Sora
| Release Date: | Japan: November 21, 2010 Steam: January 05, 2016 |
| Developers: | Orange_Juice |
| Publishers: | Orange_Juice Fruitbat Factory, Inc. |
| Platform: | Windows |
| My Start Date: | July 29, 2021 |
| My Finish Date: | January 05, 2024 |
| My Playtime: | 21 Hours |
My Personal History of the Game
I first knew of the game Sora through another game by the same developers called 100% Orange Juice. 100% Orange Juice is a party game featuring characters from Orange_Juice developed games. The titular character Sora from the game named after her is one of the many playable characters. After looking at screenshots and the gameplay trailer on Sora’s Steam page, I wasn’t interested, and I forgot about it.
100% Orange Juice Cover Art
Fast forward to about a year later, I discovered that you can share Steam games with others, so I tried out a lot of my friends’ games in their library. I was surprised to see that Sora was in one of my friend’s library so on a whim I decided to try it out and I couldn’t stop playing…until I got stuck on the 3rd stage. I would play here and there (maybe a short session or two throughout the years) with some occasional long late-night play sessions that ultimately led me to beat this game at the beginning of this year, taking me 2 years from when I first played the game to the beginning this year.
What the heck is Sora?
Sora is a bullet hell doujin game first released at Comiket 78. Doujin games (Basically a Japanese indie game) are created out of the passion for the media, usually created for fun rather than for profit. One of the most popular doujin games is Team Shanghai Alice’s (formerly ZUN Soft) Touhou Project which Sora takes some cues from with its cast of cute anime girls and bullet hell gameplay, but where Sora differs are its overall tone, focus on fast movement and evasion, and weapon variety.
Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
Where Touhou’s tone is mostly not taken too seriously with cute bubbly characters and settings, Sora’s tone is much darker and more serious with its war-torn setting and conflicted characters. Touhou limits the space players can move with its projectiles, encouraging small precise movements to avoid them, Sora actually encourages players to speed and zip across the screen into certain projectiles, focusing on speed and movement. Touhou has little to no weapon variety with its power-up system, and Sora has the option of mixing up sets of weapons with its own strengths and weaknesses before starting a stage.
Sora’s Plot and Characters
Plot
As mentioned previously, Sora takes place on a war-ridden planet. Skies filled with dark muted colors of black, grey, and brown with an endless barrage of mechs and artillery constantly fighting with no rhyme or reason as no one knows why and how the war originally started.
Sora
The protagonist of her titular game. She was born during the war with ‘a power of fighting’ much to her dismay and is immediately forced by others into the war with no regard to her feelings. Throughout the game, she questions the purpose of this war and attempts to end the war, bringing back the once-blue sky told of a young man who saved her during her 1st mission. According to 100% Orange Juice, Sora will always look 16 years old because of the modifications that turn her into the ultimate weapon of war.
Alte
A girl who fights with Sora during her 1st mission. She is hostile towards Sora because of her powers. She is an older model whereas Sora is a newer model. At the age of 24, she fought in a great war. She attempts to take Sora out with her when she is defeated in Stage 1.
Tsih
A girl who fought on the opposing side from Sora during the war. When Sora hears that Tsih is tasked with killing engineers from the opposite side, she defeats her before she acts. Looks and acts like a little girl. She’s the Stage 2 boss.
Mira
A combination of two different individuals; one lost their body, the other lost their mind. Mira refers to themselves as “we”. Fights Sora using knives and huge round blades. Stage 3’s boss.
Sham
Sora’s military operator gives the basics to Sora on how she uses her powers before she begins her first mission. She tries to convince Sora to come back to their side, but ultimately Sora sticks to her beliefs and ends up fighting her former instructor. Stage 4’s boss.
Nath
A girl with no free will, forced to obey orders by the army. Has no arms due to modifications from the army. Pilots a giant mech. She actually supports Sora’s beliefs but is forced to fight against her. Stage 5’s boss.
Star Breaker
The army’s secret weapon. The army loses control over her because of her incredible power and mental instability. Is obsessed with destruction. Stage 6’s boss. She and her war machine is Stage 7’s boss.
Spoilers
Spoilers
Gameplay of Sora
The gameplay consists of the basic formula of a bullet hell: players must dodge and shoot their way through waves of enemies and projectiles, eventually ending the stage with a boss, but Sora puts a spin on the formula. Sora has a dash mechanic that allows her to move quick. It’s used to evade and for positioning. Players can hold the dash button to continue dashing in the same direction or change directions by pressing the button again, sharp turns can be done this way. Sora can cancel her firing with a dash too. When dashing though, it builds up a heat percentage, the higher the percentage, the greater the damage Sora receives from enemy attacks. Whenever you aren’t dashing, the heat percentage will slowly decrease back to zero. Dashing may increase the amount you receive but it allows Sora to pass through energy-based projectiles which build up the hyper gauge. With a full bar of hyper gauge, Sora can perform a ‘hyper attack’. Many hyper attacks depend on Sora’s weapon loadout which ranges from a big laser beam or slowing down time. Live ammo like missiles though cannot be passed through with dashing, but they can be destroyed by shooting it down. Sora also has a lock-on mode that can be toggled on or off.
Stage 3
As mentioned before, Sora has a variety of weapons under her kit. She can change her weapon before starting the stage. Sora gains new weapons as the game progresses and has three weapon types she brings on her missions. Them being main, sub, and special weapons. Players can experiment with what combinations of weapons to play with to see what load out is best suited for a particular stage.
Weapon Loadout Menu
Final Thoughts
Sora is a very fun and satisfying game to play through. It makes itself unique compared to other shoot’em ups by focusing on its dash mechanic. When I first started playing Sora, there were many times when things seemed impossible, but those impossible feats gradually turned possible as I kept playing. Those moments, where you have been stuck on a difficult stage for days or even weeks and you finally beat, is such a great feeling. I wasn’t very into shoot’em ups, but after playing through Sora, I became more and more interested in the genre. It makes me want to try out games like the Touhou series and Mushihimesame. I say give Sora a shot. You have to realize that Sora is a hard game and you have to be patient and persistent to play through the game. It usually goes around 3-5 USD whenever it’s on sale.
