eXceed Gun Bullet Children

About

eXceed Gun Bullet Children is a bullet hell game where humanity is at war with vampires and deviants. Players can choose from three Gun Bullet Children, each with their own storyline, and fight through five stages of intense boss battles. The game features a slowdown feature for precise maneuvering and a graze system to charge up powerful super-weapons. This is the original Japanese import version with English language manual.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

49%

Audience ScoreBased on 293 reviews

music25 positive mentions

optimization6 negative mentions

The game features a unique bullet grazing mechanic that allows players to charge a powerful special attack, adding depth to the gameplay.
The soundtrack is enjoyable, with a high-energy EDM vibe that enhances the overall experience.
The character designs and art style are appealing, providing a nostalgic feel for fans of anime and doujin games.

The game suffers from significant technical issues, including low frame rates and crashes, making it difficult to play on modern systems.
There is no English translation for the majority of the game, leaving players confused about the story and controls.
The controls are poorly designed, with frustrating key bindings that can lead to accidental exits from the game.

music
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
47%
20%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many players praising the high-energy EDM and techno soundtracks as standout features that enhance the gameplay experience. However, some critics find the music repetitive and monotonous, suggesting it lacks variety and personality. Overall, while the soundtrack is often highlighted as a strong point, opinions vary significantly on its appeal and execution.
- “I like the music and visual style of this game.”
- “The one good thing about this game is the music; it is EDM, and the songs are bops.”
- “The soundtrack is awesome, as is often the case with bullet hell shmups.”
- “Whilst the character design and theming around the game is nice and rather different for its time, the music and sequences are just not it.”
- “The soundtrack has no personality and gets old pretty fast, which is a problem considering there's not that much happening onscreen for most of the level.”
- “The music is dull.”
graphics
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
50%
24%
The graphics of the game have been widely criticized for being outdated and monotonous, resembling early PlayStation titles with low-resolution pixel art and limited customization options. While some users appreciate the character artwork and anime-style visuals, many report significant performance issues, including frame rate drops and a lack of detail in gameplay graphics. Overall, the visuals are deemed unimpressive and fail to meet contemporary standards, detracting from the overall experience.
- “Great shmup with nice visuals and soundtrack.”
- “It has great artwork in the character sprites, character special move names in Japanese flashing across the screen which resembles an action manga, game and soundtrack album covers, Steam badges, emoticons, and profile backgrounds which make it attractive to showcase on profile.”
- “Exceed - Gun Bullet Children is a short arcade bullet hell shooter that offers a few hours of arcade shooter gameplay with attractive anime graphics, voice acting, background music, artwork, and casual gameplay as an introduction to the Exceed series, with options to play at harder difficulty settings.”
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades-old retro pixel art as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “There's no way for gamers to try to improve the low-quality graphics.”
- “The graphics are sub-par even for the kind of game it is; the backgrounds are terrible, and overall there is not a single thing this game does that could be called unique.”
story
47 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
74%
6%
The story of the game is generally viewed as incoherent and simplistic, revolving around anime vampires and three protagonists tasked with stopping them, but many players find it unimportant in the context of a bullet hell shooter. A significant issue is the lack of English translation, leaving non-Japanese speakers unable to follow the narrative, which detracts from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the character designs and find the story serviceable, the overwhelming consensus is that the gameplay takes precedence over the narrative, which is often seen as a secondary concern.
- “The story is simple; anime vampires invade our world and it's up to Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to stop them using their magic, bestowed upon them by the 'church'.”
- “What I like about the game is the story, the well-written characters, and the synchronization (which is in Japanese) sounds very well.”
- “This one has really difficult levels, even more difficult than the 3rd one, enjoyable story (you can patch it to English on the official website) and lots of bullet hell action.”
- “The story is incoherent and boring; the voice acting is very amateurish.”
- “I feel as if the story had no direction in particular it was being taken in, and that with enough time and ideas, the base of the story could go a long way.”
- “The story, minimal and nonsensical as Touhou style shooters are, doesn't even come up since the subtitles are not translated.”
gameplay
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
85%
7%
The gameplay of "Exceed - Gun Bullet Children" is characterized as a straightforward bullet hell shooter with basic mechanics, offering a few hours of casual arcade action. However, players have reported significant issues, including a restrictive aspect ratio, frequent performance problems, and a lack of depth in gameplay, which detracts from the overall experience. While the game features attractive graphics and multiple characters, many reviewers suggest that it falls short compared to other entries in the series, making it less appealing for both newcomers and genre veterans.
- “Exceed - Gun Bullet Children is a short arcade bullet hell shooter that offers a few hours of arcade shooter gameplay with attractive anime graphics, voice acting, background music, artwork, and casual gameplay as an introduction to the Exceed series, with options to play at harder difficulty settings.”
- “Controls and gameplay in general are tight and work as they should.”
- “It's also more newcomer friendly than many other titles in the genre, thanks to the auto-bomb and relatively simple scoring mechanics.”
- “The game only displays in a bizarre 1:1 pillarboxed aspect ratio (with some gameplay elements in the pillars).”
- “The gameplay itself is far too simplistic and limited to be enjoyable in any way.”
- “Ultimately gameplay matters most in a bullet hell game, and Exceed falls short there too.”
optimization
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
25%
50%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting poor performance on modern systems, frequent frame rate drops, and limited graphical options. Despite some community-released fixes for stuttering, the game struggles to maintain a smooth experience, often running at around 25-30 fps, and lacks essential features like resolution adjustments. Overall, significant improvements are needed for a more stable and enjoyable gameplay experience.
- “The game itself is fine as far as gameplay, sound, enemies, etc. It just needs to be optimized a bit better.”
- “Windows 8 is a no-no without some level of optimization from the dev side, at least without desktop hardware.”
- “There is no optimization in this game; you can't change the resolution, and in my personal experience, I have been experiencing frequent crashes and other people seem to be having other problems as well.”
- “Performance is bad on modern systems (~25fps).”
- “Framerate is locked at 60, but the game isn't optimized for modern systems, so it barely breaks 30; it's a fluid 30, meaning no stutters, but still.”
- “There is no optimization in this game; you can't change the resolution, and in my personal experience, I have been experiencing frequent crashes, and other people seem to be having problems as well.”
stability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent bugs, glitches, and unresponsive controls, which detract from the overall experience. Users report problems such as freezing, disappearing HUD elements, and difficulty launching the game, leading to a frustrating gameplay experience. Overall, the stability falls short of expectations, particularly for a bullet hell style game.
- “The program freezes and refuses to launch back into the foreground.”
- “It falls very short of any expectations for a bullet hell style game, with weak controls and buggy gameplay.”
- “There seems to be a HUD with info in the black borders, but it quickly glitches out and disappears.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players find it lacking, others appreciate the inclusion of multiple difficulty levels and distinct characters that encourage varied playstyles. The game offers a fair amount of replay value, but opinions vary significantly among users.
- “The game is satisfying and has nice replay value.”
- “For replay value, the game has three difficulties, plus three characters with completely different weaponry and abilities requiring different tactics to clear the game.”
- “I'm sorry, but I personally see next to no replay value in this particular game.”
- “Not a long game, but the replay value is fair.”
- “For replay value, the game has three difficulties, plus three characters with completely different weaponry/abilities requiring different tactics to clear the game.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
Character development in the game is perceived as lacking clarity, with players noting appealing character designs and an interesting story, but feeling that the development itself is not well-executed or easily understood. Overall, while the aesthetic elements are praised, they do not compensate for the shortcomings in character growth and narrative depth.
- “While I found the story to actually be pretty interesting and the character designs to be really appealing, there are too many issues holding this game back.”
- “Character designs are nice.”
- “I can't understand any character development; I assume there is some.”
- “The characters feel flat and lack any meaningful growth throughout the game.”
- “There seems to be little to no progression in the characters' arcs, making it hard to connect with them.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely appreciated, with players finding it genuinely funny and entertaining, despite its challenging nature. The title itself adds to the comedic appeal, contributing to a positive reception overall.
- “No seriously, it's really funny but kind of hard.”
- “The title is also hilarious, so this review is marked positive.”
- “This game is impossibru, but funny ^(*-*)^”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive, particularly noting that bosses have an overwhelming amount of health, leading to tedious battles that can feel frustrating, even on lower difficulty settings.
- “The bosses are incredibly sponge-like, taking far too many hits before they become tedious, even at the easiest difficulty levels.”
- “Grinding feels like an endless chore, with little reward for the time invested.”
- “The repetitive nature of grinding makes the game feel more like a job than a fun experience.”