💚 MIRAGE FEATHERS IS THE PERFECT ON-RAILS KAWAII SHOOTING EXPERIENCE! 💛 GAME REVIEWED ON: (GeForce GT 1030/i7-3770 ) -Not gonna lie, I have not played many On-Rail shooters in this life atm. Just a few memorable titles like Gal Gun series which I liked a lot in the past and decided to buy the series on Steam years later. This game, while being quite short, introduced me to a different perspective and a new feeling. This said, as always let's break my experience into points of interest! STORY: You will play the whole game in the flying two-shoes of the wonderful Notari (daughter material right here), who goes in search of her friend Miroita after they get separated. The story is as simple as described, what with a basic take and spin on revelation. PLEASE do not drop the game at the credits, because the story ends at the epilogue which I did not expect to be so well polished. At times it felt like a visual novel, and at others like I was watching an Anime episode of sorts. PERFORMANCE: Extremely smooth for my current setup, beautifully astounding animations and graphics, no frame drops or stutter anywhere, and this also counts for points in favor when recording the whole playthrough in the background with OBS. ART: The aesthetics in this one were amazing just like the music featured! I would literally play more visual novels if they had the style Mirage Feathers has. Not only is the art and pixel animations beautiful, but adding a inspiring combo of cuteness overload with a playable FMC and cute story side characters made it an unforgettable experience and worth enjoying every second for me. I can say I enjoyed the art more than anything in the game. GAMEPLAY: Trully frenetic or tough on the hands, even if in my first playthrough I played it on easy mode as I usually do with all my games. It's not DOOM level obviously, but it has it's own feel in difficulty. I was honestly here for the story, and just by reading "Maybe one day, I won't have to fight when I fly", I knew I was in for something unique. Game starts off easy at first, but it can get quite unhinged later on. I played this on keyboard and mouse, and at some point I wanted to take a rest, but kept up shooting everything down. There's 15 levels of on-air action, and you can continue on any of them even if it mostly happens on a single setting. I personally did not even pause the game and reached the end without wasting my five lives and obtaining a GAME OVER screen (You can configure how many lives you get as well as other stuff in the settings). You'll be able to change available types of ammunition casually while on battle, in the process you will experience different special effects. I personally love the lazer, and find it broken when bosses show up. The game will have you eyeing not only enemies, but a few obstacles as well (them bridges are tricky af). This may make some dizzy at times, but not hard to pass I'd say. A lot of chaos on-screen will easily confuse you unless you're a pro at these sorts of games by nature, or feel extremely comfortable playing them. Easy difficulty is not that bad and you can get to the end with no issues if you're just aiming for the story and want to enjoy stuff without much consequences. There is not much re-playability besides the endless mode once unlocked. But for those looking for a challenge, the NO CONTINUES mode and high difficulty should be enough. Also this mode has a different feel for every playthrough, since you get to choose optional upgrades while each phase at random gets more and more challenging. All in all, addictive. Managed to get a high score of 1259208 with satisfied fingers. ACHIEVEMENTS: I'm not a completionist, so I can say I prefer jumping from one game to the other most of the time. But I managed to get all achievements here, because it's easy to do so in a single playthrough and clicking on menus. STEAM SHOP ITEMS: Lastly, this is not something related to my gameplay experience, but something some of you might want to keep tabs on. I did not realize the quality of the items available on the points shop. This is the second time I buy a background, and this time I'm wasting my points on a complete Mirage Feathers set. Because Notari is so damn cute fr! Kinda lame default Steam themes don't include a aqua-green transparent option, that would combo well. Wasting my points here was so worth it for me. Sometimes these things just hit you in the kokoro, you know what I'm saying? Thank you devs for dropping a copy and paste of cuteness from the game on the shop! ✨-This game has been quite the ride! And even if at home I'm freezing considering how cold it is at the moment over here, the experience was cozy, friendly, and felt like a mug of my fifth daily hot coffee! I was sad when I checked on the curator's site and found out this was the only project released for now, but currently following and expecting more goods from oyasumi workshop. Maybe a sequel or spinoff to this one. Or another different game or updates would be appreciated as well. But what really drew me in here was the whole cutie patootie retro-pixel animations vibe which I have not seen in any other On-Rails shooter so far from the few I've played, and this being my first time coming across something like this. After playing this one, I saw some titles sharing the same aesthetic which I plan to buy later. Who knows, maybe I'll get into the ORS genre unexpectedly. The game is short, but if you like adorable characters, Waifu-related games, and Anime-styled vibes then go for it and support the Devs! -10/10 I cried internally while braking my hands with this beautiful soft story, and felt relieved while still getting cramps later at the end.