my initial idea for the battles in ANOTHEREAL was going to be making the shmup fights into turn-based encounters. it's still a fun idea in concept, but relies a lot on scripting time scale into the battle system. the idea was that as you dodge enemy bullets, you're building meter that, when full, slows down time & opens your combat menu (face buttons surrounding your character), you choose a shot, or shield, or heal, and then it fires on a timer as you build up for your next menu action. your load-out would basically be putting different things in those 4 face button slots.
i think it could be neat!! ultimately went with the more realtime approach w/ the meter leading towards supers, but the idea's still floating around at the back of my head for now.