For Onono - Gamers Connect.May 2nd, 2018Score 8/10IntroductionDeveloped by Akiragoya and published by Henteko Doujin, Maidens of a Hollow Dream came to Steam on March 30, 2018. Maidens of a Hollow Dream is a Shoot-Em-Up or STG in which you control an aggressive fireball of a student named Romi, who is joined by a chain to a softer and perhaps more relaxed student named Manamo. The player can swap between them with the press of a button. Only the active character can take damage, which forms the basis of gameplay in Maidens of a Hollow Dream.

Romi and Manamo are members of a club, and the continued existence of their club hinges on the defeat of several other student organizations. Manamo and Romi’s world is filled with alchemy, giant versions of familiar animals, magical orbs, and angry club presidents. The player will need to lead Romi and Manamo through these obstacles and more to save their club, but the journey might also help the two of them grow closer together.GameplayThe levels are long and wind back and forth as you explore the gorgeous world on a guided tour.

You will explore a subterranean cavern, a sunset over a jungle, an ominous castle filled with danger, and more. A large variety of enemies ranging from pirate ships to penguins will move in to attack you. Counter attack with your own upgradable weaponry. Tapping the shoot button is different from holding it down, and you will discover the utility in both.Your ultimate screen-filling attack, called Friendship Magic, requires you to fill three bars with crystals. Manamo’s attacks do less damage, but increase an alchemical aura around the enemies. When the enemies die, any of their bullets within the circumference of the alchemical aura will be turned into crystals to feed your bar. While only one bar filled is enough to activate your attack, it is exponentially more powerful once all three are filled, and it is worth waiting for this temporary explosion in power.

Rolling sky songs. All about Maidens of a Hollow Dream / 虚夢の乙女 game at GamesMojo. Manamo Kuriyama and embark on an epic battle to save their beloved way of life.

The general idea is to use Manamo to increase the size of an aura, and then swap to Romi to quickly dispatch your enemy. However, only active projectiles within the aura will be turned into crystals. This lends another layer of strategy to the game, since it can be worth it to delay killing an enemy until it has fired again. Staring down a wall of bullets while holding my finger on the trigger but not firing until I could pack as many of them as I could fit in an aura led to many thrilling moments of tension.Even if you haven’t played a lot of Shoot-Em-Ups, I’m sure you understand the basic premise of not touching enemies while shooting and dodging their fire. Maidens of a Hollow Dream does away with this common “touching enemies will kill you” mechanic, and you can safely brush up against both your enemies and walls, as long as you avoid their projectiles.

This will take a mental adjustment, but internalizing this completely will let you realize that some situations are much safer than they initially appear to be.At one point, I was facing off against a statue-faced dinosaur, and getting damaged as it repeatedly leapt on top of my characters while I was stuck in a corner. Soon though, I realized passing underneath this prehistoric beast was the intended strategy, so that I could encircle it and shoot the back of its head. There are lots of parts in Maidens of a Hollow Dream where you suddenly have more freedom of movement, and it’s important to capitalize on these segments to avoid danger and safely deal damage. Large enemies like the flying pirate ships allowed me to move around them, blowing up segments at a time, before the crippled flying vessel finally exploded in a spectacular fashion.Controlling Romi and Manamo was probably the hardest part of adjusting to this game for me, but at some point, it just clicked.

I mentioned earlier that they were joined by a chain. When firing your weapon, the chain hardens and the relative positive of the girls stays the same even if you move the active one around. When you are not firing, the chain is lax and you drag the inactive girl around. This is important to utilize to your advantage and isn’t really a skill you can actively train.

For me, it was a largely unconscious process, but it played a large part in being able to use both girls to avoid walls and enemy projectiles successfully.In SummationThis game is fun, requires quick thinking in addition to long-term planning (within the span of the level), and will push you to your limits. If you don’t like to keep hitting the continue button after reaching a Game Over screen, this might not be your cup of green tea. However, for those who can persevere, recognize incremental progress, and have fun no matter the outcome, I must urge you to give Maidens of a Hollow Dream a try. It has eye-catching artwork, a fun-first design philosophy, multiple difficulties, and a weapon system that lets you equip a different upgrade on each girl. The girls themselves are well done characters with subtle hints at a budding romance, and it’s fun to watch their interactions with the leaders of the other organizations.

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Perhaps there is more nuance to the translated title than I perceived, but for what my opinion is worth, there was nothing “Hollow” about it. The dream was a wholesome adventure, and I can’t wait to see more from Akiragoya in the future.