Last week, my partner started a quest to Easy 1CC clear as many Touhou games as possible, and they've been sharing resources on improving in the genre as they find things. This game was one of their recommendations, and it was a solid tool that gave me a footing which I'm not really certain I ever had before despite playing a fair number¹ of shmups over the years.
Some things I enjoyed about this game:
- It was two bucks
- Some bullet sequences sync up to the BGM beat which rules I love that shit
- It took me half an hour to beat but then I used the knowledge to complete the last level of Jamestown, which I previously played years ago but could not beat². Victory: growth
The store page of Barrage Musical says that the game has no English version but that isn't true - it's literally available in the Options menu, no fuss. I doubt that there's anything groundbreaking in here for experts and the information may be available free online, but if you're only casually in the genre right now, I thought this was a nice and tidy package that did its job well. 
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"a fair number" is maybe a stretch because that history is mostly Ikaruga on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008-09. But holy shit I played a lot of Ikaruga, and that's a terrible game to start learning shmups on lmao. I've also only played 1 Touhou game but I could probably name like 7 or 8 Touhou women if I thought about it. thank you Internet
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"How was Jamestown, Kiwi?" Gameplay-wise it's really good! Story-wise I ... kind of skipped the cutscenes because I really thought I had finished the game before! When I reached the final boss, I was like "I don't recognize this BGM" so I checked on my original Jamestown achievements and I hadn't actually completed the last two levels before
So whoops, proper re-replay next time. But also: proof of how friggin good Barrage Musical is