Shikondo: Soul Eater

2018-11-09

Shikondo: Soul Eater is an indie Korean-style yokai bullet hell by DeerFarm in which you control two flying young women who combats demons who have entered our realm and are stealing souls. The default mode features grazing gameplay for charging a special attack meter and novice mode includes auto-bomb. There is no story to speak of, which is a missed opportunity, because these bosses just beg to have names and dialogue. The soundtrack is unfortunately limited but nicely compliments gameplay. You absolutely have to get into the charge mechanic because the 2-phase boss battles can be incredibly long without the higher-damage special soul attack, but this bullet hell is, as they say, “forgiving and fair,” and can be enjoyed by reasonable people and not just masochists. Difficulty ranges from Novice to Hardcore, and there is Boss Rush. There is also a custom mode where you can choose how the soul gauge is refilled (graze or damage) and so on. I don’t think I’ve seen a bullet hell that offers that type of customization before.

Shikondo has really beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds that draw the eye without overwhelming or distracting from bullets and some pretty gnarly bosses. Each transforms into a more sinister version during the second phase, so–for example–scary upsidedown tiddy boss becomes EVEN SCARIER UPSIDEDOWN TIDDY BOSS and I didn’t sign up for tiddies of any kind but whatever, I’ll take it. My favorite is the Level 3 boss, not just because I have a thing for spider ladies but because her patterns are really fantastic.

The game does not have keymapping, and at first I was really bummed because the more powerful attack requires a 2-button hold, which meant I couldn’t play for an extended amount of time with a controller (arthritis). Then I figured out there is an alternate mapping on the shoulder buttons and all was well.

My other gripe, and this sounds so petty, is that they zoom in on the bosses at the beginning of each phase and at the end of the battle, and since some of the art isn’t a high enough resolution it gets all pixelated and blobby. It’s weird they put so much effort into the backgrounds and GUI but didn’t use higher-resolution images for the bosses.

I had a bit of a disappointing shmup run for a while where I tried a lot of indie bullet hells that just didn’t click so I went into this one with no real expectations beyond having something pretty to look at and was pleasantly surprised. While Shikondo doesn’t bring anything new to the table in terms of mechanics I found it really enjoyable to play. The art style makes the bosses much more memorable and the bosses have a good variety of patterns. There aren’t many reviews or conversations about the Switch port of this game. I feel it’s a bit underrated and a solid rec for bullet hell fans.