SmiteOfHand
Member
Developer . . . . . . . . . CAVE Interactive CO.
Publisher . . . . . . . . . Degica
Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . Shmup / STG
Platform . . . . . . . . . . PC (Steam)
Release Date . . . . . . . Nov. 5th, 2015
Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20
Mushihimesama (literal translation "Bug Princess") is a vertical bullet hell shooter by Japanese developer CAVE. Only a small number of their games have been released outside of Japan. Most recently a handful of titles for the Xbox 360 and iOS. Access to their entire catalog can be costly involving importing region locked copies of games and consoles, or even the original arcade hardware itself. This is the first title they are porting to PC and the first time it is being released worldwide in its original form.
Mushi, for short, is the first of a series of games. It is a bit of a departure for CAVE as their games tend to slant to a military theme, where as Mushi has more of a fantastical setting with giant insects. Head down to the story section if you want to know more about its setting. It tends to stand in the shadow of its more famous sequel Mushihimesama Futari for a few reasons. The main being Futari is more easily obtained due to having a region free release. CAVE designed this game specifically as a return to form, to pull back on the whole fill the screen entirely with bullets thing. It is a great entry to the genre.
Words won't do it justice so I'm just going to shut up and let the game do the talking...
Shmups, and bullet hell more specifically, like any genre has a lot of conventions. Here is some info if you are new, or your last shmup was Ikaruga. I'll keep this brief as an exhaustive breakdown would be overkill.
Shmup - Portmanteau of shoot 'em up. Turns out shooting things in video games is a common thing so calling them simply shooters does not cut it. And like any genre the name is somewhat contentious. I personally fall in the camp that thinks shmup looks fine on paper, but admit it does not roll off the tongue particularly well. The name STG has gained favor as an alternative, coming from "Shooting Games".
Bullet Hell - A sub-genre of shmups with a focus on bullet curtains, featuring large waves and patterns of bullets. At first glance people assume they require super human ability that they will never be able to accomplish. One vital "secret" is to be aware that the hitboxes are small. Very small. Sometimes only a pixel. This allows much more room to get around then may seem possible.
1CC - 1 Credit Clear, the crowning achievement. It is important to understand these games were very much designed for arcades where each play costs a credit. A well designed arcade game can be completed with no continues using a single credit. 1CCing a game is often considered 'beating it.' There are many goals in the genre. 1CC is normally the primary.
High Score - While many genres have abandoned scoring as a major feature they never went out of style with shmups. They will often contain involved score systems and mechanics, such as chaining, that can create an insanely high skill ceiling.
Chaining - A common score mechanic is chaining. Chaining can be implemented in different ways so I'll explain the simplest. When you kill an enemy there will be a small window of time where if you kill another enemy the chain will be extended. If you wait too long, or destroy everything too quickly leaving you nothing to chain with, that is called dropping the chain.
Micro/Macro Dodging - When there is a collection of bullets it can be advantageous to dodge them in one of two ways. Micro dodging means you charge directly into the bullet cluster and cut a razer thin path through its hitboxes. Macro dodging means you go around the cluster entirely. Macro dodging is often the safer, but not always best choice. Ship speed and positioning are big factors here.
I will be citing as much from the official translation as possible. Here is what we have so far from the announcement page.
Characters
Premise
Shots - Mushi has a single ship, but three shot types. Your shot type can be changed mid-game by allowing power-ups to cycle.
Options - Small helpers that follow your ship. 4 max, with more available in some modes. Your option type can be changed mid-game by allowing an option drop to cycle.
Each option you pick up will follow your ship's path. This allows you to position the options in risky spots while you sit in relative safety.
Each option lines up on each side of your ship. This allows a very wide shot covering a large percent of the screen.
Modes - Mushi features three modes (with a fourth available as DLC). Each mode offers something different on the base game.
NORMAL
Difficulty: Original
The original version of the game released in Japanese arcades back in 2004. With the exception of the visuals as it uses the new HD GRAPHICS. Scoring in Normal is fairly simple and traditional. If you have not played a shmup in a long time this mode will be very approachable.
Difficulty: Maniac, Ultra
These difficulties introduce a Hit Counter. As you attack or kill enemies the counter goes up. If you stop firing, miss, or bomb the counter will go down. Enemies also have a counter next to them that decreases over time. So you want to destroy as many enemies, as quickly as possible, with as little downtime as possible. These difficulties also tremendously increase the bullet counts. If you are used to games increasing the difficulty by just giving enemies more HP you are in for a rude wake up call.
ARRANGE
Difficulty: n/a
This mode is based on the Maniac difficulty from Normal mode, and as such does not offer difficulty options. The hit counter from maniac returns. Reco's option count has been increased from 4 to 6. Reco can switch shot types at any time with a button press. It also features auto-bombing, where Reco will drop a bomb automatically if hit by a bullet.
NOVICE
Difficulty: Original, Maniac, Ultra
This mode dramatically reduces the difficulty. Enjoyable for those terrified of the more challenging elements of the game.
Difficulty: Original
The original version of the game released in Japanese arcades back in 2004. With the exception of the visuals as it uses the new HD GRAPHICS. Scoring in Normal is fairly simple and traditional. If you have not played a shmup in a long time this mode will be very approachable.
Difficulty: Maniac, Ultra
These difficulties introduce a Hit Counter. As you attack or kill enemies the counter goes up. If you stop firing, miss, or bomb the counter will go down. Enemies also have a counter next to them that decreases over time. So you want to destroy as many enemies, as quickly as possible, with as little downtime as possible. These difficulties also tremendously increase the bullet counts. If you are used to games increasing the difficulty by just giving enemies more HP you are in for a rude wake up call.
ARRANGE
Difficulty: n/a
This mode is based on the Maniac difficulty from Normal mode, and as such does not offer difficulty options. The hit counter from maniac returns. Reco's option count has been increased from 4 to 6. Reco can switch shot types at any time with a button press. It also features auto-bombing, where Reco will drop a bomb automatically if hit by a bullet.
NOVICE
Difficulty: Original, Maniac, Ultra
This mode dramatically reduces the difficulty. Enjoyable for those terrified of the more challenging elements of the game.
VER. 1.5 - $5
Difficulty: Original, Maniac, Ultra
Mushi 1.5 introduces some interesting changes to the game. It comes with a remixed soundtrack, new enemy placements and bullet patterns. During the shot selection there are an additional three MAX shot options available. Selecting one of the Max shots means Reco will be fully powered up from the start of the game. Using Max shots adjusts how the Hit Counter system works and makes it so very skilled players can achieve very high scores with its rank system. Leaderboard fights will almost certainly be focused on this mode.
OST - $5
Degica has stated the soundtrack will be available for purchase at release and possibly more, such as remix soundtracks, coming soon.
Difficulty: Original, Maniac, Ultra
Mushi 1.5 introduces some interesting changes to the game. It comes with a remixed soundtrack, new enemy placements and bullet patterns. During the shot selection there are an additional three MAX shot options available. Selecting one of the Max shots means Reco will be fully powered up from the start of the game. Using Max shots adjusts how the Hit Counter system works and makes it so very skilled players can achieve very high scores with its rank system. Leaderboard fights will almost certainly be focused on this mode.
OST - $5
Degica has stated the soundtrack will be available for purchase at release and possibly more, such as remix soundtracks, coming soon.
THE HARDEST VIDEO GAME BOSS EVER!
That isn't a question, but yes, that video is quite popular and infamous.
It is actually from the sequel, Mushihimesama Futari. It is also a little misleading as it is towards the end of the most difficult setting. A difficulty that even CAVE considers a bit of a joke.
Is this an accurate port?
We don't know yet. The publisher has reached out to people who own the arcade PCBs for testing, but it is unclear at this time how accurate things like slowdown are.
Why does the game not fill the entire screen?
Short answer: Aspect ratio. Think of the black bars some films have.
Long answer: Mushi was designed for arcade. It is common to orient the screen on its side, what is known as tate mode. This gives a tall and narrow aspect ratio. When porting the game to other platforms/displays, particularly today's widescreen monitors, you can only scale the play area so much before stretching will be required.
Does it support tate?
You betcha.
What about tapping/rank/bullet cancelling/etc..?
There are a lot of nuances about the mechanics that I was not able to cover in detail. Feel free to ask about any of the game's finer details.
I thought CAVE was dead?
It has looked pretty bleak, for sure. Ikaruga had a relatively successful release on Steam and this convinced CAVE that their may be a PC audience for their games. For one of the oldest genres, shoot 'em ups truly are niche. Sales as low as 1k-5k are not uncommon and 100k is considered a massive success.
Isn't this really frustrating/too hard?
If you are finding the 1CC goal impossible or even worse find yourself getting frustrated try setting a more realistic goal for yourself. Give a 10CC a shot, beating the game using no more than 10 continues. Once you have accomplished that move down to 5CC, 3CC, and so on. There are also very good training options. Make sure you use them! Don't beat your head against the same problem until defeat and frustration overcomes you. You can do it.
Does this have any relation to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind?
Yes, it has been cited as an inspiration for the game. There is no direct relation beyond that.
-- POST RELEASE LIFE --
Day one is over, how does it look?
Game has some issues, Degica is aware and working with Cave on the worst of them. If you are fortunate enough to have no crashes then the game is very playable. Scoring is a bit up in the air due to framerate so maybe keep those world record runs on reserve for the moment!
The game works with GeDoSaTo! Here is a guide to get some better resolution options and a solid framerate.
Durante to the rescue again. Crashing fix has been added to GeDoSaTo. Blog post here.
Crash fix patch has been released!
