Castle of Shikigami

ironically a genre worst in class. Completely mogged by Touhou, Touhou fan games, Len'en, and the tale of ALLTYNEX trilogy. the only shmup I've played that's worse is that one bug princess I cant be bothered to remember the name of, which really isn't saying all that much.

This game didn't make the best first impression with me - there are some ugly background graphics, seemingly incomprehensible hitboxes, and the arrange mode being paid DLC - but I'm glad I stuck with it. The grazing mechanics may be more refined in later titles in the series, but they were built on solid foundations. In addition to that, the game has a game-long timer, which I think is quite an under-explored idea in shmups.

I suppose that makes this one of the few shmups you could actually speedrun. But in theory this adds another layer of strategic consideration to every moment of the game. In practice it means tearing through the game as fast as possible to milk the stage 5-1 boss. But that in and of itself is a lot more fun if you've earned that time in the first place.

I'd also like to defend the graphics a bit. The game's backgrounds are not great. Despite being 3D there isn't much fun camera movement and they are very repetitive. But I think that's because the effort went into modelling the numerous bosses. They are big, scary and imposing, they really up the drama.

There are also a lot of 2D enemies and while these themselves are nothing special, there is a lot of variety on display. Each stage's enemies are themed according to the final human boss you face at the end. For example, the boss who is a military commander sends his troops after you, the evil spider demon girl sends evil spider demons after you, and so on. It goes a long way into giving the stages their own character. In the regard, Shikigami 2 is a big downgrade, as you face the same abstract enemy types throughout the entirety of that game.

So in the end I was quite charmed by this game : )

Castle of Shikigami feels like a Frankenstein's monster of a game. It has good elements cobbled with a lot of messy ones to create a patched work thing that doesn't really work.

The first thing that struck me with Castle of Shikigame is the backgrounds. The are far and away the best thing about this game. It really feel like I'm zooming above Tokyo and over Japan. Or I would feel that way if it were not for the actual foreground spites just being layered on top. Rough outline edges and all.

The game play feels about as rough as the graphical presentation. The movement control is fine, though; I feel this game in particular wants a stick over the d-pad my USB Genesis controller offers. As I'm either missing something on keeping the enemy under control or it wants more micro dodging than I like or am even that skilled at. The character weapons feel underwhelming except for the limited use bomb-type attacks that feel way too strong. There's a leveling feature. But I personally struggle to stay alive along enough to get every far a long it. I think the best I've done is level 3, and that was for the briefest of times. This makes it seem like I'm playing the game wrong somewhere over it just being brutally hard.

A strange note about this game is the achievements. I'm certainly not above playing a game just to squeeze some achievos out it. But in Castle of Shikigami, many of the achievements are tied to beating the game on various difficulties. And beating the game with a particular character on Normal doesn't unlock the beating the game on easy or very easy with the same character. Which I suppose is fair, as I don't find the easier setting all that much different than the normal difficulty.

I can't recommend Castle of Shikigami. It's far too much of a mess of a game for that.

This is pretty old school, from those saturn/ps1 days where shmups were trying to make a transition into 2.5d or 3d-ish graphics. It's pretty slow and kinda clunky and some patterns can feel pretty nonsensical compared to modern stuff.

This is a pretty good shooter. I like it better than the Espgaluda games from Cave. Seems a tad unbalanced, and I hate when enemies pop up from the bottom of the screen. It was a nice change from a lot of the usual shmups though, as bullets don't always follow the same patterns every time according to their color/shape.

Awful port, just refunded the game, the game is incapable of detecting a soundcard, tried everything, even reinstalled openal, but no luck, i tried in 2 different computers, same issue "error opening sound device", spend your money anywhere else.

Despite unassuming visuals, this shmup feels excellent to play, learn and improve at. Multiple characters with each their own playstyle and tools, a scoring system that rewards grazing and a unique scoring meta that pushes early/mid-game speedrunning followed by last boss milking for a cool game feel and a pretty crazy pacing that accidentally works wonders. Features a very useful (but not perfect) practice mode. Cool urban fantasy setting with some horror/occult vibes as well.

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Note about the EVO Mode DLC :

EVO mode is a remix of the game where the characters and scoring mechanics stay unchanged but the enemy waves and boss patterns are all different. The pacing is not as fast, stages are noticeably longer, sometimes more repetitive (2-3's enemy waves are actually kinda bad). The final boss milk is no longer a thing, though you might probably milk some earlier bosses. Kuga players will likely struggle a lot for time in this mode.

This mode is nice to have if you are craving for some more Shikigami content but the arcade mode feels snappier and character viability in it is more balanced.

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Castle of Shikigami is a port of a vertical arcade shmup made in 2001 by Alfa System. Back then, it was ported to multiple systems including PC. This version here on Steam is different from the previous PC port though.

In this game, you can play as one of 6 characters, investigating a series of bizarre supernatural murders in modern Tokyo. I'm a sucker for contemporary/urban settings like that so this is pretty cool to me.

Those characters all have their own main shot, tension shot (which is a stronger variant of the shot for whenever you are grazing a bullet or enemy), shikigami attack, and consumable bombs. The shikigami attack is the star of the show since the characters have wildly different shikigamis, such as a familiar that auto-attacks enemies, a set of blades you position around you at specific angles, an orbital strike that you have to aim yourself by moving a reticle beforehand, a spinning bird, or electric balls that can latch onto an enemy until its death.

Most shmups with multiple characters or ships feature relatively minor changes in their shot types, such as the fast speed and narrow shot VS the slow speed and wide shot. But the weapons here go beyond that and it makes playing as a new character feel like learning a new game in a way. And all of these shikigami attacks are important for score since they will generate more coins and will autocollect them when you kill enemies with them. Since scoring involves killing enemies with the shikigami and collecting their coins while grazing enemies or bullets, you thus have to plan your strategies and playstyle depending on what your character's shikigami allows you yo do.

The bombs are also not the same for each character, as some have screen-wide attacks while others will fire concentrated blasts on a specific point for big damage.

With the shikigami attack and the bombs being so different for each character, it becomes fairly fascinating to see how the strategies and techniques for each vary. Even if the scoring system in itself is the same for everyone, the spots and fights where each will excel or struggle will not be the same.

Kuga may have a shikigami that attacks enemies for him and allows the player to easily graze from afar and get score faster, but he will struggle more against the late-game since his tools lack raw power and have limited area-of-effect. Kim's blades are powerful and flexible in their uses, but the low movement speed can take some time getting used to and the power can in some cases be too much for his own good when scoring the final boss. Fumiko and Tagami's shikigami you have to aim requires a lot of dexterity and knowledge of the enemy waves to fire it without putting yourselves at risk, but on the other hand keeping a maxed multiplier during said final boss scoring is easier. The players will likely use their bombs on different bosses too, or in different ways.

The game's resource system is also interesting in how it seems fairly restrictive at first but opens up as you get better. The number of lives is capped at 3, the number of bombs is capped at 5. You can never get more than that at once. It sounds unfriendly and in a way it is, but it allows the tension to never falter as hoarding tons of resources early on to trivialize the rest of the game is impossible. Besides, the life and bomb restore systems encourage you to get into the scoring to get more of them. Extra lives are awarded when you hit scoring thresholds and since it works on a "one every XXX points" basis, there is no hard limit to how many life recharges you can get in a single run, as long as you keep scoring to get said points. Since getting a life (or losing one for that matter) also gives you one more bomb, you have more opportunities to replenish your resources than you'd initially think.

There is a power system which is kind of a double-edged sword (and will be removed in later installments of the series) where your character gains power levels (there are 4 levels total) by collecting enough coins, and taking a hit causes a loss of one power level. This can create some tricky situations where the lower power makes it harder to get back on one's feet. However, gaining a power level awards you with a bomb too, so losing a life means you can actually regain two bombs, one for the life loss, and one for the regained power level. This is far from those games where you can have plenty of bombs in stock but lose every single one of them when taking a hit.

How grazing works in this game is also slightly different from the norm and works well with the game's pacing. You need to be grazing an enemy or bullet while killing enemies and collecting coins to increase their value up to 8 times. Unlike many graze-based scoring systems though, the overall number of bullets you graze does not matter at all. Instead, you want to be continuously grazing hazards, and a same hazard can be used to get a x8 multiplier for many coins and enemy kills. This approach also means there is no super-graze milking on bosses or anything which abuses bullet spawners like that.

Learning how to play the game and how to progress further is a real joy because the game is divided into stages that each have 3 sub-sections. They are usually relatively short and you can practice them individually after reaching them in a full run. It's a shame you can't practice the bosses directly (except the second sub-section of each stage which is only a boss) but replaying the sections to get better, and doing some full runs to get even further in the game thanks to the practice feels tremendously rewarding. There's just something that works.

Now let's tackle the overall meta-scoring and its strange but compelling and unique quirks. Most shmups have stages that last the same amount of time no matter what, and killing enemy waves faster can sometimes net you some bonus waves to prevent dead air. Since stages will naturally end no matter what, only bosses would feature a timer as to prevent infinites on them. However, this game is different. Unique to this game (even within its series) is the inclusion of a global timer, and non-fixed-length levels, with the exception of 3-1 because it has walls and fixed enemy spawns and the 5-3 finale that always lasts ~70 seconds.

The Steam review character count cap is too damn small, here's the rest of the review : https://pastebin.com/8FgDZ7sn

If you buy one Shikigami game on Steam, get Shikigami 2. If you've played that and want more, take a look here.

The coolest thing here is the bosses and sub-bosses, with three per stage. Some fun and intense fights. And while the character select screen is not as expanded as the sequel, the trademark differences are here; each character fights in vastly different ways, and requires their own strategies for maximizing points.

Scoring is based on grazing (getting close to enemies or bullets). The closer you are to death, the bigger the multiplier. It's the classic risk-vs-reward and quite entertaining to push as far as you dare.

Won't recommend.
It's a average SHMUP, but it has some points that pull it down more than points that work for it.
I only played through half the game or so, but I've noticed the music is very uninspiring, generic, barely does the basic job; the patterns aren't well designed, everything feels primitive about the patterns in this game, there's no emotion or deeper feeling on it, it's just a spam of bullets in different ways.
The character movement is DAMN slow, it's so slow that it becomes a flaw of the game, because for some characters you won't manage to pass through some patterns because they require faster movement or a previous antecipation, that being said, you will be frustrated when playing with some slower characters because you know several of your first gameplays you will be dying over and over because a new pattern to you will very likely kill you.

Well, speaking about a fun thing of this game is that the miko character has a melee focus attack that is very fun to use and sweep through the enemies, it also erases some bullets, which is great and feels like a very solid shot type.

I went full tilt and purchased the game and both the soundtrack and the other dlc.

I find the game enjoyable, but there are a ton of good arcade shooters released on Steam.

It's fun, but it doesn't do anything to separate itself from the crowd.

I got it on sale and am a die hard arcade junkie so it's fun for me to get as many arcade shooters as I can.

On sale the base game is worth it. The soundtrack I picked up for Beat Hazard 2 and I haven't tried it yet.

I played a character through the dlc and save for the depressing ending, it was fun. I hate to imagine how many credits I blew playing the game from beginning to end.

A prime example of how european game publishers and critics have no fucking clue on what they're talking about.

7/7 absolute kamige of an stg

could you please fix the audio issues? its on steam, so whats stopping you guys??? you gave us a game but won't bother to fix the issues that is so obviously making it from a must buy to avoid at all costs (until said audio issues is fixed of course).

Again, its that strange shrilling sound at the end of the stage. Perhaps after every boss fight. IT WILL PROBABLY DAMAGE MANY EARS, FOR THOSE WHO PERSIST TO PLAY THIS GAME WITH THEIR AUDIO ON !!!

Please Fix this. Its a wonderful game, otherwise.
Also release the other games in the series here on Steam.

Not recommended for beginner players, as even on (very) easy mode it provides a huge challenge, due to the low amounts of resources you will have if you don't focus on scoring.

If you do have, or intend to pick up this game, play as Kotaro Kuga (the kid with the backpack), as he has a homing focus attack, and the easiest way to score.

I had "Mobile Light Force 2" on the PS2 and I played the ever loving hell out of it. This is a good port overall, and I love revisiting it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to people who have no nostalgia for it. If you like the "bullet grazing" type of scoring system; where you get more points the closer you are to enemy bullets, it's pretty awesome. It's also a homage to Cave's amazing ESP Ra. De. from a couple years prior. It's not as good, but also does it's own thing and I think there is room for multiple Psychokinetic Overhead Shmups from the late 90's and early 00's :D

My favorite series of shooters where even if this game isn't perfect in ways, it only gets better.
Simple enough to survive for more casual playthroughs, tension system provides depth for optimizing score play.
Lots of cool and different characters with unique attacks and playstyles.
Fumiko is in it.

Want part 2 and 3 stay the system like this.

But please I'm begging you not dub it
and want new eng translate for part 2 and 3

Screen filled with slow moving bullets gameplay. Encourages bullet grazing for damage boost. Graphics look better compared to MAME. Can change UI to be either in the game screen or outside. Has practice mode.

The online leaderboard seems to only display top 10 scores and doesn't show player's rank.

Can't save replay, so you have to record while playing, which is a little bit disappointing considering the original Japanese PC version can save replay.

Castle of Shikigami 式神の城 has an interesting history. It was developed by Alfa System and originally released in arcades in 2001. It was eventually released in North America and Europe as Mobile Light Force 2. Mobile Light Force is perhaps better known as Gunbird and is not related to Castle of Shikigami at all. Castle of Shikigami does have sequels and I’ve heard they’re good, but unfortunately they’re not available on Steam.

This game has a story, but I skipped through it so I can’t say much about its quality. There are several different characters which play quite differently from one another. I focused on a single character and skipped past all of the dialogue, but it appeared that each character had their own unique dialogue. If you’re someone with an interest in shmups with a story this might be appealing.

The defining feature of the game is the tension system. The closer you are to a bullet or an enemy the more score you’ll get. If a character is very close their hitbox will become visible and their shot will do increased damage. Each character has a unique primary fire, secondary fire, and bomb. When an enemy is destroyed coins (score items) will spawn, if they happen to be destroyed with the secondary fire the coins will be sucked directly to your character.

Another interesting aspect of the game is the way lives and bombs function. You start off with three lives which is the maximum you can hold. You can hold a maximum of five bombs. You gain a bomb each time you hit an extend and each time you die. If you have the maximum number of lives and you’re about gain a life it can be advantageous to intentionally die in order to get an extra bomb. There are no extra life or bomb items in the game.

Overall Castle of Shikigami is a decent game. My only notable complaints are that there aren’t replays and that the practice mode could be a little more extensive. Stages are split into three sections and you can start at the beginning of any section in practice mode. Some sections feature a boss at the very end and in those cases it would have been nice to be able to start directly at the boss. Fortunately the sections are all fairly short so you won’t lose too much time. I had a fun time going for the 1cc in Castle of Shikigami and I’d buy the sequels if they were available. I’ve heard that another game by Alfa System with similar mechanics called Sisters Royale might be released on Steam. I’ll definitely give that a go if it comes out. If you’re into arcade shmups you’ll probably enjoy this game.

This is a positive review, with some reservations.

I've played the arcade version, both English and Japanese PS2 versions, and the EX PC version. In terms of playability, at least as of this writing, this version is at the bottom of the list. That said, I am still happy and thankful that Deciga decided to release a Steam version (and hoping that they release the second one). If you haven't played this game before and you like danmaku style shooters, or you just want a version with a translated story, then it is probably worth your time to check it out. If you have already played it and own one of the other versions you might want to either skip it or wait and see if they patch it. EDIT: The devs are actively working on the game to smooth out the bugs. If you were on the fence you might want to take that into account.

The positive is that the game is still a solid shooter, even if it is an older game. I wish that they had translated the EX version, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. The fact that each character plays differently gives the game a good amount of replay value. It does have some things that are a bit of a turn off though, such as the playable area not being as big as it looks. This is also the only game in the series that has the coin-level up / level down on hit thing, so if that doesn't appeal to you finding a copy of the second or third game might be a better use of your time.

As for issues with this version, the game plays at a way faster rate than the original. It's still playable, but newcomers who don't have the patterns memorized might get a tad frusterated. 5-2 had some really bad stuttering when I played it, and given that it is the hardest stage in the game it will probably frusterate anyone going for a 1CC. The game also crashed at the Game Result screen after I beat the game, so good luck if you are trying to compete on the leaderboards. I admit that some of these issues might be the fault of my computer, but considering my copy of EX still works just fine that is probably not the case.

Another thing is that there seems to be some Steam issues in regards to this game. Either that or I really beat the game as Kuga in less than 5 minutes... which is impossible. Steam stats don't effect the game itself though, so it's not anything to worry about.

UPDATE EDIT: Figured I should edit this review, since the devs are still actively working on the game. The Result Screen crashing bug was fixed a while ago, and they recently added a Slowdown Option to emulate how the game was originally meant to be played. They also added the Practice Mode from the Console/EX versions, which helps a lot if you are trying to learn a stage. I'm pretty happy with the amount of extra work the devs have put in to make this version better, especially since I wasn't expecting it at all.

Disclaimer: I was the editor for the fan translation of the PC release, so I'm kind of obsessed with Shikigami.

I'm probably the foremost authority on Shikigami's plot, so I'll focus on that. If you're familiar with the series, you know the games have a... questionable translation history. Shiki 1 was released as Mobile Light Force 2 on the PS2 with no story, Shikigami 2 basically had a google translate story, and Shiki 3... well, we lucked out, its translation was fantastic.

So let's talk the rerelease. The translation is accurate, and for the most part, well written, but there are a few typos and bits of bad grammar. The last part of the prologue in particular is bafflingly Engrish-like.

If you've never played Shikigami 1 and want to know what's going on, Degica and/or their translators did an admirable job. Not perfect, but solid.


The gameplay is dated, of course, but each of the six characters are wildly different from each other. Their stories are also completely unique. Where bosses are raving madmen in one story, they'll be calm and composed in another. You'll see what I mean when you play as Tagami(the '???' woman in character select). So for both gameplay and plot, you're encouraged to try everyone to get the most out of Shikigami.

Kohtaro is the series' de factor protagonist. He's the easiest to use, and has a homing Shikigami for his special attack, while Fumiko requires the player to actually aim her special attack, but it's far more powerful.

Kohtaro's personality is also brash and adventurous, while Fumiko is more solemn and dead set on murdering her adversaries.

The music is also a big factor. Shikigami 1 and 2 had the same composer, Yoichi Shimamura. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk38akRaBt8 (The ending theme, which I particular enjoy.) Shimamura uses simple but catchy melodies, and astute listeners will pick up on some leit motifs, too.


The art quality is a mixed bag. While the UI is crisp and HD shiny, the game itself is clearly the default resolution. In-game portraits are very blocky. Maybe this was unavoidable, but it's quite noticible.


Shikigami 1 is a solid shmup in every way, and deserves support so we can see the sequel on Steam, which is better in every way. (Except the PS2 translation, but let's not talk about that.)


One small disappointment for people who played the original PC version: this does not have the anime intro or the art gallery. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCer_fyV0AAyIRP.jpg

I have good memories of playing CS2 and 3 in the arcade, so naturally I was excited to have the chance to play the first in the series. Sadly, I don't know if it's a combination of aging poorly or technical issues with the port but I cannot recommend this version of the game. For starters I had some difficulty simply launching the game, with it getting caught in an endless crash loop if I wasn't launching from a fresh reboot. The controls for this shmup have always been more deliberate and slower moving, but here it goes beyond that. They just feel sticky, like there's a noticeable lag when changing directions. The soundtrack leaves much to be desired and I was frequently getting audio glitches where the audio would cut to an ear-splittingly high pitched shriek for several seconds during boss or midboss fights. After about an hour I'd had enough. I won't seek a refund since I really would like to see 2 and 3 get a port, but if you're not already invested in the series or aren't a diehard shmup player, or even a new shmup player looking for an entry into the genre avoid this title. There are far better shmups deserving of your time and money, some of them even from this publisher.

Edit:

Bullet patterns: Very swingy, either exceptionally boring or control-bitingly frustrating. Some patterns are more solvable with different characters, but some come out so quickly with no telegraphing you'd have to know in advanced they're coming to avoid. Hitboxes feel a bit wonky, it's not always clear just how close your character actually is to a particular projectile or enemy, which is unfortunate since grazing is a key mechanic to the game.

Scoring mechanics: Straightforward enough, probably the best thing about the game. Distance from an enemy or projectile determines a multiplier from 1-8x, which multiplies the value of items collected in that state or multiplies the amount of items dropped from destroyed enemies.

Extra modes: None as far as I can tell. Variety comes mainly from the different shot types and mechanics of the individual characters. Par for the course with this series but I tried each character several times and none of them really clicked.

As far as the technical issues. I've asked around and I'm pretty sure the ones I pointed out in my review aren't isolated to myself. The ear-destroying sound effects on bosses and boring soundtrack are infact part of the game.

Having played its sequels I'm glad that the series has improved from this point, but if this had been my introduction to the series or the genre even, I doubt I would have stuck with it.