Hitogata Happa

Not sold anymore on Steam but i'll write some here anyways as people might look this one up some other way or it might come back in some other form.

i'll give it a thumbs up with caveats: This game is right there at the hardest bullet hell shooters there are with complexity surpassing Ikaruga. You thought that was hard? No this one is hard to grasp. Many stop at the first boss as you absolutely need to understand the mechanic where your 'doll' primes it's 'bomb' once the flow meter is filled. The collision bomb attacks which sacrifice the doll (meaning you buy at the store a ton of dolls as spares, not that the amount means much) are essential to perform or else the time runs out and boss goes to error mode becoming a One-hit-ends-the-game thing.

Just perfect. I know there are people out there that love this challenge which is pretty obvious right away: Do you spend your currency on specific types of dolls? Melee , straight shooter or spread? Obviously the game has areas and bosses where certain dolls outperform others completely ex. melee doll is sometimes OP and sometimes you can't get close enough. Doing Bomb attacks are sometimes just pain as you have very small time gaps before you get shot in the face up close so yet another area where you need to learn the ropes.

This one will take a ton of time and research to master but the sweetness is palpable when you get further. A negative though is that the challenge is considerable in effort and time but this is the reason this game is so highly praised. Be aware of it. It wont yield it's fruits easily.

I've always argued that real fun can exist in a game that's very difficult. But the game has to provide you something more than, "Oh well, you died. Try again." in order for you to come back. The gameplay doesn't have to break the mold but it has to offer this "X factor" that makes even dying, fun and a natural part of the game.
In this game when you die, and you will die a lot, the transition of throwing you back into the game is 100% smooth. The graphics are above-average, the sound is pretty standard but the overall presentation is pretty ho-hum and difficulty is brutal. I'm not wasting anymore time trying to get better at this. I love shoot em ups but there are others that are worth more of my time.

Game is sick. Really good bullet hell. Lots of fun characters, with a lot of different, good abilities and stuff. My roomate got this as kinda a joke birtday gift by buying the first thing under the "anime" tag, I've ended up spending like 35+ hours in it so far.

A very fun and challenging bullet-hell shooter, thanks to its gimmick that sorts of reinvent the wheel for this subgenre.

The main gimmick is that you can choose between 8 initial types of dolls, each with heavily varying abilities, and none ever come out as useless. You can buy multiple of each using the gems you find from fallen enemies and bullets, they act as your lives, and you can also use these dolls, when their FLOW is maxed after a set amount of time, to bump into the enemies (easier said than done in most cases) and unleash a powerful explosion, the key to success in this game. These are really fun and rewarding mechanics.

Given it's a bullet-hell, expect it to be pretty tough, but there are difficulty settings and the game has unlimited continues, so even you and me can get to the end with enough practice. It's also rewarding getting on top of its difficulty and mastering the bomb mechanic. The game is also fairly short, which is the norm for the genre, but there are various goodies to unlock, such as new modes like the one that restricts you to one type of doll, and there are leaderboards and the kick of trying to surpass your own highscore, it's all pretty fun.

Hitogata Happa was a nice surprise for me, I did knew it was good, but I didn't expected it to break the mold so much, definitely recommended.

Good:
- Huge ammount of variety in game play with the different characters, it's not just pallete swap and bomb change (with one exception).
- Every difficulty level is punishing in its own way, but easy/medium is still *fair*.
- Glorious and I mean GLORIOUS final boss theme. The rest of the music holds up pretty well too and it was rather splendid of them to bundle the soundtrack with the game.
- Sound design in general is quite satisfying, so much so the bomb effects started to provide the same level of satisfaction as the final 'shnnnk' of killing a hard enemy in Dark Souls.
- Neat if low key enemy designs.
- Strategic planning is needed to take on the long game, as you can't just spam and dodge, you need to have the right tools for every major enemy, which won't necessarily work for the horde.

Bad:
- It's a bullet hell shooter that isn't pretending to be anything else.
- Some of the character voices can get annoying very quickly.
- Yes, you're using dolls. If that bothers you i'd suggest you look elsewhere.

I'd actually say go for this over the Gundeadligne/Gundemonium if you have to choose, as this one has a faster pace and more thoughtful mechanics behind it. It's also a bit more sensible with the pacing of its changes in enemy types and boss staging.

I really like this game and if top down shooters are your thing you probably will as well.

You like Bullet Hell Shooters? Look no farther, Hitogata Happa has been wooping my ass since the day I got it. I play a decent amount of old school shooters, but I was labeled as noob again when I started this game. I recommend this game to the hardcore players that want more than the challege. It's a quick game you can pick-up and put-down, so we can all get back to our busy lives. Hitogata Happa can be played on most computers and dosent use much data so gameplay feels consistant. It's a great game, dont be discouraged by the amount of times you die. Sometime you want to die on purpose.

Do I recommend this game?
ANSWER: HELL YES!

>Playing game
>Practiced hard, can dodge most bullet patterns
>First level boss
>I got this
>Beat the boss
>deathanimation.gif
>Bullets in literally every direction at mach 9001
>5 lives left, no problem
>Got hit
>Game Over

10/10

UPDATE: I have since learned that to beat the boss you have to literally crash into him once you reach maximum flow. This game also does not include a manual to tell us this stuff.

This is a high-octane, adrenaline-laden bullet hell shooter, with all the mandatory trappings of the genre, from the cutesy graphics to the energetic soundtrack. And let's not forget going against a vast and near-invincible foe.

The choice between various dolls makes for an interesting strategic metagame, which made Hitogata Happa a lot of fun. BTW, my suggestion is that you should use the original soundtrack, as the new arrangements may be more nuanced, but they have lost a lot of the high-octane, flowing explosiveness the original has.

- Very challenging
- Lots of interesting gameplay mechanics.
- A lot of replayability
- Amazing soundtrack, which is also included when you buy the game

The only issue is that one of the mechanics is not straight forward. So, after you've tried the first stage for the first time and failed (which is prolly gonna happen at the first boss), take a minute to read this guide.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169062821

This game is hard. This game is REALLY hard. It's got great music, solid graphics that are not-too-cute, and the controls are good.

It's really freaking hard, though. Know that going in, and take a look at a couple of guides before you give up.

One of the best bullet hell game that I ever play. You couldn't bomb the enemies like the other game instead you must do suicidal move when the power full.

The soundtrack was awesome as well ...
Has many variety dolls ... which has awesome powers ..... I love 2 dools in here .. they just reminded me of Raiden ships

Another one of my favorite shmups on Steam. This game has a ton of polish, a few different game modes, very nice pixel art with lots of explosions happening all the time and 13 characters! This game is a bit different than your typical shmup. Your "bombs" in this game will explode by sacrificing your character against an enemy. Weird concept, but it works great! You can also buy multiple lives and new characters after each stage to make up for sacrficing yourself. Its still very difficult and most people wont make it past the Beginner difficulty. One of the best shmups on Steam and highly recommended.

Well, I hadnt played this game in ages, and after buying the Gundemonium Collection, I figured I"d have a go at it since I couldnt really remember much of it.

....and then it very quickly hit me as to WHY I hadnt played this game in ages. Suddenly, I remembered it all. If you're wondering why my "time spent" on this game here on Steam is so low, and yet I'm writing a review, it's because I've already spent a big pile of time with this, and the other two games, on the PS3 versions, which came out quite some time ago.

The other two games in the trilogy are bloody brilliant. Excellent bullet-hell type games.

This one though is different. Everything that the other two get right, THIS one gets wrong. Uninteresting attack patterns, extremely repetetive (and short) level design, stupid control issues (really? There's no "slow movement" button here? In a bullet-hell shmup? when there WAS one in the other two?), cheap boss attacks (the first boss: If you DONT know that he's going to do the arm swipe as his first attack, and if you dont ALREADY know just where to be when he does it, you WILL die 1 second into the fight. Gets worse from there.) and one of the worst game mechanics I've ever heard of in this type of game.

See, here's the main gimmick: You've got all of these different dolls that you control instead of ships. You can switch them out when one dies, and you essentially get nine lives to go with. All of them have different abilities and blah blah blah. None of THAT matters, though, you see. While that all sounds cool, it's obliterated by that particular gameplay mechanic that I mentioned up above. You cant just shoot things in this or use special powers on them, nooooooooooo. What you have to do is kill yourself. No, really. Bosses in particular CANNOT be beaten without doing this.... numerous times on each. You fill up this "flow" meter by shooting stuff, and when it's powered up, ramming yourself into an enemy of any sort will cause the doll to violently explode, doing massive damage to anything caught in the blast.

Bosses take next to no damage from anything else, so you A: have to do this against them, and B: have to have enough remaining lives when you reach each one.

But the problem with this is simple: This is a danmaku shmup. Bullet-hell. Where the idea of RAMMING something exists. Think about that for a second. You've got chaotic, and most importantly, DENSE patterns coming out from these things, and you have to RAM THE SOURCE OF THEM. In other words, you must successfully plow directly through the areas with the highest bullet density (since it's where the shots are coming from) and successfully ram the boss without taking a hit. Yeah. Good luck with that one.

Typically, getting really close to enemies... and I dont mean right next to them, but just a short distance away... in a bullet-hell game is quite the challenge for most players. There are plenty of games of this type where the closer you are to an enemy when it pops, the more points you get. Which makes sense due to the challenge of getting close without taking a hit. But that's an OPTIONAL thing.... you dont HAVE to do it. And you can learn it in bits and pieces. As you go through the game in question, you'll learn the patterns and learn how everything works, and you spot different ways of getting close to some things to pop them, and so on.

Well, in THIS game, you *have* to do it, and getting close isnt good enough. Gotta actually collide with the thing. AFTER surviving long enough to charge up the Flow meter.

Yeah. Saying that this is frustrating is an understatement.


This developer has made a number of interesting and creative shmuppy games, and for the most part all of them are very good, which of course includes Gundemonium Recollection and GundeadliGne, the other two in this 3-pack. But THIS game is the exception. And I haaaaaaaate having to say that, as this is one of those developers that I have alot of respect for otherwise.

But even a great dev can make a mistake from time to time.

An interesting gimmick for a bullet hell. You have to charge up a bomb by surviving during boss fights then suicide dive the boss to do any damage. If you get hit by a bullet, you die and therefore don't blow up and do damage, enjoy sitting around charging your bomb again. Better hurry up though, the boss goes full lunatic mode if you take too long. Oh and also, you can't run into the parts that are vulnerable while the boss is moving, because that means it's attacking and therefore makes it so you don't explode on contact for some reason. It's an interesting gimmick, but that doesn't make it fun.

This is one of the best bullet hells here avaliable on Steam (of course it's not touhou but it does its work pretty well), and it's totally worth it (more if you can get it on sale). The third part of the Gundemonium Recollection, and a vertical scroll (instead of horizontal like its predecessors), with very charming characthers and of course a japanese touch. The other two games of the Gundemonium Collection are great too, so if you want to get it, don't doubt it.

If you want to enjoy this game, you NEED to read the manual. Playing this blind is odious and how you need to play it is not as obvious as most other shmups.
The thing about having to crash against the bosses to kill them is interesting, but just as you would think, is very annoying to pull off since if you get hit by a bullet it negates the explosion and that's what's most likely to happen as you near the boss you're trying to attack.
The thing about the game entering sudden death mode when the timer runs out on the bosses, sure, it enforces the suicide bomb playstyle expected from the game, but will be an immediate turn down for anyone who, like me, came expecting a traditional shmup and didn't look for the manual. So, hopefully, you'll read the fucking game up. It still makes boss fights really annoying if you take too long to beat them, which is more likely than not since you'll spend most of your time running into bullets while trying to suicide into the boss. Hopefully this problem is solved once you give yourself enough practice and time to learn the game, I did not give myself that many.
One thing I remember from this game is that there were a couple patterns on fucking easy that did not fucking belong on easy.
One thing that bothered me a lot is that once you die, you get a short time to select a new character to send out, which you can select with the arrow keys. DON'T. Just fucking DON'T. If I want to select a new character before spawning, at least let it be only with the actual character selection keys. It's REALLY annoying when I set some character to be the next one to go out, and then when the current one dies, a completely different one is sent out because I didn't let go of the arrow keys or I pressed it too early.

This game is quite different from other similar Doujin Vertical Danmakus (i.e Touhou) out there.
It's a little bit more leaning towards Resources management:
Your lives here are also your bombs, you're supposed to ram them into bosses for huge damage. They don't give you 30 lives on the 1st stage on Normal for nothing. Don't worry though you can purchase them back in bulk between stages.
So it's dodging the bullets, ram yourself into the big enemies and cancel bullets for heavy scoring, then use the score items to buy more lives. It's a quite different experience from normal STGs.

Probably my favorite out of the localized Gundemonium Collection. I'm not an expert and bullet hell/heaven by any means, but I sunk a lot of time trying to get the best ending on the lowest difficulty. There's a lot of quirks about this one that you won't see in a typical shooter game. You can get a large number of lives (to a certain point) by buying dolls in-between rounds. Each of these dolls are basically your ship that you can use to fight enemies with and each has a different function as well as their own unique super ability. Each of them also has the ability to become a bomb by themselves, you won't be able to use a bomb unless you ram your doll into things, thus sacrificing it for large amounts of damage which is essential to beating bosses later on. Speaking of bosses, you're against the clock. Once you run out of time, you can certainly still beat a boss, but...

In any case, there's a lot of depth and play in this game. I've got this on both this and the PS3 and I much prefer this one for the arranged music that they added in over the PC/PS3 release. If you're a fan of STGs, this one is probably up your alley.

A very inovative danmaku game, that can be very challenging even to reasonably good danmaku players(like me), and is pretty much the most fun shooter I've played in a while. It has many shot types in the form of the dolls you can make, so you gotta try to find the ones that suit the situation better or just the ones you like the most. There is quite a variety of ways to deal with the paterns, but it still requires you to have good dodging abilities if you want to make it to the end, because even though you can have a big amount of dolls, they'll run out pretty fast if you start messing up. On top of that, it also has a great soundtrack, which adds pretty well to the game's atmosphere. One flaw though is that the game doesn't do a good job at explaining some of it's unique and very important mechanics, so I do recommend looking up a guide for that, or you won't get that far. But still, if you're a fan of shooters, this one is definitly not to be overlooked!

art: 10
controls: 10
music: 10
replay: very high

pros: its a bullet hell game and within the series of Gundemonium(takes before the events of the first game), which are side scrollers, this one is vertical. the music is the best of the three games of the series. the art is awesome. even the bosses look badass. you unlock new dolls(characters) adter you beat the game a few time.

cons: like they said, this one is one the hardest of the series.
the game doesn't tell you how to use bombs, which makes the first boss very hard to kill. in order to use bomb, you need the flow bar full and just crash/ram into the "targets" during the boss fight. remember, bombs use one doll.

inshort, if you love the Gundemonium series or hell bullet games, pick this up.

After a while, you're finally there: in the Zone. In a trance-like state of mind you maneuver around endless barrage of enemy ships and their missiles while banging your fire-button like a madman because autofire simply isn't fast enough... and then you get hit. You got hit and it's frustrating, because you know it was all your fault. You almost got it. You've almost memorized all the patterns. Almost. It's hard, cruel and unforgiving, but not impossible. You know it, because you almost got it. You're so close to making it all the way through, but you're still quite not there yet. It almost makes you give up and admit your defeat. Almost. But you try one more time. Just one...

After a while, you're finally there: in the Zone. In a trance-like state of mind...