An Oath to the Stars

This is a slick and polished hardcore shoot'em up, with a story told through neat cut scene illustations. There are huge bosses, and some welcome extra features like co-op play. The sound effects, timing, and controls make the game "feel" just right, and should be the cup of tea of any fan of the genre :-)

I would recommend Oath to the Stars primarily to dedicated bullet hell fans - those who like to replay these games over and over, chasing high scores or a 1CC on the highest difficulty. It's not really that hard to simply finish the game (I managed it on my third attempt on normal), but you will die plenty and burn a lot of continues until you take the time to learn the enemy and bullet patterns. Oath is very tough. It's probably the toughest shmup out of the several dozen others I've played on Steam so far. Unlocking any of the higher-level achievements would be a major accomplishment. But it's also fair, and the design is sound enough that I felt I could always avoid death, with enough practice and better reflexes. If you're not the type of shmup player that craves a stiff challenge, then it may not appeal to you much. I bought this game for $4 during the summer sale, which is a good deal, but I wish the developer would flesh it out a little more, like by adding more story illustra...

An Oath to the Stars is a free shmup made by Italians with fairly sadistic design and a "kill enemies to charge up your super laser" gimmick that doesn't actually help you with most of the things that kill you in the game. While I beat it on the hardest difficulty via blatant quarter-feeding, it left me with the impression this game is just kind of a frustrating joke, and no wish to look at it again. Not recommended, too hard and not in a particularly fun way.

Too short game :-( Not bad Touhou clone for beginners, also it contains co-op mode fun :)