clockworks bullet hell

Title says it all. Has less blatant “Windows Classic Touhou” (TH06-TH09) references than some of the develop’s older games, but it keeps some of the laser-heavy setups that feel very “Marisa” (although they were possibly influenced by a few other laser lovers from slightly more recent games). It also has some new patterns with clear inspiration from newer Touhou games and/or aspects of the Windows Classic ones not previously referenced (the turret on a few bosses that acts like a few of TH08 Boss!Reimu’s attacks, for example). Detailed review of the ships: #1 is basically easy mode: fast, powerful spread shot, and lots of HP plus a solid defensive active (remove nearby bullets, several times per fight). #2 and #4 are fairly basic glass cannons, although #2 can sometimes pull trick-shot strikes with the backwards guns, and #4 has a limited ability to misdirect aimed patterns; both are held back sometimes by their limited range, too. #3 is a defensive juggernaut with good power and several uses of short-duration invincibility, but it’s slow. #5 is a glass cannon, but a lot of enemies are VERY vulnerable to its back-shot and it gets a decent duration of forward shooting when attacking from above isn’t useful. #6 and #7 are basically more technical versions of #1 (high power… at least when you can focus your attacks properly… and good defense), but lack its panic button active. #8 is all about trick shots, attacking with high power from whatever angle the foe is least protected against, but hitting fast enemies when not direction-locked is often nearly impossible. #9 is a glass cannon whose “cannon” comes mostly from the absurdly powerful active that heavily damages even the toughest turrets and instantly destroys most… if it hits what you aimed for (as opposed to waking up a new threat much sooner or just missing entirely). #10 is pure endurance, able to simply plow through many walling patterns and repair itself instead of trying to evade them, but lasers are still a threat and the anemic offense means bigger enemies often activate new weapons faster than you can pick apart the old ones. #11 is basically a hybrid of #4 and #6 (good power coming mostly from trailing options, misdirects aimed attacks, decent HP), but even more awkward to control than #6. Finally, #12 has good guns and armor, but the off-center fire and extremely low speed make it probably the hardest to use.