The opening segments up until you unlock hard mode are phenomenal, and I'm hesitant to not recommend this game, but personally the game begins to fall apart the more you play it. A couple technical issues really sour my mood, and skill ceiling for certain techniques simply aren't fun (the dash mechanic will never feel good to use unless you are CRACKED at this game).

Your aim (the cursor) is locked into a pixel grid, meaning the cursor itself can only move pixel units at a time which results in a LOT of loss of precision. The actual ship controls are WAY too floaty/inprecise; A single press of a key will move you too far, but holding a key often feels significantly slower than you should be. This results in most boss fights being a fight against your own controls: I tap left to avoid a bullet pattern, go too far left from a tap, and now I'm tapping constantly to try and micromanage my position. Having ship and cursor being unlocked from the pixel grid would make the game feel like butter. VERY similar games like ZeroRanger DO NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM, and are signifcantly better to control.

Beyond that, the ship upgrade pool is WAY to small, seeing all possible upgrades within less than 6 runs (Half being useless), and the ungodly amount of unique weapons are implemented horribly. Even when I do get a unique weapon, it runs out of ammo almost instantly and I'm left at a disadvantage for picking up the cool gun. This combined with SO MANY GUARANTEED DAMAGE ROOMS (especially in hard mode) makes for a genuinely depressing experience.

The in-game world and lore is really really cool, and the hidden depths of the game are so fun. Even the boss battles themselves are executed almost perfectly. But walking into the super final boss room with 5 hp every single ****ing time because the last floor has no shop/refreshes is torturous.

Oh, and you wanted to train against the bosses? **** you go beat it first before you can practice?!? This game is a masterpiece held down by idiotic design.

Super fun and interesting in both its gameplay and hidden lore!! It has a good mix of quick thinking and bullet hell without being too overwhelming. A hidden gem kind of game for sure!