Konami’s Cygni: All Guns Blazing recently came out, and to say that it’s been incredibly divisive would be an understatement. Those unfamiliar with the shoot ’em up (shmup) genre have praised its high-budget presentation and its incorporation of unconventional mechanics. Those who regularly play shmup games, however, felt differently, condensing their overall feelings towards Cygni in a choice few words. Obviously, we can’t repeat them here. We won’t argue if either party is necessarily “right.” But it certainly reminded the general public that this niche genre is still alive and well in the modern day, albeit in a reduced capacity. This is especially true in the indie scene.
Angel at Dusk, developed by Akiragoya and published by Henteko Doujin in January 2024, asks a simple question: What if you meld pulse-pounding bullet hell gameplay with an ample amount of malformed body horror?
Despite the prominence of fleshy overtones, the cascading tidal waves of enemy projectiles, and a morbid premise tying the two concepts together, you’ll rarely find coverage of this monstrous indie game from larger publications. The closest thing I could personally find is a small highlight from Rock, Paper, Shotgun, simply highlighting its most evident features and its pending release date. Some other publications, like GameGrin, also gave their takes closer to its original release. Now’s a perfect time to highlight this obscure shmup in the face of growing genre awareness. It’s also because it’s really good. We’ll get to that.
Skeletons, Flesh, and Bullets, Oh My
The year is 2,300,000,000 AD. For convenience, we’ll just call it the deep future. Mankind has entered a near-total utopian state, as scientific advancements led to the gradual dissolution of society’s biggest ills. Crime, pain, and desire are no more. Nutrition is no longer a cause for concern. Yet, as evil persists, a drastic decision was made: to eliminate sin and intellect at their core, allowing humanity to transcend their physical coil into the realm of angeldom.
Angeldom meaning that you turn into horrible, fleshy monstrosities, of course.
With the Earth in ruin and the distant sun starting to expand its reach, you’ll find yourself carving through skeletal monsters, flesh pustules, monstrous bosses, and whatever else the mind can conjure up when you think of Hellish monstrosities. As you soar through the air, you’ll take the form of a similarly grotesque vehicle, taking on hundreds of foes high in the sky and down on the ground.
The game’s store page compares its bony mobs to its own design philosophy — it’s a game that is “uncompromisingly skeletal,” where “every last ounce of excess has been cut away.” There’s certainly some truth to this. If you need more than some flavor text for your sprawling body horror narrative, you may want to look elsewhere. The game is all action, equally emphasized by its incredibly straightforward menu interface.
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Along with featuring an extensive tutorial that explains each of its unique mechanics in detail, Angel at Dusk features a handful of different game modes that each play drastically differently. You have the traditional arcade mode, which places you on a fixed series of levels that reward memorization and careful play. This mode relies on pairing you with a series of fixed ships that each play differently. You also have the original mode, which allows you the freedom to pick whichever weapons you want to ultimately break the game’s balancing. This comes in two forms: the ordinary story mode and Chronicle, a series of escalating challenges that quickly ratchet up the difficulty. Branching paths, alternate bosses, and brand-new weapons await.
It’s a game that certainly respects your time. The tutorial is nothing short of exhaustive. Each of the arcade modes can be cleared in just over 20 minutes or so. The Chronicle mode is quick to start and even quicker to die in. There really is little, if any, fluff to speak of.
What the game is certainly full of, however, is grotesqueness. Skulls, entrails, and glands of all shapes and sizes will make up twisted apparitions of what used to be human beings. The art is nothing short of inspired, bearing some visual resemblances to the kind of biomechanical and sexually charged illustrations popularized by H.R. Giger. Instead of embodying greys and lifeless greens, the art here comprises bony whites and fleshy pinks and reds. It’s even reflected in the game’s UI, where loose eyeballs and twisted pieces of meat adorned with teeth surround your crucial information.
The Mechanics of Angel at Dusk
Every shmup is carried by its own individuality. Cygni, for instance, utilized its widescreen format and controversial movement system to differentiate itself from its contemporaries. Likewise, Angel at Dusk has plenty to bring to the table in terms of unique mechanics:
- Close-Proximity Combat: Arguably, the biggest thing Angel at Dusk has going for it is its encouragement to head straight into danger. You’re not punished for bumping into enemies — instead, you’re rewarded for dealing damage as close to your enemy as possible via generating additional power-ups.
- Destroying Enemy Projectiles: You can effectively destroy some — but not all — enemy projectiles through the use of a powerful charge attack, demanding that you pay attention to specific attack patterns to make the most use of them.
- Multiple Ways to Play: If you’re not a big fan of the arcade mode, you’ll be able to play the game in an entirely different way, gradually improving your ship and making its tremendous challenges a bit more manageable.
The last of these points is arguably the most engaging thing that Angel at Dusk has to offer. While most shmups thrive on the player’s self-improvement and gradual memorization of their many challenges, an alternative means to play that provides a different form of tangible progression makes for a drastically different experience. Scrapping the numerous weapons you’ll find will give you resources you can use to upgrade key attributes like your health, your overall speed, and the distance needed to grab items. The numerous weapons you find will also give you a competitive edge in later Chronicle stages, as the increased damage will become essential in managing hordes of tankier enemies.
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Beyond just appealing to two different camps, Angel at Dusk effectively creates two forms of progression: one wherein your skills will drive you forward and one wherein the power of your ship itself can help supplement your accrued skills. Should you get tired of one game mode, you’re subconsciously incentivized to try the other for a bit. It’s a fascinating system. Playing the Chronicle mode gave me a similar kind of euphoria I felt whenever I would run through seasonal characters in Diablo III — every new weapon meant that I was moving forward in some way, even if it was just going to be scrapped for something more advantageous later.
What’s most surprising of all is that Angel at Dusk is probably one of the most beginner-friendly shmups I’ve ever seen. Its unsettling atmosphere and artwork may give off an alternate impression, but rest assured, this shmup is a relatively smooth ride throughout. Even with a lack of extensive experience in the genre, I managed to clear both arcade missions in a single go with only a handful of hits taken Even then, getting hit is hardly an issue, as playing aggressively is the key to quickly regaining any health points you may have lost.
Should You Buy Angel at Dusk?
Combined with a plethora of available control options (including full controller support), an additional arcade chapter that needs to be unlocked, and dozens of distinct pieces of lore to find, Angel at Dusk is legitimately fantastic shmup that, surprisingly, appeals to a variety of different players. It’s something that I was legitimately surprised to be so attached to, especially when you consider the genre’s legacy for incredible difficulty.
In some ways, I wonder if this is the best approach for “revolutionizing” the shmup genre. Going back to Cygni again for a moment, a common consensus you’ll find throughout critical reviews and promotional materials alike is that it attempted to revamp shmups for a newer, broader audience. There’s nothing wrong with this. The game’s presentation was certainly a plus. But many who’ve come to love shmups tended to dislike the game’s refusal to adhere to established genre conventions, among other issues — the biggest of which being its incredibly long levels.
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But Angel at Dusk, at least in some ways, feels like a more efficient step in the right direction. It’s a compromise between its two differing progression systems. Traditionalists can play arcade mode and get plenty of enjoyment from score-chasing while tolerating the other modes. Meanwhile, those who want to make themselves as powerful as possible can enjoy grinding away in both the original story mode and Chronicle mode to their heart’s content. The two modes only bolster each other’s playability.
Overall, Angel at Dusk was well worth its upfront asking price. Its unique presentation hides one of the most user-friendly indie games I’ve played in a long time, let alone in the shmup genre. I could genuinely recommend it to someone who isn’t familiar with the genre—if they can look past its strange aesthetics, of course.
Angel at Dusk is currently available on Steam. A free demo is available if you want to try it before buying it.
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