Valfaris: Mecha Therion

That was an exceptionally enjoyable game, even breathtaking at times, the trailer does not do the visuals justice, much better than just about any space shooter that I played. I was a little worried that the price would not match the experience, we don't exactly get large projects for this genre, but man, there was so much love and effort put into the game, the stages were so over the top the entire time, especially toward the end, and these boss fights, that mecha wolf puts the DarkSoul bosses to shame, so satisfying to finally kill him, top 5 boss fights for me in any game.
You could finish it in about 3 to 4 hours, that is with some practice and not including collecting everything. I played on normal and the game was relatively fair, lots of checkpoints so it's not too frustrating, not like Cube Gothic or Slain for that matter. To be fair, these arcade-like games are not meant to be long, and for the genre, it's still longer than similar games. There is some limited exploration, depending on the level you might be able to look for secrets and a few additional trinkets such as weapons and modules. At the checkpoints you can do various things like upgrading weapons and equipping modules for special effects, nothing too deep but the weapons had a good feel to them, at least the ranged weapons anyway.
I really feel like the stage design was the winner here, there are many nice elements to this game but just the perspective madness is unlike anything that I have seen before - technically I have, but most of the time when games do this it tends to suck. I think the best example and my favorite stage was the one with the laser walkers, just that depth that you feel moving around, also I really loved that effect when the giant ship would fly from the top of the screen, the entire game has so many cool stage elements, like playing inside a metal album cover. Something about the aesthetic here in general is so good, it's not like as old as PS1, but it still has that retro charm and just so much personality on top of it. The story naturally wasn't too deep, but I still think you did a good job teasing the boss fights.
The gameplay felt pretty good for the most part, I thought all of the ranged weapons were satisfying to use, although I found the range on the melee attacks a bit annoying and I think there is some space for improvement. I like that the boss fights had some additional mechanics, like clashing weapons and even doing a counter in a few fights. Also, I like that enemies were not super spongy, it seems if you play well you can beat any boss within a minute or less, I think the last one takes about 2 minutes or so if you doing good, and I think it gives a good satisfaction for weapons, not that artificial difficulty where everything has too much HP.
Pros:
(+) The stage design was just awesome, good variety between the stages to begin with, but also the perspective changes surprisingly worked really well, just so many cool camera angle moments, I can't say I have seen an indie game do it this well. In general, the aesthetic worked really well and I didn't feel like you reused the visuals too much, maybe a little toward the end.
(+) You can do some limited collection content, some stages allow you to do a bit of exploration, not too much though, just a few hidden items and such. The game has a nice achievement support though, and you can upgrade your weapons, in addition to equipping some active and passive bonuses.
(+) The combat felt pretty good with a few nitpicks, I like that weapons felt powerful and the bosses were not super tanky as they often tend to be. The addition of melee interactions with bosses was nice as well.
Feedback:
Melee Weapons - even though I found the charged boomerang effect very good for DPS between the weapon cooldown, in general, I felt like I was often discouraged to use melee during the stages, and they would become more useful during boss fights. I think it's the range, most games would give you a bit of cleave feel to the weapon so you not using melee right next to the enemy hitbox. I have not collected all modules so I assume you can improve the melee further, but I think the animation could do better if it was a little faster, with a bit more range.
It might be a good idea to let the player cancel out the dash sooner or make the range a bit shorter, it feels clunky when it overshoots just because you wanted to I-frames and you get stuck in corner or behind the boss.
On that note, I also felt the super attacks were a bit weak(those that I used anyway), like I would use a charge on big enemy and still had to hit it for like 4 seconds straight, so like, I think they should at least have enough damage for mid-level enemies cuz you don't get to spam them that often, they would not even kill those random houses shooting rockets, not without upgrades.
I did have one freeze at the last checkpoint at random, and some random lag mostly on the last stage during camera changes.The game did have some issues with the visual clutter, but on most of the stages I didn't mind it, I think the one with the bunkers felt more spammy than others.
Overall Thoughts: 9/10
I really don't think you could do much better for this genre, the visual experience was a highlight for sure, but just overall the game felt pretty good, I especially enjoyed the boss fights and the ranged weapons. At first I wasn't sure how you could justify that price rag, but I can see the reasoning now, it's pretty high-end for an indie I would say, seems like it took a long time to make.
Niche, obscure and underrated games:

Mecha is everything you expect from the sequel to the Valfaris. Outstanding OST, Amazing Artwork and most importantly, Great Gameplay. This is the best and most polished Retro/Action Game since the first Valfaris. Do yourself a favor and buy it.

Absolutely amazing. After torturing the developer on Twitter by asking him every week to release it, I am glad I can finally play. This is a brilliant game. Must play.

Let me preface this by saying I've never played the original Valfaris and know pretty much nothing about it.
As an R-Type child I've been playing shmups for a long time. I'd previously checked out this game's demo during Next Fest and it was super promising.
I've only put an hour into it so far but what I've experienced is pretty solid, controls feel good, soundtrack is amazing and the bosses are designed in a fun and engaging way. The level design is pure, outrageous eye candy and really owns its style. I'm reminded of the level design of R-Type Delta, which is probably my #1 shmup of all time, so that's a good thing.
I like the idea of finding secret weapons and upgrades that I can then re-run the game with to try out a different feel, I'll probably end up playing this quite a bit.
I've heard some disgruntled murmurs from fans of the original game disliking their choice to go with a shmup, but honestly it's a good way to attract a new audience. I do happen to have a copy of Valfaris in my library and whereas before I hadn't really considered it, I'm now actually interested in giving the original game a shot.

So far so good! I'm a big fan of the previous game in this series and I'm happy to say that the heavy metal aesthetic has made it's way over in tact! As far as shooters go, I'm a bit bigger a fan of the run n' gun genre than the shmup genre so I think I liked the first game a bit more, but it's still early so my opinion might change.
I'll update this review after I get further in, but for now, after beating the first two stages, I'm loving it. If you are a fan of shmups or a fan of Valfaris in general, I think you can safely buy this.

I am a shmup fanatic (shoot em ups).
I grew up in arcades therefore this type of game will always appeal to me.
This review is going to be short and sweet as there's not much to say, other than BUY IT if you like shmups.
Mecha Therion is an absolutely class 2.5D shoot em up.
This is one of the finest games I have played in this genre, ever.
It controls well, looks swell, sounds bombshell.
Hey, I was a poet and I didn't know it.
Seriously though, this games simply kicks ***
You feel boss with certain weapons, and everything about the game play feels tight the way a shmup should be. When you first look at the game, it really seems it will be clunky and your player too big and so forth, but it just all clicks into place with perfection.
Ok, so it's not a long game, but not short by genre standards, and it's priced to reflect that to begin with.
I don't really know what more to say as it's just a great action blast em up.
I left comments open if anyone has questions.

Awesome. Makes me want to listen to Voivod.
Imagine that a top-tier studio that happened to really love heavy metal and sci-fi made an excellent, weird, metal-infused side-scrolling shmup game for the Dreamcast or PS2.