#team ladybug

[acquired-stardust]

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth PC 2021

[theblindarcher]

When the past catches up to you in various forms, desolation becomes strength.

Shin and Lux from Blade Chimera. Made to celebrate the game as my personal GOTY for 2025!

[blazehedgehog]

Let's say you're given the ability to greenlight a new game in as many different "branches" of the Sonic series as you like, even if they've never had games before. The catch being you have no oversight or input beyond the initial green flag. What would you tell the team(s) to take another crack at? (Will clarify the "branches" thing in a followup ask)

To clarify about the "branches" ask (not because of you, I always worry about my phrasing) basically I mean anything substantially different from other elements of the franchise. Sonic 1/CD/2/3&K/4/Mania would be one subset, but Chaotix is far enough away to be its own thing in my opinion. Adventure follows after the Genesis games but plays drastically different, 3D Blast and Labyrinth are close enough to be paired up, etc. Though of course it's all up to interpretation.

Give Tails another solo game. Heck, hire an indie developer to make a new Tails Adventure game. Get Team Ladybug to do it. Even though Takashi Iizuka says pixel art is a dead end, I don't care. Let them do it with pixel art.

Team Ladybug seems like a safe bet. But I was talking about this on stream... gosh, I think it was the last time I streamed, when I streamed part 1 of Freedom Planet 2...

Create like a fandom partner program. Deliberately relax quality standards a little bit. Just a little. Let fans make official Sonic fangames. Give them a special label so the mainstream public knows they are community projects, but with a little bit of official Sega backing. Let fans sell games released through this community program. Cultivate the future.

It is so easy to release a game on Steam. It is so cheap. Lean into that. Don't bother with Playstation or Xbox or Nintendo certification licensing. Do it PC only*. These are Sonic fangames with Sega's stamp of approval on them. They don't have to be huge grand scale type projects. Maybe an hour long would be good. Put a couple of those out a year for $6.99 or whatever. Kick start some careers.

If Sega wants another surprise success like Sonic Mania, this is how they find the team to build it. Short, experimental little Sonic fangames, with a little bit of oversight and some guidelines to prevent people from getting too violent, or weird, or doing other things that are off-limits.

It would be bold and revolutionary and it would kick every ass anyone's got.

If Sega wants to look forward and truly shift some paradigms, spending a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars on some nebulous metaverse "super game" isn't going to do it. Something grassroots and community forward will. The community has carried Sonic before. Might as well throw them a bone.

* Unless it blows up big. Then you can do a "Plus" release for consoles, again mirroring the Sonic Mania/Sonic Mania Plus dichotomy.

[vgadvisor]

[satoshi-mochida]

Touhou Luna Nights ‘5-Year Anniversary’ physical editions announced for PS5, Switch - Gematsu

Selecta Play will release “5-Year Anniversary” physical standard and limited editions for Touhou Luna Nights for PlayStation 5 and Switch in North America and Europe later in 2024, the distributor announced.

The standard edition will include a printed color manual and special sleeve. The limited edition includes a printed manual, an original soundtrack double CD, three alternative inlays, a serialized certificate of authenticity, and a SteelBook case, all housed in an oversized collector’s box.

Touhou Luna Nights is currently available digitally for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Watch the physical edition announcement trailer below. View a set of screenshots and package shots at the gallery.

Physical Edition Announce Trailer

North America

Europe

[gamesline]

A Perfectly Sharpened Blade - Blade Chimera (PC) Review

Team Ladybug made a new Metroidvania! John reviewed #BladeChimera and thought it was peak. Here's his full thoughts. Read the full article

[ladyirisreviews]

Drainus - Review

I'm very excited to review this, this is the third game of Team Ladybug, a developer team I am quite fond of, they made 2 of the best Metroidvanias out there and it might seem weird that their next game following 2 Metroidvanias was a shoot em up, but if you take a look at their 2 previous games, it does make sense.

Touhou Luna Nights is basically a fangame of the Touhou games, a bullet hell series, and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth had elements that were heavily inspired by shoot 'em ups, specifically, the element change system, which is similar to how Ikaruga works.

So them making a shoot 'em up seems very logical to me.

Another interesting fact is that this is their first completely original game, both of their previous games were based on an already existing franchise, so that makes this game even more special.

I'll start with a brief summary of the plot.

You follow Irina, a young woman who fights to destroy the evil galactic empire that has control over countless planets, she counts with the help of the incredibly handsome Gehnie, an artificial lifeform sent from the future.

He manages to steal the empire's secret weapon, the Drainus, and contacts Irina so she helps him free the universe from the empire.

The plot is fairly straightforward, but the inclusion of obtainable disks scattered through the levels, that contain conversations between characters on both sides of the conflict, help flesh out the world.

Now, moving out of the plot, because I don't want to spoil too much, let's get into the gameplay.

When you boil it down, it's a very classic shoot 'em up, but it has some features that make it stand out a lot, for starters, the whole draining mechanic.

When you enter draining mode, you drain all energy-based projectiles you come in contact with, and when you exit draining mode or run out of meter, all of the stored energy auto-targets the enemies.

It's very reminiscent of Ikaruga, like how the upgrade system is reminiscent of Gradius, but they add their own, very unique spin to the system.

You start with a basic weapon, and each upgrade item will unlock the next equipment you have equipped, it can be a different laser weapon, a fleet of mini ships with different properties, missiles, or even a stat boost.

You can unlock them with special points you get after defeating enemies, and after purchasing them you can equip them wherever you want.

The equipment level you are currently into is displayed in the top middle by the power-up meter, once you get all of your equipment unlocked, any new upgrade items will charge your bombs.

You can also buy hard upgrades for your Drainus, like unlocking more equipment slots, increasing the draining gauge, and increasing the number of bombs.

The upgrades also work like your life meter, when you get hit you lose your highest upgrade, and if you get hit while you have none at all, you lose a life, which I think is quite friendly for players who aren't that good at shoot 'em ups, like me.

But if you want a greater challenge, there is the option to enable 1-hit kills, making the game way harder.

You can also change the speed of your ship whenever you like, making maneuvering in tight spaces easier.

The actual levels are very dynamic, there's a wide selection of enemies, environments, and transitions that keep the level fresh and fun the whole time.

And as a cherry on top, the bosses are extremely cool.

Most of them have more than one bar of HP, and when it depletes they morph into a completely different machine, the music also aids these encounters greatly.

The whole OST is incredible, really.

These are all the first boss!

The artwork is also incredible, it's in my opinion the best artwork in any of their games to date, it's something to admire.

So in a few words, this game has very tight controls, gameplay, upgrade system, and difficulty customizations, while also counting with an incredible OST and artwork.

So if you like shoot 'em ups, it's a must-play, and even if you don't play a lot of shoot 'em ups, it's a game anybody can enjoy due to its difficulty options, it's just that good.

I can see myself getting lost in doing challenge runs on this game, like I have been doing in Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, except on this game it's way easier to determine the rules because of the levels of customization.

I really mean it when I say: Go play this game.

[fostersffff]

Man, you know a game is really fucking good when you make plans to buy it a second time when it comes to other platforms.

Please check out DRAINUS, the horizontal shooter from Team Ladybug (of Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth). I need to sit on it a while longer but I think this is the best horizontal shooter I’ve ever played, with a really excellent array of difficulties and an incredibly fun, overpowered-feeling (but not actually) central gimmick. Currently on Steam, hopefully coming to other stuff eventually!