Otakuism

Definitely not my play through.

TWilight refrAIN is the sequel to Eikyuu Loop’s previous game TWilight INSanity. On the surface both look like touhou clones but they’re unique and very fun in their own right. In Twilight Refrain you can choose from three sets of twins and during game play you can switch the twins for different attacks. One will use a narrow, more powerful shot while the other uses a wide shot. The third set of twins, the blue pair, play a bit differently, with their attacks having more of a homing theme. Each twin pair has nine different configurations to choose from. I have no idea what they all do, but they seem to effect the power of your attacks and your speed. This whole setup is similar to Impressionable Night actually.

During game play there’s also your “bomb” setting, for lack of a better term, though it’s not actually a bomb. It clears the entire screen of bullets and powers up your own attack temporarily. If you get hit the bomb setting automatically activates which can be helpful. There’s a spirit bar to show how many times you can use the bomb setting, and you don’t actually die till it runs out.

Difficulty wise this game is definitely a challenge. The curve is a bit better than the Touhou games, but by the end it’s still throwing a massive number of bullets at you. Thank god for unlimited continues or I wouldn’t be able to experience the whole game so easily. There’s seven stages total, each one featuring a miniboss and a boss. The miniboss is the same in every stage, and is also oddly enough the final boss.

The game also has a massive story to it. Characters talk a lot and there’s even decision points which effect which stage you go to next. I actually missed stage two completely on my first play through. The latter stages branch out significantly based on your decisions. Of course, the whole thing is in Japanese and I have no idea what the story even is, so it’s more of a pick and hope you got it right deal through out. I’ve gotten bad ends on both my play throughs, but I think that’s just cause I die too much. Damn moon twin priestesses boss.

Graphically the game is great, on par with the latest efforts from ZUN and others. Many of the stages have 3D backgrounds and one has a cool effect where a storm starts as you get closer to the boss. The bullet patterns are bright and very creative. The regular enemies are polygons, circles, and weird wooden boxes; all rendered greatly though. I like the character artwork a lot. It’s a different artist from Twilight Insanity, but they’re very cool. Sexy and cute at the same time. The only thing is, I think one of the twin pairs is a guy/girl pair, but I can’t tell if that’s actually a guy or not! My only complaint is that the final boss uses BLACK BULLETS AGAINST A WHITE BACKGROUND! GAH MY EYES! Everything else about this game is great though. Fun for novice players like me who just want a distraction for an hour and the hardcore players. A worthy sequel to Twilight Insanity.

Gaming Sidenote: I also tried the Ether Vapor Boss Rush extra that was released. Just like it sounds, it’s only a boss rush mode, though it does allow you to use the super powered fighter from the final boss fight for all bosses. Very cool, but not worthy of an actual post. I also need to try Subterranean Animism soon. It has a nuclear crow from hell for crying out loud!