Strania: Side Vower 1CC - Hard Mode, 9DAN Weapon Rank (1440p 60fps)

Final Score: 16 767 730
Player: ec2151/emperoring360
Played on the Steam port
Click to read my review.

I have put an ungodly amount of time into the new Switch port/HD revamp of this awesome game. Since I do not have a way of recording switch footage, I thought I would play through the steam version after I had gotten my goal of a Hard Mode, Side Vower 1cc with all weapons awarded a max skill rank. Luckily, despite choking and failing in nearly every run on switch, I got two back-to-back 1cc's, PBs, and hit my goals on the steam port... even though the switch port was rebalanced to be easier! How does that work, huh?

Strania is an interesting game. It is not danmaku - in fact it is clearly inspired by older, classic shmups like Image Fight or Cybattler in particular. These games emphasized positioning, clever routing, and frequent use of an expanded weapon arsenal as opposed to inundating a player with massive bullet waves. G.Rev's games can often be seen as a type of modern throwback - a polished, stylish, and refined take on the genre before games like Dodonpachi and the like decisively shifted it towards bullet hell. In that regard it is a breath of fresh air, and other indie shmups (like Zeroranger) seem to take some obvious inspiration from G.Rev's more idiosyncratic approach.

So you have a game with a large arsenal of weapons and you are encouraged to use all of them. While new players might stick with some strong weapons to come to grips with the game's punishing levels (like Rocket, Direction, and Sword), the more the player becomes familiar with the game the more he or she will seek out new tools for every situation. In fact, the game's scoring is built around this. The more you use your weapons, the more they are awarded "skill" rankings, shown in the corner. The more ranks you attain, the more your score goes up. This turns out to be very important in gaining extends and let me tell you, you will need them. This game, lacking a second loop like Under Defeat, has to pack all of its difficulty into 25 minutes instead of UD's more leisurely pace.

Another interesting gimmick: Strania depicts a galactic war between two factions - the human federation (the good guys?) and the Vower, some technological theocratic warrior society. You can choose which side you want to play as, and fight the other! Most people will stick to the Star Federation, but a real treat is waiting for you if you pick Side Vower. The stage order is completely reversed - your stage 1 is the final stage of the Strania campaign, and so on. This puts an interesting spin on what was going on in those levels as you were playing the other campaign, and with the changed mission objectives, it is a really clever way to reuse assets and flesh out the game world. If you only play one side, you are only getting half the story!

I wonder what exactly the federation even needed me for in Strania, since the Feds seem to be more than capable of kicking my sorry Vower ass... Bosses are unique to each side, and these bad boys do not mess around. Side Vower in general is much harder than Strania, with a lot more tight spaces, enemy ambushes, and challenging bosses.

In this video, I route my way through the game so as to achieve my coveted 1cc with every weapon at max skill rank - a DAN ranking. Because some of the bosses and enemy weapon drops have a degree of (maddening) RNG to them, sometimes you have to play catchup. This is why my fight against the stage 5 boss looked sloppy - I was unable to DAN-rank the Vulcan gun at the end of stage 4 like I usually do. This led to me panicking and trying to level it up before finally being able to switch to Sword. Luckily I got it in time. This whole run came down to the wire - I cannot tell you how many times I choked to the final boss's final attack, especially on the switch port.

In short, this game is excellent and continues the trend of excellent GREV games. On the Switch, Strania is rebalanced to have weapons fire more and deal more damage, while boss health is slightly lowered. Whereas the Xbox360 original had you pay DLC for Side Vower, on switch and steam, you can select either campaign (highly worth it!). Any way you can play the game, just do it! You won't regret it.

Video of my other run, this time with live commentary (and questionable audio):
  / 2418977058  

00:00 - Stage 1
01:53 - Boss 1
02:35 - Stage 2
04:34 - Rival Showdown 01
06:34 - Stage 3
08:22 - Boss 3
10:00 - Stage 4
11:48 - Rival Showdown 02
13:32 - Stage 5
15:27 - Boss 5
17:47 - Stage 6
19:35 - Boss 6
22:22 - Final Duel
24:05 - Ending and Credits
26:40 - Post Credits Epilogue and Ranking Screen

#strania #grev #shmup