Kamikaze Lassplanes

Genre: Visual Novel / Bullet Hell Shmup

Players: 1

.

Review:

Kamikaze Lassplanes, released in 2024 on PC and ported in 2025 to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, is a game that repeatedly forces players to rethink their expectations of what it is, but as far as genre, it is a Visual Novel and Bullet Hell Shmup. And if you’re wondering how a game can be both a Visual Novel and a Bullet Hell Shmup… yeah, I know.

The premise is ridiculous. Set in a world filled with fantasy and steampunk elements, players take the role of Walter, an ace pilot in an isolationist island nation protected from warmongering outside nations by a magical wall called The Veil powered by a magical ore called Light. Light also serves another role in powering the titular Lassplanes, magical girls who turn into ultra-powerful fighter planes.

Your first introduction to one such Lassplane comes early on when meeting Alba Trosse, who Walter initially describes by saying “although her body is short and petite, her chest sticks out, manifesting the dormant force inside her”, as the game shows you an attractive anime-style depiction of the somewhat scantily-clad Alba.

Okay, now freeze on this moment. Because it was at this point where I roll my eyes and say “okay, I think I see what sort of game this is”. You know the sort, the kind where I have to go into my whole spiel about how I don’t especially like or hate ecchi games but judge them instead based on their merits, and so on. Kamikaze Lassplanes is all too happy to highlight these elements, creating plenty of sexual tension between Walter and Alba, having an early bath house scene full of whimsical misunderstandings. And the metaphor presented by Walter sitting inside Alba’s transformed body and working her controls to make her do what he wants… yeah, the game is practically waggling its eyebrows at the player suggestively.

However, as the game progresses, the tone shifts dramatically, becoming increasingly less interested in titillation, and more interesting with prodding the story’s entire premise. How exactly does such a seemingly innocent girl become a weapon of war? What sort of government does that? Is there a deeper meaning behind a culture that is literally objectifying women? What does it say about this kingdom that they know so little about the outside world? Why should a nation supposedly protected from outside interference maintain such a heightened military force?

These tonal shifts are surprising, and at times a bit jarring – it’s strange to go from one moment that feels almost like it might be leaning into Doki Doki Literature Club territory, only to shortly afterward be followed by Walter having a silly flirty interaction with a mysterious second Lassplane seemingly pulled out of a rom-com. However, overall the story remains surprisingly compelling for a narrative where the first character interaction involves a male character having an internal monologue about a female character’s chest, and the game has branching story choices that can lead to eight different endings.

What’s more surprising is the way this game actually gets you to care about all three of its main characters, particularly Alba, who starts as pandering fan service and actually becomes an endearing and surprisingly layered character who is at the center of this game’s themes of militarism and objectification.

However, thus far I’ve only talked about the Visual Novel half of the game, and there’s also the Bullet Hell Shmup half. Surprisingly, this is more than just an afterthought. The Bullet Hell Shmup sections have you fighting through hordes of enemies with mechanics that have you collecting power-ups that are often only fleeting in their utility, but plentiful enough that you’ll basically be going from power-up to power-up, with the gameplay balanced enough that you’ll often need this help to power through the opposition you’re facing. That said, this game is very forgiving about the player receiving damage, as you can take multiple hits and there are occasional health refills, and if that’s still too much for you there are multiple difficulty options. Overall, this makes Kamikaze Lassplanes one of the easier Shmups out there.

There’s some variety here in the form of different enemy types that set off a chain reaction of explosions, or one level where you need to destroy falling bombs before they drop off the screen, but overall I think the gameplay in the Shmup sections can be a bit too repetitive, and I would have liked to see more enemy variety, or more interaction with the terrain.

The presentation here is overall very good. The Visual Novel sections make use of gorgeous anime-style 2D artwork, and even though pretty much the only characters you see are Alba and the second Lassplane pilot, their character design is outstanding. Meanwhile, the Shmup sections are surprisingly rendered in full 3D, with visuals that look quite good, albeit not in any way that’s truly exceptional. This is joined by occasional Japanese-language voice snippets for the two female characters, and backed by subdued instrumental music for much of the Visual Novel content, and fittingly more militaristic music for the Shmup sections.

While I’ve noted a few issues with tonal shifts in the Visual Novel sections and Shmup gameplay that can be a tad repetitive, these aren’t my biggest complaint about Kamikaze Lassplanes. Rather, my biggest complaint is that this game smashes together two genres that don’t really have anything to do with each other, and doesn’t do anything to really justify that or make use of it in any way. What you do in the Visual Novel parts of the game doesn’t seem to affect the Shmup action, and how you do in the Shmup sections doesn’t seem to affect the Visual Novel story, at least as far as I can tell.

But more than just a failure to exploit the potential of this odd pairing, it’s frustrating when the game shifts from one to the other. You’ll be getting into some compelling story with the Visual Novel section, only to have to interrupt it to play the Shmup stuff, and you’ll be getting into the rhythm of the Shmup gameplay, only to have it interrupted with a long section of story. Players can opt to simply play the Shmup sections on their own in an Arcade mode without bothering with the Visual Novel, but there’s no similar option to excise the Shmup sections and only play through the Visual Novel story (only an Invincible mode that lets players get through these sections without worrying about dying).

Given that Kamikaze Lassplanes’ story already has those aforementioned jarring tonal shifts, it’s frustrating that this is compounded by pacing issues caused by dragging players out of the story and into the game’s Shmup sections whether they want to or not. That said, everything is generally well-done, and I applaud this game for the way it subverts expectations in more ways than one. If you’re a fan of Visual Novels or Shmups, I think Kamikaze Lassplanes is definitely worth a look. Just be aware that if you’re only interested in the former, you’ll have your story occasionally interrupted by the latter.

tl;dr – Kamikaze Lassplanes is a game that alternates between Visual Novel and Bullet Hell Shmup, with both genres done in interesting ways that subvert expectations. What starts out as a silly story about women who transform into warplanes takes on a surprisingly more serious tone, the Shmup sections have some interesting mechanics, and the presentation is overall very good. The biggest issue this game has is that its component parts don’t really form a coherent whole, but even with this issue, I still think this is a solid game well worth playing for anyone who enjoys either genre it’s comprised of.

Grade: B

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