DRAINUS on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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This is a side-scrolling shooting game in which you take control of the "Drainus", the Kharlal Empire's most cutting-edge fighter with the ability to absorb energy bullets, and take down the enemy ships zipping through space.

DRAINUS is a action, shoot 'em up and indie game developed by Team Ladybug and WSS playground and published by WSS playground and PLAYISM.
Released on May 22nd 2022 is available only on Windows in 13 languages: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Latin America, Thai, Turkish, Portuguese - Brazil, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Russian.

It has received 944 reviews of which 908 were positive and 36 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.0 out of 10. 😍

The game is currently priced at 12.49€ on Steam.

The Steam community has classified DRAINUS into these genres:

Action Shoot 'Em Up Indie Shooter Singleplayer 2D Female Protagonist Bullet Hell Pixel Graphics Side Scroller Arcade Sci-fi Anime

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at DRAINUS through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

OS *: Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or higher
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Open GL compliant video card
Storage: 200 MB available space

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Feb. 2025

---see where this game landed on my SHMUP tier list beneath this review!--- A fantastic SHMUP! This one uses a shield mechanic; You need to hold on/off the shield button frequently to pass through bullets and lasers. The shield recharges quickly and It reflects the bullets back when you release the button (often incentivizing or forcing you to move into the bullets). The game has some interesting scrolling level designs and well-made bosses with multiple phases that feel different from one another. I played another game from the same dev recently: Blade Chimera and it wouldn't surprise me if they used the same soundtrack for both of them (probably didn't, but it has that same, lively-but-filler vibe). As is common in this genre, it's a little too short. Which is my only real complaint with the game. This is why my favourite SHMUP is the survivor-roguelite hybrid: Gunlocked . I think genre mashups of that nature will eventually be the future of SHMUPs (for me, at least). ===================== My SHMUP Tier List ===================== -Simply personal taste. I’m excluding roguelikes, boss rushes and genre mash ups- Loved: Jamestown | ZeroRanger | Super Hydorah | Tyrian 2000 | Great: Drainus | Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo | Decent: Steel Empire | G-Darius | Ganablade | Dogfight | Angel at Dusk* | Meh: Nanoforce | Steel Rain | Eigengrau* | Zenzizenzic* | Steel Vampire | Natsuki Chronicles | Nebula Fighter | Zangeki Warp | Awful: Ginga Force | ===================== -Probably played another 100+ Shmups, but I only started this list recently and am sticking mostly to modern releases -Not including any 'flying anime girl shmups' as they don't appeal to me. Believe me, I've tried. * = Felt like I was on the same screen the entire time, which I dislike.

Sept. 2024

This game has a lot of good going for it, including a kickass soundtrack and a cool sleek visual style to it. This game is pretty easy to understand through the tutorial and is the kind of game where you can upgrade your ship with gems earned while playing. It's a little bit odd though in that you can pause at any time and mess with your upgrades as you see fit. This alone makes the game very manageable and highly unusual for a SHMUP. This directly means that this is not a good game to get for those that want an arcade experience, but for those that like shop mechanics in other shmups and design elements akin to that of Gradius, Satazius, and other horizontal SHMUPs of those kind there's some cool set pieces in this game. The main gimmick of the game involves using an energy shield to absorb any energy based attacks and counterlaser damage back to enemies. It is integrated as a forced part of the game where you must absolutely use this or you will not be able to survive. As a result, many parts are designed around this and what gives the game it's unique feel. Ultimately pretty manageable to get through due to all of the options available to the player to customize your ship practically any way you want. Weapon order, main weapon, subshot, rear pod, options, ship speed, wall bumper toggle (this actually has upsides and downsides whether it is on or off) and some stat buffing are all at the player's fingers through the upgrade system to make the ideal ship of their vision. The game's hardest difficulty Ridiculous is locked behind a playthrough which takes about 2 hours, and this is the mode where you die in one hit and comes much more in line for those looking for an arcade experience. Once you enable this, the game does legitimately get a bunch harder and shields become more valuable as an option to tank hits you didn't dodge or defend against correctly. I can see why the devs didn't want people to beeline straight to this difficulty without having seen the game through once first since enemies become notably more tanky to the point that dying is an extreme detriment and your reflector is the thing that will be your saving grace in any situation as a result. On a regular playthrough I would get hit occasionally and feel like I had no idea what hit me so there might be some visibility issues with bullets, enough so that by the end I was a little concerned about trying a Ridiculous playthrough right away. This game is an amazingly good pickup for those that like shop mechanics in SHMUPs and want to play something that doesn't feel overwhelmingly difficult starting off. Edit: Arcade difficulty is also unlocked at the same time as Ridiculous, the main difference in this mode being that you can only pause once in the middle of a run to sort out upgrades and you have a 90 second time limit to do all of your things in that window. Otherwise you can only access the upgrades screen at the end of each level with a 90 second time limit. Honestly after playing after my first playthrough, Arcade mode is more or less what I expected this game to be going in and balances out the overpowering nature of being able to normally change your weapons on the fly at any given time in a normal/1st playthrough. I can generally recommend this game for anyone out there that is a fan of hori shmups.

Sept. 2024

Get this game instead of going out on a saturrday, Gameplay's great. You'll be doing alot of precision movement, which is great, especially after the first playthrough, once a more difficult mode is unlocked. That's the strength of the game.

July 2024

A very interesting mix of Gradius, R-type, and original ideas, with a good selection of difficulties to pick from. Relatively lengthy, with a full run taking nearly 2 hours. Excellent presentation, great loadout customisability, fun mechanics, and the story is not that bad for a SHMUP.

May 2024

Solid horizontal scrolling shmup primarily inspired by Gradius in its weapons, boss, and level designs. The beautiful sprite work and animation in its low resolution 16-bit aesthetic is the best part of this game - it has style , which is for me the most important element of a great shooter. There is an absorption mechanic that reminds me of Giga Wing or Mars Matrix, which recharges quickly but doesn't apply to wall collisions or red projectiles. There's a bit of a customization and weapon unlocking system that doesn't go too deep but is fun to mess with. It's interesting that you can pause at any time and completely change your weapons with no penalty. The game is fairly easy and short, but the two-loop structure, adequately deep scoring system, and the existence of the "Ridiculous" and "Arcade" game modes should keep veteran shmup players satisfied.

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Last Updates

Steam data	13 April 2025 04:07
SteamSpy data	12 April 2025 15:56
Steam price	15 April 2025 04:30
Steam reviews	13 April 2025 09:47

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