Vanillaware artist’s new bullet hell shooter hailed as a masterpiece
Although it just released today, the remake of the 1996 bullet hell shoot-em up Devil Blade is already garnering high praise from players. Devil Blade Reboot was made by the game’s original creator, the artist Shigatake, who is best known for his varied work on Vanillaware games like Dragon’s Crown and Unicorn Overlord. Available now on PC (Steam), this the first time that classic shmup has been released outside Japan with full English support- and it’s getting rave reviews on Steam.
In Devil Blade Reboot’s futuristic setting, you must shoot down waves of enemy Zorks. The vertical scrolling shooter’s key gameplay feature is the Berserk system. Shooting enemies at close range will give you a higher score, but it also bumps up the difficulty. Balancing risk and reward makes for some tense high-stakes gameplay, in which you must narrowly avoid death while racking up your score.
That might sound intimidating, but Devil Blade Reboot has also been praised for how even shmup newcomers can easily pick it up. The game lets you switch between four difficulty settings at will- making it suitable for casual players as well as battle-hardened veterans who want a challenge. On top of unlockables and secret illustrations, the game also includes the 1996 original, which was made by Shigatake using the PlayStation 1 shoot-em up creation tool Dazaemon+. One reviewer described this as “essentially a new game of its own!”
Although it just dropped, Devil Blade Reboot currently has an impressive 100% positive reviews from users on Steam (out of 58 reviews). Users have been full of praise for not only the gameplay but also the impressive 2D graphics, the new metal soundtrack by hasu, and the general amount of polish that the game has been given.
Users of Japanese X (formerly Twitter) were also enthusiastic about the long-awaited game.
-An unlikely game made by someone with incredible talent and 0 regard for cost performance.
-extremely thorough attention to detail from top to bottom
-It’s a lot of fun just to destroy enemies and run through the stages until you clear them.
– Is this really all in 2D?!
(The BGM in the video is my favorite so far)
The rumored Devil Blade Reboot had been on the radar of hardcore shoot-em up fans for a while. It seems that Shigatake gradually worked on the game inbetween other projects. As the positive reception shows, it was totally worth the wait.
As an aside, Shigatake previously admitted that he was responsible for the jiggly food and equally jiggly characters in Unicorn Overlord.
Devil Blade Reboot is out now on PC (Steam). It’s available at an introductory discount of 15% until June 7, 2024.
Verity Townsend
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I never knew about Devil Blade Reboot and had no clue it featured Vanillaware Illustrator. I am going to actually try it out and give it a shot. The visuals are impressive and the gimmick seems like it stands out enough to look into.