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[John Bilbo]

Sophstar NeoGAF OT​

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RELEASE DATE:
18 Feb, 2022

DEVELOPED & PUBLISHED ON STEAM:
Banana Bytes

CONSOLE PORT & PUBLISHING:
Red Art Games

PLATFORMS:
Steam | Switch
Playstation 5 | XBOX ONE

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About

Sophstar is a modern homage to the arcade shoot'em ups from the 90s. Choose one out from 9 different ships each with 2 different weapons and an unique teleport mechanic.

Sub-Lieutenant Soph has lived in Galanian for her whole life. She has no memory of when her existence started, and no idea of how she developed her teleporting powers. But after being sent for a recon mission, all of what she knows about herself is about to change.

Features

• 6 Different game modes:
  • Arcade/Story - 8 Stages, 6 difficulty levels
  • Cadet School - 60 Bite sized challenges
  • Score Attack - 2 minute long Caravan mode with unlimited lives
  • Timed Challenge - Gain more time by collecting blue gems dropped by enemies
  • Endless Mode - Single life endless mode with ever increasing difficulty
  • Ultimate Challenge - Unlockable boss rush mode with multiple difficulty levels
• 9 distinct ships with different main weapon, sub weapon and teleport. Pick the one that suits your style better or just go the extra mile and master all of them!
• More than 20 bosses/mid-bosses to fight
• Find secrets to fight against difficult hyper mode bosses and gain extra point
• Pixel-perfect digital movement including normal movement speed and two different slow movement buttons
• Approachable scoring systems for both new and veteran shmup players
• Full controller support
• Vertical (Tate) screen mode for authentic arcade feeling
• Innovative teleport system

Tate mode

Tate mode is great for those able to turn their monitors on the side or for Nintendo Switch handheld gaming.

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Ships

Reyka​

Pros​	Cons​
Very powerful at point blank​	Hard to control at fullspeed​
Double teleport with fast recharge time​	Weapon loses power at long distances​
Sub weapon is both offensive and defensive​	No attacks to protect the back​

Nina​

Pros​	Cons​
Aggressive weapon and teleport​	No invincibility frames when using sub weapon​
Main weapon covers huge area​	Teleport takes a long time to recharge​
Sub weapon can deal a lot of damage​	Sub weapon uses a lot of resources​

Rigby​

Pros​	Cons​
An all around balanced ship​	Could be a little faster​
Pretty powerful main shot​	Random teleporting​
Sub weapon destroys enemy bullets​	Sub weapon is not a full armor​

Hirane​

Pros​	Cons​
Insanely strong main weapon​	Narrow shots​
High movement speed​	Hard to control​
Sub weapon can destroy bullets​	Lacks defensive options​

Z2​

Pros​	Cons​
Teleport can be used very aggressively as an attack​	Fire rate of sub weapon is very low​
Sub weapon can be used for a long time​	Main weapon difficult to aim​
Main weapon does a good amount of damage​	Relies on the teleport as an attack​

Leo​

Pros​	Cons​
No need to aim your shots / Homing shots​	Your shots may not go where you want​
Teleport may create some defense​	Very long teleport recharge time​
Sub weapon gives full protection while dealing damage​	Scoring is very difficult (but possible!)​

Katha​

Pros​	Cons​
Wide area main shot​	Low fire power​
Safest teleport ability​	Sub weapon slows your speed while active​
Decent damage with the sub weapon​	Relies on the teleport for defense​

Dumont​

Pros​	Cons​
High damage at close range​	Slow teleport recharge​
Sub weapon both for defense and offense​	Main weapon covers only a small area​
Teleport can be used for offense​	Could be faster in speed​

Arobe-D​

Pros​	Cons​
Safe​	Very weak on close combat​
Homing missiles hit any enemy​	Sub weapon only defensive​
May use sub weapon many times​	Very slow movement speed​

Leaderboards

Each ship, game mode and difficulty has their own local and online leaderboards. A very good feature for highscoring.

Screenshots and trailers

Player & Critical Reception

Sophstar Reviews

Sophstar is rated 'Strong' after being reviewed by 9 critics, with an overall average score of 77. It's ranked in the top 33% of games and recommended by 78% of critics.

opencritic.com

Personal Notes

The most notable gameplay element of Sophstar is the lack of collision detection to enemies. You will only take damage from enemy bullets. This allows you to get very close and personal. Do take note the enemy behaviour to avoid getting shot to the face close range.

The teleport mechanic is a nice way for new players to get familiar with the genre. It functions pretty much the same way as a dodge roll does in Dark Souls or other action games: while using it you have invincibility frames but depending on the ship also a long cool down.

One of the ships deals severe damage to the enemies while teleporting in similar fashion as the katana attack in Lilac 0.

The scoring has multiple layers to it. The multiplier, the gems, the secrets... seems to be a very well made and deep scoring system.

The Cadet School starts as a tutorial but develops into a game mode in itself. It consists of small bite sized challenges to take on when you have some time to try and master an element within the game. It serves as an good practice for the genre in general.

The Cadet School mode is build in a brilliant way of no hand holding or explaining: the player has to figure a solution out for themselves. The rank you get at the end of the challenge will hint whether you learned the essence of the challenge.

I highly recommend Cadet School in Sophstar for those who want to learn how to play shmups or pruce up their skills.

The ships are designed distinct from each other. The Cadet School mode utilizes all of the ships. I do encourage trying all the ships out several times to get a feel for your current preference.

About the upcoming release of Shin Sophstar

Shin Sophstar is the sequel to Sophstar with entirely new content, level design, game modes, scoring systems and ships. It will not make Sophstar obsolete.

Spoiler: Shin Sophstar trailer

Are you interested in the genre and do have some time in your hands?

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[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Hey John Bilbo your OT just sold two games.

Well done (and great banner gif as well).

 

[John Bilbo]

Hey John Bilbo your OT just sold two games.

Well done (and great banner gif as well).

When I searched for the shop links I noticed it was on quite a steep sale in some of the shops.

During past summers Steam has had a shmup adjacent festival. I might bump the thread for Sophstar if I see it on sale this summer.

It's a niche genre nowadays but so much fun when you get into it! The online leader board systems within the games have made the high score scene more easily accessible.

 

[cormack12]

Never heard of it, your OT makes me want to buy it though

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

this looks fun, just added it to my wishlist

 

[Dacvak]

This game is only $4 on Switch right now for the next two days.

Quickest purchase of my LIFE.

 

[Hypereides]

Alright, Bilbo. I'll get around to playing Sophstar later this year.

 

[John Bilbo]

Alright, Bilbo. I'll get around to playing Sophstar later this year.