Robo Aleste follows the traditional vertically scrolling shooter style, with the player flying forward and enemies coming from the front, sides, and rear.

Kagerou (Shadow) is the sole surviving member of Oda "Demon King" Nobunaga's robot ninja army, the White Fang.

Kurogane is humiliated and refuses to believe that he was defeated by his younger brother Kagerou through skill alone, so he builds himself a gigantic mecha to match the power of the Aleste.

After defeating Astaroth, Kagerou learns that she has come from another dimension which was supposedly destroyed by Nobunaga, who she believes to be the resurrected figure of Lucifer.

[6] GameFan's four reviewers regarded it as one of the best shooters of 1993, lauding the visual presentation for making use of the Sega CD's hardware, audio, and fast action.

[7] Mega's Neil West commended the animated cutscenes and CD-quality sound, but criticized its gameplay and in-game visuals, questioning its requirement of the Mega-CD add-on.

[9] MegaTech's Mark Holmes and Paul Glancey disagreed, giving positive remarks to the detailed graphics, sound, and addictive gameplay, but noted its difficulty and the presentation was seen as basic due to limited options and short level intermissions.

[10] Sega Pro's Dino Boni praised the game's visuals for being well-drawn, use of the Mega-CD's rotation and scaling features, as well as the music and challenge but its gameplay, limited sound effects and lack of continues were seen as negatives.

[11] Sega Zone's David McCandless concurred with Boni regarding the soundtrack and commended its playability, but panned its graphical presentation.

GameFan's Eric C. Mylonas highlighted its solid visuals, character designs, soundtrack and feudal Japanese thematic but felt that the title was overshadowed by MUSHA.

[18] Sega-16's Ken Horowitz disagreed with Kalata, stating that "There’s no real reason why any shmup fan with a Sega CD wouldn’t own a copy of Robo Aleste.