Lots of action In classic, side-scrolling shoot ’em up games.
IN Natsuki Chronicles may we follow our avatar Natsuki from being a rookie pilot to becoming a full-fledged pro. The game takes place in the same world as the game Ginga Force. The game mechanics are recognizable from this bullet-hell game: shoot everything that moves and where the camera moves, so you move too. It’s no more advanced than that and need not be either.
Hordes of enemy ships meet to shoot and when you have completed a course you get to meet the boss ship. You can upgrade your ship with various shields and weapons, in good, side-scrolling-shump spirit – and believe me it will be needed to make it through the adventure.
It’s quick to get into Natsuki Chronicles, when the course begins you are hooked. It is important to learn the patterns of the various enemy ships so that you can stay out of the way of their firing. I started running the tracks on the difficulty level normal and before I had received the cuts, it was almost impossible for me to move on. Fortunately, it is possible to change the level of difficulty with ease, at any time, which is a nice plus.
Like most Japanese games, so have Natsuki Chronicles a rather rich and advanced story that we get to take part in. The only problem is that the characters talk to each other non-stop during the battles; in Japanese (subtitled in English). No matter how good I am, there is no way I can fight the enemies and read the text at the same time. So there is a lot of information you miss there, if you are not proficient in the language. There are shorter intermediate sequences as well, but I felt several times that it was info I was missing in it as this had probably been said during the heat of battle.
The graphics have a nice anime feel and the sound processing connects the bag in a very satisfactory way. In summary, that is Natsuki Chronicles definitely worth a recommendation, especially for the shmup / bullet-hell lover, although in the end it can be a bit monotonous and repetitive even for the fans.
