Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage

I have a soft spot for small studios that build worlds out of folklore nobody else is touching, and DeerFarm earns that affection fast. Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage is a vertically scrolling bullet hell shmup drawing on Korean mythological tradition, and the visual identity alone separates it from the sea of Touhou-adjacent shooters crowding the genre. The character art is elegant, the youkai boss designs are genuinely inventive, and the whole thing is fully voiced by professional actresses, which is a commitment you rarely see at this scale. The core mechanic worth understanding before you buy is Soul Collect. You charge your Soul Gauge by grazing enemy bullets, meaning the closer you fly to oncoming fire, the faster the gauge fills. Trigger Soul Collect Mode and you nullify bullets on screen for a window, which is both a survival tool and the key to high scores. It is a risk-reward loop that rewards confidence and punishes timidity, and it keeps even the six-stage Arcade Mode feeling tense on repeat runs. Hardcore Mode doubles your soul gain but kills you in a single hit, which is exactly the kind of deal score-attack players will sign in blood. The mode variety is one of Youkai Rampage's most practical selling points. Arcade and Story modes cover the main campaign. Boss Rush strips away the in-between and drops you straight onto the big fights. Dual Mode, the standout addition, lets you swap between The Girl and the Grim Reaper mid-run by switching between primary and secondary fire, which effectively doubles your tactical palette. Customize Mode lets you tune run conditions to your liking. Five distinct modes from a small studio is generous, and each one feeds a different kind of player motivation, whether that is narrative curiosity, reflex testing, or pure optimization. Not everything is spotless. The soundtrack is on the slim side, and some players have noted that audio mixing can feel slightly off at default settings, particularly with the newly added voice work. There is also a subtle issue with the lower boundary of the play field, where your ship stops at an invisible wall rather than a clearly marked edge. These are friction points rather than fatal flaws, but they are worth naming. The Steam community reception sits in mostly positive territory, and the consensus feels accurate: the fundamentals are excellent, the presentation is distinctive, the rough edges are minor and fixable. If you never played the original Shikhondo: Soul Eater, this is a fine entry point, and the package actually includes it alongside the soundtrack. If you are returning, the reworked bullet patterns, new stage, and Dual Mode give you genuine reasons to go back. For a shmup that quietly carries its own mythology, handles the graze loop with care, and offers five ways to experience six stages, this one deserves more attention than its quiet Steam presence suggests.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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