The gameplay of Raiden and R-Type finally merges with the MMO genre, but is it what SHMUP players have been looking for? Find out!

Of all the months where I get swamped under with work and school, November is definitely the worst of the bunch. Not only is it a time when students around the world sequester themselves in libraries to churn out essays galore, but it also happens to be a time when the gaming world perks up and goes into a development frenzy to catch the Christmas / winter rush in general. Unfortunately, when it comes to most college kids who have to pay their tuition from their own shallow pockets, 'serious' MMO gaming also happens to be one of the first casualties of the ultra packed student schedule.

I noted earlier that 'serious' MMO gaming tends to die as I get busier and busier, and this is mostly due to the fairly hefty time commitments required to really "get into" my MMO sessions. Interestingly enough, however, when I find that my deeper MMO gaming goes down, my 'casual' MMO playing tends to go up; 'casual' being MMOs that are usually very solo friendly and require very little time to really get "into" the game itself. In this way, when I'm feeling burnt out from working on a project, it's a simple matter of firing up one of my many "popcorn" MMOs to get a good, light gaming refreshment. Unfortunately, the one problem with 'popcorn' MMO gaming is that the more popcorn-ish the MMO becomes (as in easy to play, easy to get into and easy to forget), the more it tends to rely on some kind of time extending factor to maintain the façade of depth (massive grind being the typical answer). Either way, while you don't have to work very hard to see everything that my latest chosen popcorn MMO, Valkyrie Sky, has to offer, there is still something to be appreciated in the world's very first MMOSHMUP.

If you haven't already been introduced to the "SHMUP" genre, it's the basic game concept behind classic side scrolling (or top down) spaceship shooters, complete with collecting powerups galore whilst weaving amongst enemy bullets and ships. The "SHMUP" here is short for "Shoot 'Em Up," and it's probably one of the more ancient gaming genres in the history of this industry. Games like Asteroids, Gladius and R-Type are all the sort shooter games that audiences have grown to appreciate but, since many players feel that the average shoot 'em up is quite shallow in comparison to its the more ambitious sister-genre, the RPG, the popularity of SHMUPs has waned quite considerably since the advent of the PS2.

Of course, the SHMUP genre is not one to die so easily, especially given the fact that it has such a distinguished lineage. While casual gamers may believe SHMUPs to have simply 'ran out' of steam in the form of the failed Gladius and R-Type remakes, much of the genre has simply gone underground and has remained so for years. These days the Japanese have really revolutionized the "SHMUP" industry with the concept of "bullet hell shooters" (aka maniac shooters) that can, at times, literally fill the screen with enemy bullets while forcing the player to dodge them all via super-precise movements. The culmination of this expansion of the SHMUP genre would eventually see mainstream recognition in the form of Ikaruga, a ridiculously difficult maniac shoot 'em up that blended old school "blow stuff up" concepts with newer developments, like the ability to absorb certain bullets and fire off powerful lasers as you absorb more of the same bullet.

In reality, there aren't too many ways for the shooter 'em up genre to evolve, and where Ikaruga just decided to 'up' the difficulty of the game, other shooters have attempted to implement an "RPG" style of play to their games, and Valkyrie Sky would be the end culmination of all of those efforts. Developed by Yolim Communications and published by small-time Asian MMO publishers "GameKiss," Valkyrie Sky is pretty much what happens when you introduce the MMORPG genre to something as alien as the SHMUP style. In Valkyrie Sky, players can choose between four unique character classes (these classes can then sub-specialize into four+ additional subclasses like Knights, Warriors, Protectors, etc), to smash through levels and bosses in a SHMUP style of gameplay. What makes Valkyrie Sky so unique, however, is that the world players enter is meant to support an MMO community, and you can play with up to four players in PvP (odd, yes) or to tackle more difficult dungeons.

Of further interest is that the team has clearly tried to take on MMO standards to implement in their game. One of the classes, the Warrior, is clearly designated as a tank, and so she gains the unique ability to destroy bullets with her sword. Of course, this comes with a heavy penalty, as the Warrior is then forced to 'melee' in a game where getting hit even once by a bullet or an enemy body can sometimes spell death for your character. The other three characters, the Summoner, the Mage and the Archer, are all ranged classes, but each of them fulfills a different role. The Mage is pure damage and offence, while the Summoner is more focused on… well… summoning monsters and supporting the team. The Archer seems to be more based on being a physical damage dealer with just a touch of ranged support mixed in.

In reality, it might seem kind of odd to see such 'classic' MMO concepts present in a game primarily designed as a light shoot 'em up, but the team does a fantastic job of making each class "fit" their role in the SHMUP style of play. While there is no 'aggro' system in a shooter game, it does make a great deal of sense if the tank needs to stay in the face of his enemies while slicing through bullets and thus protecting his ranged damage dealers who are sitting in the back blasting at everything else on the screen.

When players aren't blowing stuff up in the shooter mode, the team pops in a lot more MMO features by allowing players to roam around town as a 3D avatar. In town, players can pick up quests (which are all, literally, "kill X number of Y monsters" or "get my X number of Y item from monster Z) to get some EXP, or they can peruse the crafters to create new weapons and equipment for their avatars. There is the familiar system of STR, INT, DEX, CHR and LUK present in Valkyrie Sky, with each level-up granting players five stat points to allocate however they want.

In terms of the combat, one interesting thing that Valkyrie Sky does is introduce 'skills' to the classic shooter game, and players can use these skills whenever they like, but they need to charge up after they're used. What this basically does is make the game feel very "hybrid-like" in its playstyle. While most players will simply assume Valkyrie Sky to be a SHMUP with MMO aspects badly tacked on, the addition of skills and equipment really does transform the experience into a style of its own. Not only will players be basically "shooting down" enemy ships (demons, in this case), but a good player will also be managing his skills and skill cooldowns to ensure that he is doing a good job of supporting his party. The Warrior, for example, can dash around the battlefield with her abilities, and therefore I was managing these movement abilities to ensure that I could stay in front of my mages and archers while cleaving bullets away and protecting my team. In a sense, I really did feel like I was "tanking" for the team, despite the fact that I was essentially playing a glorified shoot 'em up.

In the end, Valkyrie Sky is definitely not a rough cut and paste marriage between MMO concepts and the SHMUP gameplay-it really is a solid hybrid of the two. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, there just isn't so much depth that Valkyrie Sky can qualify for anything much beyond being a popcorn game. I can guarantee that you'll get a good kick out of the game for a few hours (longer if you play only in class!), but eventually players will begin to demand more than just shooting stuff up, returning to town for quests and then being sent out to shoot more stuff. It's really quite difficult to demand more from a genre that virtually defines itself by repetitive gameplay, and, unfortunately, Valkyrie Sky has not managed to solve this problem of repetitive grind. Still, if you're like me and there just doesn't seem to be a decent gaming slot anywhere in your schedule, and you were always a big fan of old school SHMUPs like U.N. Squadron (or perhaps a Tohou Project fan) maybe you should check out Valkyrie Sky and see if you at least have some time for some popcorn MMOing.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
ZAM.com