Play on an empty server, just you vs. the Mad God. Then tell me there aren't enough bullets.
Someone didn't read my post. I never said there weren't enough bullets.
The original Gradius has much fewer projectiles and hazards on screen, but it's a thousand times more skillful and enjoyable a game.
As I said, the problem with the game is the design. The hitbox is way too damn big for a "bullet hell" type game, and the whole free roaming design does not work well with a shooter. Every time things get harsh, you don't actually have to do any dodging or weaving, all you have to do is run away or at least back up enough that you can snipe everything. In theory you could fight at close range, but the ginormous hitbox, generally too slow move speed, and incredibly random nature of the game makes that an unnecessary death wish.
Pro tip: there's a large number of game design reasons why 90% of shoot em ups have hitboxes smaller then the actual sprite.
Imagine if in Gradius or R-Type or whatever old school shmup, if every time things started to get hard you could literally just turn around and go the other way, and then slowly chip away at every threat until you were able to leisurely stroll by. Not fun.
Add to that that the whole game is a mish mosh of rng, with poorly designed enemies thrown at you at random by the procedural generation based world, and you have a recipe for a game that utterly fails to capture the finesse and intensity of a true shooter.
It sucks as an rpg too.