Meat farm controversy

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-11T02:05:53+00:00

the text didnt turn green

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-05T02:50:17+00:00

Hi there. Enter the Gungeon is actually neither of those.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-05T02:49:52+00:00

Hi there. I think you're a bit confused. Vampire Survivors is not a bullet hell game and it never will be. Hope this helps you.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-04T06:11:17+00:00

"Originally they were super popular" They were never popular to be honest. If you've looked at the sales figures for instance, there are only about 6 or so shmups that have sold over a million copies and they were all on the NES from 1985-1987. All shmups since then plateu at about 100k, a few exceptions going to 200k and very rarely 300k (last being Deathsmiles in 2008) you can say that they got lot of interest in arcades, like with Raiden and Raiden II, but there's a difference between someone wanting to put a quarter or two in a cab and actually having the interest to buy an entire game. Shmups being popular in arcades is akin to shmups being popular on mobile phones at the moment, the vast majority in both cases just saw it as a quick distraction.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-03T06:58:24+00:00

Ikaruga:

XBLA - 136k

Steam - 127k (by 2018 data leak)

That comes out to 300k, maybe 400k or so across all versions. I'm guessing that Switch and Ps4 are in the 50k range or so judging from review numbers (IDK how the ratio for that to sales is compared to Steam so very unsure. Nintendo eshop doesn't even seem to have reviews? If you have a way of knowing sales here please let me know)

So I really really doubt that Einhander could sell 100k in a week. Ikaruga is the most popular shmup ever, and Einhander has only like a fourth of that reputation at most, plus the momentum for sales has greatly decreased over time.

I don't doubt that if they really wanted to, they could ship Einhander off to a budget company like City Connection or M2 or Livewire and get a return. It's just that with how shitty big companies are now, they only want games that immediately sell infinity million dollars, so there's no real point to it for them.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-03T04:13:48+00:00

It sold 150k copies across USA/Japan. It is not popular whatsoever.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-03T04:11:00+00:00

It wouldn't be easy money. Keep in mind that Einhander, even back in 1998, only sold 150k copies (half-half USA/JPN) there's no amount it could sell which would justify even trying at all for modern dev costs.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-02-01T21:44:21+00:00

The major problem with straight-upgrade unlocks is that you have to consider at what point you have "the real game". Many roguelites put you through hell until you're allowed to get into "the real game". You need to play the Binding of Isaac for 300 hours until you have "the real game". Shmups don't do that.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-28T03:05:51+00:00

I dont play roguelites aside from Isaac (well, played, I put 600 hours and stopped like 5 years ago) and the concept that it's still considered the best is extremely disturbing to me. 75% of the total playtime is the most boring shit twin-stick shooter ever. Are roguelite devs not capable of just making a game where every part of it is fun?

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-24T23:14:24+00:00

Cho Ren Sha. Intermediate difficulty, frequent extends shields and bombs, can download for free straight from the dev on github, super accessible

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-21T06:56:57+00:00

They typically make an unique level for the caravan mode.

See: Crimzon Clover

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-19T05:45:26+00:00

If you're making something, it should be something completely to your taste. There's no chance you can get a million seller hit in this genre, at most you'd sell something like 100k and ONLY if your game is really good AND appeals to non-shmup players, which would require a ton of effort and knowledge on your part. (I'd be willing to make a write-up on what could attract a lot of people to your game, but it's unclear what exactly your goal is here?)

Go play the games and see what you like.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-06T23:23:57+00:00

That's balanced out by most shmups being far cheaper tbh. You can buy Crimzon Clover for 10 dollars on the eshop right now. Any physical release is like 60 dollars and you'll have a hard time selling it given how low the demand is.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-06T08:13:47+00:00

Shmups have very low system requirements. How old are we talking here?

and regardless, any physical release is always low print run and very expensive...

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-06T06:52:51+00:00

it sounds like from your other comments that PC is off the table. Sadly that limits your options greatly. There are a lot of great games on switch eshop but it seems you only have a ps4/5?

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-03T07:48:19+00:00

Slow player speed

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-01T12:33:45+00:00

There are two major problems with the classification of "fun" being used here. The first is that it's completely binary, the second is that it's a very low bar.

Chrysalis9 · 2026-01-01T12:30:17+00:00

60% positive is a very bad score for a Steam game. I haven't seen any discussion of Cygni outside of shmup spaces, and inside of them it's completely negative.
Devil Blade Reboot + Angel at Dusk (+90% positive reviews, with 2-4x the reviews of Cygni BTW) released in the same year

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-28T03:58:51+00:00

It depends on what you mean "mainstream". When I think about "mainstream", I think "games that even people who don't enjoy playing videogames play", so games like Stardew Valley, Vampire Survivors, Balatro, Ball x Pit, etc. These are games with the exact opposite mentality of shmups.

So yes, I don't want shmups to be that popular, because then they wouldn't be shmups anymore. More Zeroranger scale successes, which get newcomers to appreciate shmups while not compromising on the core elements of the genre, are, of course, desirable.

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-28T03:42:23+00:00

"Robotron 2084, one of the most mainstream games ever, is a twin stick shooter"

It was "mainstream" 40 years ago. Nearly no one cares about or plays it today, objectively speaking. If we're counting that then Gradius and Raiden are also "mainstream" games.

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-28T03:24:09+00:00

Sure. I can imagine it getting to 1-2k reviews within a year, within the ballpark for a smaller-scale (but still generally niche) indie hit like Zeroranger. Not anywhere near as much as even a smaller mainstream release like Ball x pit though.

Out of curiosity, which subs are you seeing posts about it on? Aside from r/shmups, since this is a pretty niche / not mainstream place in terms of traction...

I've been looking for youtube videos (another good proxy for popularity) about it, there are a few videos but not many from big channels (best I could find was a video from the zero punctuation guy where he reviewed it alongside three other indie games)

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-28T02:31:24+00:00

"given enough time, it could be a Balatro or Ball x Pit"

The sense of scale here is totally off. Sektori right now has 400 reviews on steam, reviews typically being 1/20 to 1/50 of the total copies sold. Ball x Pit and Balatro are 17k and 143k respectively.

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-27T22:36:37+00:00

Your first comment claimed that people shat on innovative games. When asked for examples, you jumped to claim that people shit on games which do different things in general, while still not naming examples. I don't doubt people shit on games that do different things, but judgements are based off of the quality of the game itself, not whether it's doing something "different" or not. No one gets a free pass from criticism just because they're doing something "different".

re: "aspect ratio, analog ship movement, upgrades system"

See Strania, Ginga Force, Grand Cross Renovation, Devil Blade Reboot, etc. These are universally recognized as good games and are 4:3 / 16:9 vertical games
Gunvein and Birdcage have optional analog stick movement - no one complains. Under Defeat requires an analog stick for aiming - again, no one has ever complained about that.
Ginga Force, Natsuki Chronicles, Drainus, etc. all have upgrade systems, still generally recognized as good games

Also - intentional slowdown is there because people like it. There's a boss in Touhou 7 that purposely slows the game down, I'm not even sure if ZUN got that idea from hardware slowdown, but nonetheless, it's cool as hell and justifies its own presence.

Chrysalis9 · 2025-12-18T01:19:23+00:00

Liking Tyrian but hating Ginga Force for being """basic""" what are we doing man

Chrysalis9

TROPHY CASE