Now there are a couple of modes of gameplay in Otomedius Excellent, but not as many as some would be expecting. There is a Story Mode, a Score Attack Mode and an online mode that allows for both local and online co-op play.
The story mode allows a player to choose from one of the seven characters available at the start of the game (though a few more can be unlocked) and then make their way through the various stages of the title in a linear order. There is just one problem with the story mode and that is, not only is it quite linear, but it is also very short. The whole story mode can be completed within an hour or two, however this is something that some people may be fond of, as most shoot’em up titles aren’t very long in the first place and this allows quick and painless playthroughs.
Painless is also something that should be mentioned for the title. There is a rather large difficulty curve here for those who accept the challenge. As you enter the Story Mode you can choose to select a difficulty setting ranging from Practice (where they even show the girls’ hitboxes) to Easy, Normal and Expert. Expert is a difficulty level which of course is for those who want to experience the biggest challenge, but it is also no more difficult than any other difficulty level.
In any difficulty level of Story Mode you are given three lives and can be killed by just getting touched by one bullet, which makes the title sound incredibly difficult at first. However players are provided with an infinite number of continues, which allows the player to start immediately back where they were once they died. The only negative to this is that players will lose their accumulated score. This mechanic actually works perfectly well, as it not only allows for hardcore shmup fans to try their hardest to get the highest score on the leaderboards, but it also opens up the title to those who may just want to play it casually or those who just aren’t good at the genre but want to enjoy what Otomedius Excellent has to offer.
Outside of Story Mode there is Score Attack mode, which is the true gameplay option for those looking to have their scores recognized. Score Attack mode places players in a Story Mode stage on the hardest difficulty and records their highest score and places it on the online leaderboards if the player chooses to. There is just one catch, unlike Story Mode, Score Attack will end your game once your three lives are up. This creates the best chance for hardcore fans to get the most out of the title and outdo their friends and fellow gamers with their favorite girl.
Besides your standard weapon, characters can be customized with various weapon cards that can be applied as upgrades to your girl’s aircraft. The weapon cards are unlocked as you go through each stage and there are quite a large number to unlock which provides plenty of replayability.
These weapon cards allow you to customize what weapon upgrades you can apply in battle. Upgrade spheres are dropped when the player defeats a whole squadron of enemies or a red colored enemy and then can be accumulated for stronger upgrades. This means you can save five upgrade spheres to create a protective shield, or use two to use a stronger weapon to help defeat the enemies and bosses that stand in your way.
Now fighting a boss isn’t anything unusual, and most of the time it is actually expected in a game such as this. However there is a unique mechanic in Otomedius Excellent which I found to be quite wonderful while at the same time a bit strange. Any time you meet up with a boss, whether a mid-stage or final stage boss, an invisible timer begins to tick, and if you don’t happen to beat the boss in that time period it simply will fly away. The reason this is interesting to me is that it feels quite realistic to see a nearly defeated boss fly away to escape destruction, but it also is a bit odd when you are losing terribly to the boss and she acts like she simply became bored and flies away.
Finally we have the multiplayer mode. Now the multiplayer mode comes two-fold, there is the local version which allows up to three players to play at one time on the same console. This creates plenty of excitement as three players have to fly around the screen, battle for power ups and avoid dying. There is also the online multiplayer mode, which one would think would be the meat of the co-op experience, but here it unfortunately isn’t. There is one limitation that holds the online multiplayer back and that is with the way deaths are handled.
When hosting a multiplayer match, any of your online buddies will be thrown to the score total screen while the original player must continue on their own. However if the hosting player happens to run out of lives first, then the game will end immediately for all players, which can be frustrating at times, meaning that if you are going to play with friends, the best player should host the match so this frustration won’t occur so easily. Plus the online community seems to be extremely small at this moment as I could not find a match at random and had to actually set one up outside of the game itself.
Overall:
Now the biggest accomplishment that Otomedius Excellent actually has, is the fact that it has been released overseas in North America in the first place. This is a nice treat however, as there are few games on the market that deliver the same experience that Otomedius Excellent does. There is a lot to love here for all types of shmup fans, though the lack of a challenge could put some off.
The easier difficulty does open the door for more casual players, though they may be disappointed with the game’s lack of story and length. Plus the co-op modes are just poorly implemented and could have been a great experience, but ultimately fall flat due to the way that they are structured. Of course the anime graphics and moé characters are going to sway some people’s decisions, but before you choose to walk away, take note that none of the fan service is very overt and focused on which saves people wary of such a thing from being uncomfortable while providing just enough for those who enjoy it. Otomedius Excellent is a very unique title in a genre which usually follows a strict structure, and while it doesn’t break much new ground it does provide an enjoyable experience.
