Where to get it

Steam

2004 · CAVE · Arcade · Bullet hell

Mushihimesama

Mushihimesama is a manic shooter developed by Cave and released by Taito in 2004. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and iOS in 2011. 5 as first print DLC). 5" was released to arcades in 2011.

Released: 12 October 2004
Platforms: Arcade Nintendo Switch PlayStation 2 Windows Xbox 360 iOS
Genres: Arcade Bullet hell Shooter Vertically scrolling shooter
Developers: CAVE
Publishers: CAVE Degica
Modes: Co-op Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Fantasy
Country: Japan
Languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Japanese
Time to beat: 1hmain story31hcompletionist
Composers: Manabu Namiki

About

Mushihimesama is a manic shooter developed by Cave, originally distributed by AMI in 2004 and later redistributed to arcades in 2011 as the significantly changed "version 1.5". It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and iOS in 2011. An Xbox 360 port was released in May 2012 (with ver1.5 as first print DLC). A version for Microsoft Windows was also published by Degica in 2015. In 2021, the game was ported to the Nintendo Switch.

The game has an insect theme as all of the enemies resemble various insects such as beetles, like the Japanese rhinoceros beetle and butterflies. The game is set in various forest environments. It received a sequel in 2006, known as Mushihimesama Futari, and a spin-off iOS and Android game entitled Mushihimesama Bug Panic.

›Story

Huge insect-like creatures called Koju roam the forest outside the village of Hoshifuri. When Reco's people fall to a mysterious sickness, the young princess decides to leave the village and meet the God of the Koju, who may provide a cure. Riding her faithful Golden Beetle friend Kiniro, Reco must traverse the wilds, braving the hostile landscape and the aggressive Koju beasts on her journey through the Shinju Forest.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

The world of Mushihimesama is a wild, untainted one where large desertic areas abruptly change into lush forests, all inhabited by arthropods called Koujuu: such beasts (basically oversized insects) are capable of surviving due to their hardened shells and, upon their deaths, leave them behind for vegetation to grow around them, in a natural cycle of life and death. However, their life force, called Levi-Sense, proved to be poisonous to humans to the point of being named the Miasma; only sparse human settlements were allowed to survive, one of them being the Hoshifuri village, in exchange for the sacrifice of a 15-year-old girl every 200 years. However, the daughter of the royal family, Reco, is apparently the next in line after being given an ornate bracelet by a mysterious boy in Shinju Forest, where she lost herself at a young age: by the day she turns 15, the Miasma contaminates the village. In order to save her people, she enters Shinju Forest once more, riding the golden Koujuu beetle Kiniro (with which the golden bracelet grants a telepathic link) on a quest to meet the Koujuu god himself.

Reception

The game generally received positive reviews from critics. Famitsu magazine awarded the PlayStation 2 version of Mushihimesama a score of 26/40 based on four reviews (6/7/6/7), while the Xbox 360 version got a score of 31/40 (8/7/8/8).

The PC version holds an aggregate score of 86/100 on Metacritic. Destructoid gave the PC version a score of 9/10, referring to it as a "must play" title and "required reading for shmup fans" and concluding that, "solo or with a friend, on the highest difficulty setting or the lowest, Mushihimesama is incredibly easy to spend an afternoon with for years to come." Hardcore Gamer gave the title 4.5/5, referring to it as "a classic shooter" that is "beautiful on the surface, but a master class in how to create a challenge that varies in difficulty from completely accessible to utterly insane", stating that the "sheer volume of content is fantastic, making it as easy to replay a mode over and over", and concluding it to be "a phenomenal arcade game and an indispensable addition to any shooter fan’s library."