I've played this game's demo for 7 years. I went back to Japan for several times, looked around Akihabara to see if this game is still out there. No luck.

Jump to 2016, now it's on Steam. A dream com true.

Am I over reacting? no. This game is possibly my #1 favorite shmup out there. I wouldn't wait for 7 years trying to get the game.

Gameplay:
While the game seems like bullet hell, This is not a bullet hell shmup. The devs also mention this too, (in japanese) that the game was never meant to focus on dodging, rather, breaking the enemy's bullet. You see, other than the boss fight, the bullet is not patterned. In fact, some curtain of bullets are purposely unavoidable. That's when you use "M.E.F.A.2", which is a special weapon that breaks enemy's bullet, and this recharges very fast. The bomb in this game, or called "concept reactor", is more of traditional bomb, but used in different way. It converts the enemy's bullet into a breakable item that recharges the M.E.F.A2. So, the game WANTS you to break enemy's bullet, not dodging them all of the time. Of course, you can do so, but I would assume that you won't raise your score that way.

The game also offers 2 unlockable characters, total of 3.

Miria, traditional straight shot+laser with chaser options
Tee, narrow shot+close range focus shot with lock type option,
Mews, wide shot with angle type option.

The game also offers several difficulties. The easy mode offers 4 stages, and the rest offers full 5 stages. The game also has NG+ stages.

Story:
I won't spoil anything here, but the story progresses as you play the game by unlocking the email's archive. Since they unlocks depends on how well you play, there is a good replayability here, not just as a scoring.
Each character has its own ending, and has 1 common bad ending.

Graphic:
Yes, it's bit outdated. A little blurry too, since it is only optimized for 3:4 size. You can put it to full screen though.
However, as this game developed back in 2006, you really can't blame this factor. It is only a localized version anyway, not a HD remake or anything.
Overall, the background is simple 3d and not overly complicated, resembling the cyber theme just like the storyline. The bullet is very bright and easy to see. The light sparkle everywhere and great as an eye candy.

The menu UI is also different from many shmups. Instead you "toss coin" and "select your battleship", you choose your character, and it jumps to what it seems like a desktop screen. Each character has its own theme and soundtrack. You can access the email archives and soundtrack from here.

Sound:
OST is fantastic, especially if you like trancy dance music. It also has nice variety in genre too, like drum'n bass. I wish, however, the sound effect of the main shots were little bit quiter. It is quite high pitched and botheres me. The explosion sounds are great though.

The soundtrack can be listened from the menu.

Optimization
Now, this is something that you need to bite on. It is a doujin game, and setting is somewhat limited. Unless you play with game pad, the keyboard control cannot be changed. It work's fine, so I never found any issue. I have played with simple gamepad, such as xbox controller, however I have not yet tried with others so I cannot confirm anything else. The game also does not have rebind option, just to be sure.

The window size is limited to 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, and 1600x1200. Full screen option is availabe. The frame rate can be adjusted, which is nice. You can also display the hitbox.

In addition, I felt that the game has tiny drop in frame rate, despite it mentions as 60FPS. I hope this bug gets fixed soon, as the original demo never had such an issue.

Refrain is very untraditional shmup. It appears to be a bullet hell, but it plays more like old shmup. The simplicity of the game mechanic kept me entertained for long time, and the trancy music has never gotten old with it.
There is a good reason why I kept playing the demo for over 7 years. I just love it.

If you are a fan of shmup, this is the one that you never want to miss. If you are interested, but haven't really tried doujin shmup, this game is a great starter.

Yes, its the RefRain you know and love in all its glory!

If you are new to bullet hell type games then I would suggest this game to you, The ships are very well balanced and the ship mechanics teach you very important concepts that you can apply to other similar games.
Remeber the goal isnt to just beat the game, but to beat it within one life/credit/hit (1cc) depending on how far you like to take things.

However its very challenging on higher difficulties as well so very recommended for fans of the genre!

Been playing since 2012ish in early development phases, and the developer is world-class and I consider this game to be in my top 5 favorites of all time!
10/10 ♥♥♥

Indie PC shoot'em'up game by RebRank that was originally released in 2011. Second game in the Samidare series.

RefRain is not a game about dodging bullets. Your character has a lot of special abilities and ways to cancel enemy projectiles. Beating the game on any difficulty is more about shooting aggressively, learning to use your special attacks and timing bullet cancels rather than dodging or reactions.

The game has superb presentation. Menus, interface and all the 2D art look super slick. Great trance soundtrack that often syncs to gameplay and stage progression. 3D can look dated but gets the job done. Easily one of the coolest/cleanest shmup presentations out there.

The main gimmick in RefRain is a special attack system called 'MEFA2' which gives each ship four different special attacks. The fourth level of attack gives you invulnerability and temporarily stuns large enemies and bosses. You also have a bullet cancelling bomb which helps with recharging the MEFA2 based on how many bullets you cancel.
Most bosses can be chained between stun state and bullet cancel for about half of the fight which is weird but gives a satisfying rhythm to combat.

Point blanking and aggressive movement is rewarded with a lot of the ships/attacks which can be fun and awarding. You are given one shield hit per life that gets recharged between stages. Getting hit once or twice will not have a big cost.

Scoring system seems pretty well thought out: involves shooting enemies up close for high value items, timing bullet cancels/MEFA2 perfectly and speedkilling enemies for time bonuses and more waves. On bosses and larger enemies you can activate a big multiplier by dealing hits on them as they are stunned, and finishing off with MEFA2 attacks. This requires precise timing and gauge management. There's an overall multiplier called Prism Count that goes up based on various factors and tanks whenever you get hit. Not sure from my limited experience if scoring play remains exciting/risk=reward at a high level.

RefRain puts a lot of emphasis on the overarching story & theme of being set inside a computer. You get bits of story via unlocked mail messages as you play. The ingame music player even tells you a bit about the development of the game and has art for each song.

There are some obvious nods to older shoot'em'ups such as Ikaruga and Hellsinker. As a warning though: if you're a shmup fan looking for a difficult arcade-level challenge or precise dodging this may not be your thing. Beating the game on the highest difficulty will not be challenging for veterans of the genre. But deathless clear and scoring are there.

For most people I highly recommend this game, at least if you like 2D action games. This can be a great entry point into shoot'em'ups if you haven't really played them before. The game has excellent presentation and you're given a powerful & versatile player ship.
Shooters of this kind that that try different types of gameplay with a ton of effort put into them by small teams are out there. Most of them never got released outside japan, but degica and some others are now changing that which is awesome.

What started off as a simple demo in 2006, evolved into the full game you see today in 2011, RefRain -prism memories- is a STG/Shump that's both classic formula, but also a bit wild, giving it a nice little niche in an already niche grouping.

The storyline itself isn't too grand in it's aprotch, as you 'Dive' with one of three girls all stuck within the M.R.S. network, trying to recovery their memorys, pasts, and just escape outright. Told via E-mails and endings, it presents itself in a way only the .Hack games ever really played around with, and because of how each player has their own 'Desktop' and the like, it really does give the game this really cool aesthetic.

The gameplay itself is the real core though, and it does this extrmely well with 3 core fuctions. The first is the 'Reactor Unit', where by killing foes, they drop chips that when collected both give you score, and fills up your 'bomb' for this game, and able to hold three of them that when used, turns all of the bullets into descrutable chips giving you more score in turn. Chips also end up larger, and worth a lot more points, the closer towards something you are when you KO them, making the game reward a very 'gutsy' gameplay style. The next comes by with the M.E.F.A2, a 'super attack' of sorts that you can charge up to 6 levels, and expend up towards 4 at once to delever highly powerful screen clearing attacks. The M.E.F.A2 does more then screen clear though, as on any Boss, it will 'lock' them, allowing you to build up a 'chain' with your shots, and if they die in this 'lock', your 'chain' then gives you an even BIGGER bonus towards their death! The last one is a simple but nice touch towards how lifes work. Your ship, for once, isn't a 'one point wonder', and can take 2 hits before destruction, but in turn, taking the first hit will put you into a 'fractured' status. While your damage and options haven't been hampered in any way, your score on the other hand is reduced by a large amount while under this mode for any life, giving the game an easy way to 'play for 1CC', but still requires a lot of skill for high scores!

Overall, this game as an STG fan is goingg to scratch that itch in a lot of good ways, as you can jump in and learn it easy enough, but it's got enough mecanics and subtule details that will require repeated playing to develop the best route and stratergys to get onto the leaderboards. If you enjoy STGs/Shmups of any kind, I HIGHLY recommend this, even more so now that it's in English, and is in a far easier to support format!

Really cool shmup with an emphasis on destroying bullets and using special weapons and bombs constantly instead of saving them. Your special weapon charges its levels very quickly and each level results in an extra attack being fired with higher levels clearing bullets. Your "bomb" actually does not do any damage but instead turns all the bullets into destroyable items which you can then kill to charge your special weapon more.

I have only played on easy and normal, but my understanding is that higher difficulties actually have patterns that are unavoidable, which would require your special weapon or bomb to clear the bullets. In most games that would be an issue but due to how quickly this game feeds you your special weapon you can actually due this on command with good play.

The soundtrack is really good and there is kind of a story that happens through emails and the menus outside of the gameplay. This game is one of the cooler obscure shmups on steam and one of the most fun ones I've played in a while.

Really solid doujin shmup that's a great purchase for anyone who's a fan of the genre.

RefRain does a great job of distinguishing itself in a genre of very similar titles by mechanically focusing on offense heavy gameplay and scoring rather than pure dodging. There is still much dodging to be done as is standard in the genre, however you have a very large, bullet destroying attack that charges very quickly when you deal damage. As well, your bombs charge based on point pickups encouraging players to explore scoring even when playing for survival. The game features three characters which all provide very different play styles to stay interesting. There are also a large number of difficulty modes to keep the game challenging to both newcomers and STG veterans.

The scoring system present in Refrain is incredibly deep. In simple terms, the distance you are from an enemy determines the value of point items dropped, the closer the better. Further, your bombs turn all bullets on screen into shootable objects which give points and charge your special attack. Using your special attack on bosses makes them drop point items upon being damaged for a short time. What this means is that the special attack effectively charges your bomb, and your bombs effectively charge your special attack. Effective use of this mechanic allows players to chain the two attacks to rapidly defeat bosses. Doing so will earn a skip bonus upon defeating the boss. There is far more to the system however the general idea of scoring is captured with these two mechanics. An extensive manual is provided with the game for players who want to go deep into scoring.

Presentation wise the game is top notch. Visuals are crisp and clear, and the soundtrack is truly amazing. There are a lot of nice little touches as well, from the swooping designs of the bullet patterns, to how each character has a different start menu to fit their personality. RefRain is one of the strongest in the genre with how it presents itself.

I really hope that Degica brings out more like this. While I love the Cave titles they're bringing to Steam, there's something really special about seeing strange doujin titles get a chance to shine. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in the genre.

I really like the game and wanted a hard copy, which was obtainable on a certian website. However one day the site vanished and I had to go with a illegal cracked version of it. Now the game is on steam and so I missed no time and bought it right away.

The game is very good. You have 3 pilots each with its own ship. It hard to decide since every ship exceeds in a certian terrain. You got everything from area defence to focussed laser attacks.

The game works as follows. You get coins by defeating enemies, which can be used to cast methods. There are multiple level of this. The final version of it is most of the time an entire screen clearing attack. With these methods you are able to knockback bosses and get a bit of time to recharge your method gauge.

Then you have the concept reactor, which is more of panic bomb/method gauge refiller.

If I could describe the game it would be like "if revolver 360 and akashicverse had a small son this would be this game".
Ofc the other games are not made by the same dev, but the overall similairty is there.

You have the matrix design from revolver 360 Re:actor and the method used in akashicverse.

The music is very good and the game offers a lot of difficulties to play with. The higher the difficulty the more fast paced the game gets. I can recommend this game to everyone having small experience in the genre up to the scorechasers that come from other shmups like crimzon clover world ignition or mushihimesama.

Beautiful game with amazing focus on details

Gameplay: : 4/5

Very fun gameplay with some neat features. For the most part, the story and the gameplay are separated, allowing for a more seamless shoot 'em up experience.

Each character has their own playstyle and bomb patterns, which allows players to experience very different methods of beating the game.

In addition to killing a boss, bosses can be waited out, allowing players to play very defensively and still win.

This game has many differences from most shoot 'em ups. Your bomb specials are not limited and you have many escape options. You have a defensive special ability to negate bullets that charges up by collecting items, which drop such as by killing enemies or by using your bomb type special. Your bomb type special charges by doing damage, including to negated bullets, which can also be used to charge up your defensive special. This allows for chaining the two abilities in order to make a powerful series of attacks that not only act as defense, but double as offense.

Bosses can and should be stunned. This uses up at least three points of your bomb special, but with careful comboing, can allow players to effectively one shot a boss. The game even rewards you for fast kills and skipping boss phases, which somewhat mitigates the need to milk a boss for points.

Some minor differences include that attacks that are coming have rather precise visual warnings, allowing players to avoid attacks that would otherwise be sneaky. This is different from other games that may only show the direction the attack would come from.

Story: 3.5/5

The story is told through log files, which are unlocked by playing through the game as each character. Each character has their own personality and their own reasons for trying to fight and the logs reveal these only after you are done playing through. Yet, these log files also provide hints as to how to fight various bosses.

In the end, the story is bittersweet, and while much of it needs to be pieced together, the player can see a tale where everyone has their own reasons for their actions, even the enemies.


Graphics/Audio: 4/5

The graphics are generally rather simple when in combat, but this leads for a more enjoyable gameplay rather than detracting from it. While some of the bosses may look similar as far as combat goes, each has a few different characteristics. The images of the characters are each designed to have their own distinct appearances.

The ships, the UI, and the bomb patterns are each designed for the character. Switching from one character to another, will result in a completely different main menu, and in-combat, the UI is colored to match the character. This matches with the theme of the game being part of a computer based system, with each character having their own log in desktop.

An interesting part of the combat UI is that if one looks careful, they can see a log of every action of the characters. The boss fights all have a health bar in a location by one of the logs, making it very simple for the player to understand what is occurring.

As far as audio goes, the soundtrack is very carefully designed for the game and a neat feature is that certain characters have the ability to see the artist notes about how each song was designed and what thoughts each song was meant to convey. The game of course has a sound room for each character which is more or less customized for each character, giving the player more than one music player option.

Play Time/Replayability: 2.5/5

One full loop of the game should take around half an hour to over an hour. However, there are three characters and each has their own good ending, so while a single loop might get you through the game, it will likely take four loops to truly experience the game, giving the player easily four hours of playtime if the player never has to retry.

The replayability after beating the game completely will differ from person to person, but for players aiming for high scores and achievements, this game can easily take several weeks to perfect for an average player.

Final Score: 4/5

This game is definitely enjoyable and worth getting. With a much different approach at telling a story than most shoot 'em ups and many mechanics that are rarely seen together, if at all, this game provides a fun experience.

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Notes:
This review is the reviewer's own and not that of any company or outside organization.

A very beautiful game with amazing focus on detail. A bullet hell style game.

Gameplay: 4/5

Gameplay is fun with some very cool features. The more you play, the more characters/ship you can unlock. There are totally of 3 characters you can unlock (1st is given when you play the game and the other two you need to unlock). Each character have different play style, ability and special move ( bomb). This allow you to experience the game in many different ways and improve the ability to replay the game.

One of the highlight of the game is that your special move isn't just a full blow out of every enemy/bullet as many of bullet-hell game out there. You can use your special move to stun enemy(even the boss) or clear the bullet or boost up your power and avoid to be one shot by some unavoid bullet ( yes, there is some bullet pattern that I think you can't just simple dodge it, it look pretty impossible to dodge)

You can choose up to 60 fps for the game and it has both full screen/windows mode option. Please be notice though they have config tool separate with the game; it mean you should launch config tool before you play game and config in there. You can't config inside game.

Game has controller support and I strongly recommend you play with controller.

Story: 3.5/5


Story is quite nice but it's kind of short. Basically story tell you about each character and their own reason to fight. It was tell via log file during your play. I think each play through took about 2-3 hours with one character so in order to go through all 3 characters it take about 10 hours.


Graphics: 4/5

Graphic is stunning and amazingly beautiful. Each character has their owned menu ( basically after you choose a character/ship, you will go to their own custom menu to choose before the fight). It's tailored to each characters theme.

The UI is also rather neat. It's not cluster ♥♥♥♥ as many bullet hell game out there. Your left side is your high score/score/items count... and your right hand side is your information log ( your health, boss health bar). At the bottom is your ultimate power bar, it call go up to 6 levels and it depends on how many ultimate you use, you can have different ultimate effect .

Audio: 5/5

Audio is one of the best thing about this game. Each character that you played have their own unique soundtracks so you can feel totally different when you played different characters and the soundtrack is somewhat tailor to that specific characters.


Final Score: 4/5

For up to 10+ hours of gameplay, ability to replay it and an amazing soundtracks. $12 price tag totally worthy.

The first thing you should know is, this game is not a regular danmaku shooting game like the Cave games, Crimzon Clover or even Touhou games. You don't need to practice a lot to learn how to dodge bullets or move precisely. The most important part is use M.E.F.A2 and Concept Reactor to destroy the bullet, use shooting and Concept Reactor to charge M.E.F.A2 and use M.E.F.A2 and shooting to charge Concept Reactor. If you can remember all the parts of game and find strategy to deal with them, you don't need to dodge to bullet in the most case.

Compare to the CXX version,The score system is changed and bugs are fixed, now it seems possible at least for Bronx Terror to get a high score. Enjoy the game!

This game is my favourite shmup game. It has really good bgm and graphics. If you don't like those extremely hard shump games, try this!