30 years later and this game is still relevant, and modern horizontal SHMUPs rarely live up to it.
Bought this game on sale and was pleasantly surprised. Extremely addicting gameplay for roguelike lovers.
I really want to like Immortal Planet because the story and setting are interesting and the graphics themselves are perfectly adequate and clear. The animation budget, however, seems to have been noticeably tight (three-frame attack animations, anybody?). However, what completely ruins the game for me is how the actual combat is implemented: * Combat feels clunky and unresponsive - Every single action (dodge, attack, items, spells...) you can take has a built-in delay that you have to account for. This doesn't feel intuitive at all and really takes me out of the whole experience. * Stamina drain is massive, leading to drawn-out combat: 1 swing and a dodge and you're out of breath - Seriously? * A very limited health refill, forcing you to scavenge the levels for more refills every single time - A huge timesink in itself. Honestly who thought this was a good design choice? * Stunlocks are a reality - Once you start flashing, respawning at the save point is probably imminent. Oh, dodging into enemies by accident will also stunlock you. * Weapon damage scales poorly - You're really expected to grind and grind HARD. Enemy damage and health shoots up fast, while the benefits of leveling have been toned way down - Thus arbitrarily lengthening the game. * Beyond your weapon and some active items/spells - There is no other equipment in the game, thus further making it difficult to adjust to the progressive ramp up in ... well, difficulty. I could go on further but I think that's enough for now. The easiest way to bomb a Soulslike is to fudge up the progression system. Leveling up doesn't feel rewarding and the combat is a mess. If you want a truly AAA+ Soulslike experience from an indie dev - Go get Blasphemous instead.
