True to my word, I returned to Yurukill: The Calumniation Games the last two nights. Thrillingly, I encountered the game's first real shmup segment during this reacquaintance. If this is the first you're hearing of Yurukill, it basically blends an adventure game with a shmup. Note I said basically; Yurukill is far more than half adventure game and half shmup -- or at least that's been my experience until now.
In fact, the shmup segments of Yurukill are regularly interrupted by simple, but timed, quizzes that test what you learned or unearthed during the adventure segment that came before. Make mistakes here and you lose lives. Lose too many lives and you'll have a tough time finishing the shmup stage. Fail to finish the shmup stage and you can't move on to the next chapter.
Actually, the adventure segments of Yurukill offer up some interesting gameplay kinks, too. You don't just chat up Yurukill's other (colorful, naturally) characters. You also search areas for clues, solve puzzles, and the like. Trial-like quizzes wrap up these sections as well, though they're handled differently than the ones that are scattered throughout the shmup stages that follow. (Oh, and this is where you accrue the lives mentioned above. Every correct answer during the quiz nets you additional lives that you can rely on within the approaching shmup section.)
All together, Yurukill is an intriguing mixture of game genres. Or, as I said earlier, it has been so far. I expected the delineation between the adventure and shmup sections to be much more obvious and clear than it is in the final product. Should things continue in this vein until Yurukill's credit roll, it may well show up on my short list of favorite games of 2022.