretty bad the rest do their job.
That said, everything seems to come with a big grain of salt.
-There's no need to learn or even dodge any patterns. I've beat the default "Very Hard" (read: Normal) mode several times, and I realized that I have not seen a single boss shot. This entire game is LITERALLY smashing your face into anything moving, as fast as possible, while mashing as absolutely fast as possible. Don't dodge, just smash your face into everything. If something shot bullets, even at lvl 100 Risk, you didn't smash or mash hard enough. Couple this with the bomb, drop it as soon as a boss fight starts and you'll be invul long enough to mash the boss hp away. It's fun, but mindless, like a clicker game, if you consider this a clicker and not a vertical shooter, you'll probably enjoy it more.
-You have pages of weapon loot, did not know this for awhile. Pushing right on the weapon page changes to laser and then option weapons. Maybe I'm dumb, but I did several runs before ever finding them.
-I managed to also delete all my weapons after several completions, having strong and rare main weapon drops. The loot list was massive, so I held the delete button down as it scrolled down the list of garbage, it didn't stop, re-scrolling my rare ones after and leaving me back at level 0. Sure, there's a "lock" feature, but like any loot game, didn't expect to need it as I'm changing to a better weapon almost every single run and it's a hassle unlocking and deleting and re-locking, every single time. Yo... do that... LOCK THEM. Even then, restarting at level 0, default, still able to smash my face into everything for high level upgrades in one run.
-Look at the preview pictures, your ship is MASSIVE and clunky... it's "one of those" euro-shooter feels. Not that it really matters, you're using it to smash into everything, but the one time you pull back to dodge a shot and I have no clue where the hitbox is on this thing. It's not the whole ship, I've managed to go through gaps, it's smaller than it looks, but how small, where, who knows. This too encourages you to, again, not dodge, not look for patterns, and just be mindless.
-The screen size is bad, as others said. It's too hard to see or react to anything actually fired. Generally, you smash at the very top, and if you see a white flash of somebody charging, you fall back before coming back in if you feel unable to mash fast enough, that's it.
-It seems you refill and level up your bomb by bumping things before destroying them. This is fine in the beginning, but even moderate weapon upgrades and enemies will melt. My bombs never level, never replenish now, even with equipment modifiers set to give them specifically a bonus. I'd have to actively stop firing, bump into every enemy several times, then shoot to do it which seems pointless for a bomb when your shot melts bosses in a second. Being the case, the laser weapon that causes an explosion can become an unlimited alternative. Hold it down at boss start, bomb explosions happen everywhere, immune in them, melt boss. This lack of balance made actual bombs useless, they ought to level the same as your shield from proximity gem drops.
I feel like if this had a redesign, better music, tate screen, better ship size and hitbox, a little less emphasis on mindless and bit more on classic bullethell dodge with a proximity bonus, it'd be one of the best shooters, and an easy recommend.
Steam User 0

Reviewed last year

As an Akiragoya fanboy, I'd love to spend more time with this game, but I'm too busy playing Yakouga 4.
Akiragoya games are great for beginners without shying away from hardcore elements.
Steam User 0

Reviewed last year

This kicks ass, actually.
Steam User 0

Reviewed last month

Good game.
Steam User 0

Reviewed last year

best ever best ever best ever best ever

Steel Vampire

Summary

Story

Gameplay

System

Game Discussion

Anonymous

Steam User 0

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