Bullet Hell Madness: Ghost Blade HD

Ghost Blade is another one of those “recent” Dreamcast games that go into history as “one of the last games on the system”, it took quite a while for Ghost Blade to reach current gen but you can get it on WiiU, PS4, PC and Xbone now and while a Switch version ain’t here yet that might change over time.

The current gen version is more than the added “HD” to the name, new graphics and more enemies, as well as various modes, have been added for both skilled and not-so-skilled players out there.

The Dreamcast version was way too hardcore for most people, easy mode and the likes have been added in the HD version so that normal gamers “might” stand a chance…

This is a screen you will see quite a lot, no matter which difficulty you choose.

The first impression i got was that “hey, this is not that hard”…   20 minutes later it was more like.. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!.

But do not run away just yet…

There is still fun to be had, loads of difficulty options, lots of continues have been added as well as a very generous 10 lives per credit option.

Ghost Blade HD also got a ship/style selector in good old-school tradition.

The insane amount of stuff going on at the same time has to be mentioned too, yes it is a bullet hell game indeed, but look at the shot above, see all those stars?…

Well, it is stuff to pick up… gazillions of them, all over the place, all the bloody time.

So what happens if you toss a gazillion pickups on a screen and then put a single bullet on the screen too?, well naturally you DIE instantly as you fly straight into the god damned bullet.. haha, yes it can be just like this in the game. 

But at the same time as you go crazy, you realise that there is a system in all of this…

Thank god for the energy bar in the game, you will learn to dodge stuff over time thanks to the game not being a total pain in the butt. You will have to play it quite a bit to master it, and while most enemy patterns in the game are straightforward, it is still a very hard game to guess your way through in terms of where the bullets go.

The music and sound design in the game perfectly capture that classic old-school vibe. At first, I actually suspected that some of the audio might have been lifted from other titles, so I put on my detective hat and started digging around.

To my surprise, the soundtrack reminded me a lot of the Söldner-X series while I was playing — the tone, energy, and feel were strikingly familiar. However, when I compared them side by side, I realized there were only minor similarities.

As it turns out, both games share the same composer: Rafael Dyll. I hadn’t made that connection until I began researching it, but in hindsight, it all makes perfect sense.

I’ve always loved Dyll’s distinctive style, and his work here is no exception — the soundtrack is fantastic and absolutely worth a listen if you’re into retro-inspired audio with a modern polish.

The graphics and gameplay are in line with what to expect from a title like this, flashy, and there are a lot of explosions to help cover the usual flaws, but everything fits here, very good use of colours and style in order to not cramp up the whole screen with “stuff”.

The 2-player mode in the game also works good and is a proper winner both in PLAYShare and couch-play due to not being too demanding internet speed-wise.

So what else is there to say about this, then? Is it fun? Will it be a timeless classic?

To me, no, i personally think that it is fun, but this is one of those titles that will be forgotten over the years, sadly. There are so many better titles out there in the same style. One thing, though, the PS4 screams for games like this, and to get more, we mean that we (BH fans) need to support just about every title that appears.

A brilliant Limited Edition of Ghost Blade HD was released a few months back, i wish i had been paying attention to it before they ran out of copies to sell…..  

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