Developer: Kindermann Corp.
Publisher: Kindermann Corp., WhisperGames, Treasure Boy
Platform: Switch, PC
Tested on: Switch
Shikon-X: Astro Defense Fortress – Review
Don’t judge a book by its cover, or more accurately, don’t judge a game by its eShop icon. We knew nothing about Shikon-X: Astro Defense Fortress before playing it. Based on the icon on our Switch’s menu we assumed the game would be an anime-inspired side-scrolling shmup in the same vein as G-Darius or Gleylancer. Oh, how wrong we were. So what kind of a game is Shikon-X then, I hear you ask? Well, grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable, as we’re here to tell you everything you need to know.
Story
A Star Wars-style opening crawl sets both the scene and the tone of the game’s humor. We’re treated to an exposition dump that explains the origins of an intergalactic conflict between the human federation and the alien race of the Rolars. The long-running war has caused a lot of human children to become orphans. The federation has adopted these kids, and trained them to fight in the war from an early age. The opening text is interrupted by a ‘Disney will sue us if we keep using the Star Wars text’ joke, and then we meet our protagonist, major Daala. She’s a bit of a Mary Sue: Daala is an inexperienced rookie, as the game opens with her first mission, but she’s simultaneously the best pilot in the federation. After an encounter with a mysterious stranger on the toilet -yes, really- Daala becomes caught up in a mystery involving the Rolars. Could it be that the federation’s alien enemies aren’t what they seem?
Graphics
Aesthetically, Shikon-X takes inspiration from ‘90s anime, with character designs that look like they could appear in the background of Cowboy Bebop or Gundam. These characters appear in the game both through hand-drawn portraits in dialogue scenes and as pixel art, with mixed results. Pixel portraits often look wonky. Combine this with a color scheme that is fairly drab, especially when it comes to environments, and you’ve got a game that doesn’t really have a lot of visual appeal. Even small sight gags, like the appearance of Grogu from The Mandalorian on the pinball machine, don’t do enough to prop up Shikon-X’s graphics.
Sound
Things don’t fare better when it comes to Shikon-X’s audio. It doesn’t help that the game pretty much opens with a continuous blaring alarm sound as Daala scrambles to get to her first mission. The game’s soundscape is a mixture of annoying sound effects and bland, uninspired music. There is no voice acting present here either, though given the faux-retro approach to the game design, that’s not a surprise.
Gameplay
The Nintendo eShop describes Shikon-X as “an intergalactic point-and-click adventure without any actual pointing or clicking”. We’re not entirely sure that we’d agree with this description: while there certainly are point-and-click style elements here, this part of the game acts more like a narrative framework. The bulk of the actual gameplay is in arcade-style minigames that are woven into the narrative. In the majority of those, Daala pilots the titular Shikon-X, a mobile shield, as she tries to protect resources from both Rolar attackers and asteroids. Shikon-X’s missions take inspiration from arcade classics like Breakout and Galaga. There is a surprising amount of variety in gameplay mechanics here, given how simple everything is. Enemies attack in waves and one minute you’re trying to shoot down rows of Space Invaders-esque attackers and the next you’re trying to deflect a laser beam that circles around the resources you’re protecting.
The minigames don’t just end inside of Shikon-X. At one point you’ll be playing on a fully functioning pinball machine, as you need to beat the high score of Daala’s rival so that she can give you a clue that lets you progress through the story. Small touches like this help break up the gameplay and manage to hide how barebones the point-and-click aspect is. That part of the game never goes beyond simple logic puzzles and fetch quests, unfortunately. Now, having barebones point-and-click(ish) gameplay isn’t necessarily an issue. Just take a look at the amazing Thank Goodness You’re Here!. The issue in this case is that there simply isn’t anything here that gives you that ‘Eureka’ feeling.
Additionally, Shikon-X’s own in-game logic doesn’t make sense. Early on, you hit a road bump: you need a token to be able to play pinball. Somehow, that same token gives you infinite attempts AND can be used to get drinks from the vending machines, which are part of another puzzle. In dialogue, Daala complains about how expensive it all is, but there are no consequences because you can keep using your same tokens. The defense missions are also consequence-free: you can keep dying over and over again. Even if all of the resources you’re defending are destroyed, nothing changes. As far as we could tell, there are no branching endings, nor is there a way to get a true game over. The only real speed bump we encountered was that we had to play the pinball minigame several times before we could rack up the required score. If there’s nothing at stake, then it becomes hard to care. Shikon-X is a short game in the first place, clocking in at around two hours. There’s no incentive to return to it once you’re done, apart from being able to play the minigames separately. This makes it difficult to justify the €9.99 RRP, but in all honesty, we find it difficult to gauge what the price for Shikon-X should be instead. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put into the game, just not in the right places.
Conclusion
We didn’t have any expectations for Shikon-X, mainly because we didn’t know what to expect, but we still ended up feeling let down. From the bland and uninspired gameplay to the drab audiovisual presentation and the shoddy writing, there’s not a lot worth looking into here. The biggest issue is that everything about Shikon-X feels inconsequential. It’s a shame too, because it’s obvious that the game was a passion project for the developers. Sometimes, however, the result doesn’t match the ambition. This is one of those times.
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