A person basically combined Touhou and Ikaruga.

This is because that person hates you.

eXceed 2nd - Vampire REX, the sequel to Gun Bullet Children, has everything that the 1st one lacked: Astonishing graphics, a soundtrack you'll want to own, and tight gameplay.

The game is story-wise a sequel to Gun Bullet Children, but this time you'll side with the vampires against the Church and their Gun Bullet Children. You play as Ria File, a half-human, half-vampire (aka a deviant bloodline). She has the ability to shift polarity: switch elements to absorb bullets of the same element while the other type becomes fatal. This is a mechanic that shouldn't be unknown to Ikaruga players. The game also has a dynamic difficulty implemented, whereas long survival and scoring gets you in a higher difficulty while playing, and dying reduces the difficulty. The overal difficulty of the game is okay. It might be tricky at first for newer people, but you'll get the hang of it quickly.

Although there isn't much to the story in most danmaku shooters, this one had a story i liked. The game references characters from the previous game as well. Just like the previous game, the characters have voicing in Japanese, and unlike Gun Bullet Children, this one has an official translation in the game.

The soundtrack was made by Saitama Saishu Heiki and Shibayan, well known names in the doujin world, and this soundtrack delivers, just like their other works. The boss music fits rather well with the bosses' personalities or significance in the story, whereas the stage music either takes it a bit easier or just gets really tense to prepare you for your next big challenge.

This game is just fantastic and is among my favourite danmaku shooters now. They really outdid Gun Bullet children by far. You can get it for 6 EUR, but i'd be willing to pay double price for this game.

Also, i didn't find the OST on Steam, but you can purchase it from the tennen-sozai site.

This is one of the best shmups I've played so far. Everything is great about it: stages, bosses, voice acting, soundtrack... and it's much better than the first game.

In the game, there are 7 stages (the final one is divided into two parts) and the main gameplay element is polarity switching which is also present in Ikaruga. Additionally, the game has difficulty scaling (the difficulty changes according to the player's skill) and chaining which grants bonus points and that's very useful for quickly getting extra lives.

The boss fights are very good because of the (mostly) epic music and the voice acting (most bosses say something according to your progress in the fight), which made the fights really cool at times.

The soundtrack is perfect because the songs are fitting for the given situation and they are top-notch.

My favorite part of the game would be the 7th stage because it's fun and it gets better towards the end.

I would recommend this game for those who are interested in shmups.

The second installment of one of my favourite franchises, this game brings a whole new range of diversity to the ai used in each level, and the noticably different graphics make for a refreshingly sharp aesthetic. I would recommend this game to anyone who has a love of anime themed art styles or even just people who want to try something challenging yet very rewarding. Indeed there is always a sense of achievement after sucessfully completing a level as you progress further into the game. Highly recommend 11/10

Is it wrong of me that dispite how I like this game I kind of wish it was about a vampire dinosaur? I mean come on... that would be an amazing game no matter what! But enough about my fantasies lets talk about the second eXceed game.

Vampire REX is the second eXceed game and compared to the first one it is amazing, this time around eXceed is taking cue from Ikaruga, meaning the bullets that are fired in this Bullet Hell are colored red and blue, and you are able to switch between the two colors as well alowing you to absorb the bullets to charge your cannon attack and chain together combos. The better you do at the game the higher the difficulty gets, thus letting the game dynamically changed based on how you are doing.

While the game still doesn't do anything unique, and trust me I know it is hard to do something unique in a Bullet Hell these days, this game is vastly superior to the first in just about every way, the music is better, the art is better, and the overall game is a lot more well designed.

If I had to knock it for something I would say that it is not as replayable as it could be as you are only able to play as one character with no weapon powerups and there are just eight stages, and while the story is better that is not saying much, it is still insane and nonsensical though that comes with the territory for these games. Even with all of that for fans of these kinds of shooters this game is very much worth it and I highly recommend it.