Graze Counter GM and Bullet Soul Review - Which is the Better Bullet Hell?

Graze Counter GM and Bullet Soul Review - Which is the Better Bullet Hell? This is the showdown of the bullet hell re-releases! Today we have two shoot em' ups coming to the Nintendo Switch that had previously been locked into Steam or the Xbox 360. I decided to review the pair together because I think they are interesting examples of two shmups aiming to appeal to new players of the genre. The question is which of the two better accomplishes this goal and why? Today we discuss difficulty, level design, modes, scoring systems, and much more. I think Touhou fans will also be interested in these releases. As of right now both games are on Steam and Nintendo Switch, it would be cool to see releases on PS4/PS5 and Xbox as well :-)
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[@doggosupremme]

Glad to see graze counter gm getting some love! It was one of those games that immediately clicked with me. I appreciate its uniqueness and how it changes up the danmaku formula. It’s on the easier side for sure, but it all flows together so well and you don’t always need to use the op ships or abuse i frames if you want it to be more challenging

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it is a novel approach and I do appreciate that as well :-) luckily it does have the extreme mode to give it more teeth difficulty wise. Probably still too much on the easy side though

[@kirbyofthestars2269]

Have the origina Graze Counterl in my steam, collecting dust. I've been pushing myself to get back into the genre as of recent, and ended up grabbing GM a few days ago. Honestly, I love it so far. Originally got into shooters because I love dodging bullets, but I have a nasty habit of never bombing under any circumstances. Graze Counter is slowly helping to weed that out of me. As it's just so fun to use the Break and Counter systems. Keep up the great videos, man!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah gm has a cool idea to it because if you decide not to abuse the s, then you ve got some real challenging dodging ahead ha

[@hooksnfangs6006]

You are SPOT ON with all my issues with Bullet Soul. Bought it on a sale, touched it once, and couldn't even sit through it. Ship just too OP and not engaging enough. Graze Counter on the other hand kept me coming back. So many ways to abuse the counter laser while also being to break and cancel bullets for score/survival.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah for the first few min bullet soul is fun until you realize that you don't need to dodge ha

[@psymagearcade]

Great job covering Graze Counter GM. I feel like a good way to describe it is a cross between Psyvariar and Crimzon Clover. I'm surprised you didn't mention how OP the Grand Cross Renovation ship is in this game, because it's insane. Pearl and some others have done videos showing that. Type-D is also supposed to be pretty crazy because you can activate both your Graze Counter and Break at the same time with that one. Oh, and one other thing about Graze Counter GM that I didn't realize until someone else pointed it out to me is that the pickups work just like they do in Cho Ren Sha. Also, I bought Bullet Soul Infinite Burst during the recent Winter Sale on Steam because I remember reading something about MAGES (formerly 5pb) being insolvent, but I'm not sure if their games are going to be delisted or not any time soon.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Oh yeah I can only imagine that the ship balance is all over the place with the game ha. With that many ships it s gonna take a bunch of time and patching to get them balanced I would imagine

[@AdsOfSteelGaming]

New Electric video to close out the workday. An absolute treat

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m happy to hear that!! Gotta gear up for some more vids this month :-)

[@Gearuz]

Graze Counter GM sounds a lot like DDP and Psyvariar mixed together, two games I really enjoy. Will definitely check this one out.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah psyvar is def an influence and then with the DOJ hyper ha

[@PintaKong]

Bullet Soul 👍🏻 just bought Japanese Switch collector edition 😎 love it

[@neontetra1000]

Bullet soul is a pure scoring based game. Sitting still at the bottom your hit counter is not going to go anywhere . You need to get point blank on enemies and get your hit chain into the thousands. That makes the game a lot harder. Also I think the dlc ship is purposely overpowered. I don’t the original ships are so OP .

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I get that but I think a good shmups needs to hit the fundimentals to be a passing review, otherwise once you find an overwhelming scoring route (like I x mode) the game is finished

[@HieronymousLex]

Thanks for the review Mark! I’ll be picking up graze counter gm tonight and giving it a go

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Awesome!!! Prepare to abuse them s ha

[@dukeofhmph6348]

Given that 5pb is mainly known for their visual novels, it's probably not a surprise that the balance is off in Bullet Soul.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

That makes a lot of sense ha!

[@dart7957]

Grazer counter is the kind of game that instantly clicked with me, I'm very addicted to it and Drainus, the only thing they both lack is an online scoreboard, I understand they are indie games but it's still a shame, especially for Grazer

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Agreed I forgot to mention that in the review, but the lack of an online leaderboard is a real drawback.

[@Aceskies]

I was hoping to appear in the patron credits :( good video!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

You will next vid! I update them each month and this vid is the last Jan vid

[@queloide4803]

But have you played Bullet Soul Infinite Burst? That’s the version of Bullet Soul that counts. Also out now on Switch and actually a good game.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes that was the version I played. All the new arranges still have bad difficulty balance, some might make the issues even worse it felt like

[@franckg1442]

Thanks for the reviews my friend. Once again an informed advice BUT however even if I agree with you on the "strat" consisting of being on the back of the screen and keep pushing the fire button, I'll definitely recommend Bullet Soul for the very beginners. That's, i think, definitely the style of game that builds confidence when you play bullet hells for the very very first time. I played Dodonpachi and Mushi and Akai Katana or Pro Gear with some friends and the answer was always the same " Too punishing, too hard" even when I was sitting next to them or showing them the way these games needs to be played. I thought also about Fire Shark or Sky Shark but, you know... 🙂 And then I put Bullet Soul and things began to be less complicated, they dodged bullets, studied their placement etc etc. So i guess seasoned bullet hell players won't exactly enjoy Bullet Soul, but novices should check it. Just my idea. And to be honest, I enjoyed Bullet Soul for what it is. Not among the top tier list of the genre nor a bad one, certainly not a "hard" game. But sometimes it's ok too. Guilty pleasure maybe. Once again thank you for the video Mark ! Have a nice week-end !

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I think bullet soul is fun initially, it has its heart in the right place. It s just not well balanced and so once you realize that you don't actually need to play and can just hold the fire button, then the fun is shattered ha

[@benjaminturkalj4415]

Really like the asthetic of graze counter, and looks like it has a lot of variety in gameplay options. Might have to add this to my growing collection.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Graze counter is a charming looking game :-)

[@MURD3RWAVE]

In Graze Counter, I beat mission mode first. It was great learning the bosses. The last mission you have to beat the end boss with no miss. I actually liked this game and play all stage mode. Story mode is the most Japanese story mode ever.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha I can imagine. I didn't pay much attention to the story.

[@KrystianMajewski]

But Mark, in Graze Counter GM the playfield is pretty much square. A Tate mode wouldn't actually result in any magnification, right?

[@Steve-Fiction]

I didn't understand his point there, either.

[@aeugnewtype]

Did you play Bullet Soul Infinite Burst or any of the extra modes? There's quite a few different modes with very different scoring, patterns, and difficulties, but seems like you only really mentioned one here

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I played all the modes, they all have the issue sadly :-( I do mention that it could be even worse in the arrange modes

[@darthbaluuduh6598]

Was looking this up for Graze Counter GM, ended up binge watching a metric tonne of Golden Girls... I'd call it a success. That being said the whole grazing for "hyper" reminds me of Danmaku Unlimited 2, one of the first shmups I've played (rocking OST, btw). Thanks Mark!

[@LZCleric]

Lol that's almost the same conclusion I had for Bullet Soul and I've said it before: Danmaku Unlimited 3 is what Bullet Soul should have been since it has the same phantom bullets but it's better balanced and less boring

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely couldn't agree more, love me some Dan 3

[@JogosMofados]

Loved Graze Counter GM, will pick it up on PlayStation for trophies. Thanks for the review!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it s a fun one! Shame there is no tate though:-(

[@JogosMofados]

@@TheElectricUnderground yeah, I saw it in the video. I got a game preview as well, Atria Valkyrie, and the game has no tate mode as well. Not sure why this trend from Japanese devs, but it sure sucks for those with tate capable monitors (or even tate setups).

[@then1533]

Cheers, another good review plus I now know what the GM stands for!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Thank you N1!

[@notnoaintno5134]

I bought bullet soul for like 5 bucks. The first couple of levels (normal mode) are boring, for the reasons you mentioned, but i feel like it picks up at the 3rd stage. The thing is the game makes up for the fact that bullets get cancelled by making enemies and bosses spew out really fast bursts or patterns, or having enemies come out of nowhere from surprising angles really fast, the kind of stuff it's hard to interact with. Feels a little cheap sometimes tbh, like Ill get to the boss and die from some high speed bullet vomit right out of the gate. I've played it for about 2 hours and this is my impression. Still seems kinda fun and Ill keep playing it until its not

[@ElGorditoDelSabor]

There is something strange in this video. On the Thumnail it says "bulllet soul infinite burst", then in the title it says "bullet Soul" and in the video you talk about original Bullet Soul playing with the broken and cheap dlc character. I don't know if you are playing Infinite burst on original mode or the Original Bullet Soul on B mode , that is diferent than the original Bullet Soul , and that character is only on that mode. The information is confused and what you say is not the bullet soul experience. It is a shame cause is a so much better game than you expose here and people will judge the game in the bad way. Nice to see you Mark and cheers!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I played all the modes of infinite burst, the issue is present in all of them. I shortened infinite burst in the title because the title is too long and not SEO friendly. Like I said in the vid I'm not going to spend 10 minutes discussing the minutia of a fundamentally broken game because when the balance is so poor, it actually doesn't matter. If you can sit in the center of the screen for more than half the game that's just not going to cut it. I like the ideas of Bullet Soul, but the balance just is not there.

[@kbxthegamemaster06]

3:04 smells like *Neo Napalm from GG Aleste II* in here

[@williampingry3444]

Thank you for introducing me to my favorite genre I dabbled in bullet hell like binding of Isaac or enter the gungeon it is so much fun trying to get that one cc

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I am very happy to hear that! Nothing like digging in and working on a 1cc, such a fun and satisfying experience:-)

[@TheSamuraiGoomba]

The arrange/redux mode for Bullet Soul (Infinite Burst) is much better than the standard game. It's heavily score-focused and has a sort of dangun feveron thing going.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Same issue though, I tested all the modes, you still can sit in the center for half the game holding the fire button pretty much

[@tonyc3282]

Great reviews Mark. I agree that Bullet Soul is too easy, even for a novice player. I really love Graze Counter GM and appreciate it’s replay value. At the end of your review you hinted on a problem that I experience, but is seldom addressed in shmups. That problem being Colour Blindness. For me personally, I have issues with blue & purple and green & brown. It would be nice if devs addressed and accommodated their Colour Blind players.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m glad my review helped! Yes my brother is color blind and I don't have great vision, so bullet visibility is key. And if the dev knows what they are doing they can actually have it be totally black and white and it will still be visible

[@Bovaz85]

What would you guys recommend for Graze Counter GM? Steam or Switch? I'm loving Cosmo Dreamer on the Switch, as a reference for my taste, and I play that exclusively portable. I never connect the console to an external display.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Absolutely the Steam version. From what I understand the switch version has some slowdown issues, but in this review I was playing on steam.

[@rallyrobx7604]

Sad to hear about Bullet Soul. It looks so good though I may just buy it on a deep discount. Graze Counter GM I am going to pick up over the weekend.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

It does look good visually! I think 5pb have the right idea, just did not figure out how to balance the game

[@MrRawnch]

Bullet Soul suffered the same issue I had with Caldarius Blaze and Raiden V -- it felt like a polished flash game. The charm of some of the older Cave and 8zing/Razing games was the feel and pace of a custom engine. Bullet Soul looks great but looks like it's lacking a...soul.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah they got a lot of the surface elements pretty good, which is cool, but they didn't have the game balance down correctly

[@streondal]

Yes, balance and difficulty MATTERS Without challenge there's just no progression curve, then no reward, no fun :/ Very disappointed about bullet soul, it looked gorgeous and colourfull. Graze counter GM is a good surprise, spent a few great credits on the 1st one, so i'm probably buying GM on ps4 when on sale !

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Damn right my friend

[@MadaoAU]

I really liked this game so far. I play it a lot on switch

[@AlbertoMonroy-lq2vw]

Guys what shmups on steam are great and which do you recommend? Thanks

[@dankhill6851]

Graze counter took the graze mechanic from bee storm dodonpachi 2, awesome.

[@SicketMog]

GCGM looks awesome(still haven't tried it). It + previous installment would make a fine physical.

[@error4159]

What is the best bullet hell game for beginners? I've shown people all the popular ones and they loved looking at them but got turned off playing them after failing to reach the first boss over and over, lol.

[@BknMoonStudios]

I strongly recommend either Touhou 7 or 8 on Easy Mode. You can get them for free online very easily and they are very welcoming to beginners. Early stages are fairly easy but Stage 4 onwards can get very tricky. Getting a 1CC on Easy feels great and serves as a nice introduction into the higher difficulties. If your friends are still turned off, then I highly recommend playing Jamestown+. Not only does it have gorgeous visuals and an easy difficulty, but it was made with 4-Player Co-Op in mind, making it a fun time with friends. Watch some videos online and give it a try. Hope this helps, brother. 👍

[@error4159]

@@BknMoonStudios I've heard of the Touhou series but I've never played the games, I'll definitely download the two you mentioned. And I think I have the non plus version of Jamestown in my Steam library but I haven't played it. Thank you for the info.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I d say touhou imperishable night kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKCQh5mXhN-Agsk

[@andyauthor2007]

If you like SHMUPS with a "graze" mechanic, Denmaku Unlimited 3 is a better choice IMO.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I love Dan 3 :-) such a fun game and yes amazing grazing mechanic

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Off topic question: What do you think about "musou" games such as Dynasty Warriors. Have you tried one and do you think they are a good action games?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I have played them ha, I don't like them. Maybe there are some good ones that I've missed though

[@flottenheimer]

@16:30 TATE would not add anything since the aspect of the play-area is exactly square/1:1. (Perhaps you are arguing that the play-area-aspect should be changed from 1:1 to, say, 3:4 - but such a change would also affect playing the game in YOKO).

[@striderhiryu4643]

So i'm guessing infinite burst is just as bad as the original? Thanks for the reviews!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yep afraid so, the arranges don't fix the problems of the balance

[@queloide4803]

It’s not. infinite Burst fixes vanilla Bullet Soul. Also he’s using a dlc ship, wich os OP by design. I think Mark didn’t get this game at all, that happens no problems. Personally I would totally recommend Bullet Souls Inifinite Burst version.

[@markguyton2868]

Thanks for the warning about GCGM being a remake. Was gonna buy it, but now I can save a bit of money for something else.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah I m not totally sure how much has changed between the two versions, I assume a lot but I m not sure

[@mariowario5945]

13:47 bro just called the playable character a ship 💀

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Close enough ha, don't get hung up on that when the majority of the game has ships.

[@SteveFusionX]

i almost bought Graze Counter on the switch, but apparently it doesn't have scoreboards?? I feel like the no1 priority of any game like this should be to have a working scoreboard to compete with others on. Maybe they will figure out how to program one in, sometime.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

yeah I forgot to mention that in the review, it has no online leaderboards, which is a real shame.

[@DJ_AwesomeSauce]

7:45 What game is that? It looks cool

[@jasp2003]

I have a TV bolted to my wall vertically.... WTF! why is there no Tate???

[@MrRawnch]

Ketsui on 360 wasn't that bad. 😂Probably worth keeping if you've gone through the trouble to procure a Japanese X360.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah it runs a little too fast, but it s not awful. I do like the joke about throwing it as a frisbee though ha

[@shmups_hobby]

Seems a little unfair to ignore the fact that scoring in Bullet Soul requires higher risk. You can cover a lot is ground in DFK by using C Strong but you won’t score anything there either.

[@danieldussault]

GM is straight up better

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yes indeed :-)

[@mintifresh4011]

Bullet Soul use the Bullet Canceling Mechanic too much but the Soundtrack is awesome.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

The sounds track absolutely slaps yes! So good

[@BillB808]

Those poor bullet soul baddies can barely get a shot off!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

No invul for them ha

[@TH3V01D]

The tate, of course! How could they miss that?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Gotta have tate kids, I can't unrotate my gaint crt ha

[@sibbyeskie]

Hate to sound so negative but Bullet Soul looks like a joke. How does not having to move make it through testing? Ridiculous!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I don't know but 5pb made this same mistake in the x mode arrange as well.

[@PedroFerreira-sx2gd]

Bought graze counter. Player One game and did not tryed again. The game simply did not click to me. i never had a adrenaline rush with it and the graze gimick was not interesting to me. I AM going to try Higher difficulties and different ships to see if i Change my mind.never played bullet soul and after your review i AM glad i haven t bought it

[@TheElectricUnderground]

So I had the same first reaction to graze counter my first playthrough. It s actually one that will grow on you with repeated playthrough on higher difficulties

[@PedroFerreira-sx2gd]

@@TheElectricUnderground yeah. And the fact it didn t Tate was a major Turn off.

[@flottenheimer]

Mark, did you ever try Bullet Soul Infinite Burst? (Should be a rebalanced version). PS:

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

No tate support evening the playing field for those of us with ultrawide monitors

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Ha they could add it and still keep the hori mode too though

[@Nextliar]

The tate mode will not help anything because the game is a perfect square

[@johngavalas74]

I gotta unlock the rest of the ships in graze counter gotta beat the game to unlock them i take it

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Yeah just cruise through on hard mode a few times and you'll get them :-)

[@johngavalas74]

@@TheElectricUnderground Damn man i cant even beat it on easy 😆

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Ok I guess its a nay for Bullet Souls. Too bad since the game got nice flashiness on it. Graze Counter GM on the other hand is also a "nope" for me because I tried the demo and I didn't feel much excitement.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Like I said in the review, graze counter gm is a well made game, but it has a particular style that is not going to connect with all players.

[@DaikonDev_]

Game at 7:45?

[@gcavrubio]

I didn't like Graze Counter GM. I was able to just push through the whole game by abusing the bullet cancelling up to the final boss. The final boss was a difficulty spike. Completely different from the whole game.

[@shanecorning5222]

That's stupid. What's the point? ......... You just walk through the stage you can't get hit?

[@shanecorning5222]

No that's why they put the stuff on the left and right. SO THAT IT IS IN TATE for you.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

The problem is though that the playfield is still zoomed out and the area of action is still cropped

[@shanecorning5222]

@@TheElectricUnderground : Well then that is a problem WE can work out isn't it. We just have to have the solution POP into our heads?

[@mariowario5945]

I was wondering why shmuppers dont like fighting games or fighting the ai in 1v1 fighting games, when it relies on reflexes and ai memorization just as much as a shmup. But I hear alot of hate towards the genre from shmuppers for no good reason

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I m not sure, I love fighting games :-)

[@mariowario5945]

@@TheElectricUnderground do you like playing against an ai in 1v1 fighters? I think that it has a similar kind of strategy required to route in a shmup as they expect you to beat the ai in a specific way and if you dont route or use the right strategy, you will get your ass handed to you every time. Requires the same trial and error and has a very high difficulty. (I know how much you like difficulty in games) I know alot of ai in fighting games perform straight up vs humans cant perform, but that's a part of the strategy, is you have to find a way to work around the ai and hand their ass back to them. Thing is, most people just shame against ai fighting in fighting games because of this "unfairness" but the playstyle has to be completely different than fighting against a human. You have to fight against ai like your fight a boss in an action game, wait for repetive/readable patterns you can exploit

[@scienceandmatter8739]

Graze counter is a little bit slow ship moving?!

[@TheElectricUnderground]

The ship types have lots of different speeds :-)

[@realmiltonbradley8365]

Why are you sitting in my house ?

[@TheElectricUnderground]

Because I am everywhere

[@realmiltonbradley8365]

@@TheElectricUnderground hahaha 🤣

[@superhadouken]

Bullet soul look amazing until you play it find that bullets disappear on screen. I dont really understand, did they tested their game? Who thought this could work? And they put a lot of production in it. Graphics are really cool, music too. Its at cave level almost. But they destroyed everything with a stupid decision. At least add a mode where bullets dont disappear. Bullet patterns look cool to dodge.

[@TheElectricUnderground]

I don't know what was going on with 5pb, they did the same mistake in x mode of DOJ plus, that's why I thought that would be a useful cross reference:-)