Kamikaze Lassplanes Review

Kamikaze Lassplanes is a unique blend of two genres: a visual novel full of ecchi and a shoot 'em up that has you taking on the role of Walter in Developer Inky Dreams' title, a top pilot at the Sky Fortress protecting the civilians living in the realm of Velestria from invaders. Walter has been assigned a partner to work along with, a Lassplane named Alba Trossé. If you are like me, you are probably wondering what exactly a Lassplane is… well, it’s a girl who can transform into a deadly fighter plane that you will pilot.

Before we jump into Kamikaze Lassplanes, we are shown a warning telling you that all the characters portrayed in this game are 18 or older. With that out of the way, you get to select the language for the voices and subtitles along with if you want the game to focus more on performance or graphics. Since a lot of the game is a visual novel, I opted for better visuals.

Once you are taken to the main menu, you have a couple of game options that you can select from: New Game, the game's story mode and Arcade Mode, for those who are only here for waifus and shoot ‘em up action. If you aren’t super confident about your flying and shooting ability, don’t worry, as there are multiple difficulties that you can select from to customise your experience. Story difficulty concentrates on the narrative and makes you immortal in gameplay sections; Easy, for players with a small amount of experience with shooting games; Normal, how the devs intended the game to be played; and Hard, which is a challenging difficulty.

The Kingdom of Celestial faced destruction 100 years ago, but mysterious crystals were discovered on the island, forever changing their fate. The pure energy output by the crystals was used to run their machinery, helped modernise the economy, and as such, saved the country from downfall. It could also give special abilities like the transformation skills used by the Lassplanes: when mastered, it could turn a girl into a fighter plane.

Instead of your usual tutorial, Kamikaze Lassplanes gets creative. You get your first taste of flying a plane right in the game’s intro credits. Using the left thumbstick, you control the Lassplane, and you will use the right trigger to shoot at the intro credits moving across the screen. If you hold the button down, you will continuously fire, which is nice accessibility to see. Once the meter on the bottom of the screen is filled up, you can unleash a special attack which is a beam that shoots across the screen lasting for a couple of seconds, destroying everything that gets in its path. The idea was incredibly cool and unique!

After this test flight, you will start at the Sky Fortress, a military base levitating high up in the clouds. Walter was deployed a week ago, and your partner Alba, is arriving today. As soon as Walter set eyes on this violet-haired beauty, he was smitten. The big question is whether they will be a compatible team. Once Alba transforms into the plane, you get into the air and start manoeuvrability sync tests. The first task is to fly into the purple-highlighted areas. Once you've accomplished that, your next task is to eliminate the floating junk drones. When one is destroyed, they may drop a weapon upgrade that will power up your guns. The base cannons aren’t the only thing available to you: Alba has a special ability that blasts a giant beam that extends the full distance of the screen. Once the mission is complete, you are scored on your performance. You have the option to retry if you think you can do better or continue.

When you are playing the flying missions, the music sounds incredible: it feels like it is straight out of a movie. For the story sections, calming piano music plays, adding a romantic feel which is perfect for dialogue, like when Walter is speaking with Alba and says, “I would never let anything bad happen to these wings of yours”, or for more serious matters, like discussing topics like war. The visual aesthetic is beautiful and full of colour with a hand-painted look. The females are all stunning and very attractive; it’s hard not to be smitten with them!

The story is divided into chapters, and there are multiple endings in Kamikaze Lassplanes, as the choices you make in the game impact what happens. Fate Drones will appear, showing that you have made a fate-altering choice. The story is incredibly detailed and full of twists and romance, especially when a second Lassplane, named Hannah Brandenburg, is introduced.

My experience with Kamikaze Lassplanes has been positive. I expected the game to be your usual visual novel, but having it mixed with a shoot-‘em-up worked great at highlighting the important connection that the characters have with each other. My only complaint is that Walter spends a lot of time overanalysing everything, so at times, it felt like the story section would go on forever before you got a break with a flying mission.

If you are a fan of visual novels with a compelling story full of twists and sexy characters, this title will be of interest, especially if you enjoy a bit of shoot-'em-up arcade action! The addition of an arcade mode where you didn’t need to worry about the story was nice for those times when you just wanted to take down some enemy ships. Kamikaze Lassplanes is a title you will want to play multiple times to get all the available endings!