Sine Mora

This is genuinely an exceptional game - in no little part thanks to its story - that is marred by a bad reputation and a controversial "life" system. Other reviews went into it already, but it's rather true: you get punished for playing badly and rewarded for playing well, feeling like you're fighting an uphill battle when you mess up and lose your power-ups.

Then again, the (Hungarian) voice acting, flavor, artwork, worldbuilding and story in this game is superb. The story is a little hard to follow, but here's a few tips without any spoilers.

You follow two seperate points in time. The first follows the amputee Ronotra Koss being "helped" through blackmail by Myryan Magusa and an AI GARAI 74/22876 to avenge his son; the second has you follow Akyta Dryad, leader of the Enkie resistance, assisted by Durak, Enkie noblewoman and Lynthe Ytoo, former imperialist.

The way time is marked is mainly what makes it confusing:

- Ronotra Koss' narrative starts in "circle" (= the game's years) 1380 IN and ends in circle 1517 IN
- Akyta Dryad's narrative starts in circle 102 ET and ends in circle zero ET

i.e. the "IN" or "Imperial Nir" counts UP from an unknown time whereas the "ET" or "Enkie Time" counts DOWN to a prophesied moment in time.

You can piece the story together with these hints yourself by going through the story mode twice (if you beat challenge mode once, you unlock the alternative narrative for the true ending) and by leafing through the Encyclopedia (which you'll unlock after beating the story once). Note that Ronotra Koss' actions predate Akyta Dryad's - though time is its own character in this story.

Do yourself a favour and give this a shot, get good at it, forgive its flaws and experience that great Hungarian voice acting and storywriting. WholeHEARTEDLY recommended! This game was bashed far too unfairly!

I have just realized that I have this game. I bought it in 2011 played few hours then completely forgot it nearly 10 years. I didnt remember how was the game play and why I was so curious that why I dont remember the game since I usually really like sidescroll shoot em ups. So I downloaded it again.

+ The gameplay is actually really colourfull. Power ups, special weapon, time slow mechanism, temporary shield and life-time gain with every hit, it gives more than an average sidescroll shoot em up.
+ Graphics are shining. I mean really. Even after 10 years I can say that they done an excellent job with design, depth and details. You dont get bored with visuals even if you play same level hundreds of times.

- The problem with the game starts with its atmosphere. It is dull. Overdose! and I realized that that made me get bored and forget the game easily. There is nothing in the game that pulls you in that world. The game makes you feel like story is someting and the game play is something else. Makes you feel irrelevant, like “playing flappybird clone to pass the level and in order to learn the what happens next in the visual novel” or like “Bejewlled style matching the colours in order to kill the dragon and recue the princess”
- Soundracks are also colourless. I mean for a shoot em up I always expect some aggressive, joyful or rocking music at the background in order to pull me more in the game and provoke me to shoot more aggressively… Unfortunately there is none. It is more like flying and shooting in the bliss until some Hungarian sentences start.
- Third part the voice acting. Ok I cannot speak Hungarian but voice acting feels like some 3rd class dubbing for some C+ movies. You can find no excitement, no energy, no atmosphere in it. Furthermore after a while it bomes annoying like static.

Are you a shoot em up collector? Definitely buy it. But if you are a gamer who wants some action and excitement, dont buy it.

@Developers: Duraaak, good graphics, Duraaak, good play, Duraaak, Hire some good voice actors next time, Duraaak.

Store description says that story mode is "tailored" to newcomers of the genre. I call BS on this for multiple reasons.

First, the stages can get really bullet hellish sometimes, which is really overwhelming to non-vets of older shmups.

Second is the godawful checkpoint system. Many classic shoot-em-ups are such partially because they will let you pick up right where you left off when you die as long as you have lives remaining. Not here - if you die, you're going back to one of few checkpoints or the beginning of the stage. Granted, this may be because your health is defined by your timer rather than an OHKO, but it's still not good for those who would like to learn and make progress.

While on topic, there are WAY too many instadeath occurrences in a game that's already hard enough as is. The nadir of my playthrough so far was the garbage chute section in level 3. You have to keep your ship inside a floating trash ball or die instantly; keep in mind that the mouse controls are terrible and there's a vacuum sucking you to the right inside of this tight corridor that damages you should you touch the walls. After getting several game overs on just this section alone, I've decided to give up for now because whatever fun and goodwill I had with this game is long since gone.

Negatives:

- Poor performance. Game ran like garbage on my GTX 1060.

- Baffling design decisions like punishing you for using time abilities. Tying the player's life to a timer is a bad idea and leads to a lot of "dead man walking" moments, often making it feel like you don't have much control over whether you can win or not. I ultimately just got frustrated with a late-game boss and gave up.

- Aggressively awful writing. Most of the (terrible, terrible) story is told via black screens with writing on them between levels, which could have at least made the bad writing less intrusive, but there's loads and loads of terrible, edgy dialogue during the levels themselves. I eventually just muted the dialogue altogether.

- Constantly rips control away from the player for unnecessary Epic Panning Sequences and dialogue, especially in the early game.

- The soundtrack, mostly electronic ambiance for the levels and more upbeat EDM for the bosses, is pretty forgettable imo and doesn't really fit the aesthetic. But other people have praised it so ymmv.

Positives:

- Cool aesthetic, although the execution is hit and miss. You have some gorgeous levels - one level has you fighting through a gorgeous floating cityscape during a festival, capped with a battle against a lavishly decorated blimp while fireworks roar around you - but you also have some really ugly moments; one of the bosses is a giant crane that converts into a giant mech and walks around on a pair of conveyor belts like feet and it's even dumber than it sounds. But in general it's a pretty game, especially if you're into the whole dieselpunk aesthetic.

Overall:

The game could have been better if the devs looked at decades of SHMUPs to see what works and what doesn't instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. It also would have been better if they committed to making a game that's fun to play instead of making it a vehicle for a Cinematic Experience with some hackneyed "mature" story.

Probably not worth playing unless you're completely in love with the visuals and willing to overlook everything else being mediocre to bad.

I'd say it has the most beautiful graphics of all shmups I played.

But:
Graphic design was focused on beauty, not clarity. If you play a bullet-hell shmup, you /need/ clear visual cues: what will kill you and what won't. Where is my hitbox?
It's very short. My first playthrough lasted less than 2 hours.


I got it for around 2,50 €. At that price, I can recommend it for shmup-fans that need to have everything. But otherwise: take something with worse graphics but better gameplay.

An epic, dark sci-fi storyline encased in excellent cinematics, animations, and gameplay. Anyone who's a fan of shmups like PSX's Einhander will find this game immensely satisfying. Great bosses and battles to be had!

Forewarning, I'm writing this after a train came of of goddamned nowhere and instakilled me. So do take what I say with a grain of salt. There is a demo and steam is pretty great with its 14 day, 2 hour playtime return policy.

So that aside, I'll just jump straight to the pros and cons as I see them.

Pros:
- Looks great
- Boss designs look great
- Surprising amount of plot considering the genre

Cons:
- Some enviroments make it difficult to tell where its safe to fly and where it isn't.
- Mouse controls are totally borked. Gameplay is obviously tailored towards a gamepad.
- Timer is both your health and the stage timer (obviously) and taking hits subtracts time. That can lead to fultile boss battles in which you don't have enough time to actually complete a boss phase.
- Cutscenes cannot be skipped. Only fastforwarded at 2x. There are also a bunch of them.
- Unpredictable insta deaths are everywhere. The only way you'll find most of them is through trial and error getting through a level.
- Dispite having a couple seconds after getting hit to gather your firepower powerups before they fuck off, you're generally in a bullet hell situation and, remeber time=health, going after them turns into fucking Sophie's Choice.

Overall, this isn't actually that bad of a game. However, many reasonably small design choices in the gameplay and general design come together to make for a game that is bland at best. At best, I can damn this game with faint praise. Save your money, buy something better.

Having been raised on games like Raiden, R-Type, and 1942, my first impressions of this game were that it was (1) much prettier than the old, dusty 2D-sprite shmups I was used to, but also (2) a bit slower paced. Are they nerfing shmups to accommodate a broader audience now, too? Well, yes and no. Thank goodness for difficulty modes.

While I certainly enjoy shmups, I'm not especially great at them. The story mode of this game was not what I would call easy, but the game is only around an hour long and I was able to get through it after about 20 attempts. The game has great environments, interesting bosses, and incredible eye candy. Your ship's health is tied to a countdown timer and this mechanic works exceedingly well. So does the limited slow-down mechanic that can be rationed out judiciously throughout each level. All of this adds up to a very fun experience. Too bad it was so short-lived.

But wait! What's this "Arcade" mode all about? I get to choose my plane, my pilot, and my special ability? And there's more difficulty options here too: "Hard" and "Insane." Joy! So I booted the game up on Hard mode. Holy Jesus.

First things, first, this is a fun game. Period. I've read reviews about controller sensitivity and blah blah, but I honestly didn't notice anything like that. I'm using an old XBox controller and it's suiting me fine. The slowdown mechanic is really helpful but the limit on how much of it you get keeps it from becoming a game-killer. Losing your primary weapon upgrade when you get hit, but having the chance to grab it back immediately afterwards made for some ridiculously fun aerial acrobatics during intense bullet-hell sections. The bosses look great and move beautifully. It's just fun.

The story is disjointed, but I enjoy that. I like piecing things together a bit more a la Dark Souls. I find that it gives the characters a little more depth or mystery when I learn about them in a non-linear fashion. You definitely need to pay attention and think about the story just as much as the shit coming at you from all sides. If it's on sale, grab it no question. $10 would make me think twice, though.

Use a gamepad. Mouse control sucks. Other than that this game is fucking awesome. Great graphics, fantastic bosses, good choice of fighter crafts and weapons, bullet time, innovative live system that uses time instead of lives.
Plus a great and weird story with finnish voiceover!
No seriously if you like side scrolling shooters buy this. If you find anything better tell me.

What a bargain. This game cost me two quid and I cant believe how entertaining and addictive it is. If you can ignore the fact that the plot is nigh on immpossible to follow and just concentrate on the game play and graphics you will have a great time.

I always have been a side-scrolling 2-D shooter fan from the days of Galaga, Gradius, and R-Type. Sine Mora is in the same vein as those afforementioned games and I also consider it more difficult. It's like Grasshopper/Digital Reality took elements from top-down bullet hell shooters such as Radiant Silvergun/Ikaruga/Do Don Pachi and implemented it into this game. It is highly addictive nonetheless. Dying then learning from your mistakes to master the levels is rewarding. The graphics are nice and it does have a convoluted story like most games in this genre do. The amount of play time directly depends on how much time the player is willing to spend to perfect the art. There's different combinations of ships you can use so it adds an element of replayability. There are a few different modes as well such as Boss Training and Score Attack. Also, you can pit yourself against other players through the leaderboard to see how you stack up. I can't recall if I paid the full 10 bucks for the game but it's on promotion quite a bit so anyone can pick it up for a decent price, however, Sine Mora isn't for all gamers unless you enjoy the difficulty of what the genre brings to the table.

The gameplay is nice: a combination of R-Type and friends' "they are actually shooting at you, dodge them" enemies interwoven with bullet-heck mechanics. Speaking of mechanics, the game mechanics are a lot of fun - and speaking of R-Type, the game gives you a nice variety of ships to play around with. Several game modes, from story mode to arcade to boss battles; it definitely strives to keep you entertained, and it even provides a low difficulty mode for people who might approach this sort of shooter more casually (and it is quite a lot easier than the less forgiving modes, while still being fun; not such an easy accomplishment, frankly!).

I also really like the controls' responsiveness. If you've played a lot of shmups then you know the difference between a failure of skill and a failure of game design when it comes to whether or not you had that death coming - well, in this game, in my experience, it's pretty much always a failure of skill. You won't go banging into enemies, or walls, or bullets because the controls are tight. Once you spend some time learning how the various special abilities are used (including one predominant one, the ability to slow time temporarily) I think you'll agree that the control scheme is intuitive and straightforward enough, given the level of complexity in varying the ships' capabilities.

This is one of my favorite shooters right now. Though it shows I've only played it for a bit, that's really because I'm now back fully internet enabled and rediscovered it amongst my stupidly large collection of games. I actually played quite a lot while I was having to play offline for nearly a year due to circumstances and stuck on a tethered data package with only the phone to authenticate every so often, haha.

Final words... If you're iffy about shooters, might not be for you, but if you're a fan of the genre and you don't give this one a chance you're definitely missing out. It's got most of the things that we shmup fans look for. Thumbs up for sure.

The best modern shmup I have ever played. Really over the top bosses, a very wacky Japanese style story, and amazing graphics. Do not buy if you don't like twitch bullet hell shooters.

Sine Mora is, as far as I can tell, a poorly designed shmup. If you just want a retro pew pew game and don't care about anything beyond that, than it works. But if you actually care about things like good gameplay mechanics, depth, level design, etc. than spend your hard earned time and money on a more deserving shmup, because you won't find those things here.

Baffling design decisions abound here:


-Scoring is random (let me repeat that: RANDOMIZED SCORING IN A SHMUP) due to randomized item drops. Scoring adds a competitive aspect to most shmups, and with broken scoring a large amount of the games potential replay value is gone.

-the scoring system encourages you not to use the time powers that define the game. Many excellent shmups over the years like Rayforce or Esp Galuda have incorporated their major abilities and mechanics into the scoring systems to add depth and risk/reward to how you use these abilties, but by punishing you for using your powers, this game essentially encourages you to play in the most boring way possible.

- there are slow dense bullet patterns but there's no button to slow your movement like every bullet hell game ever (apparently the lead designer thought having the option to change speed would be "too hardcore"...What? Why did you put those patterns in than?). A fast move speed might work for a shmup where the patterns are designed around it, but many of the patterns here just feel unnecessarily uncomfortable.

- The level design, pacing, and difficulty balance is wonky as hell. The levels in particular can often be very slow and repetitive. They also have a bad habit of covering up holes and empty spots in the levels pacing with cut scenes, of all things.

- many of the games gimmicks and "innovations" are poorly implemented (the time control abilities that force you to look at the other side of the screen away from enemy bullets, for instance. No real excuse since Esp Galuda used the same exact mechanic years earlier but got it right by putting the meter around your ship.),

- the health system only succeeds in forcing you to die 10 seconds after you make a mistake rather than right away.


Also the story is tryhard as fuck. Apparently the characters were originally going to be humans but someone at Grasshopper said it wasn't "zany" enough. Yes, that's what we need in our fatalistic time travel story about genocide, patricide, rape, and despair: Zaniness.

If you like the game that's cool, but from a design standpoint I'd only put it slightly above some of the worse doujin/indie shmups out there.

Sine Mora is a breathtaking 2D horizontal side-scrolling shooter that blends RPG and pure Arcade styles.
I was pretty much blown away by the graphics and the in game music (electronic).
Game does have controller support (XBOX only, other may not work) and works fine with the keyboard and mouse.
The story is OK but a little bit confusing, other game modes include score attack, arcade mode and boss training (which I highly recommend especially regarding the last three ones in story mode).
The game runs smoothly on an average laptop and a standard graphics card.
At last, there are leaderboards, so competition is on!
Since this game is probably one of the best side-scrolling shooters for the last couple of years, there should be extra stuff like badges for the community!
A must-have if you're into games like Ikaruga, R-Type, Zeit² and so on!

Sine Mora Review.
A hit and miss... but still well done.

This game is sort of a mix bag for me at the beginning but it went well at the end... kinda... its quite a bumpy ride at the beginning... but it was worth every second of it.

Gameplay : Now... I have three major issue with this game and we'll start off with the elephant in the room... this game when you first play it has so many instant death situations that at some point, it started to make me feel that they added them there to make the game feel longer than what it is on the outset like it needed any extending I mean hell... the game is One and a Half Hours long... that's pretty fucking long for a SHMUP already. The game has multiple mechanics which includes Time Slowing(and many more outside the story missions), having a timer as your health that replenishes when you kill enemies and degenerates when you get hit and, Multiple Characters and Ship combination for the types of Bombs and Vulcan you'll be using... its quite robust outside of the Story mode... that is if you can chew up how hard it is.

Difficulty: Okay, so let me step back for a second... Sine Mora is a bitch to play but not because of the bullets even though they are bullet hell like, they are still manageable since they are slow although confusing for the most part since there are so many types of them, some are even one hit wonders which adds to the whole bumpy ride at the beginning that I was talking about... Anyways... the game is hard for three reasons... The "Stage Specific Mechanics", The Confusing Hitbox and The Flying Power Ups... Let us start with Stage Specific Mechanics... I'm talking specifically about Stage III really... The Stealth part of that stage plus the wrecking ball made me go down from Challenging to Normal difficulty. Later on, there would be other stage specific mechanics that will one hit you... you'll see. Now the confusing hitbox is quite the thing because it reminds me of fucking DonPachi. Apparently, its the Ship's class(where the pilot is) is the hitbox, which is different on each ship... Lastly, it's the Flying Power ups... now this game has four difficulty. Normal and Challenging for Story and, Hard and Insane for Arcade. Normal is easy as hell, Challenging adds more Health to enemies, bullets, health penalties and so much more that is quite a damn gap... and it just gets crazy from there...

The Power Up Annoyance: So here is how it works... You get hit, you loose time and all of your Power ups fly off at random directions, if you play on a harder difficulty, you have less invulnerability period in between hits and health penalties are bigger. So either risk dying trying to pick them all up again or just use your tiny Vulcan, so that means now you can't deal that much damage and in harder difficulties... enemies have more health... so in summary... Don't... Get... Hit... like ever... it's pretty damn strict.

Story: The Reason why this game is M rated is because of its storyline... It's Grim... grim as all hell. I don't really need since the whole story like is really interesting(although why is it only on Hungarian Language confuses me) to spoil anything but let's just say that Blackmailing a girl that suffered both rape and cancer(not to mention the extinction of her race with the survivors being put into forced labor and experimentation) is just not cool bro.

Art: The characters are furries... Did that turn you off? Fuck off then. Either way... it adds to the creative side of the game... It has amazing graphical fidelity and it runs really well... on my Titan anyways... Also... the boss design are really interesting and very imaginative like the rest of the game... Now I'm not a fan of the whole 2.5D perspective even if its an eye candy... I just want to see shit clearly like in Akai Katana and Progear Storm... this reminds me of Enhander... a little too much in fact. Now... In my screen... this game actually has some graphical issues however which sadly lets down the experience a little bit...

Music: The Last problem that I have with this game is the music... it doesn't... fit... it sounds ambient and... strangely cheerful(especially the boss theme), which for a grim storyline and a strange world that is shown to the player... this... is a contrast... I just cant tell if its meant to be though...

Verdict: Its still a thumbs up meanly because of how challenging it is while still being operational(just keep a lot of things in mind that is). The story itself is intriguing enough to keep me playing and the modes that it offers gives it a lot of replay value and top it off with a rich scoring system. Sine Mora is quite a treat for shoot em up fans out there... just... toss most of what you think of other shmups and just keep your mind on this one... before you can disappointed or frustrated by your own standards and by the things you are used to. Am talking to you Touhou and Cave fans. ;)

When I purchased this game, it was exactly what I was looking for. A nice cinematic 3D side scrolling old school shmup.

In short, beautifull scenery and levels, the backdrops are so nice that they can be a little distracting, quite often you'll see something catch your eye like a fisherman on a rock, people going for a stroll in a park and the designs of the enemies.

It's not a long game by any means, depending on if you want to hunt for achievements or just play the story. Took me about 2-3 hours.
Speaking of the story, I found it a little difficult to follow until the end.

An enjoyable if short experience.

Sine Mora is an awesome side scrolling shmup with a beautiful art style, intense, well thought out boss battles, and multiple weapons and characters to play with. The game offers full controller support along with full leaderboard integration - something that many shmups forego that is of the utmost importance. What's more fun than competing directly with the entire steam community (including your friends) to see who can get the high score? Like most good shmups it follows the design philosophy of "easy to pick up, hard to master" and in following this motif there are also boss training options along with other game modes to play through. The environments are also quite varied, so whether you're in the heart of a jungle or deep under the ocean, Sine More always has something new to throw at you. The game's unique gameplay mechanic that differentiates it from other shmups is a sort of time slowing device, allowing you to navigate through the bullet hell that becomes your daily existence while playing this awesome sidescolling shooter.

Pros:

Excellent Graphics
Full Controller Support
Full Leaderboard Support
Variable Weapons/Ships
Great Boss Design

Cons:

No English VOs/Subs only (not usually a con, but if you're reading text at the bottom of the screen you're not looking at bullets coming at you - deadly in a shooter like this)

One of the best shmups on Steam. If you even have a passing interest in any type of shmup, whether twin stick or otherwise, pick this up. A-

I guess the developer couldn't figure out how to make a shmup with genuine challenge, so just gave the bosses bullshit attacks that are unavoidable without prior knowledge, and threw in a bunch of deathmazes filled with randomly-firing shit that instakills you, totally undermining the interesting "lose time when you get hit hit, gain time when you kill enemies" mechanic.

Here's an example of what these people think is an acceptable way to "challenge" the player: you start a level that's set in a subway tunnel. A train immediately comes out of nowhere and smashes into you, killing you instantly. You restart, and this time you're expecting it so you move up and get instakilled by the ceiling supports that look like they're part of the background. Any other collision with a physical obstacle before this has just given a time penalty, so I dunno, these are just really hard ceiling supports or something?

Just no. Do not buy this.