Sylphia is your everyday tale of a hardened warrior fighting to protect the innocent, getting struck down by a surprise attack, only to be reborn as a winged demi-goddess with a mastery of the four elements. Well, maybe it's a every other day tale. I had originally planned on letting this shmup disappear like so many other vague yet pleasant memories, until I read that it was developed by Compile. Almost immediately, other reviews were tossed on the backburner as I revisited a world of fantasy and tiny arrows. Call me shallow, because I will gravitate towards recognizable names.
Whereas Seirei Senshi Spriggan had a learning curve and various complexities to explore, this title opts to cast its net wide, attempting to snag a fanbase that doesn't cut their teeth on Caravan Shooters. The most noticeable feature is the inclusion of a health meter. It'll take three hits to knock Silphia out of the sky, and I'm not talking Darius hits either. Getting shot by a giant laser doesn't count as five. Eat something harmful, enjoy a temporary reprieve from damage, and repeat two more times to achieve a loss of life. That's pretty generous. At least a couple of times per stage, a heart will float in the heroine's general direction. Collecting it fully restores her. Alright, that's kind-of overkill. Extends are awarded every 70,000 points. Sheesh! Talk about ridiculous! Forget the teeth-cutting, because this shmup might as well be cotton candy.
Am I fine with this? Oh, it's not even a question. I don't need my semi-daily dose of regurgitated projectile vomit to hit harder than a sack of hammers. An easy STG that has its shit together is always nice to have. Sylphia is a marriage of solid fundamentals and varied encounters. Robust, filling, and still sharp enough so that I can't sleepwalk through it on any difficulty setting above Easy. Plus, there's a bit of a raw thrill to actually feeling powerful. Sitting in the cockpit of the most advanced warfighter means so little to me when I'm a thumbtack away from obliteration. Being a demi-goddess with appropriately destructive capabilities and having anywhere from 9 to 39 "lives" to expend is like sweet ambrosia... or Golden Graham cereal bars. I'm sure I'll feel differently tomorrow, pretending as if shmups with health meters are illegitimate, but for now... let's sip from the cup of immortality.
Further straying from the madness of the previous Compile works I've covered is the selection of weapons. There are only four this time, and none are designed for niche circumstances. Wind is the easiest to use. Great coverage, solid damage. Water is divided into primary and secondary shots. The secondary fires opposite of the direction Sil is moving. Fun and rewarding to master. For raw power, nothing beats Rock. It crushes bosses with the quickness. Takes awhile to get used to do though, since it requires staying at mid-range. Also, enemies that fire a lot of destructible objects render it almost useless. Totally useless is Fire. Homing fireballs sound useful, but the damage from both primary and secondary is laughable. Use it if you've already no-damaged Super Hard mode, want a greater challenge, but don't want to move on from Sylphia. The heroine also has a giant laser. Seconds of invulnerability, huge damage, requires several gems to charge. It's cool.
This game's strongest asset is its variety. Each stage has its own series of problems that need solving. Granted, there's only so much that can done with shooting and/or dodging, but the developers made it work. There's something new to look forward to, and the newness isn't worn out by becoming some overbearing mechanic that drags on for five minutes. There's a consistent, fresh cycle that doesn't reach exhaustion nor boredom. The Tower stage keeps it cute with rock-throwing titans and a chimera mini-boss that leaps to keep up with Sil. At no point do the titans line up in rows to create mini-meteor shower. Gimmicks stay gimmicky in order to keep the player's attention on what matters. Also, at least as far as I've noticed, it's the little guys with the little bullets that do the most damage. Gear-heaving statues, giant-tongued clouds, and many other oddities give the world texture. It's not always about threatening players or trying to steal their (many) lives away. Though the difficulty isn't appropriate, it still feels like our heroine is battling the underworld in its entirety. That's the secret to a fulfilling adventure.
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| A mid-boss that's just begging to be milked (for points). |
Sylphia is also quite good as a teaching shmup. Its weapons, stages, and bosses all dip into concepts common to the genre. They're presented to players without uttering a single word, training them for a potential future in an unforgiving warzone. As early as the first boss, the value of using the entirety of the screen to avoid danger is effectively communicated. Spatial management, positioning, all of those subtle yet essential qualities become more pronounced as players move onto the harder difficulties. I don't know how much value a professional would see in this kind of game, but I appreciate what it's doing. There's plenty to learn, and I don't feel like an infant platypus when I make a mistake. The enemies getting tankier on Hard & above is a questionable decision. Most bosses won't survive for more than a minute regardless, but it does affect certain enemies. The grey blobs in particular have a better chance of landing a hit before they're destroyed. Well, adapting is learning, so I guess I can't question too much.
If you need a generic conclusive paragraph, then I'm afraid you'll have to make one up. There's not a lot else for me to say. I like the game.
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