Razion EX - 1CC Novice Difficulty - No commentary

[@oldclaywest]

Hopefully one day I can get my hand on a copy. That game is fire.

[@porchka66]

Unfortunetly there seems to be an small graphical glitch in the switch version, where the giant prerendered spaceship, that normaly shows up in the background near the beginning of the first stage, only shows up at the first play. In all the subsequent playthroughs it doesn´t appear again. (It also doesn´t appear in your playthrough...)

[@BalleramaAC]

Wow, you're absolutely right. I must be on auto-pilot now during the first stage because I didn't notice it was missing at all until this comment, and it's a pretty gigantic ship cruising past. No screen shake either, just nothing. A bit of a shame, but thankfully not affecting the gameplay in any way.

[@korvkorv532]

I noticed this and thought the video cut. So it's a glitch. Is the game any good (looking to purchase atm but haven't found a proper review just playthroughs and the like)?

[@BalleramaAC]

I enjoyed it. This is on Novice, but you'll see I've also got 1cc runs up for all the other difficulties, and it was fun doing these. There is a challenge but it's very much surmountable and most of it is fair (except maybe the last phase on the last boss on Normal and beyond). There are limitations with the hardware and that it's effectively 2/3 people working on it, whilst the music and art are great, there's not much imagination in terms of stage design despite the hints at the dynamic nature of stage 1, although this is saved by the mini bosses and what I now call the tunnel of love in Stage 3. Another minus point is that active beam use is encouraged for the scoring, I found especially in Maniac that it would have been a much greater challenge without it, but there's no incentive to do this except for bosses and the no-beam bonus. I'm also a bit disappointed at end-bosses all being just one giant wall with the exception of Stage 3, but it's a bit harsh to criticise them too much for that and the bullet patterns are for the most part varied and challenging. Price is a big factor, it's hard to recommend for EUR 40 + shipping (or EUR 130 currently on ebay), and I hope it gets a wider eShop release when the physical demand dies down because it's much easier to tell people to buy it at half that price, and if it's EUR 10 like Gunlord X then it becomes a must-buy in my eyes. It's one of my most-played Shmups on the Switch, but there are so many other great Shmups available, and when I say available I have to state for anyone reading that you can buy it right now unlike Razion EX which is still physical only and limited through their direct store or ebay, that it's a hard sell right now. There is a progression system in that you earn your credits from playthrough (I think you start with 3, then unlock up to 10) so if you're wanting to finish then you can't just credit feed your way through it and are forced to at least learn the first few stages, but if you're satisfied with credit feeding then it's still not going to last that long, it is after all a 20 minute game. If there's another print run announced (beyond the 100x B stock in July), or a digital release then I may do a proper review video down the line, but hopefully that helps you out a bit.

[@iGolgo13]

The stages 1 and 2 have the same soundtrack ! Not normal.