Starfighter Sanvein

Starfighter Sanvein is a shooting game by Success Corporation. You may know of them through the Cotton series, or The Dark Spire on Nintendo DS. During the late 90s-early 2000s, Success introduced their Superlite 1500 Series, a label for their rereleases, arcade ports, budget titles, and random games they got the Japanese publishing rights to, such as the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. These were all games that sold for at or around 1500 yen, much like D3 Publishing's Simple 1500 Series. Agetec, the publisher brave enough to release From Software's work outside of Japan, would eventually launch their A1 Games label, which was just Agetec mostly licensing and localizing games from both the Superlite and Simple series'. A little fun fact: the European release was handled by Midas Interactive, who we all know for publishing Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne over there, giving us the now classic line, "Featuring Dante From The Devil May Cry™️ Series."

What I'm getting at here is that this game was completely overlooked at release by many people, including me, because it was given some ugly packaging in every territory, and sold for ten bucks. Games released at a low price point on a console always seems to be given this aura of being complete dogshit. Probably because shovelware is a plague; the Ubi-Softs and Acclaim's of the world leaving their cheaply-made, rushed out garbage on the store shelves. I recently thought that I would give some of these A1 games a try, and I was pleasntly surprised by this one.

So, we know what Sanvein literally is (a video game), but what is Starfighter Sanvein? Starfighter Sanvein is an experiment. Starfighter Sanvein is an experience. Starfighter Sanvein is non-stop sensory overload. Starfighter Sanvein is stress and anxiety in video game form.

You pick your ship, you pick your special weapon, and you pick your starting level. This is where the game stops being a regular shooter, and becomes a hybrid STG/strategy game. Levels are divided into hexagonal rooms on a map. You enter a room, shoot everything in it, then go back to the map. The more completed hexes that surround the level you are about to enter, the stronger your weapons will be.

600 seconds are put on the clock, and this is your most precious resource. There are no lives, no health meter, just time that ticks down. You lose 90 seconds every time you get hit, and the only way to regain time is by defeating bosses, which will give you 140 seconds. Time keeps going, stopping only to give you a three second reprieve after finishing a room. Now here's where the strategy comes in: do you take the time to clear all of the hexes surrounding a boss room so you know you'll have enough power to take it out quickly, or do you handicap yourself and hope you can complete a level early to save time? Whatever your choice is, it has to be made quickly. You barely have enough time to shoot, and you definitely don't have time to think.

There is no time. No time to think. No time to relax. Everything is fast. Everything is loud. The in-game soundtrack blasts into your ears at a volume higher than any other Playstation game. Drum and bass kicking in between stages to keep the energy hectic. Thumping dance music or what sounds like the theme to an RPG boss fight accompanies you in your fight on what appears to be the UI for the NERV computer system. This is not a complex game, but neither is it a simple one. This is a game of instinct, of reflex and reaction. You have to be quick, because you don't have the time.

Sanvein is chaos. Your ship moves with inertia. Colliding with walls or enemies bounces you around like a pinball. Bullet patterns turn the rooms you fight in into a claustrophobic nightmare. Given that the plot of the game is fighting this self-sufficient AI (I think? The story is barely present), it would make sense to have to fight the environment just as much as the enemies in it. Though I will admit that the game can become a lot more frustrating due to all of this, but at least it's thematically appropriate.

While this is yet another short Playstation game, there is enough substance to match with the style. It is a budget game, but it not a budget game. A small game made by a reputable developer sold at a reasonable price, not some shovelware that got dumped onto unsuspecting players for a quick buck. This is the kind of game that would do real well in today's market, with Steam, Itch.io, the Nintendo Switch E-Shop, etc. That would be really cool if someone made another of these.