Legend of Dark Witch 2

[YangKoete]

It's basically Touhou + Megaman and you play as Kanako as the incident resolver. Zizou Olympia, a Goddess, but is also known as "The Dark Witch" is our first character to play as. The main plot to number two compared to one is that you're trying to remove of the researchers invading from another country, and then attempting to infiltrate said country if they persist afterwards. All the bosses (Save for one) are female as well, and you get a Gradius-style upgrade system.

Speed up, Wing (Hover if you hold down the jump key), Line (Linear Shot, giving it another shot diagonally), Comet (A wave-shot in the form of stars) and Power Up (Name says it all)

Pure Syega (The magical gem that lets people use magic) are in each stage, four of them. You use them with Tres (Mana in butterfly form) and power up your Gradius slots, while Tres is normally used to increase said power throughout the stages, as well as buy normal upgrades (Health up, power up permanently, Guard, which makes you lose less Tres on each hit, Revenge up (Basically your bombs), and even magical items that let you have restoration and such each stage)

You also get abilities by defeating bosses, and as usual Megaman style, you have one boss be weak to another's, while they are very good at killing other enemies-You don't really have to worry about a gauge for "Mana regen" or anything else. You do have a burnout bar.

Just a little tip section (Partial Spoilers);
Overhelm is only good against Klinsay and that's it. It takes up 80% of your burn out bar, and only deflects 2-4 attacks. It even wears out overtime. This is only because she is the one boss with a truly random pattern of her shots.

Start with Icke. She's the easiest, and High Power Beam is the best of the skills since it's basically a Master Spark with minimal burnout.

Rudymical is the best way to get Syega for the shops and such for the end-game area of Minigames and fun. She also is freaking adorable.