Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

All Your Drainus Are Belong to Us

While I'm familiar with the sidescrolling shooter video game genre, I'll acknowledge that my experience with them is limited, with perhaps the most notable one of which I know being Zero Wing, albeit due to its questionable writing and inspiration of internet memes. I'm also hesitant to try out older entries in the genre due to their alleged and notorious old-school difficulty, only playing Team Ladybug's Drainus due to getting it at a discount for purchasing it on Steam alongside two of their Metroidvania titles, and while it does contain old-school aesthetics regarding sound and sight, does it take contemporary gamers in mind?

Drainus follows Irina, the daughter of a sick slave from the planet Halpax, ruled by the Karlal Empire headed by Izumo, joined by a froglike soldier, Ghenie, with Irina seeking to save her father by stealing one of the eponymous starfighters and attempting to overthrow the empire to prevent a galactic war. Aside from the absence of enigmatic, fully-armored antagonists, the game is not shy about its Star Wars and general science-fiction inspirations, elements such as time travel also being plot hole fodder; however, aspects such as backstory-revealing recorders found throughout the gameplay stages balance things out. Aside from some save screen oddities and remnant Japanese in a few tutorials, the translation contains plenty of polish, and the acronym OK is acceptable with the futuristic setting.

Although there is a tutorial explaining the general game mechanics, the learning curve for Drainus, especially among those such as me with finite experience playing sidescrolling shooters, is steep. The eponymous spaceship can initially fire simple laser projectiles, which come in different forms the player can purchase with crystals gained from downing adversarial vessels. Another critical move is a laser shield that absorbs the enemy's beam attacks instead of causing damage, the release of the guard button unleashing absorbed power back against all enemies on the gameplay screen. At any time, the player can restart the current stage or reattempt a previous one without fear of losing enhancement crystals.

The player's ship initially has three attacks linked with the standard attack button, which can be of different types, including varying forms of laser fire, missiles, independent ship bits that attack by themselves, and so forth. One can purchase two more slots for the various gunfire incarnations, not to mention additions to the laser shield like automatic activation whenever an enemy's beam-based attack strikes the Drainus or another type like a red physical projectile contacts the ship (which the standard vessel defense doesn't deter). Players can also fire a super-cannon with different forms, buyable from the upgrade shop, and needs to recharge as they advance through a stage.

Finally, one can purchase additional nodes for the laser shield and super-cannon for extended defensive capability and the latter's respective attack. Drainus itself plays similarly to sidescrolling shooters before it, with powerups obtained from blasting enemy ships unlocking the use of whatever attacks the player has equipped on the titular ship. Damage reduces the player’s attack level by one, and receiving an attack at the lowest level costs the player a life. Mercifully, however, the player revives at the spot where they died, given a brief chance to collect a spawned powerup or two.

The loss of all lives results in a Game Over, in which case the player can either restart the stage with upgrade purchases preserved or "Retry," which, when used after death in a boss fight, revives them at the first stage of whatever multistage end-level adversary they face. The game mechanics overall work surprisingly well, even for those unaccustomed to sidescrolling shooters as I admittedly am; however, given the visual direction, the action can be chaotic, sometimes resulting in unintentional deaths throughout the game. Drainus also lacks a suspend save capability, so if the player has to break from the game for real life, they have to start whatever stage they were on from the start. Even so, Team Ladybug's game may look like a sidescrolling shooter from an age long gone, but the gameplay accommodates players of all skill levels.

Aside from the absence of a suspend save feature, control is decent and easy to get used to, and gameplay is pausable as it should be in any video game featuring real-time elements. In the case of Game Overs, the player can "retry" at the last checkpoint, unfortunately unindicated, but the first forms of the bosses seem to be among them. However, a suspend save would have been welcome, but Drainus overall could have interacted with players far worse.

The retro-styled shooter has a soundtrack that easily fits its scientific setting with plenty of mechanical, techno-sounding tracks; however, the noise of the player and enemy's ships firing at one another can drown out the music. The only real annoyance is the incoherent robotic voice that occasionally plays during various gameplay actions, but the aurals still rise above average.

Drainus also shines visually, with 16-bit-style graphics bearing pixilated elements but still fluid in looks and animation, with nice effects, some of which one could describe as 2.5-dimensional, good ship designs, diverse environments, and fitting colors. However, the action can become chaotic depending on how well the player grasps the game mechanics. Furthermore, while the character designs mostly look decent and have lip animation during cutscenes, there are minor stylistic oddities like Izumo looking somewhat creepy and Layla appearing in-game as a cross between a Star Wars Imperial officer and Michael Jackson. Nonetheless, the shooter proves that many retro graphical styles can age well.

Finally, a straightforward playthrough can range from three to six hours, with aspects like different difficulty settings and modes, Steam achievements, finding all recorders, obtaining every powerup, and the game’s shortness amounting to a significant lasting appeal. However, players might find gameplay more taxing on challenge settings above Easy.

On the whole, Drainus does indeed consider modern gamers despite its well-presented old-school sound and sight, with the gameplay accommodating players of different skill levels, from the casual to the masochist, and given its brevity, naturally contains above-average lasting appeal. However, there is a learning curve for those unaccustomed to titles of its genre, the narrative barely strikes new ground, and the visuals can become chaotic depending on how one plays the game. Regardless, as this was the first game developed by Team Ladybug I played, I definitely won't hesitate to take its other productions for a spin.

The reviewer played to the standard ending using a Steam Deck through a Docking Station on a television with a controller.