Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II Or Bust! (Tengai (PS2))

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Tengai (PS2)
Date:	16/02/09 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A solid shmup in samurai setting

Disadvantages: Instant infinite continues, no real rewards, pointless score system

I was disappointed to find that PAL copies of Wild Arms 4 had a game-freezing bug, given that 505 Games (or 505 GameStreet as they were known) tend to publish titles in low numbers. Anyway...

Tengai (or Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II) is a horizontally scrolling shmup that had previously been ported to the Sega Saturn (Japan only), so expect sprite-based graphics fitting for a 32-bit console. This PlayStation 2 port has no performance problems. It's a seemingly routine port, where rapid-fire is taken care of with seperate fire buttons in customisable controls, but it's a port that is perhaps without great consideration - no auto-save, and the auto-load of memory card does not deal with adjusted screen position. (Oh, and they mis-spelt "successful".) The background music seems about audible, but there's no adjusting the audio levels.

There's a Practice mode which allows the player to play through a stage at any difficulty they want, but it feels a wasted opportunity what with the lack of incentives.

As for the main mode, I'm pretty sure that the resuming of points after a loss of credit is true for the arcade as well, but coupled with being able to continue-as-you-wish from the off-set, and with the extend (of life) being reached roughly once in the inital loop, the score system feels rather pointless. There may be a ranking title to go along with a high score, but there's no immediate access to view the board. The infinite continues was why I preferred playing this game on my own than on two-player, since should the single player lose a credit, they start the stage again. So at least there was a proper challenge.

The five playable characters are consistent in their movement, but their firepower differs, down to their charged attacks. Collecting P-scrolls ups their power, whereas B-scrolls grant an extra smart-bomb, of which this is also unique for each character. Contact with the enemy sees their firepower go down, and it's a loss of life when hit by a bullet. Straightforward stuff.

With each character and each pair of characters, there can be a different ending depending on the path you choose. It's a shame that there's no unlocking them for watching whenever - so as to serve as a checklist of sorts, since they are so brief. The same could be said for the snippets of story in-between stages. As it's not stated who says what it can take a while to figure out. Sometimes it simply doesn't make sense but when Koyori is involved, someone is sure to say something about her bust!

Apparently, Psikyo is known for their games to be extremely difficult on second loops. This holds for Tengai - in the second loop (which comes after completion on Normal difficulty and above) the suicide attacks of enemies make sure it's well hard! Though not a speedy shmup, Tengai is decently designed. There are no great surprises but equally, there's no getting caught out cheaply. However, it lacks long term appeal.

Summary: A solid Psikyo shmup in samurai setting