PAX AUS 2025 - Bullet Hell Genre Mashups
I’m not great with twin stick control schemes, so I’ve never entirely understood how people can love (or play … or even understand) the bullet hell genre. This deficit is most likely because I’m just slightly too old to have grown up with modern consoles and controllers. My dad came home with an Exidy Sorcerer (PC) as early as 1980, but the only console I ever touched (at least until about 15 years ago) was the ColecoVision. Have you seen its controller?! I can not recall any kind of nuance to the ColecoVision experience.
Imagine my delight at PAX Australia, 2025, when Enter the Chronosphere’s designer described their game’s experience as ‘turn-based bullet hell’. It’s not that I’m averse to playing a bullet hell game, in which dancing through an overwhelming curtain of projectiles and firing off a couple of perfect shots usually requires large amounts of practice and precision. I just want to be able to play it like I play Two Point Museum: by micromanaging it. Similarly, when Key Fairy’s designer said that their game was a ‘pacifist bullet hell’, that was enough of a hook for me to also notice that this game is very beautiful, and has an intriguingly quirky story.
Is it possible, even for me, the old gal who can’t use a controller, to enjoy ‘bullet hell’ games? (Spoilers.) Yes, apparently it is. Both of these are great. But I was surprised by which aspects most captured my imagination, and it was aspects of the bullet hell genre, specifically, that I enjoyed.
Enter the Chronosphere
I entered my first Chronosphere gingerly, making safe choices: right click to move, then pause, look around, plan, left click to fire, then pause, look around, plan, and so on. I noticed incoming (but temporarily stationary) bullets, and found ways to dodge them all. I identified cover and the precise moment to duck behind it. I guessed where an enemy might be on their next turn, and aimed into their path, rather than at them. Each of these interactions may seem obvious, but pausing (for as long as I liked) allowed me to properly appreciate everything that a seasoned bullet hell player already knows how to do in a split second.
Does that mean the game is easy? No. The developers have addressed any advantage you may get from turn-based pacing. Consider a percentage-calculated arc, in which your carefully aimed bullets can miss, for example. On a very first level (of 13), it took me three attempts to down a fragile, but slim, turret which fires a tight, murderous ring of 24 bullets at a time. So, even firing a simple shot is a risk, rather than a sure thing. Bullets can also become area of effect bombs, which means that taking damage can be something you need to weigh against an offensive approach. Because levels are procedurally generated, it’s difficult to create any kind of overarching or persistent strategy, which makes this extremely replayable.
The best part of the experience for me, however, was (slowly) learning about each (randomly found) gun by experimenting with it. How often does it need to be reloaded? What kinds of bullets is it firing, and how many? How can I tailor my strategy to my weapon (and other abilities), as well as the divergent enemies I’m facing? There’s an intense variety to how pieces of this puzzle combine, from using different protagonists (and choosing enemies) and understanding their strengths and weaknesses, to deciding if 50% faster movement and power are worth decreased accuracy and reload speed. Quality of life features, like auto-’sprint’ when no enemies are close by, are also a neat touch.
I would say that these designers know their audience, but who the (bullet) hell even is their audience? Definitely me. But, as I mentioned, I’ve been playing a lot of Two Point Museum recently. Moreover, Enter the Chronosphere is a coherent, balanced and exquisitely designed experience which is eminently enjoyable, in and of itself. It taught me more about what a bullet hell is, without the stress.
Key Fairy
Unexpectedly, I then brought some of what I learned about bullet hells from Enter the Chronosphere to Key Fairy, which unfolds at a completely opposite and entirely frantic pace. I was bad at the combat sequences, but the important part is that I was motivated and able to improve with practice. Why did I persist? The world is pretty. And there’s an unfolding story that is cute, menacing and pleasantly whimsical. Did I want to get lost forever, whispering with the forest? Yes, I did. Why was I so determined to find the Royal Gardens? I came to trust that each little part of the overarching fetch quest would be similarly magical and engaging. I’m not sure if there’s a deeper meaning or metaphor to the corrupted forest, but I’m interested to find out eventually.
I probably would not call Key Fairy a ‘bullet hell’ exactly, because there aren’t very many incoming projectiles, beyond an occasional little round of spears, and you don’t shoot anything yourself. But, it plays like a twin stick … grappler? Any given enemy has its movement pattern: swirly, charging, or wiggly, and it will drop stars that persist only for a few moments. You dodge enemies while aiming, grappling towards and grabbing their stars. Enter the Chronosphere taught me to aim where I expected stars to be rather than where there were, and to notice ‘cover’, like a tree that a charging enemy cannot pass. And so, I was genuinely enjoying applying new ideas to something I was finding difficult. Probably the only real criticism I’d raise about the combat in Key Fairy is my inability to see stars quickly, because they can be hard to distinguish from background art.
Movement puzzles mostly function to teach new mechanics, like the grapple and blade. Spikes are to be avoided, secret paths are to be noticed. Everything is lovely, really. As with Enter the Chronosphere, and is often the case for unique genre takes, I’m not exactly sure what kind of player this is for. But, I suspect people who enjoy bullet hells would enjoy it, because of the movement, patterns and control scheme. And, if you are interested in the story, you can use ‘assist mode’ and/or explore a cornucopia of thoughtful accessibility options. I’d tell you more about assist mode, but I surprised myself by not using it.
PAX’s bullet hells were an invitation to engage with a genre that I’m usually very bad at. These two contrasting games complement each other perfectly in terms of how I learned a few important lessons. Enter the Chronosphere is a slow exploration of how quick decisions are made, whereas Key Fairy subverts your expectations for a very specific control scheme. Neither is only (or foremost) a bullet hell, yet they’re both too heavily inspired by bullet hells to NOT be bullet hells. If you see what I mean. Both have free demos, so you can play along at home if you don’t.
