Vacant Ark

Vacant Ark is a dark and atmospheric indie Bullet Hell Shoot'Em Up developed by Buster, available as the third game here. It takes a bit of inspiration from the R-Type series but is quite novel in itself. Ammunition is required for any attack besides a weak close-range attack, but you can get this ammunition by blocking enemy bullets with something akin to R-Type's force device.

An oceanic planet is discovered. Scientists on Earth create a cyborg mermaid and have a little girl remotely pilot it, in order to explore the planet. It turns out that a good deal of the life in the ocean is hostile.

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Tropes used in Vacant Ark include:

• Bullet Catch: A critical part of the gameplay.
• Bullet Hell
• Downer Ending: The girl controlling the blue mermaid ends up catatonic with vacant eyes.
• Duel Boss: The red-haired mermaid also has a force device, and uses red crystals for ammunition.
• Easy Mode Mockery: The Shallow game ends after the first stage.
• Evil Counterpart: The red-haired mermaid
• Fetus Terrible: Embryos/fetuses are recurring enemies.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Shallow, Middle, Deep and Abyss.
• Nintendo Hard
• Recurring Boss: The red-haired mermaid, although she usually has another boss in front of her until the final stage.
• Shout-Out: One of the music tracks is named "Zunchacha" for a major Taito music composer, Zuntata
• Timed Mission: Some of the bosses will leave if you take too long to defeat them.

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"Return to Earth. You are not invited to here..."