I really enjoyed Danmaku Unlimited 2, but many of the elements I liked about 2 have been stripped away 'for beginners'. Yet, I find Danmaku Unlimited 3 far less beginner friendly.

The game play is roughly the same as the previous. You have a regular shot and a more powerful shot with slower movement. Plus, bombs that serve as shields if hit. Finally, you have a Trance/hyper shot that fires automatically once the meter builds from grazing (getting close to enemy projectiles) or absorbing their 'shadow' when canceled typically from destroying the enemy ship that fired them.

It's the automatic part that feels bad. It can go off when it really is of no use unless you purposely avoid building up that last little bit. Which is less beginner friendly than just allowing the player to release it on command. And far more annoying to have to work around it.

Danmaku Unlimited 2 already had boss battles with more and longer lasting phases than I prefer. Danmaku Unlimited 3 feels like there's more and they are longer. I don't know if that's true, but I do find my mind wandering as I wait for the next phase. Sure, there's bullet patterns to dodge. But I either know how to dodge it or I really don't. The game forcing me to run through it for several more seconds than most bullet hells I've played only changes that I get tired of waiting for the next phase to start. And I'd think I was doing something wrong as how slow damage was applied if I didn't have to struggle to setup my controls.

And struggle I did. I'm weird in that I like to use an 8-button Sega Genesis controller when I can. Danmaku Unlimited 3 doesn't allow me to without the use of a MayFlash Magic-S Pro 2. Which isn't ideal, but some STGs don't even let me get that far. However, remapping keys is strange in this game. The beam shot doesn't work unless I hold down the regular shot and the beam shot at the same time. Pause is what's listed to fire bombs. And the only other thing that can be re-mapped is the menu button. It took me a good while to release I could manually use bombs. I was beginning to wonder why the game called the bombs at all since up until that point, I thought they just let you take extra hits and they didn't even create smaller explosion closer to your ship like some shmups do that also have this feature.

All in all, I can't recommend Danmaku Unlimited 3. If feels like a big step back from Danmaku Unlimited 2, and just claims that step back was in the name of being beginner friendly. Which I don't think it is. As I found Danmaku Unlimited 2 to also be a tad less difficult on the Easy setting. Allowing novice players to get to play more than the first couple stages.

I'm not a very good shmup player admittedly, but I have a very tough time getting to Stage 3 on Easy after an hour of play. Where actual shmups I would recommend to beginner players, I'm usually working on beating the final boss (on Easy) if not beating the the game. And Danmaku Unlimited 3 does not inspire me to continue to try either. I'm certainly not enticed to unlock different firing modes as deep into the game as it wants me to unlock them.

I’m frankly amazed by the number of ways this game manages to be a disappointing followup to Danmaku Unlimited 2. I thought DU2 was a solid shmup, and DU3 looks cleaner and has a much cooler soundtrack. But my praise ends there.

The UI in Danmaku Unlimited 3 is broken in several places. Ship selection often doesn’t work, forcing you to play ship type A-A even when you pick other types. Pressing continue to go to the next stage sometimes plays a looping animation that delays loading. And the game repeatedly asks you to replay the tutorial since “it appears this is your first time playing,” even when it most definitely isn’t.

The gameplay takes inspiration from the worst aspects of CAVE’s mostly storied lineup. Spirit Mode, for example, adopts the cancel-on-kill mechanic from Espgaluda II Black Label, neutering the threat of most non-boss enemies in DU3 to the point that many stages practically play themselves if you sit in the middle and hold fire. A variation of the awful laser wheels from DaiFukkatsu that nobody wanted to see ever again also show up in multiple stages here, along with some rather poorly-communicated wall interactions that belong in a horizontal shooter, not a bullet hell. And the bosses have too many phases, many of which drag on for way too long.

All in all, this game is only mostly functional and only partly fun. I would recommend other shmups over this one any day of the week. My personal favorites on Steam are Mushihimeama, Gunvein, and Blue Revolver, all danmaku games like DU3. Devil Blade Reboot is also great if you want something simpler, and Eigengrau is an underrated puzzle-shmup hybrid that might also be worth your time.

It is just OK. I really thought it would be better. There is very little variety or personality in this shooter. I just feel like I'm fighting the same stuff over and over. And the music gets repetitve fast. The backgrounds are just abstract stuff, the enemies are just geometric shapes and the bosses are larger geometric shapes that look like ships. I don't have a problem with vector art, but it seems like the stuff is very abstract rather than a detailed sprite or 3d shape. I don't like that.

So at the end of the day I cannot really recommend it cause there is better stuff out there.

just meh

The game only works in old computers. The developer never bother to update the shaders for modern PCs

Refunding because I cannot remap the movement keys. It's not a bad game, but if I'm gonna play it I'll play it on my Nintendo Switch

Just as with its predecessor, the frame rate is locked at around 57 FPS, causing terrible stuttering at a refresh rate of 60 Hz. That, alone, is sufficient for me to award this game an emphatic thumbs down.

Pass on this shooter.
-The levels are bland, uninspired, and repetitive.
-The music is the most annoying guitar riffs ever.
-Bosses are too long, perhaps longer than their actual levels.
-The bosses look like ships ripped out of FTL, they're totally basic.
-The scoring system is nearly 20 years old, and adds nothing new to the genre.
-The difficulty bounces all over the place.
-The patterns are gimmicky. Like, bar none, I'm getting a refund for this, I don't go for STGs where you get instant death from gimmicks. Even after learning the gimmick pattern, it just repeats on and on and on cause the boss length is too long.

I have some of the highest 1CC leaderboard scores in Crimzon Clover, I've 1CC'd several Cave shooters, I'm not just some casual scrub with their first game (granted I'm no pro either, but it is a genre I enjoy). There are better shmups on Steam than this, buy them before even considering this.

Is there a way to use the mouse instead of the action on the keyboard?
I have this game on my phone (2)
Touch screen operation is very easy to enjoy this game
I love this game very much

(It's no fun being a contrarian, but I gotta do this.)

I want to love every shmup I've never played before, especially since I've rediscovered my love for this neglected genre after burning myself out on AAA movie-games, walking sims, Simon-says mechanics and all-around boring non-gameplay-fests that define modern gaming. It's been such a blast, I've even held myself to purchasing shmups at full retail price as often as possible to show my support, including recent compilations, new indie releases and M2's PS4-exclusive imports. This game is among those I bought at retail cost and no, regardless of my review, I'm not refunding it.

But DU3 falls short for me for two huge reasons I keep coming back to play a game: the audio design and the art design.

Whether or not you like the genre of music they went for, Blankfield's soundtrack pummels the ears from the word GO. This trve cvlt instrumental metal music amuses at first, but quickly becomes tiring on the ears. And considering how draining an intense shmup session can be at higher difficulties (let alone multiple runs), music that aims to exhaust the ears doesn't help the player... it hinders them. And even if the style is up your alley, where's the memorable melodies that characterize indie shmups? Where's the exciting panache of an Andro Dunos II, a Ginga Force, an Eschatos, a Rolling Gunner, or a Blue Revolver? All those shumps contain musical earworms that pop in my head at random, which is surely indicative of higher art. But the best I can recall here is the drummer's blast beats during a boss battle. (Not exactly a musical revelation.) Even worse, when you swap in your own music or turn it off entirely, you'll notice how weak the sound effects in this game are. They just simply don't have the impact they should. Frankly, they sound wimpy. And that's bad in an action game.

Speaking of, Doragon advertises this as a "Classic Japanese Bullet Hell Action" game... yet for all its polish, it lacks all the aspects of great art design that gave those Japanese classics the status they rightfully deserve. Strictly taking away the bullet hell part, you're telling me that visually this reminds you of a CAVE game, a Raizing game, or a Psikyo game? This reminds you of a Taito, a Toaplan, a Treasure, or even a Seibu Kaihatsu? Then where's the tasty art designs at? Where's the wild explosions? Where's the color and definition? Where's the style in this game?! I mean, it's not like they have to plaster the game with fan-service-y waifus, but DU3 has a sterile, comparably dull visual design. This doesn't remind me of Japanese shmups, it reminds me of EastAsiaSoft ones!

Ultimately, both of those issues clash rather than unify, which (to me) is a pitiful waste of good gameplay. There's a bitter irony that this game really is the opposite of AAA development; whereas big-budget titles effortlessly nail every single thing except a consistently satisfying gameplay loop, Danmaku Unlimited 3 gets said loop right, but nothing else. (In that sense, it reminds me of another fun game with unappealing aesthetics: Pixeljunk Monsters.) And games like that remind me more than ever of how important all the elements of a game are, otherwise even the target audience themselves won't stick around for the long haul.

So, check out a no-commentary, full-game run on YT first. See if the style appeals to you and go from there.