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Um, well ....here's yet another shooter in the style of Cave/Psikyo/Treasure. You know, one of those shooters where you're playing to get as high a score/ranking as possible. Ah, but this one's not all that bad (not that Ikaruga and the like were bad shooters, just not my cup of tea). And how do you go about racking up a high score? Buzz. Mmm hmm. You see, the crafty game designers over at SKonec/Success have an affinity for coming as close to being shot by an enemy as possible without actually getting shot, so they decided to base an entire game around that concept. The original Psyvariar 2 ~ The Will to Fabricate arcade game was built on the Naomi arcade board, resulting in a snappy production with crisp graphics and fast-paced gameplay. Their latest shooter, Homura, is a co-production with Taito, masters of the shooter genre, but, as far as I know, it's only gonna be made available for the import PS2, until they decide to do another revision like the one I'm currently reviewing. How many different versions of a shooter do we need? Apparently a lot. Watch this~

Psyvariar
Psyvariar: Revision
Psyvariar: Medium Unit
Psyvariar: Complete Edition
Psyvariar 2: The Will to Fabricate
Psyvariar 2: Extend Edition
Psyvariar 2: Ultimate Final

If that doesn't constitute overkill, I don't know what does.

So here's what I gathered of the story as about five paragraphs of tiny print scrolled through the opening sequence in about fifteen seconds flat~

--Space Year 4.25
The Clips Kinetic Unified Intelligence symbol--fall into--suddenly, the conficts--while the Psyvariar population--the great God--suddenly, war.

A little hard to follow, I know. With that said, let's check out the actual game.

You can select from two fighters: Kei (a female lass with dark hair and demure expression) and Yuhei (so that the male equation could be represented). Each one pilots a different M.D.S. mech; Kei has the Maitrgya (Shooting Type), Yuhei the Five Ascetics (Buzz Type). Obviously, Kei is a better choice for killing things as quickly as possible, while Yuhei's more choice for getting on some Buzz. After a brief introduction area, you dive down over a futuristic metropolis and take to the heat of action. Here you'll get accustomed to the unique gameplay style which the game offers, learning how to perform both the standard shot and the groovy spin (that's what I call it). Bombs should be used sparingly throughout the game, if possible. After a whirlwind of action, the boss of Area 1 shows up and blows a crater-sized hole into the ground. For what reason, I don't know. Don't be intimidated just because the screen is overflowing with shots from the boss. You're supposed to 'ride' as close to the mayhem as possible without getting killed. As in other similar shooting extravaganzas, it's much easier said than done, requiring a lot of practice in order to master the attack patterns. If you just sit around dodging the boss for long enough, it will self-destruct, as do all of the bosses, oddly enough.

This raises three pertinent questions~
1) What did you do to make these things so hostile towards you?
2) Since every boss self-destructs after a certain point, what's the purpose of fighting them?
3) How the hell did I avoid most of those shots?

That last question still has me confused. If you watched somebody fighting a boss, especially one of the later ones, you'd be confused as to how it would be possible to avoid what is literally a screen filled with enemy fire. At some points it looks to surpass Macy's Independence Day fireworks display, and you're supposed to avoid it. I frequently couldn't believe that I had actually avoided so many shots without dying, although I did of course die at certain points. I've managed to beat it on Very Easy, Easy and Normal difficulties without needing to continue. I beat it on Very Hard only having to continue once, but it brought the difficulty setting down. Indeed, it looked as though I was getting hit even when I wasn't; I couldn't readily discern the difference. And I'm supposed to master this?

The visuals are very similar to other similar shooters such as Ikaruga and the like, only there's perhaps a few more colors. Most of the color is relegated to the enemy fire which, again, resembles fireworks being set off. In fact, it seemed like I was doing little more than setting off fireworks because whenever I'd kill enemies in later areas they'd often explode into a residue of enemy firepower shot out in every direction. In other words, kill = danger. I take it that these Korean game designers are really big fans of Sony's early PS2 "showcase" title, FantaVision. This game, Psyvariar 2, doesn't look like it's bringing the Xbox to its knees, and yet there's about as much loading time as you might expect from an early Sega Saturn/Sony PlayStation title. It looks only slightly superior to what a Dreamcast is capable of, if even. You'll fight in the sky, outer space, inside of an underground area, over a massive desert, etc. Nothing too fancy here.(Note that you have a lot of control over the monitor settings, though not the resolution. You have both the horizontal and vertical settings, and each has six varying sizes/stretches for you to play around with.)

Any gripes? A few. For one thing, it's too short. C'mon, five areas (plus a hidden one) which can be beaten in 10-15 minutes? Heck, that's like playing three stages in Silpheed, and that's not even halfway through the game! Also, there's a conspicuous lack of enemy types. The actual stages are short as heck -- the bosses take up most of your playing time. Furthermore, the bosses fail to impress. The only thing impressive about them is their firepower which, I'll say it one last time, borders on the insane! You'll fight a huge mech-like robot, a mechanical spider-like thing while inside of a large underground tunnel, and so on. I prefer the thrills of a Gradius, Darius or Pulstar to this type of shooter. But it's not bad at all.

It comes as no surprise that the soundtrack is merely adequate because there haven't been very many good soundtracks in gaming as of late. There are a few relatively nice pieces (the rank-in screen, the character select) but most of it is just palpable, atmospheric stuff that hovers in the background. The sound effects are definitely there.... but I'd much rather have another incredible soundtrack. Sorry but big, booming sound effects are NO MATCH for aural resplendency.

I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not a game such as Psyvariar 2 is worthy of your attention. Most people seem to agree with me that while it's got some pizzaz to it, it's little else but another excuse for a developer to play around with a scoring system. Is the standard shooter on the way to becoming a thing of the past because of games such as these? I sure hope not.

- Michael

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