"Stellar design makes it the best shooter around."

Shikigami no Shiro 2 for the Gamecube - Otherwise known as The Castle of Shikigami 2.

If you're a fan of 2D veritcal shooters then this game is just what you crave.

Features
-16 different character modes (8 characters and each has two forms to choose)
-An online ranking with 17 different scoreboards to work on. Passwords for the ranking can be viewed any time by going to the in game scoreboards so no having to worry about writing them down.
-Simple scoring system. The more danger you're in the more points you get for killing things. Sit as close to bullets and enemies as possible without hitting them.
-An art gallery
-Two different music modes
-An easy mode for beginners
-2 player co-operative play
-Slowdown can be turned on and off. The arcade had slowdown, so leaving it on makes it like the arcade.
-Practice modes that keep track of your best scores for each area
-10 levels and 11 bosses

Review
The game is superb. Absolutely a blast to play. This will take a while to explain, but bear with me here. At least I've already explained the basic features for all the people who don't want a novel.

Basic gameplay: Each character has a regular shot a charge up move and a bomb attack. Your attacks do more damage the closer you are to danger and you get more points for killing enemies while in danger. It's called the tension system. The modifiers go from 2x to 8x depending on how close you are. The basic way a normal player would use this system is by sitting near some slow moving bullets. Of course if you're good you can just go nuts with this system, but no need to torture yourself unless you're insane (like me!). Your hit box is, of course, only the very center of your character. Now, depending on how much tension you were under when you defeated an enemy, more coins will pop out. If you were using the normal gun, the coins will scatter around. If you were using the charge up move, they will automatically fly into you. That means that you want to use your charge move as much as you can to score big. The charge moves are very cool and unique. Before I go on about them, though, I need to explain the three kinds of bullets. There are red bullets which can be destroyed by being hit by your gun or charge move. There are little yellow bullets which one character can eat up with her charge move. And, there are indestructable bullets. Now, to explain the charge moves with some examples: one character has a spirit that automatically kills anything on the screen as fast as it can. This allows you to just focus on staying near bullets and nothing more to get bigger score modifiers. The faults of this character are that he is much more susceptible to big red bullets since he's not shooting at all while his spirit is out. Another is that the spirit is weak. His bomb is also not very good. Another character can eat red and yellow bullets with a spinning blade that comes out of her. This sounds super good, but the blade is not that strong and it's lack of range makes it so that on bosses you usually need to use your normal gun. Using your normal gun is very much not desirbale in this game. You move twice as fast usually when you're not doing the charge move. Makes it much harder to avoid the bullets. You also tend to get less score as stated because the coins will not come right into you. They will scatter. YES some characters have higher scoring potential than others, but that is precisely why there are 17 different scoreboards! It may sound daunting to have so many, but it's not at all. It makes it fun that if you have a heartbreaking game with one guy you can take a break and play as someone else for a while. You'll still see the same levels but you'll be using someone new who has to approach them in a different way.

Design: This game is just like part one in every way except design; that is a fantastic thing in this case. Part 1 was a good game, but it had a lot of areas where I felt helpless to avoid things and it didn't mix things up enough. Part 2 now gives you elegant bullet patterns but still throws in a enough chaos to make it different every time. Add in the 16 character modes and you have a shooter that just won't get old. To top it all off, some levels and bosses take a page right out of Radiant Silvergun or Ikaruga.
For example: Level 3-1 is a series of moving blocks with different paths to go up so that you have to avoid lots of bullets while navigating past the walls. This is a lot like chapter 2 of Ikaruga or some parts on chapter 4 of RS. If you didn't like either of those games but liked some of the design then you might fall in love with that.

Another example of design brilliance: The 3-1 boss. (Sorry for picking on 3-1) There are a bunch of indestructable turrets up top that throw out patterns of bullets. To win the fight you need to destroy all the bricks that drop down. The bricks are organized into rows of five and they drop down as time passes or as you clear them. There are three kinds of bricks: red, grey and gold. Red can be harmed by hitting them with your charge move. Grey can be destroyed by your main gun. Gold cannot be destroyed except by lining them up. Any blocks will disappear if you make a row of all that color. Basically the boss incorporates a modren shooter with a puzzle game, and that is awesome in my book.

As for the difficulty, it remains pretty consistent. You're not going to suddenly get clobbered later on. YES it gets harder and approaches insanity at the final boss, but you will never ever feel hopeless. You can always spot a pattern or see what you could do next time to avoid getting in a sticky spot. Don't get me wrong here: The game is super tough...

As for the graphics and sound: They both get the job done. Nothing mind blowing. If you dislike one music set you can pick the other. The gameplay is so good that it doesn't matter. The sound effects do help the gameplay in one way, though: A high pitched noise will indicate whether your tension meter is high or not. It doesn't get annoying. You also get an increasingly redder aura the higher it is. Everything about the color and sound effect use only serves to help the game.

There's one more thing I'd like to add and that is about how the life bonuses work. You get extra life at set point amounts. The thing is though, that you can never go over 3 lives. If you are at three lives when you get to the bonus amount then you just get another bomb. Every time you die you also get another bomb! This may sound terrible, but I like it a lot. It means that even if you mess up early on you actually won't necessarily lose anything. Finally a shooter that allows some mistakes without almost any penalty. In some shooters I would restart if I died on level 1 or 2. Now I feel compelled to play more because I know that I'm going to get back to full lives eventually if I play well overall. You only get that game over by clearly messing up way too much. GOOD stuff.

10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/03