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NaBloPoMo Day 8: Bullet Hell
Nov. 8th, 2012 09:42 pmI spent most of my off day trying to figure out how to play an obscure doujin shooter, Diadra Empty.
From what I can glean from the...creative English used in-game, you play as a little girl searching for her sister with her dragon friend. (pet?) The atmosphere reminds me of a mix of Legend of Mana (the art, some of the music tracks, and the sense of melancholy the story invokes) and Panzer Dragoon. (the sense of freedom and exploration) I love both of those games to bits, so I was captivated by Diadra Empty from the first level.
The gameplay is an interesting departure from the standard shoot-em-up formula. Instead of scrolling through a level you're dumped in a big, open map and can fly freely throughout the stage; you have the option of locking and unlocking the position you're in to maneuver around the map. A radar at the bottom of the map lets you see where enemies are spawning in, and the bullet patterns they're shooting.
The controls are simple enough: there are two buttons for your shots, a turbo/speed boost button that lets you dash around the screen for a short period of time, and a Storm Saver (S.S) button that sort of functions like a bomb--you're invincible for a short period of time and you spew bullets everywhere.
When it comes to the actual shooting part of the game, Diadra Empty takes a unique approach--instead of having a standard shot and the usual slower, more powerful 'turbo/focus' shot, you are given a variety of shot types with fun names like CloudCracker and Windforce, and you pick two that you want to use. There's also a shield feature in the game--you start out with a shield that protects you from bullets, but each time its hit it disappears and has to recharge. The more hits you absorb, the longer each recharge takes.
The shield, combined with the freedom of movement, makes Diadra Empty a fast-paced game. Instead of carefully weaving through complex bullet patterns, you alternate between dashing through waves of bullets to wipe out clusters of enemies in a single pass, and rushing around to clear areas of the map to give your shield a chance to recharge. It's a unique take on the basic bullet hell mechanics, and I can't think of any other game quite like it. It has aspects of Gradius, Deathsmiles, and Touhou, but the way the mechanics are utilized and work together makes Diadra feel very different from those games.
Aaaaaand I almost forgot this, but there's also a level-up system in place. You get both experience points and gold; I'm not entirely sure of how it works, but it seems like experience points make your shots and shield more powerful, while gold can purchase upgrades like increasing your speed or resting the recharge time of your shield. So instead of getting multiple characters with different but static abilities, you can tailor the main character to reflect your preferences.
Anyway, here are some videos to help give a better sense of what Diadra's like:
The first level
One of the Extra stages, showing what the game is like when things get really hectic
Some tracks I really liked: Title theme; Stage 1; Stage 8; Ending Theme; Extra Stage 5
And if you're interested in playing it yourself, Diadra Empty is downloadable at DoujinStyle as an .iso file.
From what I can glean from the...creative English used in-game, you play as a little girl searching for her sister with her dragon friend. (pet?) The atmosphere reminds me of a mix of Legend of Mana (the art, some of the music tracks, and the sense of melancholy the story invokes) and Panzer Dragoon. (the sense of freedom and exploration) I love both of those games to bits, so I was captivated by Diadra Empty from the first level.
The gameplay is an interesting departure from the standard shoot-em-up formula. Instead of scrolling through a level you're dumped in a big, open map and can fly freely throughout the stage; you have the option of locking and unlocking the position you're in to maneuver around the map. A radar at the bottom of the map lets you see where enemies are spawning in, and the bullet patterns they're shooting.
The controls are simple enough: there are two buttons for your shots, a turbo/speed boost button that lets you dash around the screen for a short period of time, and a Storm Saver (S.S) button that sort of functions like a bomb--you're invincible for a short period of time and you spew bullets everywhere.
When it comes to the actual shooting part of the game, Diadra Empty takes a unique approach--instead of having a standard shot and the usual slower, more powerful 'turbo/focus' shot, you are given a variety of shot types with fun names like CloudCracker and Windforce, and you pick two that you want to use. There's also a shield feature in the game--you start out with a shield that protects you from bullets, but each time its hit it disappears and has to recharge. The more hits you absorb, the longer each recharge takes.
The shield, combined with the freedom of movement, makes Diadra Empty a fast-paced game. Instead of carefully weaving through complex bullet patterns, you alternate between dashing through waves of bullets to wipe out clusters of enemies in a single pass, and rushing around to clear areas of the map to give your shield a chance to recharge. It's a unique take on the basic bullet hell mechanics, and I can't think of any other game quite like it. It has aspects of Gradius, Deathsmiles, and Touhou, but the way the mechanics are utilized and work together makes Diadra feel very different from those games.
Aaaaaand I almost forgot this, but there's also a level-up system in place. You get both experience points and gold; I'm not entirely sure of how it works, but it seems like experience points make your shots and shield more powerful, while gold can purchase upgrades like increasing your speed or resting the recharge time of your shield. So instead of getting multiple characters with different but static abilities, you can tailor the main character to reflect your preferences.
Anyway, here are some videos to help give a better sense of what Diadra's like:
The first level
One of the Extra stages, showing what the game is like when things get really hectic
Some tracks I really liked: Title theme; Stage 1; Stage 8; Ending Theme; Extra Stage 5
And if you're interested in playing it yourself, Diadra Empty is downloadable at DoujinStyle as an .iso file.
