Zenodyne R

this game is really good wtf
im having loads of fun going on the hardest mode with hard paths and amazed i'm actually making progress
hard game but good, not a bullet hell, like toaplan games except F a s t, genesis-chipset soundtrack (very good)

Recomended but with a few reservation. Interesting retro shmup based in 90´s arcade (mainly toaplan) with modern conviniences like autofire, small hitbox and focus button. the controls are spot on. The graphics are below average. look they are made in paint, and everything is too much colourful and make me bleed my eyes with long playing sessions. The bullet visibility could be improved a lot, but you will get used. I do undertand that is a small indie dev, with small budget for a niche audience but they could be improved, just see the example of the indie dev terarin that goes for simplicity and does things so much better in the graphic department. The bullet patterns are simple, and fun as expected in a classic shmup where there are lesser but faster bullets aimed at the player. The difficulty is a bit high, but not excessive. The music is a big improvement over zenodeath, and fits weel into the action. Fortunaly they learn lessons from zenodeath and improved a lot. There is a unlock system that is a bit grindy that i am not big fun. The price is high considering that there are better offers in the market at the same price or even cheaper. I can only recomend this game if has a big discount (probably 70%) and if you are a hardcore fun of classic shmups (my case) and want one more game to play and have fun. In the end and despite all the probems, the game is fun, has precise controls , average gameplay, but very low production values.

The difficulty curve on this shmup is just about perfect. I'm not normally able to 1cc these sorts of games, but working my way up from normal to expert over time was successful, and the generous practice mode and character selection potential allows you to find a playstyle that works for you. The thrill of getting a 1cc in a not trivial game was fun.

Vertical shooter with a futuristic retro theme. Solid controls. Fast reflex based gameplay. Interesting shot swap mechanic. Gorgeous retro presentation, graphics and audio. Oldschool.

Listed on the Shoot 'em up Database

Don't ask me why.

great oldsql shmup!

I remember the war.

One of the best indy shmups i've played. It really takes me back to the good old Genesis/Turbografx days although this is not as tough as some of the titles of those eras.

The difficulty is spot on and it allows you to practice stages individually which is always great. The music is pretty neat too.

It's a really fun game to play. Definitely recommended for fans of old school shmups.

This game is so fast, it'll knock you off your chair. It is action packed old-school insanety, my heart was not prepared for this.

The only tiny gripe I have is readability, which is sometimes hard due to the colorful backgrounds. At the same time, the whole style works beautifully with a bright and bold pallette. The music is 11/10 for sure.

Finally the bullet patterns are refreshing, many preventing the usual left-right evasion techniques. You'll have to put yourself uncomfortably at risk to beat some of the patterns.

Zenodyne R is one of the best indie shmups on Steam.

• The graphics are very well done and look exactly like they would have appeared in late-80s/early-90s. It looks like it could have been a Taoplan game!
  
• The music is the same--sounding exactly like you remember those old Genesis games from your youth sounding.
  
• The gameplay is fast and furious, but not cheap: you can usually dodge things that you see coming without having to memorize the entire game.
  
• The story actually works within the the game without getting in the way if you want to ignore it.
  
• Each level is unique with it's own visual feel and special gameplay. Unlike some other games in this genre, you will remember each level individually.
  
• The game's difficulty is hard, but fair. While the difficulty feels uneven in some areas, the way difficulty is adjusted for normal difficulty is primarily through how often extends are doled out, which allows less-experienced players to beat the game and not feel like they missed out on too much. Veteran players will find a very challenging game that mixes both modern and classic shoot 'em up elements.
  
[*]Branching paths provide some replay value and makes experimenting with different routes through the game feel less boring than other shmups.

I just had a quick blast on this and I liked it! The graphics are a bit garish, but perhaps that's intentional for a 90s DOS vibe, dunno. Anyway, the gameplay is fast, frantic and satisfying. If you like old-skool shoot 'em ups done bullet hell style, it's a good buy. Looking forward to seeing more shoot 'em ups from this dev.

Basically, My Honest Review of Zenodyne R sums up my initial feeling picking up this game for the first time and thinking I have any chance in hell of survival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj6mztQdo8I

A few downsides (for me) entering a bullet-hell game for the first time.

• Difficulty settings should be corectly labeled "harder" and "hardest".
  
• Only 3 continues makes it impossible to survive beyond even the narrow tunnels map.
  
• Bombs help clear bullets during boss encounters. But it's limited to only 1.
  
[*] Many times I confuse my bullets with pick ups with red and purple enemy bullets. Too damn much going on at once on screen at a time to focus properly.

Hell bids you enter. Victory may come slowly, painfully... Or perhaps not at all. But seek this despair, and you will be rewarded....

Zenodyne R is ruthless and unforgiving, but the satisfaction of beating cruel and heartless levels will leave you hungering for more.

9/10

... with some caveats.

Zenodyne R is a 2D shoot'em up and the second game created by indie team Grybanser Fox. Although Zenodyne was originally released as a freeware title, this remaster/remake irons out many of its rough edges while also taking valuable lessons from team’s previous release, Zenohell and even adding some new ideas of its own. All this while also staying true to creators’ vision of rampaging 90’s shoot’em up action – but not without some baggage.

From the get-go Zenodyne R greets player with a vicious demeanor: waves upon waves of small popcorn enemies firing blindingly fast volleys of aimed shots at the player, larger enemies covering the screen with more elaborate, fixed bullet patterns… Even sniper tanks make an appearance, taking out less cautious players at the moments notice. It’s no big surprise players are constantly encouraged to burn through their ever so precious resource of screen clearing bombs when things get too hot to handle.

Genre purists immediately recognize these design choices and nods towards more older, especially now long since ceased arcade developer Toaplan’s shooters. That’s not to say Zenodyne doesn’t take some influences from the more contemporary bullet hell shooters, such as their focus shot system that allows player to alter between more wide/focused shot and faster/slower movement speed. All this is rounded up by precise controls which make sure Zenodyne’s core gameplay feels almost as tight as its role models.

And that’s pretty much a necessity for a good reason too.

Zenodyne R offers a potent challenge even for the most seasoned veterans of the genre. Intermediate and new players will most likely have to either resort to continues just to be able muddle their way through the game or fully embrace the game’s relentless cycle of life and death in order to reach the fabled ”1 credit clear” some day. The challenge is certainly intended although not always executed in the most efficient or elegant matter.

There is this strange duality to Zenodyne’s difficulty. While enemy variety and behavior are a step up from Zenohell’s, there is still too much reliance on quick aimed shots that, once memorized, only provide challenge when they tend to blend with the backgrounds. On the other hand most enemies and bosses often have patterns that are either completely fixed or completely random. These result in some uneven difficulty curve where certain sections can be cleared almost solely through series of tap dodges from side to side while boss patterns can range from laughable to extremely dangerous depending on the amount of randomization present. This becomes more and more apparent towards the later parts of the game. Some smoke and mirrors can lead to rewarding feel of the conquering seemingly insurmountable obstacle but as it stands this aspect feels too prevalent in Zenodyne and it feels especially punishing towards inexperienced players who are not that familiar with the genre.

Some amends have been made towards newcomers. Through playing players accumulate Technical Points that work as an unlock system for extra credits, lore logs and even new playable ships. These offer a nice incentive to keep on playing and since more Tech Points are awarded depending on player's performance, the game delicately steers rookies towards more efficient playstyle. The level design tries to accommodate different skill levels as well in form of new branching paths. These appear usually at the middle of the stage and are divided to EASY and HARD path.

These additions are more than welcome but both suffer from the lack of polish. Unlock system is too rigid since everything is unlocked in a certain order and some rewards feel underwhelming. Extra credits are a nice bonus but the lore entries come of as an ham-fisted way of handling the game’s story. New ships are the highlight although their unlock order could’ve been tweaked a little. The first secret ship feels a bit too similar to default one, while second and third ship both have very focused shot type. Maybe Technical Points would’ve worked better as a currency which players then could’ve spent on whatever they are most interested on.

The bigger problem lies within branching paths which at first seem to add some nice replay value to stages and even dynamic difficulty. However the game never really takes off with this approach. The paths feel all too similar, the biggest chance being enemies shooting more and faster bullets. At least bosses gain more aggressive patterns and even some completely new adversaries show up in the harder paths. But even then around half way through the game sort of forgets the branching path system and railroads player to certain level of difficulty.

The branching paths present another dilemma as well. As an average player I often found the hard routes a bit too much for my taste. However harder paths naturally offer more scoring potential. Many players may not be that interested playing for score but whenever I chose the easier path I had this nagging feeling that my score potential would stay considerably lower for the rest of the game. This is even more demoralizing when you realize that there’s no differentiation between easy and hard paths on scoreboards. So if you wish to play for score, your only option is to go for harder routes regardless of your skill level. Overall the branching paths are a good idea, they just need better implementation. I’d like to see different paths offer different scoring potential depending on selected ship but this obviously rises its own set of issues such as balancing the score properly for each path.

Visually things have staid more or less the same with small upgrades sprinkled all around. Explosions look still satisfying and all sprites seem to have more detail to them. Besides player ships, animations are still on the sparser side and there is some disparity between enemy, background and boss designs but when things get hectic there rarely is enough time to pay attention to such details. Unfortunately backgrounds can at times look rather hastily constructed and at worst the garish colour choices blend backgrounds with the foreground objects in a distracting manner.
The new soundtrack by Hal "HeavyViper" Binderman is probably the most noticeable change from the previous game. This time the soundtrack is powered by YM2612 soundchip which brings forth immediate memories from the golden heydays of Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis. Whether you enjoy this change is purely up to taste but nevertheless the music still perfectly fits the manic pace of the game.

At its best Zenodyne delivers a distinct adrenaline rush that manages to carve out its own niche somewhere in the middle of slavishly retro and modern danmaku shooters. However the uneven difficulty often comes across as either unsatisfying or frustrating. The new unlock system and branching paths could’ve used more time and care to really shine through. Despite this Zenodyne R shows a notable leap in quality when compared to its predecessor and I’m sure a similar leap will await us in the future when inevitable sequel arrives.

This was easily a day 1 purchase for me and I wanted to wait til I've had at least 5 hours of playtime before reviewing. As someone who grew up in the 80's and 90's on cartridge based consoles, this easily brings that old feeling back: Starts out tough as nails, but as you get further in the game, the earlier stages become easier (and that was hard for me to believe at first). If you favored the type of music that the Sega Genesis punched at you, then your ears will definitely be feasted in this. There's been a slew of anime based bullet hell shmups popping up on steam lately, so this at the same time felt like a breath of fresh air.

This is pretty much a straight up in your face vert shmup. There are 5 ships in total, but you start with one. There's a point system that rewards you after beating the stage boss. Those points add up and you'll eventually unlock the other ships as well as extra continue credits. This game has 5 stages, but don't let that fool you.

One interesting feature this game has is that you're asked mid-stage if you want to take the harder route. I don't really feel like it makes the game harder? But there is an extra boss to fight after the main stage boss.

Want tate mode? This has it.

I do feel there needs to be some balance adjustments. For example, the first boss has 3 phases while the boss of stage 2 only has one. I felt it should be the other way around. Sometimes it just seems overbearing with all the activity on the screen followed by a quick moment of nothing. Again, these are brief. Enemy bullets are FAST, so you can't ever turn away, not even for a microsecond. This game defintely keeps you on your toes.

I will continue playing this game even once after I've beaten it. It is definitely on my "gradually play again and again over the years" just like all the other shmups I play. I hope the dev continues to make shmups that don't follow the current trend.

Disclosure:
Friends with one of the devs.

Zenodyne R is a very challenging shooter, seemingly aimed at the more experienced player, it's very fast paced and pulls no punches, throwing everything it has at you from pretty much the word go.
Some shooters throw so many bullets at you that finding your way through the bullets feels more like a puzzle than a shooter. Zenodyne strikes the right balance of filling the screen with things to dodge, but not so much that you can't get out of most situations with good reactions. Each stage will start you off with a bit of a warm up, throwing smaller enemies until the game asks you to choose to fly through the easy or the hard version of the level, allowing for a branching pathway and letting you decide how confident you feel on the fly. The boss ships attack patterns are particularly well done, forcing you into uncomfortable positions while you wait for an opening to let you get back into a position where you can start shooting again.
Graphics are crisp and the things that kill you stand out well from the backgrounds, very reminicant style to that of early Genesis shooters.
The soundtrack is excellent, I believe rendered on an actual Genesis sound chip, using a lot of the same tricks and sounds that will be very nostalgic to a lot of people.
-
(Edit: The game has been patched to give out more tech points than before, fixing the following issue.)
I find the progression system that is used to unlock things like more continues (eventually a free play mode), extra ships and additional flavour text to be a bit stingy in handing out the medals used to unlock these things. Making progression in that regard a bit grindy, but I think part of that is me needing to get good.
-
A difficult but fair shooter with smooth controls that work well with an analogue thumbstick I don't regret purchasing this game at all even if it may be some time before I get good enough to see everything in the game.

A little gameplay I recorded here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tf2zC686VA&feature=youtu.be

Took a chance on this yesterday as I've always been a fan of real retro shmups and this one is great.
Has a real 90's feel to it and feels really fluid.
The controls are tight and the presentation is on point...it is super tough though.

This was easily a day 1 purchase for me. A lot went into this fixing the flaws of Zenohell and expanding on new ideas. For starters, the game is overall more fine tuned for balance in difficulty and the ship choices than Zenohell imo. The game adds easy and hard routes to take so that less experienced players do not have to get crushed by the hard route. As the player has a choice of difficulty along the way, the game doesn't feel very cheap or unfair, and is not too overbearing or too much of a cakewalk.

The game also gives a good sense of rewarding the player. Complete stages, beat hard routes, get through stages without dying, and other tasks will give you additional tech points that go towards unlocking additional content. The game starts you off with limited continues unlike Zenohell, but you can earn more. The better you play, the faster the unlocks will come. Even if you credit feed with what you have to the end of the game you still get tech points so it gives everyone a chance that is not a hardcore shmup veteran.

Several new animations added to the player's ship for movement and ship banking are implemented as well, making them more visually appealing while playing. I feel that the detail of enemy sprites has gone up as well, especially one that I can't spoil in this review from it's predecessor. ESPECIALLY this one because it gave me chills seeing how much more menacing it appears this time around. Makes the one in the previous game look like a baby.

As many people pointed out with Zenohell that it's soundtrack was nice, the soundtrack for Zenodyne R is once again fantastic. A different approach is taken this time to the tune of a Sega Genesis sound chip. The way the visuals come together with the music, it really is incredible. It truly makes me feel like I'm playing a retro game, especially since this makes nods at a few other shmups along the way. It's enough to make me wonder how well this game could be imported to an actual Sega Genesis cartridge.

I really hope that other people have as much fun with this as I am, and that they also hold the same opinion that this is a step in a better direction than Zenohell. I'm not saying Zenohell was particularly bad, it's just this game feels more "right" with game mechanics and atmosphere.

A high-octane and enjoyable arcade shoot-em-up romp reminiscent of the '90's. This type of game has been my go-to bread and butter forever, and Zenodyne R absolutely delivers. The gorgeous 2-D sprites and pixelated soundtrack are enthrallingly nostalgic, and the gameplay is straightforward and flies by at a fast pace. While Zenodyne is not innovative, it doesn't need to be.

What is a little innovative and modern is the progression of unlockables. As you complete missions, you earn Technical Points (TP). You use these TP to unlock new ships, extra credits, and lore. Compared to the past where you simply die over and over to farm the continue credits necessary to complete the game, Zenodyne rewards you for performing better during the mission, choosing Hard mode, and not losing lives.

Also innovative is the ability to choose easier or harder versions of the second half of each mission. At the halfway point, you're given the decision to pick either Easy or Hard. I thought this was a cool addition because it doesn't force you to suffer quite so harshly against a boss you find especially difficult.

A couple minor qualms: the Medals that you collect on-screen are obnoxiously large and distract you from enemies' shots, and the menus are needlessly difficult to navigate as you can't press B to go back (you have to move up and down on the d-pad and select "Back").

Nonetheless, that's not nearly enough to stop me from recommending Zenodyne. You know what you're getting into. And it's a ton of fun. :-)