u/dreampagehun

As I said earlier, I preordered Psyvariar 3 on Xbox and today I had some time to play it. I try to keep it short because I don't want to write something akin to a "review", that's not my goal, but I'd like to share my impressions of this game, which is ultimately a disappointment. Not tragic, just not what — I think — many of us expected from this franchise.

The good:

I'm actually quite okay with the visual style of the game. It looks cheap for sure, but in a way that reminds me of an Xbox 360-era shmup in high resolution, which I think is fine. It's clear, readable and there are many options to arrange the displays, the image frame, or even darken the 3D backgrounds. It also runs flawlessly so I give it that.

There are several game modes which is fun, although I'll play Arcade Mode the most. "Mission Mode" sounds good on paper but it instantly bombards you with almost impossible tasks, so I don't know what the designers' vision was. It's okay, but nothing groundbreaking. The UI is nice and simple, again, lots of options, all good.

The neutral:

The music is kind of mediocre. There are a handful of nice tracks, the rest I couldn't even recall, they're just there. I have to mention here that there's no Japanese involvement in this game, so don't even expect any famous composers or anything.

The various characters offer different gameplay styles but honestly, I only find the first character engaging. The "ship" designs are honestly bad, some look like boxes not spaceships, which looks off and for me at least, detract from the experience.

The bad:

Gameplay just feels off. Not immensely bad, it's decent, but it's way off. The ships move too slowly, you're trying to move in glue or tar. The roll moves slow you down even more, to what end I haven't figured out yet. Enemies don't flash when hit so it never feels like you're doing any damage to anything. Many enemies are also too tanky, they just sit there and there's no feedback about whether you're doing anything to them. Bosses are the same, their health bar is barely visible and also don't flash so there's absolutely no feedback whether you're hitting them at the right spot or not.

It's also surprisingly slow. The gameplay lacks any excitement or intensity. Even though the backgrounds sometimes move fast, both your ship and the enemies are slow, they're just there. No intricately designed patterns or interesting scenes, just generic units popping up and filling the screen with bullets.

The game is super hard and although you can unlock additional credits, the game doesn't state how it's done. I sometimes got additional continues after playing, sometimes not. There are no options to set life numbers or anything like in many other shmups.

Overall:

I think it's a pity that SUCCESS outsourced this game to a team that's passionate but has no chance to reach the quality of veteran Japanese devs. Make no mistake: Psyvariar 3 is not an Asian shmup, it's a Brazilian game. It looks and feels like a decent, but ultimately cheap indie effort that only tries to be like the franchise it's based on. It has absolutely nothing to do with the original Psyvariar series, let alone the other greats of this genre. It's a decent homage, nothing more.

I don't know where this was announced and why I completely missed it, but I just realized in an article that Psyvariar 3 will be released on May 21 on all platforms. This is big news!

Edit: Pre-order is available for the Xbox version with a 20% discount: https://www.xbox.com/games/store/psyvariar-3/9phb3b0ddstt

I find it very distracting that loot I filter out still displays the icons on the minimap. I'm trying to filter out specific Legendaries, Uniques, non-Ancenstral Set Charms for example, but they still fill the minimap with their respective signs. The end result is that my minimap is full of icons and I don't know if it's because I left something accidentally or just things I wouldn't need. I go back to the icons and there's nothing to pick up.

If the loot is not visible in the game world due to being filtered out, it should not have icons on the minimap either.

I find it a bit one-sided that elite enemies all have these "after-death" effects which prove to be more dangerous than they actually are while fighting. Almost every single one leaves behind either an elemental explosion or a phantom clone that attacks you. It is especially jarring when battling large groups of enemies with several elites in them. You casually kill the elites and then suddenly several explosions happen, one-shot you or remove most of your health.

To me it's counter-intuitive that the enemies are no challenge but their "revenge" attack can kill in an instant. Even when they drop their loot, you can't go there to pick them up because you have to wait for those explosions to finally go off. Similarly annoying are the "phantoms" who keep chasing you for a surprisingly long time just to try landing one or two extra hits.

I wouldn't mind a few elites having these affixes but with every one of them doing the same thing, it feels like they're more like environmental traps rather than real enemies. An exploding barrel works the same way, I hit it and then dodge away before it explodes. Elites should be more interesting in my opinion. Make them stronger but when they die, let them just die.