It was strange to see that you can’t shoot and move at the same time. Also, with turn-based, the patterns become difficult to see. So it feels very different from the shmup experience.
For the weapons, for me the lance felt much more powerful because of the instant damage, also clearing bullets before you. After some time, every stage and the boss were just hitting attack, sometimes using a bomb, always activating hyper. No movement needed. In fact, every move would cause the screen to flood with bullets.
The heal-on-rank mechanic felt rewarding at first, but rather bland after some stages.
Overall, I’ve got to stage 7-1, and not sure whether it is an endless generation of stages, or there is an end to this. Bosses seem to repeat themselves, as do elites and overall patterns.