The subject of this installment: Dead Ink, developed and published by Offwidth Games.

In a market oversaturated with soulslikes, it says something that Dead Ink stands out. While much of the basic vocabulary belongs to From Software, one-person studio Offwidth has embellished it with one of the more enticing settings in recent memory. It’s at once calming and terrifying, it wastes no space, and an acrophobic top-down camera system (imitating a wide-angle lens) finds new ways to both share and deviously obscure valuable information. First impressions are quite strong.

Dead Ink‘s story is light on concrete details (to its benefit, as it gets by on atmosphere alone) but the basic gist is that we’re a transhuman construct navigating some kind of tower. Anyone who gets an endorphin rush from opening a shortcut back to an old bonfire in the Souls games will appreciate the intricacy of this place, with a seemingly endless number of alternate routes, hidden paths and secret backdoors. In a climate where major studios only ever seem to be concerned with making games as big as possible, it’s refreshing to see something like Dead Ink get this much real estate out of a relatively small space.

I want to spend more time talking about the setting, and if Dead Ink was worth recommending, I would. Unfortunately, the many things that Dead Ink gets right are rendered moot by the one thing it gets terribly wrong – the combat.

The main problem is that there’s very little way to mitigate damage. The AI doesn’t seem to know how to do anything other than make a beeline for the player, and since nearly all of the enemies in Dead Ink can run at least as fast as the protagonist, maneuvering around them is largely impossible and the only option is usually to face them head-on. There’s a regenerating stamina meter but it only applies to defense, so enemies have no incentive to do anything but close in and wail away until someone dies. Nobody reacts to getting hit in Dead Ink, either, so the simple act of landing an attack and avoiding damage from the inevitable counter-blow often feels like it comes down to luck.

There are ways to make the rank-and-file enemies manageable, at least, by upgrading equipment or spawning with extra items — more on that in a moment. It’s the bosses that killed any desire I had to see Dead Ink through to the end, because there doesn’t seem to be any way to defeat them other than to just endlessly kite them around, chipping away at their massive health meters while praying I never took any damage in return.

See, Dead Ink has one of those healing systems that forces players to come to a complete standstill for a moment. This makes sense when combat allows for natural downtime, but since these enemies and bosses don’t provide any breathing room, I’d wager that roughly 90% of the times I’ve tried to heal during combat, I would just immediately get hit again. It’s a classic example of a developer pulling one of FromSoft’s ideas without really examining why it was implemented in the first place.

Compounding the frustration is the way experience and leveling works. Souls in this game are “ink” and checkpoints/bonfires are “printers.” When the player saves at a printer, they deposit all of their current ink into that specific terminal. Respawning from that point costs a certain amount of ink depending on what the player wants to equip. A weapon and shield cost extra, and players can bring as many healing items, grenades, and so forth as they can afford. Dying repeatedly at the same spot without banking more ink means the printer will eventually run out, at which point the player will have to spawn from a terminal that’s farther away, trek all the way back, and fill it up again.

So, if I’m stuck on a boss, not only is it a hassle because the combat itself is lackluster, and not only do I have a lengthy run-up before every attempt, but I can only die against the boss a certain number of times before I need to do some mandatory ink-farming. The game does give players the ability to recover their lost ink from their “bloodstain,” but the boss chambers lock players in, and so any ink lost during a boss fight is effectively lost forever until the guy is killed once and for all.

And just to raise the stakes even higher, there is permadeath in Dead Ink. If the player runs out of ink across all discovered printers, they can no longer respawn, and the save file is lost.

There’s a reason the system works like that, admittedly, because one of the things I love about Dead Ink is how compact it is. The player is never geographically very far from anything, which is why the checkpoint system is, at least on paper, more reasonable than it sounds. It’s meant to test our mental map of the environment, and in a game where the combat was better or at least more forgiving, I would honestly be praising this. Hell, I’m not even entirely sure why this game even has combat to begin with other than to check a box.

Again, the attempt here is admirable. Plenty of larger, more prominent developers have tried to crack FromSoft’s code and failed to come as close as this does. With some major tweaks to the combat, this could have been one of the precious few soulslikes to earn favorable comparisons to Dark Souls. It’s heartbreaking that I can’t recommend Dead Ink, but I’m excited for Offwidth’s next project regardless.

HIGH Taking down a massive boss in seconds with a tiny, overpowered ship

LOW No continues.

WTF Seriously, no continues.

The past few months have seen me take a break from the game review world to focus on life events that have been keeping me plenty busy, not to mention stressed out. While I wasn’t writing about videogames, they were still one of my main modes of relaxation, if even for brief moments.

Recently, two types of games became my go-to for relieving the weekly stresses of life – fighting games and shmups. So, it was a little serendipitous when Brad, my editor, emailed asking if I would like to review Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo, an indie shmup released on PC back in 2016, now receiving a release on the Nintendo Switch. Glad I said yes, as Mecha Ritz is a solid shmup, with just one minor issue.

Set in the future, Mecha Ritz is the story of a brilliant young scientist who invents “mecha” then destroys humanity to create a more perfect, mechanized world. Players pilot one of 14 Mechas (fighter ships) that have been infused with the last drops of human will. Additional story is told between each stage, but I usually don’t play shmups for the story, I’m more concerned with the gameplay – the star of the show.

Players guide flying Mechas across 15 different stages, blasting hostile robotic enemies and destroying over 40 gigantic boss ships, all while dodging an onslaught of enemy bullets. Each Mecha is unique but has three main attacks – normal shots that tend to span the screen but are weaker, charged shots that vary from each ship but tend to be very powerful, and bombs. Players will need to get comfortable using all three, as different scenarios require different strategies.

Mecha Ritz straddles the line between simple shmup and bullet-hell – things start off relatively easy, but as players progress enemy attacks become more numerous and difficult to dodge. While I found this to be an excellent balance, players looking for more challenge can ramp up the difficulty right from the beginning – easy begins at level zero and can go all the way to the most challenging level, 360!

Mecha Ritz also excels with how it tackles the shmup life system. One hit can still destroy a player’s ship but scattered throughout each stage are shield power-ups. A shield acts as a hit bonus and each Mecha can carry up to five shields at once. This allows for extended play times, as I found myself losing and regaining shields quite frequently.

As much as I enjoy the shield system, I am perplexed by the lack of continues. Mecha Ritz explains the lack of continues is so players enjoy “making gradual progress” until finally beating the game. With later stages (and especially some of the later bosses) becoming extremely challenging, I can only see the lack of continues preventing most players from sticking with the game – and I was able to beat it twice! The year is 2022, continues should be part of all games.

Continues aside, Mecha Ritz excels in other areas. Controls are smooth and precise. Graphics are stellar and would feel right at home on the original PlayStation. And I don’t talk about soundtracks often, but the one in Mecha Ritz is top-notch – energetic, electronic beats feel right at home in a world-ending robot clash.

Hopefully I am wrong about the lack of continues scaring players away, because Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is a solid shmup in all other aspects. It fit right in with my small rotation of shmup games and has become a great way to relax after a stressful day of work and life commitments.

Disclosures: This game is developed by HEY and published by Hanaji Games. It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 5 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was beaten twice. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E. No official description is available, but this game is safe for most younger gamers. This is typical shmup gameplay – player’s ships explode in a burst when defeated and there is no bloodshed. The story references the extinction of humanity but is not graphic in description.

Colorblind Mode: There are no colorblind modes available, however there are options in the menu to change the bullet color and explosion color.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles – the story is told completely through text. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Another important note for the text, a few story screens have text rotate through multiple colors instead of keeping the font a consistent, single hue. 

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but movement is on the left stick or left directional pad. Tapping the A-button fires a normal shot. Holding the A-button fires each ship’s unique special shot. Pressing the B-button fires a bomb, while holding down the B-button detonates a bullet-clearing bomb. In Training Mode, the Y-button changes the ship mid-training, rather than having to exit and reselect a new craft.

HIGH Flashes of brilliant design. Solid arcade-style training modes.

LOW Weapons are frustratingly underpowered. Progression is too grindy.

WTF Why can’t I preview the items I’m buying for my ship?

Sometimes, a game developer just can’t outrun their own history, no matter how hard they try. In the case of the Qute Corporation and its long-time design partnership with M-KAI and Mach, it’s the echoes of their earliest works that linger in the memories of space shooter fans.

With 2004’s Judgement Silversword, they shredded through the notes of single-screen classics like Galaga at a speed metal pace. With 2011’s Eschatos, they broke out into a wild ride of scrolling shooter setpieces, expertly weaving through one barrage of bullets after another with sweeping, cinematic 3D camera transitions. Even if Qute had walked away from the industry at that point, they still would have left an indelible mark on the genre with those masterworks.

Enter Ginga Force, an older Xbox 360 scrolling shooter that had previously been limited to Japanese release until Rising Star Games stepped up last year to secure North American distribution.

Unlike those earlier titles, Ginga Force pushes story to the forefront with a constant stream of narration from its titular police force to accompany the on-screen action. It’s an interesting choice that’s incredibly difficult to pull off in practice – with scrolling shooters, the endless torrent of enemies and bullets rarely affords players the opportunity to look away from their ship. As a result, even skillful players will likely require a couple of passes over the English subtitles to read what’s being said by the Japanese voice acting.

The writing itself is decent enough thanks to clever stage designs that provide characters with opportunities to incorporate hints and strategies for important setpieces. These moments might feel somewhat gimmicky in another context, but Qute goes the extra mile to make them resonate with the ongoing chatter — a nice change of pace from the genre’s usual one-note directive to shoot everything and ask questions later, if at all.

Unfortunately, it’s when Ginga Force steps away from those carefully constructed unions of exposition and action that it begins to lose its way.

The first problem is a simple one — the plot that’s delivered by all this writing is disappointingly basic, featuring standard anime archetypes dutifully carrying out predictable twists and betrayals. Given that most scrolling shooters don’t even have a plot, it’s somewhat tempting to look past this as an issue, but Ginga Force can’t help but continually call attention to it with all the narration.

The second problem is more structural and, frankly, surprising — this game is a grind.

As a callback to the more open-ended U.N. Squadron from Capcom, players choose from a series of stages and use the cash earned from completing them to buy improvements to their ship. There’s a wide variety of equipment that could conceivably support a variety of playstyles but everything feels frustratingly underpowered.

Additionally, the prices of upgraded items are often very high and/or locked behind the completion of certain stages, which means that players will likely find themselves stuck with a sub-optimal ship loadout unless they repeat missions over and over to build up their budget.

Frustratingly, Ginga Force is more ambitious than it is good, dragging down its occasional moments of signature Qute brilliance with a glacially-paced story mode in service of a forgettable plot. With much more generous tuning of the progression rewards, this could potentially be an effective gateway title to welcome newer players to the genre. As it is, it’s weirdly perched between the old and new, with too much grind and too much noise to really land for anyone.

Here’s hoping that the recent release of Natsumi Chronicles, a Ginga Force prequel/sequel, carries this intrepid developer to at least one more legendary flight among the stars.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Qute and published by Rising Star Games. It is currently available on PS4 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed once (all easy difficulty episodes completed in story mode). There are no dedicated multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E due to Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. There is no official description available on the ESRB website, but there are numerous explosions and weapons fire in a militarized science fiction setting. This should be quite safe for any shmup fan of any age.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no required sound cues for gameplay. All voice acting is in Japanese, with subtitles appearing at the top of the screen for all dialogue in game. There are no options to resize or recolor text. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Controls are not remappable and are limited to three preset configurations.