Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath review

As a subsidiary that assisted MOSS with the development of Raiden V: Director’s Cut and Caladrius Blaze, Kaminari Games makes their autonomous debut with the release of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath. It’s a solid, six-stage effort where any deficiencies in length are balanced by supplemental modes, collectibles, and numerous play options.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a surprisingly perceptive property. During the day, Miss Kobayashi works as a programmer, in a setting that sporadically skewers the norms of office culture. At night, the lead shares her domestic space with two dragons, offering a fantastical twist on the traditional situation comedy.

While the set-up seems suited for a comedic visual novel depicting an unconventional family or Tohru and Kanna’s struggles to make sense of the human world, Kaminari Games saw the potential for a shooter. And it mostly works.

“Maid” For Shoot ‘Em Up Fans

The game’s between-stage interludes offer light visual novel-style conversations between the lead and her maids. After receiving an enigmatic email from her closet otaku coworker, Kobayashi and her domestic dragon girls investigate, discovering a cursed PC.

The premise sends the team through levels that parody common game contexts, like fantasy role-playing, gothic horror, and outer space settings. While some players might have a hard time reading the English subtitles while dodging bullets, there’s even some playful banter between characters that occurs on the borders of the screen. Yes, that means Burst Forth lacks a tate mode. On the upside, the game provides voice acting from the original cast.

Tagging Dragons

Kanna might announce that she’s getting bored and want in on the action. Fortunately, swapping her into battle is only a button press away. Throughout the game, you can freely switch between the three playable dragons, each outfitted with their own weapon. Tohru is armed with a broad, straight beam that delivers the most damage, while Elma is armed with a blue spread-shot that fans out in seven different directions. Little Kanna is the weakest of the bunch, but her homing beams are essential when boss battles fill the screen with projectiles, making a clear shot at the foe challenging.

Dragons that aren’t actively in battle slowly generate health, but the recovery rate is quite slow. As such, you might have to rely on your Choro-gon Breath. Activating this reveals a quick cinematic showing your  dragon exhaling a formidable flame. Unlike most STGs, you don’t have a specific number of uses. Instead, a meter at the bottom of the screen gradually refills over time. Although Kanna’s fire breathing isn’t as powerful as her peers, it offers some healing to all three dragons.

Remarkably, there are a few other tools in your arsenal. A Striking Blow rushes toward a foe, delivering a chargeable melee strike. It’s undoubtedly useful and comes with a few i-frames, but precise timing is essential. Activate the ability carelessly, and you’ll be right in front of a projectile. Alternatively, you can also backstep. This might not offer any window of invincibility but is indispensable for eluding homing missiles.

Mild Fan Service in the Galleries

Like many STGs, the trek through Burst Forth’s story mode can be completed in about 50 minutes, but there’s a healthy amount of incentive for repeat play. Beyond five different endings, a boss rush, and stage exploration mode, there’s a wealth of collectible art to be amassed. Stages randomly send treasure chests and “memoria” downward to collect. The former offers an inventory of random items culled from the source material while the latter are puzzle pieces that combine to form a larger image. There are also on- and offline leaderboards to keep score chaser content.

Burst Forth is a respectable STG, elevated by its tag-team mechanic. But play never reaches the elevations of the genre’s best efforts. Some of that is rooted in the game’s weapon balancing. While defeating enemies helps to charge a weapon-augmenting Dragon Jewel, you never quite feel the visceral sensation that traditional power-ups provide.

But the game can’t be faulted for being snobbish. Between being able to set your starting health, establish a ratio of treasures to enemy strength, or just select from one of five general difficulties, Burst Forth scales admirably. With a bit of practice, even shoot ‘em up novices can roll the credits. Given that the game’s pricing is a bit steep, Miss Kobayashi fans of all skill levels might want to wait for a sale before setting down with the dragon maids.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath
was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.