Played a fair bit of
Angelsaga this week. Essentially it's one of those single-stick auto-aim stop-n-go shooters, like Archero or Tank Hero. You can't fire while you're moving, but you have to move to dodge, so that's the essential trade-off.
It's not bad.
Nice quick levels split into four screens and then a boss level, with each world (of which there's ten) having a "choose a path" thing, so if you want to make your journey to the main boss harder or easier, you can. It does have a stamina system, but it's pretty relaxed, giving you an hour or three of gameplay at any time, enough to finish a world or four at least. And you get a stamina refresh at each player level up, so you'll have heaps (I'm about level 22, and I haven't felt like I was ever in danger of running out). Enemies and bosses are quite varied, with standard pallette swapping with different attacks for harder ones, but they'll keep you on your toes. Controls are tight, though the isometric view takes a bit of getting used to. Sound is pretty good. Graphics are cutesy but good. Story is "meh", and is pretty obvious where it's going. Enemy projectiles are mostly pretty obvious too, which is a good thing, so you can dodge the right things, not your own bullet swarms. It's honestly nice to play a game where you tend to have about as much firepower as the bosses, but can still differentiate between your storm and theirs. Just the right level of "I kick arse" by the end of a world to give you your power fantasy, but still give you choice on the way there (you'll mostly end up pretty similar on each run, but it's hard to complain about blowing up entire screens worth of stuff).
There's a pretty comprehensive perk and equipment system, and I tend to feel that this makes it more enjoyable to play (even though this sort of game can feel pretty "samey" after a while). Levelling your sub-skill perks makes them drastically more useful, though you actually have to pick the perk on level up for it to do anything. But they really do make a huge difference. Reflect-off-walls going from 1 to 3 bounces is pretty huge, for instance, especially with piercing shots doing the same.
Your equipment can also come with perks, so it doesn't feel like such a chore at the start of each run with the right setup. And you do get a fair bit of equipment within the first few days. I can start with 5-way chaining shots, or homing piercing shots for instance. You're mostly limited by playtime by what you can do, which isn't bad for a gatcha'ish system. You can combine three bits of lower tier equipment into higher tier, keeping the chosen one's perks to upgrade, so you actually can end up with what you want. It's kind of semi-controllable gacha.
The cool down spells are nicely varied, with Blizzards/ Airstrikes/ Magma Bombs/ Black holes, etc, all with varying levels of usefulness. They can all be levelled up as well. Every fourth level gets you a super perk, which makes quite a difference. Double Mega Fire balls, huge Frost Novas, massive Magic Missile swarms, there's tonnes to play around with.
(my only gripe with the system is that once you've levelled a few up to level 4, you'll probably always pick them when they come up when you level, because they're better than anything else on offer. Which gives very similar builds each run, which is a pity, because there's plenty to try out. But lvl4 double Mega Fire happens to be super reliable and damaging, so most others never get picked over that. You never feel bad for trying out stuff, just not optimized....)
And the best part is, all your upgrades can be refunded for free or for pretty cheap (the first three on good equipment are free, are always free for bad equipment, and are only 100 gems after that). Spells can be reset for the same cost. And sub-skill perks are a choice of three to upgrade, so you'll mostly get something good (you'll want most things upgraded eventually anyway). It's fairly forgiving, so you never feel like you really messed up while you're just learning.
Difficulty curve is ok. I'm kinda flattening most stuff after playing for about 12 hrs over 7 days, but you never quite feel OP. Even with vampirism and chaining shots and a ridiculous amount of attack/armour/HP, I've still got to be careful on hard (up to world 4 or so), so yeah. It's nice. Progress is easy, but you certainly can't afk it.
Anyway, try it out. As games of this genre go, this one is really quite good. Long-term enough play to sink a bit of time into, but simple to just log-in, grab some freebies, do some sweeps, and leave it be for the day. I'm still free-to-play so far, and I've got 3/4 bits of legendary equipment, 2 pets, and most of my sub-skills levelled, so it's not "super grindy" or paywall'y like some. My only real gripe is that it's in landscape mode, not portrait, so you still need to use two hands to play it on a big phone.
Pro-tip: Level your sub-skills ASAP. They're over on the top-right under Skills, next to all the cool-down spells. When levelling your sub-skills, always prioritize anything to do with your regular attack. Double shot, Split, Reflect, Pierce, Consecutive Shot, things like that. It makes any level-up be like 2-3 levels worth. You do most of your damage with regular attacks in this game, cool-down spells are bonus extras (although some are really good too, most are just ok'ish). Your equipment sub-skills also run off this, so if you have Split and Double levelled, and have that on your equipment, you will start off firing 7 bullets instead of one, and Reflect or Pierce are probably only a level or two away. And then you'll be filling the entire screen with bullets by the 4th screen of any mission. Which is nice
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